Monthly Archives: May 2012
Is It really Monday? Something Worth Pinning
Blues from a long holiday weekend got you feeling like this? Here’s something worth Pinning!
# Enough Said
Promoted Facebook Status How Will You Use It?
I love Facebook and the surprises they bring. I was browsing my pages this morning and I came across a brand new button that seemed to magically appear because it surely wasn’t there yesterday, unless I missed it. This awesome button allows you to make your status update into a sponsored post for anyone who likes your page. With so much activity going on peoples newsfeeds especially if they like several pages and have lots of friends chances of them seeing your posts throughout the day are slim due to not being able to display all that activity.
Why is this feature great? Fact: Only 16% of Facebook users see the updates you post on your business page. The rest of the time you’ve got to hope and pray to the FB Gods that your posts are getting seen, or really track what times of day you’re getting the best reach. Now with a click of a button you can promote a status update just keep in mind that budget 
you set is a lifetime budget not a daily budget. You also can target by location just like a sponsored story or ad. Which is really convenient especially if your National and only want to run a regional post.
Unlike Facebook ads which primarily is used to gain and attract new people, promoted posts will really give brands the opportunity to engage with their fans, and because of this I really hope they use this carefully. I use my Facebook for personal use like anyone outside of the digital marketing industry. And seeing things froma user perspective I really don’t want to see annoying sponsored links about some sale. Or if you’re a big retailer please do not sponsor the same sales that you send to my email Everyday~ remain nameless. I haven’t tried this out yet, but looking forward to experimenting soon.
How are you going to use promoted posts?
Ciao~
Tanesha White
Don’t be Victim of Walkxting, Type and Walk with Grace
I’m sure it’s happened to all of us at least once, and maybe others a lot more. If it hasn’t happened to you then I’m sure you’ve seen it happen to an unsuspecting stranger. That’s right victims of texting and walking or what I call walkxting, LOL. I can admit I’ve tripped on things replying to a tweet or sending a text to the hub. Since we live in such an instant gratifying and impatient world simply saying stop walking and texting is not going to cut it. So since this still is an issue by seeing this video below, and lol to the girl who fell in the fountain.
$0.99 app uses your iphone camera to display as the background of your text messages, #genius! Well minus a few details that are kind of annoying. In coming messages or tweets don’t get launched within the app, you actually have to open it separately. It also doesn’t display your entire text convo. But nonetheless it allows you to type out a novel while walking through the subway unscathed.Spring Clean Your Professional Brand Following Goldsmith’s 20 habits to Avoid
With it actually feeling like spring it’s puts me in the mood to get things in order from winter hibernation. But, how often do you spring clean your brand- you know what you’re known for? Or how can you be sure that how you wanted to be known in the workplace is consistent to how people perceive you today?
It’s good to sit back and reflect on that, but it can be hard with out a checklist to follow. I recommend Marshall Goldsmiths, 20 habits to avoid. It’s funny looking at this list and actually hearing complaints from close friends about bosses that exhibit A LOT of these traits and it makes you wonder how they got where they are. But anyway, I hope this list is helpful for you to do your own brand tune up. And by no means think you should only do this every once in while, but reflect on it everyday if you can. Remember it takes about 21 days of consistency before something turns into habit so you want to catch a bad one and break it right away!
1. Winning too much: the need to win at all costs and in all situations – when it matters, when it doesn’t, and when it’s totally beside the point.
2. Adding value: the overwhelming desire to add our two cents to every discussion.
3. Passing judgment: the need to rate others and impose our standards on them.
4. Making destructive comments: the needless sarcasms and cutting remarks that we think make us sound sharp and witty.
5. Starting with “No,” “But,” or “However”: the overuse of these negative qualifiers which secretly say to everyone, “I’m right. You’re wrong.”
6. Telling the world how smart you are: the need to show people we’re smarter than they think we are.
7. Speaking when angry: using emotional volatility as a management tool.
8. Negativity, or “Let me explain why that won’t work”: the need to share our negative thoughts even when we weren’t asked.
9. Withholding information: the refusal to share information in order to maintain an advantage over others.
10. Failing to give proper recognition: the inability to praise and reward.
11. Claiming credit that we don’t deserve: the most annoying way to overestimate our contribution to any success.
12. Making excuses: the need to reposition our annoying behavior as a permanent fixture so people excuse us for it.
13. Clinging to the past: the need to deflect blame away from ourselves and onto events and people from our past; a subset of blaming everyone else.
14. Playing favorites: failing to see that we are treating someone unfairly.
15. Refusing to express regret: the inability to take responsibility for our actions, admit we’re wrong, or recognize how our actions affect others.
16. Not listening: the most passive-aggressive form of disrespect for colleagues.
17. Failing to express gratitude: the most basic form of bad manners.
18. Punishing the messenger: the misguided need to attack the innocent who are usually only trying to help us.
19. Passing the buck: the need to blame everyone but ourselves.
20. An excessive need to be “me”: exalting our faults as virtues simply because they”re who we are.
Ciao~
Tanesha White
The New Facebook Offers Feature, Great Addition!
I’m upset that I didn’t see this feature earlier this morning, due to looking at my Facebook pages via iphone, which doesn’t give you welcome box of any new features being announced. But, to my pleasant surprise I came across there new feature which by far shadows the weak deals feature, I vaguely remember using.
The offers allow you to put a special promotion or coupon.
But, not only that it allows you to set an date and also gives you the option to set limits on the number of redemption’s. I am in love with this feature already, because until now you really only had the option of using a third party in order to get these features, trust me I know!
I was able to experiment with creating some excitement around a “grouponish” like deal a few months back. Using a third party that would allow us to publish coupons and would show that they printed a coupon from our page on their wall, and also encouraged sharing. After playing with this offers feature I see that businesses will be to use this at there wim, to really drive engagement and virality.
It’s very simple to use and as fast as posting a status update. In order to cure my curiosity I used a popular coupon that we send in monthly newsletters. I didn’t screenshot the before picture, so since I already clicked on “get offer,” it now says “resend” offer.
The first time you click the offer it gives a quick message letting you know that the offer is being sent to your email address (the one linked to your FB account.
Then of course like any other million apps out there it encourages you to post your activity to your wall. Almost instantly the coupon is in my email ready to be printed or presented over my iphone for redemption. I love the instant gratifying world we live in!
Now when I refer to this as a “grouponish” feature, as a consumer we love getting the deal of the day being able to try a new resturant or taking an outing spending next to none. But, on the business side of things advertising a highly discounted item or service and then taking 50% off of that already discounted deal doesn’t always make sense for the bottom line. So now small businesses can really get creative with these offers, maybe allow 50% off a hot item to a limited number of people in a short time frame, the possibilities are endless. Get creative add some facebook ads to the mix, this a chance to really drive excitement, and to reconnect with out of touch fans. But, like any other advertisement just be sure to let your staff know the deal is out there and how consumers will present it.
I’m pretty sure I know how big brands are going to use this feature, and I’m sure fans will be a lot more attentive to what kinds of deals they can get or perhaps free coffee…
Ciao~
Tanesha White
6 Steps to Dive into Social Media for your Small Business
If you haven’t figured it out by now social media is definitely not a fad, and the majority of users are not you’re 10 year olds no matter how much you try to downplay it. Truth of the matter is that your target market, your perfect consumer who you would loved wrapped around your product is living it in everyday. You may not be a major brand like Oreo, of Victoria Secret, but you sure could act like one. Sure you may not have the the control tower of digital genies that these companies have, but it really isn’t that difficult to adopt some of there techniques down to a smaller level.
So why put your business and brand in social networks? Because that’s where your customers are! Don’t worry I know you’ve read all the blogs about the value and what it can do, blah blah blah… Really the down to it action plan is really quite simple and any small business can put to work without having foot the bill for an agency. To be honest if you do not have a point person in house you should not even think about outsourcing your social media management.
1. Create a Linkedin Page for your company. This one easy to overlook because you may not get your arms around how to really use it. (this is an entirely different subject)
- Create and fill in your page THOROUGHLY, yes don’t leave any blanks.
- Make great use of the product page, I love this feature you can put pictures and descriptions on what you have to offer.
- Add videos- I would suggest video testimonials if you’re B2c and a “why by for B2B.
- Lastly, and maybe the most difficult get all of your employees to link correctly to your company page. Some may have create a linkedin page and just forgot about it and may have entered the business name different from what your official business name is. It may just take some time showing people how to edit. But it’s simply click edit profile> current position>change company name. Once they start typing in the business name it should auto populate and voala you have employees linked to your company page.
Even if you decide not to do anything with your Linkedin Page doesn’t mean other people won’t consumers today expect companies to have a social presence everywhere. And with Linkedin being a professional social network one should have a business page.
2. Decide on the social network that you would like to start with. For argument sake let’s already assume you’ve created a Facebook page. But like many small businesses maybe you’ve posted once or twice a month to a fan club of 101. Don’t worry like I said this was simple.
3. Create a moderation policy and a social media policy if you don’t already have this. The moderation policy is something that would go on your Facebook page (i suggest to put it at the bottom of your welcome page) these are basically the rules for your fans to post on your company page. If someone breaks a rule you can refer them to your policy. The social media policy is for internal use within your business. It’s just a guideline of your expectations on how employees are using social media in house, and the use of your company name etc..
4. Find your Social Champions! By this I mean, find the people within each of your departments who have passion in what they do and can raddle off the top of there head everything exciting happening that week. Get at least a weeks worth of topics from all of your departments. If they have a hard time of thinking of things ask them to find blogs that specifically pertain to there expertise. Now you pretty much have a social calendar of postings that can last a full month.
Depending on your level of trust and relationship with your employees you make the call on whether or to give admin access directly to them for more spontaneous posts or not. Typically just have your point person load up your post schedules using hootsuite, or any other third party ware and you’re good to go. So now that lonely person that was originally sent out to do this task of (community manager) now has a solid calendar of social content, but now can also sprinkly in breaking news, or occasional blogs.
5. Now that you have a wall that shows consistent posts being updated and people interacting with the page (rule get your employees engaged with your page!) The quickest way to build up your fanbase is to get your customer base. If you have a crm simply export your contact to a csv file and use Facebooks “invite email contacts” option. Don’t forget to and invite to your friends to Like your page and get your employees to do this as well.
4. Don’t get overwhelmed! Once you’ve got a great simple that works great for your business don’t try to move too quickly in wanting to create landing pages, and dissecting your analytics too fast. It’s really easy to get info overloaded with the over saturation of social content-which is a necessary evil because it keeps freaking changing and a new network pops up every minute!
5. Invest in your education. Take the time to listen in on webinars and maybe attend a conference every 6 months. It may be hard to imagine but there are people just like you going through the same shift and it’s always nice to connect with similar and more advanced companies that can show you the ropes.
Good luck,
Tanesha
The Digital Diva 