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Tag Archive for facebook

22 Nov 2012

Facebook Page Setup in 5 Simple Steps

Your Facebook Business Page

I’ve written previously about the importance of a Facebook Page for your business, and setting up a page is something most of my training clients ask about. Today I’m going to go through the initial setup process. Just like this image, your Facebook Page does act as your “shop window” so it’s worth taking time to get it looking great!

1. Choose your Category

click for larger image

Go to Page Setup on Facebook.

Available options are:

Local business or place

Company, organisation or institution

Brand or product

Artist, band or public figure

Entertainment

Cause or community

It’s worth taking a while to browse through all these options – it can sometimes be a little tricky deciding which one best fits your business. The good news is that you can change your Facebook page category at any time, so if you’re not quite sure that your initial choice is right, it’s not a problem. For the purpose of this article, we’ll assume you are a “Local Business”, so you’ll need to select that option.

click for larger image

Next, you need to select a category from the drop-down list. Let’s say you run a restaurant.

Now. add your details – business name, address (including postcode), telephone number. Also, Facebook asks that you agree to their terms and they offer a link to read them. It’s well worth doing this before going ahead. If you’re happy, click “Get Started”.

2. Add your business information

The next thing Facebook asks for is a profile picture, but you’ll probably want to skip this step (and a few more) until you’re sure you have suitable images etc., as there are optimum sizes. (NB my fictional restaurant is called Apples!)

click for larger image

Next step is to add some basic information about your business – this should be a short paragraph summarising what you offer. It’s important to include relevant keywords in this section, as Google will find them! Again, the information can be edited / updated at any time and indeed it’s a good thing to change it from time to time (to keep Google happy). Don’t forget to tick the box to confirm that your business is real! You also have a section here for your website URL. In fact you can add several URLs, (see the “add another site” link) so you could include your Twitter page and any other relevant sites.

click for larger image

3. Complete your Page Setup

Surprise surprise, at the next stage you’re asked if you want to advertise (well, Facebook does have to earn money!) You might want to jump in straightaway, but I’d recommend waiting until you get a feel for your Facebook Page and the way people interact with it.

click for larger image

4. Like your Page

Then, you’re asked to “Like” your Page – and why wouldn’t you want to do that? So go on, click that Like button! The next 2 steps are “Invite your Friends” (meaning your Facebook friends, on your personal profile) and “Invite your Email Contacts” – I usually suggest skipping both of these because as before, you can do it later if you decide it’s worthwhile.

5. Your Page is ready to roll!

Having gone through the above steps, your brand new Facebook Page is ready and waiting for your first update. The image above shows what a “skeleton” page (prior to any content being posted) looks like. Your first aim should be to get at least 30 people liking the page, because that will give you access to Insights. Facebook Page Insights are powerful analytics (broadly similar to Google Analytics), enabling you to track the performance of your Page and optimise your posting and content schedules. In a subsequent article, I’ll go into more detail of how to optimise your Page and show you a few tips and tricks to get it working as a marketing tool for your business.

Need help getting started with a Facebook Page for your business? I’d love to work with you, so go ahead, take the first step! Contact me on 01777 249075 or by email at info@naomijohnsonsocialmedia.co.uk

Naomi Jane Johnson | No comments | Tags: business growth, digital marketing, facebook, facebook pages, social media marketing

30 Oct 2012

blogging • facebook • marketing • SEO • social media • social networking • twitter

Get more Traffic to your Blog with StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon is great for traffic

I’ve been meaning to write this post for a while – rebranding and creating a new website got in the way! I had a surprise a couple of months ago when I checked my Google Analytics and discovered that my top social traffic source was StumbleUpon. This was a first for me – in the past my top social referral sources have been either Facebook or Twitter.

StumbleUpon is a social bookmarking tool. This is not quite the same thing as a social network (such as Facebook or Twitter). However, Wikipedia defines it as a “discovery engine that finds and recommends web content to its users”. StumbleUpon has been around since 2001, so the platform pre-dates the likes of Facebook by quite some time.

StumbleUpon’s own explanation of what they’re about:

We help you easily discover new and interesting stuff on the Web. Tell us what you like, and we’ll introduce you to amazing web pages, videos, photos and more that you wouldn’t have found on your own.

Again according to Wikipedia, StumbleUpon reached 25 million users in April of 2012. That’s a lot of people who could be sharing your content! Here’s a short video:

What is StumbleUpon?

Basically, StumbleUpon is a tool that people might use when they’re bored and just want to browse the web. Based on a selection of interests that the user adds to their profile, StumbleUpon shows web pages related to those interests, and clicking the “Stumble” button generates a new page each time. The user can then click a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down” icon to show whether or not he/she likes that piece of content. This “trains” StumbleUpon, so that even more relevant content is shown to the user.

You’re probably wondering by now what this has to do with generating traffic to your website. Well, the more times a page is liked, the greater the chances of it being shown to more users. If your content generates a lot of likes, more Stumblers are going to be shown the page and guess what – you see an increase in traffic! It really is that simple.

So how do you get your content onto StumbleUpon? Firstly, sign up for an account. Then, every time you write a new blog post or article, make sure you give it a thumbs-up in your StumbleUpon account. This is very easy if you use WordPress and have added a social sharing plugin such as Digg Digg (this is the one I use) – all you need do is click the StumbleUpon icon.

URL Shortener

A less well known fact about StumbleUpon is that it has its own URL shortener – su.pr. This is a fairly recent (2011) addition to the platform. When I’d got over the shock of seeing that most of my traffic came from StumbleUpon, I thought about what I’d changed recently. I soon realised that the reason for the increased traffic was the fact that I’d changed the URL shortener used by another WordPress plugin – Tweet Old Post. This plugin automatically sends links to previous blog posts to my Twitter account (with accompanying explanatory text). When someone clicks the link in Twitter, they are taken to the blog post framed within StumbleUpon’s platform. Thereafter, if the Twitter user gives it a thumbs-up, it gets shown to more StumbleUpon users and it’s easy to see how this can result in more traffic. (see example below)

Twitter Tips for Business – [BLOG] su.pr/1fi5IQ #socialmedia

— Naomi J Johnson (@PurrfectSocial) October 28, 2012

If you don’t already use StumbleUpon, do you think you’ll give it a go now? There’s no reason not to! You should also consider using su.pr as your URL shortener of choice, for the potential traffic boost if nothing else.

I’d love to hear your thoughts and experiences with StumbleUpon and URL shorteners in general – please share in the comments! And why not “stumble” this post if you find it helpful?

Need help getting started with social media for your business? I’d love to work with you, so go ahead, take the first step! Contact me on 01777 249075 or by email at info@naomijohnsonsocialmedia.co.uk

Naomi Jane Johnson | 2 comments | Tags: blogging, facebook, google, search engine rankings, seo, social media strategy, tweets, twitter

27 Sep 2012

facebook • marketing • online reputation monitoring • SEO • small business • social media • twitter

Social Media – How to Conquer your Fears

Scared of Social Media?

I speak to business owners regularly, and many tell me that they have social media accounts (most commonly Facebook and Twitter) but they rarely update them either because they haven’t seen any results, or because they don’t have time/don’t know what to say. My response is that social media doesn’t produce overnight results. It’s just one part of a complete marketing strategy. Facebook and Twitter may not be appropriate for your business; have you looked at your target market? Finding things to say isn’t difficult at all when you use the right tools. As for the time problem, it’s perfectly possible to manage an adequate social media presence in just 15 minutes per day! If these concerns sound familiar to you, this article should go some way towards conquering your social media fears.

Dangers of Not Using Social Media

Many businesses are aware of the benefits of having a social media presence but are still wary of getting involved. There’s no point getting involved just for the sake of it or because everyone else is – but there are risks if you don’t.

Start Small

You don’t need to jump in at the deep end and set up on several networks immediately – always consider social media as part of your overall marketing strategy. You should know your target market and identify which networks they are likely to be active on, allowing you to design an appropriate social media plan. If you’re not sure how to go about this, advice and training might be of benefit.

Customer Service

It’s a dialogue between the business and its customers/clients. Social media offers an amazing opportunity to amplify this dialogue. If someone complains about your company on a social network and you’re not there to answer, just think what might happen. We know how rapidly news can spread via Twitter and Facebook. Similarly, if someone recommends you, you can ensure that the message is spread far and wide! Simply because of the sheer numbers of people using social networks daily, chances are someone is talking about you and you should be listening.

Sales and Leads

It’s now well known that potential customers research their purchases online – they will commonly ask their friends on Facebook or Twitter for opinions on products. Try “anyone recommend” as a search on Twitter if you don’t believe me! Most major brands feature reviews on their website – because they know that people value recommendations from their peers. You need to be where the conversation is.

Just for Young People?

This is a common misconception. Facebook is set to reach 1 billion worldwide users this year – more than half are over 35 and the largest growing sector is the over 55s! Social media is here to stay and it’s used by everyone.

Reputation Monitoring

This is one of the most important features of social media for businesses. You can track (via various tools) what’s being said about your company/brand and respond quickly if necessary.

Content Syndication

If your business has a blog (and it should), or produces articles regularly, social media offers a very simple way to reach a wider audience. Most blogs nowadays have social sharing links to enable readers to immediately share the content to their own networks. When you consider that the average Facebook user has 130 friends, and the average Twitter user around 100 followers, it’s easy to see how quickly good content can spread. You also have the opportunity to comment on other blogs, leaving a link back to your own – yet another way of raising your profile and sharing your content.

Two-Way Dialogue

We’ve reached the end of “business as usual” – we are no longer limited to 5 days a week, 9-5. There are now many ways of communication besides email and telephone and multiple devices (desktop PC, laptop, tablet, smartphone) Social media facilitates this new way of working.

How will you get started?

Forget your social media fears! Look out for my next post outlining a simple process for establishing and maintaining a strong social media presence for your business.

Image credit: fuzzbones / 123RF Stock Photo

Image credit: senkaya / 123RF Stock Photo

Naomi Jane Johnson | 4 comments | Tags: facebook, google, reputation monitoring, search engine rankings, seo, small business, social media, social media marketing, twitter

15 Sep 2012

facebook • google plus • linkedin • pinterest • social media • social networking • twitter

Social Media and SMBs – a study

SMBs and Social Media

Here’s a very informative study recently published by Vocus in conjunction with Duct Tape Marketing, showing how small and medium businesses (SMBs) are currently using social media. You can read the original article here. View the SlideShare presentation below.

Did any of the information surprise you? Do share your views in the comments

Need help implementing social media for your business? I’d love to work with you, so go ahead, take the first step! Contact me on 01777 249075 or by email at info@naomijohnsonsocialmedia.co.uk

Naomi Jane Johnson | No comments | Tags: digital marketing, facebook, google plus, linkedin, social media, social media management, twitter

29 May 2012

facebook • social media • twitter • youtube

Ready for the Diamond Jubilee?

Get Involved on Social Media

Even if you’re not in the UK, it’s highly unlikely you’re not aware that we in the UK will be celebrating the Diamond Jubilee of Her Majesty Elizabeth II this coming weekend. Anti-royalists aside, we should be proud of our Royal Family and the great job they do of promoting Britain!

Your Chance to Gain Followers

What does this have to do with social media, you might ask? Well, social media is primarily about being social, and topical news always gets plenty of interest, so why not make the most of the opportunity? Don’t switch off your computers, tablets and smartphones this weekend – you have a whole 4 days to get involved with the social aspects of the Jubilee and who knows, you could gain new followers and maybe even pick up some business!

Watch out for the #diamondjubilee hashtag on Twitter and follow the conversation as the events of the weekend unfold. If you haven’t noticed already, social media activity goes hand in hand with popular TV programmes and live events – just take a look at the trending topics for Saturday evenings when programmes such as The Voice are aired! People do sit with smartphones and tablets to hand, commenting and sharing like crazy – surely you haven’t forgotten the huge social media excitement during last year’s Royal Wedding? Get creative and think about how you could relate this weekend’s events to your business.

In fact, the Royal Family is a shining example of how to use social media to its full potential. If you hadn’t already come across the accounts and websites of the British Monarchy, here are some of them (pictures link to the appropriate account/site):

And Finally…

If none of the above has spurred you into action, then I have one further suggestion, albeit slightly irreverent! If you haven’t come across the Queen’s personal Twitter account, then you don’t know what you’re missing

OK, of course it’s not really Her Majesty tweeting, but this is a brilliant parody account full of sarcastic swipes at the UK Government, the Duke of Edinburgh and other family members – not to mention the Queen’s supposed love of gin! Here’s a screenshot:

There is also a book “Gin o’Clock” available from Amazon – I haven’t read it yet but it’s definitely on my wish list!

Will you be getting involved with the Jubilee events on social media? Let me know in the comments what you’ll doing and saying related to your business!

Need help using social media for your business? Take the first step! Contact me on 01777 249075
or by email at info@naomijohnsonsocialmedia.co.uk

Naomi Jane Johnson | No comments | Tags: facebook, facebook pages, social media, tweets, twitter, youtube

30 Apr 2012

blogging • facebook • google plus • linkedin • social media • social networking • twitter

What to say on social media

Help – what do I say on social media?

This is a “frequently asked question” in my experience, and it seems that many business owners wonder what to say on social media. They are worried about saying the wrong thing, and/or they simply can’t think of enough different things, or indeed anything at all, to say to make social media activity worthwhile. A common misconception is that people only use social media to post about what they had for breakfast…

It’s not unusual for people to feel that they aren’t interesting, or they don’t want to sound like they’re bragging, and they know it’s not about what you had for breakfast……so their perception is that they don’t have anything useful to share on social media.

Newsflash…

…you don’t have to post about yourself or your business most of the time! Here’s the thing: there’s absolutely no need to continually produce original content to post on social media, in fact it’s far better not to. Sharing other people’s content is far more valuable and will go a long way towards building your social communities and generating interaction and engagement. A good rule of thumb would be to make at least 80% of your social media updates not directly related to your own business or products. However you can – and should – post links to your own blog articles whenever you produce them. If you don’t already have a blog for your business, you might want to read this article I wrote last year.

Ways to find shareable content

If you’ve just set up your social media accounts – we’ll assume you’ve chosen Facebook and Twitter to start with – I’d recommend not posting anything for the first week or two. Instead, just watch and learn from others. Run a few searches to find other businesses in your niche, follow them, then keep an eye on the type of things they post. Do you find any of it interesting? Chances are that you will – you might click a few links and find yet more useful information. Would your colleagues also find it interesting? Go ahead and share (on Facebook) or retweet (on Twitter). Congratulations, you’re learning what social media is all about!

To make sharing easier, try setting up a few lists in Twitter and in Facebook. This allows you to curate content from like-minded people or those in the same field of business as yourself, without having to trawl through updates from all of your followers. You can then simply visit your lists daily and quickly find anything of interest that you feel is worth sharing.

From my own viewpoint, I’d be lost without Google Reader. It has been a real goldmine of information for me and I spend time every day going through my list of blogs and sharing links on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus. (I don’t share every link to all networks, I am selective about it). Take a look at my previous article on Google Reader to learn more – I highly recommend you set up an account if you’ve not already done so – it’s free

Interact with others

Once you’re feeling comfortable on your chosen social networks and are starting to build a community, you will want to start giving back to others, perhaps by recommending them. If you see a request for help and you know someone who offers that particular service, all you have to do is reply and tag / @mention your contact and guess what, everyone benefits and you might well gain a new follower and/or potential customer. And it goes without saying that if anyone recommends you, you should respond quickly and thank them. This is one reason why you do need to visit your social media accounts regularly, to check for messages and mentions so that you aren’t leaving someone waiting and wondering why they’ve not had a response to their question.

And finally…..

The burning question – YES! It is OK to mention yourself, your products and services occasionally. But try to keep the self-promotion as subtle as possible. For example, I might post something like “Need help using social media for your business?” with a link to my website.

Need help using social media for your business? Take the first step! Contact me on 01777 249075
or by email at info@naomijohnsonsocialmedia.co.uk

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Naomi Jane Johnson | 2 comments | Tags: blogging, facebook, google, google plus, linkedin, social media, tweets, twitter

01 Mar 2012

blogging • business growth • facebook • google plus • linkedin • social media • twitter

Content Syndication with Social Media

What is content syndication, anyway?

Let’s look at a couple of definitions:

The act of syndicating a news feature by publishing it in multiple newspapers etc simultaneously

Making information on a website available (preferably in digest form) for a wide range of uses, prime examples of which are RSS and Atom feeds. Syndication is a great way of making news updates, blog entries and podcasts immediately available to a Web audience.

Basically then, syndication is a way of sharing content across a number of platforms or publications simultaneously. I’m sure you’ll agree that it would be beneficial to your business to be able to share your latest product news, forthcoming events etc with hundreds or even thousands of interested viewers.

How could this happen? When you publish your blog post, or details of your event, you share it with various sites. These sites may then republish to other sites, and so the process becomes exponential. From one piece of content you get multiple shares, therefore reaching a huge number of people.

Let’s say you have a business blog and you write a new post each week. Do you write, publish and walk away, in the hope that visitors will mosey along to read it? Sorry, but that just won’t happen! You need to take a proactive approach and push that content out far and wide.

Get Started with Content Syndication

Here are 7 simple ways to get your content in front of more eyeballs than you ever thought possible……

If you haven’t already, set up a RSS (“really simple syndication”) feed for your blog. WordPress blogs have RSS built in, and for additional benefits, use a service such as Feedburner.
Add a link to your latest blog posts on your Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ pages. Whether you also add them to your personal profiles on Facebook and Google+ is up to you (may not be appropriate for every post)
Add Facebook Like & Share, Google +1, and Tweet buttons to all your posts, newsletters, event listings and product pages. If you’re using WordPress it’s simple to do this via plugins (there are scores that do this job, but that’s a topic for another post!)
Use a service such as ping.fm to share your content to scores of online directories
Share your updates to Facebook and LinkedIn groups that you’re a member of – only if the content is appropriate for the group, of course.
Always encourage people to share, retweet, like, and +1 your content. This gets you in front of an increasingly wide audience.
Given the recent exponential growth of Pinterest, I’m also going to encourage you to “pin” your new content whenever appropriate. (If you haven’t signed up for a Pinterest account yet, seriously consider doing so!)

Benefits of Content Syndication

Aside from what we’ve already covered (getting your content in front of thousands of potential clients/customers), what are the main benefits of content to you and your business?

It’s a cheap way of reaching far more potentially interested people than you could ever hope to speak to individually or even collectively.
You’re boosting your online visibility by making use of social media, thus gaining massive SEO benefits. You’re already using Google+ aren’t you??
When people see you everywhere online, they get the subconscious message that you are an expert in your field – as a result they’re more likely (a) to come to you as a client and/or (b) to recommend you to others.

Do you use any other methods of content syndication and do they work well for you? Share below in the comments!

Need help with content syndication? Take the first step! Contact me on 01777 249075
or by email at info@naomijohnsonsocialmedia.co.uk

Naomi Jane Johnson | One comment | Tags: blogging, facebook, google plus, linkedin, seo, social media, social media marketing, twitter

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Social Media and SMBs - a study

What to say on social media

Tag Archive for facebook

Your Facebook Business Page

1. Choose your Category

2. Add your business information

3. Complete your Page Setup

4. Like your Page

5. Your Page is ready to roll!

StumbleUpon is great for traffic

What is StumbleUpon?

URL Shortener

My New Business Name

Scared of Social Media?

Dangers of Not Using Social Media

Start Small

Customer Service

Sales and Leads

Just for Young People?

Reputation Monitoring

Content Syndication

Two-Way Dialogue

How will you get started?

Get Involved on Social Media

Your Chance to Gain Followers

And Finally…

Help – what do I say on social media?

Newsflash…

Ways to find shareable content

Interact with others

And finally…..

What is content syndication, anyway?

Get Started with Content Syndication

Benefits of Content Syndication

Let's Connect!

Subscribe By Email

Circle Me on Google Plus

Great Value Web Hosting

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