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.
On February 2nd, Twitter put out a status note about a concern they discovered and the biggest message coming from this is: Password Security. Digging into one issue brought up a discovery that many people are still using duplicate or similar passwords on various sites.
Security of social networks tends to be taken lightly as most think that “What can possibly happen if someone were to get my password from twitter or facebook?”
I like to remind my clients that a major reason why they have started using social networks is for Online Visibility and to build an Online Reputation in your area of expertise. In one fell swoop, that could get destroyed or at the very least take time to build back up.
Once a password is captured, the ‘hacker’ may try to lock you out of your account by changing your password. Then they move on to sending messages to contacts/friends/followers. Then comes attempts to try and access the email account attached to the hacked account.
The answer to the question above “What can possibly happen?” is simple…
Your Online Reputation is what is at stake and for many that is priceless – especially if you have worked very hard to build it up.
How can you protect yourself?
The best way is to NOT have the same password for every social networking account profile, and to change your social network passwords often. But one thing many forget to think about is having a different password for the email accounts used with social networks. These emails should ALWAYS have a DIFFERENT password. Always.
Having a separate email password also protects you from hackers changing your twitter or facebook password- both networks send a confirmation email when password requests are made. Nathan Hangen also has some more good ideas at Twitip for protecting your account.
Stop thinking the hassle of managing the usernames and passwords will be troublesome. I manage hundreds of usernames/passwords between my own and my clients. How? I use Roboform to store all my usernames and passwords – and it is worth it. Roboform is a password keeper installed on your own desktop and is very easy to add new ones in. You can also save identities with name, info and contact so with one click of a button you can fill in online forms. It save a lot of time and is not frustrating to manage all the IDs – plus it is faster to sign in when needed. Just click the ID to use and it takes you to the url and signs you in.
Twitter has good info on tips to keep your accounts secure, dealing with phishing and hacking scams all the time they have to keep updated on how to protect their users.
Now. Go change that email password as I know most of you reading this have it set the same! Protect your Reputation!
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.
Okay… so tonight I got an odd message on Facebook when visiting someone’s fanpage. The error message that came up said:
Well… this got me a little panicked and for good reason. Most, if not all, of the fanpages I have created for clients involves boxes. Yikes! At first I couldn’t find anything on my major research areas. So I posted a couple questions online and in some communities I belong to. Then I did some more research and found the answer thanks to Allison Gianotti at Snipe.Net
Her article led me to the Developers Page on Facebook – which didn’t seem to come up in my initial searching.
And now after reading this, I am definitely SCARED, and apparently will be very busy in the next week. I need to do more research as to whether this will affect Boxes tabs on Fanpages as well. Profiles tend to refer to personal facebook profiles, so I am hoping, but it does not look good as they also make note of the fact that:
Application tabs will be the only way to integrate applications into profiles and Pages. Application tabs will shrink from 760 pixels wide (today) to 520* pixels wide to accommodate a slightly revised design. Boxes, info sections, and the Boxes tab will be removed in the near future.
When will this happen? Well apparently in “Late 2009 or Early 2010″ – not the best description, and the error message I got above, makes it seem like it will be sooner rather than later.
I will be looking into more detail and keep you updated. But it may be best to backup your fanpage info if you have not done so already.
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.
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.
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.
Facebook fanpages or pages for business…many people use them as a support to their social media and marketing efforts. One of the biggest requests I have from clients who have hired me as their social media virtual assistant is to set up auto linking of twitter updates to fanpages. Until this past week there was not a simple way unless you used ping.fm
What changed was the latest update to tweetdeck. 
Tweetdeck is similar to Hootsuite and Seesmic in that it is a management tool to help you keep on top of Twitter – your followers, special hashtags you follow or even certain terms. Everyone has their preference and opinions. Mine is Tweetdeck.
As with previous version, the new one – v. 0.30.4 – allows you to host multiple twitter profiles in Tweetdeck, letting you post updates from several different accounts should you need that service. The change to this version allows you to link to your personal facebook as well as your fanpage – or fanpages.
Plus, Tweetdeck has added many more features to this latest version, which originally came out September 3rd, but with a facebook linking issue. The September 18th update has fixed that.
It takes a few minutes to access your settings, click add an account, then facebook account. Whatever pages you are an admin on, you will have the option to link to that fanpage.
Once you have it setup then a button appears on the top of your tweetdeck window. When you publish an update, you can pick and choose what account to go to.
For those who may not realize it, this also allows you to pick and choose what gets posted on your personal facebook. This option can really help curb your facebook posts especially if you find some of your closer friends and family always wondering why you have so much to say on facebook.
Try this new version out, I’m certain you’ll love the new features, many of which are intended to help users save time.
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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