Archive for Facebook
7 Reasons to Have a Facebook Fan Page For Your Business
Posted by: | CommentsAre you still on the fence about creating a Facebook Fan Page for your business? You shouldn’t be. Here are seven reasons why your business needs a Facebook Fan Page:
According to a recent report by Syncapse, on average, Facebook fans spend an additional $71.84 on products for which they are fans compared to those who are not fans.
Syncapse also tells us that Facebook fans are 28% more likely than non-fans to continue using the brand.
Facebook fans are 41% more likely than non-fans to recommend a fanned product to their friends. (Syncapse)
It’s not just for kids. Facebook has more than 400 million active users and 61% of those users are aged 35 or older.
According to a recent study, more people are visiting Facebook than Google. You wouldn’t skill having your business listed on Google? Why miss out on Facebook?
People are spending more time on Facebook. According to a study by the Nielsen Co. research firm, the average user spent 1 hour, 21 minutes on Google during April 2010 while, Facebook users were logged on an average of 6 hours
Did I mention it’s free? There’s no up-front cost to creating a Facebook Fan page other than your time. And since you can easily repurpose other materials (from your website, blog, YouTube), the time factor doesn’t need to be huge. And when you consider the value of a Facebook fan page, isn’t the time spent a valuable investment?
Andrea J. Stenberg
Do you have a Facebook page? Tell us about why you created it and what you’re doing with it. If you still don’t have one, tell us why not. And while you’re at it, why not check out the Baby Boomer Entrepreneur fan page.
A Review of Hootsuite (vs TweetDeck)
Posted by: | CommentsA tool for managing Twitter, Facebook & other social media
Monitoring your connections, updating your status and just staying on top of your social media presence can become a challenge as your numbers of connections grows, particularly when you have more than a couple of hundred connections.
Even for just Twitter, if you want to be able to connect with people and follow what they say, eventually logging into Twitter.com just doesn’t do it.
That’s where a tool like Hootsuite comes in. I’ve been test-driving it for the past couple of weeks and so far I like it.
What I like about Hootsuite
I really like the pop-up profile. It saves me having to switch over to web browser when I want to see who the tweeter is. It also allows me to Follow, Unfollow, DM and add to a list just from the profile, as well as showing their most recent Tweet.
The “show conversation” button is awesome. It appears below any Tweet that is a reply to another. No more Twitternesia for me, where I forget what I said to the person replying to me. But it’s not just for my @conversations. When other people I follow are having a conversation the button appears so I can view the entire thread.
Speaking of Twitternesia, the Sent Tweets column on Hootsuite is great. Then I can remember what and when I said things, ‘cause I can’t remember.
Scheduling Tweets is pretty cool. Now let’s be clear, I’m not a big fan of automation on social media. It’s about networking and conversations with individuals; you can’t automate that. But I have these bursts of Tweeting where I’m reading blogs and finding cool links so I Tweet a whole bunch at once, which may be annoying to followers or may cause others to miss some interesting material. Read More→
Don’t Be Guilty of Creating Social Poop
Posted by: | CommentsI wish I could take credit for the term “social poop” but sadly I can’t. I first learned the term from Andy Fogarty in a wonderful blog post called How To Create Social Proof In 3 Simple Steps on the Laura Roeder blog.
Andy defines social poop as the stuff you get from Twitter feeds from someone whose avatar is a corporate logo; someone who is following 10,000 people but only has about 500 follows, most of whom auto followed them back. And of course, all the Tweets are promotional copy. Not a personal comment in the bunch. Not a single reTweet, or @reply. Other people just call it spam!
However, I’d like to expand the term if I may. It comes from a conversation I had with a local business person (in real life over coffee, can you imagine). She jumped into Twitter quite eagerly, expecting it to be similar to the status updates on Facebook.
Good Social Media means being human
She recently friended some childhood schoolmates on Facebook. By seeing what they say online, she felt like she’s gotten to know them again. They talk about their life, their activities, their likes and dislikes. In other words, they act like real human beings.
That’s why she has been so disappointed by Twitter. “If all someone Tweets is quotes by other people, how is that letting me get to know them?” she complained.
There’s the real catch for people using Twitter for business. Yes, you want to sound professional and appropriate for your business, but you don’t want to sound like it’s a corporate logo speaking.
By all means, Tweet quotes if you like. Personally, I love quotes. I collect them. Have a huge stack printed on file cards on my desk. But don’t make quotes the only thing you say on Twitter. Include something about your life. What movie did you see? What did you think of it? Where did you eat for dinner? Was the service horrible? Tell us. Show us you’re a real human being. Have a personality.
Have conversations online
And just as importantly, engage with other people. Retweet interesting things from other people. Send @ replies commenting on what others say. Engage really means having conversations online.
Don’t use Twitter as a cheap broadcasting tool. Think of it as an online networking event where you want to be the most interesting person there. Of course you’ll talk about your business, but it won’t be the only thing you discuss.
Andrea J. Stenberg
The biggest secret for using social media
Posted by: | CommentsMany small business owners view social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter as an exciting new shortcut for marketing their business. They think social media magical solution; if they sign up customers will flock to their website or store front. It’s as if marketing no longer has to be work.
Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I’m here to tell you that it’s just not true. Whether you are using Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or some other social media site, the truth of the matter is the people who get true value out of social media are those who put in the hard work. If it were truly easy, everyone would be getting rich.
What hard work?
The truth of the matter is Read More→
