Forget the fan page (in a sense). It’s all about getting into the Facebook news feed with a compelling update that causes users to take action. Facebook’s super-secret algorithm filters content for the news feed based on a number of factors. We know engagement is part of that formula. The reach of company news or an exclusive offer can be greatly improved with a well-written update that gains many “likes” and shares from fans. How to accomplish this? A few don’ts: Don’t use automated updates from a blog—Facebook sees this as un-customized and will hide auto updates from the coveted real estate of the news feed. When writing an update, don’t use the link box (no kidding), rather include the link manually in the text of the update itself. A few dos: Do keep it short. Do tell users what action you want them to take, such as “like this if you agree” or “tell us your answer: Yes, No, Maybe.” Make it easy for people to absorb the info and answer your question in 10 seconds or less.

-From Faceless to Fantastic, @ekaterinawalter of Intel and @JeffWidman of BrandGlue

When launching something new, an online service, content, social network or otherwise, it’s much easier to succeed with a subset of your target audience, then scale up to a larger market. For example, Facebook started by saturating its target audience at Harvard. Likewise, Twitter launched in the fishbowl of SXSW. Both scaled up from there based on the success with the in-crowds who represented the larger user base they were ultimately seeking.

-From Zero to a Million Users, @drewhouston of DropBox and @asmith of Xobni

Web analytics is not about quantity of visits, it’s about the quality of the interaction. We should be getting the most out of everyone who visits, and to do so, we need to understand their behavior beyond simply looking up the initial referring site. Three fundamental metrics that you need to be tracking on your website:

1.       Where people first came from to your site

2.       What they did before they converted into a paid customer (or took the desired action)

3.       How long before they started paying you

-From Tracking People, Not Just Numbers, Neil Patel of KISSmetrics