Archive for branding

Another Facebook Secret … Moving Facebook Friends to Fans or “Likers” as some might say

By Lissa Duty

Thursday, February 24th, 2011

Moving Facebook Friends to Fans or “Likers” as some might say

— I had to include this line, as I have had too many laughs about it with friends who also specialize social media marketing. When Facebook changed to the “Like” button for Fan Pages, which they now call Business Pages we all made lots of wise cracks.

At the end of last year, I shared One of My Facebook Secrets and I feel the need to share another one today. Perhaps I should call this a Facebook Strategy verses a secret. I have many secrets still hidden away to share with you in my Facebook Training sessions.

I am inspired by the questions asked by my friends, fans, followers and well, you. It motivates me to help you solve your problems, answer your questions to help you and others grow their network and brand strategically via social networking sites.

Last week on Twitter, Angela Shelton, after reading my blog post Are you a RULE BREAKER? Know Your Facebook Rights and Wrongs she had lots of questions for me. She wanted to know how to convert Facebook Friends over to her Business Page (Fan Page). She said she had tried to move them over in the past, but they usually ignored her request, didn’t see it or were offended because she wanted to unfriend them of Facebook.

What they didn’t understand is she was not trying to unfriend them, she was wanting to follow Facebook’s Statement of Rights and keep her Facebook Profile for personal connections and her Business Page for professional connections. I had no quick answer to solve her problem in the 140 characters that Twitter allows. I decided to write a blog post giving suggestions how to entice them to “Like” her Business Page.

Here are the strategies:

Post a status update on your Business Page that would get “Likes” and comments. Something about your business of course, not personal. Perhaps a new client you landed or recognition you received for your business. Go to your Facebook Profile and say “Just posted some exciting news on my Business Page (link to business page)”. Make sure and go check it out. Don’t forget to click “Like”.
Post a status update on your Facebook Profile that says “Friends, I truly love connecting with each and everyone of you. I have recently been made aware of Facebook’s Statement of Rights regarding Facebook Profiles and Business Pages. I want to keep you updated on my business, but according to Facebook I must do this on a Business Page. Please go click “Like” (link to business page here) and let’s stay connected there also. We’ll still have some fun on my Facebook Profile, but it will be focused somewhat different.”
Post a status update on your Facebook Profile saying “I am having so much fun connecting on my Business Page, if you haven’t already checked it out, please do (link to business page here)”

These are just a few strategies to get your friends moved across to your Facebook Business Page. I hope these ideas inspired a few other statements you can use to entice them. You can repeat these statements of course from time to time (maximum once per week) at different times to catch all your friends.

As your friends click “Like” on your Business Page, assign them to a list (Read how here) on your Facebook Profile that limits the status updates they see on our Facebook Profile. They will get use to not seeing your Facebook Profile status updates regularly and gradually been communicating with you on the Business Page. Eventually, (wait several months), you can unfriend them on your Facebook Profile if you want and they probably won’t even notice.

Another quick something to know …. at this point Facebook Business Pages cannot communicate with Facebook Profiles, only other Business Pages, so if you unfriend someone from your Facebook Profile, the only time you would be able to communicate with your them from your Business Pages is when they comment/”Like” something posted on your Business Page or as you from your Facebook Profile via messages, etc…. (This will be limited based on how they have their Facebook Privacy Settings established.)

It’s your turn! What tips did you come up with for moving friends to fans? How are you going to entice them to “Like” your Business Page? Look forward to hearing from you!

P.S. Special thanks Angela Shelton for the inspiration of this blog post! You should give her a follow on Twitter and check out her Facebook Business Page. Her background is quite interesting.

Categories : Facebook

Tags : branding, business page, facebook, facebook lists, Facebook Statement of Rights, Facebook training, fan page, fans, friends, like, likes, networking sites, Social Media, social media marketing, social networing sites, Statement of Rights, status updates

Is this photo of you? Are you protecting your digital footprint?

By Lissa Duty

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011

Is this photo of you? Are you protecting your digital footprint?

When you post a photograph online do you realize how easy it is for someone to save it to their own computer? Do you realize that in the Terms and Agreement of Services for many photo sites like Flickr and Picassa, you are giving your rights to the photograph to the site? Do you know that when you text someone a photo of you they can email it to themselves and then publish it online?

Yesterday I was researching a client’s online presence on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and the other social networking sites, checking his completed social media profiles, photos, etc … I surprisingly came across a picture of him uploaded about two and half years ago. Wow, was I surprised! It was a very provocative photo, but not part of the image he wanted to portray online any longer.

I immediately removed the photo, and of course had several laughs about it with him! He was embarrassed and explained that it was uploaded as a joke several years ago and he had forgotten about it.

I couldn’t resist explaining the importance of your online presence and digital footprint. I saved the picture to my hard drive and emailed it to him. I wanted to show him how easy it was for someone to save and modify it; changing it to suit their needs. Jokingly, I said that we should keep an eye out for it on a future ad for getting rid of belly fat! LOL! I believe I got my point across and he probably won’t upload those type of photos again, even as a joke.

Ask yourself these questions about your online photos:

Are you willing to share it with the world?
Would you mind seeing it at your high school graduation, wedding, etc…. on a video screen?
Would you be embarrassed if your boss, client, or mother saw it?
Would you have objections if your child shared a similar photo of themselves on or offline?

All photos of me must pass the above screening process before I upload or allow anyone to take my photo. You can’t control every photo or even know every time a photo is taken of you, but you can be aware of your surroundings and observe when others are taking photographs. Ask the person taking the photographs to please let you see them before posting online, try and put your back or side profile to the photographer, it will be a little harder for you to be recognized online.

Being seen at social events is an important part of branding and your online presence, but the photos need to be photos you would share with the world. Not a photograph you would regret later. Taking crazy photographs with your friends can be fun, but they can also have an impact later.

Try to limit being snapped in these photos:

Drinking what would appear to be an alcoholic beverage.
Talking with your hands making certain gestures.
Photos with your tongue sticking out, making crazy eyes, rabbit ears, etc…

These are all fun for now, but I promise there is a very strong possibility that those fun pictures can be damaging to you in the future. Your client might decide you are not serious enough, or perhaps drinking is a NO-NO in their book. I had a photo snapped of me where I was talking with my hands (as I often do) and it appeared from the angle of the photo I was grabbing the chest of the person next. Of course, I knew the photo was innocent, but everyone that would have seen it online would not have known that!

Here is your assignment, if you haven’t already done so:

Login to each one of your social networking sites, even the old ones (Myspace, etc…) that you don’t use anymore.
Read through your profile and remove anything that could be offensive, misleading or misinterpreted.
Check each photograph of you, ones you uploaded and ones you are tagged in. Remove anything questionable; always play it safe when in doubt. If the photos of you aren’t ones you uploaded and you can’t remove them, ask the account owner to kindly remove them. If they refuse, you could report the photo as spam on many social networking sites.
Think back to social events you attended and recall someone taking photos. Email the photographer and ask them to see the photographers. Ask if the photos are stored online and ask for the link. You want to see them online also.

Now, let us have some fun! Do you have a crazy photo story you want to share with the readers of this post? Tell us about a time when you had something happened to you online that you didn’t expect. Tell us how you resolved the situation. We all need to make sure our online presence is top quality, and sharing scenarios will help all of us!

As always, looking forward to your comments!

Categories : Social Media

Are you Influencing your Social Network?

By Lissa Duty

Thursday, December 30th, 2010

I was reading a blog post by one of the branding greats, Chris Brogan about influence and it inspired me to think about and write the following ….

Are you Influencing your social network?

I think influence is about not only who knows you, who you know, but of those that do know you … how do they think of you? Do they recommend you? Do they immediately think of you when they hear a certain word or phrase. This all relates back to branding and influence both ….

Are you their go to expert for your industry?
Are you branding yourself effectively?

These are the questions I think of relating to my influence and online presence:

Do I let my audience know I specialize in social media marketing?
Do I talk enough about Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter?
Do I talk too much about Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter?
Do I share information that allows my audience to connect with with me on a professional and personal level?
Do my connections recommend me to their network because of my expertise?
Do those connections turn into emails, phone conversations and clients?

I challenge you to write down a minimum of 5 questions to ask your social networks, inner circle of friends, strategic partners and your family. Find out if you are influencing them! If not, your influence is not where you need it to be and your branding focus needs to be put back on track!

If you think you could use some help in this area, do check out my Social Media Marketing Coaching specials I have running thru December 31st. I would be glad to help you increase your influence and expand your brand awareness globally!

Please share who influences you, the questions you would ask of your network about your influence and share what you would want us to know about you. Your comments and feedback helps all of us to grow and learn.

Categories : Branding

Tags : branding, facebook, influence, influencing your network, linkedin, Lissa Duty, marketing, Social Marketing, Social Media, social media coaching, social media marketing, twitter

Is your Social Media in the RED or the BLACK? #BlackFriday

By Lissa Duty

Tuesday, November 23rd, 2010

Is your Social Media in the RED or the BLACK? #BlackFriday

Every year I go shopping on Black Friday and I have been planning my route and purchases, it got me thinking about my clients’ social media and what I do to help them get out of the RED and into the BLACK. I decided I am going to share some information to help YOU get out of the RED and into the BLACK. First, let me give you a little background on BLACK Friday.

BLACK Friday has many meanings. The one that triggered this blog post is the one for retailers. The Friday after Thanksgiving is known to be one of the largest shopping days each year and many stores run huge sales and open extra early to encourage extra foot traffic. It got the name BLACK Friday because many retailers that were running in the RED often sell enough merchandise to put them in the BLACK on this day and throughout the remainder of the holiday shopping season that follows up to Dec. 24^th.

I want to ask you to read the following and consider is your social media in the RED or the BLACK?

1. Do you log into your Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn account because you feel obligated? Do you think to yourself I have to go in and post a status update/send a Tweet because I haven’t done it today, this week or this month? Are you only doing enough to get by?

If you are using social media as a strategy to grow your business, consulting practice, sell books, websites, whatever your business may be and you are posting status updates because you feel obligated – STOP! If all you are doing to work your social media is an obligatory daily, weekly or maybe even monthly update DON’T bother. For social media to work for you and your business you need to have a presence ONLINE on a repeat basis. Remember, customers do business with those they “Like, Know and Trust”. You are not achieving this goal with your obligatory updates. You are wasting your time and energy. (Sorry to be so direct, but part of my relationship with my readers is based on honesty and forthrightness!)

You need a structured plan, great content, ideas and a presence that one update will not get you. You need to be using groups, discussion boards, chats, conversation and comments to establish a relationship with your connections and a rapport that you can not achieve with an obligatory update.

2. Do you tweet on Twitter, post status updates to Facebook, or LinkedIn, etc…. on a regular basis, but only have 20 people following/friends/connections? Do you get any “Shares”, “Likes”, “Comments” or “Retweets”?

Part of social media is a numbers game. I am not saying you need to have 10,000 etc… connected to you online for social media to work, but you do have to have an audience, i.e. when on Twitter your Tweets are seen by those following you. A new person to Twitter doesn’t always understand/realize that if you only have 20 followers only 20 people are seeing your Tweets, maybe. If they are not online when you send the Tweet they may never see it. I will see many times someone on Twitter sharing great content, but have no audience. I immediately realize (1) they don’t understand this concept or (2) don’t know how to get more followers.

Shares, Likes, Comments and Retweets: This is a great way to know and see if (1) people are actually seeing your updates and (2) see if you are sharing the kind of content your followers/friends/connections are interested in reading. If you don’t know what I mean when I say “Shares”, “Likes”, “Comments” or “Retweets”, or ever get them, your social media is in the RED.

3. Are you still logging into Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc… via a web browser? i.e. Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, etc…. to view and post status updates.

Using the web browser to access your Twitter account is good for some things, however there are better tools available to help you manage your social media accounts. Tweetdeck is my favorite! Hootsuite is another popular tool for this purpose. There are many to choose from. You can actually use Tweetdeck to view Tweets of those your are following, and the Facebook and LinkedIn updates of your friends/connections.

You can use a Tweetdeck to post updates to your Twitter, Facebook Profile, Fan Page and LinkedIn accounts. You can select which accounts get which updates and you can even schedule them in advance. It’s important to have activity on your social media accounts throughout the day at peak times, not just when you have the opportunity to be online.

I hardly every log into Twitter through the web browser, Tweetdeck has integrated all most all of the features available on Twitter through the browser to work with the Tweetdeck. You still will log into your Facebook and LinkedIn for important aspects of social media. I actually just teach/coach on using the Tweetdeck to schedule updates to Facebook and LinkedIn. Everything else within these social media networks you will do through the browser for the most part.

4. Have you heard of the tools I mentioned above and you keep thinking to yourself I need to learn about them and be using them more? Or are their names Greek to you? Have you tried to use these tools and they confuse you?

Ask for help!!! Ask friends using these tools to teach you, go to YouTube and search for tutorial videos others have made on how to use them. You may find the best and most cost effective route in the long run, when you consider your time, energy and frustration is to hire a social media professional to teach you.

As part of the social media coaching services I offer training on Tweetdeck. I coach my clients on how to create a presence on social media, how to use each social media tool and understand whatever thing means. We focus on marketing strategy and maintenance, which can be performed mostly through a Tweetdeck, one centralized area.

5. Have you claimed your business listing on Yahoo Local, Google Places, Bing Local, etc …? Are you using Ping.Fm, Google Reader, Social Oomph and Twellow? Do you even know what these sites/tools are?

If you aren’t REGISTERED on them this is a sure sign your social media is in the RED.

Does this blog post trigger more questions for you? I am going to stop here and close with this advice:

Learn the best way!
Increase your followers/friends/connections!
Stop with the obligatory updates!
Share tips, content and resources!
Ask for help!

If you want to get your social media out of the RED and into the BLACK use the acronym above as a guide!

I look forward to your comments, feedback and tips! It’s an important part of learning for all of us! So comment away! Thanks in advance for “Commenting”, “Liking”, “Sharing” and “Retweeting”! LOL!

Categories : Social Media

Tags : #BlackFriday, Black Friday, branding, facebook, linkedin, Lissa Duty, marketing, media marketing, mentions, retweets, Social Marketing, Social Media, social media coaching, social media marketing, social media tools, status updates, Tweetdeck, tweets, twitter

#FollowFriday or #FF – What does follow friday mean to you?

By Lissa Duty

Monday, October 25th, 2010

What does follow Friday or #FF mean to you?

@VANetworking shouted out to me several weeks ago on Twitter and asked “Why so many #FollowFriday recommendations?” and I have been thinking about this every since.

I do give quite a few #FollowFriday recommendations because it has several meanings to me:

I recommend people that share great content.
I recommend people that have a great business model.
I recommend people that are my friends.
I recommend people that have a service I highly value.
I recommend people that to me – are just plain great for one reason or another.

#FollowFriday was started originally as a way to help our friends grow their Twitter following, especially the new Twitter users that were getting started and didn’t have any followers yet. Over time, as we have all grown our followings and it has turned into the above Items #1 thru #5. Some quit giving #FollowFriday altogether.

Do you even have time to click on the Twitter ids that your friends are recommending anymore? I know for myself I try to, but between giving all the #FollowFridays, Tweeting content and RT’ing, plus thanking everyone for the mentions and RTs it is quite hard to keep up and I am a social media professional. I can imagine who overwhelming it can be for everyone else out there.

I myself have stopped doing all the “Thanking for each #FollowFriday & Retweet”. I do my thanking on Sundays or Mondays for the #FollowFridays and do my RT thanking about three times a week. It gives me more time to have the real conversation that is so important and the reason for Twitter in the first place.

I often write blog posts to get myself back in line on what I should be doing or want to do differently. I am still going to do my #FollowFriday’s as I have been in the past (so don’t worry – I won’t forget about you), but I am going to add in throughout the week a #SoloShout to new friends and businesses that I want to introduce you to.

Why don’t you help me out with this mission? Commit to sending one #SoloShout Tweet per day. (Or maybe for your schedule it will be once a week.) Don’t send hundreds – pick one person or business and help get the word out about them that day! Perhaps you could send the same Tweet out three times that day – to hit the morning, afternoon and evening users. Just think – if you focus on helping your fellow man/woman grow their business and spread their brand, they will want to help you in return!

Please comment below your thoughts on this idea and your commitment! Looking forward to seeing and reading your #SoloShout recommendations in my stream in the coming weeks! Adding a search column in my Tweetdeck right now — #SoloShout!

P.S. Here is to my first #SoloShout to @VANetworking – Thanks for your question about #FollowFriday & your inspiration!

Categories : Twitter

Tags : #FF, branding, commit, Follow Friday, FollowFriday, Retweet, RT, tweet, tweets, twitter, twitter id, VANetworking

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