Posts Tagged ‘Social Networking’
March 5th, 2010 | 
Author: We recently posted about how to create a Facebook Fan Page. Well, while we are on a roll, let’s go ahead and show you how to create your own Fan Box for your website. First of all, log into your facebook account and go to your Facebook Page. Click on the Edit Page link at the top of your page.
This will take you to a page full of all of your FB Page settings. Scroll down and look on the right hand side for the following section. Click on Promote with a Fan Box.
You will see a preview of how your Fan Box will look, depending on the different settings you choose.
For my fan box, I like to include the stream of comments and wall postings. This allows people to see the sort of things you are talking about, the ability to see if it’s worth becoming your fan I suppose! You can also include your fans, and the facebook logo. Finally, select where you want to put your fan box. For your own website, click on Other. The code will be listed below that. Copy the code.
Here is what you can do with the code:
- Send the code to your web designer and tell them where you would like it on your website.
- If you have access to your own pages and are comfortable modifying the code, paste it in directly where you would like to see the Facebook Fan Box
- If you have WordPress, simply log in, go to Appearance on the left navigation, click on Widgets, and use a Text Widget and simply paste the code in there.
Any questions? Let us know below!
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So, you have your own business, you have a website, maybe even a Twitter page. What about a Facebook Fan Page? This post will walk you through how to create your own.
So what do I need a Fan Page for?
Well, good question! Fan Pages allow you to interact with clients and potential clients online. Unlike your Facebook Profile, you don’t have to be friends with a fan to interact with them. They can become a fan of your page, and if you allow it, they can post things on your Fan Page wall. This allows you to have conversations and be “social through media”. You can also track statistics of your interactions and the demographics of your fans. Use your page to post articles, videos and comments relevant to your business. Keep your Profile for your ramblings, political opinions and anything else that isn’t necessarily promoting your business.
How do I create a page?
First things first, click on the following link: http://www.facebook.com/advertising/?src=pf . This will take you to the following page. Simply click on the Pages link, then click on the green Create a Page button that show up.
Next you will have to fill out a series of fields about the Page you wish to create. You can select the category for your business, then type in the name for your page. Try to stick to your Businesses legal name, or the name you use on your website for consistent branding. Enter the Captcha security words and then click on Create Page at the bottom:
Next, if you already have a Faceook Profile account, you can use that to log in with. If you do not have a Facebook account, you will need to create one in order to create the Page. This is required by Facebook.
Next you are taken to your Page. The first thing I would suggest doing is uploading an image for the Profile picture of your new Page. From the current image of the big question mark, hover your mouse and then click to Edit the picture. Click on Upload a picture and then browse out for your company logo, or a picture that makes sense for your page.
Once you have your picture uploaded, you now need to go through and edit the rest of your page! Click in the Write something about “your fan page name” section and put in a little bit about your business. Next, click on the Info tab next to the Wall tab and add a little more information. When you are adding your website address, be sure to include your Twitter page and any other sites you want to link to.
When you are done editing your page, click on Suggest to friends! Spread the word so that people start to become a fan. Your first goal is to reach 25 fans. Why? Because until you do, you cannot create a unique url for your fan page, and this makes it so much easier for people to find you.
Finally, sorry for teasing you all, but My Dog Oscar isn’t really a Fan Page, I just created it for the screen shots 
Sorry to disappoint, but isn’t he cute? To make it up to you, I will let you post a link to your own Fan Pages in the comments below! Go for it!
Yesterday I talked about using TweetDeck to organize, update and review your Tweets. However, there are times when I still need to log into my Twitter account on the http://www.twitter.com website. I actually have 3 accounts that I need to keep up with though. One I use to keep in touch with family back in England, one for a local community group, and one for Purple Star Consulting. When logged in, there is no way to know which of those accounts you are actually signed into at that moment in time. Obviously you want to be sure you don’t send the wrong tweet out under the wrong profile!
So, to get around this, I wanted to share something that my brother wrote, that I think is pretty cool! He wrote a small Greasemonkey script. This will only work if you use Firefox as your browser. You can get the Greasemonkey plugin installed here pretty quickly. To get the actual script, I am going to send you to his page which has the link in his blog post. If you like geeky things, take a moment to look around his site. He has a lot of really cool things in the works so take note!
Once the script is installed, you will be able to see who you’re logged on as, in the Twitter navigation bar at the top right-hand corner of the screen, at all times. See below for an example.
Twitter can be a little overwhelming, and also time consuming!
There are many great tools out there to help you organize, sort and review your tweets in an effective way. Logging into Twitter online or reviewing your tweets on your phone is fine, but it can take a while to scroll through everything. Also, if like me you moderate several different accounts, it means logging and and back out of each of them. Then there is the concern of posting the wrong tweet when logged into the wrong account!
TweetDeck is the perfect tool to monitor your Twitter accounts, and include access to your Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace accounts too! Go to www.tweetdeck.com and click on the download link. Walk through the download and once complete, (if it doesn’t already open), go ahead and click on the shortcut on your desktop.
You can start entering your Twitter account information from the first screen that opens on TweetDeck. However, if you opt not to, or can’t figure out how to enter more information, simply click on the icon that looks like a wrench at the top right corner. This is for the settings.
You can add multiple Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace accounts. You will need to enter your user name and password for each account. You can also change the standard colors and fonts, notifications and general information in the TweetDeck Settings area.
You can determine the number of columns of Tweets, and updates you wish to see, and you can also determine what is displayed in those columns. From the top left, click on the plus sign icon.
You can then determine the type of account that you want to display. Then decide if you want to show groups, lists, direct messages, replies, mentions and so on.
Now you can simply stay on your desktop, set notifications based on the updates you are interested in seeing, and not have to log in directly to all of your separate accounts. Much easier to use, and less time consuming.
Once in a while, a video, blog post or news story will spread online like wildfire with unstoppable speed. At times it’s information that’s pretty pointless (a YouTube video of someone dancing or singing), or it could be a “news” story reported by some bystander through a Tweet (the landing of the plane in the Hudson River). Often we have no way of knowing how or why something is so big, but to get your information to spread viral is huge. Although hitting it big can be chance, there are still great marketing tactics you can use to induce a viral attack!
1. E-mail Signatures
You have huge power at your finger tips in your own e-mail client! Use your e-mail signature effectively to spread your message. Have a conference coming up you want people to sign up for? Add a link to a website with more information. Want people to know about a new product? Perhaps add an image or photo to the bottom. A well constructed signature can spread the word. Each e-mail you send will keep the marketing word flowing. Get on an e-mail thread that includes many recipients, even better!
2. Newsletters
It’s your newsletter, it’s your news! Add information that helps you market in the right way. Get people to sign up through your website, offering something in return. Perhaps a useful article that is free to those who register? Use case studies, white papers and fun contests to get people to read it, including info about your products throughout.
3. Twitter
Although this one might be fairly obvious, many companies have avoided ‘tweeting’ for fear of the unknown. Use this medium to generate new relationships and nurture and grow current ones. Although having a decent number of followers means a lot of immediate readers, it’s those well written tweets that are likely to be retweeted by your followers, which is were taking it viral happens! Consider someone on topic, funny or thought provoking for maximum impact.
4. Facebook
Similar to Twitter, the more friends you have the better. BUT, a carefully thought out status, or post can help generate interest. You can also use Facebook to upload photos and videos along with your posts. Consider a photo album full of product screenshots, or a launch party you just had. Everyone loves an image of people having a great time, what better marketing angle than that?
5. LinkedIn
Sometimes the forgotten younger sister of Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn can be just as powerful. It’s viewed as perhaps the more professional networking site of the three but can still be used to add posts, comments and feedback to others. Use all three together and feed your tweets and Facebook updates directly into your LinkedIn profile. Makes your marketing plan easier to execute when you can minimize your work efforts.
6. You Tube
If you have a product or service you are trying to market, many buyers feel happier making a commitment to buy if they can see the end result, rather than read a press release just ‘telling’ them all about it. Film other clients giving testimonials, go out and do a survey on the streets, or film a demonstration. Anything that will show you and your company in the best and quickest way. Again, combine this with numbers 2-4 and link back to the video from those avenues.
7. Social Bookmarking
There are many sites out there that allow you to repost or ’bookmark’ your articles and information you have posted online. Using tools like Share This on your blog will enable your readers to simply click and send the content to sites like Digg, Stumble Upon and Reddit. This is a very quick way for a blog post to go viral. As always, unique, genuine and well written content will be the first to find its way to those sites!
8. Affiliate Programs
An Affiliate Program allows people to sign up and earn rewards if they can refer visitors from their own website, back to your site, and the end result be that a purchase was made by the visitor. This is a legitimate way to have others help spread your word and generate interest in your product. Companies like GoDaddy and Amazon have affiliate programs which a pretty popular, you just need to come up with what reward you will bestow on those that help you in your quest for helping with your marketing!
9. Groups and Forums
Being the member of an online group (think Yahoo, LinkedIn, Industry related groups) can bring a lot of value to your company. Having the opportunity to build and grow relationships is the primary reason. Building relationships builds trust. Trust can equal a sale. Although going in there spamming the message boards will get you kicked out fast, you can use the signature of your profile to link back to marketing information. Also, if your product is relevant to the discussions going on, share the info with the rest of the group.
10. Microsoft Tags
This last way is pretty new, and you can read more information about it in a previous blog post, but adding a tag to your product brochures, cards and website can be a fun new way to spread the news!
Can you think of any more? Feel free to share so we can all learn more!
