Facebook

Setting up a Business Page on Facebook is a very quick and simple process, however setting up your Page correctly to maximise your impact takes a little bit more time. I see so many Pages on Facebook who are missing out on sales leads, engagement opportunities and search traffic as they haven’t optimised their Page. Below I’ve shared some of the main areas of your Facebook Business Page.

Setting up a Business Page on Facebook is a very quick and simple process, however setting up your Page correctly to maximise your impact takes a little bit more time.

Page Name

Your Page name should be your company or business name – “your trading name” – this is the one that most people would know). For example NAB vs National Australia Bank or VLT vs Varsity Lakes Travel. While the longer name will help with keyword searching (if people put the word travel into the search bar), most of your existing customers who know you as VLT will never find you. If your business name doesn’t describe what your business does – like Kikki K – you may like to add a descriptive word – such as ‘classic stationery’. If you have under 200 fans you can change your Page name as many times as you like, after 200 fans you have to apply to Facebook.

Page Category

When setting up your Facebook Page you can select from one of six categories. You never want to set up a “cause or community” if you are running a business. If your page gets over 10,000 fans Facebook can take over management. I see many local business owners select the “local business or place” category and many are missing out by doing this. This category should only be selected if you have a physical location where people must come to, to do business with you. For example a hairdresser or restaurant. Selecting this option allows people to ‘check in’ to your location via Facebook and help the viral spread of your Page. If you have an office but don’t need people to be there, like an accountant or business consultant then select the other categories. This way in your about section (as pictured below) you have the option to personalise your information.

Example of About & Info section

About and Info Section

The about section (as pictured above) is located directly under your Profile image. Facebook give you 250 characters to attract your audience. As it’s at the top of the page many people view this section to find out if you are both a good fit. Use this section to let people know what you’re about and how you can help them. I recommend including a call to action and a link to your website. The idea is to encourage people to take the next step with your business. If you have selected the local business or place category you can’t change the information in this section.

When people click on the “About” link below this section they are taken to your Info Page. The info page is similar to your About Page on your website and is often one of the most viewed pages. Sadly many Page owners just leave this area blank. I recommend completing as much information as possible. This way you can connect with your audience, build credibility and it also helps to increase your search rankings (i.e. more people will find your Page when searching on Google and Facebook).

Profile and Cover Image

Your Profile and Cover Image are the two main areas for branding on your business Page. It’s vitally important that you include an image in both of these areas. An image that reflects you, your business and is attractive to your market. Your profile image it your identifier and follows you around Facebook when you interact on other Pages. For this reason it shouldn’t be changed often and should be an image of you as the business owner. On the other hand, your cover image should be changed regularly. The cover image is an image, not a billboard, so make sure there is less than 20% text and is enticing to your target market.

Example of Facebook user ‘Liking’ a business page

When someone likes your Page a story is created in their news feed which includes your cover image. Due to the visual nature people will decide if they also want to like your Page based on the cover image they see.

Content

Your content is probably the most important element of your Facebook Page. Your content is how you attract, connect and convert your fans into customers. And you must show up every day (or at least 5 days per week). Posting content consistently will help you grow your fans, engagement and sales. Facebook Marketing is not a set and forget strategy. Share content with the aim to educate and inspire your audience. Mix it up and include information about your business plus information on other topics your market is interested in. If you run a hairdressing salon then you could also share information on fashion, local events, latest hair trends, quotes and stories about kids, etc.

How is your Facebook Page looking? Have you covered off everything listed above?

Natalie Alaimo

Natalie Alaimo is a social media marketing expert who teaches business owners how to build their brand via online marketing to create an avalanche of clients ready to buy from you. She helps clients via custom workshops, the Ask Natalie Academy and private coaching. Natalie is the creator of The Social Media Blueprint – Managing Your Social Media in 10 Minutes per Day.

A Gold Coast, Australian local she enjoys, tap dancing, painting and spending time with her family.

Natalie is an international speaker and blogger who has been involved with companies such as; Telstra, Ray White, BNI, BWI, WNA, Keune, Babor, Self Storage Association and Starshot Photography.

I’m regularly asked by businesses how they get their website to perform better on the search engines. It’s as if they think there is a magic lever somewhere, all they have to do is be told where it is, pull it, and thereafter they will live in blissful harmony, with an endless supply of traffic and leads coming their way.

Social media optimization

The reality is, that there are over 200 factors determining how your web pages will rank on search engines, and in more recent years your social graph i.e. what social media properties you have, the size of your communities and the level of engagement that is occurring on these activities, can also impact on how well your website performs.

At the end of 2010, amidst a lot of rumours, Matt Cutts, currently the head of the webspam team at Google and much revered blogger on Google topics, posted a video on YouTube saying that Google was starting to use ‘social media signals’ in their search engine results and Bing followed.

Since then, many companies have become ‘more social’, with some aiming to appease the search engines, while others simply aware that a strong social strategy can pay off other dividends too.

Because Google doesn’t obviously give away its algorithm secrets, and changes the goal posts often, some companies have resorted to running interesting tests on how much social affects search.

How much does ‘social’ affect ‘search’?

In one example I am aware of, a company created several websites, in similar markets, and established different social media accounts per website property, with varying levels of social media integrations with the website i.e. icons and feeds, to better understand how much of an impact social can have.

Google +1 button

Probably not many surprises that Google’s own networks i.e. a website that was linked to a Google+ business page helped its search position, as did websites that had Google +1 share buttons embedded. So there’s tip number 1. If you haven’t got a Google+ business page, and weren’t so keen on it from a social networking perspective, consider the search perspective too.

YouTube video on front page

We’ve also had good word direct from Google itself that they LOVE websites which have a YouTube video embedded on their front page. Some kind a ‘show reel’ video of who you are and what you do is obviously good for the user to better understand quickly and easily who you are and what you do, but Google owns YouTube, so more views means more advertising dollars to it. By enabling this on your site, Google may well be compelled to bring you more traffic to see that very video.

But apart from its own properties, who else does Google favour? Well this is purely opinion based, and like a lot of stuff when it comes to Google, even by making the next few statements, they could change the goal posts on us overnight.

Facebook

For the time being, we do notice correlations between those clients who are active on Facebook and have a high level of engagement attracting increasing numbers of users to their website, which in turn, also boosts their rankings. Out of the 200 factors that Google uses to rank, one is the volume of traffic going through your website.

Pinterest is also performing exceptionally well when it comes to providing ‘Google Juice’.

Ever since Pinterest launched its business pages at the end of 2012, and savvy businesses have found ways to promote their various business initiatives on this image driven network, we’ve established our own Pinterest business accounts and carefully monitored our Google Analytics to see how it’s performed, and we’ve been surprised to see Pinterest outperforming Twitter as a key source of visitors in a very short time frame and with minimal effort invested.

The bottom line is it’s high time to get social. Not just because social media is good for your business (and I could give you many more articles on why this is), but because through tests we have conducted as a company, as others have too, for the time being, your social graph seems to be playing an important role.

Yvette Adams

Yvette Adams is a serial entrepreneur having started 5 businesses from scratch, the first a newspaper when she was just 17, and 2 of which she has since sold. She is the founder and owner of The Creative Collective, a creative agency offering website design & development, social media, seo, ppc, emarketing, marketing, PR as well as an extensive array of training including webinars, BYO Laptop trainings and more. A multi-award winning business woman her latest online business is awardshub.com – an online portal for business owners wanting to find business awards they may be able to enter. You can follow her on any of her social networks: @yradams, @creativecollect, /thecreativecollective or connect with her on Linkedin.

Top image: Matt Hamm

In this video, Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer at Facebook and a mother of two children, shares her views on why there fewer female leaders and how we women, can change this.

The good news is that we have the power to revolutionise this.It’s all about the attitude and how we think about ourselves. The thing that shocked me when I first joined the beauty industry was that there were hardly any women in CEO positions.

Sheryl Sandberg’s speech is something I will be referring to many times as it reminds me of something we all know and have heard before or at least suspected, but subconsciously too often act differently. This message has to be heard repeatedly until it becomes part of our behaviors and attitudes.

Yes, I am guilty too of thinking thoughts that are self-sabotaging. I often think what I have done is not good enough, it could have been done better. I don’t deserve all the credit, I am not yet ready to ask for the promotion or I should work harder. Are you guilty of this negative self talk too? If you have 15 minutes, watch this video and let me know if you agree with Sheryl Sandberg.

Leave your thoughts below on Sheryl Sandberg’s speech.

I have recently asked four experts in social media what their top favourite tools and apps were to manage social media communities in the most time-effective manner. There are lots of apps to manage social networks so it is easy to get lost. Here are their top recommendations:

4 Apps to manage social networks

Sprout Social

“Sprout Social centralizes multiple social media accounts into a single application which provides you the ability to grow your network, share updates and get full stats reporting across all social platforms. The Sprout Social dashboard allows you to see all key statistics and the increase or decrease they’ve achieved over the last few months.

Further to that you can add secondary members to help you manage your social networks as well. “

Devices it is applicable to: Web Based, iPhone, Android
Cost: 30 Day Free Trial Then Payment Based On Size (from $39/user/month)
More info at: www.sproutsocial.com

Recommended by: Samuel Junghenn, Managing Director of Think Big Online. Samuel manages communities of multiple clients including their own with 100,000+ Facebook fans and twitter followers (across all clients).

Hootsuite

“Hootsuite is a complete social media dashboard. I can import all of my own social media profiles and those of my clients into one place where I can then update, track and monitor more efficiently. Because it is available as an app on your smartphone, you can quickly check on what’s going on and respond where necessary. Hootsuite also allows you to schedule status updates in advance across all platforms and include web links and multimedia. You also receive regular emails which give you basic statistics on how your profiles are performing and more details statistics can be viewed through Hootsuite.”

Devices it is applicable to: Web Based, Android, iPhone

Cost: there are 2 packages (1) Free for up to 5 social media profiles (2) Professional package for around $6 per month for unlimited packages

More info at: www.hootsuite.com

Recommended by: Paula O’Sullivan, Business Owner and Licensee / Social Media Consultant at Social Media Business Boosters. Paula manages a number of social media profiles for her clients.

Argyle Social

“It’s a web based app, that can schedule posts, monitor customer engagement, and measure all of the specific social media metrics. You can manage all content from one dashboard across various social media platforms. Very helpful when dealing with time zones, and measuring successful posts. Argyle Social gives me the most accurate idea as to our campaign performances, with simple graphs ways to actually work with all of the social media platforms in one spot. “

Devices it is applicable to: Web Based only (as of now)
Cost: $300/mo

More info at: http://argylesocial.com/what-is-argyle/features/social-media-publishing-tools

Recommended by: Sara Wiedenhaefer, Marketing Manager of Shoeboxed Australia. Sara manages communities of 5500+ Facebook fans and 8500+ Twitter followers of American and Australian ShoeBoxed

Buffer

“Buffer has revolutionised the way I tweet! Once registered, add the Buffer button to your browser then when you find something you want to share, simply click the button to add it to your schedule. You can set a different schedule for each day of the week – ideal if you cover multiple time zones – and, best of all, the analytics feature allows you to easily see how many clicks your content received as well as who retweeted or replied to your tweet – and you can thank people from within Buffer itself. It can also be used with Facebook and LinkedIn.”

Devices it is applicable to: Web Based, iPhone, Android

Cost: Free or upgrade to the paid version to access post scheduling and adding multiple social accounts (US$8.50 per month).

More info at: http://bufferapp.com/

Recommended by: Bridie Jenner, Business owner of Bridie’s Typing Services. Bridie manages community of 1,300 Twitter followers.

What are yours favourite applications to manage social media? If you checked out more than one tell us your rating and why…

We’re just over half way through the business success secrets series now. I hope you’ve been able to use the information from the previous three articles to build a solid foundation for your business based around your strengths, passions, and lifestyle. It’s now time to take the next step and let you people know you exist.

Secret #4 – Getting Your Message out Using Low Cost and Free Strategies

Without customers you have no business. Without marketing you’ll most likely have no customers. What exactly is marketing and how can you choose the right strategy for you?

Definitions of marketing vary slightly from source to source but the common theme is the promotion or advertising of products or services that encourage customers to buy. There are many different ways you can market your products to customers. Here are just a few:

Social Media
Direct mail
Free consultations
Google Adwords
Product reviews
SEO
Product sampling
Running competitions

It can be very overwhelming sometimes, especially if you’re in the start-up phase of your business. How do you know which strategy will work the best for you? What will give you the best bang for your buck?

Unfortunately there’s no magic formula that will guarantee results. The success of your marketing comes down to three things:

Matching your strategy to your personality
Being consistent
Tracking your results

The good news is that it doesn’t have to cost a fortune to get your message out there. There are lots of free and low cost options available. Here are my top marketing strategies for businesses on a budget:

Set up a Facebook business page (http://www.facebook.com/business). This gives you a lot of functionality that your personal profile doesn’t have. Get 10,000 Fans (http://www.facebook.com/Get10000Fans) does a really good job of this and provides some great free information.
Get a WordPress website. This is a really low cost way to have a professional looking website that allows you to add widgets (similar to apps) to engage your customers and share information. If you’re not selling anything on your website the free version would be suitable.
Add your business name and website to your signature at the bottom of every email you send out.
Share information around the area of your expertise. You could do this by writing an eBook, an article, blog post (online web log), press release, or even commenting on someone else’s blog, Facebook page, group or forum.
Create a short video (1-3 minutes) addressing one of the most commonly asked question you get using your smartphone. Mention your website and post it on YouTube.

I recommend my clients focus on 3-5 strategies they’re comfortable with. Do them consistently, do them well and automate them where possible. If you can’t choose a strategy, start with the ones you like and use. The information found in your fingers and fingerprints can also guide you.

The next topic in the series will be on how to keep your business overheads down.

Leonie Hope

Leonie Hope is known as the Purpose, Passion and Profit Specialist, and founder of Inspired Life Paths. She’s also a speaker, author, and qualified NLP Coach. Leonie’s passionate about empowering entrepreneurs and business owners to create a profitable, unique and authentic business that stands out from the crowd and makes a difference. She achieves this by interpreting the information found in your fingers and fingerprints.

Top Photo: Credit

Forbes magazine recently rated the top 10 superstars of social media. They looked at the celebrities with the most Twitter followers and Facebook fans and added the numbers together to come up with the ranking of social media superstars. I decided to give them a more detailed look and review the main features of top 3 social media superstars.

Top 10 Social Media Superstars

Let’s look at the celebrities with the most Twitter and Facebook followers.

1) Rihanna – Twitter: 23.8 million; Facebook: 59.6 million
2) Lady Gaga – Twitter: 28 million; Facebook: 53 million
3) Eminem – Twitter: 11.9 million; Facebook: 60.3 million
4) Justin Bieber – Twitter: 26 million; Facebook: 45.8 million
5) Katy Perry – Twitter: 24.5 million; Facebook: 45.7 million
6) Shakira – Twitter: 17.6 million; Facebook 52.5 million
7) Christiano Ronaldo – Twitter: 12 million; Facebook: 47.5 million
8) Taylor Swift – Twitter: 17 million; Facebook: 33.6 million
9) Lil Wayne – Twitter: 7.9 million; Facebook: 40 million
10) Selena Gomez – Twitter: 12.3 million; Facebook: 33 million

Overview

Here are the most general findings discovered when analysing top 10 social media superstars:

Only two – Shakira (35) and Eminem (39) – were over thirty.
With the exception of Eminem, every social media superstar has a fragrance, cosmetic or fashion contract.
Almost all of the stars on the list are young pop singers with the exception of Soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo, in seventh place, and actress Selena Gomez (tenth place) (Wizards of Waverly Place).

Let’s look closer at the Top 3 Facebook Pages!

Rihanna

https://www.facebook.com/rihanna

With 83.4 social media fans on Facebook and Twitter Rihanna has close to 4 times that of Australia’s population.

Rihanna is very generous in posting photos of her friends and family.

Posts like this seems to be the most engaging with over 85k likes, 750 shares and 3.5k comments.

Rihanna actively encourages her fans to vote for her at the MTV VMA’s.

Rihanna’s FB page has 9 Apps: Photos, Rihanna exclusives for fans, Newsletter, Videos, Buy latest releases (the app didn’t worked when I clicked BUY), events, photos, likes, Coconut Water promo.

Rihanna posts every day, sometimes more than once a day.

Rihanna doesn’t allow writing on her wall.

Lady Gaga

https://www.facebook.com/ladygaga

Gaga created a little community calling her followers Little Monsters.

Lady Gaga has 7 apps: photos, events, videos, store, likes, Born This Way Foundation joining form and even Political Voting App!

Personal photos like this are the most engaging with over 164k likes, 9k comments and 2.5k shares:

Gaga got in trouble earlier this year when she tweeted: “Just killed back to back spin classes. Eating a salad dreaming of a cheeseburger #PopStarsDontEat #IWasBornThisWay.” It caused a stir because Gaga has been trying to get young girls to avoid the eating disorders she suffered as a teen.

Gaga posts a lot about upcoming albums, tour dates and what she’s eating. Her Social media channels give an insight into her everyday life.

She posts every day, sometimes more than once a day.

Lady Gaga allows others to post on her wall.

Eminem

https://www.facebook.com/eminem

Eminem is the most reserved. He doesn’t share much of his life and his posts are dominated by links to his latest video and launches. His feed tends to be heavily promotional.

I found his wall boring and his posts repetitive. Nearly every recent post is about his new album Slaughterhouse.

This post is one of the latest that attracted the most likes, comments and shares:

Eminem has only 5 apps: Photos, Likes, Store, Music channel and Welcome to Hell (whatever it is).

He posts on average 1-2 times a week .

Eminem doesn’t allow posting on his wall.

Verdict:

There are no rules…. You can posts as often as 3 times a day or just once a week. You can have basic Facebook apps on your Facebook page or offer a full range of interactive apps. You can be very personal or just promote your latest work. There are no secrets of social media popularity.

Who was on your ‘following’ list so far?