Facebook’s “Frictionless Sharing” is going to be powerful.
In case you hadn’t heard, it’s coming soon, and it works like this: If a visitor to your blog or website has enabled access, Facebook will automatically post your content on that user’s wall. They don’t need to “like” your post – just going there is enough to post the link on their wall: how cool is that?
If you think only young people use social networks, think again. According to the Pew Research Center, two-thirds of all Americans use social networking sites and more than 42 percent of Americans over the age of 50 use social media. There are millions of people of all shapes, sizes and interests, using Facebook every single day and they love it when Facebook makes it even easier for them to share – and 60% of U.S. Facebook users are over the age of 35.
How are You Using Facebook Now?
Your reaction to Frictionless Sharing may be, “So what? It doesn’t appear on my wall. How does it affect me? Take a look at how you’re using Facebook now.
Where is Your Traffic Coming From?
Take a look at your analytics and see where your visitors are coming from. If you have traffic from Facebook there is no way to tell who they are or why they came to your blog – all you can see is that they came through a Facebook link.
Maybe they came tbecause someone told them your blog was interesting. They visited because someone else told them to, not because of your search engine optimization. Right now, that is probably true of only a few visitors, but with Frictionless Sharing this is going to change very rapidly. Have you noticed how much information from your wall is shared following the recent Facebook changes?
Increase Your Connectivity Now!
If you’re like me, you worked hard to build your Facebook and Twitter friends, and then, once you got to a certain number (say 4,000) you left it to take its course. You probably focused on one niche, which may not be the best one for you now: the times they are a changin’! Now is the time to review who you want to connect with, and build your friends accordingly.
With Frictionless Sharing, anyone who comes to your blog (from Facebook or anywhere else) will automatically get a link posted on her wall, and all her friends will see it. This opens you to the 750 million current Facebook users without your having to do anything except attract some existing Facebook users to your blog! No other SEO is necessary.
What this means is that you need to provide something useful to the one person who visits your blog, like writing to him as if he were a real person, rather than a traffic statistic, for example. That way, he’ll want to come back from time to time to see what else you have of interest, and every time he does his “friends” get to see what he’s doing. Do you see the power in this?
His friends will want to see why he keeps going there, so they will visit, and their visit will appear on their walls. Soon, their friends will want to visit you:
now that’s viral!
Take Action Now!
So what do you need to do right now?
- Post valuable content, so that people want to read what you have to say (yes – content is still king!)
- Spread the word on Facebook (I’m sure you’re doing that already.)
- Reconsider your niche. I’d love to hear your views on this, but I think this could be the end of niche marketing! You see, you have no idea where your net will be cast with Frictionless Sharing, so the wider your appeal the more chance you’ll attract buyers. I really hope this is true, because I have a hard time narrowing my niche: just look at the range of topics I cover!
Tell me what you think, and how you plan to use Frictionless Sharing.
If you’re like me, all your USB ports are full whenever you’re connected to the power, so it makes sense to remove unnecessary devices when you’re on battery (including the mouse). Wi-fi also puts an extra load on the battery. Turn off your bluetooth, too if you’re not using it.
Family”, “Colleagues” and “Internet Marketers“. If my dog gets fleas I might choose to tell my friends and family, and perhaps my colleagues, but it’s doubtful if any internet marketing friends would find that very interesting unless they happen to be marketing flea powder. (As it happens, I don’t have a dog, so please don’t inundate me with anti-flea information!)
Yesterday, GVO.com announced a new domain hosting package. OK, I know domain hosting isn’t the most exciting topic around, but the interesting thing about this announcement is the price point. Joel Therien has recognized that in the current economy marketers are looking to save money wherever possible: his new offering (
