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Social Media Tips
Social Media Tips
The Top 7 Facebook and Twitter Strategies That Are Working RIGHT Now
Sep 27th
One of the great things about the work I do is that I have a birds eye view of what’s working and what’s not when it comes to social media.? Every so often I like to give sort of a “state of the union” on Facebook and Twitter best practices, because as I am sure you know, social media is constantly growing, changing and evolving.
As you’ll see, some of the strategies I am recommending are tried and true-they have been working since day one and will probably continue to for the considerable future.? However, there may be a few here that you’ve never considered-or may even be surprised by.? But they are what I see as being the biggest keys to success and results for business owners on the two hottest social networks on the planet: Facebook and Twitter.
1. Find your peeps.
What this means is that you want to become part of the community you are looking to serve. The first step of course is to be clear on whom it is you want to serve and what problem you are solving for them. Once you know that, the goal is to go where they are hanging out.
There are specific tools you can use to easily find and interact with your target market.? Two of my favorites for Twitter are wefollow.com and search.twitter.com.
2. Concentrate on conversing and building relationships, instead of broadcasting and selling.
One of the most common yet biggest mistakes that people make when they are first introduced to social media is to focus on pushing their product or service in a spammy way.? That approach fails miserably in social media because most people are there to build relationships and interact.?
There’s nothing wrong with letting others know what’s going on with you or your business sometimes–just be sure to intersperse your tweets or Facebook updates with some two-way conversation.
3. Use a Facebook personal profile AND a Facebook business page TOGETHER.
This might be a little “controversial”-and don’t get me wrong, your business SHOULD have a Page–but when you have a personal profile, you are able to interact with other people much more easily.? As a business Page, a Page can’t go comment on another person’s Wall or profile or in their Group or on THEIR Page AS that Page.? You are really contained inside the space of your own Page.? This might be something to consider because a lot of the magic of Facebook and the relationship-building and rapport-building comes from that ability to interact.?
4. Cross-post and cross promote.
Once you’ve decided to make social media a part of your marketing strategy, you don’t want to keep it to yourself.? There are lots of ways to spread the word, for example: you’ll want to advertise your social presence on your blog, add links to your email signature and use one social media platform to post to another.
5. Use a social media dashboard like Hootsuite and other productivity tools to accomplish more in less time.
Hootsuite.com is my hands-down favorite, free social media tool, and the reason why is because it does so many different things. For example, you can use it to update many social networks at once, including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn; you can use it to pre-schedule tweets and status updates and more.
6. Get them on the list.
In most cases, people aren’t going to buy from you right off of sites like Facebook and Twitter.? You need to shift your thinking from “how can I get this person to buy from me or hire me now?” to “how can I bring this person into my community and strengthen the relationship with them on an ongoing basis?”
One of the best ways to do this is to offer people a way to provide their email address via your blog or website so that you have permission to keep in touch and build an ongoing relationship with them.
7. Measure and track your social media results.
Measuring the ROI of social media isn’t exactly cut and dry.? I am often asked how you can tell whether the time you’ve spent on social media activities is really making a difference.
Some of the best metrics?? Blog comments, blog subscribers, newsletter subscribers,? social media profile engagement, number of friends and followers and website traffic to name a few.
No matter who your target market is, you can be sure that at least some segment of them is using social media. The important thing is to understand that social media is a great way to get in front of that target audience.
And remember, you may not be able to equate your interactions to dollars now, but what you are doing is planting seeds which can have big payoffs later on.
Most of the strategies I’ve mentioned here aren’t really “strategies” unless you keep applying them over time-so stick with it to reap those results you’ve been searching for.
How To Use Facebook for Advertising Campaigns
Sep 26th
At one time social networking sites provided endless facts and figures with fellow colleagues and it was usually the “corner cafe” for a drink with co-workers after five p.m. Now enter the new technology of this decade.
Social networking sites are thriving online. With just a click, you can access these sites in the comfort of your own office or home, or at coffee shops. Wherever there’s a connection, you have a connection. Basically, a social networking site is focuses on connecting you with people: family, friends, relatives, and your co-workers. One of the sites gaining popularity is Facebook.
You can join this site for free, along with many users. You can start by setting up an account and creating a personal or business profile. A profile is just that: fill in the blanks with information about you, as well as anything else you want people to know. You can upload a profile picture that stays on “your profile page.” If you decide not to upload a picture, then an icon appears instead.
Using Facebook, you can search for people and request them to be your “friend.” You’ll quickly ignore the initial obstacle of having to ask people to be your friend, and quickly realize the site is one of the neatest tools to use for contacts. You can search for people or by interest group. With many interest groups, you can follow them as a “fan.” Once you and someone agree to “be friends or fans,” you can read each other’s pages.
Pages contain news feeds (information on your friend’s newest friends), status updates (information posted by your friends), posted photos and applications (such as games). Your page also provides an email account and instant messenger, if you decide you want to chat with someone. Facebook lets you leave comments to a friend’s status update. Of course, if you can’t think of anything, you can simply click the “Like” button and let them know you agree.
Pay per click is an effective marketing and advertising campaign. It is used by many content sites and search engines to market websites to online users through keyword searches. Every time a user clicks on your link, you pay the host company a fee. Unlike most advertising, PPC forces your customer to act prior to you paying any money. If they only view the link or ad, then you simply do not pay.
Using Facebook’s PPC program can continue your social media marketing efforts and promote your product or service by creating and maintaining a “social buzz.” To the left of your screen, you will see Facebook advertisements, visible to users and visitors. PPC campaigns and their placement make sure your advertisement receives attention from many viewers.
Facebook’s simple PPC tool allows you to setup your social ads quickly. Using the right keywords in your ad, you can grab the interest of many targeted Facebook users and reel them into your personal Facebook page. When a Facebook users connect with an individual or business, your friends also see this connection in their news feed. Here is where you can tap into the power of social media because your Facebook friends will most likely read your profile as well.
