Facebook Fanpages for business are the most-requested service right now with our company and for two main reasons:

1. They are great at helping build your business’s online presence and assist with SEO (Search engine Optimization) as fanpages do get indexed by search engines.
2. They are complicated to create for most business owners it makes more sense to hire someone to create and setup a fanpage. The savings on time alone are worth it.

When we plan out a fanpage for a client 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!

Technorati Tags: Facebook training, fanpage on facebook, Social Media

There are several Twitter Management systems out there – Hootsuite, Seesmic and Tweetdeck – which is my preferred system and today’s update confirmed my belief in them as the leader in their field.

Today’s release of Version 0.32 has seen them add some fabulous features to help you manage ALL your networks.

1. Linked In integration – add your Linked In account and keep updated of groups, status updates, Q & A’s and more!
2. ReTweet addon – Choose to Retweet as Twitter now allows you to – OR the previous method available on Tweetdeck which means you can still EDIT the tweet.  I personally like this choice as the option to add your own comment can increase the value of a Retweet .
3. Twitter List support – You can manage your lists directly in Tweetdeck, add other users to your lists and follow or unfollow other lists as well.

If you haven’t tried Tweetdeck lately as your Twitter Management System I recommend you do.  They have really changed since their first release.  One of the best features is the ability to post directly to your fanpage wall. The ability to keep up and in contact with those whose tweets you don’t want to miss is the mainstay of Tweetdeck, everything else is just icing on the cake.

Technorati Tags: Social Media, Tweetdeck, twitter management tools

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.

• If you created a tab using Static FBML, then that tab will remain.
• If you created a profile box using profile.set FBML that appears on the Boxes tab, that will go away. You should convert profile boxes to Static FBML tabs.
• If you have a Boxes tab with Static FBML  Boxes in it, then you can convert that box to a tab or use Static FBML to create new tabs.
• We’re not changing the number of tabs that display by default, and there will always be the >> button to see all the tabs.

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:

1. Sign in facebook and go to your fanpage wall
2. Under your logo on the left wall, click “Edit Page”
3. Scroll down to all the Static FBML boxes and do the following for each: Click application settings, Click Tabs – Add (only if the tabs are not already added)
4. Go back to ‘view page’ and ensure the tab is where you want it.
5. Change your wall settings to have the non-fan landing page go to the proper tab now for welcoming your fans.

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.

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Social Media

Okay… so tonight I got an odd message on Facebook when visiting someone’s fanpage.  The error message that came up said:

IMPORTANT: Facebook have announced that all links, boxes and ‘info sections’ for applications will be REMOVED from your profile in the next few weeks. To continue using this application you must add a bookmark for it now so that you can return to it after the links have been removed from your profile. To add a bookmark now, simply click this button and confirm…

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.

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Social Media

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

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

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

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.

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