“Ugh! How Do I Change My Twitter Settings?!” We’ve Got You Covered…

2Jul

Once you have created your Twitter account and tried your hand at branding your profile picture, cover image and background – you will need to come to terms with the administration panel on the backend of your Twitter account.

While the words “backend” and “admin panel” can make be a bit off putting, in reality it is very straightforward.

Your admin settings can be found by clicking the cog icon on the top bar, next to the bright blue box. This will give you a drop down menu of options, click on “Settings”.

This will bring you to the main settings screen of your admin panel. If you have read my piece on making sense of your Facebook admin panel, you will see it Twitter’s is very similar in format. The tabs for the different pages run down the left hand side and when you click on them, the right hand side of the page will show the content for that page. Now let’s go through what you need to pay attention to in each of these tabs and what they mean to your marketing your business on Twitter:

*Account: This tab shows all of the baseline information on how your account is setup. Here you can change your username (if you choose to do so at anytime), change your email, and choose the settings for how your tweets and account will be viewed at large. My advice here is to check if your information is correct, add the correct language and timezone. The other settings have to do with personalization and privacy. Each of these settings are very self explanatory – so read through them and set up your account accordingly. Also here, you will be able to “Request your archive” – this can be very useful down the road if you want to have a full record of the tweets that you have put out on Twitter. Once you are done, click “Save Changes”.

*Password: This tab simply allows you to change and update your password. This is handy if you need to increase security at anytime.

*Mobile: Do you want to enable Twitter to be used on your mobile phone? Click this tab and enter your phone number. Only downside is that every time it alerts you, you will be charged for a text if used OUTSIDE of an application – so keep that in mind! My suggestion is to not use this feature and download an approved or highly rated Twitter app to your mobile device/phone and use that to Tweet….free of charge!

*Email notifications: This tab will enable you to decide what information Twitter will keep you up to date on via email. Choose wisely – as if you choose all of these options, you could be receiving emails from Twitter constantly….to an annoying level. Keep the noise to a minimum by only choosing a few options and changing them as you go.

*Profile: We discussed this tab previously when we spoke about branding on Twitter. Here you will be able to change your Profile Image, Header, Name, Location and Bio. So if at anytime you need to update these aspects, this is where you would do it. Also, you are able to connect Twitter to Facebook here. Use this feature with caution, as in time it can be a bit off putting to your Facebook audience as your content may look like Tweets, rather than status updates.

*Design: We spoke about this section in detail in the branding yourself on Twitter article as well. Here is where you will be able to change your background and link color on Twitter.

*Apps: Very simply, this tab shows you all of the third party applications that you have allowed to access your Twitter account. In layman’s terms, if you are using Hootsuite to send out tweets, it will appear on this list. Also, if you login to Pinterest using Twitter – Pinterest will appear in this list. My top tip is to check in with this page every so often and “Revoke access” to any application that you are no longer using. This will keep your account safe from hackers and spam.

*Widgets: Have you ever seen a Twitter box showing a company’s Twitter feed on their website? Chances are that it could have been created here in the Twitter Widget page. Simply add the information that you would like to add to the widget and click “Create widget” – and there you are. In this step you will need someone with website design expertise in order to have the widget integrated into your website.

These 8 tabs will help you manage your Twitter settings so that you account is full branded, up to date and safe. These are all important factors because of the speed of Twitter.

Take a moment now to login to your Twitter account and review the “Settings” administration page. Going through it once and understanding what your options are is powerful and will help you easily manage these functions of your Twitter account effectively in the future.

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How to Setup a Twitter Account to Market Your Business

By Christopher Tompkins

28Jun

Social Media, Twitter, Uncategorized

When marketing a business on social media, Twitter tends to be the last choice for many companies. Why? Mostly because it tends to be a completely foreign territory.

It doesn’t look like any other site.
It has a messy interface.
The information comes so fast.
It seems far too daunting for someone who doesn’t understand social media.

Well I’m here today to tell you that I completely understand. Although by understanding, I’m not agreeing with you. You CAN do this without a well versed knowledge of social media. Remember, learning how to market your business through social media is an organic process, not something that you learn instantly overnight. First you should obviously read up on Twitter and its benefits, its drawbacks and take a look through some of your competitors’ accounts and see how they are using Twitter. This will give you a baseline of understanding that will help throughout the process.

So now you are ready to create a Twitter account to market your business – let’s get you started! Here is my Twitter quick start plan: a step-by-step process to getting you setup and ready to begin marketing!

If you currently have a Twitter account and have been using Twitter, this article probably is not for you. This article is geared to those who have never worked with Twitter and are looking for some guidance on how to get setup with an account.

Step 1: Got to Twitter.com. Once you are there you will see a login box and then a “New to Twitter? Sign up” box. In the sign up box, add your full name, email and create a custom password. Then click “Sign up for Twitter”.

Step 2: This will take you to the “Join Twitter today” screen. Make sure that your name is spelled correctly, your email address is correct (as they will send you an email to confirm your account) and that your password is secure enough (they will let you know). Now the MOST important step – choosing your username. This is the name that you will be identified by on Twitter. I suggest that you use your company name, product/service name, website address or something similar. Company name is the absolute best, so shoot for that. If your name is too long or the name is taken, try different variations of the name until you find something that fits. For example “companyinternational” is too long for a username, but “companyintl” works perfectly. Once you choose your username click “Create my account”

Step 3: On the next “Welcome” screen click “Next”. This will take you to the “Build your timeline” screen. Now in order to get started, Twitter requires you to follow 5 of the most popular accounts. These can be removed/unfollowed later, so choose 5 from the list that you would be interested in. For example following Coca Cola may be more interesting than Mariah Carey. Don’t be put off by their suggestions, this is not who you will be targeting on Twitter. Then click “Next”.

Step 4: On the “See who’s here.” screen you will need to choose another 5 from different categories. Here you will see more relevant choices, so go through the list and choose 5 that are most relevant to you. Again – these can all be removed/unfollowed later. Then click “Next”.

Step 5: Here you can find people that you know. If you would like to connect Twitter to any of the email programs that are listed – simply click “Search contacts” and it will find connections that you can invite to connect. If you don’t want to do this now – you can click the VERY hard to see “Skip” button on the bottom of the box.

Step 6: Now you are on the “Add character.” screen. Here you upload your company logo. Your image must be smaller than 700K and 81 x 81 pixels in size. Format this before you upload for a higher resolution, non-pixelated image. Then you have to write your bio….and you only get 160 characters to do it! My suggestion? Look at some of your competitors bios (which show up below their logo on their Twitter account page) and see how they have done it. By looking at examples, you will begin to generate ideas and understand. For example, here’s ours: The Go! Agency is a full service marketing firm focused on helping you grow your business online. Social Media, SEO, Website Design, Copywriting”. Then click “Done”.

Step 7: Now that you have completed your setup, you will need to confirm your email address. Go to the email account that you specified, find the email from Twitter and click on the link as instructed. This will take you back to Twitter and you will be ready for Stage 2 setup – including setting up your settings, header image, background image and more!

So you have done it! Officially setting up your first Twitter account! While we have just gone through the setup features now, in my next few blogs I will continue to explain the other setup steps to really make your Twitter account work for your business!

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How to Schedule a Status Update on Your Facebook Business Page

By Christopher Tompkins

27Jun

Facebook, Social Media, Uncategorized

Automation is one of those subjects that kicks up the dander with some some social media marketers. In some cases, I’m one of those marketers – rolling my eyes at obviously automated responses.

But in other cases, I think they are absolutely fine. Here’s why.

My rule when it comes to social media automation, is that you should not automate more than 10% of your overall social media activity. It drives me up the wall when I see other social media marketing firms automating their clients’ ENTIRE social media marketing campaign. You can usually tell as there is no engagement, conversation, back and forth and acknowledgement. At the end of the day, if you don’t want your company to act socially, don’t use social media.

But in the busy schedule of a marketer, there is not always time to get log into Facebook and post an update exactly at the time you want it to go out. Maybe you get pulled away on another project, get sidetracked or just plain forget.

Facebook has a wonderful functionality that allows you to schedule a status update on your Facebook Business Page to go out in the future, at the exact time and date that you choose. It is an underutilized feature as many people use other scheduling tools to help with Facebook marketing. The only problem with these tools is that you are unable to TAG companies/people in the post (which increases your post’s visibility). But if schedule a post on Facebook using their scheduling tool, you are able to reap the benefits of more exposure.

Plus it is easy, fast and free.

Let’s show you how to do it.

1. Go to your Facebook Business Page and make sure that you are using Facebook as YOURSELF. This is indicated at the top right corner (in the dark blue banner). If your name and picture appears next to “Home” and the wheel icon, you are using Facebook as yourself. If it does not click “Edit Page” on the menu towards the top of the page, and in the dropdown menu that appears choose “Use Facebook as YOUR NAME”. If you do not follow these steps, you will not be able to use the full features of this great tool.

2. Scroll down to below your logo, tabs and about to your status box. Click in the box where it says “What have you been up to?”

3. Next add your update (including links, pictures, video, etc) and include TAGS if possible.

4. Now look at the grey box below your update. In the bottom left corner there is a little clock. Click on this icon and a calendar function comes up. It first asks for the year then or the month, day, hour (am/pm) and minute.

5. Click Schedule and you are done. Your post will appear at the time and date that you have specified.

Not sure if you did it right? Do a test update for later in the day and see if it appears correctly. Ensure your tags, links, pictures and video showed up. This is the way to begin to feel comfortable.

A word of caution: if Facebook is updating ANYTHING this feature tends to be hard to access. Be patient and it will eventually re-appear. The good news is that I have not known it to lose any content, so everything you schedule should remain safe.

Happy scheduling!

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Step-By-Step: How to Do a Competitive Analysis on Social Media

By Christopher Tompkins

24Jun

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

One of the things I tell prospective clients, as well as those interested in exploring the value of social media marketing for their company, is that one of the most important reasons to become involved with the social media world is to keep, or gain, a competitive edge over your competition.

I’ve spoken before about the importance of claiming your social media real estate and monitoring your brand and brand sentiment on social media, but another item that I want to share with you is how to do a competitive analysis for your company on social media.

While this seems like a daunting task, or even a time waster for some, what this will enable you to do is to gain lots of intel into how your direct competitors are using social media and where you need to be in order to gain the advantage.

Just think about it. If your major competitors are at a trade show, odds are that you will be as well. If your major competitors are placing advertising in a popular trade magazine, odds are that you will be using this vehicle to promote as well. Depending on your industry the list can go many different ways. But one of the rules of business is that if you want to gain a competitive advantage, then you must be highly visible in as many places as your target market resides.

What I want to show you here is how to develop a step by step competitive analysis using social media sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter. As each of these sites have different functions and terminology, I want to provide an overview that you will be able to apply to each site.

Step 1: Compile a List of Competitors. First, create a short list which includes direct competitors of various size. This will help you understand how each segment of your competition is using social media to their advantage. Create this list within an Excel spreadsheet for ease of use and reference.

Step 2: Locate and Record Their Social Media Locations. On your spreadsheet, create columns for Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and any other relevant social media sites to your industry (such as Pinterest and YouTube). Then go through each competitor and find their page on each site. Copy and paste the hyperlink to each profile in the spreadsheet accordingly.

Step 3: Record Their Network Numbers. On your spreadsheet, go through each social media profile and record their numbers (Likes, Follows) so that you can track growth. For example, if a company has 50 Likes and week after week it stays at 50, their marketing is not bringing in new people.

Step 4: Look at Their Insights. Facebook and LinkedIn currently have this capability where you can click on “Insights” and see the demographics of the people connected to said profile. This can be useful in seeing if your competitors social strategy is effective.

Step 5: Track Updates Versus Engagement. Take a look at their updates and see what they are posting. Then take a look at how many comments, likes or shares they are receiving with each post. This will show you how engaged their audience is. My only caveat to this is if your industry involves lots of privacy issues – transparent engagement may not be the top factor I would consider during the analysis.

Step 6: How Are They Branding Themselves? Look at the combination of their imagery, logos, descriptions and updates to track how they are branding themselves. Does it look slick and professional? Does it stay true to the company message?

Step 7: Time for Overall Analysis. Now that you have gone through and looked at the major points of the profile, compare where your competitors are with where you are. How do you stack up against your competition? Are there any tips that you can take from their strategy that you can apply to your own? What are they doing right? What are they doing wrong? While you go through the profiles, make sure to jot down notes in your spreadsheet for things that you want to keep an eye on. This helps to remember important items on the fly.

Now, how often should you do this? I would suggest a minimum of once a month. This will keep you fresh and up-to-date with your competitors strategy and success rate on social media.

This simple 7 step process will not only help you come to terms with how your competition is using social media, it will also show you how valuable it is going to be for your company moving forward. If you are not on sites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter – your competition will be. And if you are not there to steer the conversation about your company, products and services, who is going to do it?

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Quick Admin Set-Up Tips for Your Facebook Business Page

By Christopher Tompkins

21Jun

Facebook, Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized

Setting up a Facebook Page for the first time can be a slightly confusing endeavor. If you have just decided that you are going to throw your marketing hat into the Facebook ring, there are many aspects of proper page setup that you are going to have to know.

On the front end (your visible Page) you will need to focus on such items as: creating your perfect logo image, initial description, cover image, custom tabs and first posts. But were you aware that there is an entire back-end that is not entirely visible to the public eye?

In this blog I want to give you 10 quick tips to getting your Facebook Page back-end setup effectively. You will be able to access this dashboard of options by clicking the Edit Page button, and then choosing Edit Settings on your Admin Panel (see image in post). Once the page is pulled up, you will see options going down the left hand side.

My 10 suggestions for you, by tab:

Your Settings Tab
1. Make sure that the boxes are checked for: Similar Page Suggestions, Posting Preferences, Email Notifications and Onsite Notification.

Manage Permissions Tab
2. Page Visibility: if while you setup the page you do not want it to be seen, check Unpublish page. When you are ready for people to see it – uncheck the box next to Unpublish page.

3. Tagging Ability: I suggest you uncheck the box next to Tagging Ability as this can be a source of spam on your Page.

4. Messages: put a check in the box next to Show “Message” button on Page.

5. Replies: make sure to check the box so that you allow replies to comments on your Page.

Basic Information:
6. Category: make sure your company is in the correct category.

7. Sub-categories: type and choose sub-categories for your business.

8. Address: add your address to enjoy the map feature/places feature on your page.

9. Make sure that you fill in the following COMPLETELY: Short Description, Company Overview, Description, General Information Mission, Products and more. Different pages have different options – make sure that you fill out the information fully, as this is the information that will be visible on your page. Pack it with keywords and don’t forget to add your contact information. In the Website tab, add links to ALL of your online hubs (including other social media hubs). It may look messy in the box, but it will be in column form, and hyperlinked, on your live Page.

Profile Picture
10. Edit Thumbnail: click on this (which is a link under your logo) and a small box will pop up. Make sure that you have a check in the box next to “Scale to Fit”. This will scale your logo to look professional in posts and elsewhere on Facebook.

Once you have these setup, you may want to circle back and really go through each one of these tabs to see all of the settings available to make sure that you have it all setup accordingly and try your hand at enhancing your settings. Also (especially on the Basic Information tab), toggle back from your live page and back-end to see where improvements can be made.

Want more tips? Drop by and Like us on Facebook here!

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10 Ways to Successfully Use TweetDeck to Manage Your Twitter Marketing

By Christopher Tompkins

20Jun

Social Media, Twitter, Uncategorized

For many people, Twitter seems to be the most confusing of all of the social media channels. It’s fast. It’s brief. It involves what seems like code. It looks messy and confusing…and the list goes on.

I remember when I first started using Twitter I had the same misgivings, but stuck it out and over time the power and effectiveness of this marketing channel became very clear.

But this was in the days before there were third party applications available that would help you manage your Twitter marketing strategy. If you are getting into Twitter marketing now, you are lucky to have the opportunity to enjoy many of the free or inexpensive Twitter applications which can make managing your Twitter marketing campaign much more effective.

One of my go-to tools is TweetDeck.

A word of caution before we move on. If you are just starting out with Twitter, I suggest you make yourself familiar with Twitter.com FIRST, learn the terminology of Twitter second, THEN open a TweetDeck account and explore its capabilities.

Back to TweetDeck. What can I say, I think you will absolutely love the capabilities of this platform. Getting started is easy: go to TweetDeck.com and sign up for a free account. Once setup, add you Twitter account and you are ready to start exploring the many different features.

The first thing that you will notice is that TweetDeck uses columns to organize the data. Each column contains a different batch of information that you specify and add. This platform is highly customizable, so you can focus on the aspects that you think are important to your business. Make a mistake? Columns are easy to edit, delete and move.

Here are just some of the benefits of using TweetDeck and suggestions on how to use it to save time, frustration and garner higher results for your marketing efforts on Twitter:

1. Track Your Mentions: By creating a column to track your Mentions, you can keep up with all of the people that are interacting with you in the public stream (and respond).

2. Track Your Direct Messages (DM): Create a column for your Messages (DM) and you will be able to track and reply.

3. Create Custom Searches: Use the Search column to look up keyword phrases that your customers would use to find products/services similar to what you offer. Great for prospecting!

4. Interact with Your Twitter List: Have you created a custom list on Twitter.com? If so, you can add it as a column here and interact with it in real-time.

5. Keep Up With Interactions: You can easily add a column which shows all of your interactions as and when they happen.

6. See Who Followed You: Create a column for Followers and you can see who recently followed you and engage with them.

7. Keep Up With Your Activity: Track your Twitter account’s activity level by adding the Activity column.

8. Use the Mobile App on Your Smart Phone: Get all of the platform’s capabilities on the go.

9. Manage Multiple Accounts: You are able to add multiple accounts, so manage all of your Twitter accounts in one place.

10. Keep Up With Trends: You can add the Trends column to see what is trending in the Twitterverse in real-time.

And this is scratching the surface. I think that if you jump onto TweetDeck and have a click around, you will see that it is definitely something that can be valuable to your Twitter marketing strategy and daily efforts. It gives you a more organized view of Twitter in order for you to focus your marketing more effectively.

Again, before using a service such as this, you need to have a strategy, predefined targets and a daily schedule in place. Without these pieces there are no tools out there that can make you more successful.

Make sure to follow me and The Go! Agency on Twitter today. Don’t forget to say hello and feel free to ask any questions that you may have.

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10 Ways to Choose the Perfect LinkedIn Groups to Market Your Business

By Christopher Tompkins

19Jun

LinkedIn, Social Media, Uncategorized

Before I have written about the power of LinkedIn and one of its most popular features: LinkedIn Groups. I’ve discussed the power of using these groups to get your message in front of an audience of thousands, how to create your own custom group and even how to get the most out of the administration panel of your group page. What I have never discussed is arguably one of the most important factors:

How to choose the perfect LinkedIn Groups to market your business!

As I’m asked this question again and again, I thought I would take a moment and give you 10 criteria on how to choose and join the right groups to support your online marketing efforts using LinkedIn.

One thing to keep in mind before we begin: it is extremely easy to join and leave LinkedIn groups. So the groups that you choose you will not be saddled with to the end of days. You are always able to leave groups that are a poor fit and try out new ones that can be more suitable. Also, you are allowed to join a maximum of 50 groups on LinkedIn. As many require a group manager to “OK” your request, it can delay you joining groups at a fast past. But slow and steady wins the race – stay patient and you will receive.

Here are my 10 criteria for choosing the perfect LinkedIn Groups for your business:

Choose Niche Keywords First. It is tempting when first searching the GROUPS section of LinkedIn to go for terms like “ceo” or “hospitality”. My suggestion is to first go uber niche with your search and get specific. Think about who your exact target market is, and then use that as your search criteria. For example, skip just using “hospitality” and go for “hotel managers florida”. If you put your search between quotes, you will see the ONLY groups with this phrase in their description. While it may turn up less results than a general search, it will be extremely targeted and you may just find a gem.
Read the Group Description. The description, which appears under the title of the group on the results page, should give you a good idea about who the group is targeted to and what types of discussions are fine to be posted. Make sure that this matches the type of content that you would like to use to engage and the audience is suitable.
Check the Group Activity Level. It is always better to be in an active group. Below the group description, there is a grey line of text that will tell you about the activity level of the group. My favorites are “Very Active”, but “Active” is good as well.
Check the Number of New Discussions Created. If the activity level is not present, you need to go to the next check which would be the number of discussions posted per month (this will be found at the same place below the group description). If in a 30 day period there were only 9 discussions and the group has 12,345 members – it would not be a group that I would join immediately as it seems pretty inactive.
How Many of the Group Members Are in Your Network? The green text at the bottom of each search result will give you the number of the group members that are also members of your LinkedIn network (in the form of connections). If you have a very targeted LinkedIn network, this number is a good indication if the group is on target for you.
Does One Person Post All the Discussions? Once you join a group (or if an open group, when you look at the main discussions page) look to see if one or two members are monopolizing the conversations/discussions. If this is the case, I tend to leave the group and keep a note to circle back later. As a new member, it is hard to break through in a group where certain members are posting new discussions extremely frequently, so it is better to go with a group that has less competition.
Explore “Similar”. If you find a group that is spot on using the criteria above, make sure to click on the green link at the bottom of the description that says “Similar”. This is a great way to discover harder-to-find groups that can be right on target for your marketing.
Beware of Brand Groups. You will see that some groups have a brand name in their title, description and/or logo. While some are membership groups only for members of the company’s team, there are others that function as a normal group but have their members of staff marketing in it consistently. I try to avoid these as comments and discussions can be held in moderation and never be posted, making it extremely challenging to engage and connect with other group members.
Open Groups are Good, But Can Be Spammy. There are many groups that you are immediately able to join without going through a vetting process with the group manager. While these Open Groups allow you to quickly join the conversation, make sure to look at the first page of discussion posts to see if they are mostly self-promotional or filled with job seekers. If you see this, I would leave the group (unless this is a market you are trying to target).
Where Does the Group Manager Belong? This is a close second to using the “Similar” link under the group description. You will be able to see (sometimes before and sometimes after) who the group manager is. Click on their name, go to their profile and then scroll down to the bottom of their profile where there groups are listed. Go through their groups to see if there are other ones there that may benefit your business.

Now you should be able to properly and effectively choose a LinkedIn Group that fits your company’s targets and needs. It is up to you to generate good solid discussions, add to discussions and engage with other group members. But this is much easier when you are in the right spot and in front of an audience you are familiar with.

I’d like to invite you to join my own LinkedIn Group: feel free to ask any questions that you have! Click here to join!

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Why Interns Aren’t Your Social Media Marketing Mentors

By Christopher Tompkins

18Jun

Social Media, Uncategorized

With many companies working smarter in this challenging economic climate, business owners and managers alike are looking for inexpensive solutions to solve their operating, marketing and sales problems.

As we all know, there is a fine line between being savvy and being cheap, so in order to perpetuate the successful running of your company it is important to look at all of the factors around the inexpensive solution to make sure that it is a sound one. Quality. Experience. Reputation. These are all factors that would come into the decision making process when looking to replace a member of staff, a supplier or a marketing method (such as advertising).

But why when it comes to social media marketing do companies forget this operating basis and go for a cheap solution that rarely touches all three of these important factors?

What I’m referring to is the almighty social media intern: the be all and end all of many organization’s social media strategy. Now don’t get me wrong, I think interns are the best thing since sliced bread. They are eager to help and learn and, if managed properly, can provide a rewarding experience for your company and employees.

The problem is I see many organizations taking on interns to specifically handle their social media marketing. Not only their social media marketing day-to-day, but companies are asking their interns to build their entire social media department and strategy.

Is it the misconception that youth = social media savvy? In many cases, I do believe this is the case and here is the problem. While a younger person may be more well-versed on HOW social media works, do they truly know how to use it to market your company…or any business for that matter?

Also, if this is the first time that they are marketing using social media, is it a good idea to have them create and manage your social media reputation?

The answer? Absolutely not. I need to be frank with you here. This is your business and the person/team that you want handling your social media marketing needs to be vetted through the same processes that you go through when choosing a new member of staff, supplier or marketing/sales channel. They need to be experienced, have quality references, have quality work samples and understand your business.

Another issue is that using an intern will not illustrate the success that you can experience on social media sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Using a summer intern to create a Facebook page and put out posts it not social media marketing and probably won’t bring you lots of attention, engagement or even LIKES. I’ve spoke with many companies that don’t believe social media marketing works, because “we had an intern working on these sites for the past few months and didn’t see any results.” Well, why should you? You just let a part-time intern manage your social media marketing campaign entirely (many times without any guidance).

Let’s get one thing straight: I am not down on having interns do social media marketing. What I am down on is using interns to “test” social media for you. This is the job of your head of marketing or the social media marketing company that you outsource to. These people will know the vision of your company, your marketing goals, your ethics, and have a vested interested in your success through creating a synergistic social media marketing STRATEGY. Having someone off the street come in and create your entire social media strategy, part-time for credit, is not the answer.

When it comes to your social media marketing strategy, I’m sorry to say that the easy and inexpensive answer is not always the correct one.

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The Best Universal Facebook Applications to Market Your Facebook Page: Our Top 6

By Christopher Tompkins

12Jun

Facebook, Social Media, Uncategorized

In the last post, I explained about the best ways to configure your Facebook Page Tabs in order for them to contain custom images and a custom names. Now that we know “Facebook Tabs 101”, let’s move onto applications, or “Facebook Tabs 102”.

In the years that I have been at The Go! Agency, I’ve seen many applications come and go. Many are touted as the best thing since sliced bread and then vanish completely. Why do I tell you this? As a sort of disclaimer that some of the apps below may also go the way of the dinosaur. So if its a year down the line and you are reading this, some of my suggestions may no longer be available for you to use. But let’s be positive and hope that these will stay around for you to enjoy!

I also tell you this because if you think you can just install these and expect them to work forever, you are sadly mistaken. This is why you need to consistently be on Facebook checking on them to ensure they are working. Just like your businesses’s website, it is extremely important to make sure that all of your content is in order and the links are working properly.

My top tip: check them all once a week. You won’t have 100 to go through, it will be more like 5 or 6. It will take a few minutes. Just click them and make sure that the content is appearing as it should and update if necessary.

Ok, now onto the fun part: the applications for tabs. Facebook has made these extremely difficult to find (as they do sometimes), so I suggest that you type these titles in below to the Facebook search bar and choose the APP with the most users – this will most likely be the one I have suggested below.

Static Iframe Tab: This is probably one of my favorites as it enables you to import web pages into your Facebook Tab. Want to have a tab called “Website” where your audience clicks on the tab and are taken to your website…..only without leaving Facebook? This is the tab for you. While it can be a little tricky to configure, once you get the hang of it, it is easy and fast. And what a pay-off!
Fan of the Week for Pages: I love this one as it gives the person with the most engagement on your Facebook Page kudos. It runs automatically and always gets a warm response from the person who wins each week. Easy to install and lots of fun.
Tweets to Pages: Have a Twitter account? Use the simple and quick Tweets to Pages to show your entire Twitter stream right on your Facebook Page Tab.
Google+ Tab for Pages: Have a Google+ account? Use this application to important and share your page DIRECTLY in your tab. Great for cross-marketing purposes.
Constant Contact – Join My List: Do you use Constant Contact? If so, then you will love this plugin. You will have to configure it with your Constant Contact account, but it will allow people to sign up for your email database directly from Facebook. Very good plugin!
Cueler YouTube: If you have a YouTube channel or have a channel you would like to share, I have found this to be the easiest and quickest YouTube application on Facebook. The others tend to break and load forever, but this one is definitely tops and easy to configure.

There are many more out there, but these are my top 6 for sure. Go onto Facebook right now and check them out to see if they would enhance your page. Make sure to share this article as well as visiting our own page on Facebook here.

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Facebook Tabs: How to Configure Them for Marketing Success

By Christopher Tompkins

12Jun

Facebook, Social Media, Uncategorized

If you have not already, I’m sure that you have created a Facebook Page for your business. You’ve got the content locked down, the cover image and logo image perfected and are reaching out and engaging on a regular basis. Aside from advertising, what’s left?

Custom Facebook Tabs!

I love these as they can really add something extra to your Facebook Page in terms of branding, but also can provide your audience with a plethora of options in terms of extras.

Here I’m going to share some of my best tips to making the most out of your Facebook Tabs in order to enhance engagement on your page.

In the next blog, I’ll share some of my top Facebook Tab apps and let you know their benefits to your Facebook success!

First, login to your Facebook Page. Go down to the tab section of your Facebook Page. This will be a series of rectangular boxes residing below your Facebook Page Cover Image. There you will see all of your tabs (all pages come with the standard LIKES, Map, Photos and Notes). Find the tab that you want to edit and hover your cursor over top of the box. When you do this you will see a small image of a pencil in the top right hand corner. Click on this and a drop down menu will appear.

This is where all of your editing will begin. At this location you will be able to:

Change It’s Position: Here you can swap position of the tab. Want your Photos to appear where your LIKES are? Swap them out!
Remove It: Don’t have any use for a specific tab? Don’t leave it empty, remove it.
Edit Settings (including Tab Name and Image): We’ll talk about this below…
Get the Link to the Page: This is really useful if you are doing a contest or promotion where you will be sending the link directly to people via email or mobile. They click the link and go DIRECTLY to the content of the tab. A very under utilitzed tool.
Uninstall Application: If you do not like an application, you can easily uninstall it here, rather than going through the Applications section on your EDIT page.

I think one of the most important items, when it comes to branding, is definitely the Edit Settings Tab. Let’s dive in the capabilities of this area.

Click on “Edit Settings” and you will be taken to a pop-up box where you can edit the image and title of the Tab. To change the name, edit the “Custom Tab Name” field and click to confirm the changes.

If you want to change the image, click on “Change” next to “Custom Tab Image”. This will bring you to another page where you can upload your image. You simply click on the right corner of the image currently there, click edit, and upload your new picture. Once this is complete save your work and go back to your home page. Not too hard, right?

When you are coming up with an image for your tabs, you might want to use elements of your header branding to continue the look and feel, or come up with a custom graphic that really grabs your audience.

Remember that the image size of each tab is 111 x 74 – so use your space wisely!

Also, make sure that the title of your tab and the text in your image are not doubled. Use the two spaces to announce and inform, rather than inform and inform. Expert advice: whatever tab background you design, you may want to use it as a background for all of your tabs. So once you create it, hold onto it so when you need to add tabs or change tabs you have the file handy!

And there you go! Play around with your tabs today. Don’t have fancy software to edit and create images? There are great free graphic design and picture editing tools that are available on the internet (just Google Free Graphic Design Tools) that can get you started. While they may not be the most advanced tools out there, they will get you off and running while helping you get in there and start branding yourself.

Our next post will be about the best Facebook Tab Applications for you to use on your page and the best ways to get them installed. To see how we use our Facebook Page Tabs, visit us here!

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Tag : social media marketing

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