How to Engage your Fans on Facebook

The Brand Update team is always looking to provide pointers to help you implement the latest ways to engage more of your Facebook fans, by fine tuning some tried and tested engagement tactics that are in deserving need of it.

After all, your visibility in the news feed depends on engagement like never before!

1. Develop Evergreen Content

If your content tends to be dictated by trends, you'll find that once the trend has passed, so has interest in your content. Evergreen content on the other hand, stays relevant for at least a good 6 -12 months.

Create a number of such articles that are valid through the year, and you'll always have something that generates engagement on Facebook.

2. Craft Posts to Drive Click-Throughs

On its own, a link posted to your page won't generate many clicks. Move your fans from your Facebook page to your app or content with a combination of incentives and calls to action in your updates, and watch the interaction in the form of likes, comments and shares rise.

3. Balance Various Types of Content

If every piece of content you deliver on Facebook has the same look and feel, your fans will begin to pass them over for content that looks different and more interesting.


To make your Facebook page more engaging, share your content in a variety of forms. Experiment with photos, videos, links and questions, and choose your top-performing post types to include a variety of each in your updates in future.

4. Gain Insights from Facebook Data

Facebook’s Page Insights provide businesses with key information that takes the guesswork out of which types of content your fans like seeing most on your page.


Simply put, use the data from Insights to tell you which types of posts achieve greater engagement for you on Facebook and adjust your content to include more of them.

Do you have a Facebook page that needs managing with the tips above and more? Contact the Brand Update team via brandupdate.in and they'll get in touch with you to explore various Social Marketing options for your brand and page as a whole.

Top Tips to Optimize your Twitter Stream

Well, it is perfectly appropriate to open a Twitter account with the intent to just listen. You never have to send a single tweet.; Twitter even say so themselves. Conventionally however, depending on your goals and objectives -  be it personal or that of your brand, you may decide that you want to become an active tweeter over time. If that is indeed the case, you'll want to make sure you engage the various netizens of Twitterati in the best fashion ever, to ensure that you're viewed as more of a valuable contributor rather than merely a wall of noise. This post offers 5 tips to accomplish just that:

1. Strive for Quality over Quantity

As the greatest unspoken secret of Social Networks Internet-wide, curating content based on quality helps followers deal with information overload and increases your value to them. High quality tweeting essentially includes responding to and engaging with followers, and not simply talking 'at' them. There are certain exceptions of course; in certain situations, like live tweeting during an event or responding to a crisis, people’s tolerance and appetites for greater quantity increase - so don't hesitate to indulge them in such niche instances when you possess the power of real time exclusivity to tide you over.

2. Craft your Tweets Well

This one sounds like a no-brainer, but never exceed the 140 character limit while typing out your tweets. In reverse of course, this means that you don't need to truncate your tweets below this figure to say, 120 characters in length - a mistake that many jounralists and celebrities, among others, are increasingly guilty of. 140 is the absolute limit - make use of it. The only exception being when you spot a potential for dominant re-tweeting, in which case you can snip it down to 130 characters or below to allow room for the textual paraphernalia that accompanies such posts.

3. Introduce #Hashtags Wisely

Though Twitter hashtags have been around almost as long as Twitter itself, many people still do not understand what they are or how they work. So when in doubt, leave it out! Only use a hashtag when a regular key word is unavailable or ineffective, and there is generally little need to hashtag a fellow Twitter handle, or even a webname or url. Also keep in mind that special characters like a comma, full stop or apostrophe break the flow of a hashtag.

4. Time your Tweets Well

The 'best times to tweet' vary, but for professional engagements, weekdays during work hours usually work out the best. It would help nevertheless, to know the time zone(s) of the majority of your followers and scheduling your tweets accordingly. Tools like Buffer, Hootsuite or SocialBro can help you determine the metric at the click of a button, and allow you to 'attack' the said market at those opportune moments by scheduling tweets accordingly.

5. Don't Overdo It

Be it endless selling and self-promotion, indiscriminant live tweeting, or excessive re-tweeting, it is never ideal to overexpose yourself or your brand in such a ubiquitous fashion. Linking other Social Networks such as Facebook - and with it all their posts also falls under this category. Though tolerance levels on Twitter are generally higher than one would expect, the above are still swampy ground that you're best avoiding altogether, even if push came to shove.

Would you like your brand's Twitter stream to be managed? Shoot out your specifics to the good folks at www.brandupdate.in and they'll get started ramping up Social Media for your brand in all of Twittero-sphere at the pace you would like it!

Five Underrated Google Plus Features

Google Plus has a good reputation within online branding circles - it's good for Search Engine Optimization, Networking, Marketing and more, with new reports coming in constantly about user growth.

But even if and when you're actively engaging on the platform, there are still many features that you're likely missing, if only because there are so many features to try. With that in mind and in order to help you take greater advantage of Google's latest Social Media offering, allow us at Brand Update to list out five specific Google+ features to check out!

1. Helper Extension for Chrome

If you're already hooked onto Chrome for your browsing needs, then you're just one quick download away from a free extension that makes using Google+ a little easier. With the Helper for Google+ Extension, you gain access to the following benefits:

• A One-Click tool to share Google+ content on Twitter and Facebook
• Desktop notifications on new posts
• Bookmarking tool for reading Google+ posts later

Feel free to head over to the Chrome Web store, download the extension and follow the setup instructions, and you have a tool particularly designed to extend your reach.

2. Built-In Formatting Codes

Unlike Facebook, Google+ allows you to change the style of text you post with various short codes you might not know about. Here, for example are a few ways with which you may customize your text:

• Bold: Add an asterisk at the beginning and end of words you want to embolden.
• Italics: Add an underscore before and a plus sign after the words you want to set in italics.
• Strikethrough: Place a dash before and after the words you wish to have a line run through.

3. Google+ Ripples

When you wish to view responses to your Google+ post in an uncluttered, visually focused way, try out Google+ Ripples. Simply head to the top right-hand corner of your post, click the downward facing arrow, and click on the option to "View Ripples". From thereon, Google+ will take you to a chart that shows how your content has spread, including which users have shared it, who's liked it, etc.

4. Google Brand Page Audit

In order to obtain clear information on how well your Google+ page is performing, go to Steady Demand. With this free Google+ tool, you enter your brand page's URL and receive a free report on what you're doing right, and wrong. The software checks to make sure you're linking your website from your profile, for example, as well as how well your posts are performing. After looking at the resulting metrics, you have a clear guide to improve your page in future.

5. Turn-Off Google+ Emails

Google+ recently launched a new feature that, by default allows anyone connected to you on Google+ to be able to email you through Gmail. Some users see this as a new convenience, while most see it as a huge privacy breach. If you want to disable others from being able to auto-email you, there's good news - you can. Here is how:

From within your Gmail account, click the wheel at the top right-hand corner of your screen above your inbox, and scroll to the "Settings" tab, from which you can change the dropdown option from the "Email via Google+" section from the default "Anyone on Google+" to your preferred option - either "Extended Circles" or better yet, "No one". Scroll down to the bottom of the said page and click "Save Changes" and you're all set.

Have you already been utilizing these Google+ tools and features, or were some of them new to you? Would you like your Google+ page managed by the competent folks at Brand Update? Visit our website and contact form to let us in on your company's profile and feel free to request any Social Media service you may need help with.