I recently took a course through VAclassroom on Facebook fanpages, I had wanted to add more to my skills through this.  One topic that came up was contests on Facebook and how they can help you market your business and make more connections.

I was the naysayer that brought up the fact that Facebook had rules in their terms of service and the promotion guidelines section about contests.. and it shocked a few people to hear this.  Contests are popular on facebook and especially on fanpages.

You can run them but there are many rules/regulations you must follow and  you also may require written permission from Facebook to do so.

This past week Facebook has made a few changes to their promotion guidelines, but the basics still remain the same.  The biggest terms to make note of if you do plan to run a contest on your fanpage/facebook are the following:

3.4 You will not mention “Facebook” in the promotion’s rules except in the following ways:(i) “You can enter the Promotion through the [application name] application on the Facebook Platform. You can also find the application on the [tab name] tab on the [Page name] Page on Facebook.”; (ii) to fulfill your obligations under Section 3.7.

You do not need our prior written approval if you are publicizing a promotion that is administered completely off of Facebook. However, we may remove any materials relating to the promotion or disable your Page or account if we determine that you violate these Promotions Guidelines, the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities or any other of our policies. If you publicize a promotion in any way on Facebook, in addition to the other terms and conditions contained in these Promotion Guidelines, without limiting your other obligations you agree to the following:

4.1 You will not directly or indirectly indicate that Facebook is a sponsor or administrator of the promotion or mention Facebook in any way in the rules or materials relating to the promotion.

4.2 In the rules of the promotion, or otherwise, you will not condition entry to the promotion upon taking any action on Facebook, for example, updating a status, posting on a profile or Page, or uploading a photo.

In a nutshell, you may need prior written permission; you cannot mention Facebook at all – on or off Facebook – except to say they are not affiliated with this contest. Asking people to make a wall post, become a fan or share anything on the facebook wall is not permitted.

It all comes down to following the rules and having a good foundation of your own – ie your blog, website, newsletter list etc.  You need all these to be in place and working well to help support your social marketing efforts. I never recommend a client rely solely on social networks, your own foundation has to be string to support it.

My advice – read very clearly all these terms before undertaking any contest or promotion on Facebook. Be certain you are not violating their terms in anyway that could have the rug pulled out form under you and your Facebook community you have built.  Trust me – losing a fanpage is not fun.

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Marketing, social networking

Making connections on social networks should always be about more than just numbers – yes numbers are important , especially to reach the viral aspect of social networking, but you should also be making connections with a purpose.  Whether it’s a a connection in your target market, someone you would like to partner with or a role model… there should always be a purpose behind your connections.

One of the more important ones to seek out, in my mind, are role models – leaders in your industry.

Not to say you should always be aiming to be a ‘tag along’ but more from the point that these leaders have much to teach and by connecting with them you can gain valuable insight and learn more about your industry.

I follow several people I consider role models and ensure I have them in special groups so that when they ’speak’ I can hear them.  The WEB 2.0 room can be very crowded and hard to hear certain people at times. I use available functions on certain networks – like facebook or tweetdeck – to help me sort out my contacts. This sorting allows me to follow more closely those that I do not want to miss.

What system do you use to keep track of your industry leaders?  How do you sort through all the ‘noise’ on your social networks.

Or maybe you are a leader… I am curious to know if those considered leaders in fact do the same type of practice?  As an industry leader do you group out certain people to keep in better touch with them?

Technorati Tags: followers, Social Media, social networking

Last week there was yet another attempt to hack into facebook accounts (You can read about it on Mashable or Facebook)

Today, I had a new client ask me if all the emails she was getting about her password from facebook were part of the setup I was doing for her fanpage. NO!   She had 27 of them in her inbox, and when she forwarded me one – boy did it look good.  Very official.

If you know what to look for you can see the links – and though they have the word facebook in the website link – it was not a Facebook link at all.  There were many other periods breaking up the address.  (It looked something like this http://www.facebookmail.com.xxx.xx/etc etc etc ) The .com makes it look like it’s real but watch for where the actual domain extension is – it’s tricky.

So, how do you make sure you do not get tricked into anything?  Simple, remember that Facebook, Twitter, Linked in and many other social networks and websites will not go and change your password.  That is not how they work at all.

You control your password. And you also control who has access to the password.  Keeping this as a guiding principle will help you learn to see the real emails from the fake. Don’t get tricked into giving up your passwords.  They are secret for a reason. Always use caution when you see an email like or message of any kind.

I highly recommend subscribing to Mashable’s RSS feed (a way to receive email updates of new posts), if you don’t already.  It’s one of the most up to date sites out there and can help you stay on top of many newsworthy items about social media.

Value… everyone wants some great value in today’s economy. Marketing companies are all about promoting value in advertising these days. It makes sense considering how these ‘tough economic times” are hitting many people.

My family had a two week vacation this summer and a good part of the planning was ensuring we received good value for the money we were spending, whether it was a hotel, attraction or restaurant.

This same principle can be applied to what you do and say on Twitter. People are looking for value with their connections on Twitter. If you add value to your tweets, you will find yourself having more conversations and connecting with more people. Ultimately it is these connections and relationships that help you succeed on Twitter.

So… how do you add value to a 140 character tweet? Simple. You make it worthwhile for others to read. You also need to realize that everything you tweet should not always about you and your business. Big value can be had from making a post about someone or something else besides you!

Here are five tips to help you think of ways to post tweets with value: (more…)

Technorati Tags: how to use twitter, Social Media, Twitter

Tweetdeck has a new release today – version 0.31.1 – and in addition to many other addons and fixes they have added a new column for New Followers.

With the click of a button you can now have column dedicated to any new followers you have.  For people like me – ones who hate the email notifications – this is fabulous and will help me connect with many more people.  It’s not often I would click on my followers column to see who is new and what kind of people I have been attracting.  Now with one glance I can see all these new contacts and quickly say hello if I choose.

When you have the column open and the new followers are there – what is so great here is that they don’t show in the column with their last tweet- but their Twitter BIO.  Just Fabulous!! You can quickly see who this new follower is and what they are all about. Another reason why your BIO should always be very representative of who you are and what you do – I always tell my clients, Think “Elevator Speech” when thinking of what to put in your BIO.

The Tweetdeck new version downloads are now much simpler – simply exit tweetdeck, download the new version and in a minute you will have your Tweetdeck back up and running with all the new features. Some of these new features are a new notification system, some keyboard shortcuts and a bunch of fixes to help Tweetdeck rum more smoothly on your system.

For me, this New Followers column is tops! It will allow me to better reach out and say Hi to new followers – Talking on Twitter is so much better than Selling!

Technorati Tags: Social Media, Twitter, twitter management tools

SocialOomph (formerly Tweetlater) had a major announcement today – and one that probably is causing panic among many Twitter users.

Essentially, they will be discontinuing the ability to set up ‘recurring posts’ and ones with ’spinnable text’ as this helps users violate Twitter’s Terms of Service with regards to posting duplicate content over the same or multiple accounts.

Now, when I first saw this I almost had a panic attack myself, but then I took the time to read many of the comments and questions on the blog.  They included several answers back from Dewald Pretorius, the creator of SocialOomph, Tweetlater and a fellow Maritimer on Canada’s East Coast .  The answers from Mr. Pretorius made me realize that the clients I work with will not be affected as they don’t use the recurring tweets function. Panic was premature and not necessary.

Primarily my clients use SocialOomph to setup posted dated tweets – but the majority of them are unique tweets that we do not repeat.   They use SocialOomph to send an automated Direct Message to new followers – and this will not be affected by the new change either.

Looking at the comments, the change will affect people who use the system to setup updates of the same type over and over at recurring times. Some even mentioned every 5 minutes!  Wow.  Not how I use Twitter at all – nor what I recommend to my clients.  I encourage my clients to get on Twitter directly and be real and authentic and to make connections and conversations with others.  That is how you can reach more people in a way that creates a relationship.  Sending the same message over and over is never anything I recommend or like to see.

So… for now my take on this big news is… I am okay with it, since it may help keep the spammers at bay and send them elsewhere to push their wares. Anything for reducing the spam in my twitterstream is fine by me!

Technorati Tags: social media virtual assistant, Twitter

I read a great article today posted in the Vancouver Sun newspaper. It refers to a report released Wednesday by Robert Half Technology . The survey is said to find that 58% of Canadian Companies surveyed prohibit social networking at work.

The concerns the businesses who ban social networking have are more about employee’s wasting work time to chat on facebook or twitter for non-work related purposes. And fair enough, that is a valid concern. As a business owner it would bother me if my staff was being paid to work and instead were doing something personal during that time.

There’s always been big debate about whether employees should be allowed to use Social Networking sites at work. The recent growth of Social Media for business is making this decision even more difficult. Businesses are looking to use Social Media but for many the concept of talking directly to customers via social networks is very new and they are learning.  Some the right way and some the wrong way.

Personally, I don’t think social networking works for everyone – or every business.  For business, there needs to be  a solid foundation (ie your website and marketing plan) on which to build these relationships and a good strategy to implement to achieve the desired goals.  If you don’t have this foundation, you may struggle and even fail.

Businesses, especially corporations who make the jump into social media, have to have a very strong foundation as well as a concise policy for employees who use the networks as a representative of the company.  They are acting as a  spokesperson and all parties must be clear on what can be said, and how and when and to whom…

So, what’s my take on the ‘bans’?  I kind of agree if the business does not use social media as part of its marketing plan, however technology is making it near impossible to block all access. Social Networking is new to business, so it makes sense there is a high number of corporations blocking these sites on their networks.  I do however, think that number will go down as time passes and more and more businesses join in this new way of networking directly with their clients.

There are a couple comments on this article as well… Jane Doe’s comment on how allowing staff access may mean taking a break is not a break at all – at least not one from sitting in front of your computer screen…she has a point.

Technorati Tags: business, Facebook, social networking, Twitter

Personally I can’t wait for the spammers to tire of Twitter. It is most annoying looking at tweets that have a link and a bunch of usernames…and nothing else of value to anyone at all. Do these users really think people are that gullible? That we actually hit any of these links?

I don’t click any of these links, not even out of sheer curiosity. What do I hit though is “unfollow”.

Even worse are the followers listed under one person as many, but in reality it is the same person and even the username is the same except for some numbers attached (ie Spammer16, Spammer25, Spammer32)

Having spent a bit of time lately finding connections for my clients I was shocked at the changes I see on Twitter now compared to 6 or 8 months ago. I see usernames that are almost duplicates of each other but with a different number added to each, and lots of them. One person’s follower list I was on the other day had more than two pages of the same person. That’s more than 40 followers in their numbers but in reality it is one person. That’s a real valuable connection to have – Not!

My recommendation to anyone looking to make useful and purposeful connections on social media is to ignore all these people and tweets. Don’t click any links and unfollow them.

The fewer people they are connected to the more of a waste of time they will incur. It does take time for these users to create the tweets and profiles they do – if that investment does not pay off they will move on to another venue to try ‘hocking their wares”.

Eventually they will get the message – keeping the twitterverse clear for the rest of us who get a benefit from it whether personal or business related.

Technorati Tags: quality, Social Media, virtual assistant

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.

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Social Media, Twitter, virtual assistant

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.

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Technorati Tags: Facebook, Social Media, social networking, virtual assistant