Blogging is a key component in a social media strategy. You are not bound by 140 characters or limited by your Facebook Business Page fan base.  It is an ideal platform for you to disseminate great content around the world to your readership and start to become known as an authority in your field. The goal should be to become the person people think of when they think of your product or service and it’s important to use ‘big picture’ thinking.  It’s also important that your blog site contain the right elements to maximize your success in this environment.  Here are my top 10 blog must haves for 2012:

1. Self-hosted

Having a blog on WordPress.com or Blogspot.com is not ideal. They are fine if you are publishing a personal blog but if your blog is business related, then you should be self-hosted. This means that you manage your blog on your own domain name rather than something like yourname.wordpress.com.  The implications of self-hosting are that you own your own content and have accessbility to the myriad of templates and plug-ins out there to really make your site sing. The analogy here would be renting vs owning your own site/content. My personal preference is WordPress.  For more information or to start a new blog, click here for more information.

2. Content

Content is King on the web. The more valuable information you provide, the more attractive your site becomes. What goes around, comes around in the social media space. By sharing great content, you share your expertise and become known as the go-to person in your industry. You may even become known as a thought leader!  I usually advise your post contain between 500-1000 words and a weekly blog would be ideal for most small business owners.  The reality is, people will only spend a few minutes on your site, so it’s important that your content be engaging and provide great value. Here’s a tip for those of you who like to include outbound links to video in your posts. Use the embed feature on YouTube instead of just providing the link and embed the video right into your post. In this way, you keep people on your site. If you give someone a link to YouTube, there is a good chance they will become distracted and never come back to your post.  Additionally, any other links you provide on your post, should open in a new tab so that readers can easily navigate their way back to your post.

3. Branding

You will want to make sure that your blog site is properly branded. By this I mean, if you also have a ‘static’ website, the logo, colours and general feel should be repeated on the blog site (and everywhere else on the web including your Facebook, Twitter and YouTube Channel). What is a ‘static’ site?  If your website does not provide a vehicle for people to engage you on the site, has no blog and you don’t refresh your content on a regular basis, your site would be considered ‘static’.  The reality is people are gravitating in droves to user-generate content sites where they can start to build rapport with you and add their own input hence the popularity of Social Media and sites like WordPress.

There is good news if you are already using WordPress as your vehicle to blog because you can also use this site as your main website. Your content can be easily moved from a static site to your WP site.  One site means easier maintenance for you, less confusion/navigating for your prospects and clients and no doubt less expensive. If you are determined to retain your static site, your hosting company does not support WordPress and you wish to start blogging, you have a couple of choices:

1. Move your domain and site to a Host provider who does support WP and set up a blog that runs in a subfolder.

2. Get a secondary domain name and hosting on a host provider who supports WordPress and just run your blog there. You will want to ensure that your static site can connect to your blog and vice-versa.  A domain name and hosting fees can generally be setup for less than $100/yr depending on your requirements.

4. Reliable Host

It is important that you choose a reliable host for WordPress. You’ll want a hosting company that has a good understanding of this platform, keeps its server capabilities in line with the ever changing upgrades on WordPress and has a great up-time record. There is nothing more frustrating than slow load times for sites and errors in the back end of WordPress when you are an administrator. My personal preference is Hostgator for a number of reasons – not the least of which, is that they are a ‘Green Hosting’ Company. You can check out a recent post for more information by clicking here.

5. Plug-ins

There is a list of must-have plug-ins that I install for my clients. Among them are:

• A firewall
• Spam protector
• Login protection against hackers
• Comment vehicle to aid with backlinking (great for Google). Also, remember to respond to valid comments in a timely way. Treat this like customer service.
• Email subscription capability – most readers still prefer to subscribe to content via email rather than RSS
• Syndication buttons – very important to be able to push your content out over the web rather than hoping people will find your post
• SEO (search engine optimization) capability
• Analytics

6.  Render to Mobile

With the rapid growth of smart phone sales, it is important to consider the fact that people might be accessing your site on their mobile device.  If your blog site or static site relies heavily on Flash players for images for example, it might be time to revisit this and find an alternative method. You don’t want people getting to your site to find large blank spaces where the images or video should be, particularly if you rely heavily on these to promote your product or services.

8. Analytics

It is very important that you track your results using some form of Analytics.  In this way, you can review how people are finding your content (what vehicle, what referral sites etc.), what the most successful content is and what is and what is not working well.  It can also reveal some great key word strategies.

9. Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

It doesn’t matter how great your content is if you don’t have a tool to get yourself found on the net. Enlist the help of someone who understands what people are searching for and how to incorporate those metatags and descriptions on your site – not only as header tags but also in your blog posts. I use Market Samurai for site setup. It’s a great tool.

10. Structure for Google

Last but not least, it’s important to understand how Google crawls your site.  There are strategies one can use in your blog posts to help you get your content indexed higher in the search engines.

If you don’t already have a blog for your business, now might be a great time to start!  If you are unsure as to how to properly set up your site or need help with publishing and syndicating your posts, make sure you enlist the help of someone who understands this space to maximize your success.

Happy New Year everyone and Happy Blogging!

Until next time,

Joanne

While Joanne resides in Newmarket Ontario with her family, she is virtually yours, anywhere.

I meet with prospects and clients almost every day. Most people now agree that Social Media is not going away. They also recognize that it’s time to get serious about implementing and maintaining a social media strategy that will work for their business. Some are doing amazingly well. Others struggle.  So, as a Certified Social Media Specialist, what are the top 3 excuses I hear for slacking on setting up or not staying consistent with a social media strategy?

3. I Don’t Know What to Say

It’s rare that when properly coached, a client doesn’t have ongoing valuable information to share with their audience. Some are afraid to give away too much intellectual property, which is understandable, but you can give away just enough to entice your reader to want to know more.  At the opposite end of the spectrum, others feel that their content wouldn’t be of interest to readers. The fact is, you may end up sharing that one piece of information that is just the trigger needed to get that prospect to pick up the phone, email you or respond to your blog post or Facebook page entry.  Perhaps you have just answered a nagging question for them or you shared some personal information about a hobby that resonated with someone and they feel more connected to you.  Open up a little and share about who you are as a person as well as a business entity.  Success is in the sum of the parts….

2. I’m Worried About Who Will See What

So, the result is you do nothing! I find that people are mostly nervous about Facebook, and honestly, rightly so. Facebook is making a lot of changes and some of them are a blatant way to get more information from you so that they can feed their advertisers.  But, there are ways to stay safe on Facebook. Things like;

• Ensuring your privacy settings reflect who you want to see what content
• Instructing family members / unruly relatives to send you ‘emails’ on Facebook rather than write on your wall
• Monitoring the wall and removing inappropriate content if it does show up
• Setting up Facebook lists and then publishing information to the appropriate lists
• Enable the secure browsing feature

If someone wants to get information in this day and age, they will find a way to do so. Being conscious about what you put out there will help you.  If you can answer these three questions (thanks to Mari Smith for these), with a YES, then you are probably safe.

1. Would I be comfortable if my boss were to see this content?
2. Would I be comfortable if my mother/father/children were to see this content?
3. Would I feel comfortable if this content showed up on the front page of the Wall Street Journal?

And the number 1 reason?

1.  Not Enough Time!  …and by the way, I can be just as guilty of this as anyone else.

I recently read an interesting quote. It said: We all have the same amount of time in a day: 24 hours or 1,440 minutes. In fact, we have exactly the same amount of time that was given to Helen Keller, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Thomas Edison and Albert Einstein.

Sobering thought. As entrepreneurs, we all wear many hats. But the one hat that can’t fall to the floor is being consistent in how we market our businesses. And, in order to successfully move people through the sales funnel, we need to build strong relationships. This makes it easier for people to want to do business with us.

It’s really a question of discipline and having a good strategy in place.  Know what you want to accomplish each week. Write a list of information that you want to disseminate and then use the appropriate tool to get the message out. Remember, it’s not about selling product/services, it’s about building those relationships and providing value.

Start your morning each day working on your business rather than in it.  It doesn’t take that much time to check your social media profiles, respond to people who are trying to connect with you and give them the information they need to say YES to you and your business. Ultimately, people buy from people they know, like and trust.

If you need help, then consult with a Social Media Specialist to get a strategy in place both in terms of where you should be spending your time online and what kind of content you need to be putting out there.

The key to success here is consistency. Stay focused, be diligent and keep your eye on the prize. It will pay off in the end.

What do you think? Share your tips with me. I love getting feedback. Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv. What a great way to leave a link back to your own blog!

Until next time,

Joanne

3 Key Items to Staying in Charge

Having your own website and ranking well in the search engines is one of the most important pieces of real estate that a business owner today can own.  The reality is, people and businesses are gravitating to the internet in droves and technology is changing very quickly. Are you poised to be able to take advantage of these changes when they happen?  Are you ruler of your own domain?

Here are 3 tips to staying in charge of your own future.

1. Make sure you have registered your business name

Protecting your intellectual property and your brand is so very important. Imagine investing the time to become known in the industry as the ‘go to’ person in your field.  All the time you have spent getting ranked well in the search engines and then one day, you receive an email or a telephone call to say you must cease and desist using your business name because someone has put a copywrite or trademark on it and now owns the right to use it.  What would you do?  Contact the business development centre closest to you and find out what you need to do to protect yourself.

2. Make sure you own your own domain name and access to it

I am always surprised at how many people come to me and want to make a change over to WordPress but they don’t have access to their own domain name. They don’t know what the login information is or they have given the responsibility over to someone else, who paid for the domain name and invoiced them.  What this means, is that you run the risk of having to change your domain name if the person you gave that responsibility to won’t turn it over.  How costly would that be especially if your domain name matches your business name, marketing materials, your business cards, etc?  If you own the domain name and you cannot put your hands on the login information, expect the domain registrar to put you through a rigorous procedure to confirm that you are the legal owner.  It won’t be pretty.  I have seen both of these instances happen.

When I take on a new client wishing to engage in social media, I insist they own their own domain name. We use their credit card to purchase the domain and I ensure they have the access information. I also make sure the client is the person who is informed when the domain name and hosting needs to be renewed.  One word of caution. Don’t leave this info solely on your computer. What if your system crashed? Have your domain name registration and all other pertinent business related information printed off and stored in a safe place and keep it up to date.

3. Have access to your own website files

I know many business owners employ the services of a website development person or company. In many cases, the person or company will put your website files on their own server.  Most will not allow you access to those files in the form of ftp or a cpanel because of the security risk to their server.   What if something were to happen to that person? How would you get access? Now, your regular files can be copied without access but it can be tedious.  Personally, I register all my social media clients on a well established web host like Hostgator that supports WordPress.  Please click here to find out why I chose them. I give my clients access to their cpanel and ftp access if they request it.  It is your business and your files. If you paid for them, you should have access to them.   Don’t be afraid to ask your supplier where your files reside and how you can access them. Be wary about dealing with anyone who tries to hide this information.

Share your experiences with me. I love getting feedback.  Here on this blog, you’ll get commentluv. This is an opportunity to leave a link back to your own site when you leave a comment.

Until next time,

Joanne

While physically located in Newmarket, Ontario where Joanne lives with her family, she is virtually yours anywhere.

Did you know… As of January 2011, LinkedIn counts executives from all 2010 Fortune 500 companies as members.  As of March 22, 2011, its hiring solutions were used by 73 of the Fortune 100 companies. With over 100 million members now in over 200 countries, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network and it’s totally business focused. Now, there are LinkedIn Company Pages.

For all you business owners out there, if you haven’t already done so, maybe it’s time to capitalize on LinkedIn’s announcement back in November 2010 of its Company Pages. More than 2 million companies now have a LinkedIn Company Page. Have you got a Company Page yet?

Company Pages allow you to bring your brand to life by showcasing your products and services.  They help you grow your company’s business virally through word-of-mouth – the most trusted form of advertising . You can also get endorsements in the form of testimonials on your company page and by displaying your strongest recommendations to your prospective customers, your Company Page can help you accelerate growth and trust in your brand.

In addition to product and service testimonials, you can post a job, display videos, featured product information and targeted ads on your Company Page to drive sales and interaction.  These features however, require you to have an upgraded profile on LinkedIn, meaning these are features you pay for. However, for some businesses, the ability to secure quality connections may be worth the investment.

In addition to company pages, LinkedIn also recently added more features for the personal profile. If you haven’t visited your LinkedIn profile recently, you might have missed the new sections that LinkedIn now allows you. Things like adding your specific skill set and certifications.  You can now drag and drop your profile sections in a priority sequence thereby allowing you to highlight the sections you deem most important first.  I still recommend that you have your Summary at the top however, as most visitors to your profile will look at your ‘job’ title first followed by your summary.

Take the time to explore all the features that LinkedIn has to offer.  For example, if you have written a book and it’s available for purchase on Amazon.com, then add the Amazon app to your profile and showcase your book! Import your blog and don’t forget to add your website, Facebook business page, a link to your YouTube channel perhaps and your Twitter handle.

5 Tips for your profile:

1. Make your title at the top of the page a show stopper.

2. Make your summary engaging. Speak in the first person and ‘talk’ to the person whose business you are trying to attract.

3. Ask for testimonials. Not only do they appear on your own profile, but on the profile of the person endorsing you. And, testimonials get flagged in the weekly summary of LinkedIn updates that are sent out to your community. This keeps you top of mind and this kind of endorsement can be key to securing more business.

4. If you are a business owner, create a company profile. Make sure you populate it with proper keywords so that the company search feature will pull your business into targeted search results.  Fill out all the pertinent information. Consider the paid-for options if appropriate.

5. Keep it up to date!  This is your digital resume for yourself and for your business.

I wrote a more comprehensive list of items and things to consider in another blog post.  Feel free to check it out here.  If you need help, engage the services of someone who understands this space.  As a Certified Social Media Specialist, I encourage all my clients to complete a LinkedIn profile and maintain it as part of the ‘big three’ in the social media realm.

Please feel free to comment! I love getting feedback. Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv. This is a a plug-in that gives you the opportunity to leave a link back to your own blog when you leave feedback.

Until next time,

Joanne

While physically located in Newmarket Ontario, where Joanne lives with her family, she is virtually yours, anywhere…

One of the things I love most about being a Social Media Virtual Administrator is the fact that I have some control on my carbon footprint. You see, I don’t commute to work every day, my clients don’t need to have additional workspace, equipment and spend extra on utilities for me to get the job done. I also use recyclable materials in my office and home wherever possible.  This is all great. But I do virtually (pardon the pun) all my work online and what was starting to weigh on me, was the knowledge of just what an impact computing has on the environment and so I began to consider green hosting for myself and my clients.

While I don’t pretend to know all there is to know about the subject, one thing I do understand and that is that the IT sector has a big climate impact and all those datacentres out there are using a huge amount of electricity not only to power but also to cool their servers.  So,  I embarked on a journey to find a host provider that had not only talked a good story about being green but one who put their money where their mouth was and appears to have implemented an environmentally sound program for their business.

It might have been easy enough to find someone whose servers operated solely on wind.  That would have been ideal if that was the only criteria I had to consider.  The challenge for me was to find someone who not only had a green solution, but one who is successful with a good track record, provides great technical support, supports WordPress (the platform that most of my clients use for their website or their blogging vehicle) and who is reasonably priced.  Working with small local business owners, cost is always a factor.

About a month ago, I moved most of my clients over to Hostgator.  I have been most impressed not only with the work they have done on going green, but also with the organization as a whole. Their ‘up time’ is really good, they have a sound grasp of WordPress, their pricing is reasonable and their technical support people are great. The only down side? I wish they were Canadian!

You should know that I am not an affiliate, nor am I getting any compensation for this testimonial. This is strictly me being really happy to have found a hosting company that has to date met all my needs and this includes a green focus. This is good news for me and for my clients and I now feel that I am being responsible to the environment.

How about you? Do you worry about your carbon footprint? I know there must be other good green suppliers out there and I’d love your input! Let’s get people thinking in this direction.

Here on my blog you’ll get commentluv. This is a plug-in that allows you to leave a link back to your own site when you leave feedback.

Until next time,

Joanne

While physically located in Newmarket, Ontario where Joanne lives with her family, she is virtually yours anywhere.

Do you really understand your client? Very recently my husband and I spent 5 days in Barbados.  We were both in need of a break and I was celebrating a birthday so we decided to take a short holiday.  Normally, I do my own research and bookings but this time, I decided to ask for recommendations and we ended up using a travel agent we had never used before.

I was told that she knew the island like the back of her hand. She was a no nonsense kind of person and asked me point blank “what do you want to spend”? It took her no time to make her recommendation of an all-inclusive, deluxe ocean view accommodation we were in search of and we told her to proceed with the booking. In hindsight, she didn’t understand her client. She didn’t ask anywhere near enough questions and I ended cleaning up after her mistakes as best I could. It is now clear I didn’t ask enough questions either.

In addition to screw ups on the airline tickets, the hotel had its share of issues too. To be fair to the hotel, the room was indeed superior.  Ocean view however was approximately a 10′ view through the bottom of the trees a hundred yards or so away but it did also overlook a beautiful pool. The sound the waves was distinct and welcomed. The surroundings of the hotel were beautiful as well. Lovely courtyards, open and airy feel to the whole resort. Everything on the outside looked great but this is where the honeymoon ended.

view from the room - click image to enlarge

The hotel had many families most with  small children, many crying infants. The food was very disappointing – small portions, not well presented and desserts you would have to scour the plate to find. The liquor was watered down and the house wines were awful. Entertainment was virtually non-existent.

We made a point of attending the Manager’s cocktail party the evening we arrived. The Manager was quick to ask us what they could do to make the resort better. Having been there only a few short hours, I was only able to supply him with a couple of small things I had picked up on.  I would have had a lot more to share by the end of our stay.  He mentioned that that particular resort seemed to cater more to a North American market. Interesting, as there were only a few North Americans there during our stay – the bulk were from the U.K. not surprising as the pound would go a long way in Barbados – probably close to 4 to 1.  We talked to a few other North Americans at the resort and they were not impressed overall with the venue.

The whole resort seemed to lack infrastructure. It looked good on the outside but when you looked closer you could see that the right hand didn’t know what the left hand was doing. We tried on three separate occasions to cancel a birthday cake we never ordered! A few times I overheard the staff at the service desk being raked over the coals for bad customer service.  For a self-proclaimed 1st class resort, the proof was in the pudding.

click image to enlarge

Why am I writing this post?  Am I being ungrateful here?  Did we have a bad time? No. The truth is we did get away and enjoy some real quality time together and get in some much deserved rest and there were some wonderful moments. A special dinner out on the night of my birthday at Champers Restaurant and the sunset cruise was worth the trip alone.  But I wanted peace and quiet, great food every day and the deluxe feel I was looking for.  I didn’t get that.

What this really drilled home for me from this experience was the lack of understanding of who the client is and what they want.  Interestingly I found this particular resort on Facebook but they indicate their page is disappearing in favour of the general page for the Chain. All their wall posts have been removed as well. Telling? Perhaps. As a Social Media Specialist, I tell my clients to make sure they have their ear to the ground when it comes to their brand – to listen to what people are saying about it and making sure they are engaging people, particularly those that have negative feedback and then take that information back to their organization and make positive change. And yes, I did post on the chain wall that we were less than impressed.  I am still waiting to see if there will be a response.

Do you really understand what your client wants?  Have you asked enough questions? Do you check back often to make sure your client is still happy? Are you all shiny on the outside but lack the structure to deliver on your promise? Are you what you say you are? Says who? Made me think about my own business. Does it make you think of yours?

Suffice it to say I have not heard from the travel agent to find out how our trip was. I doubt I will.  In the end it wasn’t all about the money.  It was about the experience. Had she asked more questions and I had probed more, we likely would have ended up somewhere else.  Safe to say the next trip, I’ll be back to doing my own homework and booking.

I’d love your feedback. Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv. This is an opportunity for you to leave a link back to your own site when you leave a comment.

Until next time,

Joanne

While physically located in Newmarket, ON where Joanne lives with her family, she is virtually yours, anywhere.

As part of my Social Media services as a Coach and Consultant, I am always checking in with my clients and asking them for their next blog post, more interaction on their Facebook page, a new update on LinkedIn, etc. The biggest complaint I hear from my clients is, “I don’t have time”! This always makes me smile, because when you stop to think about it, time is really all we have. The question is, how well are you using it?  Here are my top 5 time savers.

1. Get clear on who your target market is…

Several years ago, I was marketing myself as having the experience to support cross industry businesses large to small. I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off.  My efforts were being diluted trying to be too many things for too many people.  I came to the realization that my passion was to work with small local business owners in the health and wellness, fitness and eco-friendly industries. My, how that decision crystallized my thinking, my approach and cut down on the time I was spending elsewhere. I now attend one networking group meeting per week.  These networking groups are either totally dedicated to or have a healthy concentration of those business owners in those industries. What are your passions?

2. Spend time ON your business instead of IN it…

Lee Iacocca said: “If you want to make good use of your time, you’ve got to know what’s most important and then give it all you’ve got”. I like to spend the first 30-45 minutes of my day working ON my business instead of IN it. What does that mean? I have a strategy on how I want the day to unfold and what I expect to get out of it.   I start with updating my Social Media sites because I can reach a small group of targeted individuals or a wide range of followers.  I also look for new people to connect with based on my niche markets. The best part of Social Media is that your followers can also help you syndicate your content making your message much more viral.  What a great time saver!

3. Use the right tools…

In addition to your social media sites, consider using tools like conference calls or webinars as a more productive use of your time vs physically running from networking group to networking group or producing the more traditional forms of marketing materials.  Does this mean that creating brochures or face to face networking isn’t valuable? Absolutely not. Meeting people face to face is still important, but stop to think about the time involved in getting to and from the meeting and the time spent scouting out the important people in the room to network with. The same is true for marketing materials. In addition to the expense and toll on the environment, how long is it taking to get into the hands of the decision maker if they are at all? If time is of the essence, then it’s important to keep this top of mind and find ways to reach and communicate with that decision maker in a more time sensitive, eco-friendly and effective manner. Strive for a balance.

4. Get help…

So many business owners go into business with a great idea and little to no business experience and no idea of just how many hats they are going to have to wear. I counsel my clients to bring in help when they need it.  Hiring a Virtual Administrator, bookkeeping help, sales associates and the like will help you focus your time on what you do best and make you more productive. For me, I am looking for someone with great technical skills, social media and marketing experience so that I can free up my time to do more coaching, consulting and design work.  Anyone reading this blog post who is interested and thinks they have what it takes, should contact me offline so we can discuss.

5. Give your body what it needs to perform well…

This is probably the most important point of the 5.  Getting adequate sleep, proper nutrition, exercise, staying hydrated and taking small frequent breaks are my biggest time savers.  Everyone has their most productive time of the day.  Mine is first thing in the morning, so I make sure I get a great night’s sleep and then tackle my most important tasks of the day then.  I can usually get more accomplished in those first hours than at any other time of the day. Garbage in, garbage out. So make sure your body is getting what it needs to perform well. When is your peak time?

It is so easy to get up each morning and pour ourselves into the day without really stopping to think strategically about the 1440 minutes we have the luxury of spending.  For me, growing and developing my business takes about 720 of them and the rest is for everything else.  How about you?

I love getting feedback. Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv. This is a plug-in that allows you to leave a link back to your own site when you leave a comment. But you don’t have to be a blogger to leave feedback. I’d love to hear from all of you!

Until next time,

Joanne

While physically located in Newmarket, ON where Joanne lives with her family, she is virtually yours, anywhere.

Ducking the Issues

As a business owner, do you duck the uncomfortable questions or complaints that come to you via your Social Media applications or online in general? Do you screen the bad news and omit it from your comment feed on your blog or remove the comments on your Facebook wall so that everything appears perfect in your world?  If so, you might be missing out on a wonderful opportunity and doing yourself more harm than good in the long run.

Social media is all about letting people get to know who you are as a business entity and a person. People want to know if you stand behind your product or service or if you are just paying lip service to the idea.

The truth is, a happy customer is going to tell others about your product or service and you will get referral business. When this happens, you feel great, right? And so you should.  But the reality is, you can’t keep 100% of the people happy all of the time and no one is perfect!  And, these unhappy customers are going to find a way to voice their opinion.  Many now take to the online world to vent their frustrations.  This can have considerable impact on your business.  Negative press in the search engines can hang around for a long time – years in fact.  So, consider it a bonus when they actually send you the message rather than telling 1000 of their Facebook friends about their issue where you may or may not hear about it and suffer the consequences.

If you are at all concerned about reputation management, and you should be, then consider accepting these comments/criticisms you are receiving and deal with them right away. Thank the person for telling you about it, and encourage the conversation to continue to make sure you understand the issue and then deal with it – yes, even in a public forum and then ask for feedback. This demonstrates to that individual and others, that you take responsibility for your business and are willing to make concessions where need be and fix problems that might exist.

Does this mean that you should accept every comment and every criticism that comes your way? Certainly not, as we all know there are unreasonable people out there who are only interested in ruining your reputation not in fixing the problem. You need to evaluate these on an individual basis.  However, if you notice that there is a consistent theme or issue, chances are there are a lot of people out there with the same concern and these should be dealt with.

If you are smart, you will add Google alerts to your repertoire to make sure you know what people are saying about you and your brand. If you are a larger corporation, you may need something more robust and there are many applications out there to assist you. Feel free to ask me for suggestions.

I think it all comes down to confidence in the long run – confidence in yourself and in the fact that you have a great product or service to offer.  As a Certified Social Media Specialist, I encourage all my clients to look at this as a great opportunity to deal with the issue head on and potentially turn that customer and others around.

What do you think?  As always, I love getting feedback. Here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv.  That’s a plug in that allows you to leave a link back to your own site when you leave a comment.

Until next time, Happy New Year!  I hope it’s a prosperous one for you all.

Joanne

While physically located in Newmarket, ON where Joanne lives with her family, she is Virtually Yours, anywhere.

For those of you who have taken the leap of faith and changed over your Facebook profile to the newest version, you may have been surprised to see a few things changed and a few that had been removed! Not all of the changes were covered in the ‘tour’. There is no way to go back to the old version once you have switched over.

Facebook will be rolling out this new version to everyone over the course of the next few months.  In this blog post, I’ll discuss 5 items in this new format that you should be aware of.  If after reading this post, you want to change over to the new profile now, you can do so here.

1. Box Under Profile Image

I for one, was disappointed to see the box under my image gone! I used this section for a brief intro and a place holder for the link over to my Facebook Business Page.  It took me a couple of minutes to figure out what Facebook had done.  For those of you who have Facebook Business Pages, you will now use the ‘Employer’ heading on your Intro page to link in your Business Page.  Here are the steps involved:

1. On the Employer line, type in the name of your Facebook business page – not the url of your business page. Make sure the name is exactly as you have it registered with Facebook or it won’t be recognized.
2. Choose the option, add your page name.
3. If you have done items 1 and 2 correctly, you will then see the image of your business page as the icon. If you get any other image or link, you have done it incorrectly.  Revisit the first 2 items.
4. Fill in the rest of the information on your business.
5. Save this information.

Your business page will be now be featured in the first position at the top of the info page. Great for driving traffic.

2. Photos/Video

Facebook will now display some of your photos as well as photos that you have been tagged in along the top row in ‘newsreel’ fashion.  You can remove any of these images by placing your cursor over the image and a small black ‘x’ will appear in the upper right corner. You can then delete the image of you with a lampshade over your head! (another good reason to revisit the privacy settings).

You may have had a video tab in the past.  Your videos will now appear mixed in with your photos.

3. Tabs Missing

If you are like me, I had additional tabs along the top of my page. As mentioned above, I had a video tab, trip advisor tab and other items of interest on my profile. These tabs are now gone.  While Facebook help says you can add applications, this feature does not appear to be available.     I have submitted a report on this and will update you if I get a response.   Also, the ‘Likes’ are now gone from the bottom of your profile.

4. Showcase Your Important Relationships

While this feature is not new, this may be a good time to visit the Relationships tab under ‘Edit Profile’.  If you have placed your connections in lists (interestingly according to Facebook only 5% of users have used this feature), you can feature these lists down the left side of your page.  Now that the boxes and Likes are gone, this seems to be a good way to use this space. Get creative and showcase your important relationships!

5. Expand Your Info

While Facebook says this new feature is about deepening your relationships and making this a more meaningful experience, let’s not kid ourselves.   Think back the changes that Facebook made to the size of the page.  As developers or VAs, we know Facebook shrunk the allowable size of the page to enlarge the Ad space.  By expanding your information, you are giving Facebook more information to feed its advertisers. For those of you who use Advertising like the ‘Pay per click’ option on Facebook, you know you can target your ad to very specific audiences. The more information Facebook has about you, the better it is for the Advertiser.  If you do opt to provide Facebook with more information about you, please make sure you make use of the Friend List feature on Facebook and have your privacy settings set accordingly.

For those of you who might have missed Mark Zuckerberg‘s interview with 60 minutes, here is part 1 of the segment. Because of the length of the interview, the videos are in 2 parts. Part 2 is here. While it may take some time to review, this interview gives you a little more insight into Mark Zuckerberg and his mounting dynasty. With over a half billion users and arguably the most visited site on the internet, it pays to stay on top of what is going on at Facebook.

Thank goodness they left the Facebook Business Pages untouched. One can only imagine what Facebook has in store for them. Stay tuned!

As a Social Media Specialist, I work with my clients to ensure they optimize their experience and stay as safe as possible in this environment.  If you have questions about this, about the Social Media realm in general or are unsure as to how to proceed, you should look at getting help from someone who understands this space.

What about you?  What do you think about this new Facebook Profile format? What did you think of the interview? Did you see the Movie?  I love getting feedback.  And here on my blog, you’ll get commentluv. That’s a plug in that allows you to leave a link back to your own site when you leave a comment.

At this time, I would like to wish you all a happy, healthy holiday season and all the very best in  2011!

Until next time,

Joanne

While physically located in Newmarket, ON where Joanne lives with her family, she is virtually yours, anywhere.

Reasons Why People Fail in the Social Media Space

How is your Social Media ‘Campaign’ going? Has the balloon burst?  Social Media has become mainstream so quickly and you see everyone scrambling now to get on board.  But if you are like many people who jumped in and got involved in the Social media space without truly understanding what it’s about, you might be finding your enthusiasm starting to wane.   Here are some of the main reasons that people peter out and are not successful in the social media realm.

1.  Focusing on the ‘sale’.

I have said this before but there are still so many businesses out there who don’t get it. Social Media is not about flogging wares.  It’s about relationship building.  Yes, it is true that Social media is an ideal way to address the first three stages of the sell cycle;

• awareness,
• knowledge and
• liking

with preference and buy as the latter two.  But the focus here is on the beginning stages of the sell cycle and that is where prospects are finding out about who you are as a business entity and as a person.  This is where the relationship begins to form. So offer up valuable information and add value. Be generous.  What goes around comes around in this space. Don’t be afraid to share some of your intellectual property.  People buy from people they like and trust.

2. Lack of commitment

It’s tough to make time every day to visit your Social Media profiles, write a blog post on a regular basis  and work at developing those relationships. Sometimes we’re at a loss for things to write or comment about.  But if you want to be truly successful in relationship building, then you need to make this a part of your regular routine.  I tell my clients to spend the first half hour of their day working on their business not in their business.  Imagine taking the time to have lunch with a new friend.  It’s hard to foster that new friendship if you don’t show up at the table.  There is help out there.   As a Certified Social Media Specialist, I coach my clients on how to find the right conversation, the kinds of things to talk about in this space and where they can find food for thought.

3. Quantity instead of quality

10,000 followers! That’s great! Now, how are you going to develop a great relationship with 10,000 people?  Don’t get caught up in relating your ‘success’ (how many Facebook friends/fans or Twitter followers you have). The truth is,  most people say about 300 people is where you will max out. Instead of worrying about the numbers,  get clear on the targeted group of people you are trying to attract and then leverage the Social media tools to disseminate your message. Your following will grow organically over time.

It’s important not to have unrealistic expectations in this space. It could take months before you start to see some traction. Relax and enjoy the experience. Know that every time you engage someone in this space, you are moving them closer to wanting to do business with you.

How about you? How is your Social Media strategy working? I love getting feedback here on my blog. And here, you will get commentluv. That’s a plug in that allows you to leave a link back to your own site when you leave a comment.

Until next time,

Joanne

While physically located in Newmarket, ON where Joanne lives with her family, she is virtually yours, anywhere.