The 6 Step Facebook Advertising Formula: The Fast Track to Facebook Engagement

8Sep

Facebook Advertising has really exploded over the past few months in terms of visibility. Now it seems that you can’t even make a post to your Facebook Page without being asked if you would like to “Boost” it or promote it in some way, shape, or fashion using Facebook Advertising.

While you may be thinking – enough Facebook – what I would suggest is that you overcome this adverse reaction to advertising on social media and begin to embrace it. Once you are able to just understand the hard fact that advertising is something that is a crucial aspect of your overall campaign, the more successful you will become on Facebook.

One of the biggest barriers to entry for any online advertising model is the ease of use. Once we veer off the usual path (profiles and timelines) and go into the weird wild world of Facebook Advertising many people instantly get a bit scattered. I understand. But this is part of the learning curve.

This curve has recently been flattened a bit as Facebook has made their advertising interface VERY friendly and easy to use. So if you are interested in advertising on Facebook, here is the 6 Step Formula that you need to follow to quickly and effectively setup your ads.

Step 1: Choose Your Objective
I’ve written about Facebook Advertising Objectives before. There are 10 choices that offer you different paths down the advertising setup model. Which ever you choose, you will still have to complete the following steps. In this step, decide what you want your Facebook Advertisement to do!

Step 2: Who Do You Want Your Ads to Reach?
Now let’s get down to demographics. WOW is all I have to say. Facebook allows you to go as niche or as broad as you would like to. But to move through this step quickly you will need to know the following:
*Geographic location you want to target
*Age
*Gender
*Languages
*Interests of your target audience for the advertisement
*Behaviors of your target audience for the advertisement
*FB Connections you would like to include/exclude

Step 3: Budget
Now you need to setup how much you want to spend. If this is your first add I always suggest a Lifetime Budget of $50 for a 2 week or 1 month period. This way you can monitor your success closely in a more manageable way.

Step 4: Scheduling
When do you want your ads to run? All the time? Perhaps you have done research and found when your target audience is on Facebook the most. Then you can customize your ad schedule so that your ads only run at those times.

Step 5: Visuals
Facebook gives you the opportunity of adding 6 different pictures to your advertisement. I would suggest having these ready to go before even starting your Facebook Advertising journey. Just remember that images with text that takes up more than 20% of the image may not be approved. So be careful with text in your ad!

Step 6: Adding Text
This is where you can add your call to action for your Facebook Advertisement. Depending on what your target is, you get the opportunity to say more or less. At the low end you have to make your impact in around 90 characters or so, thus you need to be crafty in creating your ad copy.

And there you go! You click “Place Order” and your ad will be sent to the Facebook Advertising review board who will then approve or deny your ad. If denied, you will be notified why and given an opportunity to go in and make edits, not start all over (which is handy).

My tip here is that the more in-tune you are with your marketing strategy and your target audience, the easier this whole process will be. Otherwise there will be lots of guess work for you to complete. So look at the list above and come up with your ideas for each point and THEN log into Facebook and start setting up your brand new Facebook Advertisement!

Using Facebook Groups to Get Your Message to the Masses

By Christopher Tompkins

13Feb

Facebook, Social Media, Uncategorized

Many LinkedIn networking professionals understand the benefit and power of using LinkedIn Groups to market their business. It is one of those features that enables you to reach thousands of people in a very targeted way.

But what if I told you that Facebook had a similar feature?

Facebook has a (much less robust) version of groups that helps you target a niche group with your message. On Facebook there are countless amounts of these groups with more members than you would realize….with many of the groups in question being centered around business topics and professional niche networking.

To get started, let’s talk a bit more about the types of groups and which ones you may be interested in joining. Here are the main three categories that I suggest:

1. Location Based: If you search for your target location on Facebook and then sort for Groups – you will find all of the groups that are in your area and/or the groups that have your area in their name.

2. Networking Based: There are many groups that are based around networking with other members and other groups that are even referral based. These are great and can be location or subject based.

3. Topic Based: What is your company’s niche? Search for the words that best represent your niche and you will find a plethora groups to jump right into. For example if you are a pediatric nursing company, there would be many groups for not only pediatric medicine but also for children’s health and wellness. Play around with your targeted keywords and look at what you will find.

There are many other types of groups, but I think that these three are probably the key ones that you would be interested in diving into first. Once you put your request to join in, the moderator will either let you in or not – based on their own personal opinion. When you are admitted to the group, first read the rules for posting and interacting with members. Some welcome promotional posts, some do not, and others require it! So make sure that you are going to follow the group rules…or risk of getting the boot!

Then see what the group is posting and discussing and join in. Create content and post it that would interest the group and engage with the discussions as they gain momentum. Also, if there are group members that you want to reach out to, you can view their profile and send them a message about connecting or just send a request with a message. This is a more personal way of building your network – just be careful not to spam: either by your adding friends or too many self promotional posts.

Now get out there and enjoy! Want to have more control? Start your own group – it is very simple and only take a few minutes.

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How to Setup Your Free Call-to-Action Button on Facebook

By Christopher Tompkins

3Feb

Facebook, Social Media, Uncategorized

Facebook. The ever-changing social landscape.

With the competitive social media marketplace, Facebook knows that it needs to constantly evolve in order to give businesses who are using their service for marketing purposes more bang for their buck.

Many business have been trying Facebook Advertising, but the returns have not been exactly what they had in mind. Let’s just say Facebook Advertising is no Google AdWords when it comes to ROI.

A better way of marketing your business on Facebook is to ensure that you have made your Page as engaging as possible and keep up on the changes and enhancements that they introduce along the way.

One of the latest additions is the Call to Action Button. This makes it easy for people who visit your Page to take a specific action on your website or app. Choose between buttons to encourage people to shop, book appointments, play games and more.

The process is fairly simple for installing yours, so let me take you through it quickly:

Log into your Facebook account, and then locate your Facebook Page.

When you are on your page, look at the bottom right hand corner of your Facebook Cover Image. There you will see a button that says “Create Call-to-Action”.
Click this button and you will be taken to the “Create a Call-to-Action Button” Page. On the right hand side of this page you will see a few items to fill in.
First, you want to choose your button. So click the drop down menu under “Choose a Button” and decide which you would like to use. Currently your choices are: Book Now, Contact Us, Use App, Play Game, Shop Now, Sign Up, Watch Video.
After you make your button choice you want to set the destination. For websites you want to add the link in the “Website” field. If you have a mobile website, add it in the mobile website field. Then click Next.
Now you want to choose a destination for people using IOS. Choose where you want them to go from the drop down menu. Then click next.
Next you have to choose a destination for people using an Android device. Choose where you want them to go fro the drop down menu and click next.

Click Save and you are done!

Now you will be directed back to your home page and you will see your Call-to-Action Button in the lower right hand side of your Cover Image. If you look to the right hand column of your page under the This Week heading, you will see CTA Clicks. This is a new metric that will automatically count the number of clicks that your Call-to-Action will receive each week.

So as you can see it is fairly simple. Just remember that your Call-to-Action is not written in stone. You are able to edit it at any time, so don’t forget to modify it to fit your marketing strategy!

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3 Time Saving Social Media Content Shortcuts

By Christopher Tompkins

11Nov

Facebook, Google+, LinkedIn, Social Media, Twitter, Uncategorized

With all of the importance companies are beginning to place on social media, it’s imperative to stress the right aspects of your business. When we speak with potential clients at The Go! Agency, we find that many times their focus is not on their message, but on the return they can expect.

While I think that ROI is an important topic to discuss, what’s more important with social media is the term “social”. When a business gets involved with social media marketing, what they are agreeing to is the fact that they are ready to join the online conversations that are already happening regarding their industry, and their very own company.

So….what are you going to say?

Formulating creative and engaging content on a regular basis can be overwhelming. On average, companies are putting out two status updates per day per network. So as a baseline, the average amount per week is 14 individual posts. That’s a total of 56 per month!

Here are a few ideas that you can add to your monthly content list which will help you to reduce the amount of time that you spend generating new content. Sometimes by half!

Themed Days
Above and beyond, this is the easiest way to not only create a conversation with your target audience, but help engage them in a familiar way. Have you heard of “TBT” or Throw Back Thursday? This trend has swept through the social media world and now more and more companies are using this tactic in an effective way. My suggestion is to choose one or two days per week to start. For example maybe you can use Monday and Thursday. If you are a healthcare related business, perhaps Medical Monday and Thankful Thursday and share content that is branded to those to titles and ideas. Remember to use visuals as much as you can.

Ongoing Quizzes
Asking questions is always a great way to engage your audience, but if you want to go one step further have an ongoing quiz plan. First, you can create the theme of your quiz around a certain month. For example, Breast Cancer Awareness Month for a woman’s hospital system. You probably have many interesting statistics and FAQs about breast cancer that you can share. So why not run a quiz for 5 days in a row each week – Monday through Friday. Come up with a new question (along with a visual) dealing with breast cancer and ask your audience. An example could be: “True or False: Breast Cancer is the leading killer of American Women.” Something as simple as that can work wonders!

Fill in the Blanks
People love engaging and sharing their opinion. Providing fill in the blank statements is a terrific way to get your target market talking. I wouldn’t suggest going overboard with these, but once a week why not try one out. It can also be used in conjunction with your Themed Days, for example on a Thankful Thursday you can share “Today I am most thankful for ______.” These also can help you see what your audience is most interested in.

Now, by just using these few tools listed above you can cut down the amount of content you have to create by half, if not more. Creating an ongoing content strategy is a must, and by adding these elements to the mix, you cut your work down while creating instantly engaging content for your audience!

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Is Your Facebook Page Ready for These Changes? What You Need to Know About the New Timeline Layout

By Christopher Tompkins

15Apr

Facebook, Social Media, Uncategorized

Just when you thought you had finally made sense of the new layout changes Facebook has introduced over the past months, they go and introduce even more! The difference this time is that the focus of the changes is not your personal profile – it is your Facebook Page: where you market your business to the Facebook masses.

Rest assured, these changes are not immediate game changers and will not create too much work in the short-term. Facebook, like many social media sites (including Twitter and LinkedIn), want to put the focus back on the newsfeed and increasing engagement with relevant content. In order to do this, they have streamlined the layout of Pages to help support this initiative.

Whether you are familiar with Facebook marketing or are a newbie, I’ve compiled a list of the changes (as of now) that will be rolled out to all Facebook Page owners in the coming weeks. I’ve also added short descriptions of the benefits of these features for marketing your business on Facebook.

The features below will be visible to administrators of your business’s Facebook Page – so when you take a look around the new layout you can follow along using the right interface. So make sure that you are viewing your page from an administrator account to check out all of these new features.

Now, let’s share those new features!

1. Main Navigation Bar. In order to streamline the look of pages, as well as move the newsfeed items closer to the top of the page, gone are the old TABS (which used to appear as a row of small rectangular boxes underneath your cover image). In their place will be a main navigation bar – very similar to that which you would see on a website, or on Twitter. The new buttons will be Timeline / About / Photos / Videos / More (which will include existing TABS). While the loss of TABS will annoy some, having your content pushed right to the top and more highly visible should increase engagement.

2. Reorganized Timeline Layout. As you will see, some items have been shifted around to make way for the new streamlined look. Now instead of having your posts appear on two columns running down the page, they will all appear in one column which will run down the right-hand side of the page. The left hand-side will now be devoted to one column all about your business. Included in this column will be your map, operating hours, website URL, phone number, photos, videos and more. This enables you to present your information in an easy to read format that is intuitive to navigate.

3. Administration Tools – Easier Access. Whereas you used to have to scroll to the top to view ‘likes’, advertising campaigns, messages and notifications – these will now appear on a floating menu that will always be visible, no matter where you are on the page. Also, the top management bar will get a facelift and be easier to use with larger buttons with more useful choices. Again, this simple change will save time when managing your page.

4. Pages to Watch. Of all of the features, I think this one is going to be the most important for those of you out there who are serious about Facebook marketing, especially when it comes to measurement and analysis. Rather than having to go through the sticky Insights (which I’m not 100% sold on), this new “Pages to Watch” feature will enable you to add Facebook Pages that you want to keep an eye on (AKA your competitors’ pages) to one section where you will be able to measure their growth against your own. This will enable you to measure their new ‘likes’, posts, engagement and more in real time. This is a wonderful way to keep up with your competitive analysis and see how you stack-up against your competitors on a daily basis.

Overall, Facebook is trying to bring focus back to the timeline posts – which is a wonderful thing. On the other hand, they are also trying to push more companies towards dipping into their advertising model. My thought on this? Before jumping into advertising on Facebook, make sure that you have a compelling content and outreach strategy that you have tried out and measured for a few months. In order to see how effective you are on Facebook, you need to identify what results you want, how you want to get them, and how you will measure success. Without these items, you can be shooting in the dark. If after all of this you still need a bit of a boost while you are marketing on Facebook, then look into ads – or just call The Go! Agency toll free at 866-926-2636.

Facebook is a crucial element of your online marketing strategy – so don’t take its importance lightly.

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15 Tips to Bring Your Facebook Page to Life: Part 1

By Christopher Tompkins

5Sep

Facebook, Social Media, Uncategorized

When we ask our audience at both The Go! Agency and The Social Marketing Academy (our daily radio show), the overriding theme tends to be that many of you have created a social media profile/page/group….and nothing is happening. One of the largest sites that respondents focused on was Facebook, and in particular the Facebook Page for your company.

This issue is one that many of us are faced with. We log-in to Facebook, knock out a quick page and start placing updates or, more worryingly, sync it to Twitter and let the Twitter feed populate the page.

Here, I want to present a few things that you should do – focusing more on a strategy than a whole list of tactics that are supposed to be instant winners. Without a successful base strategy, all the tactics in the world can’t help.

So, here we go:

1. Look at Your Facebook Page as a Marketing Channel

While this may seem a bit obvious, many businesses don’t think this way. The thought of Facebook for marketing is a relatively new concept in the world of marketing when you compare it to advertising, public relations and even email blasts. So incorporate it into your brand marketing. When you roll out your marketing plan and decide where your promotional hubs are – make sure your Facebook Page is in that list. Just think, when you made your last major announcement, or spoke at a conference, or held a charity event…did you post any of the coverage on your Facebook Page? This is the sort of opportunity that many of us miss and can promote engagement with your target audience.

2. There is a Second Promotional Life Outside of Facebook.com

You don’t just market your Facebook page to the active community who are on Facebook, you need to promote it offsite as well. Facebook “Likes” can be a bit tough to come by, but imagine if your ‘face to face’ clients knew about your page? Have you ever mentioned to these clients that you had a Page on Facebook? This can be a huge missed opportunity. How visible is your Facebook Page in your marketing materials: business cards, website, email signature, commercials, brochures, print ads, direct mail…I can go on. Successful Facebook Pages are not built 100% on Facebook.

3. Have You Asked Your Supporters for a Like?

Every business already has a built-in fan base: your supporters, your clients, your friends, your family, your employees and their network…well you get the idea. The number one reason many of us don’t ask is that we don’t think we should “sell” to our friends and clients. That’s a big misconception – you won’t be selling to them all the time, which brings us to…

4. What is Your Message Strategy?

Why do people continue to interact with your Facebook Page? Well, you need to enchant them to get them to stay. I always tell my clients that in order to get traction on their Facebook Page they need to make sure their message strategy will educate, entertain and/or engage their Facebook Fans. You need to think about what you post. If you are a recruitment firm, don’t just post your latest positions – post articles about how to master the job interview. If you are a nonprofit, don’t just ask for donations – post or write articles educating your audience about your cause overall. If you are a social media guy (ahem) don’t just talk about your services – share useful content.

5. Pictures and Video – Where Are They?

One of the biggest problems with Facebook Pages is that sometimes there isn’t a lot of variety with the postings. Mix it up by using pictures and video. See an interesting video on YouTube? Copy the link and share it on your page. See an interesting infographic that your target market would enjoy and benefit from? Post it! Of course pictures of your events, meetings, conferences and the like are wonderful – if you can’t create it yourself, support someone else and share. It is “social” media anyways, isn’t it?

And there are many more to come! Make sure to check out Parts 2 and 3 to see the rest of 10 tips on bringing your Facebook Page to life!

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Ever Get Locked Out of Your Facebook Account? Easy Access Tips!

By Christopher Tompkins

12Jul

Facebook, Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized

For so many businesses in this increasingly overwhelming online climate, access to usernames and passwords can make or break your business. You have to login to do everything from transferring money from your bank account to paying your electric bill. At times I am actually amazed at how many login/password combos that I actually remember and use in a day!

As you begin to get more involved with social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn – you will have yet another round of usernames and passwords to remember. My first tip, and the one that I am most adamant about, is to create a master password spreadsheet and continually add to it and update as you go. This is a wonderful and EXTREMELY useful document, especially if you have any security breaches as you will be able to easily remember all of your online login points and change them much more easily. Also, just think how easy it will be to get new staff trained when you can actually pull all of the username/password combos they need for work, without having to search high and low. Or even worse. Call the person who previously held that post.

Aside from the spreadsheet, each social media site has different ways for you to access your account if for any reason you lose access to either your password or your email account. Here I want to tell you more about an easy way to protect your access to your Facebook account. If you forget your Facebook email or password – it can be extremely tricky (hence the need for that master password list). But if you would like to add another safeguard on your account, simply add a security question to your Facebook account.

Here’s how you do it!

Once you are logged into your Facebook account, click on the lock icon next to the word “Home” in the top blue tab and then choose “See More Settings”.
On this page, click “Security” on the left hand side of the page.
On the next page, click the “Security Question” option. Don’t see this? Then you may have already added one before when you created your account.
From the dropdown list on the next page, choose which question you would like to use from the preset list of security questions.
Once you have made your choice, key in your answer in the box provided.
Finally, add your current password to verify that you are the owner of the account, and then click the “Save Changes”.

And there you have it – easy as pie! So now if you either lose access to the email address that you have started your Facebook account with or lost your password, you will be able to get back into your account in other ways by using your new security question. Without this, it can be tricky and time consuming, so I suggest taking a few minutes and set yours now!

Oh, and while you are at it – I would start compiling that master password list. I’m telling you, this is absolutely invaluable. If I had a dollar for every time I asked a client for their passwords to their social media account who couldn’t find them….well, let’s just say I would have a lot of dollars.

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Social Media 101: 8 Steps to Social Media Marketing Success

By Dale Griffen

17May

Facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing, Social Media, Twitter, Uncategorized

Social media has taken the world by storm over the last few years. It not only serves as a great form of public relations for any organization, but as a wonderful way to network, measure your efforts as a business, see what the competition, your peers, and industry leaders are doing. It is a tool to constantly find ways to improve the delivery of services and care you give your clients.

As someone who specializes in the online marketing arena, I meet and chat with people everyday who are interested in using social media to promote their business. But surprisingly many of these people have a major problem in that: they don’t know how to start!

So in this article I want to provide you with a fool- proof step-by-step 101 list to get your social media marketing campaign underway in no time flat!

Step 1: Write Down Your Objectives

The first thing you’ll want to do is identify what you are trying to achieve through using social media to market your company. Keep in mind that more leads or followers is not your only goal. The types of objectives you should be looking at include engaging your current customers/clients, offering better customer service, learning about new services and governmental issues, building brand recognition and getting more local exposure.

Step 2: Know Your Target Market

A social media marketing campaign that is laser focused has the ability to reap better results than a broad shoot campaign. Make a list of 5-10 target markets that you want to hit and keep it handy throughout your campaign. Having this list will help you keep your “eye on the prize”.

Step 3: Look at What Your Competition is Doing on Social Media

Many of us do a competitive analysis when we put together a traditional marketing plan….so be sure to do the same when developing a social media marketing strategy. Usually the easiest way to begin this exercise is to go to the competition’s website and follow their social media links. If you can’t find the links on their website, login to sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and search for their company name. Are they getting lots of comments? Do they use lots of graphics and design elements? Are they posting often? Taking a look at these items can give you good solid ideas of what you need to do.

Step 4: What Are You Going to Say?

This is one of the trickiest things to come by as many organizations don’t have a wealth of available info to share. Make sure you are able to come up with content that is timely, engaging, entertaining, thought provoking and educational. Think out of the box! If I was a healthcare organization, I would go to the website for the medical association that is within my niche and share some of their updates and tips, as they would be relevant and interesting to my audience. Sharing is caring….not stealing! But content is king. People write blogs and post information online so it can be shared!

Step 5: Choose Your Sites

Once Steps 1 through 5 are complete, it is time to choose the social media sites you want to start using in your marketing campaign. Every business is different and some will find success quicker on one site than another. There isn’t a hard/fast rule on this. All sites are evolving and making it easier for businesses to get involved. The playing field has changed greatly over the past years (and even months) and there is a spot for everyone on all social media sites. One thing we suggest that you do today, if you haven’t already, is log on to the ‘Big 3’ – Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter (and while you’re at it create accounts with Google+, YouTube, and Pinterest – collectively the ‘Big 6’) and stake your username and piece of ‘online real estate’ before your competition does. (Note – this happens often!)

Step 6: Find a Good Support Site

Search and find a site to help you manage your accounts. There are free sites out there such as HootSuite, TweetDeck, SocialOomph, IFTTT and others that allow you to track, search and even schedule profile updates on the fly. When you create your plan, these sites will make it easier for you to manage your overall campaign.

Step 7: Create a Daily Plan to Ensure Consistency

This strategy is key to a successful social media marketing campaign. Your daily plan should contain a combination of Steps 1-6 and have daily time constraints attached. Make sure you identify who will be the touchpoint for the communications you get as a result of the campaign. For example, if you have a marketing team of 5, decide beforehand who will be in charge of delegation and qualification of the leads, information requests, comments, etc. If you’re doing it alone – start with 20 minutes, using a site you’re comfortable with, say Facebook. When you’ve developed a comfort level on one site, gradually add another.
Step 7A – When you’re on social media sites – remember it’s called ‘social’ for a reason. Act the same way you would at a ‘real-time’ networking event or cocktail party. Show up with a goal of connecting with people who can help your business. Reach out and introduce yourself to people and companies that may be within that target audience. Remember there are wallflowers online too! Just as at a party – know that people like to hear about themselves before they hear about you, be sure to comment on their posts, articles, or blogs and make sure to thank them if they comment on yours! Your goal is to take the conversation offline (away from the party) where you can develop a closer and more synergistic relationship.

Step 8: Create a Form of Measurement

This is tricky, so I would suggest waiting until after your first month of social media marketing. At this point you will be able to see what sorts of results come in: website hits, likes, comments, messages, leads, etc. In social media, we like to look at the acronym R.O.I. as ‘Return Of Influence’ rather than ‘Return On Investment’ – as this IS P.R., just as a billboard, tradeshow, or TV commercial – all are difficult to equate the initial outlay to the number of new sales/clients, however with social media you have the results of your influence (likes, comments, shares, etc). Once you get a handle on this, you will begin to understand what generates the best results. Create a quick spreadsheet and track these measurements on a weekly basis. As all of the sites have wonderful archives, it makes it a cinch to go back through the week’s activity to find what you need. If you are going to use your website to track effectiveness, make sure you have an analytics program installed that can monitor where your traffic comes from. If you don’t, Google Analytics is a free and easy option to use (and the results are carefully tracked).

Now you are on your way! The best part about social media marketing is it is an organic process that can change from time to time. Don’t forget to audit your campaign monthly to see if any of your measures or activities need changing or updating. Staying consistent, organized and informed will help you not only launch effectively, but promote your company and business successfully.

“I don’t have time to do this!” you say. That’s where a social media marketing firm may be of assistance. Spending the time doing it yourself does take away from what you do best. Having an entry level person do it can be tricky, as it IS your reputation they’re handling. Dedicating a higher level person or marketing manager may take them away from other marketing and sales opportunities. Although social media works in conjunction with your operations and marketing team, having them do the day-to-day activities may be more costly than outsourcing.

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Your Social Media Prescription: The Cost of Social Media

By Dale Griffen

13May

Facebook, LinkedIn, Marketing, Pinterest, Social Media, Twitter, Uncategorized

This has been republished courtesy of Doctor’s Life Magazine – take a look at the online version here.

Well, it’s free! Sort of. We all know the importance of social media, and to utilize it effectively, you’re going to have to spend either time, or money! It’s up to you as to which one you use! Currently ALL of these powerful social media sites are free to use. Sure, there are options that they utilize to try and get your money, from paying for (promoting) your posts, upgrading your account (you probably don’t need to do this) and with e-commerce options. But basically there’s no charge for using these platforms. But we all know the saying: “Time is money.” To optimize, populate (with a targeted audience), and fill your site (with content that moves your audience to action) takes some time, effort, and planning. Many businesses out there are seriously vamping their following, their sales, and reputation as thought leaders using social media—all the while using social media as a vehicle of P.R. and brand awareness—with speed racer proportions! Are you up to the challenge?

Social media platforms are a constantly changing and evolving medium. With that in mind, although we consider ourselves “specialists,” one can never be an “expert,” as all of us are constantly learning these changes, updates, tweaks, and new applications within the platforms. But the general principals with social media, as we mentioned above are:

Optimize your site. Make sure your images mirror your website so that your brand carries through. After all, this is a living, breathing, evolving version of your website. Make sure you fill it out completely—people expect it to look as professional, and it is a reflection of you and your business. Be sure that it has your location, contact info, hours and that all the links work. Also, be sure that you aren’t utilizing a personal page for your business.

Populate it with people that you feel might be interested (peers, current and potential clients and supporters, industry leaders, and more). Don’t be a wallflower here—reach out and follow/like/connect with at least 10 new businesses or people a day, and leave a comment on their site, letting them know you like something they have posted (if you do, remember – be genuine).

Fill your site several times a day with great content (comments, quotes, pictures/videos, questions, tips, news article links, announcements, new products/services, upcoming events/appearances, achievements, links to your blog/website).

Engage with your audience. If someone likes or comments on something you’ve posted be sure to thank them, and maybe even encourage them to sign up for your newsletter or blog “for more great tips like this.” But make it easy for them—include the link that will bring them there. Bit.ly is a great site for shortening and customizing a link. Check it out. (Tip: Always test a link before you send it – for example I recently wrote an article that was published in Doctor’s Life Magazine, and we posted it on our website. I created a short link, but every time I share it, I test it to make sure it’s still valid, or that I didn’t mistype it. Check it out: bit.ly/SocialMediaRx

With that in mind we recommend that everyone complete a simple marketing plan to ensure that you know what you have to do each day and get it done. Much like a diet, exercise plan, or even a road trip, having a pre-written plan or map in front of you makes you much more likely to stick to the proper route and reach your goal more efficiently and effectively.

What about the cost? Well, with the platforms being free of charge, what you have to think about in terms of cost is the time factor, and who you will have do all of the above actions. Here are your options:

1. Do it yourself

2. Office manager / marketing manager

3. Receptionist / entry level person

4. Outsourcing

Doing it yourself is a great option, as this is your reputation and business that you’ll be promoting. However, it does take you away from what you do best—running your practice.

Having an upper management person take over your social media is also a good idea, as they usually have a great understanding of your business, products and services, vision, and goals in mind, but it also takes them away from other duties, and if it’s your marketer, it takes them away from other sales duties, and face to face activities. Additionally, these people tend to be your higher paid employees and if they’re constantly being interrupted or aren’t proficient with social media – the added time equals more money out of your pocket.

An entry level person may seem to be a good alternative, they are more economical, sometimes are younger and more proficient on social media—but remember, this is your reputation we’re talking about. Will they deliver the business acumen, professionalism, and deep-digging, laser-focused campaign that you need? Will they be on top of the latest applications and logistics with these platforms that change daily?

Outsourcing to a company that specializes in social media may be your best bet! A common misconception is that hiring firms like ours to perform your social media marketing campaign is just too expensive. Having an in-house person do the work, or hiring someone may also include you having to pay for their benefits, taxes, insurance and when that person is out sick, someone else has to do the social media or it doesn’t get done.

Our services provide everything listed above so that you and your business can have 100 percent social media management, optimization, engagement, and monitoring taken care of—all for the cost of 4-10 venti coffees a day, depending on the services you choose!

Now, it’s obvious, no one drinks that many coffee’s a day, but it’s not out of the question for your sales/marketing rep to bring that many coffees and bagels to the offices that they call on. In fact, I utilize a caterer that specializes in pharmaceutical rep lunches. I asked them what the range and average is that pharma reps spend on lunches—I was surprised that the range was between $100-$500 per lunch, and the average is $150-175! Many times you have to feed the entire office in hopes of getting to the ONE decision maker that they need an audience with. With social media, you can get directly to that target or decision maker without all that hassle.

Think of that in terms of other more “traditional” means of advertising and P.R.—billboards, print and TV ads, trade shows—are all great ways of getting your name out there – however with social media, your message can change several times a day, is portable (it can be shared across the world with the push of a button), looking at peoples comments and the logistics – you are able to see what your following likes to hear about, and most importantly – you can connect with that laser focused target audience – people that WANT to be educated by, entertained by, and engage with YOU.

When outsourcing your social media, you may ask how we learn about you, your practice, your business, what sets you apart, what we can post, and to whom—this is where we excel. In the beginning, we have our clients complete a short questionnaire that gives us our parameters to start, and then we give you the option to pre-approve the posts that go out in your behalf. Our team of social media strategists meet regularly to discuss your campaign, how to improve, manage, and innovate your campaign. We also check in with you if anything comes up that is beyond our scope, is a referral, or can be put in your sales funnel for follow up by your sales and marketing team.

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Facebook Tagging: A Quick Way to Double Your Exposure

By Christopher Tompkins

4May

Uncategorized

Of all of the topics that I speak and write about, Facebook is the one I am asked the most about. As its popularity continues to thrive (aside from reports to the contrary) and grows and evolves, to many marketers it continues to grow more mysterious by the day.

I’m always asked what my top tip is for Facebook, but it is always hard to just choose one. As there are so many facets to a Facebook marketing strategy, I’d like to give you one that really does give you the most play for your money and time.

Tagging.

Facebook tagging has been around for awhile now and you have probably seen it in action on your personal profile on Facebook. Tagging is when someone writes or replies to an update and mentions someone in the update. For example, say you wrote an update and got four comments. In one of the comments you see your name in blue in the response. When you see this – it is a tag. The tagging in updates is a more advanced version of tagging someone in a photo (which I’m sure we have all done or tried at some point).

In order to tag a company or person, you must first be connected to them or LIKE their page. Then you simply type the @ symbol and begin to write their name. This will generate a drop down list of companies/people to choose from. Don’t see what you are looking for? Type more or less of the name you are searching for. When you find it, click on the name and it will then be added to your post.

So…what does this do for me?

The answer: a lot.

If you are trying to get your business in front of influential referral sources, potential customers or persuasive partners, write an update, mention them in the update and tag them. Even share one of their most recent updates that your audience would be interested in, tag them and then thank them for sharing the wonderful information.

Going to their office or event? Tag them in real time while you are there or after you leave saying how great it was to meet them or what you thought of the event. See a potential customer do something wonderful in the media? Congratulate them with tagging.

Tagging will enable you not only to to get in front of the company or person you are tagging, but also in front of their entire audience as well. So for example if you only have 150 likes on your page, tagging a person with 150,000 likes could multiply the exposure of your post by 1,000.

To get comfortable with tagging, I always suggest trying it out on your personal account with friends first before doing it for your business. Once you get the hang of it, try it to in your Facebook Page marketing strategy with some current clients or potential clients.

Use tagging when relevant and make sure that the update is well-written. Over tagging can be spammy and can also turn off your current Facebook connections. Monitor the success against your other non-tagged updates to see what works and what doesn’t.

This will be just the tip of the iceberg as Facebook continually evolves, so it is good practice to become familiar with this immediately – while gaining more exposure to your updates than you have before!

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Tag : facebook

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