#i have just spent a solid 30 minutes searching online trying to figure this out

[penultimatestalematewithdeath]

Lockwood & Co. fandom heLp pls! I don't have my books on me and I need to know the name of the supply store where l&co. gets their flares and such. Satchels? Sachels? Something like that? I cannot find it on the googles! I know Fairfax Iron and Sunrise Corp. are suppliers, but the go to a specific store that I Can't Remember. pls help!

[apptg554]

Friends First Dating App

Bumble is a dating app that allows you to make new connections, whether you’re looking for a partner, to make new friends, or to expand your professional network. Making the first move on Bumble could change your life! DISCOVER OUR AMAZING FEATURES. Top Filters: Find your right date or next BFF and get an unforgettable first online encounter. Nov 18, 2020 The female-centric Bumble dating app burst onto the scene in 2014. Since then, the founder has launched the buzzy BFF mode as a way for women to meet women simply wanting friends. And though the swipe-happy app is a hit with younger millennials, there are success stories belonging to those born before the early ‘80s.

Friends First Approach To Dating

Is Bumble For Friends Or Dating

Dating is fun and all, but group dates are in again these days, too, especially with all the group dating apps out there. Not only do group dates take away from the pressure of one-on-one dates, but they’re also fun. Several brains are better than one, right? You may think you know all the local hot spots, but once you start a group chat in an app, you’ll soon realize the possibilities are endless. Plus, plenty can be social and not date-y, if that’s more your thing.

And, no two social/group dating apps are quite the same. After all, in general, there seem to be dating apps catered to everyone — adventure-seekers and travelers (like MeetMeOutside), ones where heterosexual women need to make the first move (like Bumble), and even ones for beard-lovers (like Bristlr), to name a few — and such is the case when it comes to group social outings, too.

Some only give you a limited amount of time, like 24 hours, to make plans while others coordinate the date for you — all you need to do is show up. Simple enough, huh? And others even include your first round of drinks. Sign. Me. Up.

Here are some social/group dating apps you need to try — so you can no longer make excuses that there’s no one around to go out with.

Check out Bustle's 'Save The Date' and other videos on Facebook and the Bustle app across Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV.

1. Tinder Social

Now, you can go on group dates and outings via Tinder Social. Looking for a fun night out? Just create a group (which looks a lot like a group text) and an activity to do, like hitting up that new bar in Midtown. Even though you can only be in one group at a time, it’s NBD — your group expires at noon the next day anyway.

It’s perfect for making last-minute plans tonight. Plus, you can go back and forth in your settings between being on Tinder solely to date, one-on-one, and Tinder Social. Or, if you’re like me and are already coupled up, you and your bae can go on Tinder just for the social aspect.

2. Squad

With Squad, you pick up to five Facebook friends to be part of your “squad,” which you can switch up anytime. Plus, you can also have multiple squads. You create a group name and tagline, the latter meaning your goal — going to such-and-such bar tonight or a Mets game this weekend. Then, check out other squads and let the swiping left or right begin. Once you match with another squad, you have 24 hours to message and make plans. Oh, and instead of a bio, you describe yourself via three emojis (and you can still write a bio if you so choose) — which is awesome and so 2016.

3. Grouper

With Grouper, you anonymously pick out friends-of-friends to meet IRL. If you mutually match, the app plans a “Grouper” for you — drinks between their friends and your friends. Plus, there is no messaging when you use Grouper. None! The app does all the work for you: time, place, and coordinating with everyone involved. The best part? It’s about friends meeting up with friends. “Dating” does not even have to be part of it, though if you do find you have a love connection with a friend-of-a-friend, it’s pretty great (like having a letter of recommendation, of sorts).

4. CLIQ

Let’s say you and a couple friends want to meet some new people IRL. Just log onto CLIQ and then you can match with another group of friends. First, you’ll choose some topics you’re interested in. Then, the app will take it from there and send you “Goodies” based on your interests and suggest places for you to check out. Via “Huddle,” you can also chat with members of your CLIQ privately. With the app, CLIQs can also choose not to be private and post status updates, pics, videos, and location posts, so followers can see what you have going on and where.

5. Entourage

First, choose one or two friends and start a group with them. Then, the app suggests nearby groups to you and you can “like” or “pass.” When you and another group match, you can start up a group chat. Then, let the planning-to-meet-IRL begin. The only downside? Currently, Entourage is only available in New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco, but let’s be optimistic that it’ll expand to more cities soon enough.

6. Cheers

Cheers, formerly known as Who’s That, is a social app that connects you to people at over 30 Boston-area bars. The company recently rebranded and also formed a partnership with Absolut Elyx, Absolut’s new luxury vodka — and continues to have a partnership with Fireball Whiskey, as well. With the app, you create a group with friends and swipe through other groups going out in your city. When you see people you want to get drinks with, tap “Cheers.” Like other swiping apps, you get a match when there’s mutual interest. Then, “Pick a Place” in the conversation to meet for drinks. Your concierge will make a reservation and you’ll get the first round of drinks free. Yep, free. So easy. (Though I hope it expands to other cities, too.)

Images: Fotolia, Tinder, Squad, Grouper, CLIQ, Entourage, Cheers

Whether you’re looking for true love or a quick hookup, dating apps have become the go-to for finding what you’re craving. But what about friends? After using Tinder and OKCupid for dating, I was actually more interested in finding new pals and I figured I could keep using the same tools but with a different purpose.

I’m open to love but not looking for it. I’m taking a very chill approach to new relationships these days, preferring to let the right connection come to me rather than chasing it. That said, I’ve always found dating apps really interesting and I love dating, so even though I’m not looking for romance, I still enjoy that aspect of it. Why not keep the parts of dating I enjoy and use the same approach to simply find cool people to hang with?

I’m upfront about it. I state in my profile that I’m looking for friendship so it’s clear to anyone perusing my stats what I’m open to. I also make sure to talk about it explicitly before I meet anyone in person. A dating site isn’t the typical place for people to find platonic connections, so I make sure I’m upfront about it. I have no interest in leading people on.

Friendship is more important to me than partnership. Don’t get me wrong, I love being in a relationship, but the older I get, the more I realize that a solid network of good friends is much more important. I want to have a community of amazing people around me more than I want to find “The One.” I’ve spent way too much time giving up my friendships for the sake of whichever relationship I was in at the time. Now it’s time to start putting friendship first.

An online connection doesn’t mean a real-life romance. Even if I meet someone online who I think could be an incredible partner, you never know until you’ve actually met them. I’ve met a few guys who, on paper and from our messages, seemed like real keepers, only to find there was no chemistry in real life. In those situations, I was open to keeping them as friends rather than scrapping all that potential because the spark of romance wasn’t there.

Friends First Approach To Dating

Not everyone has the same idea. Unfortunately, some people aren’t into it. Some of those dudes just dropped off the face of the earth when they realized I wasn’t interested romantically. I get it, they were looking for something specific and I just wasn’t on board. To me though, it just seems like a shame to shut off the possibility of platonic connection just because I wasn’t DTF.

It’s hit and miss. Just like searching for real-life romance through a screen doesn’t guarantee a connection, neither does looking for friends. I love dating because it’s an opportunity to meet an entirely new human being and friendship dating is no different. That said, some people just do not fit together and there’s a lot of time spent awkwardly sipping coffee over a forced conversation, calculating how many minutes until I can politely exit the interaction.

I’ve had some weird dates come out of it. Even if I say on my profile that I’m looking for friends, and even if that’s explicitly stated before we meet, there are still some people who equate dating apps with, well, dating. On the one hand, that’s totally fair enough. On the other hand, we’re all adults here and we (hopefully) all understand the concept of consent. When one of us is looking for friendship and the other is only interested in hooking up, nobody wins.

If we can use apps for romance, why not for friendship? We’re living in a world that is steadily becoming more and more digitized and if we can use technology to find our soulmates, why can’t we do the same to find friends? There’s an app for that, right? The social stigma around online dating has pretty much disappeared, but when I tell people I find friends online, I still get some funny looks.

Is Bumble For Friends Or Dating

The tech world is catching on. For a hot minute, Tinder launched a version of the app created for exactly this purpose. Unfortunately, the idea tanked, probably because as a hook-up app, it’s not particularly geared towards meaningful connections. Nevertheless, there are a bunch of other apps that are designed for exactly that market if, like me, you’re not opposed to finding cool people through the power of the internet.

“Sponsored: The best dating/relationships advice on the web. Check out Relationship Hero a site where highly trained relationship coaches get you, get your situation, and help you accomplish what you want. They help you through complicated and difficult love situations like deciphering mixed signals, getting over a breakup, or anything else you’re worried about. You immediately connect with an awesome gecoach o”n text or over the phone in minutes. Just click here…

Read more:

[theaviskullguy]

like the lazy ass i am, instead of writing it normally have a post about my danganronpa au

Characters

Goggles Montoya- Ultimate Lucky student

Rider Clark- Ultimate Fighter

Army Vallaha-Williams- Ultimate Actor

Forge Vallaha-Williams- Ultimate Solider

Aloha Palliah- Ultimate Dancer

Diver Vauge- Ultimate Swimmer

Mask Kane- Ultimate Hacker

Skull Beryl- Ultimate Archer

Aviators Jones- Ultimate Baker

Gloves Elaris- Ultimate Gymnast

Emperor Castilo- Ultimate King

Prince Castilo- Ultimate Mage

Niki Pacer (N-Pacer)-Ultimate nurse

Eging Jr- Ultimate speedster

Vintage Auclare- Ultimate Detective

one short of a full dangan cast but shut

I’ll be doing two chapters per post, so here’s part 1!

Executions will be represented by chunks of bold text. Most of these are incredibly gruesome, so I’d advise you skip them if you’re sensitive to that stuff!!!

Also, obviously trigger warnings for blood/ink, death, 

Prologue: Rainy day mystery

It’s nothing too big, honestly. Really, there’s a gala inviting some of Inkopolis’ greatest fighters to this really swanky hotel. A rain storm comes and basically locks them in, causing the gang to have to stay the night in suites that seem to have been tailored to them specifically. The next day the rain has stopped, but everything is still locked. There’s no way in or out of the Hotel. At noon, they’re called to the ballroom and BOOM. There’s Monokuma.

Our favorite half and half bear explains that, the reason this gang in specific was invited was because all of them were prodigies in their fields other than Turf Wars/Ranked (i.e, Army is a god-tier actor, and Vintage's record for fastest case solved was 30 seconds), and from now on that would be their “Ultimate”. Monokuma also revealed that, the only way to escape the Hotel is to get away with murder. (and also the other rules)

And y’know how SDR2 had Monomi/Usami, and DR3 had the Monokubs? This edition has the Monosquids! Basically, every time someone dies, a Monosquid would be created with that person’s personality and some brief memories. In a sense, they ARE the deceased group members, in a mechanical/plush form. Also, Monokuma explains them as the souls of the dead reanimated. They appear the day after a trial, and all seem to hate Monokuma. And with the exception of the two murders that were accidents, almost all the victims hate their killer.

They also still have Ultimate labs kinda-each of their rooms, as stated before, are tailored to double as their lab. For instance, Mask’s room has a lot of tech gear, N-Pacer has a place she can study, Emperor’s just has a fucking throne...yeah.

Chapter 1- The line of Light and Darkness is thin (daily life)

As we check in on our gang in the morning, we learn multiple things. One, most-to-all contact to the outside world has been cut off; Mask can access the internet and all of that, but he can’t post on any forums or play any online games, even with his hacking. Prince can’t tap into his mental link with Regent or...really anyone. Two, that there’s plenty of weapons and other things for murder in multiple labs, and around the Hotel in general.

And three, Monokuma has a motive.

The first motive is simple; If you are to get away with murder, you can take one person with you, but they cannot be the one who the class votes in the class trial. Enticing, since multiple couples are present (Emperor and Gloves, for example), but the gang has made a collective decision to try to ignore it. Well, mostly.

This motive ate at someone, driving them absolutely mad. They COULD NOT stand being trapped in the hotel, they needed out!

So, a few mornings after the motive was introduced, Rider takes notice at the breakfast meeting that...well, someone’s missing.

The group splits up, searching the hotel top to bottom. Until, at last, a high shriek pierces the area, and a dreary announcement is played.

Ding dong, dong ding!

“A body has been discovered!”

Chapter 1- The line of Light and Darkness is thin (Deadly life)

The gang rushes to the scream. It would seem Army found the body.

Curled up in a fetal position, arm still clutched around his wound, Prince lays motionless on the floor of his room. Yellow ink stains the area, and a knife stained with the same liquid sits on the floor next to him.

Emperor is near hysterics. He doesn’t even try to hide his tears. Gloves takes him away from the scene, resolving to comfort their lover in their room during the investigation.

Speaking of investigation, Vintage steps up to the plate. Being the Ultimate Detective, he takes to the scene like a fish in water. He questions everyone, and searches through Prince’s room top to bottom.

By the time of the trial, there wasn’t a stone unturned in the hotel. It was almost...scary, how well Vintage seemed to be handling this.

During the trial, Vintage revealed three main suspects.

First, there was Aloha. The dancer had indeed got up in the middle of the night-he had been sharing a room with Army, and the actor confirmed it-to use the bathroom and get himself a drink of water. He passed by the kitchen, and thought he saw a knife on the rack missing. He got up at 11:25 P.M and returned to bed at 11:30. Once again, Army confirmed his alibi for this.

Second, was Aviators. Avi couldn’t sleep as well, so he spent most of the night walking through the hotel, exploring it. He did take a knife, but only in the case if he needed to defend himself. He had gotten out of bed at 10:50, took the knife somewhere at around 11, and returned it when he was heading back to his bed, at 5:00 AM.

And the third was Rider. Sure, the fighter was close friends with Prince, but it was still suspicious; Rider was reportedly awake at 2:00 AM, and got himself a quick snack before simply training in his room. He did hear someone return to their room at around 5:00, but didn’t go check. Looking back, he suspects it was just Avi.

So this was a game of alibis, and luck. Multiple suggestions were made; maybe Aloha took the knife and murdered Prince, washed his hands in the mage’s bathroom, and returned to bed. That was shot down, since the rooms don’t have running water at night (10:00 PM to 7:00 AM. Normal DR stuff), only the bathrooms in the hotel itself, and the kitchen.

Another was that Rider had taken the knife, but that was also shut down seeing as the period he was awake at wouldn’t line up with Aloha seeing the knife missing.

The third and final one was that Aviators had taken the knife, murdered Prince, and wait for a time when Rider wouldn’t hear him to return to his own room. This one... the only argument against it was that Rider would probably had still heard it. That counterclaim was shut down when Rider said he was taking a short rest when he heard the noise, and then went back to training-practicing hits on a punching bag. 

So, after a final vote, Aviators was voted as the blackened. Luckily correctly, but it was much to Skull’s horror. Aviators was seen as a father figure to the S5 (It made sense, with Skull being the mother figure), and he had killed Prince in cold blood. and it didn’t help that Avi said he was planning on using the motive to escape with Skull. 

And so, Aviators was dragged off to his execution. RIP big man

Ultimate delight-Ultimate Baker Aviator Jones’ execution executed.

Avi is dragged by a chain around his neck towards his death, located in...a giant oven? He’s strapped down to a cake pan, and the heat turns up.

And up...and up...and up.

Aviators is sweating bullets in the oven, strapped down to this hot pan and in a satin jacket, there’s nothing he can do except grit his teeth and bare it.

Except he can’t. 

His head is pounding and he feels incredibly dizzy. He manages to sit up a little in his restraints as he vomits.

And, it would seem, Heatstroke got him. For after a few more minutes of struggling to escape...Aviators fell still.

The first execution of the killing game was a gruesome one.

----

Chapter 2-The butterfly effect (Daily life)

The gang gathered in the dining hall again. Though, both Skull and Emperor were in grief, and everyone was still shaken up from that execution. 

This is when Monokuma introduced the Monosquids.

Two robot like things-one purple and one yellow-shaped like baby inklings-appeared. The yellow one ran and hid behind Emperor, shaking, and the purple one only hugged Skull’s leg.

Monokuma explained their deal; They can’t talk, but they are essentially the spirits of the deceased in a more robotic form. So, naturally, Emperor just hugged Prince tightly, still in grief

Monokuma also explained the next motive. This one being taken straight from DR1; Secrets!

Everyone had a slip of paper with a secret of theirs on it. If no one died in the next day, these secrets will be revealed to the world.

So yeah some people didn’t want those secrets to be revealed, but that doesn’t mean they’d kill for it!

But, well, someone did. Not on purpose, mind you.

At around noon, Vintage was exploring the hotel, he heard a gunshot. He knew the only firearms in the hotel were the ones in his room (as Vintage had a license to carry from his detective job). So, basically, he knew someone was screwed.

He rushed to his room, seen by a few people who took no notice.

It was only at dinner they noticed Vintage hadn’t left his room.

Cautiously, Emperor, Army, and Skull went to investigate. When they opened the door and their eyes rested on the sight...

Ding dong, dong ding!

A body has been discovered!!!

Chapter 2- The Butterfly effect (Deadly life)

It wasn’t AS gruesome as Prince’s death. It didn’t mean it was still scarring. There was a hole in Vintage’s forehead, cyan ink flowed out of it. In his hands, he held his gun.

Obviously, it looked like a suicide. He was holding his gun. But, Skull knew better. Despite not getting along well with Vintage, Skull knew that Vintage would never kill himself, even for something like this. Plus, there’s the lack of a note, all of that.

Upon closer examination, the group also finds freckles of some sort of white on the handle of the gun-before you say anything, it’s not drugs.

This lead to two possibilities; 1, Gloves. The gymnast has a thing of chalk dust for extra grip (not like they need it)

Or 2, Skull. He had been baking and using flour earlier that day. Some of that flour could have stuck on his hands and rubbed off after using the gun.

But, the alibis didn’t seem to help at all; Skull was alone while baking, and Gloves was just. Alone all day.

During the trial, it was back and fourth between people saying that Skull killed Vintage, or Gloves, or that it was a suicide at the dust was from something different.

The only reason the trial was solved was guilt.

Throughout the trial, one of the two suspects was looking more and more anxious, more and more guilty. 

A few minutes before the end, they yelled, “I’M THE BLACKENED!”

It was Gloves.

They explained what happened-They had found Vintage’s gun lying around somewhere and decided to return it. The thing is, they have no idea how guns work. So they accidentally triggered it. And when Vintage walked in, the same thing happened. Gloves panicked and put it in his hand.

Needless to say, Emperor broke down again. The two closest people in his life, dead or sentenced to it!

Emperor insisted it was Skull. He knew Gloves couldn’t hurt a fly and yet....!

Gloves was the blackened. But they weren’t about to go down without a fight.

They pressed a kiss on Emperor’s lips. It was a promise. It meant “I’ll see you soon”

And they raced down the hall in an attempt to get free.

Racing death- Ultimate Gymnast Gloves Elaris Execution: Executed

Gloves ran down the hallway, not stopping for anything.

Monokuma pressed a button, and pits opened up, showing falls onto spikes down below. So, Gloves got creative.

They leaped up and took hold of support beams, swinging their way across the hall.

But the last one.. The last one was weak, and broke under Gloves’ weight, sending them falling to their death

They collapsed onto the spikes, one impaling them through their stomach, sending neon green ink everywhere.

The second victim, Gloves Elaris, had fallen dead.

[boy-banders-writings]

First timer’s luck - E’Dawn [Hyojong] (Pentagon)

Group: Pentagon Member: E’Dawn aka Hyojong aka little shit Genre: fluff (because if it’s not fluff it’s angst which I’ll get to) You just couldn’t resist trying Hyojong’s new game, turns out you’re not that bad.

Spending the weekend with Hyojong meant two things, lots of physical affection and skinship, and playing games or napping the weekend away. Not that you minded, you loved spending the rare weekend with Hyojong. Between his job as a DJ at one of the more popular clubs in the city and his college classes during the day he was always busy.

You were the same though, except you worked from early in the morning till the afternoon and all of your classes were either online or night classes. Your dumbass chose to double major and even though you’re almost done with both, you’re plate is full. So getting to just lay around the living room your legs tangled together was melting away the stress from the last two weeks.

Just like the last Saturday the two of you spent doing almost nothing, Hyojong was reclined back he feet resting on the edge of the coffee table with a game controller in hand. Some of your mutual friends had gotten him into this multiplayer-RPG-Zombie-Apocalypse game (damn Hui and Shinwon) and he’s been obsessed with it since. He was up before you were today, which is insanely unlike him. When you rolled out of bed at 9:30 unable to sleep anymore he said had been playing for at least an hour an a half.

After making something quick for breakfast that the two of you munched on, you curled into his side as he played. You put a relaxing playlist composed of both of your favorite songs to play in the background. You had planned to read ahead for class so you grabbed one of your text books from the table and started.

Maybe ten minutes and six pages of text later you hear someone screaming from the headphones around Hyojong’s neck and his cute little snores. You put the bookmark back in your textbook and sat forward to see what was going on. Hyojong’s character was standing in a house like structure in a closet, not moving while whoever he was playing with was screaming for him to do something.

You gently removed his headphones and put them on, adjusting the mic closer to your mouth.

“Why are you screaming so loud?”

“Hyung? You sound so girly!” A familiar voice teased.

“That’s because it’s not Hyojong.” You rolled your eyes, picking up the controller Hyojong had dropped onto his lap. 

“ARE YOU A MURDERER PLAYING IN HYUNG’S SPOT?!”

“It’s (Y/N) dumbass.” You winced from the yelling.

“Oh, hi it’s Wooseok!”

“You play too?”

“Yea, Hui hyung got me into it. It’s alot of fun.”

“Why am I not surprised.”

“Be nice, I’m here too (Y/N).”

“Hi Hui, who else is here?”

“Shinwon, Jinho hyung and Yanan. Hyojong was suppose to be playing but he...?”

“Fell asleep.” You started messing with the controls trying to figure things out. “He got home from work about 3:30-ish. I figured he’d sleep all day but he was up before I was.”

“Wow, you’re an earlier bird too noona.” Wookseok chirped.

“I know, imagine my surprise. Do you guys always have play dates?” You picked, hitting a button causing the character on the screen to shoot the door. “Oops.”

“Sometimes, we were all suppose to play later today when Hongseok has to work all day to cover for someone and I have a tutoring session I forgot about.” Shinwon chimed in, “and hello noona.”

“Ah, okay. Makes sense. How’s my favorite chinese kid?” You mused, knowing Yanan probably wasn’t full functioning yet.

“He is good, just tired noona. How are you?” Yanan giggled out a yawn.

“I was going to be a good student and read ahead for class but you guys are really distracting.” 

“I can kick Hyojong out if you’d like.” Jinho popped in, “Sorry, I was getting something to eat. Hello (Y/N).”

“No, it’s fine. I was actually curious, I want to learn to play.” You had figured out how to roam the house, pick up items, reload the character’s gun and open doors and such. The moving around part wasn’t too bad. “Morning Oppa!”

“Really? We can give you a run down if you’d like.” Jinho offered.

“Why do you only call hyung oppa?” Wooseok whined. “Do you even call Hyojong oppa?”

“We’re the same age, so no. I call Hui oppa sometimes.” You shrugged before realizing they couldn’t see you. “Look are you losers going to teach me to play or should I just leave?”

“Can you imagine Hyung’s reaction to Noona kicking his ass later?” You could hear the evil smirk in Yanan’s voice. “I’ll help.”

“That would be funny.” Hui admitted. “Where are you?”

“In some house, wherever you left him from earlier.”

“We’ll come get you.” Shinwon cheered.

About an hour later you were holding your own in the game. Your aim wasn’t that good but you had eyes like a hawk. You were on watch duty from somewhere a little higher than the rest of the guys as everyone searched and worked to kill all the zombies. The only hard part was the moving fight zone. After a zone was cleared the players only had a few minutes to move to the next zone. That’s what was getting your team.

The six of you had cleared five zones already, were working on the sixth when shit hit the fan. To clear a zone you had to eliminate all the zombies within the zone. As you moved the next zone things got harder and this was the hardest yet. The screen said there was 80+ zombies lurking in the 3mile radius of the map. You and Jinho were going off towards the north to plow through the zombies there, Yanan and Wooseok had taken the South and Shinwon and Hui had headed East. The West had the most so the plan was to take that on together.

Separating seemed like a bad idea after the South got ambushed and Shinwon and Hui both died within minutes seconds of each other. Yanan and Wooseok got separated going to take care of the South after Shinwon and Hui died. Just as you and Jinho were finishing clearing up the North a screech from Yanan made you throw the headphones off. On the screen his username popped up saying he was eating alive. In less than five minutes the team had dropped by half.

When you jumped and let out a surprised shriek Hyojong stirred. After a moment, he jostled awake when you jumped again, a zombie barely missing you. He watched you for a few minutes as he woke up and joined the world of the conscious. He smiled to himself, seeing you beside him cross legged and so into the game he loved.

He was impressed by how well you were handling things. It took him a few seconds to check your stats on the side. You were low on ammo and your health was below half but you were playing well. He noticed that Jinho and Wooseok were the only other players still alive. As he watched you play he noticed how well you were actually doing. You had copied some things he’d done before, like luring zombies into a building and throwing in a molotov, or moving up as high as you could and taking the zombies out one by one with a sniper. He was very impressed.

He continued to watch you play until Wooseok died and you panicked, then Jinho was ambushed and killed in the next zone. He could faintly hear the guys giving you tips on what to do and where to go for a supply drop. You had done the best out of their team of six. This was your first time every playing this game, at least to Hyojong’s knowledge, and you were dominating. He sneakily grabbed his phone and sent a few texts to Hui bragging about how well you were doing.

“Ah! Goddamnit!” You yelled, frustration clouding you judgement for a solid three seconds before you whip around to see if you woke up your boyfriend to find a dumb grin on his face. “Ah, morning... again.”

“HOW DID SHE LAST SO LONG?”

“Why do you phrase things so weirdly Wooseok?” Jinho grumbled at his younger friend. “That’s borderline weird.”

“SHE LITERALLY LIVED LONGER THAN ANY OF US AND SHE’S NEVRE PLAYED BEFORE.”

“BECAUSE NOONA’S A BADASS!” Yanan yelled back.

“I’d say I’m surprised but she lives with Hyojong, she can’t have spent all that time with him and not picked up some skills.” Hui reasoned.

A flood of praises came in complimenting you on your game play and how well you did. They kept saying they made it as far as they did with your help, they had never made it past the zone before you died. The last zone you played in alone was new territory. Hyojong sat there a huge grin on his face as he listened to his best friends praise his girlfriend’s skills.

“You might even give Hyojong a run for his money.” Hui picked.

“We’ll have to see later. I have a Saturday to spend with my amazing gamer girlfriend, say bye.”

“Bye Noona! Talk to you later!” Wooseok and Yanan chimed at the same time.

“We have to play again sometime!” Shinwon gushed, “Bye you two!”

Jinho and Hui both said goodbye as Hyojong was turning off the game console. You watched him take the headset and controller from you before setting them on the table.

“What happened to reading ahead?” He sat on the coffee table to face you.

“You fell asleep, someone had to play.” You shrugged. “I didn’t want to wake you up.” You hand moved to his cheek. “You’ve been putting in extra hours at work and I know you’ve got homework out your ass. You need all the sleep you could get. Besides Wooseok was yelling about something. I was going to tell him to shut up, but you look like you have so much fun playing I wanted to try.”

“And what’d you think?” He leaned into her hand.

“After some practice I could kick your ass. They said you were the best player so far, I can totally take that spot.”

He threw himself on you, trapping you underneath him on the couch.

“We can play together later if you think you’re up for it.” He nuzzled his nose into your neck. “Thank you. For letting me sleep. I wanted to sleep later, wake up after you like normal. But we scheduled and early game because the guys will be busy later.”

“They told me.” You threaded your fingers through his hair. “I get it, it’s fun. Just take care of yourself okay?”

“Always. Now, let’s take a nap.”

“But you just woke up Jong.”

“And?”

“Okay, then we can have lunch and play some more.”

“Sounds like the perfect Saturday.” He mumbled into your neck, his sentence already fading into sleep.

“Definitely does.” You couldn’t keep your eyes open much longer between the comfortable position and his body warmth. So you followed him into dreamland, awaiting you time to play together.

[s3mag]

Welcome to my $500 BMW 5-speed junk box! Please remove your shoes & mahalo. lol

I wanted a new project car. I really didn’t care too much what it was. But the challenge I put forth on myself for this new project – was that I do NO research! As both an enthusiast & magazine editor, I’m honestly BORED TO DEATH with the internet giving us all the answers before we even potentially start a new project. All the ‘fingertip internet research’ takes a major element of fun & thrill out of modding a car.

Plus – the more searching & following you do online, the more you subconsciously get funneled into just copying variations of what you see on your screen. Even from the very start of this project, I bought the car sight unseen. Not even a photograph! Check out our Youtube channel to see the purchase. https://youtu.be/TUrTww5CWDY

The car was 500 bucks because it had cooling issues that had not been able to be tracked down. Pelican Parts makes a cooling-fix ‘kit’ for this car… basically giving you all the parts in a kit to really slap the problem from all ends. It’s about $250. We swapped-out the parts, thoroughly bled the cooling system, and after about 30 minutes of bleeding the system, burped out a HUGE air bubble that must have been trapped in the heater core. Boom – temps went steady & the heater came on in full function!

That makes it time to get underway with the fun part… WHEELS / TIRES / SUSPENSION

COSMIS XT206R in Hyper Bronze – 18×9.5″ +10   

YOKOHAMA Advan Apex in 265/35/18. I know it’s popular like to stretch skinny tires on wide wheels, but I just can’t figure out when & where that became neat. It’s like showering with your dad to save water. Anyway, 265-width is a proper meaty fit for a 9.5in wide wheel. And if they rub stuff; I’ll cut stuff.

BC RACING BR-Series coilovers. BC makes solid coilovers. They perform well, they ride well, and they have great adjustability. Plus, if you have a slightly more obscure car like this E34 BMW… they’ll probably have an application for it. BC recommended their ‘Extreme Low Kit’ for the E34… which is no lie! That’s because if you drop this thing all the way down, it sits on the oil pan lol. But if extreme-low is what you want… these aren’t playing around. I brought it up a good bit to be where it’s sitting now. 

Right out the gate, the tires were rubbing the coilovers on the front of the car, so we ordered 20mm spacers with extended wheel bolts. 

With the new 20mm spacers on the front, we were clearing the coilovers. But now the wheels/tires were pushed out & all-up-in the fenders. I got to work rolling fenders. 5000 hours later. The front fenders are ‘ok’, but I’m not in love. 

God took over on the rear wheel fitment, and it was dead-on perfect! But it just kept bugging me that the rear fitment was perfectly tucked, but the front had poke. It wasn’t the way I wanted it, so I got bored/curious & ordered 20mm spacers for the rear too. That was gonna require some extensive 1/4 panel pulling/cutting. BUT REMEMBER the theme here: It’s a $500 car. Meaning we’re not ruining a good car; we’re saving a ruined one. 

I stumble on a Russian company called Jumdoo that makes flares (hadn’t heard of them before now). They seem to be on point, and have a few style options with a slim design. A slim design is essential to me with the E34: 

So it’s not to ‘bubbly’. 

To clear the rear doors. 

By coincidence, I happen to find 1 remaining set of 2″ Jundoo CLASSIC flares on Amazon Prime with free returns. That was all I needed to pull the trigger & give ‘em a try. 

I test fit the flares. Nothing’s for sure, but it looks like these things are gonna work pretty well maybe. It’s time to man up & cut some 1/4 panels & fenders! 

Boi! It took me a day to get the flares on… with constant re-measuring, stressing, pacing & whatnot. But I’m on a high with the results & potential here! The flares allowed me to reshape the BMW’s wheel arches, and move the rear arch up higher on the body line to match the front (that had been bothering me about the E34). Now I’ll go get it aligned, then go back & makes the necessary fitment tweaks.  

Other Maintenance Since Purchase

1) We bought the car for $500. It ran, but wanted to overheat. And hadn’t moved in 6 years!

2) We dumped $160 on a new battery & store-brand oil change. 

3) We spent $260 on a Water Pump Super Kit from Pelican Parts. The kit comes with everything you need to parts-slap your entire cooling system: thermostat, water pump, fan clutch, hoses, new belts, cap, coolant, gasket maker, Redline Water Wetter, etc. This fixed the overheating issue!! The engine seems happy, the temps seem stable, and it thankfully was NOT a head gasket issue! 

4) We put new NGK spark plugs in. 

5) A new fuel filter. 

6) We also put a new hood, hood shocks, hood risers, and door panels in the car… if you’re keeping score.

Wooley’s $500 BMW Project Welcome to my $500 BMW 5-speed junk box! Please remove your shoes & mahalo. lol I wanted a new project car.

[weekendwarriorblog]

30 Minute Experiment: Money #30ME

Okay, let’s do this... I just want to make sure that no one thinks I’m just grabbing Pink Floyd titles for topics for this experiment, although I did recently watch Pink Floyd’s “Pulse” movie now on YouTube where the post-Waters Floyd performs “Dark Side of the Moon” in its entirety. Bummed I missed that tour when it hit Yankee Stadium. (No idea what I was doing but I was pretty busy in the ‘90s.) Anyway, this is a topic that is likely going to be a little touchy and maybe get a little personal, so strap yourself in!

Yeah, money is a touchy topic because like many people across the country right now, I don’t have a lot of it. In fact, not for the first time in the past two years, I have practically none of it, as I wait for one of three possible checks to show up. 

I’ve never been good with money and even when I was making a fairly decent living with a full-time job which was probably during my ten years at ComingSoon.net, which is the longest I’ve ever been at a single job either before or after. But I was never good with money when I had it which just makes it even harder to make due with very little money when those cases arise, which has been a lot since leaving CS four years ago. 

Don’t get me wrong. I have no desire or goals of being rich beyond my dreams, as frequently or infrequently I might throw away a few bucks on a Powerball ticket, but not being able to manage money has been an ongoing problem with me to the point where last year I ended up selling the comic collection that I literally wasted THOUSANDS of dollars both collecting and keeping in storage for way less than the collection was worth more because I could no longer afford the storage spaces than actually needing the money.

I’m gonna throw out that chestnut of a cliché that “money can’t buy happiness.” I’m not sure who came up with it and if I didn’t want to spend a solid 30 minutes of straight writing, I’d go look it up. But it’s also bullshit. 

Anyone who has ever gotten to the point where they have to go on welfare, which I’ve now had to do twice in my lifetime -- oddly the first time RIGHT before I was hired full time at CS. Not sure if it was my pathetic phone call to tell my boss that I couldn’t get to the Fantastic Four junket because ... get this... I couldn’t afford the subway fare (absolute truth), and this was in 2005 when subway fare was closer to $2.00, I’d imagine.

But yeah in the last two years where I haven’t had a full-time job, it’s been an ongoing struggle and it didn’t take long before I realized I’d need to turn to the city for food stamps (now called SNAP) for the first time since 2005. This happened because I filed for unemployment (as I just did again) and then had to wait THREE MONTHS to see any money. I was let go at a time when I was already living paycheck to paycheck and basically given a half week’s payment since they weren’t obligated to give me severance. (This is one of the ongoing issues with having full-time employees who work as independent contractors, especially working in another city than the main company.)

Anyway, that left me with barely enough money to survive until I found a job, and I didn’t find another job or even any work for almost eight months! The unemployment money did eventually show up and it helped but not before I had to go to the city for “Cash Assistance” which is exactly what it sounds. It was something I did in 2005, too, and back then, it became a problem cause I was trying to cover movies/junkets for CS and I constantly had to make excuses to get out of the MANDATORY job work program you have to take when you ask the city for financial help. 

This time around, I was pretty much swindled because the person I saw at the city’s HRA center didn’t tell me ANYTHING about the mandatory appointments I’d have to keep... like the ones at 9AM up on 125th Street (I live near Canal) that I’d have to attend five days a week for job search training and that I couldn’t miss a day if I wanted to get financial assistance. I was up there every morning on time at 9AM (and they gave me a MetroCard at least) but by the time I was done with the first part of this program, the Unemployment showed up. The amount I got from the city? About $170 towards one month’s rent. Great.

By now, if you’ve gotten this far, you’re probably wondering, “Why is Ed even talking about his money problems? We’re ALL having money problems right now! Get over yourself!”  Well, I go back to that idea of “money buying happiness” and I know that while I was never great with money or how I spent it or even paying taxes on time (that’s a story for another day), but I was watching a concert from Sao Paulo, Brazil last night, a massive concert in a stadium filled with what must have been 80,000 people minimum and thought, “Man, I’d love to go to one of those giant concerts someday.” I made this wish knowing that I’ve barely been able to save enough money to do any sort of traveling over the years outside of work-related trips where I was reimbursed or covered by either job or studio, but also knowing that even if I did suddenly get the money or find a job where I can save up enough to make this trip and be in one  of most crowded stadiums with absolutely social distancing (man, I’ll be happy to never hear that word again past year), I’m just not sure it’s any sort of reality.

Don’t get me wrong. I have had a lot of wonderful friends who have had helped me out with open-ended loans and even those who just gave me money saying “Don’t worry about paying it back.” And not just my closest personal friends but even just acquaintances who I’ve met over the years during my “journeys” or time spent online. I mean, wonderful people who have reached out to me and helped me out of the kindness in their hearts because they had some available cash that they could use to help me rather than ... well doing anything else that’s far more important for their own happiness. I’ve also gotten help from my brother and mother to the point where they could help. Heck, my brother has saved my ass more times than I care to mention. I probably him a kidney at this point and I couldn’t even give it to him if he needed it because... remember that stem cell transplant I’ve mentioned a few times during these experiments? Makes me ineligible as any kind of blood or donor. Waugh waugh... Sorry, Rob!

So I’ve had help and I’ve had friends who were kind enough to give me jobs outright, although as of now, I haven’t had any job opportunity last longer than a year since leaving CS.

That puts me back in the place now where I’m still living “check to check” with less knowledge about when checks might come and knowing that almost every cent I earn or bring in from now until forever I’ll probably owe to someone, whether it’s the landlord or any number of creditors or monthly bills. (I’m just glad I only have one cheaper storage space now because trying to pay $900 a month for storage on top of rent was insane especially without a regular job! Hence the unfortunate sale of my comic book collection. Still such a bummer...)

So yeah, I hadn’t intended to mope or try to gain sympathy with today’s #30ME but I certainly have found a LOT more empathy with homeless people and those struggling to feed their families, and I’m so thankful that I do have so many good friends and that I do have a roof over my head and I don’t have a family I need to support... just my own sorry-ass. But it does suck that no matter how hard I try my best not to let the current situation get me down, just the thought of not having money to ... I dunno.... order a pizza (or even get a couple slices if my local pizza place was actually open right now)... it just makes it harder to stay in good spirits through this rough period of time.

Oh, going back to those friends who lent or gave me money, I can never forget when a couple of friends, learning that I had been diagnosed with cancer with NO HEALTH INSURANCE (Yeah, I was never good with doctors, hospitals or insurance a bunch of years back, too)... they got together to do a GoFundMe (completely without my knowledge) and raised a shit-ton of money to help with my medical bills. I don’t forget shit like that, and I’m thankful for everyone who donated including many who barely knew me or only knew me from my writing.

So that’s a few (but not even remotely all) of my current thoughts on money and how bad I feel for others who may have to go through what I’ve been dealing with the last two to four years. Not knowing how you’re gonna have money for food in one or two week’s time is not fun. (Don’t worry... I HAVE FOOD. I stocked up on a lot of dry food using my SNAP and I have enough to do another market run Monday to get things like milk.) I totally feel for those who are suddenly thrust into this situation after years of having a stable job and suddenly not realizing how they’re gonna earn a living or feed their family, which is way worse than any situation I might put myself in. As always, I’ll figure these things out and hopefully figure out some way to get some paying work... but yeah, that government check would be really nice right now, even if I’d have to give most of it directly to my very patient landlord.

And with that, I’m out of time for today. No #30ME tomorrow cause it’s Sunday but I may already have a topic for Monday... so Yay?

[superdavidplank-blog]

Video Magic Formula Review – Think Again!

Welcome to my Video Magic Formula review. Video Magic Formula is a brand new Software by ART FLAIR. As usual, many affiliate marketers are promoting this Video Magic Formula to their email list. Maybe you are one of them who saw their promotions and came here to read an honest Video Magic Formula review.

You want to know if Video Magic Formula works or not! Right? So welcome to my honest Video Magic Formula review based on real user’s results and opinions. Comment below your experience and results using this Video Magic Formula below. It will help our readers to take decisions.

Video Magic Formula Review – My Personal thoughts

After seeing their sales page and lots of promotional emails you can expect or dream a lot of things from Video Magic Formula. This is natural. People fall for promises.

Let me explain, suppose a product or course named X can be workable for one and can be not working for another person.

Before buying any product you must need to know that if it will fit you or not.

And as usual, these types of products and courses like Video Magic Formula give a lot of reason and promises why you should purchase this.

But we always try to advise our readers to do more thinking and do some research before falling for something which may not work for you.

You obviously should have noticed that every week more than 7-10 products/software are launched and everyone promises you a lot! Products are launching one after one!

So, will you buy every product or you should stick with one PROVEN method and a much solid product like my #1 recommendation?

What you should? Obviously you should focus on ONE thing and should not be distracted. Distracting from one method to another will just make you an unsuccessful circle. So, you just need to come out from that circle and need to follow one solid, proven online business formula like my no#1 recommendation for not only make income online but also build a long-time successful online business career.

Video Magic Formula Review – Overview

Creator:

Art Flair

Product:Video Magic Formula

Launch Date:2019-Nov-29

Launch Time:10:00 EST

Front-End Price:$17

Bonuses:Yes, Huge Bonuses

Skill:All Levels

Guarantee:30 Day Money Back Guarantee

Niche:Tool and Software

Support:Еffесtіvе Rеѕроnѕе

What Is Video Magic Formula?

Video Magic Formula is a finished answer for reaching entrepreneurs and offering a straightforward 7-minutes administration that spots them on the first page of Google with the spic and span, minimal known and under-utilized element of Google Map Business.

Hungry for new clients’ entrepreneurs are happy to settle up to $297 a fly for this basic help – and they will thank you for conveying it!

Additionally, you don’t require particular expertise on the grounds that all that it gives, sites, content, administrations, is altogether Done-For-You. Your lone activity is to alter them just as you would prefer, and afterward your spic and span business is all set.

About the Creator:

This item is brought to you by Art Flair, collaborating with Vick Carty and Robert Weglewski.

You can without much of a stretch see the name – Art Flair on numerous lucrative sites as he is an extraordinarily advanced substance supplier. A portion of his items, for example, Rank 1 Agency, Free Traffic Renegades, Urgent Arbitrage Cash, Easy Tube Profits, Traffic Trapper, InstaVid and some more, have picked up him a huge number of offers and demonstrate his exceptional situation in this field. As should be obvious, the entirety of his items has a similar reason for creating benefits on the web.

Along these lines, with numerous long periods of involvement with the online field, I’m almost certain that this time this group of specialists has no motivation to allow you to down. Video Magic Formula is a finished framework for the individuals who are attempting to get into profiting on the web and they just have a 30-an hour of the day to get it going.

Features of Video Magic Formula:

Video Magic Formula framework including 2 Lead Finding Software in addition to Video Training.

It uncovers:

How Google Map Business functions and how it enables any business to get more clients without burning through cash on paid promotions or showcasing efforts.

How to target organizations that need this sort of administration and how to introduce the administration to them so it’s something they can’t state “no” to.

How to get paid customers without leaving your home, any place you live and whatever zone or specialty you’re focusing on.

How to persuade entrepreneurs that they have to get the administration from you at the earliest opportunity, to get new paying clients in a flash.

How to address the most widely recognized protests and how to respond to all inquiries that may come up during the time spent displaying the administration.

How to convey the Google Page 1 assistance utilizing Google Map Business quickly again and again and over once more.

How to clarify precisely what you need from the entrepreneur, so as to begin the administration running.

How to show your possibilities the potential and conceivable effect this administration will have on their business.

How Video Magic Formula Works:

The primary, you should look at the video preparing adhere to the bit by bit directions in the part zone. This preparation is useful, particularly when you are new to web-based marketing.

The way toward placing Video Magic Formula into activity has been broken into three straightforward processes. What’s more, your lone activity is to tail them individually:

Stage 1: You discover organizations online by utilizing 2 lead discovering programming. Supplement your picked area or catchphrase and snap “Search” or “Go”. With Local Lead Finder, you will get several organizations with point by point data, including name, address, telephone, site, registration, and email. Furthermore, with Yelp Search Tool, you will get the symbol, business name, address, telephone, classes, surveys, rating and shut.

Stage 2: You send them the duplicate glue email. Connect with the customers that you have found by utilizing one of the gave email layouts. There is an aggregate of 30 mystery messages and email swipes that are completely adaptable for your business.

Stage 3: They purchase and you convey the administration in a short time.

Who Should Get Video Magic Formula?

On the off chance that you ask me, I firmly propose this cloud-based programming to all the subsidiary advertisers out there. In the event that you are anticipating having an instrument that helps put your showcasing efforts leveled out, at that point Video Magic Formula is a definitive alternative. Other than keeping contact with your potential leads, this instrument likewise enables you to direct extra bit by bit video preparing.

Also, Video Magic Formula is an ideal beginning stage for apprentices in the field of internet promoting. Despite the fact that you may have not realized how to maintain a business previously, this application can lead you through the entire procedure of building your very own online domain.

Price and Bonuses:

The front-end price of Video Magic Formula is $11-$17; if you choose this price package you’ll be able to have lifetime access to this platform. I can’t think of any other MMO platform which is as cost-effective as this one.

Art Flair has literally come up with a profitable idea while still offering a reasonable price. I think the price is quite cheap for the professional product but you need to hurry up because, after the launch time, the price will increase soon.

Besides the original offer, I have spotted that there are other OTOs as well:

OTO 1: Video Magic Formula Ultimate – $37

Viral Traffic Magic ultimate contains everything you need to scale and get next-level results in no time:

Get more viral traffic with more powerful features to profit faster than ever.

Increase earnings by 350% with an unlimited site license and dominate unlimited niches at the same time.

Turn viral traffic campaigns into 24/7 automated cash machines with autoresponder integration.

Turn your online business into 6 figure automated income model with full zapier integration.

You will get access to advanced step by step video training to literally hold your hand and show you the right path to success as soon as this weekend.

OTO 2: Video Magic Formula Buyer Leads – $29.95-39.95

Bank easy $500-$1000 payments every month with this special commercial license upgrade.

OTO 3: Automated Profit Formula – $1 Trial then $19.97/mo

$10,000+ Per Month from Laptop. Get Instant Access for $1.

OTO 4: IM Traffic Academy – $67

Get instant access to the most complete traffic training released that will permanently solve all of your traffic problems… guaranteed!

Stop wasting time trying to get free traffic using old, worn-out methods.

Quit wasting your money on paid traffic methods that never seem to work.

Discover how to get all of the free traffic you want without any of the headaches.

Get access to over 10 little-known traffic methods that will make you money fast.

Find out how we banked over $xxx,xxx using 100% free traffic.

Get access to updates for life when you get IM traffic academy right now

OTO 5: VIP Bootcamp- $147

They’re going to hold your hand and force you to make money online… guaranteed:

You’ll get access to new money-making methods and training every single month.

Live Q&A is included with every single workshop.

Ask any questions you have and they’ll answer them.

You’re no longer in business all by yourself, they’re here to help you and give you the support and accountability you need to finally make solid money online.

So, should you buy Video Magic Formula?

First, it depends on you. You need to think about whether you should invest your money and time on Video Magic Formula or not.

But keep in mind that you can also lose your money if it won’t work for! It doesn’t matter what type of promising they claimed you.

If it’s your type then there’s a chance it may work but if not you will just lose. So think twice if this fits for you before purchase.

I am not discouraging you to buy this but just try to warn you. Many people fall for promises and lose their money by buying products after products. So, you just need to be determined!

In the end, this Video Magic Formula Review post offers users leave their honest reviews after testing and experiencing this product.

Anyone can give their positive testimonials or scam report if it is! Feel free to comment below if you have tested this product and if any results. Also if it not works, you are welcomed to let us know below on this post.

Our readers will be benefited from your honest real user review. And we will know the real performance of this product.

Conclusion:

So, before I finish the Video Magic Formula review, I want you to know that to build a real online business, you need the best and working online marketing methods and funnels created by the best person in the industry.

Instead of buying products after products blindly and getting into something you don’t know about, see my no#1 recommendation and see exactly how to make $200 – $300 per day as a complete newbie without having any website, list or any complicated process. Work on something that is working now and changing many people’s lives every day with LIVE proofs and testimonials.

When you join my no#1 recommendation, YOU will GET The Secret To Getting Free Traffic For Life For YOUR Business In 30-Days Or Less! – FOR FREE

You’re also going to discover:

* The #1 Non-Techy Way to Rake In Free Leads For Life

* How to Get People Coming To YOU Already Interested In What You Have To Offer

* How to Dominate The Search Engines (Even If You Don’t Have A Blog & Hate SEO)

* How to Get Started Even If You’re Brand New

* And much, MUCH More!

CLICK HERE TO JOIN Now!

So, thanks for reading my honest Video Magic Formula review and don’t forget to comment below your thoughts.

https://imsaikat.com/video-magic-formula-review/

https://medium.com/@davidplank433/video-magic-formula-review-think-again-c1557c6b074d

https://medium.com/@bikromprasad03/video-magic-formula-review-think-again-ea539c49a407

https://trello.com/c/nbFwxo8q/34-video-magic-formula-review-think-again

[reputationiseverything]

17 Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools That Will Increase Your Engagement by 154%

email marketing for restaurants

Facebook engagement is easier and more valuable than you ever imagined.

I found this out the hard way.

At one point, I was spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a month on Facebook Ads.

Sure, I was getting some huge successes. But I was also wasting a ton of money.

For example, I once spent $400,000 on Facebook fan page likes.

I still feel dumb for that one…

The engagement just wasn’t there. I had a large number of fans but very little actual engagement.

I had no idea that hidden tools within Facebook’s apps, extensions, insights, tactics, and bots that could have made my Facebook ad spend 80 times more effective.

Facebook marketing is like an iceberg. Most people see the top part — Facebook ads. They spend their entire time optimizing that little bit of potential.

The real power is underneath. It’s hidden.

And that’s why I created this list.

I want you to know exactly what those hidden Facebook marketing tools are and how you can increase your engagement by 154% as I did.

Now before we get started, for the first few hidden tools you need Mobile Monkey to utilize all of the tactics (it’s free). In addition to that, some of the hidden tools that I’ll uncover are within Facebook… you just don’t know about them. 😉

Hidden Tool #1: Facebook Messenger Marketing

Okay, I’m starting out with a big, broad one.

It’s hiding in plain sight: Facebook Messenger marketing.

For some reason, not very many marketers are taking advantage of Messenger marketing, even though it’s the hottest opportunity in digital marketing today.

What does this mean for you? It means that you can gain first mover’s advantage.

Using Facebook Messenger for marketing is as simple as it sounds… you send messages to customers on Facebook Messenger.

What makes this channel different from other marketing methods like email marketing is the results.

Facebook Messenger messages have an open rate of 50-80%.

Facebook Messenger messages have a clickthrough rate of 20%, especially when using chat blasting.

Facebook Messenger messages have a conversion rate of 3-5x higher than Facebook desktop ads.

Facebook Messenger marketing costs 30-50x less than Facebook ad campaigns (when using Facebook Send To Messenger Ads)

Where else can you get engagement results like that?

I don’t know of any, and I’ve done quite a bit of online marketing.

The best way to get started with Facebook Messenger marketing is with MobileMonkey.

MobileMonkey is a powerful chatbot builder that I use personally. Chatbots are essential for scoring sky-high open rates, CTRs, and conversion rates.

And best of all, it’s free.

Hidden Tool #2: Comment Guard (Private Reply via Messenger)

A comment guard is a Facebook Messenger marketing feature that allows you to add new contacts to your contact list when they comment on your Facebook post.

It’s like a magic elixir for engagement.

It works like this.

You post something on Facebook as usual.

People comment on your post.

Anyone who comments on the post gets your automatic private reply in Messenger.

When they engage with this reply, they are added to your Facebook Messenger contact list.

The mobile screenshot below displays exactly what happens.

Someone comments on the post, and they immediately receive a Messenger message.

Imagine this. You post something on your Facebook page that has high engagement potential… a meme, a quiz, a contest, a question, whatever. All the comments that you rack up aren’t just comments anymore, they’re warm leads.

You’ll need to use MobileMonkey in order to pull this off, but it’s really easy.

Just click the “FB comment guard” button using the MobileMonkey app.

Create an autoresponder message.

Point them to your Messenger chat landing page.

Add the comment guard to your selected Facebook post.

Hidden Tool #3: Click to Messenger Ads

A Click-to-Messenger Ad is a normal Facebook ad with a twist. Instead of sending people to a landing page, you send them to a Facebook Messenger bot sequence.

It looks like this:

Once the person starts that Facebook Messenger sequence, they are a lead. And that’s when a chatbot takes over to bring them down the conversion funnel.

For example, you could have your chatbot ask users questions, and send them offers that they’re interested in.

It can be hard to manually respond to thousands of message inquiries. Instead, you can direct those chat sessions derived from your Messenger Ads directly to a MobileMonkey chatbot, which can ask qualifying questions and engage users at scale.

Check out this article, for step by step instructions on leveraging this ad unit

Hidden Tool #4: Chat Blaster

Chat blasting is a powerful method for getting your message in front of your entire Facebook Messenger list in minutes.

I’ve managed chat blasting campaigns that scored a 96.9% open rates in just sixty minutes.

With MobileMonkey you can schedule chat blasts, bulk send, develop interactive Messenger sequences, create special offers, and anything else that helps your marketing.

To start, just click “Chat Blaster” in the app.

One of the things that I like about the Chat Blaster is the ability to segment audiences. Many of the campaigns that I manage involve thousands of contacts, so I want to narrow down my contacts to just the right targets.

Creating segments is simple using MobileMonkey, which allows you to “Create Audience” with a click.

Your audience can perform self-segmentation when the chat blast sends.

Hidden Tool #5: Messenger Scan Codes

Remember QR codes? They didn’t really catch on that big, but the idea is gaining new ground with Facebook Messenger codes.

Anyone who’s on Facebook Messenger has a unique code.

In Messenger, tap on your profile picture in the upper right.

Then tap your profile picture again

The image that appears is your Messenger code.

From this screen, you can also scan a code.

Your Facebook page’s unique scan code is an excellent way to add people to your Messenger contact list. A person simply scans your code and they’re part of your list.

I can see applications for this at conferences, on bulletin board ads, merchandise, or even business cards.

Hidden Tool #6.  Warm Engaged Invites

One tactic that I’ve used to build my Facebook audience is by personally inviting people who have engaged with my facebook page, to become a page fan.

From your business Facebook page (desktop), find a post that has engagement.

Using this tool, you view the people who engaged with your post and can invite people to like the page.

The reason why this is valuable is that you’re able to target engaged fans. If you have a lot of Facebook fans, but not a lot of engagement, Facebook’s algorithm will punish you.

Instead, identify those people who will be engaged and manually invite them.

Hidden Tool #7: Send Personal Invites in Messenger

A similar hack is inviting your friends to like your business page, and also sending the invite in Messenger.

This is the method that I recommend since you can also personalize the message and give them two touches instead of just one.

Click on the … button on your Facebook page, then click “Invite Friends.”

Here, you can invite friends and create a personalized message. Be sure to check the box at the bottom to send the invite using Messenger.

Hidden Tool #8: Invite People to Your Facebook Group by Email

I love hacks that combine two platforms. I can leverage one of my marketing channels by combining it with another.

You can invite people to join your Facebook group by sending them an email. Obviously, you’ll need an email list to do this.

Here’s how.

From your Facebook Group page, click “members” on the left side.

From the next page, you can add email addresses and personal notes to invitees.

Currently, the only way I know how to do this is manually. If you have a large email list, it could take some time. :/

Hidden Tool #9: Competitor Ad Espionage

I’m a huge fan of ethical espionage.

In the world of SEO, it’s not that hard.

Just plug in a URL to something like RankSignals.

Boom, instantly you have intel.

And some of it is really helpful.

But with so many brands now spending millions on Facebook ads, how do you get a handle on that kind of information?

You will not be able to get your competitor’s targeting info and ad spend but you can find out where, how often, and what the competition is advertising.

Let’s say I’m the competition and you want to spy on me. First, find my Facebook page and tap the “i” button on the right side.

On this page, you can find out if the page has ever changed names, when it was created, and where the page managers are located. This can be handy intel.

Tap on “Active Ads.”

If the page is running ads, you’ll be able to see them here.

Hidden Tool #10:  Page Competition Gauge

I like to have a solid understanding of who my competition is and what they’re up to.

But how do I know who my competition is? Thankfully, Facebook’s algorithm has figured it out for me.

To use this feature, go to your Facebook Page Insights. From Insights, scroll down until you see “Pages to Watch.”

By default, Facebook shows you five potential competitors, but you can view more by clicking “See More Suggested Pages.”

When you add a competitor to your watched pages, you’ll be able to keep up with their activity, growth rates, total likes, and the frequency of their posts.

This information will help you understand how you’re doing and what you might need to change.

Hidden Tool #11: Find Where You’re Gaining Followers

It is important for you to figure out where you’re getting your followers so you can know how to get more.

One helpful way to get this information is again through Page Insights. Tap “Followers” and scroll down until you see “Where Your Page Follows Happened.”

Facebook shows you follow quantities according to five locations:

On Your Page

Search

Uncategorized Desktop

Your Posts

Others

If a particular source shows large follow rates, try to reverse engineer what happened, then do it again.

Hidden Tool #12: Identify Audience Signals on Page Insights

One way that I use metrics to leverage my marketing efforts is to view my Facebook page insights, particularly the demographic information.

When viewing this information, I’m looking for strong positives — indications that my audience favors a particular demographic.

For example, this page demonstrates a strong positive for men and women between the ages of 25-44.

If you’re 21, there’s only a small chance you’re going to be interested in my page. By contrast, if you’re a 30-year old male, there is a far stronger likelihood that you will have an interest in this page.

This information helps me know how, where, and upon whom to focus my marketing and advertising efforts.

Hidden Tool #13: Pull Email Addresses

I love this hack.

You know how hard it is to get people’s email address these days, right? No matter how appealing your content upgrade, asking for someone’s email address is tantamount to asking for their social security number.

With Facebook Messenger marketing, that’s no longer the case.

You can create a Facebook Messenger chatbot that asks for an individual’s email address. Then, all they do is click a button to pre-fill their address.

Facebook does all the work for you.

Here’s what the bot looks like in MobileMonkey.

As long as you set the input type as email, Facebook will know to pull the user’s email address exactly as they’ve entered it when creating a Facebook account. No typos, nothing.

This is another case of using two different channels to get information and engage your users. When you use a chatbot, it makes the process automatic and easy.

Hidden Tool #14: Pull Phone Numbers

If there’s one thing harder to get from a customer than their email address, it’s their phone number.

Again, powered by chatbots, it’s a cinch. Using input type “phone” in MobileMonkey means that you’re guaranteed to get the user’s primary phone number as they provided when and if they stored their phone number in Facebook.

It’s understandable that people are hesitant to enter their phone number on an unfamiliar platform — a contact form on your, for instance.

It’s quite a different level of comfort when they are asked for a phone number in a familiar messaging app, and Facebook automatically adds the number.

Literally, all that your contact has to do is tap their phone number.

Hidden Tool #15: Website Chat Widget

This one seems obvious, but again it’s surprising how few websites are putting the power of a website chat widget to work.

Check this out. If you go to MobileMonkey’s website, there is a chat widget on nearly every page.

If you’ve logged into Facebook Messenger on that browser, all you have to do is click and you’re introduced to a Messenger sequence with MobileMonkey.

This sequence powered by a chatbot brings you further down the funnel.

One of the unique and powerful features of this funnel is that it is self-guided. You feel as if you’re in control — making choices and selecting options.

Regardless of your choices, however, you are making deeper connections with the product and the marketing funnel.

Hidden Tool #16: Track Specific Facebook Conversions

The good thing about Facebook Ads Manager is that you have access to a ton of information.

The bad thing about Facebook Ads Manager is that you also have access to a ton of information.

Take conversions, for example.

If you’re tracking them, good for you. But which conversions are you tracking? Here are the options:

I call this one “hidden” because true conversions are essentially in Ad Manager underneath a lot of other noise.

You have to narrow down your conversion tracking to just the conversions that you need to know about.

For one of my businesses, I only focus on five types of conversions.

Everything else is useless.

I’ve written about this before… when you get clarity on what to track, you’ll do a lot better at making real progress with your Facebook advertising.

Hidden Tool #17: Messenger Drip Campaigns

If you’ve been in Internet marketing for any amount of time, you know how potent a good drip campaign can be.

Imagine increasing this potency by 10x.

That’s exactly what a Facebook Messenger drip campaign can do. Again, the power is in the chatbot builder.

MobileMonkey’s drip campaign feature just takes a click to get started.

Unlike an email drip campaign which can take days or weeks to complete, a Facebook Messenger drip campaign can be completed in a matter of minutes or hours.

Plus, when you use a chatbot, the entire sequence can be interactive. You can create choices and engage the user on a far deeper level.

Conclusion

There’s way more to Facebook than meets the eye.

I have a strong sense that Facebook marketing isn’t going to decline in the next 2-4 years. It’s going to become exponentially more powerful.

There’s a reason why so many of the hidden marketing tools above focus on Facebook Messenger.

Facebook Messenger marketing has fundamentally changed the game, and it’s done so in two  areas where marketing rises or falls:

Interactivity or dialogue — Messenger marketing, even when powered by a bot, has a personal feel. Instead of bullhorn marketing — telling your audience to do, buy, read, visit, watch. You’re asking for their feedback and opening up a conversation.

Speed of engagement — Unlike the glacial speed of email marketing (like drip campaigns), Messenger marketing has a much swifter cadence. Many people have a pavlovian response to the crisp ding of their Messenger notifications. They want to see who’s sending them a personal message. This means your open rates and click through rates are shooting up.

It’s not going to last forever. Like the banner ads of decades past, Messenger marketing will lose its luster as people become accustomed to it.

By engaging Messenger marketing now, you’ll have a far stronger advantage.

What Messenger marketing tactics does your brand or business currently use?

Youtobe

[adolphkwinter]

17 Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools That Will Increase Your Engagement by 154%

Facebook engagement is easier and more valuable than you ever imagined.

I found this out the hard way.

At one point, I was spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a month on Facebook Ads.

Sure, I was getting some huge successes. But I was also wasting a ton of money.

For example, I once spent $400,000 on Facebook fan page likes.

I still feel dumb for that one…

The engagement just wasn’t there. I had a large number of fans but very little actual engagement.

I had no idea that hidden tools within Facebook’s apps, extensions, insights, tactics, and bots that could have made my Facebook ad spend 80 times more effective.

Facebook marketing is like an iceberg. Most people see the top part — Facebook ads. They spend their entire time optimizing that little bit of potential.

The real power is underneath. It’s hidden.

And that’s why I created this list.

I want you to know exactly what those hidden Facebook marketing tools are and how you can increase your engagement by 154% as I did.

Now before we get started, for the first few hidden tools you need Mobile Monkey to utilize all of the tactics (it’s free). In addition to that, some of the hidden tools that I’ll uncover are within Facebook… you just don’t know about them. 😉

Hidden Tool #1: Facebook Messenger Marketing

Okay, I’m starting out with a big, broad one.

It’s hiding in plain sight: Facebook Messenger marketing.

For some reason, not very many marketers are taking advantage of Messenger marketing, even though it’s the hottest opportunity in digital marketing today.

What does this mean for you? It means that you can gain first mover’s advantage.

Using Facebook Messenger for marketing is as simple as it sounds… you send messages to customers on Facebook Messenger.

What makes this channel different from other marketing methods like email marketing is the results.

Facebook Messenger messages have an open rate of 50-80%.

Facebook Messenger messages have a clickthrough rate of 20%, especially when using chat blasting.

Facebook Messenger messages have a conversion rate of 3-5x higher than Facebook desktop ads.

Facebook Messenger marketing costs 30-50x less than Facebook ad campaigns (when using Facebook Send To Messenger Ads)

Where else can you get engagement results like that?

I don’t know of any, and I’ve done quite a bit of online marketing.

The best way to get started with Facebook Messenger marketing is with MobileMonkey.

MobileMonkey is a powerful chatbot builder that I use personally. Chatbots are essential for scoring sky-high open rates, CTRs, and conversion rates.

And best of all, it’s free.

Hidden Tool #2: Comment Guard (Private Reply via Messenger)

A comment guard is a Facebook Messenger marketing feature that allows you to add new contacts to your contact list when they comment on your Facebook post.

It’s like a magic elixir for engagement.

It works like this.

You post something on Facebook as usual.

People comment on your post.

Anyone who comments on the post gets your automatic private reply in Messenger.

When they engage with this reply, they are added to your Facebook Messenger contact list.

The mobile screenshot below displays exactly what happens.

Someone comments on the post, and they immediately receive a Messenger message.

Imagine this. You post something on your Facebook page that has high engagement potential… a meme, a quiz, a contest, a question, whatever. All the comments that you rack up aren’t just comments anymore, they’re warm leads.

You’ll need to use MobileMonkey in order to pull this off, but it’s really easy.

Just click the “FB comment guard” button using the MobileMonkey app.

Create an autoresponder message.

Point them to your Messenger chat landing page.

Add the comment guard to your selected Facebook post.

Hidden Tool #3: Click to Messenger Ads

A Click-to-Messenger Ad is a normal Facebook ad with a twist. Instead of sending people to a landing page, you send them to a Facebook Messenger bot sequence.

It looks like this:

Once the person starts that Facebook Messenger sequence, they are a lead. And that’s when a chatbot takes over to bring them down the conversion funnel.

For example, you could have your chatbot ask users questions, and send them offers that they’re interested in.

It can be hard to manually respond to thousands of message inquiries. Instead, you can direct those chat sessions derived from your Messenger Ads directly to a MobileMonkey chatbot, which can ask qualifying questions and engage users at scale.

Check out this article, for step by step instructions on leveraging this ad unit

Hidden Tool #4: Chat Blaster

Chat blasting is a powerful method for getting your message in front of your entire Facebook Messenger list in minutes.

I’ve managed chat blasting campaigns that scored a 96.9% open rates in just sixty minutes.

With MobileMonkey you can schedule chat blasts, bulk send, develop interactive Messenger sequences, create special offers, and anything else that helps your marketing.

To start, just click “Chat Blaster” in the app.

One of the things that I like about the Chat Blaster is the ability to segment audiences. Many of the campaigns that I manage involve thousands of contacts, so I want to narrow down my contacts to just the right targets.

Creating segments is simple using MobileMonkey, which allows you to “Create Audience” with a click.

Your audience can perform self-segmentation when the chat blast sends.

Hidden Tool #5: Messenger Scan Codes

Remember QR codes? They didn’t really catch on that big, but the idea is gaining new ground with Facebook Messenger codes.

Anyone who’s on Facebook Messenger has a unique code.

In Messenger, tap on your profile picture in the upper right.

Then tap your profile picture again

The image that appears is your Messenger code.

From this screen, you can also scan a code.

Your Facebook page’s unique scan code is an excellent way to add people to your Messenger contact list. A person simply scans your code and they’re part of your list.

I can see applications for this at conferences, on bulletin board ads, merchandise, or even business cards.

Hidden Tool #6.  Warm Engaged Invites

One tactic that I’ve used to build my Facebook audience is by personally inviting people who have engaged with my facebook page, to become a page fan.

From your business Facebook page (desktop), find a post that has engagement.

Using this tool, you view the people who engaged with your post and can invite people to like the page.

The reason why this is valuable is that you’re able to target engaged fans. If you have a lot of Facebook fans, but not a lot of engagement, Facebook’s algorithm will punish you.

Instead, identify those people who will be engaged and manually invite them.

Hidden Tool #7: Send Personal Invites in Messenger

A similar hack is inviting your friends to like your business page, and also sending the invite in Messenger.

This is the method that I recommend since you can also personalize the message and give them two touches instead of just one.

Click on the … button on your Facebook page, then click “Invite Friends.”

Here, you can invite friends and create a personalized message. Be sure to check the box at the bottom to send the invite using Messenger.

Hidden Tool #8: Invite People to Your Facebook Group by Email

I love hacks that combine two platforms. I can leverage one of my marketing channels by combining it with another.

You can invite people to join your Facebook group by sending them an email. Obviously, you’ll need an email list to do this.

Here’s how.

From your Facebook Group page, click “members” on the left side.

From the next page, you can add email addresses and personal notes to invitees.

Currently, the only way I know how to do this is manually. If you have a large email list, it could take some time. :/

Hidden Tool #9: Competitor Ad Espionage

I’m a huge fan of ethical espionage.

In the world of SEO, it’s not that hard.

Just plug in a URL to something like RankSignals.

Boom, instantly you have intel.

And some of it is really helpful.

But with so many brands now spending millions on Facebook ads, how do you get a handle on that kind of information?

You will not be able to get your competitor’s targeting info and ad spend but you can find out where, how often, and what the competition is advertising.

Let’s say I’m the competition and you want to spy on me. First, find my Facebook page and tap the “i” button on the right side.

On this page, you can find out if the page has ever changed names, when it was created, and where the page managers are located. This can be handy intel.

Tap on “Active Ads.”

If the page is running ads, you’ll be able to see them here.

Hidden Tool #10:  Page Competition Gauge

I like to have a solid understanding of who my competition is and what they’re up to.

But how do I know who my competition is? Thankfully, Facebook’s algorithm has figured it out for me.

To use this feature, go to your Facebook Page Insights. From Insights, scroll down until you see “Pages to Watch.”

By default, Facebook shows you five potential competitors, but you can view more by clicking “See More Suggested Pages.”

When you add a competitor to your watched pages, you’ll be able to keep up with their activity, growth rates, total likes, and the frequency of their posts.

This information will help you understand how you’re doing and what you might need to change.

Hidden Tool #11: Find Where You’re Gaining Followers

It is important for you to figure out where you’re getting your followers so you can know how to get more.

One helpful way to get this information is again through Page Insights. Tap “Followers” and scroll down until you see “Where Your Page Follows Happened.”

Facebook shows you follow quantities according to five locations:

On Your Page

Search

Uncategorized Desktop

Your Posts

Others

If a particular source shows large follow rates, try to reverse engineer what happened, then do it again.

Hidden Tool #12: Identify Audience Signals on Page Insights

One way that I use metrics to leverage my marketing efforts is to view my Facebook page insights, particularly the demographic information.

When viewing this information, I’m looking for strong positives — indications that my audience favors a particular demographic.

For example, this page demonstrates a strong positive for men and women between the ages of 25-44.

If you’re 21, there’s only a small chance you’re going to be interested in my page. By contrast, if you’re a 30-year old male, there is a far stronger likelihood that you will have an interest in this page.

This information helps me know how, where, and upon whom to focus my marketing and advertising efforts.

Hidden Tool #13: Pull Email Addresses

I love this hack.

You know how hard it is to get people’s email address these days, right? No matter how appealing your content upgrade, asking for someone’s email address is tantamount to asking for their social security number.

With Facebook Messenger marketing, that’s no longer the case.

You can create a Facebook Messenger chatbot that asks for an individual’s email address. Then, all they do is click a button to pre-fill their address.

Facebook does all the work for you.

Here’s what the bot looks like in MobileMonkey.

As long as you set the input type as email, Facebook will know to pull the user’s email address exactly as they’ve entered it when creating a Facebook account. No typos, nothing.

This is another case of using two different channels to get information and engage your users. When you use a chatbot, it makes the process automatic and easy.

Hidden Tool #14: Pull Phone Numbers

If there’s one thing harder to get from a customer than their email address, it’s their phone number.

Again, powered by chatbots, it’s a cinch. Using input type “phone” in MobileMonkey means that you’re guaranteed to get the user’s primary phone number as they provided when and if they stored their phone number in Facebook.

It’s understandable that people are hesitant to enter their phone number on an unfamiliar platform — a contact form on your, for instance.

It’s quite a different level of comfort when they are asked for a phone number in a familiar messaging app, and Facebook automatically adds the number.

Literally, all that your contact has to do is tap their phone number.

Hidden Tool #15: Website Chat Widget

This one seems obvious, but again it’s surprising how few websites are putting the power of a website chat widget to work.

Check this out. If you go to MobileMonkey’s website, there is a chat widget on nearly every page.

If you’ve logged into Facebook Messenger on that browser, all you have to do is click and you’re introduced to a Messenger sequence with MobileMonkey.

This sequence powered by a chatbot brings you further down the funnel.

One of the unique and powerful features of this funnel is that it is self-guided. You feel as if you’re in control — making choices and selecting options.

Regardless of your choices, however, you are making deeper connections with the product and the marketing funnel.

Hidden Tool #16: Track Specific Facebook Conversions

The good thing about Facebook Ads Manager is that you have access to a ton of information.

The bad thing about Facebook Ads Manager is that you also have access to a ton of information.

Take conversions, for example.

If you’re tracking them, good for you. But which conversions are you tracking? Here are the options:

I call this one “hidden” because true conversions are essentially in Ad Manager underneath a lot of other noise.

You have to narrow down your conversion tracking to just the conversions that you need to know about.

For one of my businesses, I only focus on five types of conversions.

Everything else is useless.

I’ve written about this before… when you get clarity on what to track, you’ll do a lot better at making real progress with your Facebook advertising.

Hidden Tool #17: Messenger Drip Campaigns

If you’ve been in Internet marketing for any amount of time, you know how potent a good drip campaign can be.

Imagine increasing this potency by 10x.

That’s exactly what a Facebook Messenger drip campaign can do. Again, the power is in the chatbot builder.

MobileMonkey’s drip campaign feature just takes a click to get started.

Unlike an email drip campaign which can take days or weeks to complete, a Facebook Messenger drip campaign can be completed in a matter of minutes or hours.

Plus, when you use a chatbot, the entire sequence can be interactive. You can create choices and engage the user on a far deeper level.

Conclusion

There’s way more to Facebook than meets the eye.

I have a strong sense that Facebook marketing isn’t going to decline in the next 2-4 years. It’s going to become exponentially more powerful.

There’s a reason why so many of the hidden marketing tools above focus on Facebook Messenger.

Facebook Messenger marketing has fundamentally changed the game, and it’s done so in two  areas where marketing rises or falls:

Interactivity or dialogue — Messenger marketing, even when powered by a bot, has a personal feel. Instead of bullhorn marketing — telling your audience to do, buy, read, visit, watch. You’re asking for their feedback and opening up a conversation.

Speed of engagement — Unlike the glacial speed of email marketing (like drip campaigns), Messenger marketing has a much swifter cadence. Many people have a pavlovian response to the crisp ding of their Messenger notifications. They want to see who’s sending them a personal message. This means your open rates and click through rates are shooting up.

It’s not going to last forever. Like the banner ads of decades past, Messenger marketing will lose its luster as people become accustomed to it.

By engaging Messenger marketing now, you’ll have a far stronger advantage.

What Messenger marketing tactics does your brand or business currently use?

The post 17 Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools That Will Increase Your Engagement by 154% appeared first on Neil Patel.

from Online Marketing Tips https://neilpatel.com/blog/facebook-marketing-tools/

[filipeteimuraz]

17 Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools That Will Increase Your Engagement by 154%

Facebook engagement is easier and more valuable than you ever imagined.

I found this out the hard way.

At one point, I was spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a month on Facebook Ads.

Sure, I was getting some huge successes. But I was also wasting a ton of money.

For example, I once spent $400,000 on Facebook fan page likes.

I still feel dumb for that one…

The engagement just wasn’t there. I had a large number of fans but very little actual engagement.

I had no idea that hidden tools within Facebook’s apps, extensions, insights, tactics, and bots that could have made my Facebook ad spend 80 times more effective.

Facebook marketing is like an iceberg. Most people see the top part — Facebook ads. They spend their entire time optimizing that little bit of potential.

The real power is underneath. It’s hidden.

And that’s why I created this list.

I want you to know exactly what those hidden Facebook marketing tools are and how you can increase your engagement by 154% as I did.

Now before we get started, for the first few hidden tools you need Mobile Monkey to utilize all of the tactics (it’s free). In addition to that, some of the hidden tools that I’ll uncover are within Facebook… you just don’t know about them. 😉

Hidden Tool #1: Facebook Messenger Marketing

Okay, I’m starting out with a big, broad one.

It’s hiding in plain sight: Facebook Messenger marketing.

For some reason, not very many marketers are taking advantage of Messenger marketing, even though it’s the hottest opportunity in digital marketing today.

What does this mean for you? It means that you can gain first mover’s advantage.

Using Facebook Messenger for marketing is as simple as it sounds… you send messages to customers on Facebook Messenger.

What makes this channel different from other marketing methods like email marketing is the results.

Facebook Messenger messages have an open rate of 50-80%.

Facebook Messenger messages have a clickthrough rate of 20%, especially when using chat blasting.

Facebook Messenger messages have a conversion rate of 3-5x higher than Facebook desktop ads.

Facebook Messenger marketing costs 30-50x less than Facebook ad campaigns (when using Facebook Send To Messenger Ads)

Where else can you get engagement results like that?

I don’t know of any, and I’ve done quite a bit of online marketing.

The best way to get started with Facebook Messenger marketing is with MobileMonkey.

MobileMonkey is a powerful chatbot builder that I use personally. Chatbots are essential for scoring sky-high open rates, CTRs, and conversion rates.

And best of all, it’s free.

Hidden Tool #2: Comment Guard (Private Reply via Messenger)

A comment guard is a Facebook Messenger marketing feature that allows you to add new contacts to your contact list when they comment on your Facebook post.

It’s like a magic elixir for engagement.

It works like this.

You post something on Facebook as usual.

People comment on your post.

Anyone who comments on the post gets your automatic private reply in Messenger.

When they engage with this reply, they are added to your Facebook Messenger contact list.

The mobile screenshot below displays exactly what happens.

Someone comments on the post, and they immediately receive a Messenger message.

Imagine this. You post something on your Facebook page that has high engagement potential… a meme, a quiz, a contest, a question, whatever. All the comments that you rack up aren’t just comments anymore, they’re warm leads.

You’ll need to use MobileMonkey in order to pull this off, but it’s really easy.

Just click the “FB comment guard” button using the MobileMonkey app.

Create an autoresponder message.

Point them to your Messenger chat landing page.

Add the comment guard to your selected Facebook post.

Hidden Tool #3: Click to Messenger Ads

A Click-to-Messenger Ad is a normal Facebook ad with a twist. Instead of sending people to a landing page, you send them to a Facebook Messenger bot sequence.

It looks like this:

Once the person starts that Facebook Messenger sequence, they are a lead. And that’s when a chatbot takes over to bring them down the conversion funnel.

For example, you could have your chatbot ask users questions, and send them offers that they’re interested in.

It can be hard to manually respond to thousands of message inquiries. Instead, you can direct those chat sessions derived from your Messenger Ads directly to a MobileMonkey chatbot, which can ask qualifying questions and engage users at scale.

Check out this article, for step by step instructions on leveraging this ad unit

Hidden Tool #4: Chat Blaster

Chat blasting is a powerful method for getting your message in front of your entire Facebook Messenger list in minutes.

I’ve managed chat blasting campaigns that scored a 96.9% open rates in just sixty minutes.

With MobileMonkey you can schedule chat blasts, bulk send, develop interactive Messenger sequences, create special offers, and anything else that helps your marketing.

To start, just click “Chat Blaster” in the app.

One of the things that I like about the Chat Blaster is the ability to segment audiences. Many of the campaigns that I manage involve thousands of contacts, so I want to narrow down my contacts to just the right targets.

Creating segments is simple using MobileMonkey, which allows you to “Create Audience” with a click.

Your audience can perform self-segmentation when the chat blast sends.

Hidden Tool #5: Messenger Scan Codes

Remember QR codes? They didn’t really catch on that big, but the idea is gaining new ground with Facebook Messenger codes.

Anyone who’s on Facebook Messenger has a unique code.

In Messenger, tap on your profile picture in the upper right.

Then tap your profile picture again

The image that appears is your Messenger code.

From this screen, you can also scan a code.

Your Facebook page’s unique scan code is an excellent way to add people to your Messenger contact list. A person simply scans your code and they’re part of your list.

I can see applications for this at conferences, on bulletin board ads, merchandise, or even business cards.

Hidden Tool #6.  Warm Engaged Invites

One tactic that I’ve used to build my Facebook audience is by personally inviting people who have engaged with my facebook page, to become a page fan.

From your business Facebook page (desktop), find a post that has engagement.

Using this tool, you view the people who engaged with your post and can invite people to like the page.

The reason why this is valuable is that you’re able to target engaged fans. If you have a lot of Facebook fans, but not a lot of engagement, Facebook’s algorithm will punish you.

Instead, identify those people who will be engaged and manually invite them.

Hidden Tool #7: Send Personal Invites in Messenger

A similar hack is inviting your friends to like your business page, and also sending the invite in Messenger.

This is the method that I recommend since you can also personalize the message and give them two touches instead of just one.

Click on the … button on your Facebook page, then click “Invite Friends.”

Here, you can invite friends and create a personalized message. Be sure to check the box at the bottom to send the invite using Messenger.

Hidden Tool #8: Invite People to Your Facebook Group by Email

I love hacks that combine two platforms. I can leverage one of my marketing channels by combining it with another.

You can invite people to join your Facebook group by sending them an email. Obviously, you’ll need an email list to do this.

Here’s how.

From your Facebook Group page, click “members” on the left side.

From the next page, you can add email addresses and personal notes to invitees.

Currently, the only way I know how to do this is manually. If you have a large email list, it could take some time. :/

Hidden Tool #9: Competitor Ad Espionage

I’m a huge fan of ethical espionage.

In the world of SEO, it’s not that hard.

Just plug in a URL to something like RankSignals.

Boom, instantly you have intel.

And some of it is really helpful.

But with so many brands now spending millions on Facebook ads, how do you get a handle on that kind of information?

You will not be able to get your competitor’s targeting info and ad spend but you can find out where, how often, and what the competition is advertising.

Let’s say I’m the competition and you want to spy on me. First, find my Facebook page and tap the “i” button on the right side.

On this page, you can find out if the page has ever changed names, when it was created, and where the page managers are located. This can be handy intel.

Tap on “Active Ads.”

If the page is running ads, you’ll be able to see them here.

Hidden Tool #10:  Page Competition Gauge

I like to have a solid understanding of who my competition is and what they’re up to.

But how do I know who my competition is? Thankfully, Facebook’s algorithm has figured it out for me.

To use this feature, go to your Facebook Page Insights. From Insights, scroll down until you see “Pages to Watch.”

By default, Facebook shows you five potential competitors, but you can view more by clicking “See More Suggested Pages.”

When you add a competitor to your watched pages, you’ll be able to keep up with their activity, growth rates, total likes, and the frequency of their posts.

This information will help you understand how you’re doing and what you might need to change.

Hidden Tool #11: Find Where You’re Gaining Followers

It is important for you to figure out where you’re getting your followers so you can know how to get more.

One helpful way to get this information is again through Page Insights. Tap “Followers” and scroll down until you see “Where Your Page Follows Happened.”

Facebook shows you follow quantities according to five locations:

On Your Page

Search

Uncategorized Desktop

Your Posts

Others

If a particular source shows large follow rates, try to reverse engineer what happened, then do it again.

Hidden Tool #12: Identify Audience Signals on Page Insights

One way that I use metrics to leverage my marketing efforts is to view my Facebook page insights, particularly the demographic information.

When viewing this information, I’m looking for strong positives — indications that my audience favors a particular demographic.

For example, this page demonstrates a strong positive for men and women between the ages of 25-44.

If you’re 21, there’s only a small chance you’re going to be interested in my page. By contrast, if you’re a 30-year old male, there is a far stronger likelihood that you will have an interest in this page.

This information helps me know how, where, and upon whom to focus my marketing and advertising efforts.

Hidden Tool #13: Pull Email Addresses

I love this hack.

You know how hard it is to get people’s email address these days, right? No matter how appealing your content upgrade, asking for someone’s email address is tantamount to asking for their social security number.

With Facebook Messenger marketing, that’s no longer the case.

You can create a Facebook Messenger chatbot that asks for an individual’s email address. Then, all they do is click a button to pre-fill their address.

Facebook does all the work for you.

Here’s what the bot looks like in MobileMonkey.

As long as you set the input type as email, Facebook will know to pull the user’s email address exactly as they’ve entered it when creating a Facebook account. No typos, nothing.

This is another case of using two different channels to get information and engage your users. When you use a chatbot, it makes the process automatic and easy.

Hidden Tool #14: Pull Phone Numbers

If there’s one thing harder to get from a customer than their email address, it’s their phone number.

Again, powered by chatbots, it’s a cinch. Using input type “phone” in MobileMonkey means that you’re guaranteed to get the user’s primary phone number as they provided when and if they stored their phone number in Facebook.

It’s understandable that people are hesitant to enter their phone number on an unfamiliar platform — a contact form on your, for instance.

It’s quite a different level of comfort when they are asked for a phone number in a familiar messaging app, and Facebook automatically adds the number.

Literally, all that your contact has to do is tap their phone number.

Hidden Tool #15: Website Chat Widget

This one seems obvious, but again it’s surprising how few websites are putting the power of a website chat widget to work.

Check this out. If you go to MobileMonkey’s website, there is a chat widget on nearly every page.

If you’ve logged into Facebook Messenger on that browser, all you have to do is click and you’re introduced to a Messenger sequence with MobileMonkey.

This sequence powered by a chatbot brings you further down the funnel.

One of the unique and powerful features of this funnel is that it is self-guided. You feel as if you’re in control — making choices and selecting options.

Regardless of your choices, however, you are making deeper connections with the product and the marketing funnel.

Hidden Tool #16: Track Specific Facebook Conversions

The good thing about Facebook Ads Manager is that you have access to a ton of information.

The bad thing about Facebook Ads Manager is that you also have access to a ton of information.

Take conversions, for example.

If you’re tracking them, good for you. But which conversions are you tracking? Here are the options:

I call this one “hidden” because true conversions are essentially in Ad Manager underneath a lot of other noise.

You have to narrow down your conversion tracking to just the conversions that you need to know about.

For one of my businesses, I only focus on five types of conversions.

Everything else is useless.

I’ve written about this before… when you get clarity on what to track, you’ll do a lot better at making real progress with your Facebook advertising.

Hidden Tool #17: Messenger Drip Campaigns

If you’ve been in Internet marketing for any amount of time, you know how potent a good drip campaign can be.

Imagine increasing this potency by 10x.

That’s exactly what a Facebook Messenger drip campaign can do. Again, the power is in the chatbot builder.

MobileMonkey’s drip campaign feature just takes a click to get started.

Unlike an email drip campaign which can take days or weeks to complete, a Facebook Messenger drip campaign can be completed in a matter of minutes or hours.

Plus, when you use a chatbot, the entire sequence can be interactive. You can create choices and engage the user on a far deeper level.

Conclusion

There’s way more to Facebook than meets the eye.

I have a strong sense that Facebook marketing isn’t going to decline in the next 2-4 years. It’s going to become exponentially more powerful.

There’s a reason why so many of the hidden marketing tools above focus on Facebook Messenger.

Facebook Messenger marketing has fundamentally changed the game, and it’s done so in two  areas where marketing rises or falls:

Interactivity or dialogue — Messenger marketing, even when powered by a bot, has a personal feel. Instead of bullhorn marketing — telling your audience to do, buy, read, visit, watch. You’re asking for their feedback and opening up a conversation.

Speed of engagement — Unlike the glacial speed of email marketing (like drip campaigns), Messenger marketing has a much swifter cadence. Many people have a pavlovian response to the crisp ding of their Messenger notifications. They want to see who’s sending them a personal message. This means your open rates and click through rates are shooting up.

It’s not going to last forever. Like the banner ads of decades past, Messenger marketing will lose its luster as people become accustomed to it.

By engaging Messenger marketing now, you’ll have a far stronger advantage.

What Messenger marketing tactics does your brand or business currently use?

The post 17 Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools That Will Increase Your Engagement by 154% appeared first on Neil Patel.

Read more here - http://review-and-bonuss.blogspot.com/2019/02/17-hidden-facebook-marketing-tools-that.html

[marketingcomcaio]

17 Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools That Will Increase Your Engagement by 154%

Facebook engagement is easier and more valuable than you ever imagined.

I found this out the hard way.

At one point, I was spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a month on Facebook Ads.

Sure, I was getting some huge successes. But I was also wasting a ton of money.

For example, I once spent $400,000 on Facebook fan page likes.

I still feel dumb for that one…

The engagement just wasn’t there. I had a large number of fans but very little actual engagement.

I had no idea that hidden tools within Facebook’s apps, extensions, insights, tactics, and bots that could have made my Facebook ad spend 80 times more effective.

Facebook marketing is like an iceberg. Most people see the top part — Facebook ads. They spend their entire time optimizing that little bit of potential.

The real power is underneath. It’s hidden.

And that’s why I created this list.

I want you to know exactly what those hidden Facebook marketing tools are and how you can increase your engagement by 154% as I did.

Now before we get started, for the first few hidden tools you need Mobile Monkey to utilize all of the tactics (it’s free). In addition to that, some of the hidden tools that I’ll uncover are within Facebook… you just don’t know about them. 😉

Hidden Tool #1: Facebook Messenger Marketing

Okay, I’m starting out with a big, broad one.

It’s hiding in plain sight: Facebook Messenger marketing.

For some reason, not very many marketers are taking advantage of Messenger marketing, even though it’s the hottest opportunity in digital marketing today.

What does this mean for you? It means that you can gain first mover’s advantage.

Using Facebook Messenger for marketing is as simple as it sounds… you send messages to customers on Facebook Messenger.

What makes this channel different from other marketing methods like email marketing is the results.

Facebook Messenger messages have an open rate of 50-80%.

Facebook Messenger messages have a clickthrough rate of 20%, especially when using chat blasting.

Facebook Messenger messages have a conversion rate of 3-5x higher than Facebook desktop ads.

Facebook Messenger marketing costs 30-50x less than Facebook ad campaigns (when using Facebook Send To Messenger Ads)

Where else can you get engagement results like that?

I don’t know of any, and I’ve done quite a bit of online marketing.

The best way to get started with Facebook Messenger marketing is with MobileMonkey.

MobileMonkey is a powerful chatbot builder that I use personally. Chatbots are essential for scoring sky-high open rates, CTRs, and conversion rates.

And best of all, it’s free.

Hidden Tool #2: Comment Guard (Private Reply via Messenger)

A comment guard is a Facebook Messenger marketing feature that allows you to add new contacts to your contact list when they comment on your Facebook post.

It’s like a magic elixir for engagement.

It works like this.

You post something on Facebook as usual.

People comment on your post.

Anyone who comments on the post gets your automatic private reply in Messenger.

When they engage with this reply, they are added to your Facebook Messenger contact list.

The mobile screenshot below displays exactly what happens.

Someone comments on the post, and they immediately receive a Messenger message.

Imagine this. You post something on your Facebook page that has high engagement potential… a meme, a quiz, a contest, a question, whatever. All the comments that you rack up aren’t just comments anymore, they’re warm leads.

You’ll need to use MobileMonkey in order to pull this off, but it’s really easy.

Just click the “FB comment guard” button using the MobileMonkey app.

Create an autoresponder message.

Point them to your Messenger chat landing page.

Add the comment guard to your selected Facebook post.

Hidden Tool #3: Click to Messenger Ads

A Click-to-Messenger Ad is a normal Facebook ad with a twist. Instead of sending people to a landing page, you send them to a Facebook Messenger bot sequence.

It looks like this:

Once the person starts that Facebook Messenger sequence, they are a lead. And that’s when a chatbot takes over to bring them down the conversion funnel.

For example, you could have your chatbot ask users questions, and send them offers that they’re interested in.

It can be hard to manually respond to thousands of message inquiries. Instead, you can direct those chat sessions derived from your Messenger Ads directly to a MobileMonkey chatbot, which can ask qualifying questions and engage users at scale.

Check out this article, for step by step instructions on leveraging this ad unit

Hidden Tool #4: Chat Blaster

Chat blasting is a powerful method for getting your message in front of your entire Facebook Messenger list in minutes.

I’ve managed chat blasting campaigns that scored a 96.9% open rates in just sixty minutes.

With MobileMonkey you can schedule chat blasts, bulk send, develop interactive Messenger sequences, create special offers, and anything else that helps your marketing.

To start, just click “Chat Blaster” in the app.

One of the things that I like about the Chat Blaster is the ability to segment audiences. Many of the campaigns that I manage involve thousands of contacts, so I want to narrow down my contacts to just the right targets.

Creating segments is simple using MobileMonkey, which allows you to “Create Audience” with a click.

Your audience can perform self-segmentation when the chat blast sends.

Hidden Tool #5: Messenger Scan Codes

Remember QR codes? They didn’t really catch on that big, but the idea is gaining new ground with Facebook Messenger codes.

Anyone who’s on Facebook Messenger has a unique code.

In Messenger, tap on your profile picture in the upper right.

Then tap your profile picture again

The image that appears is your Messenger code.

From this screen, you can also scan a code.

Your Facebook page’s unique scan code is an excellent way to add people to your Messenger contact list. A person simply scans your code and they’re part of your list.

I can see applications for this at conferences, on bulletin board ads, merchandise, or even business cards.

Hidden Tool #6.  Warm Engaged Invites

One tactic that I’ve used to build my Facebook audience is by personally inviting people who have engaged with my facebook page, to become a page fan.

From your business Facebook page (desktop), find a post that has engagement.

Using this tool, you view the people who engaged with your post and can invite people to like the page.

The reason why this is valuable is that you’re able to target engaged fans. If you have a lot of Facebook fans, but not a lot of engagement, Facebook’s algorithm will punish you.

Instead, identify those people who will be engaged and manually invite them.

Hidden Tool #7: Send Personal Invites in Messenger

A similar hack is inviting your friends to like your business page, and also sending the invite in Messenger.

This is the method that I recommend since you can also personalize the message and give them two touches instead of just one.

Click on the … button on your Facebook page, then click “Invite Friends.”

Here, you can invite friends and create a personalized message. Be sure to check the box at the bottom to send the invite using Messenger.

Hidden Tool #8: Invite People to Your Facebook Group by Email

I love hacks that combine two platforms. I can leverage one of my marketing channels by combining it with another.

You can invite people to join your Facebook group by sending them an email. Obviously, you’ll need an email list to do this.

Here’s how.

From your Facebook Group page, click “members” on the left side.

From the next page, you can add email addresses and personal notes to invitees.

Currently, the only way I know how to do this is manually. If you have a large email list, it could take some time. :/

Hidden Tool #9: Competitor Ad Espionage

I’m a huge fan of ethical espionage.

In the world of SEO, it’s not that hard.

Just plug in a URL to something like RankSignals.

Boom, instantly you have intel.

And some of it is really helpful.

But with so many brands now spending millions on Facebook ads, how do you get a handle on that kind of information?

You will not be able to get your competitor’s targeting info and ad spend but you can find out where, how often, and what the competition is advertising.

Let’s say I’m the competition and you want to spy on me. First, find my Facebook page and tap the “i” button on the right side.

On this page, you can find out if the page has ever changed names, when it was created, and where the page managers are located. This can be handy intel.

Tap on “Active Ads.”

If the page is running ads, you’ll be able to see them here.

Hidden Tool #10:  Page Competition Gauge

I like to have a solid understanding of who my competition is and what they’re up to.

But how do I know who my competition is? Thankfully, Facebook’s algorithm has figured it out for me.

To use this feature, go to your Facebook Page Insights. From Insights, scroll down until you see “Pages to Watch.”

By default, Facebook shows you five potential competitors, but you can view more by clicking “See More Suggested Pages.”

When you add a competitor to your watched pages, you’ll be able to keep up with their activity, growth rates, total likes, and the frequency of their posts.

This information will help you understand how you’re doing and what you might need to change.

Hidden Tool #11: Find Where You’re Gaining Followers

It is important for you to figure out where you’re getting your followers so you can know how to get more.

One helpful way to get this information is again through Page Insights. Tap “Followers” and scroll down until you see “Where Your Page Follows Happened.”

Facebook shows you follow quantities according to five locations:

On Your Page

Search

Uncategorized Desktop

Your Posts

Others

If a particular source shows large follow rates, try to reverse engineer what happened, then do it again.

Hidden Tool #12: Identify Audience Signals on Page Insights

One way that I use metrics to leverage my marketing efforts is to view my Facebook page insights, particularly the demographic information.

When viewing this information, I’m looking for strong positives — indications that my audience favors a particular demographic.

For example, this page demonstrates a strong positive for men and women between the ages of 25-44.

If you’re 21, there’s only a small chance you’re going to be interested in my page. By contrast, if you’re a 30-year old male, there is a far stronger likelihood that you will have an interest in this page.

This information helps me know how, where, and upon whom to focus my marketing and advertising efforts.

Hidden Tool #13: Pull Email Addresses

I love this hack.

You know how hard it is to get people’s email address these days, right? No matter how appealing your content upgrade, asking for someone’s email address is tantamount to asking for their social security number.

With Facebook Messenger marketing, that’s no longer the case.

You can create a Facebook Messenger chatbot that asks for an individual’s email address. Then, all they do is click a button to pre-fill their address.

Facebook does all the work for you.

Here’s what the bot looks like in MobileMonkey.

As long as you set the input type as email, Facebook will know to pull the user’s email address exactly as they’ve entered it when creating a Facebook account. No typos, nothing.

This is another case of using two different channels to get information and engage your users. When you use a chatbot, it makes the process automatic and easy.

Hidden Tool #14: Pull Phone Numbers

If there’s one thing harder to get from a customer than their email address, it’s their phone number.

Again, powered by chatbots, it’s a cinch. Using input type “phone” in MobileMonkey means that you’re guaranteed to get the user’s primary phone number as they provided when and if they stored their phone number in Facebook.

It’s understandable that people are hesitant to enter their phone number on an unfamiliar platform — a contact form on your, for instance.

It’s quite a different level of comfort when they are asked for a phone number in a familiar messaging app, and Facebook automatically adds the number.

Literally, all that your contact has to do is tap their phone number.

Hidden Tool #15: Website Chat Widget

This one seems obvious, but again it’s surprising how few websites are putting the power of a website chat widget to work.

Check this out. If you go to MobileMonkey’s website, there is a chat widget on nearly every page.

If you’ve logged into Facebook Messenger on that browser, all you have to do is click and you’re introduced to a Messenger sequence with MobileMonkey.

This sequence powered by a chatbot brings you further down the funnel.

One of the unique and powerful features of this funnel is that it is self-guided. You feel as if you’re in control — making choices and selecting options.

Regardless of your choices, however, you are making deeper connections with the product and the marketing funnel.

Hidden Tool #16: Track Specific Facebook Conversions

The good thing about Facebook Ads Manager is that you have access to a ton of information.

The bad thing about Facebook Ads Manager is that you also have access to a ton of information.

Take conversions, for example.

If you’re tracking them, good for you. But which conversions are you tracking? Here are the options:

I call this one “hidden” because true conversions are essentially in Ad Manager underneath a lot of other noise.

You have to narrow down your conversion tracking to just the conversions that you need to know about.

For one of my businesses, I only focus on five types of conversions.

Everything else is useless.

I’ve written about this before… when you get clarity on what to track, you’ll do a lot better at making real progress with your Facebook advertising.

Hidden Tool #17: Messenger Drip Campaigns

If you’ve been in Internet marketing for any amount of time, you know how potent a good drip campaign can be.

Imagine increasing this potency by 10x.

That’s exactly what a Facebook Messenger drip campaign can do. Again, the power is in the chatbot builder.

MobileMonkey’s drip campaign feature just takes a click to get started.

Unlike an email drip campaign which can take days or weeks to complete, a Facebook Messenger drip campaign can be completed in a matter of minutes or hours.

Plus, when you use a chatbot, the entire sequence can be interactive. You can create choices and engage the user on a far deeper level.

Conclusion

There’s way more to Facebook than meets the eye.

I have a strong sense that Facebook marketing isn’t going to decline in the next 2-4 years. It’s going to become exponentially more powerful.

There’s a reason why so many of the hidden marketing tools above focus on Facebook Messenger.

Facebook Messenger marketing has fundamentally changed the game, and it’s done so in two  areas where marketing rises or falls:

Interactivity or dialogue — Messenger marketing, even when powered by a bot, has a personal feel. Instead of bullhorn marketing — telling your audience to do, buy, read, visit, watch. You’re asking for their feedback and opening up a conversation.

Speed of engagement — Unlike the glacial speed of email marketing (like drip campaigns), Messenger marketing has a much swifter cadence. Many people have a pavlovian response to the crisp ding of their Messenger notifications. They want to see who’s sending them a personal message. This means your open rates and click through rates are shooting up.

It’s not going to last forever. Like the banner ads of decades past, Messenger marketing will lose its luster as people become accustomed to it.

By engaging Messenger marketing now, you’ll have a far stronger advantage.

What Messenger marketing tactics does your brand or business currently use?

The post 17 Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools That Will Increase Your Engagement by 154% appeared first on Neil Patel.

17 Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools That Will Increase Your Engagement by 154% Publicado primeiro em https://neilpatel.com

[reviewandbonuss]

17 Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools That Will Increase Your Engagement by 154%

Facebook engagement is easier and more valuable than you ever imagined.

I found this out the hard way.

At one point, I was spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a month on Facebook Ads.

Sure, I was getting some huge successes. But I was also wasting a ton of money.

For example, I once spent $400,000 on Facebook fan page likes.

I still feel dumb for that one…

The engagement just wasn’t there. I had a large number of fans but very little actual engagement.

I had no idea that hidden tools within Facebook’s apps, extensions, insights, tactics, and bots that could have made my Facebook ad spend 80 times more effective.

Facebook marketing is like an iceberg. Most people see the top part — Facebook ads. They spend their entire time optimizing that little bit of potential.

The real power is underneath. It’s hidden.

And that’s why I created this list.

I want you to know exactly what those hidden Facebook marketing tools are and how you can increase your engagement by 154% as I did.

Now before we get started, for the first few hidden tools you need Mobile Monkey to utilize all of the tactics (it’s free). In addition to that, some of the hidden tools that I’ll uncover are within Facebook… you just don’t know about them. 😉

Hidden Tool #1: Facebook Messenger Marketing

Okay, I’m starting out with a big, broad one.

It’s hiding in plain sight: Facebook Messenger marketing.

For some reason, not very many marketers are taking advantage of Messenger marketing, even though it’s the hottest opportunity in digital marketing today.

What does this mean for you? It means that you can gain first mover’s advantage.

Using Facebook Messenger for marketing is as simple as it sounds… you send messages to customers on Facebook Messenger.

What makes this channel different from other marketing methods like email marketing is the results.

Facebook Messenger messages have an open rate of 50-80%.

Facebook Messenger messages have a clickthrough rate of 20%, especially when using chat blasting.

Facebook Messenger messages have a conversion rate of 3-5x higher than Facebook desktop ads.

Facebook Messenger marketing costs 30-50x less than Facebook ad campaigns (when using Facebook Send To Messenger Ads)

Where else can you get engagement results like that?

I don’t know of any, and I’ve done quite a bit of online marketing.

The best way to get started with Facebook Messenger marketing is with MobileMonkey.

MobileMonkey is a powerful chatbot builder that I use personally. Chatbots are essential for scoring sky-high open rates, CTRs, and conversion rates.

And best of all, it’s free.

Hidden Tool #2: Comment Guard (Private Reply via Messenger)

A comment guard is a Facebook Messenger marketing feature that allows you to add new contacts to your contact list when they comment on your Facebook post.

It’s like a magic elixir for engagement.

It works like this.

You post something on Facebook as usual.

People comment on your post.

Anyone who comments on the post gets your automatic private reply in Messenger.

When they engage with this reply, they are added to your Facebook Messenger contact list.

The mobile screenshot below displays exactly what happens.

Someone comments on the post, and they immediately receive a Messenger message.

Imagine this. You post something on your Facebook page that has high engagement potential… a meme, a quiz, a contest, a question, whatever. All the comments that you rack up aren’t just comments anymore, they’re warm leads.

You’ll need to use MobileMonkey in order to pull this off, but it’s really easy.

Just click the “FB comment guard” button using the MobileMonkey app.

Create an autoresponder message.

Point them to your Messenger chat landing page.

Add the comment guard to your selected Facebook post.

Hidden Tool #3: Click to Messenger Ads

A Click-to-Messenger Ad is a normal Facebook ad with a twist. Instead of sending people to a landing page, you send them to a Facebook Messenger bot sequence.

It looks like this:

Once the person starts that Facebook Messenger sequence, they are a lead. And that’s when a chatbot takes over to bring them down the conversion funnel.

For example, you could have your chatbot ask users questions, and send them offers that they’re interested in.

It can be hard to manually respond to thousands of message inquiries. Instead, you can direct those chat sessions derived from your Messenger Ads directly to a MobileMonkey chatbot, which can ask qualifying questions and engage users at scale.

Check out this article, for step by step instructions on leveraging this ad unit

Hidden Tool #4: Chat Blaster

Chat blasting is a powerful method for getting your message in front of your entire Facebook Messenger list in minutes.

I’ve managed chat blasting campaigns that scored a 96.9% open rates in just sixty minutes.

With MobileMonkey you can schedule chat blasts, bulk send, develop interactive Messenger sequences, create special offers, and anything else that helps your marketing.

To start, just click “Chat Blaster” in the app.

One of the things that I like about the Chat Blaster is the ability to segment audiences. Many of the campaigns that I manage involve thousands of contacts, so I want to narrow down my contacts to just the right targets.

Creating segments is simple using MobileMonkey, which allows you to “Create Audience” with a click.

Your audience can perform self-segmentation when the chat blast sends.

Hidden Tool #5: Messenger Scan Codes

Remember QR codes? They didn’t really catch on that big, but the idea is gaining new ground with Facebook Messenger codes.

Anyone who’s on Facebook Messenger has a unique code.

In Messenger, tap on your profile picture in the upper right.

Then tap your profile picture again

The image that appears is your Messenger code.

From this screen, you can also scan a code.

Your Facebook page’s unique scan code is an excellent way to add people to your Messenger contact list. A person simply scans your code and they’re part of your list.

I can see applications for this at conferences, on bulletin board ads, merchandise, or even business cards.

Hidden Tool #6.  Warm Engaged Invites

One tactic that I’ve used to build my Facebook audience is by personally inviting people who have engaged with my facebook page, to become a page fan.

From your business Facebook page (desktop), find a post that has engagement.

Using this tool, you view the people who engaged with your post and can invite people to like the page.

The reason why this is valuable is that you’re able to target engaged fans. If you have a lot of Facebook fans, but not a lot of engagement, Facebook’s algorithm will punish you.

Instead, identify those people who will be engaged and manually invite them.

Hidden Tool #7: Send Personal Invites in Messenger

A similar hack is inviting your friends to like your business page, and also sending the invite in Messenger.

This is the method that I recommend since you can also personalize the message and give them two touches instead of just one.

Click on the … button on your Facebook page, then click “Invite Friends.”

Here, you can invite friends and create a personalized message. Be sure to check the box at the bottom to send the invite using Messenger.

Hidden Tool #8: Invite People to Your Facebook Group by Email

I love hacks that combine two platforms. I can leverage one of my marketing channels by combining it with another.

You can invite people to join your Facebook group by sending them an email. Obviously, you’ll need an email list to do this.

Here’s how.

From your Facebook Group page, click “members” on the left side.

From the next page, you can add email addresses and personal notes to invitees.

Currently, the only way I know how to do this is manually. If you have a large email list, it could take some time. :/

Hidden Tool #9: Competitor Ad Espionage

I’m a huge fan of ethical espionage.

In the world of SEO, it’s not that hard.

Just plug in a URL to something like RankSignals.

Boom, instantly you have intel.

And some of it is really helpful.

But with so many brands now spending millions on Facebook ads, how do you get a handle on that kind of information?

You will not be able to get your competitor’s targeting info and ad spend but you can find out where, how often, and what the competition is advertising.

Let’s say I’m the competition and you want to spy on me. First, find my Facebook page and tap the “i” button on the right side.

On this page, you can find out if the page has ever changed names, when it was created, and where the page managers are located. This can be handy intel.

Tap on “Active Ads.”

If the page is running ads, you’ll be able to see them here.

Hidden Tool #10:  Page Competition Gauge

I like to have a solid understanding of who my competition is and what they’re up to.

But how do I know who my competition is? Thankfully, Facebook’s algorithm has figured it out for me.

To use this feature, go to your Facebook Page Insights. From Insights, scroll down until you see “Pages to Watch.”

By default, Facebook shows you five potential competitors, but you can view more by clicking “See More Suggested Pages.”

When you add a competitor to your watched pages, you’ll be able to keep up with their activity, growth rates, total likes, and the frequency of their posts.

This information will help you understand how you’re doing and what you might need to change.

Hidden Tool #11: Find Where You’re Gaining Followers

It is important for you to figure out where you’re getting your followers so you can know how to get more.

One helpful way to get this information is again through Page Insights. Tap “Followers” and scroll down until you see “Where Your Page Follows Happened.”

Facebook shows you follow quantities according to five locations:

On Your Page

Search

Uncategorized Desktop

Your Posts

Others

If a particular source shows large follow rates, try to reverse engineer what happened, then do it again.

Hidden Tool #12: Identify Audience Signals on Page Insights

One way that I use metrics to leverage my marketing efforts is to view my Facebook page insights, particularly the demographic information.

When viewing this information, I’m looking for strong positives — indications that my audience favors a particular demographic.

For example, this page demonstrates a strong positive for men and women between the ages of 25-44.

If you’re 21, there’s only a small chance you’re going to be interested in my page. By contrast, if you’re a 30-year old male, there is a far stronger likelihood that you will have an interest in this page.

This information helps me know how, where, and upon whom to focus my marketing and advertising efforts.

Hidden Tool #13: Pull Email Addresses

I love this hack.

You know how hard it is to get people’s email address these days, right? No matter how appealing your content upgrade, asking for someone’s email address is tantamount to asking for their social security number.

With Facebook Messenger marketing, that’s no longer the case.

You can create a Facebook Messenger chatbot that asks for an individual’s email address. Then, all they do is click a button to pre-fill their address.

Facebook does all the work for you.

Here’s what the bot looks like in MobileMonkey.

As long as you set the input type as email, Facebook will know to pull the user’s email address exactly as they’ve entered it when creating a Facebook account. No typos, nothing.

This is another case of using two different channels to get information and engage your users. When you use a chatbot, it makes the process automatic and easy.

Hidden Tool #14: Pull Phone Numbers

If there’s one thing harder to get from a customer than their email address, it’s their phone number.

Again, powered by chatbots, it’s a cinch. Using input type “phone” in MobileMonkey means that you’re guaranteed to get the user’s primary phone number as they provided when and if they stored their phone number in Facebook.

It’s understandable that people are hesitant to enter their phone number on an unfamiliar platform — a contact form on your, for instance.

It’s quite a different level of comfort when they are asked for a phone number in a familiar messaging app, and Facebook automatically adds the number.

Literally, all that your contact has to do is tap their phone number.

Hidden Tool #15: Website Chat Widget

This one seems obvious, but again it’s surprising how few websites are putting the power of a website chat widget to work.

Check this out. If you go to MobileMonkey’s website, there is a chat widget on nearly every page.

If you’ve logged into Facebook Messenger on that browser, all you have to do is click and you’re introduced to a Messenger sequence with MobileMonkey.

This sequence powered by a chatbot brings you further down the funnel.

One of the unique and powerful features of this funnel is that it is self-guided. You feel as if you’re in control — making choices and selecting options.

Regardless of your choices, however, you are making deeper connections with the product and the marketing funnel.

Hidden Tool #16: Track Specific Facebook Conversions

The good thing about Facebook Ads Manager is that you have access to a ton of information.

The bad thing about Facebook Ads Manager is that you also have access to a ton of information.

Take conversions, for example.

If you’re tracking them, good for you. But which conversions are you tracking? Here are the options:

I call this one “hidden” because true conversions are essentially in Ad Manager underneath a lot of other noise.

You have to narrow down your conversion tracking to just the conversions that you need to know about.

For one of my businesses, I only focus on five types of conversions.

Everything else is useless.

I’ve written about this before… when you get clarity on what to track, you’ll do a lot better at making real progress with your Facebook advertising.

Hidden Tool #17: Messenger Drip Campaigns

If you’ve been in Internet marketing for any amount of time, you know how potent a good drip campaign can be.

Imagine increasing this potency by 10x.

That’s exactly what a Facebook Messenger drip campaign can do. Again, the power is in the chatbot builder.

MobileMonkey’s drip campaign feature just takes a click to get started.

Unlike an email drip campaign which can take days or weeks to complete, a Facebook Messenger drip campaign can be completed in a matter of minutes or hours.

Plus, when you use a chatbot, the entire sequence can be interactive. You can create choices and engage the user on a far deeper level.

Conclusion

There’s way more to Facebook than meets the eye.

I have a strong sense that Facebook marketing isn’t going to decline in the next 2-4 years. It’s going to become exponentially more powerful.

There’s a reason why so many of the hidden marketing tools above focus on Facebook Messenger.

Facebook Messenger marketing has fundamentally changed the game, and it’s done so in two  areas where marketing rises or falls:

Interactivity or dialogue — Messenger marketing, even when powered by a bot, has a personal feel. Instead of bullhorn marketing — telling your audience to do, buy, read, visit, watch. You’re asking for their feedback and opening up a conversation.

Speed of engagement — Unlike the glacial speed of email marketing (like drip campaigns), Messenger marketing has a much swifter cadence. Many people have a pavlovian response to the crisp ding of their Messenger notifications. They want to see who’s sending them a personal message. This means your open rates and click through rates are shooting up.

It’s not going to last forever. Like the banner ads of decades past, Messenger marketing will lose its luster as people become accustomed to it.

By engaging Messenger marketing now, you’ll have a far stronger advantage.

What Messenger marketing tactics does your brand or business currently use?

The post 17 Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools That Will Increase Your Engagement by 154% appeared first on Neil Patel.

[ericsburden-blog]

17 Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools That Will Increase Your Engagement by 154%

Facebook engagement is easier and more valuable than you ever imagined.

I found this out the hard way.

At one point, I was spending hundreds of thousands of dollars a month on Facebook Ads.

Sure, I was getting some huge successes. But I was also wasting a ton of money.

For example, I once spent $400,000 on Facebook fan page likes.

I still feel dumb for that one…

The engagement just wasn’t there. I had a large number of fans but very little actual engagement.

I had no idea that hidden tools within Facebook’s apps, extensions, insights, tactics, and bots that could have made my Facebook ad spend 80 times more effective.

Facebook marketing is like an iceberg. Most people see the top part — Facebook ads. They spend their entire time optimizing that little bit of potential.

The real power is underneath. It’s hidden.

And that’s why I created this list.

I want you to know exactly what those hidden Facebook marketing tools are and how you can increase your engagement by 154% as I did.

Now before we get started, for the first few hidden tools you need Mobile Monkey to utilize all of the tactics (it’s free). In addition to that, some of the hidden tools that I’ll uncover are within Facebook… you just don’t know about them. 😉

Hidden Tool #1: Facebook Messenger Marketing

Okay, I’m starting out with a big, broad one.

It’s hiding in plain sight: Facebook Messenger marketing.

For some reason, not very many marketers are taking advantage of Messenger marketing, even though it’s the hottest opportunity in digital marketing today.

What does this mean for you? It means that you can gain first mover’s advantage.

Using Facebook Messenger for marketing is as simple as it sounds… you send messages to customers on Facebook Messenger.

What makes this channel different from other marketing methods like email marketing is the results.

Facebook Messenger messages have an open rate of 50-80%.

Facebook Messenger messages have a clickthrough rate of 20%, especially when using chat blasting.

Facebook Messenger messages have a conversion rate of 3-5x higher than Facebook desktop ads.

Facebook Messenger marketing costs 30-50x less than Facebook ad campaigns (when using Facebook Send To Messenger Ads)

Where else can you get engagement results like that?

I don’t know of any, and I’ve done quite a bit of online marketing.

The best way to get started with Facebook Messenger marketing is with MobileMonkey.

MobileMonkey is a powerful chatbot builder that I use personally. Chatbots are essential for scoring sky-high open rates, CTRs, and conversion rates.

And best of all, it’s free.

Hidden Tool #2: Comment Guard (Private Reply via Messenger)

A comment guard is a Facebook Messenger marketing feature that allows you to add new contacts to your contact list when they comment on your Facebook post.

It’s like a magic elixir for engagement.

It works like this.

You post something on Facebook as usual.

People comment on your post.

Anyone who comments on the post gets your automatic private reply in Messenger.

When they engage with this reply, they are added to your Facebook Messenger contact list.

The mobile screenshot below displays exactly what happens.

Someone comments on the post, and they immediately receive a Messenger message.

Imagine this. You post something on your Facebook page that has high engagement potential… a meme, a quiz, a contest, a question, whatever. All the comments that you rack up aren’t just comments anymore, they’re warm leads.

You’ll need to use MobileMonkey in order to pull this off, but it’s really easy.

Just click the “FB comment guard” button using the MobileMonkey app.

Create an autoresponder message.

Point them to your Messenger chat landing page.

Add the comment guard to your selected Facebook post.

Hidden Tool #3: Click to Messenger Ads

A Click-to-Messenger Ad is a normal Facebook ad with a twist. Instead of sending people to a landing page, you send them to a Facebook Messenger bot sequence.

It looks like this:

Once the person starts that Facebook Messenger sequence, they are a lead. And that’s when a chatbot takes over to bring them down the conversion funnel.

For example, you could have your chatbot ask users questions, and send them offers that they’re interested in.

It can be hard to manually respond to thousands of message inquiries. Instead, you can direct those chat sessions derived from your Messenger Ads directly to a MobileMonkey chatbot, which can ask qualifying questions and engage users at scale.

Check out this article, for step by step instructions on leveraging this ad unit

Hidden Tool #4: Chat Blaster

Chat blasting is a powerful method for getting your message in front of your entire Facebook Messenger list in minutes.

I’ve managed chat blasting campaigns that scored a 96.9% open rates in just sixty minutes.

With MobileMonkey you can schedule chat blasts, bulk send, develop interactive Messenger sequences, create special offers, and anything else that helps your marketing.

To start, just click “Chat Blaster” in the app.

One of the things that I like about the Chat Blaster is the ability to segment audiences. Many of the campaigns that I manage involve thousands of contacts, so I want to narrow down my contacts to just the right targets.

Creating segments is simple using MobileMonkey, which allows you to “Create Audience” with a click.

Your audience can perform self-segmentation when the chat blast sends.

Hidden Tool #5: Messenger Scan Codes

Remember QR codes? They didn’t really catch on that big, but the idea is gaining new ground with Facebook Messenger codes.

Anyone who’s on Facebook Messenger has a unique code.

In Messenger, tap on your profile picture in the upper right.

Then tap your profile picture again

The image that appears is your Messenger code.

From this screen, you can also scan a code.

Your Facebook page’s unique scan code is an excellent way to add people to your Messenger contact list. A person simply scans your code and they’re part of your list.

I can see applications for this at conferences, on bulletin board ads, merchandise, or even business cards.

Hidden Tool #6.  Warm Engaged Invites

One tactic that I’ve used to build my Facebook audience is by personally inviting people who have engaged with my facebook page, to become a page fan.

From your business Facebook page (desktop), find a post that has engagement.

Using this tool, you view the people who engaged with your post and can invite people to like the page.

The reason why this is valuable is that you’re able to target engaged fans. If you have a lot of Facebook fans, but not a lot of engagement, Facebook’s algorithm will punish you.

Instead, identify those people who will be engaged and manually invite them.

Hidden Tool #7: Send Personal Invites in Messenger

A similar hack is inviting your friends to like your business page, and also sending the invite in Messenger.

This is the method that I recommend since you can also personalize the message and give them two touches instead of just one.

Click on the … button on your Facebook page, then click “Invite Friends.”

Here, you can invite friends and create a personalized message. Be sure to check the box at the bottom to send the invite using Messenger.

Hidden Tool #8: Invite People to Your Facebook Group by Email

I love hacks that combine two platforms. I can leverage one of my marketing channels by combining it with another.

You can invite people to join your Facebook group by sending them an email. Obviously, you’ll need an email list to do this.

Here’s how.

From your Facebook Group page, click “members” on the left side.

From the next page, you can add email addresses and personal notes to invitees.

Currently, the only way I know how to do this is manually. If you have a large email list, it could take some time. :/

Hidden Tool #9: Competitor Ad Espionage

I’m a huge fan of ethical espionage.

In the world of SEO, it’s not that hard.

Just plug in a URL to something like RankSignals.

Boom, instantly you have intel.

And some of it is really helpful.

But with so many brands now spending millions on Facebook ads, how do you get a handle on that kind of information?

You will not be able to get your competitor’s targeting info and ad spend but you can find out where, how often, and what the competition is advertising.

Let’s say I’m the competition and you want to spy on me. First, find my Facebook page and tap the “i” button on the right side.

On this page, you can find out if the page has ever changed names, when it was created, and where the page managers are located. This can be handy intel.

Tap on “Active Ads.”

If the page is running ads, you’ll be able to see them here.

Hidden Tool #10:  Page Competition Gauge

I like to have a solid understanding of who my competition is and what they’re up to.

But how do I know who my competition is? Thankfully, Facebook’s algorithm has figured it out for me.

To use this feature, go to your Facebook Page Insights. From Insights, scroll down until you see “Pages to Watch.”

By default, Facebook shows you five potential competitors, but you can view more by clicking “See More Suggested Pages.”

When you add a competitor to your watched pages, you’ll be able to keep up with their activity, growth rates, total likes, and the frequency of their posts.

This information will help you understand how you’re doing and what you might need to change.

Hidden Tool #11: Find Where You’re Gaining Followers

It is important for you to figure out where you’re getting your followers so you can know how to get more.

One helpful way to get this information is again through Page Insights. Tap “Followers” and scroll down until you see “Where Your Page Follows Happened.”

Facebook shows you follow quantities according to five locations:

On Your Page

Search

Uncategorized Desktop

Your Posts

Others

If a particular source shows large follow rates, try to reverse engineer what happened, then do it again.

Hidden Tool #12: Identify Audience Signals on Page Insights

One way that I use metrics to leverage my marketing efforts is to view my Facebook page insights, particularly the demographic information.

When viewing this information, I’m looking for strong positives — indications that my audience favors a particular demographic.

For example, this page demonstrates a strong positive for men and women between the ages of 25-44.

If you’re 21, there’s only a small chance you’re going to be interested in my page. By contrast, if you’re a 30-year old male, there is a far stronger likelihood that you will have an interest in this page.

This information helps me know how, where, and upon whom to focus my marketing and advertising efforts.

Hidden Tool #13: Pull Email Addresses

I love this hack.

You know how hard it is to get people’s email address these days, right? No matter how appealing your content upgrade, asking for someone’s email address is tantamount to asking for their social security number.

With Facebook Messenger marketing, that’s no longer the case.

You can create a Facebook Messenger chatbot that asks for an individual’s email address. Then, all they do is click a button to pre-fill their address.

Facebook does all the work for you.

Here’s what the bot looks like in MobileMonkey.

As long as you set the input type as email, Facebook will know to pull the user’s email address exactly as they’ve entered it when creating a Facebook account. No typos, nothing.

This is another case of using two different channels to get information and engage your users. When you use a chatbot, it makes the process automatic and easy.

Hidden Tool #14: Pull Phone Numbers

If there’s one thing harder to get from a customer than their email address, it’s their phone number.

Again, powered by chatbots, it’s a cinch. Using input type “phone” in MobileMonkey means that you’re guaranteed to get the user’s primary phone number as they provided when and if they stored their phone number in Facebook.

It’s understandable that people are hesitant to enter their phone number on an unfamiliar platform — a contact form on your, for instance.

It’s quite a different level of comfort when they are asked for a phone number in a familiar messaging app, and Facebook automatically adds the number.

Literally, all that your contact has to do is tap their phone number.

Hidden Tool #15: Website Chat Widget

This one seems obvious, but again it’s surprising how few websites are putting the power of a website chat widget to work.

Check this out. If you go to MobileMonkey’s website, there is a chat widget on nearly every page.

If you’ve logged into Facebook Messenger on that browser, all you have to do is click and you’re introduced to a Messenger sequence with MobileMonkey.

This sequence powered by a chatbot brings you further down the funnel.

One of the unique and powerful features of this funnel is that it is self-guided. You feel as if you’re in control — making choices and selecting options.

Regardless of your choices, however, you are making deeper connections with the product and the marketing funnel.

Hidden Tool #16: Track Specific Facebook Conversions

The good thing about Facebook Ads Manager is that you have access to a ton of information.

The bad thing about Facebook Ads Manager is that you also have access to a ton of information.

Take conversions, for example.

If you’re tracking them, good for you. But which conversions are you tracking? Here are the options:

I call this one “hidden” because true conversions are essentially in Ad Manager underneath a lot of other noise.

You have to narrow down your conversion tracking to just the conversions that you need to know about.

For one of my businesses, I only focus on five types of conversions.

Everything else is useless.

I’ve written about this before… when you get clarity on what to track, you’ll do a lot better at making real progress with your Facebook advertising.

Hidden Tool #17: Messenger Drip Campaigns

If you’ve been in Internet marketing for any amount of time, you know how potent a good drip campaign can be.

Imagine increasing this potency by 10x.

That’s exactly what a Facebook Messenger drip campaign can do. Again, the power is in the chatbot builder.

MobileMonkey’s drip campaign feature just takes a click to get started.

Unlike an email drip campaign which can take days or weeks to complete, a Facebook Messenger drip campaign can be completed in a matter of minutes or hours.

Plus, when you use a chatbot, the entire sequence can be interactive. You can create choices and engage the user on a far deeper level.

Conclusion

There’s way more to Facebook than meets the eye.

I have a strong sense that Facebook marketing isn’t going to decline in the next 2-4 years. It’s going to become exponentially more powerful.

There’s a reason why so many of the hidden marketing tools above focus on Facebook Messenger.

Facebook Messenger marketing has fundamentally changed the game, and it’s done so in two  areas where marketing rises or falls:

Interactivity or dialogue — Messenger marketing, even when powered by a bot, has a personal feel. Instead of bullhorn marketing — telling your audience to do, buy, read, visit, watch. You’re asking for their feedback and opening up a conversation.

Speed of engagement — Unlike the glacial speed of email marketing (like drip campaigns), Messenger marketing has a much swifter cadence. Many people have a pavlovian response to the crisp ding of their Messenger notifications. They want to see who’s sending them a personal message. This means your open rates and click through rates are shooting up.

It’s not going to last forever. Like the banner ads of decades past, Messenger marketing will lose its luster as people become accustomed to it.

By engaging Messenger marketing now, you’ll have a far stronger advantage.

What Messenger marketing tactics does your brand or business currently use?

The post 17 Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools That Will Increase Your Engagement by 154% appeared first on Neil Patel.

17 Hidden Facebook Marketing Tools That Will Increase Your Engagement by 154%

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Click Here to Get Instant Access Secure warrior+plus checkout Dear Fellow Marketer,

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[mylinlondon]

Stonehenge aliens, being a London tourist 101, and the Parents Federinko

I don’t remember my first transatlantic trip - I only have glimpses of what the 4 year old me held precious, like the Cathay Pacific backpack filled with coloring books and a Captain’s pin to ease the 16 hr journey, and vague impressions of my Aunt Lily’s wooded NJ house. I remember reading somewhere that you don’t form permanent memories until after the age of 6, and everything you recall before this is constructed from what other people tell you happened.

Luckily I was spared of any stress trying to get to our destination - Mum and Dad Federinko had no such luck.  The five months of careful planning was unseated right at the start when their flight from Pittsburgh was delayed just enough to miss their layover in NYC, spend the night in JFK’s terminal 3, and miss an entire day’s worth of itinerary.  Alex was devastated, tossing throughout that night right along with them.

It must have filled the quota of inevitable bad luck, because the rest of the trip could not have gone more smoothly.

LONDON

It’s about time I wrote up London, right?

After months of visitors, we’ve got a pretty solid itinerary to hit the essentials in London.  To be honest, we did very little work to hone this trail - most of our guests were much more prepared for what they wanted to see than we were, and none more prepared than Mum and Dad.  Here are some vetted recommendations.

London Tours

They’re tacky, yes, but honestly they’re wonderful ways to get London from another perspective.  It’s a packed city with narrow streets, and there’s nothing better than getting some historical background and actually having the space and time to look around rather than dodging throngs of people. Especially because this city is an actual labyrinth of cobblestone.

There are a slew of big bus tours you can take in and around London - one of the key departure points for all of them is just across the river at the Tower of London - from there, it’s as easy as buying tickets from any of the vendors hawking maps, and getting on the next bus that comes (they’re usually 10-15 mins apart).  You can, of course, pre-book them online. We spotted at least 6 different big bus companies, and the one Mum and Dad picked was the Original Bus Tour, which we highly recommend.  It took approximately 1.5-2 hrs to do a full loop around the heart of London, stopping once at Victoria Station to change drivers. (As usual, with these bus tours, you’re at the mercy of having an enthusiastic and entertaining narrator, neither of which is guaranteed.  One of our emcees were better than the other, but it was a pleasant experience nonetheless, and I definitely learned a few things.)

My sister did a Harry Potter walking tour, which she booked in advance.  We weren’t able to join, but she said it was brilliant - you get to see quite a few scenes from the books and the movies, though the emphasis is more on the movies. You do take the tube in addition to walking, as the sights are all around the city, so you have to come equipped with an Oyster or contactless card.

In front of Buckingham Palace

Our usual walking loop includes

Starting at our flat in Shad Thames, walk on the Queen’s Walk along the south bank of the Thames all the way down to Westminster Bridge. Along here, you’ll see Tower Bridge, City Hall, London Bridge, Borough Market, Shakespeare’s Globe Theater, the Tate, the Millennium Bridge, the National Theater, Waterloo Bridge, and the London Eye.  Definitely grab coffee and a bite to eat before or during, especially if you’re going to swing by Borough Market. That’s a separate post all in itself.

Cross Westminster bridge and pass Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament, then head right to go north on Whitehall Road to pass 10 Downing Street, the Churchill War Rooms and Trafalgar Square

Make a left at Trafalgar Square through the “Mall”, stroll through St James Park to Buckingham Palace. Once you’re done there, head straight north through Green Park, and once you hit the main road (Picadilly) make a right until you hit Piccadilly Circus.

If you do this right, starting with an early breakfast, you’ll be in the perfect location for a long lunch in Covent Garden or Leicester Square after a 6-7ish mile walk. There’s much more to see of London, but if you have a limited time (only 1-2 days) this is a great way to cover a lot of ground.

As with all European cities, be prepared to walk quite a bit, and have thicker-soled sneaks so you don’t beat your feet and ankles up on the cobblestone.

Windsor, Bath, and Stonehenge

We booked the Golden Tours trek for this one - they offer a bunch of itineraries, but we chose the most loaded one to make the most of the day.  The bus departs around 8am, and returns around 8:20pm depending on traffic.  Stonehenge in itself is 3 hrs away, so if you’re going to spend that much time on the road, might as well make a few pit stops, right?

Windsor itself was underwhelming - if you’ve never seen a castle before, this is a cool one to start, as it is one of the oldest seats in the London area to the British Monarchy.  It’s not enormous, but it’s sizable and features a moat, several large gardens and a series of really well preserved Georgian and Baroque sitting rooms.  The best view, from the front gardens, is inaccessible.  It’s not a bad place to stop, and Windsor the town is pretty cute. There’s a huge queue of tourists who are on the exact same itinerary before the castle gates even open, so you get the impression from the get-go this is a well trod stop to Stonehenge.  When the Queen is in for a summer weekend, they close down the castle, naturally.

Bath - as literal a name as you can get.  But it is remarkable when you think about the Roman empire, over 2000 years ago, spread its mark so far that even England carries traces of its influences even to this day.  Pumped from deep hot springs and set in one of the prettiest cities of the UK, this Roman Bath is incredibly well preserved except for the fact that it is missing a ceiling, thus allowing critters and algae to form in the marble pools below.  You can drink the water from one of the direct sources still, and Mum swears it healed her dry skin! Unfortunately I can’t say the same for my eczema. You can also grab a quick bite or gelato here, if the cheese sandwich lunch that comes with the bus tour wasn’t enough. Bath is also one of Jane Austen’s many homes, and she’s written a few novels here. It is one of the UNESCO World Heritage Cities. 

Which leads me to a recurring thought as we galavant through Europe - what will still be standing in 2,000 years that was made today? Certainly not football stadiums, and hopefully not corporate offices.  What will they find, and what will it tell them about us?  Will there even be anything left? Who is the “them”?

Stonehenge carries this thought even further - over 5,500 years ago, and then over the course of the next 3 millennia, some people moved these 30 ton stones HUNDREDS of miles, aligned them perfectly to the sun’s movements, shaped and dug and set them deep into the ground, and we have no idea WHY. The precision, the massive work to move such heavy objects so far, all in the Paleolithic age, before metal tools were around to create straight edges or measure perfect angles.

I can’t say who or why, and I’m not ruling anything out, but I’m not buying the alien theory.

THOUGH

There was a suspicious moment when we were walking around the perimeter (which, to our delight, was trailed with funfetti sheep) where suddenly dad dropped his audio guide - and when he picked it up, the battery was gone.  He and Alex spent a good 15 minutes searching the ground around us, but it was nowhere to be found.  Here they are sharing an audio guide after the alien battery abduction.

Alex is keener on the alien idea than I am.

They say you leave Stonehenge either completely disappointed or completely in awe.  I’m definitely in the latter group.

We returned to work that week, and mum and dad took a quick trip to Edinburgh (see post here for our experience last year!). It’s an easy trip to make for 2-3 days, especially if you don’t want to get through the hassle of an airport.

I’d talk more about our travel around London, visiting the sights and eating great food, but honestly it felt just a relief to have them there. There’s something about being around parents to feel comforted and at ease and at home, no matter where or how old you are. The most memorable moments for me was just hanging out, figuring out how to work AppleTV, ordering food and spending time together. It’s the biggest and most important ingredient missing while living here.

The last few days was spent doing just that- taking in the city, having drinks at pubs (one of which would be made famous a few weeks later during the London Bridge incident as a site of refuge), and trying not to think about them going home. Our last evening we opened a bottle of champagne by Potters Field Park next to the Tower Bridge that Alex and I frequently lay out at - and the one I’m in as we speak, 2 months later, typing up this post.

There are a few places I know will define our experience living here in London - this is one of them. We walk past this little park every day to get to work, to get to the grocery store, and on weekends, it’s our backyard, where we sip watermelon drinks, eat sandwiches from our favorite coffeeshop and read The Economist. All set to the backdrop of the Tower Bridge, which we can see from the street we live on.

With mum and dad there, it felt like our concept of London as home was complete, if only just for a little bit.  

[thewanderingmacy]

Budapest

I’m writing from Vienna now, though I only just arrived a few hours. I was in Budapest from May 4th-9th, but I arrived around 5pm on the 4th so it doesn’t really count. 

My bus from Brno to Budapest was an hour late, but I had loose plans for the day (that I actually was thinking of not going through with since they focused a communist museum and I don’t really care for modern history) so I wasn’t heart broken. When I got on the bus, as I always do, I looked for a seat with the most unobstructed window view. I found one and sat down, only to be disrupted by the guy in front of me dancing, bobbing and aggressively flailing his arms around. At first i thought it wouldn’t last long but it lasted a few minutes so I decided, so as not to become suicidal on the ride, to move. He’d pushed his chair back so far that I had to ask him to adjust it so I could get out. I literally was trapped and he was so into his music, he didn’t hear me so I had to tap him and I hate touching strangers. I moved and was free but he kept walking back and forth on the bus, up and down the stairs. At one point, he moved behind me and stay there for an hour. He was a douche. He’d yell out questions, directed at no one, waiting for an answer. He’d yell out questions to me from 3 rows behind. I answered one but ignored the rest because fuck you. They’d be like “are we in Hungary yet?”. Pay attention. It’s not my job to babysit you. I hate him.

But getting into Budapest, on the 5th, I went to the old side of the city (Buda; Pest is the new side, they were merged not too long ago). I took a bus which conveniently dropped me off at the bottom a hill. The thing with all these Medieval cities is that they were positioned on hilly grounds for defense but now, it’s just annoying. So I hiked my ass up there and saw a stunning church, wandered around the surrounding streets (bought a cute postcard!) and got some decent panoramic views of Pest. My /fake/ student card is serving me well but I’m worried now in Austria, they might be more English-y and be able to tell “youth” from “student”. Fingers crossed. I wandered back down and found a Hungarian restaurant. Actually it was a Hungarian-Korean restaurant, which was weird. I got Chicken paprika as that’s a very traditional Hungarian dish, with some noodle soup, for about $6. The chicken came with, what I later learned was thick, oddly shaped pasta, but I couldn’t tell what grain they were, which made for an interesting meal. It was good but the grains freaked me out a bit. Then I journeyed back up to the castle grounds (I later learned they were all on the same hill, ugh), taking a short cut by essentially walking up at an 80 degree angle until I almost died and went to a Hungarian Museum, focusing on the history of Budapest. It had a strange layout and didn’t feel like a traditional museum at all. The entire building, and the surrounding buildings used to be the Buda Castle but they’re obviously not anymore. They’re all museums/libraries. The history museum I was in kind of just had scattered objects from various periods, sometimes with plaques, and sometimes in chronological order. For whatever reason, I was really tired (all that walking up and down, I bet) and caught myself just skimming the words but not actually reading anything. I was trying really hard because central Europe with Holy Roman Empire confuses me (what the hell is an imperial seat? What is Bohemia doing with an Imperial seat? can someone tell me?) and I find I need to understand things to enjoy them but my eyes and brain were failing me. I’d planned to go on a tour that day, but it was supposed to pour all day so I changed my plans. It ended up raining for maybe 5 minutes. After the museum episode, I wondered into a library as I’d vaguely read about it online. Awkwardly, the receptionist told me it was just a modern library so I called it a day (this happened to me again in Budapest later on). 

The second day, it was supposed to pour again and this time no rain fell whatsoever. I started the day by going to St Stephen’s Basilica, which was another very pretty cathedral. Then I wandered looking for some lunch. I ended up getting some sweet gelato (recommended to me by a work friend!). I went searching for an 12:00pm tour but couldn’t find it (some smaller ones don’t run if they don’t get enough prebookings- I wasn’t lost) so I, knowing there was a different company running a tour at 2:30pm, ventured off for a bit. I wanted to properly find lunch and spent a while hunting down a meal. For whatever reason, I constantly crave Japanese and Thai food, but was also looking for Hungarian food to get the experience. I ended up getting Chinese food because it was $3.50. Then I wandered into a very famous Four Seasons hotel (I think it was a palace?) but I just ended up using their internet. Then, I followed the Danube river, saw a WWII memorial on the way, before checking out the very impressive parliament buildings. I shuffled back to the Basilica for the tour. Just as I’d feared, the tour not only took us though Pest, but they took us to the Buda sights I’d seen before. I went anyway, completed it just to complete it as the fact that I never did one in Prague got to me. The tour guide was nice but she more or less would explain what we are seeing and didn’t really go below the surface. By the end of the tour, I was very, very tired. The guide even made a comment. 

The third day, I had plans to do a bit of shopping, check out a park and then go to the largest synagogue in Europe. I made it through some shopping- went to a mainly produce market before ending up in a mall where I had some lunch. Suddenly, I felt really sick though (it wasn’t the food, I was feeling sick as I started eating) and, slowly but surely, made my way back to the hostel. It took me a while because I felt having to sit down. I actually had to do like breathing exercises and whatnot. I made it back in one piece, popped a few pills and a few hours later, I was better (not perfect but better). The synagogue was open til 7pm so, after dropping off some laundry, I checked it out. Tickets were really expensive but I figured, I gotta get my Jew on when I can. I completely walked by it at first and saw the mass graves, memorials and the square that was part of the Jewish ghetto in WWII. Then I found the synagogue and joined a tour of the grounds. I couldn’t tell if the guide wasn’t Jewish or if he didn’t speak English very well because his explanations were worded very cryptically. I was anxious to get back to my laundry but I’m trying out a new thing where I don’t let strangers control my decisions. I don’t know if it’s just me but I often get the urge to act in out of concern for how others will perceive me, out of not wanting to annoy strangers, that sort of thing. Like I was worried about getting back to my laundry so the employee wouldn’t be mad at me for leaving it but then I thought, I paid for this tour, why should i cut it short so that the employee wouldn’t think I’m annoying? Like I’m actively trying to take strangers’ power away from my decisions.

On the last full day in Budapest, I started by walking 30 minutes to a park where an old palace was (though you could only visit it from the outside which I was A-OK with). I took a lot of photos; it was very nice out, another rain forecast that never came true. Then I walked an hour down to the main tourist shopping street. I bought myself some shoes finally! The ones I was working with had holes and were stretched so whenever I lifted my foot, the back would fall out of place. I’m very pleased to have comfortable feet again. I follow the street down to a market, which was closed, before doing my routine stress-search for a place to eat. It took me a while but I found a place and got some salmon pasta. Then, as I promised myself, I went to see a movie. I’m still keeping up my movie in each country plan. I’d originally planned to see this Hungarian film called 1945, and online it said there was a showing with English subtitles but when I got there, couple hours early because I’m an anxious person, the employee told me the subtitled version was playing at a different, farther location. It was actually close to where I’d walked from, along the route from the palace. For whatever reason, I like things to follow a logical route and plan so I found a theatre close to my planned ending point that was playing Guardians of the Galaxy 2 in English so I saw that. It was enjoyable, not as good as the first I’d say but I had a good time. I got popcorn and candy to treat myself as I hadn’t eaten much that day. It was a pretty sold out show. Turns out, Marvel fanboys are everywhere.

Today, I was in Budapest until 3pm so I figured, I still have things I want to see, I can wake up early and get er done. It was a moral battle, let me tell you, as I wanted to sleep but I also knew future me would be mad if I slept so I awoke at 8am (that’s early for me okay) and ventured out to a thermal spa. Budapest is known for their Turkish baths. The one I chose was from the 16th century and was like a dim, stone, interior bath. I’d arrived for the morning special and got into my bathing suit. I read online they’re mandatory because I ain’t doing a nude thing. I got to the pool and, lo and behold, about 70% of the women were at least topless, with a solid 50% full on naked. There were bodies from all walks of life, let me tell you. But I was so relieved that it was just a female pool. I didn’t even know it but I’m glad. I obviously stayed in my suit, I wasn’t about to experience that, but I sat in basically a giant hot tub for 45 minutes with a ton of old naked women. The acoustics in the room were crazy. I kept trying to locate a voice but you couldn’t. It was like a small, domed room. After that adventure, I went back to the market I’d missed the previous day. It was mostly souvenirs and, since it was my last day, I didn’t have much cash on me so I was quick to leave. I played the stress-find a restaurant game again before, 15 minutes before I had to leave for my bus, settling on some goulash soup, a dish I’d been meaning to try for a while.

And 4 hours later, I was in Vienna.

Macy