Facebook recently launched the capabilities of replying to comments via email. In case you haven’t noticed, there’s a message from Facebook in each of the emails that reads, “New Feature: Reply to this email to comment on this post.” This is a fantastic feature for anyone who manages a fan page. Manage multiple fan pages as I do, and it is a gift. Today, I’m referring to it as my special holiday gift from Facebook.

I’ve always monitored comments via email. My email feeds into my Blackberry. Now, I can reply faster and easier to keep discussions going and without logging into Facebook. This saves me a ton of steps, not to mention a whole lot of time. Thanks Facebook!

*Hint: Don’t try to reply to emailed messages from last week. The feature wasn’t implemented and is likely not to work on older messages.

How I am using it

HootSuite allows me to monitor a lot of information in one browser window:

1. Both of my Twitter accounts
2. My Facebook page
3. My Facebook fan page
4. My LinkedIn network
5. Personalized Twitter searches so I can see when certain words are Tweeted
6. Twitter lists so I can monitor conversations of specific ‘Tweeters”

More than just monitoring

1. Save Time:  With HootSuite I can type one message and have it appear on all on my social networks
2. Keep it short:  Twitters 140 character limit is hard to stay within when you copy long website urls.  HootSuite will shrink those urls with a click on the mouse.
3. Timely:  Do you have information that needs to be provided on a particular day?  at a particular time?  Use the scheduling feature to schedule when you posts will be made on your various social networks.
4. Statistics:  HootSuite provides you with statistics on how many time your links were clicked on.  I have used bit.ly before to do this ( I still love bit.ly!)  But it is so convenient to have the tracking within HootSuite.
5. There is a lot more HootSuite can do, but those are the highlights that I am using right now.

Choice

There are other tools like this available, but HootSuite is quickly become my tool of choice.  Here are a few other tools to consider that I am using:

1. www.TweetDeck.com
2. www.Seesmic.com

What are you using?

What tools to you using to build stronger relationships, monitor your brand, or increase the effectiveness of your communications?

What does it mean to ‘unfriend’ someone?  Are we no longer friends?  Why were we friends in the first place.

The definition is obviously familiar to those who use Facebook, where the phrase originated: “To remove someone as a ‘friend’ on a social networking site such as Facebook,” the authors said. No word if the Twitter equivalent, “unfollow,” was included or referred to.  (http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2355963,00.asp)

Kindergarten

We learned everything we needed to know in kindergarten, right? We learned to be polite, be honest, considerate, follow the rules, and especially make friends.  However, there was no lesson plan on “unfriending.”  The word wasn’t even in existence back then.

It’s now a universal term in the social networking community.  Like Google users quickly coined the term “Just Google It,” social marketing people know exactly what it means “to be unfriended.”  If you are using social networking for business purposes, you had better know what this term is, as well as be aware of the causes and repercussions of being “unfriended.”

Who did you unfriend this year?

How many people did you ‘unfriend’ this year?   Was 2009 the year when we are a little more selective in who we invite as a friend on Facebook or other social networks?

Will you please be my friend

Food for Thought

I have two reasons I would unfriend someone:

1. Once we became friends, you harvested ALL of my contacts by spamming them with friend requests.  (Yes it did happen.)
2. You are constantly trying to sell me something through social media rather than building a relationship.  (Yes it still happens.)

I would love to read your comments.  What would make you unfriend someone?

I work with many businesses on setting up their fan pages and teach classes on how to get the most out of your business fan page. The number one issue that causes fan page “flop” has to do with HOW the page is initially set up. If I can walk you through the pitfalls now, it will prevent you (and me) many future headaches.

Pitfall #1: Don’t set up a fake person in order to create a business fan page. The best strategy is to log in as yourself, under your personal profile to build the page. Don’t worry, if you have your personal privacy settings correct, no one will be able to access your personal page or information, even if they join your fan page. Do it this way, and…

• You won’t forget your username and password (fictional people have poor memories)
• You won’t “lose a fan page “out in Facebook cyberspace like many people have who don’t manage it under their primary personal account.
• You’ll have your personal friends to invite as fans to start getting the word out there.
• You’ll be better at frequent updates and keeping the page interesting if you get in the habit of checking on things every time you’re logged in personally.
• You’ll save time and increase efficiencies when you only have one account to log into.
• All your pages you create will be neatly organized under you, the main administrator.
• All comments and posts to your fan page will flow into your main email, so you can monitor what is going on without logging into FB.
• You’ll maintain primary administrator, regardless of who else you add as secondary administrators. You will be able to remove them at anytime.

Pitfall #2: Don’t delegate fan page set up to someone whom you do not want to be the main administrator of the page. Even if you plan to have one or more people responsible for the fan page on a daily basis, the owner should set up the fan page. It doesn’t need to look pretty, just published. Then add secondary administrative people to help with the page. Do it this way, and…

• If an employee or volunteer leaves your organization, you can delete them as an administrator and add someone else in their place.
• You never have to worry about someone leaving your business and taking your fan page with them (hostage) or abandoning it.

Pitfall #3: Don’t keep creating and recreating the same page. This happens when someone can’t find the original one they created, they forgot what they called it, they forgot what name/email/password they used to create it, or they named all their pages the same thing. You can envision how messy these scenarios can get, yet it happens all the time. If you are having any of these issues STOP. You need a professional to help you figure out a strategy that won’t leave your fans confused or waste your time. Something is going “amuck” and you don’t want to repeat it over and over again.

Avoid these three pitfalls, set up your page correctly, and I promise that you’ll have fun doing business on Facebook. People are a blast when they join communities in which they are passionate, so don’t let frustration force you to miss out on meeting these fantastic people.

Something happens when you get involved with social media.  You change.  You realize that the more you give – the better you feel – and the more you get back.  I am motivated to be even more active!

By the end of the week, I have created some terrific marketing materials that are customer focused.  I have also created a bunch of ineffective materials that will not work, but here’s the thing – my social community helps me determine what is good or bad based on the comments I receive, the number of times an article is retweeted, or the emails that I receive with questions on the articles or tweets.

So – 15 hours per week to develop marketing materials that educate and creating powerful relationships.  I think that is time well spend.  Would your marketing manager be more effective if he/she were to be active in social networks?

My Blog (1 hour a day)

• Write at least three blog posts per week based on research and conversations I have had on Twitter and on other blogs
• Respond to comments daily on my blog
• Write at least 1- 5 comment a day on other people’s blogs

Analytics  (1/2 hour a week)

• Review Google Analytics to identify trends and possible follow-up articles.
• Review click throughs with FeedBurner

Twitter  (1 – 2 hours through out the day)

• Daily- retweet at least one good idea or something enlightening
• Daily – write a response to at least one person I have not talked to ever before on Twitter
• Daily – scan twitter for relevant conversations
• Tweet my blog posts
• Recommend my most active followers on #followfriday
• TweetLater – schedule a #QOTD or #quote for each day
• Twice a Week – Review new followers and follow active Tweeters

Google Reader  (4 hours per week)

• Monitor Google Reader news articles for relevant blog content and Twitter posts
• Comment on relevant articles
• Bookmark with delicious articles for future blog posts and idea generation

Google Alerts  (15 minutes per week)

• Monitor Google alerts for relevant keywords and phrases

LinkedIn  (15 minutes per day)

• Daily- Update Status
• Daily – review friend (connections) status and comment on at least one
• Tuesday/Thursday – Scan group conversations and engage in topics when appropriate
• Wednesday – Ask one question in a group
• Friday – help connect two of my contacts together
• Friday – send one referral, ask for one referral

Slideshare

• Monthly – Upload a new presentation
• Weekly – Review comments on presentations

Facebook  (15 minutes per day)

• Daily – Update Status
• Daily – review friend status
• Daily – At least one non-business related comment to a friend
• Delete any messages that are spam-ish or any polls or applications sent to me
• Review photos of friends

YouTube

• Monthly – Review my videos
• Monthly – Review favorites
• As they happen – Add a new video to my blog

Delicious

• Daily – Book mark daily to share with clients, employees and twitter followers
• Weekly – review bookmarks to generate ideas for future blog posts or future projects

Email

• Check three times a day – morning, noon, and at the end of the day
• Respond to all emails – even if it just says “I will get back to you.”
• Clean up mail from last week and close any loose ends

Other Activities

• Weekly – engage in other social networks that I belong

There are a few other activities that my staff take care of through out the week that include:

• Managing two Facebook communities
• Managing two LinkedIn communities
• Publishing our e-newsletter
• Manage two additional blogs

What are your thoughts?  I would love to hear them!

Facebook addicts
Created On: Tuesday, 10 Mar 2009, 6:49 PM CDT
Website:  http://www.myfoxtwincities.com

Either you’re on Facebook or you’re hearing about it from someone who is. Worldwide more than 3-billion minutes are spent on the site everyday as folks use it to track down friends and make new ones. But that doesn’t explain what makes Facebook so addicting. So we decided to “friend” reporter Trish Van Pilsum on her Facebook page, to get the answer.

Watch the video: 

Fox 9 at 10 In-Depth: Bringing The Past Into The Present

Created On: Tuesday, 10 Mar 2009, 6:57 PM CDT
Website:  http://www.myfoxtwincities.com  

When Facebook opened it’s online frontiers to folks other than college students, it gave everyone more than just a place to hook up, and hang out with family, friends, and co-workers; it gave users a time machine, to travel into the past. As FOX 9 Anchor Robyne Robinson discovered, reconnecting with old friends and flames can be rewarding, although it’s sometimes filled with emotional risks too.

 WCCO Saying Hi To People On Facebook

Created on:  Mar 10, 2009 9:50 pm US/Central
Website:  http://wcco.com/miscellaneous/amelia.facebook.story.2.955953.html

Sorry, no live video yet!

Advertising is really quite fascinating when you use Facebook.  Let me ask you a question.  Does traditional media, such as newspaper or radio, only charge you to advertise to those people that are interested in your product or service and are in your geographic area?  No, when you advertise in traditional mediums, you pay to advertise to the entire circulation – hoping to those that fit your targeted demographic will see you ad. 

But what if you could create an ad that would only be shown to those people that have the ability and desire to buy your product or service.  Better yet, you don’t pay for the ad if they only see it – they have to take some action.

I am going to walk you through a scenario of a jewelry store.  This store wants to create an advertisement for diamond engagement rings.  To narrow our target market, we are only going to show the ad to 1) Males 2) in Minnesota 3) between the ages of 20 and 28 4) who have a college education 5) and are single.  To further refine the ad, we are only go to pay for ‘clicks’ – meaning we only pay for the ad when the person that sees the ad click on it and is brought over to our website or fan page.

ONE ACTION ITEM: Today your action item is simple. Take the time to watch the video below. Once you are done, go to Facebook, scroll to the bottom of the page, and click on ‘Advertising.’ From there create an ad. Don’t worry. You don’t have to buy the ad right now. Just take the time to experiment with different demographics.

What amazing possibilities this bring to advertising and your marketing budget!  Just image:

1. Beverage companies targeting teens for a news caffeinated beverage
2. Women’s shoe stores targeting women in a certain age group that talk about shoes in their profiles
3. Your local church focusing on bring youth into their thriving youth community
4. Restaurants wanting to bring in people from outside of a 30 mile radius
5. High end art galleries looking for a new target market in 50 and 60 year old located in rural areas
6. Local tuxedo rental shop that wants to generate more interest during prom season

Advertising is getting more measurable and exciting every day.  More on that next week! 

I would love to hear what ideas you have.  Leave a comment below with your possibilities!

In order to proceed, you must have a personal Facebook page, and we strongly recommend that you are familiar with some of the basic features of the application.  That was the purpose of yesterday.  Now, let’s get started with a business page. We want to make this effort as easy and effective as possible.

You have two free options on Facebook. You can create a Group or a Page for your business. We recommend building a Page, and here’s why. Pages were designed to accommodate viral marketing. Viral marketing is a method of spreading word of your product or service rapidly from one person to another. For business, this is a good thing.

Pages slowly (or quickly in some cases) acquire Fans.  Aretha Franklins’ Hat page acquired 70,000 fans in two days!   People can visit your page or join your page as a Fan. (You don’t have to worry about managing “friends” in Pages.) If they do this, it shows up on each of their Facebook profiles that they are a Fan of your business.

A picture (of your choosing) and a link to your Page shows up in the news feeds of all their friends. Their friend, in turn, will hopefully visit and become Fans.  How cool is this?  Your page can also intregrate your blog posts, YouTube videos, and more!  Take a look at the Facebook page Vivid Image just setup.  We included photos, videos and events.  Become a FAN!

START HERE – ACTION ITEM ONE:  Facebook for Business Overview, Features, and Specifications(3.9 mb PDF)

There’s so much more you can do with Facebook. Before we dive into more ideas, work on this ACTION ITEM: Build a Page for your Business. Focus on valuable content, and put it into your schedule to review and revise it everyday. View this page as a learning tool, and remember, you can always delete it later once you have a “Great Big Awesome Idea” you want to try!

Other Reading Material:

• Using Facebook in Your Nonprofit
  “Social networking platforms give nonprofits a forum for meeting like-minded organizations and potential supporters, and provide a medium for spreading their messages beyond the immediate community,” says Alan Rosenblatt
• Facebook Pages Will Replace Traditional Landing Pages
   A landing page is “the page that appears when a potential customer clicks on an advertisement or a search-engine result link. The page will usually display content that is a logical extension of the advertisement or link, and that is optimized to feature specific keywords or phrases for indexing by search engines.”  This post explains some of the opportunities businesses have by using Facebook pages as a landing page.
• 30+ Apps for Doing Business on Facebook 
  Here are over 30 Facebook applications to help promote, network, communicate, collaborate and accomplish more with your business.

Why be on Facebook?

Facebook is the 4th most popular website in the United States.  As a business owner, you need to understand it.  There are more than 175 million active users on Facebook – and it is not just for kids anymore.  In fact more than 1/2 of Facebooks users are outside of college, with the fastest growing demographic being those over 30 years of age.  What do those big numbers mean?  600,000 new users every day.  I live in a small town of 14,000 people outside of Minneapolis – we have over 7,000 Facebook users!  (These numbers are based on advertising demographics from Facebook.)

Did you know

• The average user has 120 friends on the site
• More than 3 billion minutes are spent on Facebook each day (worldwide)
• More than 4 million users become fans of Pages each day (why shouldn’t they become a fan of your business?)
• If Facebook were a country, it would now be the 8th most populous in the world.

To grow your business, how can you not be part of Facebook?  Chances are very good that your customers are on Facebook.

How some organizations and businesses are using Facebook?

• Local coffee shops use Facebook to promote events and specials directly to teens in the area
• Youth Pastors are going to where the youth are – on Facebook – rather than making teens come to them (and they are starting powerful conversations)
• Businesses are building discussions around services and how they can improve
• Non-Smoking initiatives are building a community around their mission
• Retail stores are promoting new products to their Facebook followers first – creating an exclusive community of passionate customers
• Do you have other ideas?  Here is a list of the The 30 Most Popular Pages on Facebook.

There is a strategy for your business to use Facebook to connect with your customers or potential customers.  The key word here is STRATEGY.  Without a strategy, you just have another marketing tool to maintain with no results.  Out of all of the social sites we are going to talk about, it is CRITICAL that you understand Facebook.   Even if you only use it for personal use, it is a platform that many other social sites are based on.  We will talk about how other sites such as video sharing, photo sharing, and blogs can be integrated into your Facebook page.  For now, lets get back to the basics.

ACTION ITEM ONE:  Facebook is an exciting way to promote your business, but first you need to establish an account and get your personal page set up. This requires an email address, but is very simple to do. Go to www.facebook.com and follow the steps. Once you have your page, make sure you go into each of your settings (upper right corner) and set your desired level of privacy.   All Facebook pages default to a public listing and anyone will be able to access your personal page and information. The least restrictive is “Everyone”, and the most restrictive is “Friends Only.”  One of the reasons Facebook is so popular is that it can be very secure.  Your personal page is different from a business page.  So for right now, focus on creating your personal page.