Facebook is rolling out a new suite of tools to help companies measure their traction with their audiences. Mashable has a nice how-to article that runs through the key parameters. If you are a data junkie, you can export the data across a selected date range for hours of happy spread-sheeting.

Brands can also track the percentage of their fans who see their posts – around 16% on average, it turns out. On the other hand, businesses using Facebook can take heart from a recent survey of 1,015 Australian internet users. Although 38% didn’t use social media at all, over 90% of those who do use Facebook, and around 80% of social media users visited social networking sites at least several a week.

That’s the good news, particularly for brands that actively engage with their audience. The news may not be so bright for businesses relying on Facebook advertising.  Another figure being bandied about is that 50% of Facebook users don’t even notice the ads.

Last month Facebook rolled out Groups for Schools (that’s schools as in tertiary education institutions). It allows file sharing and messaging between people who have email addresses provided by the same institutions. Items posted to the Schools Group are only visible to other people from the same school, but it provides regular Facebook functionality too.

Beyond schools

So you’re done with book learning and wondering why you might want to know more? Well, Pete Meacham points out on PRWeb  that it may not be restricted to schools for long. Soon businesses or any other type of organisation could be looking to Facebook to provide many of the functions of an intranet. With the ability to share files of up to 25 MB in size, Facebook also then becomes a real competitor to the likes of Dropbox, Google Drive or iCloud, and in this area the weight of numbers could have quite a bearing on who thrives. Dropbox with 50 million users and iCloud’s 100 million pale in comparison to Facebook’s 800 million.

Web challenge

As Facebook becomes further cemented into users’ lives, it will increasingly become the gateway through which people access the internet. Facebook already allows companies to set up de facto websites, and some organisations find the Facebook is all they need to tell their story. In addition, it provides a much better platform through which to engage with customers than a conventional website does.

The privacy thing

One thing that might inhibit the uptake of any groups for businesses is the issue of privacy. Facebook’s value lies in the data that it makes available, at a price, to advertisers. Companies might not be too keen on putting their proprietary information within reach of Facebook. On the other hand, a lot of those same companies will want to utilise Facebook’s cornucopia of information for their own marketing ends. In fact, Meacham speculates that, if Facebook becomes the portal through which people access the internet, the volume of traffic combined with the information held by Facebook could allow them to seriously challenge Google’s domination of the online advertising market.

With Facebook closing in on a billion users before the end of the year, and their habit of constantly changing their look, functionality, rules and privacy settings, they’ll be sending all of us back to school – regularly.

Guest blogger: Journalist & Editor, Sharon Green takes a look at what it takes to stay ahead of your competitors in business.

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As a small business owner, what do you to do to remain competitive? Do you have ways of predicting what your competitors are about to do? Where do you look? And what do you do to stay ahead of the game? Alistair McCaskill and Steve de Niese of creative marketing agency Assemblo share their thoughts on what it takes to succeed and stay ahead of competitors.

Learning from other markets

Production Director of Assemblo, Steve de Niese, says it’s important to have a sound understanding of what is happening in competing markets and international industries. He notes that it is beneficial to identify what the market is doing and what competitors are doing and learning from it.

“You don’t want to be ignorant about what’s happening in your industry – you need to know what your competitors are doing… So it’s important to be aware of what the market is doing but not becoming too consumed by it.”

“For example, a lot of overseas markets have a bigger audience so it doesn’t always translate to an Australian market but you can learn a lot from what has been done. The key is in identifying what works in overseas markets and understanding how that might be able to adapt to an Australian marketplace.”

Finding your niche

The trick is not to become too overwhelmed with watching what others are doing but instead recognising what does and doesn’t work, finding your niche and following it through says de Niese. “You’re better off focusing on your own direction than reacting to what’s already out in the market – otherwise you’re never leading your own path, you’ll always be following and reacting to others.”

De Niese says business owners should ask themselves how they can differentiate themselves in a competitive marketplace. Can you offer better service? Can you provide transparency to your customers? Can you take risks? What is deemed the “high-value” offering of your business?

“A lot of it is experimentation so you’ve got to be willing and open to try new things and just give it a shot.”

Building and maintaining relationships

In an age of electronic communication and social media, it can be easy to overlook the importance of the personal relationships you establish with your clients, says Alistair McCaskill, Managing Director of Assemblo.

“Certainly those relationships will be underpinned by the quality of the service you provide, but people are more likely to place business with you if they like you. And you are more likely to provide better service to people you like.”

But how do you build good business relationships? By exhibiting honesty and openness, suggests McCaskill. “Listen and be genuinely interested in your potential client and their business. Be friendly and conversational, considerate and thoughtful. Bring their attention to items you come across that are of relevance or of interest to their business. Introduce them to other clients where you think there is potential for mutually beneficial cooperation.”

But, he warns, it also important to recognise that you won’t be able to please everyone. “In a new business you’ll be tempted to take on any client you can find. Difficult, unpleasant and unreasonably demanding customers that stress you are an opportunity cost. You’re better off spending that time developing positive relationships, so be selective.”

Patience is a virtue

Developing business relationships can take time and be frustratingly slow, particularly for a new business, but patience pays off advises McCaskill.

“In my experience in both manufacturing and service industries, it can take several months for a client to get to the stage of being comfortable with buying from you, but when they do they often become advocates for you.”

“Referrals flow and people who are referred to you will be much quicker in making the buying decision. You’ve already been pre-vetted by someone they trust.”

Assemblo’s Alistair McCaskill takes a look at the latest social media trend, Pinterest:

I’ve just discovered Pinterest, and so far it is the social media site that has naturally grabbed my attention.

I’m not a natural born social media user. Too old, too male, too introverted. With the help of the social media savvy (and vastly younger) members of the Assemblo team I have got to grips with Twitter, and been surprised how useful it is. For the most part the people I follow offer links to interesting articles rather than constant updates on what they are eating/wearing/feeling/thinking. I edit Assemblo’s The Switch Report and it is also a great way to put the word out about new articles.

I also spend a bit of time on LinkedIn and occasionally get involved in some of the discussions. Unfortunately some LinkedIn groups have become classified advertising pages, but others are more strictly moderated.

The Switch Report does have a Facebook page, though for the type of site it is I think Twitter is more effective. And Google + is close enough to Facebook that I don’t see a point in getting involved with it.

Then I came across Pinterest and, without any cajoling from my colleagues, I got onto it. I like the layout and the emphasis on pictures, which make it possible to quickly scan lots of “pins” for items of interest. If you want to resort to words, there is room for more than 140 characters. And I like the organisation – the ability to set up any number of boards to cater for specific topics. The organisational structure also means that items may be a bit less ephemeral than Tweets or Facebook posts. I can also see myself using it as a more visual alternative to bookmarking web pages on my browser.
The main drawback I’ve identified so far is that, if a website I want to highlight doesn’t have much in the way of good images on it, it isn’t going to make for a great “pin”.

But… is it useful to marketers?

I set up one board just for companies that have been featured on The Switch Report and received a few “likes” and “repins” within a matter of minutes that coincided with a significant lift in website traffic. A lot of people use Pinterest to highlight products they like, which can’t be a bad thing for any brand looking for greater exposure. And there does seem to be a strong culture of liking, commenting and repining.
As social media sites go, Pinterest is still in its infancy but growing rapidly. My experience of it is at a more embryonic stage, and I haven’t yet investigated the extent to which it is possible to start conversations. But for now I suspect that, when the reminder pops up on my calendar to do my social media chores, my first stop will be Pinterest. I’ll just have to exercise some self-control so I don’t spend too much time adding to my funnies board.

A report from the World Federation of Advertisers has found the use of specialist search agencies has doubled from 2009 to 2011, with 23% of the 36 respondents using them.

The majority of the companies surveyed used their agencies for search advertising (55%), none of them conduct search advertising internally.

However far fewer respondents have mobile search budgets and social search budgets. Sixty six percent of the companies had no mobile search budgets and 44% have no social search budgets.

The Asia Pacific region is one of the lowest areas for search spending with 57% of respondents spending less than €5 million (A$6.1 million).

The report also found that 71% of the companies surveyed used click-throughs as their highest indicator for success, with only 19% focusing on sales generated. This shows that search advertising is viewed as a way to attract consumer attention rather than a platform to sell products.

The report reveals that 84% of the respondents also plan to increase their spending on paid search.