Facebook dominated the social media/online marketing news this week with their launch of Facebook Places – a location-based service along the lines of FourSquare which allows you to “check in” via Facebook to various places you go. While there was much fanfare, the rollout seems to be quite slow as far as people actually being able to access and use it. As with everything Facebook does, it comes with privacy implications. The default setting is that other people can check you into Places. Visit your settings to change that. Here are the instructions.

This hilarious tweet via @anildash sums up Facebook’s cavalier attitude toward all of our privacy:

If your business has a physical location, here’s how to use Facebook Places for your business

In more Facebook news, AllFacebook reports that Facebook is now the third most popular U.S. video site , behind YouTube and Yahoo. Although this shouldn’t be surprising given their gargantuan audience, I was slightly surprised only because I personally don’t see that many people heavily using the feature. Most of the video I encounter on Facebook comes from YouTube.

The other big news for the week is that Groupon’s star continues to rise with its biggest coup yet  – a nationwide deal with GAP which at the end of the day brought in over $11 million!!!

And just for fun…..Looking for some new Twitter people to follow?  For great entertainment follow these hilarious and smart women: @daniellelaporte and @communicatrix

Here’s a very simple model for thinking about three main social media channels: your blog, Facebook and Twitter.  I should say that this model applies in particular to solopreneurs and small businesses who are still developing their following and trying to use social media to do so. In this model the starting point is simply looking at who the audience is, since that helps determine tone, content and strategy.

The simplest version:

Your blog is for attracting a new audience, and providing value to your existing audience.

Facebook is for communicating with people you know, or at least have ‘weak ties’ with, i.e people that are already in your network.

Twitter is for actively finding and connecting with people outside of your current network.

The longer version:

Blog

1)   Your blog is your platform to pull in brand new eyeballs as well as provide help and value to your regular readers.

2)   Your blog is your opportunity to show your expertise and knowledge of your business and industry, create resources for your customers/readers and create a homebase for your online visibility.

3)   If people like what they find they are likely to use Twitter or Facebook to connect with you further.

4) There can be some 2-way interaction via commenting, but even if not, the 1-way output of information is the norm for a blog, more than any other social media outlet.

Facebook

1)   Most likely, people who join your Facebook Page have come from your personal Facebook network (it benefits you to build up your personal profile before launching a Facebook Page) or have found you via your blog. So the key is to foster the feeling of familiarity and get to know people a little better.

2)   A more casual tone than your blog works well; question-asking and discussion-starting are also great on a Facebook Page. 2-way communication is key – community, trust and credibility-building rather than soapboxing.

3)   Some self-promotion is appropriate, particularly if you can offer discounts and incentives, or news that lends to your credibility. But focus on providing engaging content and don’t just duplicate what’s on your blog.

4)   Since someone has to be a friend of your personal profile before you can actively send them an invite to your page, it’s a laborious process to reach brand new people (without purchasing Ads). So I recommend Facebook for fostering the connections you already have – increased engagement on your Page can lead to organic growth through exposure in your Fans’ newsfeeds.

Twitter

1)   Twitter is the place to initiate and develop brand new relationships. Strangers are just friends you haven’t Tweeted with yet!

2)   Unlike Facebook, you can easily find and interact with people you have no connection to, through use of the @ function. You don’t have to wait for people to passively find you, you can see what people are talking about and join in when you have something of value to add. It’s also great for staying in touch with new acquaintances you have made elsewhere.

3)   A good content strategy would be a mix of content curation (sharing links, valuable resources etc), conversation, opinions, insights and personality.

4)   Talk more about others than you do about yourself. Share your blog posts and news but keep blatant self-promotion to a minimum. Twitter should be the least self-focused of all social media.

5)   Twitter is great for paying it forward and sharing the love – sharing links to others’ blog content, Re-Tweeting people and contributing to the social proof of others.

Is this model useful? How do you make sense of these social media channels?

Header image courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pixelgraphix/2504474533/

I discuss the reality of using Facebook to market your small business organically – which is that it’s difficult! Facebook’s primary concern is creating revenue through their Ads, so they deliberately make it challenging to organically promote your page to a new audience. I provide some recommendations for shifting the way we use Facebook for small biz marketing and I let you know where I believe Facebook fits into a small business strategy. Take a look and of course let me know what you think, and what your experiences with Facebook have been.

Read the full article.

*awesome header image courtesy: http://www.flickr.com/photos/balakov/4300931777/

1) Hyper target your status updates (personal profile)

When you post any type of status update you now have the option to control exactly who sees it. It’s a privacy feature but can be used for marketing to hyper target your messages.

Why would you want to do this?

If you have a personal profile that contains many different types of ‘friends’ – from work friends to clients to personal friends or relatives, not all your updates will be relevant to all your friends. Using this technique helps provide only relevant info to those who are interested in it, and filters out the unnecessary noise for certain segments of your audience.  You can avoid saturating the wrong people with the wrong message.

Of course Facebook is great for cross-pollination –  some of your friends that you may not consider to be business contacts, especially your ‘weak ties’ could turn out to be potential clients. I’ve personally found unexpected clients in my personal network on who happened to see my blog posts on Facebook. So it is helpful to let your whole circle know what you are up to work-wise, but once you’ve figured out which of your group could be interested in more, you can add them to a more specific list to give them more targeted updates.

Here’s how:

For this to work you have to have your friends grouped into Lists. Under Account at the top right, go to Edit Friends. From there you can create and edit your lists.  Once you’ve got some lists set up, whenever you add a new friend you can immediately add them to the appropriate lists.

Then, when you create a status update you will see a padlock next to the Share button. Click the padlock, then Customize. In the pulldown, select Specific People, then you can enter the name of a friend list.

This seems only to work if you are on Facebook itself – not if you are using a 3^rd party app to update your status (If anyone knows different, please let me know!)

On business pages you can customize updates geographically and by language.

2) Be seen on other’s Pages and Profiles.

When writing your status update you can reference or ‘tag’ other pages and profiles that you friends with. Your post will then show up on that person’s wall. To ‘tag’ someone in your status simply use the @ symbol followed by their profile name. It’s a little awkward using this as a business Page because you personally, as a page admin, have to be a fan of the profile, in order to be able to tag them.

3) Leverage your personal network for your Page

If you are promoting a business page, you can utilize the power of your personal network. Use the Share button on an update from your Page in order to repost that to your personal network. You can control the privacy setting as above. This is an easy way to let your personal network know about your Page without being overly promotional and begging people to ‘like’ you.

4) Make sure you know who you’re talking to

If you run a business page, are you checking the Insights that Facebook provides to make sure that your content and strategy is on-point for your audience? Insights show you the age, sex and location of your fans – information that your regular web analytics on your site cannot reveal. You can also learn which types of content – audio, video, or photo – elicit the most interactions. All of this info can help you tweak your content strategy.

]]> http://www.webtrainingwheels.com/2010/05/facebook-features-to-help-your-marketing/feed/ 0 http://www.webtrainingwheels.com/2010/03/turn-web-browsing-from-time-suck-to-social-media-time-saver/ http://www.webtrainingwheels.com/2010/03/turn-web-browsing-from-time-suck-to-social-media-time-saver/#comments Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:33:55 +0000 lucy http://www.webtrainingwheels.com/?p=463 The folks over at BitRebels.com have been kind enough to publish an article by yours truly. They just launched a Visitor Submissions section and apparently mine was the very first to be published – woo! The article is titled “How to Turn Web Browsing From Time Suck To Social Media Time Saver.” In it I discuss how using some simple browser tools that can help you work your social media profiles with minimal time investment. You know, all those times when you’re supposed to be doing your daily Twittering and you end up getting distracted by clicking on all sorts of links – usually a time waster, right? Well now you can make that seemingly aimless browsing productive. Head on over to BitRebels to read the full article.

Most social media strategists for business advocate being open, connecting with individuals on a personal level, and freely sharing information. But what happens when professional, ethical and legal considerations restrict such activity? Psychologists, along with other medical professionals face a unique set of challenges.

Here’s some of the talking points that came up.

Does blogging provide too much information that a client should be paying for?
This is a question that crosses industries – does giving away information cannibalize your business? The overall consensus would seem to be that the more you give, the more you get but guidelines must be observed for this profession. First of all, a blog post could in no way replace the value or experience of an actual therapy session, and it would also be inappropriate to try and provide actual therapy in this way.

However, blogging can be looked at as a way to establish yourself as an expert in your field. You can do this by discussing a topic in general terms, and providing insight & analysis on relevant news within that field. If you take a specific approach to your specialty, for example a holistic approach, blogging about this could be beneficial for potential patients that are looking for that approach or want to find out more about what that means.

Does participating in social media give away too much about myself?
I think this question has as many answers as there are people asking it. The good thing about social media is that you can participate to the level you are comfortable with. Nothing personal needs to be shared if this is not appropriate. For psychologists and therapists the concern is that sharing too much of themselves personally may let their client or potential client know too much about them and this may be detrimental to their working relationship, or create a ‘dual relationship.’

Keep personal separate from professional
Keep personal and professional profiles separate where possible and desirable. Facebook seems to be the biggest culprit here since many people use it to keep in touch with personal friends. Dr. Gretchen Kubacky who has been experimenting with social media for several months, and was kind enough to answer a few questions for me, says she maintains a policy of not allowing clients to ‘friend’ her on Facebook.

Another option could be to maintain a business Page for professional purposes that non-personal contacts could interact with. Facebook offers a variety of privacy levels, which, when used in combination with utilizing the friend Lists feature, can provide additional layers of privacy. They just introduced the ability to restrict visibility on a per post basis for every status update you make – this could prove a very useful tool.

There is some privacy in social media if you choose it
It may be reassuring to know that pretty much every social network has privacy tools. So if someone is bothering you on Twitter, or if you have an unwanted or inappropriate follower, you can easily Block them, or report them as Spammers. You can also protect your Tweets so that you can keep close tabs on who is following you. As described above, Facebook has numerous privacy controls. If you have your own blog, you can moderate all comments, or even turn them off if you don’t want to open up a discussion. So social media can be tailored to your comfort level to a great extent.

The challenge of exploring what and how to share in social media

1)   Before any foray into social media, have clear goals about why you are participating and think about where your boundaries are around what you will share, how you will interact and with whom.

2)   Share from a professional perspective with personal elements only as it pertains to how you approach your practice and of course never violating any confidentiality.

I think Dr. Kubacky’s approach is a great model for any psychologist looking to get involved:

“I do not allow clients to “friend” me on FB, and my postings would never violate a client confidence, in any case.  Anyone can follow me on Twitter – and again, you may get to know me a bit personally, but I work from a feminist and relational perspective that permits limited self-disclosure, so I’m not inconsistent with my theoretical orientation…I post things that are personal, but also that demonstrate my commitment to self-care, relational development, and healthy living.  I never post intimacies…..I’ve never agreed with the “therapist as blank slate” conceptualization, so I think it’s okay for clients to know a little about their therapists.”

There’s more to it than Twitter and Facebook
Find your niche. Social networking goes beyond Twitter and Facebook. LinkedIn is definitely more professionally oriented and if referrals from professionals in related fields are an important source of business, this could be a good tool to use in networking with less of the issues that other networks raise. There are also many niche social networks that have sprung up around very specific issues. For example, if your specialty is autism, there are communities of autistic people and their families/friends that you could connect with, especially if you provide workshops, groups or similar services that cater to a specific audience. On Twitter you could choose to only network with other health professionals in order to develop referral sources, rather than with people that might be potential clients.

I’m interested in hearing your thoughts and feedback or if there are other issues that should be addressed. Feel free to leave your comments!

Many thanks to Dr. Jennifer Cassatly and Dr. Gretchen Kubacky who were gracious enough to answer my many questions and provide valuable information and insights.

If you are not already connecting the dots between your offline and online social networking, you’re missing out on the real benefits. In The Tipping Point Malcolm Gladwell emphasizes the importance of ‘weak ties’ – social media is the perfect way to maintain these – especially for an introverted geek like me who’d prefer to tap at a keyboard than pick up a phone ;)

Why Social Networking Is A Great Way To Build On Your Real Life Networking

1) Networking events can be hectic – perhaps you just meet someone for a few minutes and trade cards. What’s the next step? Keeping in contact with someone you met briefly can be a bit awkward – what do you find to email or call that person about? It’s hard to call just for a casual chat when you don’t really know them or have a particular reason to get in touch. A connection like that could easily dwindle, but with social networking you have the opportunity to stay connected in an easy, low-maintenance way – find out more about each other, and over time, opportunities could open up. In this way, even a brief interaction at an event can still lead to a valuable business relationship. No ‘power lunches’ required.

2) Being social networking buddies is a good way to stay “top-of-mind” without constantly sales-pitching. If you show that you are being helpful and knowledgeable, you’ve scored way more points than an email or phone sales-pitch could have. It gives people an invaluable glimpse into what it might be like to do business with you.

3) While some people are great in social situations and very comfortable with that, others find it much easier to be themselves in the virtual world. So by connecting with people in both realms, you get a more well-rounded picture of who this person is, and they of you, and what you may have in common –personally or in business.

Ways To Enhance Your Offline Networking With Online Social Networking
Many of these work as standalone social networking tips, but when you combine them with the personal face-to-face connection, you’re boosting your network-building exponentially.

1) When I’m at a networking event, I’m not there to sell you something. I prefer to meet people as people – not stepping stones. I try and gain some insight as to what you’re all about as a person, as well as about what you do, and who your ideal client might be, in case I can make referrals.  I take the same approach online – by now we should all know that social media is not the place for sales pitches!

2) The following actually happened to me.  After a networking event, someone that was present but that I did not meet got my email from the group’s website and sent me a templated email saying “Great meeting you at [the event]” and then went on to launch a full sales pitch at me! AND they added me to their email list. This is, well,  icky to put it mildly and totally turned me off wanting to correspond with this person. A much more appropriate, friendlier and less invasive way would have been to find me on Twitter, Linked In etc and connect with me there in a more sincere manner – “Hey I didn’t meet you at the event but would like to connect.”

2) Email/phone is good for passing along relevant information in a personal way or for private communication, but social media is a great place to say something like ‘hey, great blog post’ since you are contributing to the social proof of that person’s expertise.

3) When I meet cool or interesting people offline, I like to then find them on Twitter and give them a shout out or perhaps a FollowFriday – but not the kind that just lists a bunch of names in one tweet  -I give each person a separate Tweet with something about them that stands out and why it could be good to follow them.  Again, it’s great for their social proof, and it’s just more personal and thoughtful.

4) Participate in crowdsourcing & problem solving – when someone you know asks an open question via a social network, even if you can’t answer it, perhaps you can redirect it to your own network on their behalf. A very fast, painless way to leverage your own network for someone else – it’ll be appreciated.

5) If you’re attending an event – find out who the attendees are and connect online beforehand – maybe even arrange a meetup at the event. It’s easier if the ice is already broken before you even meet IRL (in real life).

6) Use organizational tools like Twitter lists or filters on your Facebook feeds specifically for people you’ve met IRL so that you can easily keep up with them – especially if you follow a lot of people.

What other ways can you think of to connect the dots between online and offline social networking?

*header image:http://www.flickr.com/photos/ecstaticist/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

As the moderator or creator of a group it’s important for you to set the tone, expectations, and be proactive in maintaining a environment conducive to community:

Encourage member participation by praising and highlighting valuable contributions to the group. This incentivizes others to share their content and engage. If you encounter negative or counterproductive behavior from a member, it’s important to be professional and civil. Should it become necessary to issue a warning, handle the matter privately.

Read the full article: 8 Tips for Managing a LinkedIn Group.

Here’s a few thoughts on why you might want to start a group on a social networking platform in the first place:

1) To create a community based around a particular interest
2) To enhance your own knowledge by learning from your peers
3) To share your passion and knowledge of your particular niche
4) As the curator of a successful group you have the opportunity to raise awareness of your personal or business brand – this will only work if you do things the right way! Starting a group and letting it languish or become an outpost for spammers will not do much for you.
5) Possible business opportunities – participating in groups allows members to showcase their expertise and people who need that help gravitate toward groups to find the experts. As the founder of the group you may become a natural place for people to begin their inquiries.
6) To connect with peers and leaders in your industry. If you are starting a group based around business-interests, chances are you will attract some people you may consider to be the ‘competition.’ Look at this as an opportunity to network with others in your space – business opportunities and collaborations may result.
7) To provide a community space for your organization. If you happen to work for a company that has staff in different places, starting a group can provide a place for those people to feel more connected to each other.

There are many other possible reasons to start a group or community – post yours in the comments!

header image courtesy of: Erica Marshall of muddyboots.org

My personal opinion on the change is that it’s unnecessary and doesn’t add anything useful.

Since I have about 800 friends on my Facebook profile, I utilize Friend Lists  to organize them (my real life friends, professional contacts etc) and can filter my News Feed according to those groups. It works nicely and allows me to see the information I choose according to my own criteria. And when I want to see general updates from all my friends, I look at the main News Feed. Lovely.

So why do I want Facebook to come along and try and filter my News Feed for me when I already have filtered it for myself just the way I like it?!

Well, I don’t. So I personally will continue to use what is now called the “Live Feed” to see all updates and will continue to filter using Friend Lists, therefore bypassing this new-fangled ‘News Feed.’

Here’s why. The filtering process FB uses is largely based on content that a user has interacted with in the past (commented on, clicked the like button etc), but there are plenty of interesting posts that I enjoy seeing that I just don’t bother to interact with in any way. So as Marshall states in his article,  “Weak social connections and your personal long-tail of content are less prioritized in this view.”

Well I actually LIKE to see what my ‘weak’ social connections and long tailers are doing. In fact that happens to be one way to stay connected with those folks – through occasional interaction and knowing what’s going on in their world. That’s one of the advantages of FB for me personally.

So I think for people that use Facebook purely to keep in touch with people they know in real life or their actual friends, the new News Feed may make less of a difference to them. But for those of us that have a larger number of Friends and a mixture of Friend types – real friends, professional friends, or even people such as musicians whose updates I’m interested in but I don’t interact with –  this new News Feed is a very clumsy feature.

For me personally, social networks are a way to expand my realm of contacts beyond just my immediate social circle and the new News Feed essentially keeps me in my own bubble, so it defeats the purpose.

What do you think about the changes? How do you currently use Facebook’s features and does this affect it?

*header image courtesy of http://www.flickr.com/photos/fbouly/