About Scott DeToffol

Scott DeToffol is the Director of Product Management at Four51.

FanTools updates with new reporting!

Posted on January 11, 2012 by Scott DeToffol

The Four51 FanTools team is proud to announce new updates to FanTools available today.

New Promotion Reports

We have significantly upgraded our promotion reports, providing businesses with more information on the success of their promotions, and adding social activity metrics for insights into how offers are socialized. Promotion reports are viewed by clicking the Results button on the Promotions list.

Note: our new reports require FanTools administrators to complete a simple one-time re-authentication of Facebook permissions. You’ll notice the dialog the first time you click the Results button from the Promotions list. Existing promotions will have incomplete data. Please contact support if you require specific data for promotions existing prior to January 11, 2012.

More Updates

More Formatting Control. The long description in coupons, flash deals and group buys now allows for bullets and numbering.
Better Image Management. Information posts now include the stand-alone image in the deal view. See the How to Create an Information Post support article for more information.
Easier on the Eyes. The FanTools administration interface has been refined, with more consistency and a dynamic width that works better with wide screens computers.
New User Role. Administration user roles now allow for users that can manage transactions.

As always, if you have any questions or suggestions please visit the FanTools Support Center for more information.

FanTools updates with new Support Center, advanced Info Post editing

Posted on November 21, 2011 by Scott DeToffol

Today’s FanTools update includes the introduction of our new Support Center, advanced editing for Information Posts and more updates and bug fixes.

FanTools help articles and support can now be found at http://support.fantools.net, or by clicking “Get Help” in Admin. FanTools customers can review articles, post questions and email for support.
Information Post now has advanced content editing including the ability to embed media like YouTube videos and Flash files. The same editing tools are also available for the Active Deals welcome message.
Facebook wall posts generated by FanTools now include a Share link in addition to Like and Comment
The editing of promotions now includes a new section called “Scheduling” for setting publish/unpublish and valid/expire dates
When creating a new promotion, the option to publish a Facebook Wall Post message is now selected by default

We’re planning on many more improvements so stay tuned!

Send to Mobile and more FanTools updates

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Scott DeToffol

Today we released a FanTools update with some important improvements. We are continuously working to make FanTools the best way for businesses to power their online promotions. Please let us know if you have ideas or suggestions.

Promotions

The new “Send to Mobile” button on deals allows fans to send themselves a text message with a link to the deal. This will help fans find their deals easily on their mobile phones.
The new “Save to My Deals” button saves the deal to the fan’s My Deals page

FanTools Send-to-Mobile

The count down timer on Flash Deals and Group Buys displays seconds
New Google +1 button in the sharing section, located at the bottom of every deal
Sharing buttons are now on the Active Deals page
Group Buy receipts and vouchers now display the deal image
Group Buys can now have no maximum quantity (unlimited)
Fans can view deal details prior to application authorization. Authorization is required to submit Profile Questions, buy a Group Buy deal, Sign Up for Alerts and Save to My Deals.

Administration

The Promotions list in Admin as been updated to show more information about the deals and allows for sorting by column.

FanTools Promotions List

Group Buy transactions can be settled by selecting more than one at a time
Tiered administration can be navigated with a new tree view
Adding Facebook Pages to FanTools is now much simpler
Added ability to test the configuration of PayPal Payment Gateway
Admins can be selected to receive email notifications of Group Buy activity
Print button on coupon and flash deals can be turned off

Use custom messages to maximize Facebook engagement

Posted on October 14, 2011 by Scott DeToffol

With the release of FanTools 2.0 we introduced the ability to customize the promotion notifications that are sent to Facebook, Twitter, E-mail and SMS. In particular, taking advantage of the Facebook Wall Post message will result in higher impressions and better engagement if the quality of your content is consistently high.

We highly recommend including a custom message for every promotion wall post. Studies demonstrate that asking fans to share or comment on your posts results in — you guessed it — more sharing and comments. Use creative copywriting: ask a question, make a bold statement, encourage suggestions. The more interesting you can make the post, the better engagement and reach you’ll achieve.

We also recommend that you use our scheduling feature to time your posts to appear when the Page’s audience is likely to be on Facebook. Also, try spreading out the posts to appear at different times of the day and days of the week. For example, some studies show that Wednesdays and the weekends are best for engagement, while Friday is the worst.

The following example wall posts demonstrate how to maximize your promotion messaging and encourage engagement. FanTools promotion wall posts are “shared links” and include a link to the promotion (B), a description of the link (C), and a thumbnail image (D) related to the link. Additionally, you have the option to include a comment on the link (A) via the Message Customization.

Example:

A) The link comment text is created with the Message Customization | Facebook Wall Post Message field when you create a FanTools promotion. This is optional, but we highly recommend that you write a custom message for every promotion. Consider that posting the promotion link without the custom message is analogous to tweeting a URL with no explanation.

B) The promotion Headline is automatically used for the link title.

C) The promotion Short Description is automatically used for the link description.

D) The promotion Image is automatically used for the link thumbnail and can be an effective tool to reinforce your message.

Another example:

FanTools 2.0 is live!

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Scott DeToffol

We are very happy and proud to announce the release of FanTools 2.0, available now to all of our customers. This major release is the work of many people including the suggestions and advice from our customers and partners. We’re committed to making FanTools the best solution available to give businesses control over powering their promotions.

The significant new features (among many smaller updates) include:

Promotions

New deal types:
- Group Buys allow you to create “daily deal” type offers (similar to Groupon). With FanTools, you control the discounts, timing and terms and keep all the money.
- Flash Deals are perfect for short-lived coupon promotions with an added countdown timer to entice fans into immediate action.

Coupons are business-defined promotions that can be redeemed by fans with a printout or via their smart phone with our mobile view.
Information Post allows the business to publish promotional content that doesn’t have coupon or discount features.

Google Maps on each deal show the locations where deal is valid.
My Deals lists the fan’s reserved and purchased Group Buys.

Publication

Publish to Web allows a merchant to present deals on their own website.
Custom Messages give merchants control over the Facebook, Twitter, email and text messages that notify fans about new offers.
Publish Expiration is a new setting that allows promotions to be valid after their publication date.

Administration

Tiered Administration provides deep and scalable permissions for organizations, users and roles. FanTools is the ideal online promotions tool for any business, small or large, simple or complex.
White Label allows partners to brand the FanTools Administration interface with their own logo.

More detailed information on the new features can be found in the FanTools Help articles. You can also watch a thirty minute web conference showcasing the new features.

Stay tuned; we’re just getting started.

FanTools 1.5 Released!

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Scott DeToffol

We’ve been working hard on continuously improving FanTools and this new release includes updates big and small.

The most significant update is a redesign of the deal detail on Facebook. We’ve changed the layout of the deal including a more prominent deal image (520 pixels wide x 266 pixels tall), and a revised redemption section. We’ve also added more deal sharing options including ‘tweet the deal’ and Facebook Share.

When creating a deal in FanTools Admin, we’ve reorganized the deal creation form and added the ability to save the deal as draft before publishing it. And we added automated password recovery for administrators.

We think you’ll appreciate the changes. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to comment here on our blog or drop us a note on our Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/Four51FanTools

Stay tuned, more updates to come later this summer!

Social SEO for Facebook Pages

Posted on June 26, 2011 by Scott DeToffol

Many marketers mistakenly assume that because Facebook is a walled garden, that search engine optimization (SEO) doesn’t apply to Facebook content. Unlike Facebook’s personal profiles, Facebook Pages are open to Google and other search bots and the content listed on the Wall and certain tabs are indexed and do show up in SERPs (search engine results pages). And don’t forget that Facebook’s internal search is heavily used by Facebook users. Here are some tips to make the most of your Facebook Page so that your Page will rank well in the search engines.

I suggest naming your Facebook Page after your company name or brand. Trying to stuff keywords into your Page name probably won’t help and it will turn off users. You want to make sure that your customers that search for your brand will find your Page.

Assuming you’ve conducted keyword discovery and analysis, and know which competitive keywords you want to rank for, you should plan on liberally using keywords in strategic places. First, fill out the Facebook Page Info tab and About box with a keyword-rich description of your company, products and services, clients and industry. Include the addresses of your locations in the info tab.

Create Wall posts that include keyword rich topics and questions. Turn on comments and ask questions of your fans. Both Facebook and Google are giving more and more weight to social interactions and conversations. The more your fans post on your wall the better. And don’t be afraid of a few negative comments. Use those instances to provide excellent customer service and follow-up. Everyone has cranky customers. It is the quality of your reaction that can impress fans and potentially turn a grouch into a loyal advocate. Honestly, if you don’t want to have comments active on your Wall posts, you probably shouldn’t bother to have have a Facebook Page.

Lastly, make sure you are linking to your Facebook Page from your website and elsewhere. When linking, use the vanity URL that includes your Page name, and use your company or brand name in the anchor text of the links. Use Facebook social plugins and Facebook Connect on your website. Consider using Facebook’s commenting system on your site, most likely on your blog.

The ultimate key to getting your Facebook Page to rank well in Facebook, Google and other search engines is to get a steady stream of Page Likes, post Likes, shares and comments. The more the merrier.

Power Your Social Promotions with FanTools

Author Archives: Scott DeToffol