The Sociable Scribe

Archive for the ‘Facebook’

Using Facebook Wisely: Savvy Social Networking

Posted in "Net"working, Facebook on August 13th 2010
Tags: Facebook, social networking
2 Comments »

I first met my friend Dinell, who I affectionately refer to by her blogging handle of Mommy D (she edits Mommy Ds Kitchen and indulges her “dark side” on the Weekly Spectre), on Twitter. She immediately caught my attention because she’s two things I admire and highly regard in friends:

She’s extremely personable
She’s super savvy (especially when it comes to social media use)

She’s taught me quite a few Twitter tricks over this past year, but recently she taught me a slick new Facebook trick.

I knew that if I put an “@” before a friend’s name on my personal Facebook page it would bounce over to them and let them know I’d tagged them. I didn’t know, until Mommy D educated me, that I could do the same via Fan Pages like the ones I keep for Haunt Jaunts or Maggie’s Station.

That is an absolutely powerful tool to utilize.

It’s also why I had been preferring Twitter over Facebook. Facebook seemed like such a one-dimensional form of interacting with others. I could always go to their page and leave a note or link saying, “Hey, btw, I wrote about you|you inspired|etc this…”

That was okay, but I always kind of felt like I was saying, “Hey, please give me credit for doing this….”

However, using the Mommy D approach…WOW! Now, as long as I’ve got their page as one of my faves, I can “@” mention them and it’ll just show up right on their page.

It not only lets them know I’ve mentioned them, but it lets all their fans see it too. Which can translate into more exposure for my page and possibly making new fans. Wonderful!

PUT IT IN PRACTICE

Do you have a Facebook Fan Page? Have you added other pages that you do business with or have daily dealings with to your page’s favorites?

If not, hop on it. Then start harnessing the power of this powerful social networking tool by mentioning them in your page’s wall posts!

Recommended Products:

Facebook For Dummies

Blazing Angry Volleyball Crossing the Net - Full Length Apron With Pockets 22w X 30l

The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World

Fish In A Net - Full Length Apron With Pockets 22w X 30l

Misadventures Experimenting with Facebook Ads

Posted in Facebook on July 21st 2010
Tags: advertising, Facebook ads, Haunt Jaunts, Haunt Jaunts Monetizing Project
4 Comments »

I’ve got a lot of big things planned for Haunt Jaunts in addition to my Haunt Jaunts Monetizing Project. Well, I should say related to that. One of them was ramping up my ads…the ones I put out there, not the ones I publish to try and earn money.

Yesterday I got to messing around with Facebook ads. I’ve tinkered with them before, but I never actually placed one. Yesterday I did –but I sort of messed up.

As is usually how I operate, I got a little confused. I put in $30.00 for the amount I wanted to spend. I thought it meant the per month amount you wanted to spend.

Something gnawed at me after and told me to go back and double check what I’d just done. To my horror I discovered I’d specified I wanted to spend $30 per day on an ad campaign!

Gulp! It’s not that much money for a business with a dedicated ad revenue, but for me? Whoops! That’s a little too much.

I quickly deleted the ad.

But that’s when I’d discovered my whoops had an unexpected and unintended immediate side effect: in the three minutes (if it was even that) that it took me to realize my mistake, I’d increased my Facebook page fans by 50%!

If I’ve done my math correctly, which, as this post proves, I’m prone to mistakes. Also, math is not my strong point. But I went from 76 fans to 115 just like that. (Well, just like that and $30.)

So do Facebook ads work? Apparently. And they are WAY more effective than I ever expected.

I placed another ad, this time one my budget can handle. Oh, and I did per impression ads instead of per click. That was another mistake I’d made first time around. I chose the latter instead of specifying the former. (Under Advanced Options, which I failed to click the first go around.)

So now we’ll see what kind of effect this has. How many more fans will the cheaper ads bring to HJ’s FB page? Any? How many of those fans will click through to my blog’s links? What effect will that have on my revenue streams?

Time will tell…and so will I when I have more data.

PUT IT IN PRACTICE

Have you ever posted an ad on Facebook for your business? What were the results?

If you answered no to the above: Have you ever thought about posting experimental ads just to see what might happen? What’s stopped you?

Recommended Products:

The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World

The Facebook Era: Tapping Online Social Networks to Build Better Products, Reach New Audiences, and Sell More Stuff

Facebook: The Missing Manual

Facebook Marketing For Dummies

Twitter and Facebook: Let Them Know You’re There and They Will Come

Posted in "Net"working, Examples, Facebook, Tips & Tricks, Twitter on March 14th 2010
1 Comment »

Earlier this year Karen, who’s both my friend and co-owner of Michael J. Portrait, caught some of my social media excitement. She decided it was about time they started being more participative with the Facebook fan page they’d created a while back. She decided it really could help them get more business.

It could…if anyone knew their fan page existed.

The biggest mistake my friend is making is assuming just being more active on their Facebook fan page will net them more fans.

Facebook doesn’t work that way. Twitter’s better suited to that approach.

That’s why I wasn’t surprised when a couple of weeks passed and my friend said, “I’m really disappointed we don’t have more followers yet.”

Here’s what they’re not doing right:

They’re not maintaining a blog, and
There’s no link to or mention of their Facebook fan page on their website.

How is anyone supposed to fan them if they don’t know they’re there?

You know what comes to mind? The saying from the movie Field of Dreams: “If you build it, they will come.”

Something similar can be said for the social networks your company’s active on: Let your clients, fans, and readers know you’re there and they will come.

I saw a great example of letting them know where to find you when I attended a women’s business networking meeting a few weeks back. Before the meeting we all passed around our business paraphernalia. (Biz cards, brochures, pamphlets, etc.)

One woman was a rep with Oli-Co Cosmetics, LLC. In addition to business cards she also had a rack card. The first thing that caught my eye and impressed me as being smart marketing was that in addition to her company’s website her card also listed where else people could follow them online: Facebook, Twitter and on their Skin Journalist blog.

Perfect!

Except, when I went to check out both their blog and website I noticed:

There’s no link or icon to their Twitter and Facebook accounts from either the blog or website. I was only able to find them because I knew they existed since I saw it on the product card.
The company name is Oli-Co Cosmetics. The product is Régén de Peau II. Their Twitter account is @olicocosmetics, but their Facebook page is Regen de Peau II Skin Care. That has the potential to be confusing. Especially because…
Both their Twitter account and Facebook page refers back to their blog, and their blog has a link back to their website, but all the names don’t jive with their links. The blog’s link comes up as http://blog.oli-co.com, but on the card, Twitter and Facebook it’s link is http://blog.phoenixskinsolutions.com. Yet the product link on the card is www.regendepeau.com, but the link that comes up in the browser is http://oli-co.com. There’s no conformity, which makes branding the product in the customer’s mind more difficult.

Simple tweaks, such as sticking with either Oli-Co Cosmetics or Régén de Peau, and making sure all links are uniform, in addition to noting their social networks on their blog and website like they do on their product card, would improve their online presence and enhance their social marketing strategy.

Another example is Maggie’s Station. Plans are in the works to revamp the blog. We’re currently in the process of shuffling it from Blogger to Wordpress, and in turn have more active Facebook and Twitter accounts. All of the above have been inactive lately.

However, Peggy understood the importance of (a) having a blog, Twitter and Facebook in place, and (b) letting customers know they could find her on them. (She just didn’t have the time maintain them. Happens when you run a successful business. You need help from someone like me!)

But what I want to really point out is that right on her homepage she’s got “Follow us on” followed by the icons of all the places you can friend, fan, or follow Maggie’s Station. (Which for now are Twitter, Facebook, and Blogger, which will soon change to a different icon.)

That’s what you want.

Well, that and as active a blog, Twitter account, Facebook page, and whatever other social networks you’re on as possible.

PUT IT IN PRACTICE

Add links and/or icons to any social media network you’re on, including but not limited to, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, etc.

Cross-reference your social media networks as much as possible. Use your website (if applicable) as the hub that lets people know where to find all of your social media spokes.