DIY Facebook Workshop

part 3

=

Use a unique image that represents your Page. This might be a photo of a popular menu item, album artwork or a picture of people using your product. Be creative and experiment with images your audience responds well to.

Cover images must be at least 399 pixels wide and may not contain: Price or purchase information, such as "40% off" or "Download it at our website" Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page's About section.

References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features Calls to action, such as "Get it now" or "Tell your friends”.

To get the best quality image and fastest load times for your Page, upload an sRGB JPG file that's 851 pixels wide, 315 pixels tall and less than 100 kilobytes.

All cover images are public, which means anyone visiting your Page will be able to see the image you choose. Covers must not be false, deceptive or misleading, and must not infringe on third parties' intellectual property. You may not encourage or incentivize people to upload your cover image to their personal timelines.

Did you know that you need 30 fans to view Page insights?

Hootsuite – a social media control centre

Hootsuite: a social media dashboard

How to use social media efficiently – Hootsuite

•  set up a social media dashboard (such as Hootsuite, or Tweetdeck) so you can control many social media channels from one place

•  Facebook Fan page •  your personal Facebook profile •  LinkedIn •  Twitter •  YouTube

•  pre-schedule some posts to go out every day

•  monitor mentions of your brand, or direct messages, and reply

•  create lists to eliminate “noise” and work according to a plan

Where do you find content worth talking about???

Where to Find Content Worth Sharing

Online •  blogs •  podcasts •  webinars •  other Facebook Pages (competitors, related

industries) •  online versions of newspapers, magazines •  curated sources:

•  www.Alltop.com •  http://paper.li/newsstand •  http://www.scoop.it/ •  http://www.stumbleupon.com/ •  http://digg.com/

Where to Find Content Worth Sharing

Offline (Traditional) •  newspapers •  magazines •  radio •  word of mouth/gossip •  TV •  trends – window shopping •  interviews •  trade shows/conferences/workshops

How to use social media well – good practices

•  Engage! Share, “like”, comment, “retweet” – it’s good for the other person’s ranking (called Edgerank in Facebook) – similar to SEO {Besides, it’s just a nice thing to do }

•  give credit when sharing photos or content with their name AND a link

•  compliment people and businesses whenever possible – give “shoutouts”

•  use consistent branding across all your marketing – website, blog, newsletter, social networking sites

•  make it easy for customers to find you – think of what they would be looking for on your website or social page

•  make your content easy to share – add a “retweet” or “share” button

Develop a Social Media Strategy (or Mixed-media Strategy)

•  Hollywood squares (who do you most want to meet?) – now there is less than 6 degrees of separation

•  Think of making connections wherever you are – on vacation, eating out, at a networking event/trade show/seminar

•  How can you help another business? Give a referral/recommendation, or a shoutout (in your newsletter, on Twitter #FF, on Facebook)

Local business – create backlinks that help both of you

On Vacation – who can you give shoutouts to?

Facebook Fan Pages – Merging Duplicate Pages

•  Pages must have identical names

•  The Fan Page with the most fans keeps it’s photos, posts, and fans – be sure to back up the other one first!

•  https://www.facebook.com/help/location/claim •  Go to the Page you want to keep – click the ‘Admin Panel’ •  Select ‘Edit Page’ •  Select ‘Resources’ from the left sidebar menu •  Click ‘Merge Duplicate Pages’

Facebook Fan Pages – Claiming your Place page

Why do you need to claim your Facebook Place Page?

•  save your identity! •  add a map •  fans can check-in with their mobile phone •  searchable by search engines – better for SEO

How? •  https://www.facebook.com/help/location/claim

•  Go to the Place Page •  Click on the ‘Is this your business’ link •  Follow verification instructions (scan a utility bill, or

verify email address)

Creating an EASY Social Media Schedule

Every day (use a social media dashboard like Hootsuite): •  Check LinkedIn, Facebook Fan Page & Twitter – reply to

messages, questions & comments •  scan Twitter & Facebook for relevant conversations to join •  scan Google Alerts & Twitter – monitor for brand & keyword

mentions. Respond as appropriate.

Weekly/Weekends: •  LinkedIn: catch up on discussions/groups; send connection

invitations; ask for recommendations after successfully completing project

•  add new content to blog •  identify new social networking influencers and build

relationships where appropriate •  schedule tweets (via Hootsuite) to go out every day at regular

intervals, for the following week

Creating a Social Media Schedule (con’d)

Throughout the Week:

•  Mondays & Wednesdays: join one hot trend conversation on Twitter and Facebook

•  Tuesdays & Thursdays: respond to blog comments

•  Thursday: Research/collect/curate content from this week’s hot trends & circulated links on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter – flag or save to add to Hootsuite for scheduling

•  Fridays: check Facebook insights and blog/website traffic stats

modified from original article at http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/printthis/220678.html

•  Connect with 3 new people to add to your network

•  Comment on 3 of their posts/updates •  create a relationship - do not sell to them!

•  Like or share 3 of their posts

Good practices – The Rule of 3

Every day:

2 things businesses miss that leads them to fail at social media

Remember I mentioned this in my emails? (Actually, companies often miss this in traditional marketing too.)

1.   Always have a call-to-action. Tell your potential customers what you want them to do – “like” your page; sign-up for your newsletter; watch your video; etc

2.   Build your e-mail list. To do that, you need to give them a call-to-action, have a “compelling offer”, and of course, have an opt-in form on your website, blog or Fan page.

Create lists NOW

Make a Twitter list and a Facebook Interest List of:

•  people in this class – they are your “accountability allies” – they are also more likely to commit to using social media more effectively for business

•  friends’ businesses – to support them, enlighten them, and presumably they will engage more because they are your friends

•  industry experts – people you want to get to know, to learn from, and to start engaging with, and influencers who have lots of followers/fans

•  local businesses – so you know what’s going on in your community, and who has “social Klout” in town

Why?

•  Trust me…it’s easier and less time consuming to create lists right from the beginning then to go back and add them later when you have hundreds of followers!

•  Lists help you to stay focused and eliminate the “noise” of your main Twitter stream or Facebook wall

•  You can set up your editorial calendar and focus on a different list to connect with every day

•  You can concentrate your social media interactions on building relationships that will help your business to reach its goals

Resources

3rd Party Apps: •  Lujure – http://Lujure.com •  Wildfire – http://Wildfireapp.com •  Involver – http://Involver.com/products

Free Photo Editing software •  http://Gimp.com •  http://Fotoflexer.com

Tutorials •  http://YouTube.com/SmartSocialMedia4Biz

Resources

Recommended Reading - Marketing & Business: •  Influence, by Robert Cialdini •  Unmarketing, by Scott Stratten •  The 4-hour Workweek, by Tim Ferris •  Tribes; All Marketers are Liars; Purple Cow – by Seth Godin

Recommended Reading - Social Media: •  The New Relationship Marketing, by Mari Smith

www.BrightSparkMedia.ca