This third part of our Facebook Success Summit Series addresses best practices for Facebook Advertising. We participated in a session led by social media expert Chris Treadaway, author of the book Facebook Marketing: An Hour a Day. Here we discuss some learnings from Chris as well as some best practices we’ve learned through our own Facebook advertising campaigns.

If you aren’t already advertising on Facebook, we think you should be! Facebook advertising can help obtain new fans as well as market and promote products and services. If you’re new to advertising on this platform, here are 4 tips to help launch a successful campaign:

As companies seek to expand their global advertising reach online, it’s impossible to ignore China. Despite the number of restrictions associated with advertising in China, the size of the potential audience is enticing. Unfortunately, China places restrictions on the flow of information into and within its borders, a fact which may discourage many companies from investing the time and money to understand the habits and interests of this tremendous market.

When expanding your company’s advertising reach abroad, the first thing to understand is the online habits of a particular culture or region. While it may seem obvious to some, it is easy to overlook what may work in another country simply because it does not work in the U.S. (e.g. while banner ads are not as successful in the U.S., they do perform better abroad). These differences are further highlighted in China, where the culture, freedom, and even written language differ so greatly from our own. The following tips will help you plan your online venture in China:

Clicks Trump Type
Take the Chinese text, for example. The complication of typing Chinese characters has resulted in greater popularity of web pages that require less typing and integrate more clickable content. If your company’s site requires a larger amount of typing to navigate, you might consider clickable images.

Baidu Reigns Supreme
Familiar with Google and all that is necessary to promote your company through the all-powerful U.S. engine?  Become acquainted with Baidu, China’s top search engine. It commands over 75% of the market share to Google’s almost 20%. While Baidu does have many similarities to Google, it is a completely different search engine that warrants your attention if China is on your radar.

Learn to Sina Weibo…Not Tweet
With the great deal of control the government has over the citizens of China, one might expect that social media is non-existent. Common U.S. platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, are almost completely unused, yet social media is still very prevalent. One social site, Sina Weibo, is very similar to Twitter. Sina Weibo’s top 100 participants have a combined 198.2 million+ followers, a stale number, which may have exceeded Twitter’s top 100 participants at this time.

A company must ask itself if the lure of the large Chinese market is worth hurdling the obstacles of restrictions and an unknown culture. With some research, some flexibility, and a willingness to adapt to a very different set of cultural rules, one might find China a worthwhile investment. Remember, there are 513 million internet users in China. This equals the number of people living in the U.S., U.K., Germany, and Italy combined, so it may just be worth it for you.

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA, bill H.R. 3261), which would increase penalties for trafficking copyright materials, streaming unauthorized videos and selling counterfeit drugs or goods online, will be voted on by the House Judiciary committee when congress resumes after winter break.

Chairman Representative Lamar Smith (R-TX), who introduced the bill in October of 2011, said, “This much-needed legislation makes it harder for foreign thieves to steal and sell America’s intellectual property. The Stop Online Piracy Act protects the profits, products and jobs that rightly belong to American innovators.” But the bill has been controversial.

This second part of our Facebook Success Summit Series addresses the challenge of creating a thriving Facebook community and consistently engaging fans. We gathered strategies   from sessions by social media consultants Andrea Vahl and Amy Porterfield, and Intel social media strategist Ekaterina Walter.

In the past year, businesses have become more active on Facebook than ever before. However, it is vital for businesses to realize that Facebook is most effective when the conversation is flowing both to and from fans. After setting the goals of your social strategy, several steps can be followed to optimize your Facebook page and foster conversation flow. The following categories outline a few of the recommended methods to increasing and engaging your fan base:

The Facebook Success Summit 2011 was one of the most informative and relevant events this year. 90octane chose to participate in over 15 sessions in which industry experts presented the “ins and outs” of Facebook marketing. Over the next few weeks, we plan to break down some of the highlights from the Summit and include examples and ideas for how to manage and execute Facebook marketing campaigns. Enjoy!

One of the most valuable sessions was a panel discussion led by social media experts Victoria Ransom of Wildfire, Ben Pickering of Strutta and industry author Mari Smith. During this session, entitled “How to Build a Loyal Fan Base Using Facebook Promotions,” the panel discussed everything from regulations and prize selection to messaging.

We’ve recently worked with our client Globus family of brands to successfully execute two Facebook contests that have resulted in learnings consistent with the content of the Summit. Since one contest launched in October, we have seen fan growth of over 90%!