Ariane Griffiths» Facebook

Using Facebook Pages for your Business

Ariane — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 15:04:13 +0000

Lately, I have encountered many, many questions regarding Facebook, it’s usage and how to use Facebook as a marketing tool. I thought I’d share some tips to get you started!

What is a Facebook Page?

A Facebook Page is designed specifically for your brand or business in order to share your story, products and create connections. Through a Facebook Page, you can host events, add applications and update your fans as news develops about your brand or company.

Pages are created and run through your personal profile, but if you’ve noticed that a page already exists for your company you can claim it instead of creating a duplicate account. This sometimes happens because people have checked in at your business and the new page was created to represent your company. In order to claim your page, click on the settings cogwheel (the gear icon) and select the “Is this your business?” option from the menu. From here, you will be able to follow the steps to verify information about your website. After you’ve done this, you will then be asked to claim the page, as well as provide documentation to prove your connection to the company; a business email or an official document will be sufficient.

Why a Page is better for a business or brand than a personal account.

Facebook Pages are not the same as individual accounts. A Facebook Profile is meant to be a representation of you, personally, while a Page is meant to be a representation of our brand or business. These Pages were created to allow organizations, celebrities and businesses share information and events with fans in order to create and maintain a one-stop-shop on Facebook. Facebook profiles are for personal, non-commercial use according to the Facebook terms of service, and as such, they are subject to things like limits on the amount of friends that are allowed. A Facebook Page is not independent; it won’t require a separate login, but they will behave differently than your personal profile. In order to protect your privacy, people who “like” your business page will not be able to access your personal account, nor will they have the ability to see who the administrator for the Page is. Fans of your page will also be able to message your page, but not you directly.

How to make your Page Images streamlined.

As with all aspects of your company branding, it is important that your images create a tidy and streamlined view of your company in order to appear professional and attract visitors. The two main sources of these visual stimuli will be your cover photo and your profile image, both of which are powerful branding tools on your Facebook Page. Your cover photo will be the first thing that catches the eye of your fans, so ensure that your message is clear, concise and well branded. Your photo should be 851 x 315 pixels in size. If graphics aren’t your strong suit, consider a hiring us for this task to ensure that your message isn’t lost in poorly made photos. Your profile picture should fall in line as well; about 200 x 200 pixels in size that is easily viewed in a thumbnail image.

Star or hide stories to control your image and message

As the administrator, you are able to “star” stories on your timeline, keeping them at the top of the page for easy viewing. In this same way, you can remove things that no are no longer relevant and distract from the overall message you’re looking to get across. Be sure to monitor your Page on a regular basis to avoid a buildup of irrelevant or useless, even unflattering material.
Make sure though, if a negative comment has been left, that you address it offline by sending a private message and turning this into a good service experience for your customer.

Optimizing Your Page

Now that you understand the basics of the Facebook Page and how you can make it work for you, develop a plan to optimize your use of the platform. This means taking the time to ensure that your other methods of social media are attached to Facebook and easily accessible. Link often to your website and other social media channels to hold the attention of your visitors and keep them viewing your pages for longer. Cross post your information, but don’t overdo it!

The perfect balance of posting is debatable, so find a time frame that works for you and your viewers; whether it’s once a day or once a month, always ensure that you focus on engaging your fans! Open the floor by asking your viewers questions, engage with them by answering their quandaries, and consider running promotions which attract new fans and follows. To be safe, always read official terms and conditions to ensure that you are clear on just what you’re allowed to do within the rules of any given platform, and ALWAYS ensure that your contact information and websites are up to date.

Using Tabs for Facebook Pages

Using Facebook tabs is a great way to direct traffic to specific part of your Social Media campaign. While tabs are no longer as predominant in the layout of the Page Timeline as they once were, they are featured underneath your cover photo. You can customize your tabs through the use of customized applications, keeping these thumbnails in line with the overall imagery that you’ve used in your cover photo and profile image. Apps are a great way of offering visitor feedback, and have generally been hailed as the premiere way to optimize engagement among social media marketers.

Before you design your custom app, ask yourself what you want to get from using a custom application in the first place. This can be anything from joining your newsletter to striking up a conversation, you just need to have a strategy in mind. If you want to keep people engaged on your page for longer, try offering tips and tricks through your custom applications, or offer details about an upcoming webinar or event. You can even pull your website directly into Facebook utilizing apps.

Give us a call today so that can get started on making your Facebook Page the hub for all of your pertinent information!

Does Social Media belong in your Marketing Plan?!

Ariane — Wed, 14 Nov 2012 14:00:55 +0000

A good friend of mine (Leslie Hughes from Punch! Media) wrote about the various ways a business could use Social Media to promote it’s services..

Read on and find out how YOU can use Social Media for your business..

—

When you hear “Social Media Marketing”, you think of Facebook. Don’t you?

Well, although Facebook certainly has a stronghold on the world of Social Media, they aren’t the “end all, be all”.

If your customer base is business-to-business, Facebook is probably not the most useful tool.

So what other options do you have?

Infographic: Update to Social Media List

Ariane — Wed, 08 Aug 2012 20:21:54 +0000

A while back (In July of last year actually) I wrote a post about how using a social media list would help you keep track of things. I wrote of course abut Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Blogging. What I did NOT write about at the time was Google+ (It had just arrived on the scene) as I did not have much knowledge about it and I did NOT touch on Pinterest because it did not even exist (oh the horror!).

All that of course has changed and because of that, I have an update!
As you know, I LOVE Inforgraphics.. well, Patricia Curto of Vaughan Mompreneurs shared an Infographic on Facebook the other day that encapsulates it all quite well!

The graphic touches on Facebook, Twitter, Blogging, LinkedIn, YouTube, Google+ AND Pinterest – Your entire Social Media Marketing toolkit all in one beauty of an Infographic!

The list is extensive because it covers all of the popular channels, so my suggestion would be to TRY to do as many of the tasks as you can.. you will not be able to do all of them every day, if you do, let me know your results!

Do you do anything that is NOT listed on the task list? Put it in the comments and share with everyone!

A List to Help You Cope With Social Media Chaos!

Ariane — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 20:49:12 +0000

Holy Wow! There are so MANY Social Media Networks that “we should be or could be” participating in that is is difficult to even know where to start! A quick Google search for “Social Media Plan” bring up gazillions of how-tos for creating a social media plan, but only a small few that give you guidance as to how long you should spend on each and even what steps to take on each platform. Out of all of the searches, I found four, only FOUR!

You can find the originals at the bottom of this post, but I took a bit from each (2 were VERY similar) to put here – these, in my opinion are the best examples of how to go about your interactions with each platform.

Note: Google+ is not on here as it is such a new platform and I am just getting used to it and it’s features.. I will come back in a while and update the post when I get used to Google+

Twitter

Say hello, comment on the day and ask a question with your first tweet!
Be sure to respond to everyone who replies to you
Find seven to ten things worth retweeting in your general feed and share – before doing so think “Are my followers going to be interested in this?”
Reply to at least five things with full responses (not just “thanks”)
On #followfriday choose five Tweeters you admire, tweet a message for each and say why you should follow them
Review follower list and identify people to follow back
Respond to those you mentioned or replied to you
Check and respond to direct messages (DM)
Identify new people to follow
Tweet 3 business related Tweets; related to your industry, or links to your own blogs or products
Tweet 2 personally related Tweets – let people see the person behind the Twitter account
Ask at least one question that requires an answer

Facebook

Check birthdays on the home page. Send the birthday wish via Twitter or email, makes it more personal
Respond to any posts, messages or comments on your wall
Post a status message at least daily, something engaging or interesting
Comment on at least five people’s status messages, walls or updates
Share at least 3 interesting updates that you find
Leave a message on 2 fan pages
Join at least two fan pages each week and post messages introducing yourself
Review friend requests and accept requests that make sense for you
Review invitations for events, fan pages and applications you’ve received
Check private messages and respond when appropriate
Read “news” page and identify posts to “like” or comment on
Identify new people to friend or to suggest your fan page/group/event

Accept only invitations from people you know and trust
Search for new business contacts on LinkedIn and personalise an invite to
become LinkedIn, invite those not on the network to join
Enter any recent business cards to invite them to LinkedIn
Provide a recommendation every few days for people you can honestly and fully recommend.
Drop into Q&A and see if you can volunteer answers
Make an introduction if you see someone needs or wants something and you know someone who can help
Make sure your resume (portfolio) is up to date
If you are a member of a group, stop by and see if there is anything that needs to be dealt with (Comments, questions etc.)

Blogs

Visit your blog’s comments section and comment back on replies
While on those sites, use a tool like StumbleUpon and promote their work
If you have a few extra minutes, click through to the blogs of the commenters, and read a post or two and comment back
Write the occasional post promoting the good work of a blog in your community
Find a new blog to comment on every day

Are there any tips that you have that I should’ve included? Please leave them in the comments so we can combat this chaos together

Have a great weekend!

The Original Lists

http://www.morganpr.co.uk/Daily-Social-Media-Checklist

http://www.chrisbrogan.com/19-presence-management-chores-you-could-do-every-day/

http://prsarahevans.com/2010/02/04/whats-your-social-network-routine/

http://www.nikkipilkington.com/free-social-media-marketing-checklist/