If you are having trouble finding your fanpage – we are here to help. This short video will show your three ways to find your fanpage.
We are always here to help with your social media questions. Ask us a question directly on our fanpage wall or follow us on Twitter.
Facebook Fanpages for business are the most-requested service right now with our company and for two main reasons:
When we plan out a fanpage for a cli
ent the most important aspect – even more important than the design – is the PURPOSE for the fanpage. Without a purpose, fans will not understand the benefit to them joining your fanpage. Your purpose also helps you gain fans who have an interest in what you offer – Quality connections. Quality tends to be more valuable than quantity.
Fanpages are meant to start out conversations and get a community going. A community based upon your business and how you help your clients via your products or services. This allows fans to see your skills in action and get to know you with the ultimate goal being they ‘buy’ from you or refer business to you; fans help grow your business.
How do you define your purpose? Simple… think of how you help clients, what benefit do they receive from your services or business? That is your starting point.
It always makes sense when I give our fanpage as an example. My specialty is social media, my purpose is to help fans by posting a Social Media tip of the week. It is new information posted there not linked in from another social network. These tips help kickstart some conversations on my fanpage and allow fans to see how skilled I am in this area. Our fanpage is also a place where we share info and I too have learned new things from my fans.
Having a Purpose can make or break your Fanpage success. Without it why should a fan connect to your page? Other than being a number in the fan count, what will your fans gain from your page? Have you stated your Fanpage Purpose clearly and visibly to new visitors? Is it on your Welcome Page? Do you have a Welcome Page?
Feel free to share you Fanpage and it’s purpose here, and if you ever need any help – check our fanpage for tips and info, that is our Purpose!
On November 19th, Facebook announced a new change to fanpages and publishing of status updates. You may have noticed the new little button by your Status update box.
What this feature means is that for businesses and fanpages wishing to publish certain updates only to facebook users in a specific location or in a specific language – You Can!
Before you hit the “Share” button, click on this button and choose the country – and then by state/province or city as well - and language. That update will then only be seen by people in those target areas.
Great feature for businesses with global clients and local ones as well or anyone looking to target a market in a specific city or town.
Here’s an update on the boxes changes that will be happening on Facebook in the upcoming months. According to the developers at Facebook, this is what will happen to any Static FBML boxes.
In order to prepare and have a seamless change, I recommend going in and changing the Static FBML boxes to tabs now. Here’s how to make that change step by step:
What will this change?
Well, one disadvantage I see is the inability to view them several FBML boxes all at once, under the “Boxes” tab. It means you will need someone to create a good landing tab on your fanpage that incorporates many boxes into one – since the tabs do not all show, and unless a fan knows to click the >> to see more tabs – they may miss what you are trying to showcase.
Some people like placing their twitter connect image or newsletter signup in one box and move it to the left wall. That won’t be an option with these changes. The changes will happen so the big thing is to get ready for them – since there is no exact date of when it will happen.
As I mentioned last week, make sure you keep a backup file of all the information you have in these boxes and on the pages. I personally create a document that contains all this information and include any fbml/html coding used is saved in a Notepad text file.
Well… I got a glimpse of inbox chaos this week.
Something happened and my facebook notifications were changed. A glitch I suppose, but the glitch meant I started getting email notifications when anyone friended me, wrote on my wall, made a comment, sent me a message…. You get the picture. My inbox was jammed full of emails that I did not need to see.
Now, if you are asking “Why don’t I need to see them?” I will tell you this and it is the number one trick to managing your social media profiles more effectively.
Look around when you are on Facebook and Twitter and Linked In. Answer people and make comments back to them directly in your social network. It’s a much more efficient use of your time, plus you learn to understand where you ‘are’ in your profile.
How?
On Twitter, when you sign in click on the @yourusername link on the right side of your home page. See who has been ‘talking’ to you. Answer them on the spot with an @reply. You only have 140 characters to type; it’s not a book and can be done quickly. Do the same thing with the Direct Messages.
On Facebook, follow the same principles. Check your personal wall, answer people talking to you – or better yet talk to them – make a comment about their update. Look at your inbox and send replies right there. Check your fanpage and do the same. Look and see if anyone has posted on your fanpage wall. You are using Facebook to connect with more people so it is vital you check in here and make the connections.
If you follow these practices you will soon find that the email notifications you have coming are redundant; and in fact take more time to clean out. Change your account settings and the way you ‘check’ your networks and you will find an inbox that requires less maintenance.
A few notes came through the grapevine lately that Fanpages could now book their user names without the minimum requirement of 100 fans. Seems the limit has now gone down to 25 again, the original limit set.
Read this post from July to understand more about how to set your fanpage username. If you have more than 25 fans now, go do it. Better to get your brand name now than have it scooped up by someone else.
Don’t forget to add the Fan Box to your website or blog if you would like visitors to be able to easily connect to your facebook fanpage. You will find the link to this application under your fanpage profile picture. Click on “Add a Fan Box to your website” and it will take you right to the application.
One of my clients – and one who is my best social media success story – recently had their Facebook fanpage disappear.
No warnings, no explanation – just gone. It was a fanpage we have been working on for a few months and one that had more than 500 fans and a lot of good interaction with the fans.
I sent off an email to several areas of facebook, but will not be holding my breath for a quick response. I did get the automatic emails stating they have received my request and that ‘we may contact you for more details’
Honestly, I expect nothing less from support of a ‘free’ platform that has millions of users. Users of any of these types of applications are at the mercy of the limited resources available to support them.
This loss of a fanpage is one more scenario that makes me think the unthinkable for many people. Is it time for some of these applications to evolve and move to the next level? A level that requires users to pay (Yes, I said pay) for a service in order to receive more reliable support and service. A service you can count on, especially when using it for business.
“You get what you pay for”, my Mom always said. A statement that certainly rings true when you are dealing with millions of people using a free platform.
You know, I honestly enjoy my time on Twitter…
Tonight I saw a tweet about a live party on Ustream with @MariSmith (for those not familiar, she is a “Relationship and Buzz Marketing Specialist” born in Scotland, lived in Canada -yay – and now is in California. She is very successful with Facebook, Twitter and Social Media) , so I decided to join the party. My virtual friend @Teri8D is always a reliable source of good social media fun, and it was her tweet!
Onto Ustream (a type of live broadcasting) I go and find about 60 or so people live online with Mari who is streaming from her kitchen in California. A friend flits about in the background helping prepare for the ‘live’ party a little later. It was great fun, chatting about some social media tips and even just chatting. She even had a few draws for some prizes, and I won one of them!
I correctly answered a question about facebook and won @Davelakhani ’s Book “How to Sell when Nobody’s Buying” (I think it was, in the excitement I may have won a different title of Dave’s – no matter I say, It’s Dave Lakhani!)
Why so exciting? I have been following Denise Wakeman’s blogs for some time and she has mentioned Dave and his book many times. It is too cool that I won a copy and cannot wait to receive it!
So, that’s my Twitter Good News for today, I won a book.
Have you any good news or success stories from Twitter?
PS. I asked Dave’s permission to put his book pic here… so it’s ok
I have been getting many inquiries lately and thought maybe it would help to tell people how I learned to use Twitter and Facebook and more…
How did I start? Well, I read… a lot! If you check the Resource Page on this site, you’ll find several great places to kickstart you. There will be more added as well, so feel free to re-visit this page to see the updates. (more…)
As I was setting up a new fanpage for a client today I noticed that the username section in facebook now seems to have an option to allow you to change it. Something they said would not be available when they announced usernames in June.
When the usernames launched last month some people chose a name not necessarily related to their actual name and one they later regretted.
If you were in this group, you can fix it now. Simply go to your settings tab and under account settings you can go in and change your username.
My advice… choose wisely, especially if you have a business presence attached to your facebook profile.
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