Here are three efficiency measures that will make every minute devoted to social activity work harder for you:

1. Use Buffer to share links

Time waster: One of the biggest time drains in social marketing activity is content sharing. When you stumble across something so relevant and cool you need to share it across all your networks, productivity and focus take an immediate hit.

Solution: Set aside a dedicated chunk of time first thing every day to select the worthiest, most interesting pieces of content in line with your social media strategy. Then use Buffer to automatically share them via your chosen social networks at pre-determined, optimised times throughout the day.

2. Create a ‘stalker’ list

Time waster: There’s little point in interacting with those who don’t move in the right circles or have any influence within your sector.

Solution: Be more selective about who your target with social activity. Begin by creating a list of the 20 people you most want to interact with in social media. Create lists for these people on Twitter and Facebook, and a circle for them on Google+. You should bookmark their blogs, where applicable, subscribe to their feeds and find them on LinkedIn.

Find relevant and intelligent ways to interact with these people on a daily basis (such as commenting on their blogs) and you should significantly improve the quality of your social contacts. Repeat this list-making process every few months.

3. Don’t get obsessed with case studies

Time waster: While trying to weigh up whether social media will have measurable effects on your business, it’s tempting to read as many case studies as possible for research purposes.

Solution: One of the biggest problems with case studies is that they are often strategically irrelevant. Companies in different sectors face a completely different set of KPIs, business goals, customer personas, budget constraints, social media goals and so on. Worry less about what other companies are doing and worry more about working out a coherent social media strategy for your company.

Over to you

As if to prove my point, I’ve run out of time to mention the plethora of other time-saving techniques out there, from logging into LinkedIn Today (for a trusted, valuable summary of daily content) to using Google+ to engage with professional networks more efficiently and succinctly.

What time-saving tactics do you use to get the most out of social media activity?

The first useful finding is that Facebook is still king in terms of active users, with a staggering 95% of 16-20 year olds accessing the site within the last month. YouTube ranks second behind Facebook, with half (50%) of all UK internet users using the site within the last month, followed by Twitter (23%), Windows Live (14%), LinkedIn (13%), Google + (12%) and Spotify (10%).

Spotify’s rising popularity points towards a new breed of social media channels (while primarily a music service, Spotify recently added social media functions) which offer something of purpose beyond communicating with peers.

Backing this up, we see that consumer financial advice website moneysavingexpert.com, now has as many active users as Twitter. Alongside expert articles on financial issues and products are tools for users to create profiles, leave comments and interact in ways not a million miles away from those on the more obvious social networking sites.

YouGov’s study also reveals that almost half (47%) of consumers object to brand advertising on social networks based on their networking activities, claiming that “social is not always the advertiser’s friend”. Just under half (44%) of the UK population surveyed claim they wouldn’t be more likely to buy a brand’s products if their friends promoted it on social media, while 43% felt it was unlikely that they would talk about a brand on social media.

What YouGov’s research reveals, much in line with recent posts on this blog , is that the social media sector is maturing. Savvy brands are now responding by thinking beyond buying adverts and chasing likes, fans and followers to create a far more compelling presence on social channels.

YouGov’s Media Consulting team surveyed 1,275 UK respondents. To discuss how to reach and engage the new breed of ‘bored’ online networker for better results from your social media marketing, call us on 0845 053 6855

Creative resources can be scarcer at small businesses without big social media budgets, and Facebook does have a somewhat static format to work with. Yet it needn’t be costly to come up with some great landing page manipulation, and here are some tips that should offer some inspiration:

1. Use a large call-to action

The most obvious and relevant call to action is to invite visitors to click on the ‘Like’ button of your Facebook page. BMW has consistently used this tactic on its landing page, always updating the look and feel of the graphics in line with its current messaging. ..see BMW Facebook page

2. Create an interactive, user-oriented page

Depending on who your target audience is, encourage interactivity with suitable competitions, games and interactive video. Disney Pixar has done just this, framing activity on its landing page around its latest Disneyland project, John of the Jungle. Also observe Disney’s use of joined-up activity on YouTube, where visitors can upload photos to a competition…see Disney Pixar Facebook page

3. Keep it clean and simple

It may be tempting to equate creativity with flashiness, but the results can end up being overcomplicated. A clean and simple design that presents users with only a handful of options like Harley Davidson’s can still be visually impressive…see Harley Davidson Facebook page

4. Promote a cause

Facebook is an ideal setting to promote any charitable tie-ups, as Heinz Ketchup is currently doing with its Wounded Warror Project partnership. Its landing page uses clear, striking calls to action, which perfectly fit Heinz’s distinctive branding. Conducted correctly, philanthropic tie-ups can have remarkably positive effects on engagement, but be aware of the risk of coming across as self-serving…see Heinz Facebook page

5. Encourage a user journey

Visitors landing on Oxfam GB’s page are presented with a clear and colourful series of options that direct them to relevant areas of specific interest. A useful tactic for organisations with lots of content and resources to share, this is an enticing invitation to journey on with a brand. Notice also Oxfam’s prominent placement of a call to action to sign up to its email list…see Oxfam Facebook page

Bonus Tip: Note that each example within this crop employs unique tabs, created within the company pages, that act as fixed landing points for the user. The results are instantly more engaging and sticky than arriving at a standard Facebook Wall.

Facebook marketing may be a no-brainer for global brands like Coca-Cola and Nike, but for a law firm specialising in divorce, nobody is likely to publicise their personal situation by ‘liking’ your company page. It may be more useful to create expert video advice on how to prevent divorce, or steps to finding the correct lawyer if separation is unavoidable. This video could then be posted to your own website, and adapted into a company blog post to be shared on Twitter.

These steps will help anyone from a reiki healer to a bookkeeper establish which platforms to make part of their social media activity:

1. Discover and investigate your target market by searching Google, Facebook, Twitter Search, YouTube, LinkedIn (especially the Groups and Q&A sections) and niche specific forums.

2. Look at competitor websites and social networks to see what is working and what isn’t.

3. Contact your target market directly, perhaps using your existing email marketing list, to ask them where they engage online.

4. Once you have established which platforms to use, create a strategy to create regular content and cross-post that content for maximum exposure. For example, if you post a video to Vimeo, remember to repurpose the content as a blog of tips, for example, and post related pictures and enticing screenshots to Flickr, linking back to the full video.

Every business ultimately wants to attract loyal customers and drive sales, but each has a unique offer and specific target audience. It is perhaps time to look beyond a ‘one-size-fits-all’ social media fix, and with each platform comes a new way to share your unique content with the right people.

One word of advice: avoid setting up presences on multiple platforms if you won’t be able to maintain them with great content. It is preferable to have one or two lively, regularly updated social presences over six empty ones.

A strong and effective blog

Fans and followers need to be offered the chance to get to know a company before they will buy its product or service. Only once the solid foundations of a relationship are in place will they become clients. This means sharing valuable content (see below) in the less salesy environment of a blog, and being sincere in your efforts to help people; the more value you can offer, the more your online connections will appreciate your company and what it has to offer.

Offer high quality content

Without your content, you have nothing. Your company is relating to people through content and what you write will make them decide whether they want to build a working relationship with you. It has to be as perfect as possible, so consider outsourcing your content strategy if resources are scarce.

Compel them to return to you time and again

Loyal fans and followers have the potential to become loyal customers. It is likely to take people at least eight or even more interactions before they decide to buy something from you. The most effective way to create a comfortable and compelling social media environment is to draw people into discussions and make them feel like valued members of the conversation and community.

Be persistent and consistent

Persistency and consistency are two essential ingredients in the conversion mix. Interact often and ensure that you post content at consistent times ie. on specific days. Continue to communicate with other people as often as they communicate with you. As well as making your fans and followers feel valuable, the idea is to convey also how important your contributions are to them professionally.

Take the relationship offline

Once you have established an online relationship and had a certain number of interactions via social channels, there will come a time to meet your potential new client or customer face-to-face. Consider adding a ‘meet-up’ widget to your social pages and website, inviting fans and followers to meet up for an informal chat. Both online and offline interactions are necessary for successful and ultimately profitable relationships.

FPR’s Final Thought:

Turning fans and followers into loyal clients can seem like a daunting task, but take it one step at a time and the mission is instantly more manageable. Social media marketing is proven to help businesses build relationships with their target audiences, create trust and credibility and ultimately gain new leads and clients. Ultimately, you need to ensure that when people need what you are offering, you are the first in mind.

For an informal chat about how an enhanced social media strategy could win you more business, get in touch 0845 053 6855

With 50% of the global population logging in daily and actioning 12 billion likes and comments per month, it is clearly essential to crack this immense platform. A whopping 94% of brands list Facebook as their top social media marketing priority – but what should they be doing to maximise traffic and revenue? Here is Lazerow’s recipe for breaking down the content barriers of social networks.

1. Set up and optimise your social presences

Use content to your advantage on Facebook, using it to crowdsource, offer free gifts and collect information. However, also focus on your content outside of Facebook. Your own websites and online stores are ultimately more important than your Facebook page.

2. Socialise all content to eliminate dead ends

A dead end occurs where a user does something then nothing happens. Small social hooks have the potential to drive a lot of traffic, so don’t waste them. For example, don’t run a poll on your website without also running a feed on Facebook. NFL did this and invited 43,336 votes. Also…think of Facebook’s Ticker as a free pay-per-click channel, sending free viral traffic to your website.

3. Use social to make money today

Think of social as part of your business system, rather than a separate silo. A great example is Cosmopolitan’s Kisses for the Troops campaign – sending virtual postcards to the troops. As well as generating magazine content, the effort integrates interactivity on its Facebook page, apps and other social hooks both within and outside of Facebook.

Social commerce is very possible, but requires social integration at every stage. Look at retailer Bonobos as an example. The clothing brand had great success offering $50 discounts to those who referred a friend to purchase via Facebook, demonstrating how to utilise an existing Facebook fanbase to bring in new business.

Click here to viewLazerow’s full presentation.

Over at ReadWriteWeb.com, we found a comparison of Pages efforts from two leading luxury car companies: BMW and Mercedez-Benz. The verdict is that while Facebook has a first-mover advantage in terms of user numbers and its “comparatively advanced develop platform”, Zuckerberg and co. should not get too complacent just yet.

Engagement is the golden ticket to social marketing success. Let’s look at the BMW Pages as an example. Over on Facebook Pages, user numbers are high. BMW’s Facebook Page had 6.7 million fans as this article was written, compared to 394 BMW followers at Google+ (obviously, this is a fairly unfair comparison, given Google+’s recent entry to market).

Interactivity for BMW on Facebook is also high, with all fans invited to create their own customised BMW and to post to the BMW Page wall. BMW’s Google+ Page, still has a remarkably clean wall by comparison, since fans can’t post directly to it. There is less interaction, but on the plus side, the wall is clean and focused with little spam or irrelevant content.

Google’s social network has already proven successful at engaging users on specific areas of interest. Intelligent features such as Circles and Hangouts (group video chats) offer rich opportunities for brands to engage fans who have expressed interest in their product or niche.

The winner in this latest social media face-off remains to be seen. Google+ has yet to encourage its reported “tens of millions of users” to follow brands, but with the might of Google Search and YouTube’s community behind it, numbers may soon not be enough to give Facebook the advantage.

A report in yesterday’s Wall Street Journal highlighted a new Facebook marketing effort by New York bank J.P. Morgan Chase – part of a wider offline advertising campaign. The bank ran a sweepstake for Facebook users who ‘Like’ its new credit card’s page on the social network, offering a grand prize of $1 million.

While the industry has been broadly slow to adapt to social media marketing, financial companies are now harnessing sites like Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare, primarily to gather data on consumer spending habits. Once somebody ‘Likes’ a company on Facebook, that company then has access to that user’s profile – offering a mine of useful information (as well as plenty of useless social titterings).

“If you are going to like something and through that mechanism be open to ongoing communications that says something about you,” Chase’s Card Services General Manager Matt Kane said. “What liking me does is allows me to push more information to you, which is what I will do.”

Factoring in hourly giveaways as well as the $1m jackpot, Chase (a division of J.P. Morgan) gave away a total of $1.25m over the Facebook sweepstake. But the bank believes that the value of potential new customers and the data gathered exceeds this amount.

Back in the summer, American Express launched an innovative Facebook application that customers link to their credit cards. The app trawls through the users’ and their friends’ likes to serve up a page with unique, tailored offers and discounts for both online and real-world shopping. According to the WSJ, the programme has been “well-received” and AmEx plans to follow it up with more social media activity.

The brand new ‘People Talking About This” metric will post recent user discussions about brands directly onto the brand’s Page. In a bid to shift advertisers’ focus away from click-through rates and towards social influence, Facebook wants to show marketers exactly which types of posts appeal to the most people.

Meanwhile, a new premium ad product will allow brands to deliver ads to users while showing which of their friends have already Liked the ad. It is a novel approach based on the unique relevance and context offered by social marketing – apparently adding a friend’s name, photo or endorsement to an ad makes people twice as likely to remember an ad’s message, and four times as likely to go on to purchase (source: Nielsen).

But the best Facebook story of the day was over at nma.co.uk, where it was reported that Heinz is enabling people to send personalised cans of soup to friends and loved ones. Again, this report demonstrates the potential to entice consumers to engage with brands via social media marketing in ways that simply wouldn’t be possible on traditional channels.

The campaign, entitled Get Well Soup, reportedly taps into our fondness for soup when struck down with illness – a well-timed push as end-of-summer colds strike across the nation.

Users can design and send customised cans directly from a new Facebook app. The quirky campaign is the latest in a series of novel Facebook marketing tactics from Heinz, including a social couponing campaign and an exclusive-to-Facebook product launch.

However, cast your eye down the list of Facebook’s top brands and what you’ll find, rather than a predictable rundown of the world’s top brands, is a rather random selection which proves that certain smaller companies are getting Facebook marketing right, while some major players just aren’t.

Courtesy of Mashable’s Digital Marketing Series supported by Hubspot, here is a rundown of Facebook’s surprise hits, and what they have been doing right:

1. Oreo

The ‘a-ha’ moment for Mark Clouse, senior vice president for global biscuits at Kraft Foods, came with the realisation in 2009 that about half of its then-5 million fans lived outside the US. Based on this finding, Oreo revamped its Facebook site to be more international user-friendly, for instance with the “world’s fan of the week” feature. The page now attracts more than 22 million sweet-toothed fans.

2. Nutella

Another sweet success story on Facebook – and a surprising one given that Nutella did pretty much nothing to establish its presence on the site initially. As it turns out, Nutella is one of those brands that gets social media users talking. The proof: there are no less than 12,000 YouTube videos featuring Nutella and 40,000 images featuring the product on Flickr.

3. Converse

To tally up Converse’s total Facebook fanbase, you need to account for the Converse All Star fan page as well as the Converse page. The total is a whopping 40,000, making this relatively small brand in real life a runaway Facebook success (and more popular than Rihanna). The secret, according to chief marketing officer Geoff Cottrill, is alarmingly simple – the social media strategy is all about creating a platform for the people and being sure to “listen more than we talk”.

4. Audi

We considered recently on this blog (6.9.11) just how useful counting Facebook fans really is for measuring social media’s impact. Far more telling, in our view, is the level of engagement. By this account, Audi scores top marks, racking up more than 225 likes per 100,000 fans (a level of engagement that tops even Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber, according to researcher Visibli), and much down to posting some truly fantastic photos on its page.

5. I Love Being Black

In a stroke of social marketing genius, clothing company ILBB has positioned itself as far more than just a brand online. Its Facebook page has become something of a social network within a social network for the African- American community – while topical, thought-provoking questions such as “Should Chris Brown be cast in Think Like a Man? Do we forgive too quickly or has his image been reborn?” get the community all fired up to talk.