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Posts Tagged: Social Media

5 Steps to Import Your Blog into Facebook

This morning I was working with a client, trying to explain over the phone how he can pull his blog into his new Facebook Page, and I felt as if I was playing that game where you sit blindfolded and have to get someone to draw something you are thinking of, using verbal communication only.

Somethings are just easier to do yourself than to try and explain. I ended up writing the directions down and sending them via email, but by 3pm, I had two other people asking me this same question on our Gettin’ Geeky Page so I figured I’d better get this out!

Since you put a lot of effort into a blog, you want to get all the exposure you can. You can import your blog into your personal profile on Facebook as well as your PAGES. Here are the steps to follow (it may sound a bit confusing but hang in there!)

1. Go to your PAGE and click on EDIT PAGE on the left.

2. Go down to APPLICATIONS (sometimes you have to click on BROWSE MORE . The search box is in the upper left- type in BLOG and you will see several options including NETWORKED BLOGS (SOCIAL RSS is another good one).

3. When you click on the Blog app you will then need to click the link ADD TO MY PAGE (under the picture on the upper left). If you have multiple pages, it will ask you to choose which page to add it to.

4. Now you go BACK to your PAGE and select the Blog tab that should now be showing. You will have to now pull the blog into the tab from here. You are almost finished.

5. There are a few boxes to check and then you must SAVE your settings and then TEST the publishing to make sure everything took.

There … that wasn’t so hard now was it?

Share your blog address here for all of us to check out too!

@GinaSchreck

July 29, 2010 | Filed Under Facebook, Facebook PAGES, Social Media, Technology | Leave a Comment

Social Media for Business…Whose Face Do You Use?

This is a common question asked by executives, entrepreneurs and, small businesses especially. Should you tweet or post content from a Facebook page as yourself or as your company? Ask yourself this question: On Twitter, would you be more likely to follow and engage in conversation with a person who happens to work at, or own, a particular company, or with the logo of the company? You know that there is a person (most of the time) sending out the information on the company’s behalf, but which is considered more transparent and authentic? The REAL person.

Take a look at the company, Zappos. For those of you who are not familiar with this company (shame on you!) it started as an online shoe retailer but now sells clothing as well. I believe Zappos is a customer service company that happens to help you look great! The CEO, Tony Hsieh, says they deliver HAPPINESS…and when shoes are delivered…it is indeed HAPPINESS! But if you do a search on Twitter for Zappos, you will find over 40 individual accounts that have Zappos and then the person’s name within the company that is using Twitter to reach and engage her own community, including Tony Hsieh. People want to connect to brands that they love and if there is a real person behind the brand, it is a bonus!

Social Media Expert, Gina Schreck, Twitter Training, Technology Speaker

Remember, social media is about the conversations, not the pushing of your goods and services. Once I like you, I will be more likely to buy from you. If all you do is talk without asking my opinions or listening to what I am talking about, you might as well keep wasting your money on those slick postcards that I love throwing away!

Now on Facebook it is a little different. You may want to allow individuals within an organization to send or post content on behalf of your company from their personal profile pages, but I would use extreme caution (OK I would really ask you “ARE YOU NUTS?”). If you are a small company and you want your team members to help you get the word out on certain company campaigns or messages, have and communicate clear policies around what type of content should and should not be shared from a personal Facebook profile. ”Company picnic today at Synapse” is fine but “Boss man getting married AGAIN…this time to our marketing VP” may not be the message you want getting out to all of Facebook Land! Facebook has PAGES that serve the business world and provide a great place for you to engage with your community. (See episode #35 on Gettin’ Geeky for the HOW TO CREATE A PAGE) I suggest that companies create a PAGE that does not have an individuals name, but the company or the service you provide (SPEAKEASY uses the company name while WOMEN WHO WALK THE WALK is not a company named PAGE, but a community of people drawn by common interests).

Twitter and Facebook profiles are more about the personal conversations, while PAGES (formerly FAN PAGES) are about great content and engaging your community -whether around a brand name or common interest group.

So who’s face do you use? I will leave that up to you…but unless your logo has a shoe somewhere in there, you may not get me to engage! Share your thoughts with us~ What PAGES do you engage with most and is it a person’s name or an organization? Come on…take off that mask and talk to us!

@GinaSchreck

You can connect with me on Facebook on my personal page or join the fun at our GettinGeeky Page

June 25, 2010 | Filed Under Facebook, Gettin Geeky, Social Media, Twitter | 6 Comments

HELLO? Is Anyone Home on Your Social Media Sites?

A good friend of mine is an expert in his field. He is a great guy and is booked regularly for speaking engagements. He jumped on the social bandwagon over a year ago with a Facebook page and a Twitter account. The problem is he has outsourced the posting of content on his pages to someone who obviously does not know how to LISTEN to the community he has tried to engage.

There are regular info-dump posts with tips or links to his site with information about where he is speaking next, but you never see comments on the Facebook PAGE or replies in the Twitter feed. There is no conversations going on. Why bother? Your website is already playing the role of stagnant information dumping ground (assuming there is no blog). There’s nobody home.

Social engagement tools like Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and your blog are about conversations and building relationships. Part of a good conversation is listening and responding to the people you are wanting the relationship with. If you don’t believe me, try maintaining a healthy relationship with someone (significant other, children, co-worker, etc) without responding when they speak to you. That relationship won’t last long.

Here are 3 tips for making sure the lights are on and people know you are home:

1. Mix in questions with your tips and information that get posted. Asking questions shows you care about what your community thinks. For example, your Twitter profile and Facebook PAGE should be sprinkled with great content and conversations.

2. NOW LISTEN and respond to the answers your community posts. Yes this means replying to every single comment. You can bundle your reply to several people at a time but show you heard them.

3. Look at what your community is saying (this is made easier by using a tool like Hootsuite or TweetDeck to filter the flow of information) and jump in on the conversation occasionally with a comment, a LIKE, a ReTweet, or a reply (shoot for 5 times a day to start).

Be sure you are applying these tips to all of the places you have hung your SOCIAL sign out–your blog, Facebook Fan Page, Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, etc. Remember, don’t leave your lights on if no one is home!

Like Tom Bodett, I’m @GinaSchreck and I’ll leave the light on for you~

Join me on our Facebook PAGE (someone’s alway home there)

June 24, 2010 | Filed Under Facebook, Gettin Geeky, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter, YouTube | 2 Comments

10 Twitter Do’s + 5 Twitter Don’ts = BIG Twitter Success

After two years using Twitter, and spending 6 months writing my Gettin’ Geeky with Twitter book, I have pulled together my top Do’s and Don’ts for using this powerful social engagement tool. There are so many tips and techniques for Twitter success, but these will be a good foundation for anyone wanting to build their business and manage their brand using this simple social engagement tool. You may not agree with all of them (and I encourage you to add your tips to this list in the comments), but I have found these the best way to build an authentic Twitter feed with minimal spam and maximum conversation that leads to new friendships, new learning and yes, new sales!

1. DO start by writing down your goals for being on Twitter. Is it a PR tool for you? Will you just be a Twatcher (someone who reads tweets but never posts anything)? Is your goal to connect with potential customers, or send readers to your blog? Write this goal down and keep it near by. Without a goal you can easily get sucked into that Twitter trap of sitting for hours and reading everyone’s posts and adding useless content to the already polluted stream. Having 1,000 followers is NOT a good goal. I can show you 1,000 naked spammers if that is your only goal.

2. DO take time to build your nest before starting to fly. Fill in your profile, giving people some information about you, a link to your website, blog or even LinkedIn profile, so they can see you are a REAL person and learn more if they want. Show your personality in that 160 character bio-HA! Most importantly is to be sure to load a good headshot of …YOUR HEAD! Don’t load a picture of your cat or truck or baby picture. People want to connect with a person, and more importantly, they want to conenct with YOU!

3. DO follow SMART people. Start by following writers and thought leaders you enjoy as well as those in your industry that you can share information with. Don’t get caught up in following the “Recommended” twits that Twitter suggests or celebrities, unless this is your industry. You can sprinkle those in later, but it can derail your focus as you read hundreds of possibly useless posts.

4. DO use a Twitter tool to manage the information flow. If you start feeling like it is information overload, realize that it is “filter failure.” Tools like TweetDeck and Hootsuite will help you manage the information flow. You do not need to read every tweet that comes raging by like a fast moving river. These tools will help you “pool” the tweets from your favorites into different columns or lists that you set up until you have time to read them. (More info on this in episode #55 of Gettin’ Geeky)

5. DO ReTweet good stuff. If you are following smart people, you will be getting smart info in your stream. When you retweet, you let others know you appreciate their information as you provide good content to those following you! (Be sure to use the RT etiquette which is to always give credit to the originator of the content)

6. DO jump in and reply to tweets that you have something to say on. Show people you are here for the conversations and not just to dump your information. If you look at your Twitter stream (look at your profile page) you should see a good mix of @replies, RT’s and great content from you.

7. DO think before you tweet! Before hitting send on that nugget of information, ask yourself if it is interesting or helpful. Many of you know my motto is “Be Interesting, Be Helpful, or Be Quiet!” Sharing personal information about watching television or what you are eating is neither helpful nor interesting. If you are telling me what movie you’re watching, perhaps you can give us a great line from the movie and have people guess, or you can tell us a lesson learned from the movie.

8. DO anticipate people ReTweeting your great nuggets. If you are posting something that you feel is helpful or interesting enough, then help people ReTweet it by making it short enough for them to fit a short comment and their Twitter name. To do this you want to aim for 120 character tweets–I know, it’s not easy!

9. DO make your links “clickable.” When posting a link to a blog or website, on Twitter, you must start with http:// instead of www. The http:// makes the link clickable. The only person who will go through the trouble to copy and paste your link into a browser is your mom, and even she will wait until later to do it. Bottom line, make it easy for folks!

10. DO add pictures, videos and other fun add-ins to your Twitter stream to allow us to SEE into your world. Most mobile devices can snap a pic and upload it to Twitter either via MMS messaging (text) or by using an app. Write a short tweet with the pic and share!

11. DON’T send people an auto Direct Message that tells them you are a cheesy spammer right off the bat. If you ARE a cheesy spammer, you may not want to tell us to unfollow you so quickly. When I get a direct message (DM) from a new person I follow and it reads “Thank you for following me, I can help you make thousands of dollars from your Twitter stream. Here is my gift to you: http://ImAnIdiot.com” I click UNFOLLOW and depending on what the spammer said, I may UNFOLLOW and BLOCK! Direct messages should be real messages from you to the other person that are not intended for anyone else to see. Here’s more information on how to use the DM feature.

12. Don’t protect your tweets. Go back to your goal-why are you on Twitter? Unless you are using Twitter for an internal communication tool (in which case, most of these tips will become useless to you), you really shouldn’t care about who reads your helpful nuggets. You do not have to follow them all back. Remember people who are following your posts will only see what you decide to send out. Make it easy for people to get your information. Protecting your tweets is a hassel for others.

13. Don’t use the verification services that make followers authenticate themselves to prove they are not spammers. YOU do the work. Remember, you don’t have to follow everyone back, but don’t punish those you were trying to attract in the beginning.

14. Don’t send every tweet to Facebook and LinkedIn. Be selective on what posts go where. Each of these sites reaches a different audience (for the most part) and requires different information. There are some nuggets that will go everywhere and some only to one or two of the sites. Using a tool like TweetDeck or Hootsuite will allow you to pick and choose which sites will receive your post.

15. Don’t listen to every so called “expert” telling you her Do’s and Don’ts on how to use your Twitter account. If you jump in and explore you will find the tools you like and a way that works for you.

Add your favorite Do’s and Don’ts~

@GinaSchreck

June 21, 2010 | Filed Under Gettin Geeky, Marketing, Twitter | 11 Comments

Becoming Mayor of Tipsy’s Liquor World & Other Technology Dangers

I “performed” last night at IGNITE Fort Collins a fun comedy routine about the dangers of using today’s technology. The IGNITE programs are spreading across the globe (and one is coming soon to Second Life for those who can’t get to one physically). The basic premise of the IGNITE programs is 15 or so presenters are selected to give a 5 minute presentation each. These presentations must have 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds, making them fun, fast, and highly entertaining. Last night the presentations ranged from “Being Married to a Gamer” and “The Anatomy of a Harmonica” to “Understanding the Barter System.” Each one was unique and FUN!

Here is my “comedy routine” I titled “Becoming Mayor of Tipsy’s Liquor World & Other Technology Dangers”

If you’d like to see more of the entertaining presentations from last night’s IGNITE Fort Collins event, check them out HERE.

Happy Friday and REMEMBER DONT TEXT and WALK without your iHELMET.

@GinaSchreck

June 18, 2010 | Filed Under Gettin Geeky, Social Media, Technology | Leave a Comment