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How To Choose Social Platforms For Your Business

How To Choose Social Platforms For Your Business

With all the existing & emerging social media platforms out there, choosing the right ones for your business can be a daunting task. At the beginning of the social media “revolution” I would frequently see business owner’s eyes light up and the suggestion of them being on Facebook or Twitter. Essentially they thought it meant instant fans in the thousands (and some even thought millions)! Now, I get more of the reaction “Social Media didn’t work for me.” Or “It’s not a good fit for my product category.” While there are numerous approaches and strategies when it comes to actually managing social media platforms for business, lets first address actually getting to those platforms.

 

CLICK HERE to see a list of the top social platforms so far for 2012 (determined by traffic generated only, not effectiveness)

 

STEPS TO DETERMINING PLATFORMS

 

1) Look at your clients/customers, partners & associations BEFORE looking at the list of social platforms

Before you get overwhelmed looking at a list of thousands of platforms to start accounts on, first figure out WHO your clients/customers are. Do NOT take this step for granted. Once you start discussing this or making a written list, you will see how it starts to grow. Once you have your list of clients, move on to partners, vendors, sponsors, etc. These are just as important to connect with as your existing clients. And don’t forget about that dream ideal client… what do they look like (on the inside…not in appearance silly)

 

Find Out Where The People/Business On Your List “Hang Out”

 

* What platforms are most of your existing clients on?

* Are your vendors, partners, suppliers, etc active on social media? If so, what platforms?

* What is the demo of your ideal client? Find the platform that best matches that

 

If you didn’t consider your customers existing platforms, you would all be talking a different language and never connecting!

 

 

2) Consider Your Time… Be Realistic

Again, BEFORE looking at platforms ask yourself “How much time do I have to dedicate to this daily/weekly?” Every platform has it;s own unique learning curve and some take longer than others to take hold. Determining how much time you have to dedicate to your social media marketing could eliminate some platforms immediately.

 

3) What Are You Wanting To Get From Your Efforts? Also referred to as “Strategy”

So, you have a decent amount of info in your brain now… and you’re ready to start looking at platforms right? NOT YET!!! It is incredibly important that you decide what your social goals are. There are both metric goals and (what I refer to as) Umbrella goals. Some examples of these are:

 

* Increase Awareness (new product, service, location, etc) – This does not result in direct trackable sales: Umbrella Goal

* Use social media platform X to give new users a visual of what X product is, allowing them to review, comment & offer feedback for company benefit: Umbrella Goal

* Utilize videos/articles/pictures to create visual of company offerings: Umbrella Goal

* Generate 25% more website traffic coming from social platform(s) X: Metric Goal

* Launch product/service exclusively on social platform to generate sales of X dollars: Metric Goal

 

Alrighty…. you feel like this yet? We haven’t event gotten to the platforms themselves!

 

 

3) Based on Your Goals Set Above & Time Available, Look at Size of Platforms and Ease of Use

Start considering overall site traffic. Platforms always recommended to be incorporated into strategy because of the sheer number of users & search-ability are Facebook & Twitter. That doesn’t mean you need to focus your efforts there, but being able to be found on platforms of that size is important.

 

4) Consider Niche Platforms For Your Industry

While you may exist on Facebook, that doesn’t mean you can’t benefit from LinkedIn, Digg, YouTube, Pinterest & more!

 

LEGAL INDUSTRY check out this social networking platform JUST for you!

 

EVENT PLANERS & Businesses that service weddings, this platform is GREAT for you to look into!

 

REAL ESTATE, INTERIOR DECORATORS, CONSTRUCTION INDUSTRIES look into starting an account on this networking platform

 

RETAIL, BAR/RESTAURANT, LOCATION-BASED businesses we recommend being on Foursquare

 

Other Honorable Mentions For Great Platforms For Small Business: Pinterest,  YouTube,  Tumblr,

 

 5) What People Think Of Your Business/Product IS Social Marketing Too! 

Don’t forget about the oldie but goody platforms like Yelp, Google Reviews, Yahoo Review, Travel.com, Hotels.com and many more!

If customers or people you have encountered in your business are out there “chatting” negatively about your business or writing bad reviews, you need to be aware of those as well, Addressing them publicly is the best way to handle most issues that arise.

 

 

Now What?

You’ve now determined what platforms your target audience resides on, which platforms you will sign up for, what your goals are for each and how much time you will dedicate to individual social platforms.  So now what?

 

The overall objective of social media are to tie all the intangible efforts out there back to your brand. And by doing so, accomplishing your goals. How do you do that? Well… that’s a whole nother blog post. So stay tuned!

 

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Facebook Timeline Should Make Businesses Rethink Their Current Content Strategy

Facebook Timeline Should Make Businesses Rethink Their Current Content Strategy

Less than 2 weeks to Facebook’s big day… all pages WILL BE CONVERTED TO TIMELINE FORMAT! We’ve told you all about the changes and how to make them here as well as info on the cover photos.

 

Now it’s time to start considering how all these changes will be affecting user behavior, which in turn affects your page’s interactions, which comes all the way full circle back to the content you post.

 

*   The first and most noticeable would be the cover photo. You can reference ideas on how to change yours here 

 

*   Have you landed on a new page lately and had to hit the LIKE button before you could participate in a contest, survey or to redeem a coupon? That feature is now OBSOLETE! Welcome tabs (also called landing tabs) are now gone. When people land on your business page, they will always land on your wall; which in turn makes your content even MORE important to capture that sought after interaction (click through)

 

 

Think that won’t affect you? Check out these examples of AWESOME Welcome Tabs that helped grow their pages exponentially:

 

Look at what this charity is able to do just on their Welcome tab! They effectively show with graphics & minimal text: What they do, How they do it, Clearly state a Call To Acton and supply other platforms to connect on

 

 

This  business page keeps their offers & info about discounts “private” until the new user LIKES the page! Only after that do they have access to all the goodies. This would be similar to “subscribing” to a newsletter or coupon mailers. Great concept, except now users will be directed straight to a business’ wall and bypass the tab that displays all of what they do, how they do it, who they serve and what the user should do next.

 

 

Jameson had a great user-engaged St. Patty’s photo collage started! In order to see the photos uploaded or to add your own to your area on their world-wide map, the user had to LIKE the page first. Another example of how the new changes to timeline will make it a little bit harder to get those extra eyes on your page .

 

 

 

 

*   There is also  a new feature that most businesses are not taking into consideration as much as they should. or could be… the HISTORY tab. Marking historical timelines of your business can give users another way to interact and look deeper into your brand.

 

Red Bull has long been known for their innovation digital marketing, and with the launch of timeline, they wasted no time in setting the bar for social games and interactions with the new format. Once their page launched, they posted this:

By directing people back to their founding date, they had info about red bull as a company/brand but also posted a clue! This told users where to go for the next stop. Essentially they made a picture scavenger hunt for tons of cool stuff by making users visit various dates associated with major events in Red Bull history! While the contest was going on, look at what  one of their clues looked like!

* There are numerous more changes that may affect your strategies, including the ABOUT SECTION of your timeline. This is now prominently displayed just under your profile photo. So where users previously got most of the info on the welcome tab or in Info section, you can now utilize this truncated About section to state your company’s mission, list services, or convey a message most important to your brand.

Check out the ANATOMY OF A FACEBOOK TIMELINE below and familiarize yourself with the new layout. The pages will be changing in less than 2 weeks… which means you’ll need to know about these features to effectively alter, edit and customize your business timleine for increased user engagement

If you’d like more info on how to effectively alter the graphics on your timeline or need help managing your social media efforts, contact us! We’re here to help during the transition and everyday after that.

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Facebook Changes Summary- Need To Know Info About New Business Features, Sponsored Stories and MORE!

Facebook Changes Summary- Need To Know Info About New Business Features, Sponsored Stories and MORE!

Holy Changes Batman! Facebook sure has rolled out a lot of them to kick of 2012! Feel like it s a full-time job keeping up? We’ve condensed some of the most important changes to Facebook so you can be “in the know” quick. There are plenty more changes that aren’t listed here, however the ones below are the most commonly used by Facebook users and business accounts. So here they are…

 

* COVER PHOTO (this being the most obvious)

This was the subject of our last blog. You can find all the info on cover photos here

 

* BUSINESS PAGES CAN NOW INTERACT WITH ANYONE!!!

This has been a frustrating set-back for many small businesses utilizing FB in their marketing strategy; especially localized businesses. But now FB has allowed the Pages to be able to interact with personal profiles!

 

You will see the buttons on your left on new business pages giving the user (using personal profile) the ability to LIKE the page but also send the page a message.       NOTE: Pages do have the ability to disable this feature. This is good & bad for business: Good because it allows consumers direct communication with the brand they’re connecting with but bad if the page is not managed properly or a customer-service strategy is not in place. Not knowing about these messages can result in no response back from business and an upset consumer. The lack of response, or very late response, can actually do more damage than you think.

TIP: Put Customer-Service policy together now. Include response time, guidelines of what will be addressed and establish chain of command in problem solving the issues presented by consumers.

 

 

* PAGES CAN NOW APPROVE POSTS BEFORE THEY APPEAR ON THEIR PAGE

I’m sure a lot of you are wiping your foreheads in relief at this new feature.  This new feature gives organizations more control over what appears on their pages and could help keep spam and inappropriate content off the wall. From the “Edit Page” dashboard under “Manage Permissions,” page owners can select a new option titled, “Only show posts by [your page] and friend activity on your page until reviewed by an admin.” This hides posts made by other users until a page owner indicates “Allow on Timeline” from the new activity log. (SEE BELOW)

 

NOTE:  This does not seem to affect posts in the “Friend Activity” section of a page, as users always have the ability to view posts that their friends have shared with them. It also does not seem to affect comments on page posts. The option only hides posts users make to the wall.

Pages that address more sensitive topics or that have had issues with spam will want to enable this feature. For pages with less frequent activity, this function might not even be necessary. On the other hand, pages that are very active with fan-to-fan discussions might not want to hide wall posts either so they don’t limit the amount or pace of interaction.

 

 

 

* REAL TIME INSIGHTS (Statistics on traffic & interaction on your page)

This is great for businesses that track their marketing campaigns, growth and reach of their brand. This enables businesses to see effectiveness of posts, blogs, pictures vs text, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* “DOUBLE-WIDE” IMAGES FOR STARRED CONTENT

If you have a flier, image, video, etc that you want to stand out on your page MORE than the other posts, Facebook has integrated a Starred Post Option. This takes the image from a thumbnail to stretch across the entire timeline page (See Below). This allows businesses to showcase specific areas of interest, products, promotions, etc more than others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* FACEBOOK MESSENGER FOR DESKTOP HAS ARRIVED!!!

So maybe it came a little before Facebook wanted it to, due to some leakage of info, but nonetheless it’s here! For all those desk workers this will be incredibly handy! No more switching windows, browsers, etc.

 

 

Messenger allows for and accomplishes the following:

* Persistent access to chat will increase engagement and ultimately draw their FB friends in for more time spent on site

* Continuous access to notifications, friend requests, messages, etc will lead to increased visits to site per day, ultimately increasing Facebook’s overall engagement rates

 

DOWNLOAD FACEBOOK MESSENGER HERE

 

* Current version only available for Microsoft Desktop Windows 7… We’re sure Apple will come soon after for all you Mac users

 

 

 

 

* DEFAULT LANDING TABS ARE GONE!

Well, not exactly. They aren’t gone… they just aren’t allowed to be the primary landing page for non-fans (new users). For those of oyu that have custom tabs, don’t panic. They are still incredibly useful, important and visiable. You can direct traffic to these tabs through News Feed posts.

DID YOU KNOW: 85% of all Facebook interaction and click thru’s come from the News Feed! 

 

 

As you can see from the picture of Westar Design & Development’s Facebook page, the custom tabs of Welcome, Gallery and Testimonials is still

visible, just placed in a different area, which we think is actually better placement (but will take some getting used to for users). These boxes

obviously need custom images to be associated with them now, which AMG is more than happy to design along with your timeline photos/image.

You can also order these boxes and include up to 12. Click the last box listed to pull up the remaining apps and custom tabs.

 

 

 

* FACEBOOK NOW HAS OFFICIAL FACEBOOK OFFERS FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Does your business thrive on new consumers? We’d hope so if you want to continue growing… Well here’s a great way to incentivize them to try you out! Facebook Offers is a new type of post that allows brands to freely distribute coupons to fans that can can be accepted straight from their web or mobile newsfeed.

 

*Offers also can be promoted through ‘Reach Generator’ ads to a wider, targeted audience. One click (or tap on mobile) sends the offer to your email      account. From there, the voucher can be used at a bricks-and-mortar store or entered as a coupon code into an ecommerce site. When you accept a Facebook offer, a story is generated and may be shown in your friends’ news feeds, increasing the viral reach of the promotion

 

More info on Reach Generator HERE

 

 

 

 

* FACEBOOK ADS TURNS INTO “SPONSORED STORIES”

Facebook wants user to build a story and timeline of their interest, likes, brands they use & connect with, etc. They have repositioned everything including the verbiage and user experience of what was previously known as Facebook Ads. Facebook’s Global Business Director, Mike Hoefflinger says: “We are evolving from ads to stories. Ads come from anyone at anytime. Stories come from people and things that you’re connected to.”

 

 

While we anticipate the layout to change, this is an example of a sponsored story. Notice it lists the friends that have already liked it beneath the ad.

‘Featured stories’ are amplified page updates linked to users’ social graphs, with their friends and other fans actions driving recommendation and therefore effectiveness. These are not ‘ads’ in any conventional sense of the word, but a new combination of brand conversation and word of mouth.

 

 

 

 

 

Whew… that’s a lot of info to take in… and we are only half way down our list of changes! To save you from reading further into this novel post regarding Facebook, we will list some additional changes and follow up with future blog posts explaining each in more detail. Please CONTACT US with any questions you may have regarding any of these changes.

 

OTHER FACEBOOK CHANGES YOU WILL NOTICE SOON:

- Multiple admin levels allowing access to only portions of the page and statistics associated with it to individual admin users

- Facebook photo viewer change

- Ability to approve posts before they appear on your wall

- Heritage timelines for brands with history and a story to tell. If you’ve been around for a while or are known as a staple brand for your area, definitely fill in your heritage with images, info, dates

- Content of the Week allow pages to highlight specific content that they are promoting during that particular week

 

 

LEARN BETTER THROUGH VIDEO? CHECK OUT A VIDEO FROM FACEBOOK EXPLAINING THE CHANGES THEMSELVES!

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Facebook To Launch Timeline for Business Pages… Are You Ready?

Facebook To Launch Timeline for Business Pages… Are You Ready?

Facebook Timeline is coming… whether you’re ready or not! Question is, how will it affect your current page and what new features will be added to help your business market more effectively. We’ve put together some tips on how to prepare for the inevitable “switch-over” and a glimpse into what you can expect. No one likes change initially, but we think this is actually pretty cool!

 

First off, have you seen a Facebook personal profile timeline before? If so, skip this and read further down (you’re a social rockstar!) If not, below is an example of what the top of your facebook page can look like! Timeline is a way of making FB more VISUAL; telling your story (of life or brands) through pictures and visual posts.

 

 

Alright, now that everyone knows what  a personal timeline looks like… let’s dive into what it will be for your brand. DISCLAIMER: A lot of what the new timeline will feature remains a mystery and is only known by the Facebook gurus themselves. But we happen to know a couple cool peeps that clued us into some possible features. So here are your TIPS FOR NEW BUSINESS TIMELINE PAGES:

 

1)  Design a creative cover image

This can be something that calls out your monthly special, a promotion you’re running, a contest that was just launched, group staff pic, etc.  This would be similar process and thought behind designer a banner image for your website. If you do not have basic photoshop or editing skills, we can help you with that. The most important thing that you want to tell new visitors to your page about goes here.

 

TIP: Make your profile pic and timeline photo banner interact with each other. BE CREATIVE and see where your brand identity takes you!

Image needs to be: 851 px (width) by 315 px (height)

 

2)  Become friends with your cell phone camera or digital camera… Facebook is now more VISUAL!

If you met someone new and were to tell them about how your business originated, grew, and became what it is today… what would you say? Now “picture” saying that with images and a couple lines of text! THAT VISUAL DESCRIPTION = NEW FACEBOOK TIMELINE! One of the newest features of timeline for pages is the ability to add events, occasions, anniversaries, milestones, etc to your page! This can tell so many stories! Is your business active int he community and promote charitable endeavors? Add charity board meetings, events and outings to your timeline. Have you recently acquired new products, employees, or office location? Add it! Launch a new website, going on a business trip, attend a conference? All great things to add to your business story!

Here’s an example of part of a possible timeline for a business (just an idea… no one knows for sure what it will look like yet)

 

 

3)  Give ‘em a Blast From The Past!

Think past this year and last… give your new (and old) fans a blast from the past and post pics from the beginning of your biz! With the timeline feature, this allows you to recall major milestones, years, time periods, etc for your business. Remember that funky childhood phase that you had braces and glasses? Chances are your business went through one of those phases too! Well you’re past that now (hopefully) so why not look back and laugh? Make an awful decision on wallpaper or paint color for your office? This may not seem like pertinent info to you, but it will give your fans a chuckle and allow you to connect with them on a personal level (envoking the laugh or critique or agreement) rather than constantly pushing promo-related items.

 

TIP: HAS YOUR LOGO CHANGED OVER TIME? POST THE OLD ONES AND GET FEEDBACK! (Logo contest maybe?)

 

COMING SOON FEATURES (We think…)

* More than just a LIKE option! You may be able to click things like “agree”, “support”, “dare”, and more! Looks like some share bars will be updated soon too!

 

SUMMARY OF WHAT TO DO:

1- Get familiar with your camera… you’ll be using it

2- Decide on messaging and image for new profile and banner photos. Remember, if you don’t know how to size & edit photos, have a professional do this. It is your first impression…

3- Start thinking back about the history of your business so you can fill out your timeline with events, pictures, etc

4- DON’T PANIC! It will be rolling out gradually… but plan on having your profile converted within 90 days of launch

 

 

 

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