Archive for the ‘Facebook “How To’s”’ Category

Set up a Facebook account for your business and then start to look for other pages where you can make your presence known. Join groups and  respond to questions about your skills to establish you as an expert that a business will want to use. Find groups, networks and fan pages where your market is spending time. The way to do this is to search keywords to find those networks that suit your needs.

Keep your Facebook page interactive with videos and images and interactive content like contests and coupons. Check out the Static FBML  (Facebook Markup Language) app. It lets you add HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) to the page. This lets you change your official page beyond the default options by, for instance, adding custom boxes for newsletter sign-up pages. If you’re not into doing this yourself, consider hiring a programmer.

Stay up to date about Facebook by visiting these sites: developers.facebook.com and www.allfacebook.com. And check out  ww.johnjantsch.com, a small business marketing expert who writes about traditional and Web marketing techniques.

Traditional advertising and conferences are still productive when it comes to promoting your business, but online social networking sites like Facebook have the potential to give it a far greater boost. They have many tools that businesses can leverage if they learn how to use them.

Need help navigating this wonderful world of the Web? Give us a call.

Popularity: 6% [?]

Once upon a time people created websites and thought everyone would start on the home page. Not anymore. People want to visit lots of sites and read bits of text and then comment on them. A business needs to give out these text bits and have them circulate freely on the social web. On many sites social media referrals are among the top 3 or 4 referring sources, so you need your business to be on the social media services most people use on a daily basis to receive referrals and feedback. You need a social media strategy.

You only need two or three tools to create your core social media strategy. Facebook now has more than 500 million users so it should be one of the building blocks of this strategy. Set up a Fan page to connect with your customers. This page offers a great range of tools such as polls, event postings and a discussion topics board. And once you reach 100 fans you have an even greater range of tools.

Want to know how you’re doing? Facebook Insights is a useful tool for judging the effectiveness of posts made to your companyFacebook page. Like Google Analytics it gives you a chance to look at statistics, data on age, gender and geographic location of your followers.
Note: pages need at least 30 active followers to be included in Insights.

Don’t forget: Facebook needs to be dynamic. Give your fans a reason to come back. The more you post, the more attention you generate. Give more, receive more.

Don’t have time? Our social media experts and blog writers can help. Give us the information you need your customers to know and we’ll get those tweets and blogs posted as often as you please.

There are dozens of tools used by business to share, manage and evaluate social media. Listed below are eleven:

Facebook, a social networking site

Twitter, a communication form based on 140 character
messages

Flickr, a photo-sharing site

YouTube, a video-hosting site

Vimeo, a video-hosting site

Scribd, a document-sharing site

Slideshare, a Powerpoint-sharing site

Tumbr, a micro-blogging site

Posterous, a micro-blogging site

Hootsuite, a dashboard to use multiple social media
accounts

Tweetdeck, a dashboard to use multiple social media
sites

Popularity: 5% [?]

Fan Pages Are Getting An Upgrade

The official upgrade day is tomorrow, March 10th. But, if you received a notification then you are able to upgrade earlier. Here are the changes:

Now you will be notified when fans interact with your page or posts.

You are also given a place to showcase your photos along the top of the page. This area will not include pictures posted by your fans. If you want to remove a picture, all you have to do is roll over it and click the “X”.

Navigation links are now going to be on the left hand side of the screen. This is like the profiles of people. It will be consistent with what users are looking for.

Now we are able to determine which posts will show at the top. Viewers will be able to choose in chronological order or by those that have recieved the most response. This would list the more interesting posts first.

And we are also given some options on which pages appear in the left column. To make these changes go to Edit Page, then Your Settings or Featured.

Facebook continues to improve! What other changes would you like to see?

Popularity: 5% [?]

“There’s Just Too Much Junk On My Wall!”

This is a common line I get from people who have become frustrated with Facebook after they have acquired a large number of friends. The perfect example was a customer of mine who was overwhelmed by what he considered worthless content. He had several business contacts on Facebook and he was interested in seeing the posts they made and communicating with them. But, he also had a large following of grand kids, nieces and nephews that were kids and posted kids’ stuff. And that “stuff” was worthless to him.

Don’t Filter Your Friends, Filter Your News Feed

Too often, people will turn down a friend request because they don’t want to hear what that person wants to say. If you are using Facebook to stay in contact with customers and to promote your business, then you don’t want to turn away many requests from people who want to be friends. They want to hear what you have to say or they wouldn’t be sending you a friend request. So, accept it. That doesn’t mean you have to read their posts. You can filter out that “kids stuff”.

The way to filter all that “stuff” on you news feed is to create Friends Lists. You can create as many as you want. Once you have created your lists you can view posts on your news feed from people on your lists. I have set up lists for “website customers,” “social media customers,” “dance friends,” and “golf friends.” With these lists created I can filter my news feeds. If I only want to see what my dance friends are talking about then I go to my news feed, click on “Most Recent” (to the right of ‘Top News’). Then select “Dance Friends”. That shows the posts of only my dance friends. No “kids stuff”!

When you exit the News Feed page and then come back your page will go back to the default setting. But, once you get into the habit using your lists you’ll see that it can save you a lot of time.

Setting Up The Friends Lists

Alex Martinez has created a great video that shows you how to set up your friends lists. Take a look at this:

Now, start creating your Friends Lists. This will save you a lot of time and it will make you time spent on Facebook much more valuable. If you need more help then contact me.

What lists are you going to create?

Popularity: 10% [?]

Got My New Facebook Page Today

Facebook is in the middle of switching to a new page layout!

The first thing a visitor to your page sees is info about you. Where you work, where you went to school, who you are in a relationship with, all of these items are on the top of your wall. This is a very appropriate introduction. The next thing your friends see are your tagged photos. If you don’t like one of the photos then you just roll over it and click the “x” in the upper right corner. Keep eliminating the photos from the top line until you get the combination you want.

Navigation has moved to the left column and everything is together. This is a lot more simple than tabs across the top and some links on the side.

You can now add more detail on your education and work.  Add projects, classes and other educational pieces. So if you are one of my Social Media students then my sure you list the classes you have been to!

Facebook also includes more information on your interests.

Do you like the new layout? Why or why not?

Popularity: 6% [?]

Facebook can now be integrated into your web presence with incredible ease. As a result, more businesses are integrating their websites and Facebook with the “Like” button.

The Like Button

With the use of the “Like” button businesses can enable their website visitors to share their findings with their Facebook contacts. The button is very simple to install (click here to learn how). Now websites become a part of Facebook and Facebook becomes a part of websites.

By reducing the cost and time it takes for websites to become a part of the Facebook platform, Facebook has created a win-win proposition for many companies hoping to market on the network. Websites will be able to provide a constant flow of content to the people who “like” what they publish online, while Facebook becomes one of the primary aggregators of social data across the web — not a bad deal.

http://mashable.com/2010/05/05/facebook-open-graph-business/

So more businesses are going to get in.

Facebook Is Reaching For The Top Spot

With 450 million users Facebook dominates social media. And they are not about to rest any time soon. Facebook is significantly impacting search engine rankings, connections between users, and Internet communication in general.

Social optimization is to 2010 as SEO was to 2005. Facebook, along with other important social platforms are now giving you the tools to optimize your social media presence based on the quality of social engagement you create. As Mark Zuckerberg said, the web is defaulting to social. It’s time to act accordingly.

http://mashable.com/2010/05/05/facebook-open-graph-business/

Wow, what a fascinating time we work in!

Popularity: 25% [?]

Huck Huckabee

“Who should be allowed to speak for the company?” That’s a common question that is being asked by thousands of businesses as they are becoming active in social media. Different companies have different missions. But one of the key elements of Facebook is keeping the contact personal. The personal contact comes in the form of postings and replies to postings.

Make Postings Specific

Many businesses post content on their Facebook page that is of use to their broad range of followers. They fail to see the need to be specific. Some postings need to target the general audience. But don’t hesitate to post items focused on small segments of your friends and fans. It adds the personal feel to those you are addressing. And it can educate those you are not so familiar with the subject matter. When I make posts about my Facebook consultations, my blog site customers see it and the post my generate their interest in pursuing Facebook marketing.

General postings can be created by people with knowledge of the content. Some companies have their clerical staff handle this operation. While this is not necessarily bad for general information, it may come with an action generating twist if it came from someone with value added motivations.

Personal postings should be done by the people who will come in contact with the customer. Nothing is wrong with posting personal items on the company Facebook page if you want to develop relationships with the Facebook target audience.

Passionate postings need to come from the upper ranks of the company. The higher up have the most to gain and they need to show it by displaying their belief in what they do.

Replies to Postings

When you reply to postings you are in the personal format. Replies show specific interest in the person you are responding to. And it is an opportunity for you to show your personal side to the readers of the page. Replies should be made by personnel with communication experience. If you are selling goods, then use the sales staff. I may result in a new lead.

Popularity: 9% [?]

Time Is Being Invested

If you know someone who still has doubts about involving business with Facebook, tell them about this: People are now spending 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook.

Huck Huckabee

More and more businesses are creating pages on Facebook. Too often many of those businesses do not know the basic things to put on their pages.

Offer Several Forms Of Content

First, if you have a blog, set it up to automatically post to your Facebook. Different software has different tools. I use TwitterFeed to to have may blog postings automatically posted on Facebook. The initial part of the article is posted and then linked back to the blog. This generates traffic for my blogs.

Second, link to content related to your visitors interests. You’re an expert in your field. You have some information sources available on the web that many of your followers may not know about. Share them by providing links in your posts.

Third, put photos on your Facebook photos page. Photos of you, your staff, and other people related to your business give visitors a feel of comfort. It helps personalize your relationships.

Forth, post videos on your wall. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then what is a video worth? When you find something interesting on YouTube that you think will interest your fans, post it on your wall.

Finally, initiate discussions. Get your followers to respond. That’s where businesses start to learn about what they can do for their customers.

What is your favorite form of content on Facebook?

Popularity: 16% [?]

The Location Factor

Facebook has enabled “Facebook Places” so users can let others know where they are. The service is designed to help you share where you are, see who is near you, and see things that are going on nearby.

Each location has it’s own news feed which lists the recent check-ins and will list comments made by the visitors to the feed area. Facebook will tag friends in your area and notify you who is around.

The Privacy Concern

Have you ever been somewhere and didn’t want anyone to know you were there. If you’re using Facebook Places, this could be a problem. Here we get into the privacy issue. After listening to critics, Facebook has given its users some options on how they reveal where they are. You can go to your privacy settings and control who knows where you are.

Here is a great video on how to edit your privacy settings:

Here is another video on some of the details on Facebook Places:

What Can Businesses Do With This

Facebook has delayed the release of it’s Places application due to concerns over the privacy issue. But I’m willing to bet that most people will be willing to reveal their locations. The question now becomes, how can businesses capitalize on this?

Finding Potential Customers Based On Location

Being able to find potential customers based on where they are can be of incredible value. Let’s look at a simple example. Say you run an ice cream shop and your freezer has broken. You will not be able to get it fixed in time to keep your inventory from melting. What could you do with Facebook Places to ease this problem? Contact everyone in the area and make an offer that they can’t refuse to help you get rid of your ice cream.

How can your businesses use Facebook Places?

Popularity: 9% [?]

Bing now has a search engine that searches social media. You have the option to search Twitter, Facebook or both with other social media. You’re given the option to sort by the “most recent” or “best match” when Bing delivers your results. When you choose “most recent” you are given the option to show real time updates. As items are posted that meet your search criteria they will scroll down the search page.

Businesses Can Use This To Monitor Chat About Them

Go to http://www.bing.com/social and type in the name of a major company. I have copied my search for “Pepsi” below. In posts made in the last hour prior to this search Pepsi can get some valuable information. There is a comment about an advertisement made during a major league baseball game, several comments about the “Pepsi Refresh Project” and several other subjects.

Just go to http://www.bing.com/social and check it out. How can you use this for your business?

Popularity: 7% [?]