Why You Should Accept My Facebook Friend Request

I often have clients that need advice about separating their personal and business contacts, especially onFacebook. However, I also advise against a big ‘separation.’

While I understand the need for privacy, I’m also an advocate for getting to know people.  It’s that human connection that allows people to get to know you, like you, trust you… and yes –eventually–buy from you.

When I meet someone at a networking event or I engage with them online, I often invite them to join me on social channels, including an invitation to friend me on Facebook.  Most accept my request.

However, I still have a good number that send me a private message and tell me one of two things:

1. I only connect with personal friends and family on Facebook, not business contacts. I hope you understand.

2. I’ll accept your friend request, but I like to keep my Facebook page separate for people I don’t know. I prefer to engage with business professionals on my fan page, which you can like here…..

My response to #1: Yes, I understand. Thank you for letting me know.

What I really think about #1: I do understand, but it makes me sad that you don’t get it. You’ve labeled me as a business contact and nothing more.  Guess I won’t get to know you enough to “like you, trust you, and buy from you.” 

My response to #2:  Thanks, Jane. I am a fan of your page, however, you haven’t updated it since June, so I thought we could engage here.

What I really think about #2: Way to blow the first one-on-one connection we have with each other.

For those of you who aren’t aware, you can create friend lists and filter your connections. You can allow them to see what you want them to see and you can post updates specific to friend lists. (More on lists)

For those of you who make the privacy argument, the bottom line is still this: don’t post anything online – personal page or otherwise – that you wouldn’t want plastered where the ball drops! 

It’s the internet –whether you are aware of it or not–you’re everywhere!

Ken Mueller said in a recent Q&A for my blog, “I DO care what you had for breakfast. I’m building

5 Simple Tips to Make Your Facebook Business Page More Likable

There are a multitude of blog posts and articles on the Internet on everything from how to create your Facebook Business Page to how to use third party applications, how to manage your page to how to get more likes. This is not one of those posts. This is a quick and dirty low-down on five ways you can make your Facebook Business Page more likable – today. Not next week. Not when you get around to hiring a app creator or buying Facebook ads or finding a social media intern. Today.

If you have 1 hour, you can do this yourself, today, and then sit back and pat yourself on the back.

Tip 1: Your profile photo.

Take a look at the profile photo on your page. Make sure it’s a good quality photo. If it is pixelated or blurry or out of date, then you need to change it. Hold your cursor over the photo and the words “Change Picture” will appear; click on “Change Picture” and follow the instructions to upload a new photo.

If your profile photo is a photo of yourself or your team, make sure it’s a current photo (as in, within the last two years) and that all team members in the photo are still on your team. Here’s a quick litmus test for your profile pic: If your picture is older than two or three years, it’s time for a new photo. If there’s a possibility that I could see your photo online, then run into you in the grocery store and not know you are the same person from that picture, it’s time for a new photo. If your clothing or hairstyle in your photo date from the last millennium, it’s time for a new photo. (As an aside, this goes for your business card photo, too. Come on, you know who you are! Get the to a photographer, STAT!)

Tip 2: Your info.

First look at the section labeled “About” under your profile photo. This is your opportunity to tell your page visitors – at a glance – who you are and what you do. It’s a great place to put a link to your website, a brief idea of your market area, and even a little bit about who you are. There is a 255 character limit, so you will have to be concise. If you don’t see an “About” section under your profile pic, then you simply haven’t filled it out yet. Click on “Info” under your profile pic, find the “About” section and get to it!

While you’re in the “Info” section, take a look at your options and opportunities here. Do a quick diagnostic check:

• Do you have your phone number and email listed? You want to be sure that you can be contacted if your page visitors have inquiries. Make sure they are accurate!

• Do you have your websites listed (all of them – including your blog)? Many consumers like to check us out before making direct contact – give them a chance to do that!

• Do you have all of your locations listed? If you are a broker or have multiple office locations, list the main one under address and then list ALL of them in the area marked “Description”. (For a great example of this, visitwww.facebook.com/thecorcorangroup.)

• If you are a broker or you are only available during certain hours, do you have your office hours listed? (NOTE: Many REALTORS® may not want to fill this in, since we work nontraditional hours and are often available outside of our office hours. However, if you are managing a page for an office, be sure to fill in accurate office hours so consumers don’t visit and find your door locked.)

Tip 3: Your photos and videos.

Consumers love visual content, so why not give them what they like? It’s a chance for you to create a connection between your clients and visitors – giving them a chance to get to know about you, your

5 Ways to Optimize Your Facebook Page

Are you maximizing the marketing power of your Facebook page?  Want to know how?

Keep reading…

There are several lesser-realized features on and around your Facebook page that can be optimized to best reflect your brand.

Let’s break down your page visually into 5 major parts to understand best how to optimize your Facebook page:

The tips below will encompass advice about how to optimize areas #1-5 shown above, including taking a look at the featured photos, left-side links panel, impressions and feedback on the wall, featured likes, and wall tab display.

#1: Featured Photos

Any photo you upload to your page automatically flies up to the featured photo feed, a row of 5 photos that will change position every time a visitor lands on the page. We’ve seen examples of some brands getting creative with this panel and using it for branding. But because you have to account for the pictures changing order each time the profile is refreshed, you might need to come up with branding imagery that remains consistent no matter what order it’s viewed in.

Because any pictures you upload automatically go into the strip, including wall photos that you upload as part of a status update, the only way to remove photos is to manually delete them from the strip as you see them appear. This will not remove them from your albums, only from the top of your profile. User-uploaded photos will not go into the strip.

It’s worthwhile to consider how you want the strip to appear to your visitors. A collection of random photos of people in the distance may not grab visitors’ attention. Optimizing the photos in the strip and selecting only closeup shots of your employees or your products may give you a new opportunity to engage visiting users.

Let’s look at some examples of interesting uses of the photo strip by brands:

Hanes uses their photo strip as advertising space to promote a giveaway on their page. This serves to grab attention of users visiting the wall and works any way the pictures get ordered. It also promotes further activity within the Hanes page—telling users to click on another tab on that page in order to participate.

Steve Madden's fan page also gives special treatment to the 5-photo strip. Here, the photos are used to depict new items from that season's collection, as well as a 30% off sale that's happening. Again, it's worthwhile to note that no matter in which order the pictures appear, the message in the strip remains clear.

#2: The Left-Side Links Panel

All Facebook pages have a panel of links on the left-side navigation which, when clicked, open the application in tab view, right in the fan page.

Every fan page comes with 3 default applications native to the Facebook platform: Wall, Info, and Photos. Of those 3, only Photos is removable—Wall and Info are mandatory to maintain a page.

You can install as many other applications to your page as you want, of course. Most will either be third-party applications like promotions or applications you create yourself using iFrames.

It’s important to note that there is a concept of above or below the fold within the links panel: only 8 links are visible to visitors at first. To see more, users need to click “More,” and that’s something we can’t always count on people to do. For this reason, you want to make sure you’re displaying the most important tabs above the fold, in the top 8 links.

Below is an example of a page, for the North Face, where some of the most interesting tabs are hidden below the fold, a result of which may be that scores of users might not stick around long enough to find and engage with them:

This is the North Face page for all new visitors. The first 8 left-panel links are displayed, along with the "More" function to display the rest.

On expansion of the links panel, we can see that North Face actually has 3 additional custom applications hidden below the fold.

When the “More” button is clicked on the North Face page, 3 additional tabs are revealed, all of which are custom-created, including the one pictured above. This tab contains a well-designed interactive page with video.

While there have not yet been studies conducted to see how many users click “More” when viewing rows of links in a panel, we can assume there would be significant dropoff, leading this page to have lowered exposure, and become a marketing effort lost on many users who never see it.

The good news is that it’s very easy to change the order of how the links appear in the panel. When you’re logged in as administrator of the page, you’ll see an option to “Edit” right underneath the links. Once you click, you’ll notice that the editable links gray out and can be dragged up and down to change their placement, or deleted outright from the panel.

#3: Rolling Feedback

When you’re logged in as an administrator of your page(s), Facebook displays handy rolling feedback with every post you make. This makes it very easy to see trends of interaction on your page by content type, time of day or frequency. This also makes it easier for you to assess how you’re doing over time (rather than analyzing these particular traits inside “Insights,” which doesn’t show what type of message it was, like a post with a photo, or a post containing a hyperlink).

The numbers won’t show for approximately 12 hours after you post, as the EdgeRank algorithm is still working to determine how much reach your post will get. Once a baseline reach has been determined, according to the initial hours of popularity your post has garnered, the numbers will show up and can change over time as more (or fewer) people interact with your page.

Let’s assess some trends I can learn about the fan page I administer for Wildfire Interactive in the

The Ultimate Facebook Marketing Cheat Sheet

Facebook's social network domination may frequently get challenged by emerging social media platforms like Google+, but the facts remain. With more than 750 million members in its user base, it's still the most popular social network around.


And yes, businesses are beginning to understand its potential to help them achieve their marketing goals. In fact, 41% of B2B companies and 62% of B2C companies using Facebook have acquired a customer from it.


That said, learning all the nuances of various social networks can be a tricky and time-consuming feat. To help you stay ahead of the curve, we've put together a handy cheat sheet that businesses and marketers can use to make the most of Facebook.


30 Tips and Tricks for Mastering Facebook Marketing


1. Create a Business Page, Not a Profile: First things first. To maximize Facebook's business potential, you need to create a Business Page, not a Personal Profile, to represent your brand. Setting up a Page is simple. Just visit https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php, and follow the step-by-step setup instructions. (Already created a Profile for your business? Facebook now allows you to easily convert it into a business Page.)


2. Claim Your Page's Vanity URL: Once you've created your business Page, make it more shareable and easier to find by creating a more recognizable vanity URL (e.g. http://www.facebook.com/hubspot) at http://www.facebook.com/username.


3. Auto-Publish Blog Content: Start populating your Page's wall with content! If you maintain a business blog, you can connect your blog to auto-post links to new blog content you publish. Many blogging platforms like WordPress and HubSpot automatically offer this feature within its software; you'll just need to turn it on and sync it with your Page. (Warning: Don't put too much emphasis on automation. It's okay to auto-publish some content, but make sure a real human is posting and engaging with your fans, too.)


4. Make Sure Meta Descriptions of Blog Posts Are Complete: Have you noticed that when you post a link to Facebook, it pulls in a brief description as well as a photo? The description gets pulled from the page's meta description, so make sure any blog content you publish has a complete and enticing meta description to optimize its presence if it gets shared on Facebook.


5. Use iFrames to Create New Page Tabs: Some of Facebook's fairly recent updates significantly reduced the amount of clutter users can add to their Pages. That said, you can still use iFrames to create custom tabs. Think of these like landing pages within your Facebook Page. Learn how to use iFrames here.


6. Create a Welcome App: Consider using iFrames to create a custom 'welcome' page. Use this page to welcome new visitors to your Page and encourage them to 'Like' you so they can see your posts in their news feed. Set the page as your 'Default Landing Tab' (you can do this when you're editing your page under 'Manage Permissions') so it's the first page visitors land on when they visit your Page. This will help you generate new fans! (Note: With HubSpot, you can take this one step further by installing HubSpot's Welcome App, which also presents visitors with a form that can convert them into leads...right within Facebook!)


7. Use Facebook Insights: Facebook Insights is an analytics tool right within Facebook that helps you measure and analyze your Facebook presence. The tool provides Facebook Page administrators with analytics data about Page visits and engagement and can help you understand what content is and isn't engaging to your fans. Access your Page's Insights at http://www.facebook.com/insights.


8. Tag Other Users and Business Pages: Although you used to only be able to tag other users on Facebook, you can now tag other Pages, too. Make your Page more engaging and interactive by enabling others to post content on your wall. Enabling this feature will also automatically publish posts to your Page's wall that are from other users who have tagged your Page in their posts. To enable this, check off "Users can write or post content on the wall" in 'Manage Permissions.'


9. Connect Your YouTube Channel: Does your company have its own YouTube channel? Add the YouTube App to your Facebook Page so your fans can view your YouTube videos directly within Facebook.


10. Add the SlideShare App: Similar to the YouTube App, you can also add a SlideShare tab to your Page that will also pull in your SlideShare presentations.


11. Connect Your Flickr Account: While you're at it, why not pull in your Flickr photos with the Flickr App, too?


12. Add a 'Dislike' Button to Your Status Update: Ever wanted to 'dislike' a status update on Facebook? Now you can enable other users to 'dislike' (or perform another action) for your own posts. Just install the Status Magic App and post an update through the app. (Note: This only works for personal status updates, not Page updates.)


13. Use Links & Calls-to-Action to Generate Leads: Start generating leads from Facebook! Optimize your Page for lead generation by posting links to landing pages for content behind forms, and add calls-to-action (CTAs) to your custom iFrame tabs on your Page. [Bonus! Research suggests that links shared on Facebook have a high impact on SERP (search engine results page) rankings.]


14. Use Questions/Polls for Fan Feedback: In the status update bar on your Page, you have the option of posting a question or a poll (click on 'Add Poll Options'). Use this to ask your fans for feedback about your products/services or the content you post to your wall. The possibilities

MAPPING SOCIAL MEDIA USES

When we talk about how we’re going to use social media to build relationships and sell and things like that, do we ever come out and map what we really mean? In the simplest form, the graphic above represents one iteration of that. Maybe I want to help Josh sell more shirts at Secret Superhero Gear. I can tell people about the stuff. I can ask them to tell their friends –but wait! There’s the first opportunity to think more about this!


If I replace ‘ask them to tell their friends’ with ‘install Facebook LIKE button next to the shirts,’ then I’ve just used social media tools to advance a marketing goal. Let’s carry on. If I want to listen for people who might need a shirt that Josh is selling, I’m sure to be a bit intrusive, but maybe if I listen to people asking about gifts to give, etc, I could politely butt in now and again on Twitter.


If I spend some time on Twitter, on Facebook, on Blogs, on forums where they might care about Josh’s products, then I can look at a more integrated approach to selling.
That last one: “Make someone a hero with it.” I think that’s the gold standard of marketing, isn’t it? My Camaro isn’t just a car. It’s my own personal therapist. It’s my batmobile. I feel like a hero when I get in that car. It makes me a hero. Does your product make your customer the hero? If no, then rethink this.


THIS IS JUST ONE SIMPLE MAP


If I’ve done it right, then I’ve opened your head just a little and now you’ve got some creative ideas brimming with how else you can map the various social media uses. For instance, if you need a lot more inbound links, then you’ll have to make a delectable prize for people to consider linking to, and that prize will have to be remarkable and hero-making for the people you hope will create those links. See how that map would go very much differently than what I gave you up top?


So, what will your maps look like?


ChrisBrogan.com May 20, 2011

SOCIAL MEDIA FATIGUE

For a lot of people, the fatigue comes from that sense that they’re doing all the work, but not seeing the results. For another group, it’s that feeling that we’ve all done this before, so why do it again? For others, it’s just that we’re getting to the point where we feel maybe that we’ve shared all we can think of sharing, and we’re tired of rehashing the same old things over and over again.
Are any of these you?
WAKE UP


Writing about social media can be boring. Writing about how to empower people, however, is pretty much always interesting. Telling people the same old thing on Google+ that you’d have shared on Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn is about as boring as it sounds. Maybe try doing something new with the platform. On an absolutely random post about eating the Swedish meatballs at IKEA, I got a comment back from writer and all around interesting thinker, Jeff Jarvis, about how he not only likes the Swedish meatballs, but he admits to liking Taco Bell. For whatever reason, I came away from the experience thinking, “Huh, I wouldn’t normally get into these conversations, inane as they are, on the other social networks. I wonder why I’ve given myself permission to do so here.”


Wake up. We can all find new ways to talk about social media by NOT TALKING ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA. (Queue the Fight Club comments.) The thing is this: we’re using these tools to enable new connections. We’re using them to make different kinds of business happen. We’re using these tools to help causes that matter, and so much more.
IT’S YOUR CHOICE


Look at your last 20 posts on any social network, and/or your blog. What are you talking about? Do you find yourself interesting? What else could you talk about instead? What would really

Social Networking: How to Wordpress Blog Posts Auto-loaded to Facebook Notes Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/social-marketing-articles/social-networking-how-to-wordpress-blog-posts-autoloaded-to-facebook-notes-622265.html#ixzz1SkdZLTEb Under Creative Commons License: Attribution No Derivatives

FaceBook is at the top of the list whenever Internet marketers mention social networking. The news feed alone makes FaceBook a worthwhile place to be. Now you can share your blog posts with your FaceBook friends without a single keystroke. By setting up this blog feed, your friends will be just one click away. That means hundreds, even thousands of opportunities for new contacts to access to your information.


Setting up a blog feed is easy. Just follow these simple steps:


1. Log into your FaceBook account.
2. Go to your Profile Page.
3. In the center of the page is the status box where you can tell everyone what you are doing. To the right of the status box, just beneath the blue rectangle that reads POST, you’ll find a tiny link saying, “Settings” and a tiny asterisk beside it. Click Settings.
4. Under Stories Posted by You, is a line reading, “You can automatically import activity from YouTube, Flickr, and Other Services to your profile.” Click Other Services.
5. Click on Blog/RSS, and a new box will open up.
6. Place your blog’s RSS feed link in the box. In WordPress, the blog RSS feed URL is http://YOURBLOGNAME.com/?feed=rss2
7. Click Import.


Now when you post to your blog, the entire post will come up in the Notes of your profile page and a news feed will announce the note. You can go to the Notes page and click on SHARE to tag friends in the Note. You can also place the link for the Note into your FaceBook groups’ pages.


Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/social-marketing-articles/social-networking-how-to-wordpress-blog-posts-autoloaded-to-facebook-notes-622265.html#ixzz1Skd4kKHE
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution No Derivatives

Facebook Marketing - Tips for Getting Started

Millions of people spend time online every day so it makes sense that Facebook marketing would be very effective. In a sense, using Facebook is the modern way to get your business known through "word of mouth" because your "fans" will voice their opinion about your company for all to see.
Using Facebook to market you business is especially useful for small companies but any business can benefit. It's a free way to make your online presence known and reach out to an unlimited number of potential customers. Facebook marketing makes it easier to get noticed by potential clients that have a real interest in the products or services you have to offer by targeting a specific audience.
Here's how to get started:

• Set up your Facebook page.
• Select the category that best describes your company.
• Fill out the required information.
• Wait for the template for your pages that will be sent to you by Facebook.
• Use the template to customize your page by adding specific information about your company and a photo.
• Invite friends and family to "like" your fan page to begin creating a "fans" list.
• Add the link to your Facebook fan pages to all of your marketing tools to make your presence on this social networking site known.

Once your account is completely set up, take a few minutes to create a post that welcomes your fans to your Facebook page. This will help to get things going.

Using Facebook fan pages for your business is an innovative way to make your online presence known. Facebook allows you to create a public profile where you can reach out to potential customers by presenting your products or services to them and by providing useful information about these items. If you have a business, big or small, you can benefit from using a Facebook fan page.


Now, you may be wondering what makes Facebook marketing such a valuable tool for all businesses? Why should you give it a try? For starters, it gives you the means and opportunity to build a community for both your current customers and future prospects. Why is this important for your business? Why should you use Facebook fan pages to promote your business?


Here are a few good reasons why using fan pages to market your business is a good idea:


It's a free way to reach an unlimited number of potential customers.
It's easy to customize your design so you can target a specific type of audience that has a genuine interest in what you have.
Fan pages provide you with an easy way to promote your products and/or services, announce special events and keep your fans updated on all the latest news.
It's a great way to create new leads and encourage repeat business. A number of tools are available that can provide you with information about your fans and how they interact.
It gives customers a sense of trust and helps your business establish credibility.
You can add as many photos and videos as you want to help promote your business.
It's a fun and interesting way to interact with potential customers by giving them a way to talk with you.
It gives you an easy and convenient way to provide clients with company updates, information on special events and promotional offers.
It can give you a huge advantage over competitors.
Creating Facebook fan pages provides a friendly environment that makes clients, current and future, feel more comfortable. It gives you a way to keep the communication lines open in a friendly way that shows customers you care about what they think. After all, you are providing them with a way to voice their opinion about your business.


Using this powerful and well-known social networking site can enhance your business and increase your client base. It's an excellent way to present your best qualities to potential customers in such a way that they take notice. The bottom line is, using Facebook fan pages is a smart marketing tool that will make your company's online presence known through one of the most popular social networking sites of today.



Read more: http://www.articlesbase.com/social-marketing-articles/why-use-facebook-fan-pages-for-you-business-4989406.html#ixzz1RQyBzgIi
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution No Derivatives