Facebook Timeline is currently making waves these days.   If you are used to the old profile, you might find the Timeline a bit daunting.  As one client proudly announced, ‘It makes me dizzy!’ Thank goodness there are different resources online which you can use to help make timeline an easier platform for you to use.  Here are a few Timeline tips you may want to consider:

1. Facebook apps – If you are fond of using applications in Facebook, such as Foursquare, you should also know how Timeline can be navigated to be in sync with this function
2. FTC issues – As you may be aware, Facebook is not issue-free. These days, Timeline seems to be in hot water because there are FTC settlement issues that are left in the dark.
3. SQL – You might be surprised to find out Timeline actually makes use of SQL as its database. This knowledge might come in handy, especially if you plan to use Facebook for business purposes.

And speaking of business purposes, hang on to your seats!  Josh Constine,  a technology journalist specializing in deep analysis of social products and writer for TechCrunch, shares his most recent article “Facebook Opens Timeline To All Biz Pages, Mandatory After 30 Days Of Curation.”  A few of the new major features include,  ”the option to pin posts to the top of the feed for one week, and receive and respond to private messages from users. Pages can also upload a big cover image and feature posts from amongst a feed of updates Facebook determines to be the most engaging.”

One thing we can count on these days…Facebook will continue to evolve, never keeping its current ‘face’ for long.  Yes, I agree with my client, “It makes me dizzy,’ in more ways than one!

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Getting started with the creation of a Facebook friends list is as simple as looking for people with similar likes and interests to your own. However, before you start building your Facebook friends list, you will first want to ensure that you created a personal profile or timeline of how you want to appear to your Facebook friends. You may want to project a professional personality on your profile. Or perhaps you simply prefer to be seen as a positive and friendly person. The choice is entirely yours, as long as you ensure that you show people on your profile or timeline how they would benefit from being friends with you. You might want to post a few images of yourself and write about your interests or what you have been up to recently. You will find that people will be able to quickly identify with you and want to know a little bit more. Be prepared to be consistent, responsive and proactive when you start to gain Facebook friends by commenting on their latest pictures and posts.

Find FaceBook Friends

Time now to find Facebook friends by starting to look for groups that are centered around a particular hobby that you enjoy. Or groups of people who have the same care or concerns that you have over a particular subject. You will also discover many pages that share the same excitement or enthusiasm as yourself for a pastime or pursuit. There will be no shortage of groups and people who share something in common with you. Leave a few posts on groups and pages walls. Make your comments interesting, but do not be tempted to self advertise. There will be people who are naturally curious after reading your comment and will check out your profile or timeline and, perhaps, add you as their Facebook friend.

Connecting To Build Your Facebook Friends List

Join as many groups as you can that share something in common with you. If you do not have a lot of interests, you can still find Facebook friends based upon geographical location, or gender. Be prepared to look through people profiles, and then add them as friends. You will soon discover that some will reciprocate and add you as a friend. Of course, if you would like to spend a little more time with the process, you can gain a lot more Facebook friends by leaving a personal message after adding them as a friend. This is as simple as saying ‘Hi,’  addressing them by their name and mentioning that you noticed they share a common interest with you [which you will have seen by reading their profile or timeline]. State that you enjoy connecting with people of similar interests and that you would like to be their Facebook friend. A personal note like this can really set you apart from the crowd. Don’t forget, of course, to send them a quick note and thank them when they accept your friendship! Creating a Facebook friends list can be fun and easy to do. Take your time to do it right and you will connect with a lot of great new friends.

If you are a business owner  interested in personalized marketing  -  outsourcing your company’s social media – we are here to help!  We not only build and brand your social media sites; i.e.  Facebook profiles and timelines, Facebook business and welcome pages, Twitter, YouTube, Blogs and Google Plus – we also MAINTAIN these sites so you can do what you do best…run your business and let us do the rest!  Contact us today for a FREE consultation!

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The Buzz that is Google Plus in social media has indeed shown just how powerful it can be when it comes to changing how we use social networks. FaceBook was able to prove that we ARE interested in other people’s information and businesses from the back side just years after it was launched. Now it seems internet giant Google would want to challenge that throne held by Zuckerberg at the moment.

As a social media marketer, the launch of Google Plus is just too good to pass up on. What started out as a purely invitational social networking device has largely gone mainstream (if you still need an invite, email me and I will be happy to get you one out!). Although Google plus remains in its experimental stage, lots of people have been riding on its bandwagon including software developers.

What’s there to like about Google Plus? A lot of things actually, especially if you were among those who used to love Facebook as a social media—minus the many applications it now has. Most people favor Google Plus because it gives them a bare bones advantage of connecting to people. Just as you would with Facebook, it also enables you to post your statuses, videos and photos on your wall as a public or private item. Your friends would also have the opportunity to view these things. But perhaps among the main features of Google Plus is that it automates your friends list within “circles.”

Every post you do is prompted to be kept private according to your choice of circle. Whenever a person adds you as a friend, you can also automatically place them within a circle. On the other hand you can already pre-add a person under a particular circle and wait for that party to approve your request. On top of all these, Google Plus also easily connects with other Google services such as iGoogle and the Gmail interface. It’s really an efficient tool to connect with others, without worrying about ads taking up space on your screen.

So will Google Plus truly trample over Facebook? Only time alone will tell. The benefits people enjoy on Google social media, we realize, can be changed in the future, hopefully for the better. It certainly looks that way as Google seems to be looking at what people want most. from their social media.

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How To Get More Facebook “Likes” seems a little ridiculous right? We all seem to have much better things to do then worry about if someone does or does not like our Facebook page.

WRONG! If your have a Facebook site for your business or hobby and want to attract more fans to it, you should check out the following instructions on how to direct more fans to your site.

Make use of good keywords. Search engines comb public sites for information. Keywords help a search engine to direct people to a site that is offering what they are interested in. The more keywords your site uses the better the chance that search engines, like Google, will direct traffic to your site.

Facebook ads. For more than a few dollars a month you can target specific demographics in ads on Facebook that help direct traffic to their site by the click of a mouse button.

Reach friends and friends of their friends by using photo tagging. You would have your friends upload pictures of themselves using the product that is being promoted onto the products fan page and then tag it. Businesses can use this technique to give discounts for their products.

Use other social media to increase your fan base. If you also use Twitter, you can post a link to your Facebook page in your tweets. Be careful not to overdo this or other tweeters may think that they are being spammed.

Encourage people to post comments! Keep your business page updated with new information so that people will want to visit and comment.

Update the posts regularly. You need to keep giving new information on your product or sevice so people will be looking for changes and not lose interest. If you are lax in this, you could lose your current fans as well as potential new likes!

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EVERYONE wants to know how to promote your Facebook business page! Now more than ever, we want to be connected with everything and everyone in our realm and nothing makes it easier than social media. Social media applications, like Facebook, put connectivity at our fingertips and provide an interactive opportunity to reach new audiences, encourage new relationships and foster lasting partnerships. Facebook, the most popular social media application to date, makes it simple to promote your business by providing an alternative to traditional advertising platforms and offers a way to let your customers do some of the advertising work for you.

Currently, Facebook boasts over 750 million active users, meaning the potential for exposure is limitless. The only question remaining is how to get those users to your business page. To promote your Facebook business page most effectively, consider the following:

Driving Traffic & Instant Information: The most surefire way to get your current customers to your Facebook page is by providing a direct link to your Facebook page on your current business webpage. It’s easy to implant a linking icon on your page, just follow the simple instructions (including source code information) provided when you set up your business page.

The newest and greatest way to share information about your business is by adding a QR code (quick response) to your advertising materials including everything from business cards to window banners. The code, a two-dimensional electronic barcode, is captured as a photo by smartphone users. Using new processing technology, the smartphone reads the photo as information and instantly opens the phone browser and takes the phone owner to the webpage for that company, product, or service- all within seconds!

Loyalty Incentives. Nothing drives a customer to your product or service website faster than the idea that their loyalty will be rewarded. By adding promotions and award incentives such as discounts or coupons to the “like” option on your Facebook page, you can dramatically increase the number of visitors to your site.

Location, Location, Location. Advertising on Facebook is a simple and highly effective way to promote your Facebook business page. Facebook offers advertising that is specifically targeted to your preferred audience and can be honed to include very specific demographic details. Advertising fees vary and determine placement and appearance of your business page ad on the users “homepage.” Check out info about advertising on Facebook including case studies exemplifying the potential for success.

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Why should you worry less about how many Facebook “Likes” you have? Lets take a look at what is really going on. It is easy to get caught up in the allure of the latest, greatest, best new thing. Often we find ourselves blindly following the masses into doing what we think is the better thing only to find out there are other things just as fabulous. And so we arrive at the almighty and much adored Facebook “Like” button. Because it’s virtually everywhere on the internet, it’s easy to misunderstand exactly what this magical little button is doing and not doing, and exactly what it could be worth to your business.

When assessing whether or not you are reaching your intended market, it might be an automatic assumption that the awareness level of your business relies solely on the number of “Likes” you receive. Actually, that little button can be indicative of many, many things – but be warned, your status among competitors or an actual representation of real fans may not be among them. Instead, your “like-ability” could be heavily buried and strategically bound in tech-savvy marketing practices including “robo-likes” which don’t represent the views of real, live users.

Another thing to consider is that though clicking the “Like” button is some-what interactive, it’s only interactive on the part of the user and very passive. There is no way for the business to respond and thereby create a relationship – which is the ultimate goal, right? So, if you really can’t rely on the “Like” count to be an accurate indicator, are there other features that could be more helpful? Absolutely!

Utilizing features on Facebook and other social media outlets that encourage the user to comment, and allow the business to join in that conversation is a direct way to create a relationship, one user or potential client at a time. This new relationship indicates real, live engagement on the part of the user and the potential for continued positive exposure is limitless. Not to worry, though, “sharing” is still at the root of this marketing tool. When users comment, other users see the conversation and can share with their friend groups and so on, and so forth. So, in short, don’t focus so much on being “liked.” Instead, engage, expand, and grow your business presence on the internet by being part of the process. Do not just be a button.

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Small businesses need to get on the social media bandwagon.Why? You built your business through interaction with people and keep it going by networking, word of mouth and just plain reaching out. Social media is just an extension of that!

Platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are just new ways that allow you to reach customers and potential clients without stepping out your door. How easy is that?! Better still, it’s FREE advertising!

In fact there is no longer an excuse for not having social media!

Free Small Business Marketing

Interacting with your customers through platforms such as Twitter and Facebook helps build solid relationships that will keep them coming back. If you own a restaurant, you can get the word out about specials and new menu items. If you are a Realtor, you can give virtual YouTube tours of properties you want to sell. Any service provider can advertise offers and educate customers about why they need the service. And the best news of all, it is FREE advertising!

It costs nothing to set up a Facebook Fan Page and a Twitter Account. If you have a flip camera you can even shoot your own mini commercials or testimonials and upload them onto YouTube. Everything you create can link back to one another.

Branding: Claim Your Name!

You don’t have to have golden arches to make your brand recognizable to the public. Branding is all about public identity of your unique business: Staking your claim in the social media world and setting up accounts with your company’s name. Facebook vanity URLs and Twitter handles are both first come, first served. If you don’t take your business name, someone else might snag it. Not quite ready to dive in to social media? Go on these services and just claim your name!

Pass It On

Think your business is too small for advertising?Think again! The best part of social media is its FREE and shareable nature. Social media is a great way to stretch your existing advertising dollars… for FREE! If you ask customers to visit your Facebook page, they can share that page with their friends at the click of a mouse. Those people share it with their friends, and so on. It multiplies! Suddenly an ad for your service with a small reach is extended exponentially.

It’s free (and easy)! It costs nothing but time to set up your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles. Additionally, monitoring, scheduling, posting and interacting are made simple with free software like HootSuite and TweetDeck.

Still not sure how to go forward? Leave it to the pros at Personalized Marketing. Social media for small businesses like yours is all we do. Now that you know how important a social media presence is, what are you waiting for?

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Constructing a new client’s social media city is a lot of work, and our new clients are amazed at the full blown construction process.  Think of building your online social media presence just like you would building a new house.  So with that in mind, let’s dive into the world of blog marketing, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and how that equates to the online construction process.

Constructing Your Social Media City

First, you must select the perfect lot for your house.  In the social media world, this is selecting the keyword rich url that you will utilize to build your blog site on.  Oddly enough, what you ‘think’ your url should be for your business may not be what Google says your url should be to attain the best search engine optimization ‘SEO’ possible.

Second, what style of house do you want to build?  How many square feet? What color do you want to paint your house?  Depending on your budget, will your online presence consist of a one bedroom, two bath or is it a four bedroom, four bath, four car garage, or something in between? Selecting the look and feel for your blog site is critical!  Here’s where the branding starts.   We start with the creative for your blog, and that creative is what we will use to brand you across the social media platforms.

Just as your new home has an address, we go through a process to ensure that you are getting the best keyword rich (address) url as possible.  Afterall, we need to please Google, and Google loves words and SEO (search engine optimization).  Each new client is presented with at least  four different choices for their ‘home’ address, if you will.

So now we have the home ‘address’ and the plans for the ‘house’ have been selected and the unique, one of a kind branding is going to start.  Concurrently, the construction process will begin for the client’s Facebook business page, Twitter and YouTube channel.  All the elves have their tool box at their side and start hammering away.

Constructing and branding your social media presence is just the beginning.  Once constructed, the real niche marketing begins.  At  Personalized Marketing, we are cognizant that each client possesses their own unique online niche.   As an example, there is a rhyme and a reason to the ‘type’ of  friends that you invite to your Facebook profile.  Just like inviting ‘friends’ to your new home, you just don’t invite every Tom, Dick and Harry into your Facebook world. You aren’t convinced that you need a Facebook presence?

• More than 500 million active users
• 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day

With those kind of numbers, it’s not whether you like or dislike Facebook…this is a ‘must-have’ portal for your online social media city.

GETTING SOCIAL WITH TWITTER

Let’s move on to Twitter.   Many new clients say, ‘but I don’t like Twitter!’  Of course, our response, ‘you may not like Twitter but a LOT of people do.’  It’s all about prospects, ladies and gentlemen!  Just like a house warming, you may not want to serve champagne because it’s not your thing, but guess what?  Most of your guests are coming to your house warming because you ARE serving champagne!

According to Blog.Twitter:

Today, on every measure of growth and engagement, Twitter is growing at a record pace. Here are some numbers:

#tweets

• 3 years, 2 months and 1 day. The time it took from the first Tweet to the billionth Tweet.
• 1 week. The time it now takes for users to send a billion Tweets.
• 50 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, one year ago.
• 140 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, in the last month.
• 177 million. Tweets sent on March 11, 2011.
• 456. Tweets per second (TPS) when Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 (a record at that time).
• 6,939. Current TPS record, set 4 seconds after midnight in Japan on New Year’s Day.

#accounts

• 572,000. Number of new accounts created on March 12, 2011.
• 460,000. Average number of new accounts per day over the last month.
• 182%. Increase in number of mobile users over the past year.

#employees

• 8. 29. 130. 350. 400. Number of Twitter employees in Jan 2008, Jan 2009, Jan 2010, Jan 2011 and today.

GETTING SOCIAL WITH YOUTUBE

According to YouTube:

• Over 4 million people are connected and auto-sharing to at least one social network
• An AutoShared Tweet results in ~6 new youtube.com sessions
• Over 5 million people have found and subscribed to at least one friend on YouTube using friend-finding tools
• Millions of subscriptions happen each day. Subscriptions allow you to connect with someone you’re interested in—whether it’s a friend, or the NBA—and keep up on their activity on the site.
• Users like Machinima, MysteryGuitarMan, Fred, collegehumor, and UniversalMusicGroup have millions of subscribers
• More than 50% of videos on YouTube have been rated or include comments from the community
• Millions of videos are favorited every day

Views

• YouTube mobile gets over 100 million views a day
• The YouTube player is embedded across tens of millions of websites

Hmmmm…need we say more?  The numbers speak VOLUMES!

With those statistics, and even though you may not like or give credence to YouTube, just look at the numbers!  You cannot discount the value that YouTube brings to the table.  Again, using your new home, as an example…when planning your snacks and appetizers for your next cookout, aren’t you planning to serve what your guests are going to like?  Even though you might not like chips and dip, some of your guests do!  To keep them coming back for more, serve them what they like!!!

So as I preach to new prospects and new clients alike, YOU may not like the thought of building that online city, but the world, it is a changin’ and without a social media presence these days, you’re missing the opportunity to showcase your business to millions of…not just people…BUT prospects!!!

One last comment.  Many clients who look to us to build their online presence shake and shiver when we hand over the ‘keys’ and their instruction manual.  With that in mind, one of the best product lines we offer is to quell the fear and alleviate the shakes and shivers of running your online social media city.  Just like your house, if you don’t like doing the daily and weekly maintenance on your home and outsource that task to experts, that’s exactly what we can do for you with your online city!  We are marketing experts, and our challenge is to provide you with daily interaction that keeps your online city fresh, crisp and up to date providing interesting content for your brand!

We’re here to help!  Contact us today for your personalized quote to build your social media and online marketing presence!

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I really love working with our new clients and dissecting what they are doing (or not doing) for their online marketing and social media campaigns, rolling up our sleeves and ‘gettin’ down to business to start the construction and branding processes required for Facebook profiles, Facebook custom business pages, Twitter, Blogs and YouTube channels!

But…sadly… when I ask the question to business owners, ‘May we please have your login to Facebook so we can start the construction process,’ and the reply is, ‘Well, I don’t know. ’ I silently cringe.

Why?

The most common mistake that I see small business owners making these days on Facebook is assigning their staff or soliciting the help of a good friend to build out their Facebook business page.  Now, don’t get me wrong, that can be well and good IF the build out is done correctly.  But what we see happening time and time again is that the staff person or that good friend built the Facebook business page connected to themselves and not the business owner’s personal profile.  What that means is YOUR staff OR friend OWNS your Facebook business page!  Oh my gosh!!

As an example:  Susie Admin volunteers to make her boss a Facebook business page because it seems pretty simple.  Susie Admin logs into her personal account on Facebook and then starts the process of building out her boss’s Facebook page.  Hmmmm.  What’s wrong with that picture?

Fast forward. Susie Admin gives her two-week notice to her boss because she’s getting married, and Mr. Small Business Owner is super excited for Susie Admin! But when it comes time to hand over the passwords to Mr. Small Business Owner, guess what?  Susie Admin owns the business page and not Mr. Business Owner.  Sure, you can make Mr. Business Owner an ‘admin’ of his own page, but when it comes down to brass tacks, ladies and gentlemen, at the end of the day, no matter how you cut the Facebook cake, Susie Admin still owns your business page. OUCH!

So a word of caution. BEFORE you hop on the social media bandwagon, make sure that you are utilizing the expertise of a company that knows the importance of proper build out.  Those folks that ‘like’ your business page are golden.  Make sure you are the owner of everything you are building out for your online marketing and social media campaigns.

Outsourcing your social media to experts will ensure your online marketing and social media foundation is built correctly from the start.  Contact us today to find out how we can help your small business strategize and correctly build your online marketing and social media campaigns!

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When starting a new business, we all know that we need a good venue to display our products and services. Social media offers a host of sites, and one of the household words these days is Facebook.  Facebook reaches over half a billion people and it is FREE….let me repeat…FREE to create your personal Facebook profile and business page! If  your business is already up and running or you are considering starting your own business, marketing on Facebook can be a great deal of help.

Here are some Facebook marketing tips and tricks:

• As already stated, Facebook reaches a lot of potential customers! If you have already created a Facebook profile, it’s now time to create your business page.  You can start populating your business page by inviting your friends to ‘like’ your page. It’s like having a built-in client base right at your finger tips. Ask them if it is okay to test marketing skills on them. Let them know that their feedback is welcome and important. Remember to keep your business page updated with the latest and greatest information regarding business products and services.

• Try to understand and know your target demographics. Think about and then decide which kinds of people to attract.  You can use as wide or narrow a range as they like. Once the target demographic is determined, start looking for similarities on friends’ sites.

• Your friends’ opinions matter! Inquire what it is they are interested in and how to go about reaching more people that have the same interests. Try not to make friends feel as if they are just business contacts. Friends can be a powerful resource, but it is important to let friends know that they are more than business contacts.

• You can also consider using paid advertising on Facebook. It is a low cost way to generate leads and a  HUGE potential for growing a larger customer base!

If you’re new to online marketing and social media and just don’t know which direction to turn, consider outsourcing this very important piece of your business marketing.  Contact us today for a FREE no obligation quote!

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