Do you like something that you posted on Facebook and want it to show up on your website page? Now that is possible with the new embedding feature made available to all Facebook users.

As long as your post is public, you press “Options,” “Embed Post,” and then copy and paste the code into your web page wherever you want it. Everything from the caption, to the picture, to the amount of likes it gets will show up!

This great new feature will allow you to showcase some of the great content from your Facebook Community right on your website. It is another way to further integrate Facebook into your business and allow for cross pollination from the social network back to your website.  For more information on this new feature, CLICK HERE.

Using Facebook has become so important these days for any kind of business.  Whether it is a huge international company like Red Bull or a smaller startup like HARD Beverages, Facebook ROI, (return on investment) can be so useful for any brand.

There are 5 types of Facebook ROI for businesses. You have fans sharing with friends, referral traffic to your website, sales leads, understanding your customers, and sales. In order to achieve Facebook ROI for your business, you should follow these 5 types of Facebook ROI’s very closely.

1. When fans share what they have seen with other friends, it means that they liked, commented, or shared one of your Facebook posts. Those kind of interactions are great for your company because it will show up on that user’s Facebook friend’s newsfeeds. People are more likely to interact with it because one of their friends liked it and it isn’t just a random Ad that has shown up on the side of their screen.  You can often encourage interactions by asking for the (don’t be too pushy!) For example: LIKE if you prefer “abc”, SHARE if you prefer “xyz.” You can than track the amount of LIKE’s or shares you received from a specific post through Facebook’s new page Insights.

2. It’s important that Facebook is leading your fans to your website so they can turn into consumers for your company.  If you drive back to the website, you can show them product or educate them on services once there. You should tease it; show and talk a little about what you are offering and then tell the fans they will have to click the link to find out more. It tugs on a person’s curiosity making them want to know more.

3. Before you get any sales, you need to have sales leads. Facebook contests are easy to implement and will bring in a lot of people who are interested. A smart incentive to provide is a gift card because it makes people look into your product(s) and a real reason to give it a try.  When you make a contest, ask for emails and you can gain a direct way to contact them afterwards. You can send them a follow-up email after they sign up for the contest and offer them discounts right away that will make them want to visit your website ASAP.

4. Knowing who you are selling to is one of the most important tools for a brand.  You can use the Facebook Page Insights to see who your posts are reaching, and dig into audience data such as age, gender and location. You can also use Facebook insights to see how and when they engage with your posts and at what time of day you are most likely to reach your fan base.

5. Facebook Ads can drive sales more effectively if you add an incentive right off the bat. You can offer a coupon or a limited-time promotion which are proven to increase clicks and interactions considerably. You then have to make sure you have a good landing page for when they click thru so you increase your chance for conversions.

All in, if use Facebook the right way, you will see results. It takes time and focus, but it is certainly worth the effort. To see more about Facebook ROI for Businesses, click HERE.

Sircle Media President and Founder, Adam Brown was asked to speak on a panel at Plannertech on August 13th 2013.  He was joined by Janine Just, CEO of Janine Just Inc. (A Social Relations Firm) and Mikki Glass, Founder of PickIT (A self serve Facebook contest and sweepstakes solution) and they were asked a number of questions regarding “Events Gone Viral” and how Social Media influences behavior in and around events.

The room was filled with over 100 individuals who work in and around the events industry. It was a Q&A format and each speaker was given about a minute or so to address each question asked. The questions ranged from “What makes an event go viral?” to “What are some of the best and worst marketing campaigns/strategies you have each seen in recent years?”  The speakers addressed each question head on and it was one of the highlights of the day.

Social Media is a powerful tool in making events more meaningful and more memorable beyond the event date.

Leveraging that can make a huge difference.

The event was put together by the incomparable Liz King, Founder of Liz King Events who has been a great partner to Sircle Media over the past couple of years. Sircle hopes to be invited back next year!

Making a comeback isn’t easy, but with the help of Crispin Porter + Bogusky one brand might have just done that. Using a kid with a comb over Kraft Foods has caught our attention once again in a new and innovative way. Taking the attention away from the Jell-O making process and focusing on a family dynamic was a great marketing strategy.

The commercial depicts a father explaining to his son why Jell-o makes all the bad parts of the day worthwhile.  As his father speaks, the son imagines a day in his shoes. Sporting a comb over, commuting in morning traffic, and getting his coloring project he had been working on for a year ripped up by his boss gave him some perspective on what dad’s day is like!

With that he slides his Jell-O over to his father (who is already eating one). Now that he sympathizes with dad he wants to give him a double dose of Jell-O to cure the hectic day. Marketing strategies like this are genius because they hit close to home with a bit of comedy. The awful, average day in a life snapshot is very relate-able. The clever angle makes me want to go and purchase the product. Welcome back J-E-L-L-O! SEE the Advertisement here: 

The dynamic duo that is Eli and Peyton Manning has taken their touchdown talents from the football field to YouTube. With over 6 million views DirecTV has utilized the popular site as a creative marketing tool for their Sunday Ticket NFL Package. The combination of the Manning brothers, the catchy and comedic rap, and the costumes are the perfect recipe for this original concept to go viral (which it has). Taking a look at this strategy from a marketing standpoint, DirecTV is shining light on the future; giving us a glimpse of what’s to come. Using a social media platform like YouTube to market new and original concepts allows creativity to flow freely, breaking the mold and changing the game.

If you are not one of the 6 million who have seen it already (or if you just want to laugh again) watch it here:  PLAY

Not too long ago Instagram announced that users would be able to upload 15-second (filtered) videos causing uproar on all social media platforms (and war with Vine). Guess what, the game changing app wasn’t quite done! On August 7^th, 2013 Instagram 4.1 was introduced to the world.

For Vine and Instagram users part of the frustration was that all videos had to be uploaded in real time, rather than being able to upload video from your media library. Instagram has provided the aspirin for your virtual headache with version 4.1! This updated version allows users to upload 15 seconds of previously recorded video. In addition to that, users now have the ability to square-crop footage, and the automatic image straightening feature for iOS users allows Instagrammers to rotate and adjust video footage to their liking.

As IG keeps improving it will make it harder for apps like Vine to compete!

Facebook now makes it easier for people to see more of who they want rather than random people they don’t care about. This social platform is all about transparency. They want you to be updated at any point of the day on whoever and whatever is important to you. The new features include: Story Bumping, Last Actor, and Chronological by Actor.

Story Bumping: Facebook will now move stories up on your news feed that you missed. This will boost engagement because more people will be able to view the post. “People are 8% more likely to engage with a post from a brand.” For example, a post that was posted at 8:00 would show up again in the 9:00 posting time as well.

Last Actor: Facebook will show you more of the stuff from the last 50 people you interacted with rather than the random people who are just “friends” with.

Chronological by Actor: If one of your friends is posting a lot of stuff when there is a lot of other activity in your feed, it will still show up in your feed in chronological order.

Facebook is also starting to share how algorithms work (EdgeRank) on the “Facebook for Business” blog, which they created to have better communication to businesses.

For brands, these new changes will allow their stories to show up more often and get more engagement because they won’t be missed as frequently. Especially when they have a new and/or recent engagement with a fan, they will now be more likely to stay “top of mind” with the Last Actor change.

To see more about this new Facebook update, click HERE.

For collaborating designers, sharing design concepts no longer has to be frustrating. Considering the overwhelming amount of technological advances we have experienced in the past decade its about time! It is a breath of fresh air for designers across the board to hear that there are finally free and secure online collaboration tools to make this process much easier, and less time consuming.

The Red Pen collaboration tool is not much different than a teacher in school marking up your essay with a red pen of course. Using this tool designers can upload, share, and get live feedback. Once a design is uploaded adding notes/revisions is simple, click anywhere and type! Revisiting Red Pen is made simple as well, the site remembers you as well as your previous uploads.

Keeping not just design teams, but also the relationship between client and designer in mind Skwibl has made it practically effortless for all parties to communicate. This tool allows designers and/or clients to collaborate, and revise in real time. It also tracks changes made to projects which gives the user a visual, they can actually see how much the project has evolved. Also, the discussion room feature takes away the headache of e-mailing back and forth because it is an instantaneous. Did I mention this app is also iOS compatible? We know how important that is!

These are only two out of fourteen new, easy to use, free design collaboration tools. Be sure to check out the other twelve: HERE!

We sat down with the newest member of the Sircle family today to get to know her a little better.  We asked questions, she gave answers and this is what we found out!

What is your name? – Clarissa Mahony

What made you get into social media? – This opportunity with Sircle Media kind of fell into place at a perfect time. Trying to figure out what to do with your life when you want to do everything is not the easiest thing. I feel like social media platforms are incredibly influential and that is probably what intrigues me the most about it. Social media has joined millions of people together, and that to me is beautiful. I have always been a bit of a “social butterfly” considering I am constantly social networking, I think it makes sense for me to make a job of it!

Where were you born? – The Bronx.

How old are you?- 23

What is your favorite color and why? – Royal blue. It is so vibrant and bright. I love most shades of blue probably because it reminds me of the ocean, I’m sort of fascinated with the ocean and what goes on under there.

Best comedy film of all time? – Off the top of my head, The 40 Year Old Virgin, its impossible to not laugh hysterically with the cast that movie has.

What was the last song you listened to on your iPod? – Unfold by the Xx. I love that duo.

One celebrity you would take on a date and why? – I would have to say James Franco. Putting his incredible acting aside, the man is a genius! He moved to New York to attend grad school at Colombia, and NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts (those are only two of the schools he has attended). He refused to miss class in 2011 for the announcement of the 2011 Academy Award nominees! He’s taught at USC, UCLA, and NYU. Clearly I know an abnormal amount of information about him, I find it fascinating that he continues to go to school just because he is passionate about learning and teaching. I would love to sit down with him and pick his brain, not to mention he’s easy on the eyes.

Foursquare, the location-based social networking website for mobile devices, has just launched its self-serve ad platform. In the past advertising on the website was dominated by big food chains and retailers. With this change, thousands of small businesses will have the same powerful advertising as these larger players.

On their blog post on July 23rd, Foursquare said: “the idea behind these new ads is simple—connect people looking for somewhere to go with businesses that want to drive traffic to their stores”. This is great news for smaller businesses since Foursquare is so popular. According to the website, seventy-eight percent of people who search locally on their app actually make a purchase. Those are great results and hopefully these ads will show the same results for small businesses.

Foursquare targets their users based off of two factors: their location and their past searches. The ads will only appear to users who are actually likely to become customers. Therefore, the ads will be relevant for users. Foursquare is also only charging for the ads when users click on them or when they visit the location being advertised. This is a great deal for both the users and the businesses.

This is a great way for Foursquare to gain revenue and also help small businesses gain traffic. We will keep an eye on this as businesses start to report back on actual results.