In addition to posing a direct challenge to the more dominant online group management tools like Yahoo!Groups and Google Groups, the new Facebook Groups further distinguishes between the use, purpose and intended audience of Facebook business pages, groups and personal profiles.

What does that change mean for your business? In short, it means if your business is still using a Facebook group, stop it right now. Go directly to the Facebook Pages section and create a fan page posthaste. The days of having to decide whether a group or a page was best for your business goals are pretty much done. Facebook has made the decision for you.

Facebook Pages were developed with brands in mind, it’s ideal for sharing communication to an audience about promotions, deals or current events. Posting content to your fan page means your content will hit the news feed of the people that ‘”like” your page, guaranteeing eyeballs. With Pages, as opposed to Groups brands control the outgoing message.

Also, FB Page Insights allows brands to find out what content is most popular with your audience, which you can’t do with Groups. If you’re determined to keep your business’ Facebook Group, you won’t be forced to switch. But why wouldn’t you, when you have so much more control though a page?—KEIDRA CHANEY

Thoughts on how—or if—businesses should take advantage of Facebook Groups? Share them here!

The post What The New Facebook Groups Mean for Your Business appeared first on 435 Digital.

Every company’s social media goals are different, and the reasons for measuring engagement will be different, too. Even so, here are three metrics you may want to consider when measuring social media engagement for your brand:

1.) Avg. # of comments per update
Whether it’s a blog post or a Facebook status update, consider looking at the number of comments as a way to measure fan interest and engagement. If you’re not getting much response from your posts or status updates and it’s a goal of yours, maybe it’s time to take a look at why. Do you finish off your posts with a question or discussion point? Are your posts challenging, colorful or incisive? What can you do to get the conversation started?

2.) # of retweets per topic
If you’re trying to build engagement on Twitter, you want to have content that is sharable. Retweets aren’t the sole metric of Twitter success, but if you want your brand and message to have reach, than the retweet is key. The more your fans share your message, the more your social media audience grows.

3.)Twitter/Facebook to website clickthrough rate
If you’re using social media as a strategy to build traffic to your website, then looking at your social media clickthrough rate is essential. You can track clicks through using a URL shortener like bit.ly or by using web analytics tools like Clicky or Google Analytics. Just because your fans find your Facebook content engaging doesn’t necessarily mean they are taking the time to visit your website as well. Give your social media fans a reason to visit often by linking to new and updated website content, whether it’s a new blog post from staff or a new product for sale.

For all of these metrics, the best way to get real insight from these numbers is to look at trends, not just isolated daily numbers.

Keep an Excel spreadsheet of your engagement metrics, and then cross-reference that with a calendar of your social media campaign tactics. That way you’ll be able to better track whether it was your cool Facebook contest from last month or your hot viral video from two weeks ago that delivered more buzz or traffic to your website.

How does your company measure engagement via social media?—KEIDRA D. CHANEY

The post 3 Ways to Measure Social Media Engagement appeared first on 435 Digital.

Chicago has a pretty active social media community, so personally I’m a bit surprised we didn’t hit the top 10, but maybe that’s just Midwestern pride talking.

Any other thoughts on the study? You can read the entire report at http://www.netprospex.com/social.—KEIDRA D. CHANEY

The post Social Media Survey Says… We’re Number 13! appeared first on 435 Digital.

ReadWriteWeb confirmed that Twitter will be rolling out new real times analytics with a beta launch in Q4.

I am an analytics/data nerd, and I am ridiculously stoked. Apparently the folks at Twitter acquired analytics startup Trendly and will be absorbing it into the Twitter functionality. According to ReadWriteWeb:

“The product will leverage algorithms similar to the Twitter Resonance concept,” Justin Kistner writes on the WebTrends blog, “in order to show users which tweets are spreading, who is influential in their network, and more. The emphasis is on real time in order to help users make adjustments on the fly to their tactics.”

This is great, and I really hope they will expand the offering to include Twitter integration/retweeting from websites and blogs as a metric as well.

This is awesome and big and a wonderful complement to the data that Facebook provides through insights. Good job, @ev and the gang.—KEIDRA D. CHANEY

The post Data Geeks Rejoice! Twitter to Add Real Time Analytics! appeared first on 435 Digital.

Case in point: Chris Hughes, one of the creators of Facebook, is at work developing a social network site geared toward the non-profit community. The project, called Jumo, is set to launch in the fall. Jumo’s goal is to connect individual do-gooders with projects and organizations they wish to support. (Check out this recent NPR interview with Hughes.)

It’s an interesting development for those who follow non-profit technology. Will the network compete with long running web communities such as the volunteer-focused idealist.org (which is set for its own relaunch in the coming months – perhaps as a social network?)  Will it rival the Nonprofit Technology Network (NTEN), the highly active online community for non-profit tech professionals? The NPO tech world is no stranger to online communities, but the Facebook-like social networking platform that Jumo touts could be a great addition.

One thing that’s fairly certain is that Jumo won’t significantly cut into the user base of Facebook. At 500 million users, Facebook is essentially mass media now. Most non-profits will probably not want to immediately jump ship from completely from Facebook to court supporters and donors through the fledgling Jumo. Still, this network could be a great new resource for the already active non-profit tech/social media community and a another tool to incorporate into a non-profit social media strategy.

Any thoughts on Jumo? What would you like to see from it?—KEIDRA D. CHANEY

The post Facebook Co-Founder Starts Social Network for Non-Profits appeared first on 435 Digital.

There’s a ton of tools and apps (Klout, Clicky, Twitalyzer, Facebook Page Insights) out there designed to measure social media traffic and engagement, but even so a baseline method of measurement hasn’t yet been established, which can be frustrating for marketers. It’s really easy to get bogged down in numbers and data that are interesting, but ultimately, meaningless when it comes to figuring out your bottom line. So where do you start?

First things first, you don’t have to measure everything.

The best way to attack social media measurement is to establish what your social media objectives are before you start: Are you using social to drive traffic to your company website? Do you want to expand your brand recognition in a new market? Are you using social media for lead generation? Identify the metrics that will give you the insights to answer those questions.

So for example, if your company is using Twitter to drive daily traffic to your website, looking at the number of daily @ mentions won’t help you much, you’ll have to start looking at your visitor numbers from Twitter to your website. If you are looking to expand your market in a new area using Facebook, tracking your new fan count in that particular location will be useful for you, however.

The key is identifying the metrics that measure your company’s objective. There’s no one size fits all with this. The more specific your company’s social media objectives are, the more refined your measurement can be. This could mean as little as 5 – 6 metrics that work for you. Imagine that! No more being bogged down with tons of stats and pages of spreadsheets. You can be lean and mean, and only track the numbers that directly affect your bottom line. Good luck!—KEIDRA D. CHANEY

The post Measuring Social Media ROI Doesn’t Have to Be Tedious! appeared first on 435 Digital.