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Posted by abigail on Monday, August 29, 2011 - 10:54

Facebook just rolled out some pretty cool features that let you…

1. Tag who you’re with when you post
2. Add your location when you post
3. Target your posts to specific friends or Lists

Long ago I organized my Facebook Friends into Lists. Since many of my friends are also windsurfers, I created a List of just those friends.

How Do I Create a List?

1. First, in the upper navigation click on Profile.

2. This brings you to your Profile Page, then look at your Friends in the left hand column; click on Friends.

3. This brings up a new page of all your friends; now in the upper right area find the button that says Edit Friends; click on Edit Friends.

4. This takes you to a new page that will allow you to edit your friends. Now in the upper right area, look for the button that says Create a List. Here’s where you can create a new list of friends who share a common interest or history with you.

5. Once you title your List, then scroll through your friends and tag each friend you’d like to add to the list.

So Now I Have a List, How Do I Target My Posts to My List?

First click on Update Status. This draws up a new window and notice how along the bottom of the window it has a portrait icon on the far left (this lets you tag who you’re with), to the right of this is the location icon (this lets you tag where you are), and now to the far right it reads Custom.

1. Click on Custom and it brings up a drop down menu which reads Public, Friends, Custom. Click on Custom.

2. This brings up a pop up window with an option to post to Friends of Friends, Friends, Specific People, or Only Me. Click on Specific People.

3. Once you click on Specific People, type in the name of your new List. This will set your posts to now post only to your List.

Is My List Private?

If your Privacy Settings are set so that only Friends see your posts, now only your List (subset of your Friends) will see your posts. Pretty cool!

Posted by abigail on Wednesday, August 10, 2011 - 12:50

Google Profiles have been around for a few years now but many people don't understand what they are and why they should create one. Here's how Google defines Profiles: "Your profile is the way you present yourself on Google products and across the web. With your profile, you can manage the information that people see--such as your bio, contact details, and links to other sites about you or created by you."

1. Google Profiles were designed so that you could better manage your online identity and control how you turned up in Search. Rather than let the broader Web determine how you're seen in Search results, Google Profiles give you the option to control your information, pictures, contact information and any URL's you own. Think of it as an abbreviated LinkedIn Profile but with broader implications.

2. Google Profiles are integrated with Google+. Google Profiles were originally integrated with Google Buzz but essentially, Buzz bombed. Now Google+ uses your Google Profile to complete, well your Profile. From there you can build out your network of contacts and explore other functionality offered by Google +.

Note, Google+ is still in demo but email me if you'd like an invitation.

3.Google Profiles boost your SEO. Yes, it would make sense that Google ranks a Google Profile higher than other online vehicles. Case in point, my Google Profile usually appears at the top or near the top of my own name search. Profiles also factor in any URL's you provide so if you're blogging, Tweeting, Facebooking, Linking and have a website, you can publish those URL's in your Profile.

Search for my name and see what bubbles up:

Good idea? If you're actively living your life online, then I strongly recommend setting up a Google Profile. It's simple! Login to Google and set up a Profile today.

Posted by abigail on Thursday, June 9, 2011 - 10:41

The answer is YES!

Facebook Pages are public, indexed and seen by Search Engines - just as websites are. Facebook now has 600 million registered users around the world and next to YouTube, is the largest social media channel on the Internet. Facebook is where your audience is already AT so why not create a Facebook Page to reach them? 

A recent Nielsen study reported that 75% of ALL Americans use social media occupying nearly 25% all their time spent online. Given that, what's the best way to reach them? In a community with which people are already engaged.

Facebook Pages Offer Dynamic Interactive Functionality 

Facebook Pages offer all sorts of free (and inexpensive) Apps that enable your site for deep customer engagement. For example, I just added a Twitter App to my Facebook Page. Acting in a similar manner to the Twitter Plugin I have on my Arque Creative site, it acts like an RSS feed and publishes all my tweets to a designated Tab on my Facebook Page. Why is this a good thing? Because every time I tweet, it updates my Facebook Page with new content. Search Engines love dynamic sites so this is an excellent tool for boosting your SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Facebook Offers Easy Content Sharing

Perhaps the most wonderful and useful feature that a Facebook environment offers is easy content sharing. Have new merchandise in your store? Take a picture with your Facebook mobile App and upload it to your Page. This lets your customers know instantly that you have new inventory and gives them a reason to shop at your store. Have a new seasonal entree at your restaurant? Take a short video of your head chef talking about the creation of this new dish and post it to your Facebook Page. This gives your customers a new reason to visit your restaurant. Or, do what Whole Foods does and post a tantalizing new recipe that folks can whip up at home.

Show Your Fans You Care

Forget about selling your fans ANYTHING! Instead adopt a social sharing strategy that lets your Fan base know you care about them. Take e-tail giant Zappos. They wrote the book on customer service - literally. Tony Hsei's new book Delivering Happiness takes the position that if you show your customer you really care about them and their customer experience, you will build loyalty and generate profits - big profits. "Profits - Passion - Purpose" is the mantra adopted by Hsei and one that has led Zappos to experience enormous profitability.

You DO Have the Time

So this is what trips up everyone - the time factor. There is a perception that social media is a big drain on productivity and not really worth the effort. FALSE! If you employ a disciplined approach, you will find that time spent managing your social channels can be really efficient. Yes, the start up time cost is steep, but once you get the channels going, and use the right management tools with which to do so, you'll find that that amount of time needed to manage your accounts should be no more than 30 minutes a day! Yes a half hour investment is enough time to manage your Facebook Page, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts. I use HootSuite to manage 2 Facebook Pages, 2 Twitter feeds, 1 LinkedIn account and don't spend more than 30 minutes a day posting and sharing news...unless I want to.

Build Your Facebook Page Today!

What's stopping you? Setting up a Facebook Page is easy...and engagement can be really fun. Visualize this as an opportunity to really know your customers and build meaningful, lasting relationships. At the end of the day, this will serve your business well by rewarding you with a loyal customer base.

Posted by abigail on Friday, April 15, 2011 - 11:27

1. Be Branded, Be Unique
Whether you’re making a first impression or relating to loyal customers you need to distinguish yourself. Begin by answering the five W’s: Who What Where When Why. What is it that you’re selling? Who’s it for? Why do we need it? Were can we find it? When is it available? Then be sure to create a consistent branded presence across ALL of your channels.

2. Build a strategic website
I cannot stress enough how important it is for you to have a strategic online presence for your business. Why? Because your customers are online and you need to be there to greet them. A strategic website helps you to achieve your business-building goals.

For example, my client Solar Knights (now PassivWorks) wanted a website that acted as a workhorse helping to bring in new business and better leverage their PR efforts. We built the site to include various plugins – news feed, conversion form, blog, twitter feed – all tools which they use to keep their site updated and relevant, beef up their Inbound Marketing efforts and showcase their leadership position in Passive House construction.

3. Optimize your site for Search
Can’t afford a new website? Maybe you can tweak what you have and better optimize it for Search. This might be adding some social media plugins such as a blog and Twitter feed. Google likes dynamic websites; the more you update your content the greater your chances of prompting a search engine to crawl your site. This is a critical component of your SEO and a basic principal of Inbound Marketing.

4. Live it out loud
In today’s online world your online visibility is extremely important. You need to be where your customers are AT in order for them to take notice. There are examples of many brands that were able to build sales simply because of their strong online presence: e.g. in 2009 St Supery winery had a significant decrease in sales from their wine club. To counter this they developed a significant social media presence:
- Hired social media community manager
- Established presence on FB, Twitter, YouTube, Ustream, FourSquare
The results were that they reduced wine club attrition by 50%!

5. Be open authentic and engaged e.g. Tony Hseih, @zappos
I am a huge Zappos fan. Zappos let’s their customers know that they are passionate about creating a positive customer experience. Free shipping, no hassle returns, thank you notes, and surprise priority shipping bonuses are all part of their customer program but in addition, CEO Tony Hseih and 18 of his customer service representatives rotate in/out on Twitter every day to address customer needs and concerns.

6. Cultivate your fan base
If you have customers singing your praises on your Facebook Page then by all means, be sure to thank them. Do this publically and often which will go a long way toward generating good will with your customers. And if you can, reward them with coupons and freebies. Gary Vee calls this the ‘thank you economy’ whereby marketers act out of a sense of gratitude rather than employing a bullhorn to announce their products.

7. Be your own best marketer
Believe it or not, once you engage your marketing brain you will realize that you have many opportunities to plug your business. Sending an email? Be sure to include all of your company URL’s in your signature. Have a LinkedIn account? Why not start a LinkedIn page for your company? Launch a Twitter channel to address customer service issues.
 

8. Love Your Customers
Happy customers today are the meal ticket of your tomorrow. Recently a Dominio’s Pizza employee called 911 for an elderly person who failed to call in her daily order. This heroic effort garnered all sorts of valuable brand equity for Domino’s. Read on

Posted by abigail on Friday, February 11, 2011 - 12:57

Among the social media skeptics out there, Twitter continues to get a bad rap. Long perceived as a total waste of time, Twitter still needs to do a better job convincing audiences of its relevance.

With 175Million users around the world with an estimated potential $10B market cap, Twitter is poised to become a very key player in the media world.

Skeptics will one day eat their words for I believe Twitter is bound to play an ever more important role in the publication and dissemination of real time news. In fact, you cannot call yourself a valid media company without a twitter channel. For example, CNBC has several Twitter channels: @CNBC @CNBCbrk @CNBCtopStories @CNBCTheCall @MadMoneyonCNBC etc. Further, last spring the Huffington Post made headlines when it announced a designated Twitter feed for each of its departments: @HuffPostGreen @HuffPostPol @HuffPostMedia @HuffPostFood etc.
 


So what does this mean for you and how can you create your own meaningful news channel on Twitter?

First, start by finding relevant news distributors to follow. Twitter has a Who To Follow list of News organizations publishing on Twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/who_to_follow/interests. Find the publishers you like and Follow them.


Secondly, go deeper and use a directory such as Twellow to find more relevant Tweeters in your field of interest. The Twellow Directory works just like the Yellow Pages in that it breaks out users into relevant categories. There you will find ‘News’ and the various content aggregators and news channels worth following.


Another notable directory is Listorious. Listorious is a user-generated directory of user-created lists. For example, I’ve published my ‘Water-Tweeps’ list of those ocean and water conservation activists I follow in the directory. By doing a simple search you can deepen your news channel by adding other relevant content aggregators or dive deeper into a particular topic you wish to remain informed about.


Once you’ve built a base of tweeters, Twitter will then suggest other relevant folks for you to follow: Who To Follow. From there you can grow your list organically.


To now make sense of the chaos, use a management tool to organize your interests by topic. For example, in my personal account I catagorize the most relevant folks I follow by our shared interests “Greenies”, “Water Tweeps”, “Friends” or in my business account “Social Media” or “Marketing Tweeps”. A great management tool for multiple streams is TweetDeck.

Check in periodically throughout the day. When you get up for glass of water or to stretch and so on, check your news feed. You’ll be surprised what you learn.

Before you know it, you’ll want to jump in the conversation yourself! Happy tweeting!
 

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