Social Media Smarts:

A Guide to Using the New

Timeline for Business Pages

www.wesst.org | 1.800.Go.WESST

>

Why Use

?

It’s the social platform of choice

Facebook was the #1 Search Term in the U.S. in

2010 + 2011

Your Potential Customers Use Facebook

How a Fanbase Can Grow Your Brand

Facebook Encourages Brand

Loyalty

Study: Facebook Engages Followers More

Than Twitter

Facebook is the Most Widely Used Social Marketing Platform

Create a Business Page

(You need a Personal Profile first )

https://www.facebook.com/FacebookPageshttps://www.facebook.com/pages/

create

Choose the Right Category

Create Your Cover

The new cover displays a dramatic 851 x 315 pixel banner photo to visually convey your brand’s image.

Choose one image, combine several into a collage or Photoshop an image with Text to visually convey your “story.”

Cover Specs

Cover IdeasSingle dramatic photo of an image

representative of your art, jewelry, photography

Photos of your retail store, business office or staff members, customers

Historical photos Before and after photos (for contractors,

interior designers, salonsA collage of many images

The New York Times

Brian Solis

Fashion Photographer

Sephora

Peri Pakroo

WESST

Cover No-Nos

Other Key Elements

1. Upload Your Profile Pic

180 x 180 pixels. Should be your logo.This is the visual representation that will be

displayed in a 32 x 32 pixel thumbnail across Facebook in your followers’ feeds.

Keep this image consistent to reinforce your brand’s recognition

2. Optimize Your ‘About’ Page

150 character description that quickly conveys what your business is about.

Keep it concise and optimize it with relevant keywords and your website URL.

Users can click through for a map to your business if you have a physical location and other basic info such as hours.

3. Display Key Apps

You can have a max of 12, but only 4 are always on display. The first one is always Photos and cannot be moved.

‘Views’ are Facebook’s default apps such as Photos, Events, Likes, Map. ‘Apps’ are all third party apps.

Arrange/Change Apps

• Click on the dropdown arrow menu; hover over the place you’d like to move the app. Click the pencil icon popup, then choose the app you want to swap into that space

4. Likes and Interest Lists

Once a user “likes” your page they can hover over the like icon and add you to a list they created to organize their interests easily in their News Feed. (e.g. Artists + Art, Small Business Resources, etc)

Creating Interest Lists* can increase exposure of your content and expand your reach beyond your fan base as users subscribe.

(* For Interest List How-to visit, Sprout Social’s Tutorial)

5. Monitor Your Messages

Users now have the ability to send you direct messages, creating another customer service channel

You can’t message your followers. You can only reply to users who have already messaged you.

You’ll need to monitor your messages regularly.

Study: Facebook and Twitter to Become

Dominant Customer Service Channels

for Majority of US Consumers

Share Your Milestones

Tell your company’s story by sharing milestones

Date founded, date of your first sale, date of a grand opening, launch of a new product

Share photos with your posts

Draw Attention to Key Posts

Star or Highlight Posts – this expands the post across the entire width of your timeline. (This is a good way to highlight key milestones, for example.)

Pin Posts – Emphasize an update by pinning it to the top of your page (It stay there for 7 days until your remove it.)

Facebook Do’s and Don’ts

Listen and Engage

Status Updates: What to Post

Follow the 80/20 rule of posting content/news versus self-promotion.

Use energetic action verbs like help, tell, share that encourage engagement

Use images: posts with photos tend to get higher user engagement

Offer Deals

“$__ Off” deals generate twice the engagement of “% Off deals.”

Check out Facebook Offers: https://www.facebook.com/help/offers

Ask Questions to Spark Dialogue

Experiment With Fill-in-the-Blank Posts

When to Post• Best Days: Wednesdays, Sat +

Sun• Posts made 7 pm – 7 am; and

Noon received 20% more engagement

How Long and How Often?

Length of Posts? Shorter is better.• Posts with 80 characters of less

receive 65% higher engagement

Frequency of Posts?• 1-2x a day = 40% higher engagement

Don’t Shout!

Don’t Ignore Complaints

Bad News Travels Lightening Fast Online

Dealing with Negative Comments on Your Wall

Respond immediately; be receptive/polite

Initial response should be public

Suggest you take the conversation offline.

Don’t Feel Inept 75% of the companies in the Harvard

survey said they don’t know where their most valuable customers were talking about them

31% don’t measure effectiveness of social media

Only 12% of the companies in the survey said they felt they were currently effective users of social media

Don’t Become a

Social Mediaholic.

Study finds that social media can be more

addictive than cigarettes and alcohol

for some.

Takeaways

Checklist

Choose a striking image Provide a punchy description Feature your most effective appsCreate milestones to mark important datesPin posts to attract and drive trafficHighlight other important posts with a

strong message/visual elementTarget > Engage > Convert

Small Fish Can Swim With theBig Guys Now

What’s Next?

Social Media Resources

(More choices than a Starbuck’s menu!)

Webinars + Conferences

Facebook Marketing BootcampApril 24 - May 29, 2012

Learn how to create a Facebook marketing strategy that will build your customer engagement and "likes" in this interactive online event and workshop.

http://www.mediabistro.com/facebookmarketingbootcamp/

Social Media Success Summit

May 1- 24, 2012.

Discover how to use social media to attract and engage quality customers and quickly grow your business from 27 of the world’s most respocted social media experts.

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/socialmedia12/

Free Tools for Listening IceRocket – Keep tabs on who is saying

what about you, your brand or your client on the web, Twitter, video and more with this free buzz search tool.

Google Blog Search – Another great tool to help you monitor keywords across blogs. Free and just like the search engine, except focused on blogs.

Social Mentions – Set up alerts for certain keywords that you get when people use that keyword on the social web.

Free Tools to Boost Your Productivity

Most widely used: TweetDeck.com, HootSuite.com, SproutSocial.com, Social OomphScheduling: BufferApp.com – A simple way to ‘pace and space’ your updates across multiple social networks.

Mostly Free Monitoring Tools

• EdgeRank Checker – free and paid versions

• Simply Measured – Paid web based software

• Google Analytics – Now includes social metrics

Helpful Social Media Blogs

• Social Media Examiner – Michael Stelzner runs the world’s largest online social media magazine designed to help businesses master social media marketing with Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and LinkedIn.

• Mashable – Social Media news blog covering cool new websites and social networks founded by Pete Cashmere from his apartment in Aberdeen, Scotland. Also covers news and developments in mobile, entertainment, online video, business, web development, technology, memes and gadgets.

• Soshable – This blog tries to keep up with all things social media, analyze them and then provide fresh insights into the people and structures that drive engagement.

• TechCrunch – One of the best known sources for social media and technology news that also profiles startups, product launches and new websites.

• consumer technology usage. • TopRank – Lee Odden runs this popular multiple-

author blog full advice on digital marketing and public relations topics including, SEO, content marketing and business blogging and marketing

• Techipedia – Tamar Weinberg is a social media enthusiast who breaks down all aspects of digital marketing.

• Social Media Explorer – Daily advice on social media marketing, conversational marketing, PR, community building and branding from leading educator, public speaker and thinker in the world of digital marketing and social media Jason Falls.

• Danny Brown – This blog explores the human side of social media and the social side of marketing. Very unique.

• Brian Solis – Author of the book Engage and principal at Altimeter Group, a research-based advisory firm, Brian Solis’ blog is required reading for anyone in the social media business.

• AllFacebook – Launched in 2007 and later acquired by MediaBistro, churns out useful content on the world’s largest social network.

• Socialnomics – In-depth insights on the impact of social media on business and the world through short social stories, statistics and studies.

• Techipedia – Tamar Weinberg is a social media enthusiast who breaks down all aspects of digital marketing.

• Social Media Marketing Blog – Head of social media for Ford shares advice on the complexities of online marketing and the convergence of traditional and new media.

Confused? Questions?