Think running a successful Facebook page is just about writing the right content? You’re only partly right.

If you want to see results from your Facebook page, good content is a factor. After all, very few people ‘like’ a personality-free page. But there are other factors to take into consideration too.

This infographic shows a game of snakes and ladders for Facebook business users. It suggests that the key to success lies in

• Effective management of the community
• Publishing community guidelines
• Checking Facebook Insights to see where they can improve
• Having a Facebook strategy
• Posting content useful for fans
• Deleting negative content from fans

While I agree with most of the above, I have to disagree with the last point. Unless the content is abusive, it’s often better to treat negative posts as constructive criticism to respond to. This will show other visitors that you’re ready to listen and learn from your mistakes, and not sweep it under the market.

Source: Social Media Examiner

Just six months ago, there was only one news app for the iPad, and that was Flipboard. Now we’ve got SpringPad, Zite and Dropbox among others. So, how does Evri stand out from the competition?

It’s certainly an attractive app to use. The layout looks like a pinboard, with sub-headings above to scroll through (News, Entertainment, Sport, Business, Technology etc.) and trending subjects on the left-hand-side. The topics with the most coverage sit in the middle section, so you can catch up on the hottest news straight away.

This topic-based content is what particularly sets it apart from the competition. Rather than focussing on particular blogs and sites, it allows you to browse whole topics to give you a broader idea of what’s going on.

It doesn’t have the page turning quality of Flipboard Zite, but it’s easy to use and pleasingly relevant to the UK market. All too often, the news apps only return news from US sources, so it’s good to see a real mixture.

Like the other apps, you can connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts, so you can view incoming links and media from your accounts. You can save content to Instapaper, Read It Later and share it on Facebook, Twitter or email. Sadly, it doesn’t offer saving options for Dropbox or SpringPad.

There are a couple of other nice touches too. The related content section at the bottom makes it easy to find new content, which makes sense, as Evri was originally a ‘content discovery vehicle’. You can also save certain topics as a ‘follow’ topic. I’ve found this particularly useful, as I can ‘follow’ news on Apple, Google and social media with one click.

Overall, it’s a complementary app to the competition, rather than a game changer. I can definitely see it becoming one of my daily reads, but I’ll still use Flipboard for my Google Reader, Instagram and individual blog following.

Have you tried the Evri app? What do you think?

We’ve seen a fair few romantic, and clever, proposals using technology over the years. One gentleman did it over Twitter, one guy proposed in the cinema (I may have sobbed big girly tears at this one) and one opted for Groupon. There are enough geeky proposals out there for Mashable to round-up some of the best.

So it was inevitable really that someone would Stumbleupon another good proposal idea…

She seems slightly underwhelmed, but props to him for making such an effort to put it together (and for Stumbleupon to help him out)

Which proposal is your favourite?

Source: Mashable

Those who use social media for professional or business reasons often turn to applications like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite to post on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. It’s quicker, easier and means you can schedule all your posts at the start of the week if you so desired.

But a new study suggests that posting through a third-party app can cut likes and comments by a huge 88%, in comparison to posting directly on Facebook.

Applum, creators of Edgerank Checker, studied more than a million Facebook updates on more than 50,000 pages to come up with the findings.

There are a number of reasons why posts from third-party apps could get less likes and comments:

• Certain apps, like Networked Blogs, get grouped together in the News Feed, which makes them less visible to users. They often get minimised, so you have to expand them to view (even if they’re from different pages)
• Facebook users click-through less to short URLs, which tend to be used by apps like Hootsuite and Tweetdeck to track clicks and fit them into tweets, than long ones. In fact, engagement levels are three times higher for long links than shortened ones.
• Shortened links don’t tend to transfer particularly well to Facebook. Hootsuite does let you add a thumbnail and description, but Tweetdeck doesn’t yet.
• Just as users are suspicious of shortened URLs, some are also nervous around particular logos next to a status. Particularly given all the Facebook scams doing the rounds.

So what’s the solution? It’s impractical for many businesses to post their statuses straight to Facebook every day. It also makes it harder to post at the best posting time.

Perhaps the key is to finish a Facebook status in the same way you’d finish a blog post – with a call to action. Ask your fans for their input,and you can increase the engagement.

Here’s our call to action: How would you suggest businesses can get around this?