by Kimberly | Feb 23, 2010 | Blog, Featured, Social Media, social media marketing
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. 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. Completely knowledgeable about promotional products and apparel, Gary made the process easy...
by Kimberly | Feb 19, 2010 | Blog, Facebook, Social Media
Just a short and to the point post that will actually be a list of references for Facebook. You might be surprised how much information you can on Facebook about using Facebook! Facebook Marketing Page: A page run by Facebook which provide tips for using Facebook for marketing and brand loyalty. Facebook Pages Product Guide: Light overview (PDF) document by Facebook about what pages are, how they work and the various elements that make up a fan page. Facebook Promotions Guidelines: Facebook’s guidelines for promoting your Facebook page outside of Facebook. Includes an easily downloadable (Facebook approved) graphic to place on your website to help visitors click through to your Facebook page. Facebook For Non-Profits: A fan page that serves as a resource for non-profits and other organizations on Facebook who work towards social good. Often they highlight other non-profit fan pages or will post news about brands or companies who are using Facebook for social good. Facebook Fan Pages: Another page administered by Facebook where they share news, best practices and examples for administrators of Facebook pages. Facebook’s Official Privacy Policy: Facebook’s official policy regarding your privacy on the platform. Facebook’s Blog: This is another good place to find all the latest announcements and news about Facebook. Facebook often posts about upcoming changes and events there before they happen. Of course, working with an experienced social media virtual assistant who is already aware of these resources and keeps tabs on the latest happenings with Facebook can help you navigate using Facebook efficiently and...
by Kimberly | Feb 3, 2010 | Blog, Facebook, Featured
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...
by Kimberly | Nov 18, 2009 | Blog, Facebook
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...
by Kimberly | Oct 25, 2009 | Blog, Facebook, Social Media
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...
