Here is a cool video I shot with some tips on how to use YouTube in your business.
With all of the changes that Facebook has implemented, I haven’t seen a rash of strange pop-ups or problems with their service. There has been so much controversy over their information sharing policy but I personally don’t care if it might benefit me in the long run. If nothing else, I have seen more ads of companies/services that I might actually like. Which isn’t a bad thing. At least it is up to ME if I want to learn more.
One thing that still does annoy me to no end is the announcements of someone achieving a new status in Mafia Wars or some other game available within Facebook. However, you can easily remove all of these updates from your page. Here is how.
When you want to HIDE a program, person or fan page, all you have to do is put your mouse over the post and on the right edge of the post, you will see the word “Hide” in black letters. Click on it and then you will be prompted to either hide the program or the person or fan page. Once you have made your decision, you will no longer receive those “updates”. Just be sure you are careful when making your decision as you may end up accidentally hiding your friend.
It is pretty easy to block out the things you don’t want. So rather than getting frustrated with all of the supposed “junk” people post and ditching FaceBook altogether, try hiding some of the stuff you don’t want to see and you’ll definitely have a much more enjoyable experience.
So you built a FaceBook fan page, invited your friends, family and clients. Now what are you supposed to do?
As with any product or service, you will get out of it only what you put into it. The most important thing to be done with your fan page is to consistently post information. It can be your own original content or it can be a link to other content such as a webpage or a YouTube video. Of course your own content is going to give you the most credibility, but something is better than nothing at all. Whenever you prost a link to ANYTHING, make sure you add some of your own commentary so your readers know why it is important to them or what it means. Anything within the link to the post can be edited as well. Just click on it. So when the system automatically provides a headline and some content, if you don’t like it, change it.
The next most important piece to having a successful fan page is to PROMOTE it. You can’t just build the page, invite people once, and expect your list of followers to grow. One very easy way to promote your page is to set it up with a vanity URL. I have a previous post that explains how to do this. Here is the link. http://tystechblog.com/2009/10/06/facebook-vanity-url/. Put your new FaceBook page address on EVERYTHING you can. Your business cards, your website, YOUR E-MAIL SIGNATURE, etc. You can even embed the “stream” of your FaceBook page on your website. And it isn’t too difficult to do either. Here is how.
Go to your fan page, click on “edit page” under your page’s profile photo. On the right side of the page, about half way down, click on the “Promote with a Like Box” link. Now, select the type of feed you want to display on your site. Each option will provide you with a preview. My favorite is the default which is the “Like Box” with both the Show Stream and Show Header boxes selected. The last step is to click on the “Get Code” button and then copy and paste the code into the desired area of your website.
Finally, as time goes on, you will meet new people and reconnect with others, and become “friends” with them on FaceBook. You can’t assume that they will find and join your fan page. So remember to constantly go through your list of friends and “Suggest” your page to them. Tie it into something else you do on a regular basis, like changing your oil or getting a haircut. That will make it easier to remember.
To suggest your fan page to your friends, just go to your fan page, and click the “Suggest to Friends” link under the profile photo. Click on any of your friends that are not dimmed out and once you’ve gone through all of the pages, click the “Send Invitations” button. Note: you do not need to send the invitation on each page of friends you select. If someone on your list is dimmed out it is either because they have not accepted a previous request or they are already a fan. And to the best of my knowledge, there is no way around it other than contacting the person directly, by phone, e-mail, text, smoke signal, whatever and asking them to become a fan.
So to sum this up, keep your fan pages alive by being consistent with your posts, don’t forget to promote it, and always remember to add your new friends often. By doing so, you will get more attention and business opportunities are sure to follow.
Ok. So I wouldn’t call myself an early adopter, but when my Blackberry Curve started acting up and giving me all kinds of problems, I knew it was time to either get a replacement or change it up completely and get something else. Well, at the time the Motorola Droid was just getting popular and Verizon offered a buy one, get one free promotion. So I bit and I’m INCREDIBLY happy that I did. Not only do I feel like I have something that competes with my tech savvy friends and their iPods, but I have a new phone that WORKS, offers so many more features than what I had previously, and it still saves me time, which is CRITIAL to my business.
Here are a few of the reasons why I love the Droid.
Integrated keyboard. Coming from a Blackberry, I was very comfortable using the keyboard to type my messages, and I got pretty good at it. I could almost type better on my phone than I could on my computer. So I needed something that would offer me the same convenience of a keyboard but also offered more than just a device for e-mail. The Droid fit this perfectly.
Camera. I hate having a ton of stuff in my pockets. Keys, phone, wallet and that is about all I can handle. So when I am out and about with my family or friends, I don’t want to have to carry another device to get good shots of a moment I want to, or need to remember. The Droid offers a 5 megapixel camera that is light years ahead of the Blackberry’s camera that I was using. The quality of the shot is great! Not only that, but there are “apps” that allow me to get a little creative with my shots such as sepia, Polaroid, “Warhol” and many others. The app I love is called fxCamera. And best yet, it is free!
Social networking apps. I am pretty hooked on FaceBook and I’m getting more involved in Twitter. So to save time when I’m posting to the two sites, I use the AnyPost app to create my posts that I intend to go on both sites. It works like a charm and best yet it saves me the hassle of going to two different apps to do essentially the same thing. So when I am waiting in line somewhere or have a moment of comedic or business related brilliance, I just pull out my phone and post it.
Voice to text. I just found out about this a couple weeks ago and surprisingly it actually just became available via a recent OS update. You can now recite you text messages and e-mails into your phone and it will translate it into text for your messages. This could be a life saver, literally. I am one of the many that is guilty of trying to be super efficient and multi-task at the worst times possible. So by being able to just speak my short messages into my phone, allows me to focus on more important things. While it isn’t able to pick out all of the punctuation and it isn’t 100% on accuracy, it is still a quick simple solution for communicating with someone that doesn’t care about those things or it at least saves you a ton of time in typing and you can go back and edit before sending.
GPS. I unfortunately do not have a vehicle with built-in GPS. So this device has saved me at least $200 because I do NOT have to buy a GPS device. This is because it has the feature built in. I can hit a button on my phone, recite the address or the business name and it will look it up and either give me on-screen directions or announce to me turn-by-turn instructions, my choice. And it is surprisingly accurate!
All of these features are fantastic for the casual user or businessperson. Time is money in most jobs and by having a device with features that saves you time is certainly a worthwhile investment. With that being said, I can honestly say that my Droid saves me time and makes me more productive, which in the end helps my company’s bottom line.
One side note, any time you get a new phone, be aware of the contract you sign and the fees you will be subject to if you ever decide to switch carriers. Also, with just about every carrier, you have a trial period with any new phone you purchase (14-30 days in most cases). So if you are curious about trying out a new phone, go for it! If you don’t like it, take it back and try something else. You might pay a minor re-stocking fee but at least you aren’t stuck with a piece of equipment you don’t like.
Feel free to post any comments or questions below if you wish. I’ll do my best to respond to all submissions.
Ok. So you say you want to generate some business using FaceBook. First you need to have your own PERSONAL FaceBook page. That much is obvious. It is on your personal page that you will create your identity. People will get to know you on a much deeper level than just knowing what it is that you do for a career. Your personal page should be made up of no less than 80% personal information and 20% professional. Personal information would be talking about taking your dogs and/or kids to the park. The golf game you played over the weekend. The friends you got to see the other night. Professional would be the deal that you closed yesterday, the person you helped avoid foreclosure, the new designation you just earned. It is important for your FaceBook “friends” to know who YOU are, before they know what it is that you do.
So to get more exposure to what it is that you DO for a living, FaceBook allows you to create what is called a “Business Page”. A business page is the perfect forum for talking about a new listing you have, or a successful transaction or even an upcoming open house. These are topics one would expect to see more frequently on your business page, not on your personal page.
How do you set up a business page you ask? Well, here you go. First, go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php Enter in the information it asks for and be as descriptive as possible. Remember, this is where you will build your BRAND. So when you go to upload your logo, make sure that if you don’t have a logo that you are using a professional shot of you. For your information, add as much as you can. Your website, your motto, anything about your business that will be of use or interest to the visitor. Most of this can be posted on your “Notes’ tab. BE CREATIVE!!!
Upload photos! Upload photos of families you have helped, homes that you have bought or sold, area photos of communities you specialize in. People love graphical content. You have the ability to add captions to each of your photos. Don’t slouch here. If there is a story to tell, tell it! Just don’t go overboard.
Once you have the page built, be sure you invite as many people as you can using the “Suggest to Friends” link on the left side of the page. Also, promote the page on your website and other print media. I recently did a post on how to create a “Vanity” url. Here is the link http://tylerlein.wordpress.com/2009/10/06/facebook-vanity-url/
Once you have created your vanity URL, that is the link you will use to maintain your page. And it will be much easier to remember!
Finally, be consistent, but not overbearing on your posts. If you send out hundreds of messages in a short period of time, you’re likely to lose fans. So go easy. A post every other day is about as much as you want to post unless you have some time sensitive information to share. And always remember, WHAT IS IN IT FOR THE “FAN”? Post information that is relevant to your business and will be of use to the visitor. If you post nonsense, you will lose credibility and fans. If you find a good article online, post the link. If you find a good video, post it. Just keep the content relevant to your business.
Now, because I know many people (myself included) love tutorial videos on how to get something done, I found the following video on YouTube which goes through the Business Page set up. I DID NOT create this, but I felt that the person that did, did a great job putting it together and that I should share it with you.
Now there are NO excuses, just get in and get your page going and don’t be affraid to poke around in your new page. You will be glad that you did!
If you have a personal or business website, it is likely you would like to provide links to your social networking pages like FaceBook, Twitter and LinkedIn. Here is a really short and quick summary on how to find the HTML coding that will allow you to create graphics that link to your pages. You then copy the code and paste it into your website content editor.
For FaceBook, know the code for your profile badge. You can find this at http://www.facebook.com/facebook-widgets/index.php. Click on the Profile Badge link and then click the “Other” button. It will then give you HTML code to copy and paste into your website.
For LinkedIn, know your “Public Profile”. Sign into LinkedIn, click on “Account & Settings”, click “Public Profile”, click “Promote your profile with Customized Buttons”, select the format you like most and copy the HTML code in the box next to it.
For Twitter, sign in, click on “Settings”, under “More info url”, click on the link “(You can also add Twitter to your site here)”. From here, click on the Widgets for “My Website”, then select “Profile Widget”. Customize the widget with the links on the left of the page, then click the “Finish & Grab Code” button at the bottom of the screen. Copy the HTML code in the box.
Here is what the results will look like, with the exception of Twitter. To embed my Twitter feed into my blog, I have to use an alternative method, but the instructions above will work for your standard websites.
