It is official:  Facebook now owns the Instagram app that’s so popular with smart phone users, whose updates are sailing across my Twitter feeds right and left.  (Armed with this scoop and a few more we are going to talk about how to get Facebook fans to do a little marketing for us. )

Are you wondering why Facebook would want the popular photo app company?Well, it's like this.  Facebook knows we like pictures.  And

marketing is very visual. You probably know that Pinterest has become very popular, and Facebook and Google Plus users share pictures many

more times than plain text. 

And Facebook owners took note of that. 

For instance, pictures are now more prominent in your newsfeeds, and what happens there? They're much more likely to be shared. 

So now that you know this, what can you do with this information?

• ·         Share more Pictures
• ·         Share Pictures at the right time.
• ·         Share pictures that you have edited.

Are you afraid you need some kind of fancy schmancy photo editing software that costs a ton of money and takes months to learn to use?  Nothing could be further from the truth!  One of my favorite sites for photo editing is PicMonkey, which allows you to do some fantastic and fun editing with your pictures for free – no registration required. 

How To Get Facebook Fans to Help you Market

But before you start selecting pictures and clicking the "Post" button, let's make sure you're getting all the benefit you can from them.  Brand your pictures with your website name or logo, so when others do share them far and wide, your contact info goes right along with them. You see where this is going? Put A picture worth sharing out there with your logo or website name on it and your fans will do your marketing for you! You could have a viral marketing campaign without spending a dime on advertising. How's that for a little Savvy Marketing tip? 

 Engage with the fans that visit your page and comment by answering them!  I mean, hello, be a good host or hostess!  Take the time to return the favor too by visiting and liking things on their pages too. We all wanna be liked right? Well in Social Media you have to give to get and sharing some likes and comments on your fans' pages is a great way to get to know your fans and have them coming back for more. 

What kinds of pictures do people like to share? 

Hands down, it's the cute, funny, inspiring, or beautiful pictures that get shared the most.  This is a great way to show your personality to your audience as well and get a conversation started. What do you like to share? What have you noticed that gets attention. See you can do this.

You might wonder what size picture works best for posting on Facebook.  I use pictures sized at 388 x 388 pixels in jpeg format, and include the date and name of my site as the id.  And I make sure to keep track on Facebook how many times my pictures get shared and which pictures get the most attention, and post more of those kinds. I also try to thank the people that shared my post. I love to see where all it went. With just a bit of effort you could have your fans doing your marketing for you. Ahh free advertising. Who doesn't like that?

What have you noticed on Facebook gets attention? Do you have a favorite app for editing pictures?  Share what you've noticed about Facebook and what people tend to share. Got a picture that went viral? Post it in the comments and share how many times it got shared. What was so great about it ? Time to Show off!

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