Google announced today via their Twitter account that Facebook Fan Page status updates will now become part of the real time search. This is huge for people who seriously consider Facebook as marketing avenue and want to use it as a tool to further get found by search engines.

Google Twitter Announcement

This means that updates from Facebook Fan Pages are currently being indexed and included in Google’s real time search feature. This includes links, photos, videos and status updates but not comments by fans. While updates from personal profiles can also be posted publicly by users, it doesn’t appear that those updates are being indexed as part of the real time search.

What is Real Time Search?

If you’re not familiar with real time search, here’s an example. Currently trending on Twitter is “Canadian Joannie Rochette” from Olympic events. If you go to Google and type in “Canadian Joannie Rochette,” you will get quite  few results, but if you scroll down about mid-page, this is what you will see.

As you can see, there is a scrolling box which shows real time results as they are happening.

The addition of Facebook page updates to real time search joins Twitter, MySpace, FriendFeed and others. Mostly what I’ve seen so far in real time search are updates from these networks about trending topics. This probably means that big brands on Facebook with large fan bases will likely get the most of amount of love from real time search right now. However, it does become yet another reason why businesses, organizations, non-profits and others need to seriously considering creating a solid presence on Facebook because now it means that just one more way to get yourself found on Google.

Need help with setting up your business Facebook page? Shoot me a message and let’s talk about it or come find me on my Facebook page!

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Social media and the internet make it easier than ever to reach other people, other markets and other businesses anywhere in the world. So sometimes, it seems as though what is most often overlooked is how easy it is to use social media to connect with local people and businesses.

As a Virtual Assistant, my business model is built around being able to work with virtually anyone, anywhere. When I first started using social media for marketing, I did not focus too much on networking locally either online or in person.  However, when my husband and I started an e-commerce business, OTC Sports, part of our business model for was centrally built around reaching the local market.

OTC Sports Fleece

Around this same time, I made the acquaintance of Gary Powell with ImageWear Solutions on Twitter (@imagewear).  Gary and I exchanged a few emails as I helped him figure out some of the inner workings of using Twitter and Facebook for business.  He also reached out to my husband, Jeff, on Twitter (@OTCsports), communicating back and forth about different sports related topics. Gary is a great example of what a local business can do with social media. He reached out to other locals on Twitter and Facebook, offered a helping hand, and was always willing to help spread the word about other local businesses.  Gary doesn’t use social media to be self-promoting, he uses it for connecting with people.

When the time came for us to order promotional apparel for OTC Sports, Gary was the first person we called upon.

OTC Sports Beanie

Completely knowledgeable about promotional products and apparel, Gary made the process easy and seamless. He was even kind enough to help push the order through to meet a deadline for us. We were thrilled with the items ImageWear had made for us. The quality and workmanship was outstanding.  And what’s more, is that we have gone back for more as I ordered some beanie caps as a Christmas gift for my husband with the OTC Sports logo on them.

This is just one example of how businesses can use social media to networking locally and get seen, get heard.

I became  a fan of the US Army fan page on Facebook after the shootings at Fort Hood last year.  Today I noticed an interesting status up from their page. (See below). I think this is a fascinating use of a government agency connecting with every day people  but it was also an interesting commentary on just how far social media has come and is now ingrained in our every day lives.

After seeing this update, I went over the Army’s Facebook page to see just what was going on and it seems as though the Army’s fans were posting their opinions on the military’s “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy. Obviously, this is a highly charged and highly emotional issue for many people on both sides of the issue.  The parts that particularly caught my interest was:

1. The response from the Army’s admins for page who were actively engaging with their fans and letting them know they were being heard. It also appears Admins are actively watching the page to delete any completely derogatory and profane messages. But the ones that are on there seem to be posted by people on there who are willing to post their opinions without resorting to name calling or hurtful words.

2. That this issue was being so openly discussed at all on their fan page.

While fan opinions on Facebook may not change whether the policy continues, it does seem entirely feasible that at the very least, these comments will be forwarded to those in the higher ranks and quite possibly to congressmen and women and other policy/decision makers.

I believe this speaks to power of social media today. Not only is the US Army using Facebook to connect with people but those people are using the platform as a way to make themselves heard and they’re doing it without a second thought. Just a few short years ago, (heck, even just a year ago), the ability of the public to get their opinions directly to an agency like the Army would have been limited to poll or survey agencies or to sending a letter directly to your congress person…something that only small percentage of people would actually do. Additionally, it also shows how much more comfortable people have gotten with discussing such highly charged issues in a very public forms.

Is it a good thing? I think so. You need to remain objective though about whether the majority of opinions on the Army’s Facebook page are in support of the policy or if they oppose it. They currently have over 148,000 fans and one would venture to guess that a significant portion of those fans support the Army and it’s principles so opinions may be skewed in one direction or another. You also have to consider that the Admins may be removing the most inflammatory posts.  However, a good portion of the comments that I read seemed to mostly support not discriminating against any of our service men or women based on race, gender or sexual orientation.

I think its an example of a good use of social media.

Often people ask how to go about finding other people to follow on Twitter. There really isn’t an exact science to it but for Twitter to be an effective social media marketing tool, it just makes sense to follow (and to be followed by) people who are or might be interested in what you tweet about or in connecting with you. I think those who are new to Twitter will sometime become frustrated in the beginning because they are only following a few people then the Twitter stream can be a fairly quiet place. And then, if you are only being followed by a few folks, the interactions can be few and far between.  Here are some ideas for finding other people to follow on Twitter.

Check the different Twitter directories. Use these directories to find people who have listed themselves by industry, subject, interest or location. Here are the top three that I often use:

1. WeFollow.com- Users self-identify themselves in this directory using different “tags.” You can easily do a search by tag and find other people who you might be interested in. I also recommend listing yourself in this directory so others can also find you. WeFollow will list users within a certain tag according to how many followers they have with the higher follower counts first.
2. Twellow.com- The Twitter Yellow pages. Every account on Twitter is automatically listed in Twellow. However, users can also go in and “claim” their profile on Twellow and list themselves in 10 different categories. Twellow also gives you the option to input additional profile information about yourself or what you do or your business. I also recommend taking advantage of the options for adding in links to any other social networking sites you are on such as Facebook, LinkedIn and others. Profiles in Twellow that can been claimed, will have a small “claimed” icon so you know that person has come in and officially set up their Twellow profile. Twellow is also connected to Twellowhood which helps you find other users according to their location. This can be especially helpful if you are looking for other users in your area.
3. Twibs.com- This is a Twitter Business directory where people have gone in and added their accounts and listed their business. While this directory is lesser known and probably lesser used, it can still be useful for finding other businesses or business people who you might be interested in following. It is also another directory where you can list yourself for free and gain additional exposure for your account and for your business. You find an abundance of small business owners and other entrepreneurs on this site as opposed to just big business.

There are other directories, of course, and please feel free to list your favorites below so others can use and enjoy them.

Another way to find interesting people to follow is to see which people your favorite Twitterers are tweeting with. I find this method to be sort of a roulette of finding followers because you never know who you’re going to find. All you know is that someone else found them interesting enough to tweet with them so they might also be of interest to you as well. This is a great way to find people to follow who might fall outside of search by industry or category and it can help expand your process for finding people you might not otherwise have found.

Check the following of someone you like to follow. If they are in a similar industry or have similar interests, then most likely are following people you might also finding interesting. Keep in mind, however, that you don’t really know what that person’s follow policy is so they may be someone who follows back everybody and has not been very diligent about checking who they are follow. This means you should really review each and every profile for relevance rather than just blindly clicking on the follow button.

Keyword Search- Twitter’s search feature can also be an incredibly good tool to find other people who are tweeting about topics, ideas or keywords that you might also be interested in. The Twitter search feature is easily found on the right of the web application as well in many of the various Twitter applications available. The advantage to using a Twitter application like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck is that you can set it up to track those keywords in real time all the time. I also recommend checking out the Advanced Twitter search to filter your query even more specifically. These advanced search features will let you narrow your search query by exact phrase, excluding some words, hashtage, by person, by location and by sentiment.

Are you on LinkedIn? Twitter and LinkedIn recently joined forces so you can now sync your LinkedIn account with your Twitter account (how to do that is another post…) This gives you the ability to update LinkedIn from Twitter and vice versa. It also means that you can post your Twitter ID on your LinkedIn profile. While this is a fairly new feature that not everyone is taking advantage of, it may be worth going through your LinkedIn connections and finding out which ones are on also on Twitter.  If you wanted to take social networking a step further, you might even send them a message on LinkedIn that you are now also following them on Twitter. I don’t recommend sending someone a request on LinkedIn who you are NOT already connected with just because you are following them on Twitter. The more acceptable etiquette would to connect with them on Twitter through conversational tweets and then seek out connecting with them on LinkedIn.

Hopefully, you’ve found some ideas to get you started on finding people to follow on Twitter. Would love for you to post other ideas to find Twitter folks to follow in the comments below.

Image via Wikipedia

Facebook recently changed not only how news and updates are delivered to users, but they’ve also implemented a formula for deciding which news is delivered. When you log into Facebook, you will most likely first see “News Feed.” (Unless you’ve moved Status Updates to the top of your left side menu, in which case, you will see just the Status Updates from your friends.) What shows up in your News Feed is determined by Facebook based on their own formula.  The News Feed typically will include content from your Friends and from the Fan Pages that you belong to. However, unless you click on view “Live Feed,” you are only going to see the content that Facebook has decided you might be interested in.

This means Facebook now takes into account what Fan Pages your friends like, or what Fan Page stories they are commenting on, which fan pages you interact with frequently and which fan pages you visit most often.

What does this mean for Facebook Fan Page Administrators?

It means that engagement and interaction on your Fan Page just became much more important if you expect to get your Fan Page to show up in your fans’ News Feeds. No longer can you just post on your Facebook and expect that it will get seen by your fans by showing up in their News Feed. It will still show up in their Live Feed, but the Live Feed is not the default and we have no idea how many users are actually moving from their News Feed to the Live Feed.

Fan Page Administrators will now have to work to earn a spot in their Fan’s News Feeds. While this might seem like this approach works against small businesses and works more for big brands with a huge fan base and tons of interaction, it really just means that Facebook is working towards keeping content in user’s news feeds that is relevant and interesting to the user. Fan Page should be places where fans come to interact with a brand or business. It’s never been the intention that Fan Pages should just be advertising billboards who can blast out marketing messages to anyone who becomes a fan. As a social networking platform, Facebook is a place where people go to network and socialize either with people, brands or business which they have *chosen* to interact with.

Next up…How to Keep Your Fans Engaged.

Image by J.Rio via Flickr

You’ve probably heard over and over that social media is about authenticity, sincerity, and transparency. Maybe this has prevented you from getting a little extra help with your social media needs; you aren’t looking for someone to go out and impersonate you online. You want to be sure that you are the one maintaining control over your image, your business or your brand. Unfortunately, you’ve probably also heard that social media can become a colossal time suck. This is where a Social Media Virtual Assistant (SMVA) comes in. Your image and message can remain authentically yours while someone else takes care of the routine tasks and chores of social media. Here are just a few things a SMVA can do for you:

• Set up your social media profiles. Setting up a new Twitter account or Facebook Fan page is easy, but optimizing them for the greatest marketing value is quite challenging. An SMVA has the expertise and specialized knowledge to efficiently get your account off to a running head start. Already have an established Twitter or Facebook page? Your SMVA can provide you with recommendations on how to use your accounts to build your online visibility and increase your brand awareness. And how many times have you wondered what exactly you’re supposed to do with your LinkedIn account? An SMVA can advise you on how to optimize your profile and how to be seen as an expert in your industry. Save time by having your SMVA research groups for you to join and find questions for you to answer.

• Research. An SMVA can help research where your target audience is hanging out online, find and follow industry websites and blogs, and track what your competitors are doing with their social media outlets. An SMVA can also set up tracking systems that will track let you know what people are saying about you and alert you when something needs your attention.

• Online maintenance and management. Provide your SMVA with content and they can distribute it through all of your social media channels. Blogging can go from fun to frustrating because of the additional time it takes to proofread, upload and publicize posts. You can save time by writing the post and handing it off to your SMVA. They enter it into your blogging platform, format it, find images, add links, categorize and tag it. Once the post is published, the SMVA can distribute your posts so that it goes out on your Twitter account, Facebook fan page and LinkedIn profile. Want to work on establishing yourself as an expert in your field? Provide your SMVA with content or a list of tips that they can schedule to go out on your different social profiles. Have your SMVA set up a schedule for checking industry blogs and keyword alerts that may need your attention.

• Track your goals. An SMVA can set up a system for tracking how well your social media efforts doing. Facebook fan pages have insights data, which can help you understand who your fans are and what types of content they like to receive from you. An SMVA can track your tweeting habits, your Twitter account growth and how often the links in your posts are clicked on. Tracking and analyzing these types of data help you to see what you’re doing right, while also allowing you to tweak and adjust areas that need improvement.

You too, can reach a social media zen and balance…

To find out how more about how I can help you as a Social Media Virtual Assistant, click HERE.

Click here for an idea of which specific social media tasks and services I provide.

If you’d like to schedule a time for a free consultation, contact us.

Engaging in online media and maintaining your social presence online is time consuming, and it can quickly become overwhelming as well. This is especially true if you are new to using social media. A Social Media Virtual Assistant (SMVA) is someone who can get you set up on different social networks, streamline systems for maintaining your social media presence, and help save you time in the long run.  They understand how different social networks function and can get you up and running so that you make the best use of your time and resources online.

Here are few tips to help you make the most of your Social Media Virtual Assistant:

1. Have a good idea what your goals are. Do you want someone to help you create and maintain your profiles? Implement an overall social media strategy? Provide consistent updates and distribute your new content? Do you need someone with experience editing and distributing videos? Does the SMVA need to know how to help maintain the backend of your blog or help with the more technical aspects of blogging? Having an idea of what you want to the SMVA to do will help you to look for an assistant who has the skills to provide the type of assistance you want. You should also be comfortable with delegating tasks and communicating consistently and clearly.

It typically takes between 60-90 days for an assistant to fully understand the client and integrate with their business. You need to be especially prepared to provide information and be responsive during the early days of the working relationship.  It is also important to understand that while a SMVA can implement social media and provide suggestions on how to use it effectively, the content itself must come from the business owner.

2) Research your assistant. As with any industry, Virtual Assistants provide a wide variety of skills and services. There are Virtual Assistants who provide a combination of administrative and business services along with social media assistance, and there are Virtual Assistants who focus almost solely on providing Social Media assistance. This is an important distinction that business owners should be aware of. Be sure to ask potential SMVAs about their skills and experience with social media prior to working together. Seek an SMVA who is active in social media themselves and who understands the rules and etiquette of the top social media networks. If someone is advertising as a SVMA, yet they’ve barely used Twitter, they just signed up for Facebook or their blog has only a couple of posts, then they may not be highly experienced in the field. Google an assistant by their name and by their business name and scope out their existing profiles. Since social media is used to increase online visibility, and you’re hiring an assistant to help you do this, don’t you want to see how they present themselves online?

3) Seek a Social Media Virtual Assistant who is a professional. Do they do this full time at this or do they offer it part time in addition to working another job? Do they have clear business policies and a clear pricing structure?  Can they provide testimonials from other clients or examples of their work? The assistant should ask you specifically what your overall goals are and what you want help with. The assistant should provide you with a draft that shows how they will assist you, what platforms you should use and references that back up their claims of expertise.

4) Understand that a Social Media Virtual Assistant is different than an existing employee. An employee who has a personal profile on Facebook that they use for connecting with friends and family does not necessarily understand how Facebook can be used by a business or a brand. Hiring a SMVA does not preclude also using an existing employee to help with social media efforts; an SMVA can become part of them team and add his or her expertise. Including employees or other assistants can make hiring a SM Virtual Assistant a cost-efficient option, as the Virtual Assistant model typically operates on the benefit of paying only for the hours you need.

5) Budget wisely. Most Social Media Virtual Assistants charge by the hour. Some will have set price packages of services either for social media profile set up or a flat fee for a certain amount of maintenance. Average hourly rates can vary depending on the SMVA’s skills and expertise. If a SMVA has highly specialized or technical skills, expect to pay a higher hourly rate. The benefit of working with a Virtual Assistant is that you only pay for the hours need. But if you are on a budget, make good use of your time with your SMVA. Be sure to keep the lines of communication open and clear and be detailed about what you need done.

Doing your homework on Social Media Virtual Assistance before you start on your outsourcing journey will greatly improve your chance for a successful partnership. Contact us today for more information or a free consultation.

Top Image by exper via Flickr

On Friday, Facebook made yet another change to how users see their news feed on their homepage when the log in. Previously, when you logged in you saw all the latest news and posts from your friends and from the fan pages you follow. Additionally, there was the “Highlights” section off to the right hand side of the screen which many people never really understood the usefulness of this feature nor was it ever really clear how a particular story, photo, video or link ended up in your Highlights section.

Now when you log in you will first see the “News Feed” on your Home page. According to Facebook’s Blog this is

“the most interesting things that happened in the last day in the “News Feed” view. News Feed picks stories that we think you’ll enjoy based on a variety of factors including how many friends have liked and commented on it and how likely you are to interact with that story.”

What this means is that Facebook has “picked” some of your friends and fan page’s updates or postings that they think you will be most interested in regardless of when they were posted and is essentially *highlighting* them for you. This does have some benefits in that you might find a posting or update that is interesting to you from several hours to a couple of days ago that you might have missed when you were not logged into Facebook. However, it also means that Facebook is picking these for you so there may also been people or pages showing up in this stream that really are not a high priority for you.

The Live Feed is a feed of what’s happening currently…the most recent posts as they happen in real time. This is the same as the feed you had before with a few small exceptions. One is the return of information about when friends become friends of someone else, when they are tagged in a photo or video and when they become fans of a fan page. While I’m not entirely too keen on having this information back in my newstream, there are probably others out there who don’t mind it. I do think that the addition of know which friends became fans of which fan pages or members of a new group along with the ability to become a fan or join a group right from the newstream is actually going to be a big benefit to helping fan pages grow their fan page and increase their visibility- something many fan pages and groups struggle with. However, if you have friends who are highly active on Facebook and each and every action they take is in your news feed, then I think there is the risk that more people may be hiding their highly active friends as Facebook has failed to provide people with the option of opting out of seeing some types of items in your Live Feed.

It is also important to be aware that Facebook has initially set your Live Feed to have a maximum number of friends in your live feed to be 250. You can change this to higher number and Facebook informs you this means there will be a higher number of posts. You can also choose which friends or fan pages that you want to see more of and which ones you wish to hide altogether. To do this, find the “Edit Options” link at the bottom of your Live Feed/Home page.

As with most changes in Facebook, this one will take some time to get used to and there are many out there who will oppose the change initially starting different groups and pages with a stated mission of trying to “bring back” whichever feature they felt should not be removed. Ultimately though, these changes will be here to stay. Well, at least until the next change that is.

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Analytics Help You Understand Your Effectiveness and Reach

It is reported that nearly 20% of email marketers do not know how well their email marketing campaigns are working simply because they do not track them. The importance of reviewing and analyzing the metrics of your email or e-newsletter campaigns is a major component of knowing whether or not what you are doing is effective or is providing you with any return on your investment.

Here are the major components of the metrics of any email marketing campaign.

Delivery Rate: The delivery rate is simply the total number of email that were actually delivered to the intended inbox. Delivery rate percentages are determined by taking the total number of emails that bounced (undeliverable) by the number of emails sent. Spam filters and other issues can cause an email to be bounced. You can reduce the chances of having your email bounce by asking the recipients to white-list your email.

Open rate: This is the number or percentage of total delivered emails that were actually opened by the recipients. There is some debate about how accurate this number is and whether it is reliable. However, it is still an important number to be aware especially as you send out multiple emails and if you are seeing any drastic change in your open rates over time. Industry research estimates the average open rate is 30%. If your rate is lower than this, you may want to research and evaluate how effective your emails are to the target audience.

Click-Through Rate: This tracks the number of times a link in your email was clicked-through by the recipients. JupiterResearch estimates that the average unique click-throughs is about 12 percent. The key here is to keep your content relevant, simple, direct and targeted.

Unsubscribe Rate: This is the number people who choose to unsubscribe to your email or e-newsletter from a specific message. The rate is determined by dividing the total number of unsubscribes by the total number of delivered emails. The number of unsubscribes are often an overall indicator of email list health or freshness. If you are using a list of emails collected greater than six months, then you may experience a high unsubscribe rate as the list is no longer considered fresh. If the list is fresh or the email subscribers are all recent or having been receiving email from you for a period time and you experience a high unsubscribe rate, then you will want to review the relevancy of your content to your audience.

Reviewing and understanding these numbers from any email campaign are an integral part of determining the effectiveness of your campaign as well as understanding the return on your overall investment in using email as a marketing or outreach tool.

I use iContact as my email campaign tool which provides me with all of these data and more to help me effectively track my email campaigns as well as the email campaigns of my clients. If you would like some help with determining the effectiveness of your email campaign, do not hesitate to contact me for a free consultation.

Image by Esparta via Flickr