Pinterest, the latest social network to captivate the masses, and the reason that millions of women are stumbling to bed at 3 am.  This article will give you specific steps that you can take in order to leverage Pinterest for your business.  You will be able to set up your Pinterest business page, and create a successful Pinterest strategy and best practices that add to the community, rather than a short sighted spam campaign.

There are literally thousands of social networks!  You could never invest the time and energy necessary to have a competent presence on all of them, and you shouldn’t even attempt this feat.  I am very selective about what social networks I involve myself in, and I’ve chosen to market my business on Pinterest.  Of course, Pinterest naturally lends itself to being a natural fit for some brands, but there are creative ways that any business can have an effective presence on this platform.

Why should you pay attention to Pinterest?

• Pinterest is the fastest growing social network…ever.  That’s right, Pinterest is outpacing Twitter and even Facebook, when compared by age.
• While the overall number of users pales in comparison to Twitter or Facebook, the exciting thing is that Pinterest users are REAL PEOPLE!
• Pinterest is already driving more traffic than Twitter
• While ‘sharing’ and ‘liking’ are a small aspect to Facebook & Twitter functionality, they are the backbone of Pinterest.  The people who use Pinterest are actively looking for interesting things to share with their social circle.  More than 80% of all posts are ‘repins’ or other users’ content.
• The Pinterest platform is unique.  It didn’t try to copy other models, they made their own.
• 60% of Pinterest users are college graduates
• 57% of Pinterest users earn more than $50K/year
• 71% of Pinterest users are the age of 25-54 (A key demographic of online spenders!)

We’ve tackled the ‘WHY’, let’s get into the “HOW”

• Start by creating a general strategy.  While you may be tempted to simply use Pinterest as an eCommerce platform, you have to be more creative than that.  It is certainly acceptable to feature your products, but the most successful brands have enjoyed a much more effective presence by creating boards that emphasize the lifestyle associated with their product or service.  They know their customers (and have a direct insight into them by being able to view their pins), and they post content that will resonate with them.

• When creating a Pinterest business page, be sure to use the email address associated with your Twitter account.  This will help you to integrate and cross-post your Pinterest activity on Twitter.  There is an option for linking Pinterest to Facebook, but only to personal Facebook profiles.  There is only one type of profile, and no separate Pinterest business page.

• Be sure to complete all of the profile information.  There is also an option to make your profile invisible to search engines, be sure this field is turned “OFF”, as it is asking if you want to ‘hide’ your profile.

• Visit http://pinterest.com/source/WHATEVER-URL/ to see what is being pinned from your website.  “Like” and/or comment on these pins to show your appreciation.  Nobody is doing this!  You can also use that source link to find out what people are pinning from your competitor’s sites.  See what is working for them, and use that information when creating your own content.  You may also want to follow the users who are pinning your competitor’s items.

• Pinterest is all about visual, so be sure to use high quality images and videos.  While it is not uncommon to see an image on Facebook that was snapped from your cell phone while driving 100 mph, it is not the type of inspiring visual that will entice Pinterest users to share it.  Use a quality camera and lighting.  A stock image site, such as Shutterstock, is also a decent option.  (I strongly advise against using iStock, or any other Getty Images owned service…future post about that )

• Create boards and pins before following anybody.  You want the user to be able to quickly identify who you are, and what you stand for.  Give them a reason to follow you.  A blank screen is not an inviting one.

• Make the pin and pin-board descriptions keyword rich.  Since pin-boards are being indexed by search engines, it is very important to make the name of the board an important keyword, and to craft a description that is relevant and detailed.  Pin descriptions are also important.  Users will use the Pinterest search engine to find items to repin.  If your description is blank, it will never appear in the results.

• Use #hashtags in your descriptions.  You can include a hashtag, much like twitter, to categorize your pin.  These are category links.  Another use of hashtag is to create a unique tag that you can easily identify pins that have been shared.  Note that users may edit descriptions when they repin, so this won’t be a foolproof tracking strategy.

• Find applicable users to follow.  Local people, current/potential customers, and users who are likely to follow you back.

• Create ‘pins’ on a schedule.  Bit.ly has reported that the best time to create posts that will be re-pinned on Pinterest is on Saturday mornings.  Non-business hours are generally offer a better chance of your content getting picked up by more users.  (Facebook and Twitter are almost the complete opposite, with their best sharing times being from 1-4pm on weekdays…that was a bonus tip )

• Include a URL in the pin description itself.  Some Pinterest links are what are known as ‘do follow’, which means that they will boost the search results for your own website.  Even the ‘no follow’ links are an additional source of traffic.

• Create content for your website with Pinterest in mind.  Pinterest is 100% visual, so if your post or page doesn’t contain an image or video…it’s invisible to Pinterest.

• Use the ‘Pin It’ button. (https://pinterest.com/about/goodies/)  While many social plugins will have a Pinterest sharing button that you can enable, the Pinit button is customizable if you manually place it.  It is simple to do.  Enter the URL of the image, URL of the page the image is located, and a description.  Then just copy/paste the provided code into your post or page.  By including your own description, it is easier for your content to get shared, and your customized description will be inserted into the user’s pin when they click the button.

• Keep your pin description short, but keyword rich.  If users see a 12 paragraph pin description, they will most certainly delete it.  A short description stands a much better chance of being shared.

• You can ‘tag’ users by using the @ symbol, like with Twitter.  Encourage your users to tag your profile in their pins, showing them using your product, or describing why they enjoy your service.  You can then repin these posts onto your own pin-board that features these brand ambassadors.

• Host a contest or giveaway.  Much like Facebook was in the early days, the rules for Pinterest are pretty loosy goosey right now.  You can create buzz and increase sharing of your content by offering a contest to Pinterest users.  Be creative as the possibilities are endless!  Have them repin your pins, pin posts or pages from your site, create a board about your brand, and so on.  You can require them to use a unique hashtag in their pin descriptions, to make tracking entries much easier.  Be sure to keep it simple, and have your terms clearly laid out on your website.

• Let your Twitter followers and Facebook fans know that you are on Pinterest!  It is a good idea to create an integrated system, where you create a post on your website, and it is easily shared on social networks.  Also, directing traffic from the social networks to your website is important.  Something magical happens when you create that circle!

• Share your pins on Twitter, and sometimes on Facebook.  Remember, Pinterest only allows direct sharing with personal Facebook profiles.  To share a pin with your Facebook fans, you will have to manually share it.  All networks have their own rules of etiquette, so while it’s cool to post 10 pins within a  half hour on Twitter, you will lose some Facebook fans (or the much worse ‘hide’) if you did the same there.

• Create content on your website that is especially for Pinterest users.  Landing pages that carry over the theme of the source pin they came from will offer the visitor continuity, and enhance their trust of your site.

• Create a ‘behind the scenes’ board to show off your team.  People love to identify with a brand in a personal way, and seeing the smiling faces of your employees gives them that.  It also gives users a feeling that they are getting exclusive content.  As a result, they feel all warm and fuzzy, and spend more money.

• Make a pin-board that features Pinterest only offers.  Create a series of pins that describe discounts that can only be redeemed by Pinterest users.

• It’s okay to repin other users’ content!  Sharing content generated by other Pinterest users is what the service is all about.  Share content that is relevant to your customers, and you will increase your credibility, as well as catch the attention of the original creator of the content.

• When you include “$…” your pin will also display the price, as a diagonal ribbon at the top corner of the image. This will also show your pin in the “Gifts” section. Recent studies indicate that click through rates are not affected when personal profiles include prices, but brand profiles that include the price have shown to only garner half as many clicks.

Pinterest Tips For Local Businesses

• This is a list of ideas, specifically for local businesses, in addition to the tips above.

• If you own a brick and mortar business, search for users in a specific geographic area by typing in the name of the city.  (Be sure to select ‘PEOPLE’ in the search options)  This will produce a list of registered users in that city, provided they included that information in their profile.

• Include your city name, or #cityname hashtag, in your pin descriptions.

• Create a board about your area/city, highlighting attractions, events, or anything that your customers will find interesting.  You will gain users who may not be interested in your product or service right away, but they are certainly connected to people who are.

Now What?

While I’ve given you an enormous list of ideas and specific things that you can implement right away, there is more!  I want to know what tips YOU have.  I would be grateful if you shared a Pinterest tip in the comment section below. 

What did you think of Pinterest before reading this post?  After? 

How are you going to use this platform?

Thank you!

I was honored to be invited to this workshop, hosted by the Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre, to speak about “Social Media”.  What a daunting task, to narrow down the scope of ‘social media’ into 45 minutes.  I was scheduled to speak at 10:15 am, but the first speaker chose to speak for an extra 45 minutes!  I was quite encouraged that many people remained to hear me speak, especially after already listening to a presentation that approached the 2 hour mark.  It was a challenge to pare down the content to the time frame, and remain relevant to people at various levels of understanding.  My objective was to give some actionable takeaways for everyone, and I think I met that.

Timeline Facebook Pages Quick Start Guide

The ‘upgrade’ to timeline is available right now, but your page will continue to function in the old format…until it is forced into the new timeline layout on March 31st.  You can ‘preview’ the timeline look and edit your page before actually making it live for your fans.  The following 3 steps are the bare minimum of what you must change in order to appear professional and competent.

COVER PHOTO: One of the biggest changes is to profile images.  With timeline for pages, you will now have 2 images, a profile image, and a cover photo.  The larger image is what is called the ‘cover photo’.  This image is only visible when the user is actually on the page.  You should use an image that reflects strongly on what your brand is or does.

There are a few rules too;

• Do not violate copyrights
• No price or purchase information such as ‘get %50 off’” or “download this…”
• Unlike the old landing page images, you cannot refer to any facebook function, such as ‘like this page’ or “Share…”  You also cannot have an arrow pointing to the ‘Like’ button.
• You cannot have any ‘call to action’ in the cover photo.
• In other words, this isn’t a free banner ad!

What you can do is create a relevant image, and include a tagline or saying.  See that I added “Because life is too short to drink bad coffee!” to my cover image on my coffee related page.  The precise cover photo image dimensions are 851 X 315.  If you use a larger image, it will be automatically cropped.  You may drag it around the window before having to save it.

PROFILE IMAGE:  The profile image is much smaller now.  The precise dimensions of the Facebook pages profile image are 180×180.  This image will be scaled to 32×32 for your thumbnail image.This is the image that appears beside your posts in your fans’ newsfeeds.  Be sure to select an image that looks great in both sizes, and identifies easily with your brand (ie logo, image you use on other social profiles, etc).  Never change it unless you change your brand.

CUSTOM IMAGE FOR TABS/APPS:  Remember the links for all of your page tabs on the left side of the page?  They have moved to the right side, just below the cover image.  Only 4 tabs are visible without clicking the arrow that expands the list.  Photos are always the first item, but you can control the order of the three others.  Unlike before, you are not obligated to use the default image.  You may now upload your own custom image for each tab/app!  This is great because some tabs had quite generic or irrelevant icons.  The precise dimensions of the custom app image are 111×74.  To change the default image, go to the top of the page, click the drop down menu labeled ‘Manage’, then ‘Edit Page’, then ‘Apps’, then find the app and click ‘Edit Settings’.  A popup will display, you can rename the tab, and just above that text field there is a link to upload the image.

There you have the quick and dirty version of getting your profile ready to launch timeline on your Facebook page.  Now I will quickly cover some of the pros and cons of the new format.

PROS

• Images -
• The ability to enhance the user’s experience with a captivating cover photo is excellent.
• Images that you share on the timeline appear larger than the old format, and you can even make them larger by clicking the ‘star’ on the post.  (You can expand any post to make it more prominent by clicking the star, but it is most effective with media)
• The ability to add custom images for applications.
• Messaging – Your fans can now send you a private message!  I recommend keeping conversations on the timeline as much as possible, but this function will be very useful.  You can keep your personal profile from being revealed, while being able to private message.  The user must initiate contact.
• Pinning posts – You can pin a post.  This is like making a forum topic ‘sticky’. A pinned post will be placed at the top of the timeline for a period of 7 days.  After the 7 days, the pinned post will return to its original, chronological order on the timeline.
• Admin Panel – The Admin Panel is located above your page’s timeline. It is only visible to page admins, and it contains who likes your facebook page, facebook insights, and recent activity.  Above these options are three drop down menus.  These menus contain links to edit the page, see all activity (including all deleted/hidden posts), and helpful links to pages guides.
• Friend connection area- When someone visits your page, they will see which of their friends likes your page, and any activity their friends have on the page.  This is helpful in converting the visitor into a ‘fan’.  This area is prominently displayed on the top right portion of the timeline, just beneath the applications links.
• It is very easy to look into the past, and see what happened 3 years ago with a single click.  No more scrolling for hours

CONS

• Facebook is moving more and more into a premium product.  During the entire presentation, they strongly advocated that brands use some form of facebook advertising/sponsoring to increase their reach.  Don’t get my wrong, I love the usefulness of the advertising platform, but it is increasingly difficult to grow your following in a purely organic way.
• Default landing pages are GONE!  All new users that reach your page organically, will be automatically directed to your timeline/wall.  There is no longer the option to force them to a particular tab.  The only exception to this is via paid facebook ads.  When you create a facebook ad, you may designate the landing tab for that particular ad.  In other words, if you want to fangate content the same way you did before, you have to pay for it.

Helpful links…

• Facebook created an interactive introduction video to help you get started with timeline for pages.
• Here’s a .pdf that highlights the changes to facebook pages described in this post, and more.
• Catch a replay of the FMC event and breakout sessions
• Start setup of a new Facebook Business Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages
• Facebook Basics: https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=260315770650470&ref=hcnav
• The Facebook Blog: https://blog.facebook.com/
• Facebook Marketing Solutions Timeline Page: https://www.facebook.com/marketing
• Build Your Brand with Facebook Pages: https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=198605806884743&ref=hcsubnav
• Facebook Ads & Business Solutions: https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=195623423828629&ref=hcnav
• Facebook Advertising Guidelines: https://www.facebook.com/ad_guidelines.php
• Facebook Promotions Guidelines: https://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php
• Facebook Cover Guidelines: https://www.facebook.com/help/search/?q=cover+guidelines
• Facebook Pages Guidelines: https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php
• Amended Facebook Pages Guidelines for State & Local Government in the United States: https://www.facebook.com/terms_pages_gov.php
• Facebook Platform Policy: https://developers.facebook.com/policy/ (apps on pages must adhere to these)
• How to make a Facebook milestone: https://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=279680818764230#What’s-a-milestone?-How-do-I-make-a-milestone-for-my-Facebook-Page?
• Facebook Community Standards: https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards
• Facebook Data Use Policy: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/
• Facebook Statement of Rights & Responsibilities: https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms
• Facebook Apps, Games & Credits: https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=310847352301318&ref=hcnav
• Facebook App Basics: https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=222844857728639
• Facebook App Guidelines: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/guides/canvas/
• Facebook Personal Timeline: https://www.facebook.com/help/timeline
• Facebook Safety Timeline Page: https://www.facebook.com/security
• Facebook Family Safety Center: https://www.facebook.com/help/safety

What do you think?

Do you have questions, comments, or thoughts regarding these new changes?

————-

Are you excited, discouraged, or apathetic about timeline for pages?

————-

Did you find this post helpful?

————-

Please comment below

One of the most common mistakes that multi-admin pages make is creating a confusing series of posts, where multiple administrators will comment on a post. To most people, it looks as if the page is having a conversation with itself. Please don’t do this. Why do you want to make your fans think that your brand is schitzo? The facebook default setting is that whenever you are on your organization’s page, you will comment or post as the page. Also, any comment on a post that originates on the page, will be made as the persona of the page. The best solution to this is to set up your preferences so that you comment as yourself when you are on the page, by default. This way, you can comment or ‘like’ posts as your personal self. I will show you how to do this step by step, but each administrator will have to complete these steps in order for it to be effective for all admins.

How Do I Post As Myself On My Facebook Page?

• Navigate to your facebook page, then click “EDIT PAGE” at the top right.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

• Go to the list at the top left and click on “YOUR SETTINGS”

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
• Uncheck the box beside “POSTING PREFERENCES” Then click “SAVE CHANGES”

 
 
 
 
 
 
Another tip for Facebook pages with multiple admins is to have each admin ‘like’ and ‘share’ each post on their personal feeds. This will not only spread the message to non-fans, but it will also boost the page’s Facebook ‘Edge Rank’, making it more likely that the post will be displayed in the newfeeds of the fans of your page.

It may also be helpful to assign each admin to a certain type of content. Have one person in charge of video, another images, and another to respond to comments etc.

Another option is to make a schedule for each administrator to have complete control of the page activity, either by the day of the week, or by the week or month.
Do you have any tips or tricks on managing a Facebook page with multiple admins?
What has worked for you?
Did you find this post helpful?
Please comment below! Thank you

Automation in moderation is ok.  I know it’s not a popular thing to say in organic social media circles, but you cannot manage several profiles effectively without it.  As far as automated tweets, I don’t partake.  On the other hand, I do automate to find people that I would be interested in following.  For instance, if a client of mine has a single brick and mortar location, I will use an automated tool like tweetadder.  (that is an affiliate link, but I would recommend it anyway)  Tweetadder’s software allows me to search for people and tweets within certain geographical parameters.  I can set it so that my client’s twitter account will automatically follow anyone in that area who uses specific keywords in their tweets.  From there, I review the new follows to ensure that they are a relevant profile, and I reach out to them when an opportunity presents itself.  You can also search twitter bios for keywords with tweetadder.  I can also automatically follow the followers of my client’s competition.

Bottom line, automation for following is good.  Automation for tweeting and DMs…not good!

Which brings me to the purpose of this post.  The other day I was in a hurry to pick up something for dinner.  We decided to go to the Arby’s drive-thru.  We placed our order, and while waiting for the food, I checked in at Arby’s using foursquare.  I didn’t publish the checkin to twitter or facebook (which is really annoying if you do that all of the time).  Instantly I received an automated tweet from @ArbysFoursquare.  The tweet [below] told me about their fish sandwich, and asked me to buy one ‘today’.  My first thought was “Damn, you people are greedy.  I already bought food from your business, and now you want me to buy more?!”.  Obviously, Arby’s is trying something new with their location based marketing, but they lost it on the execution.  Why did they choose to bombard people, who are already at their store, with a sales pitch?  If the tweet had read “@CoffeeNate Thank yo so much for choosing Arby’s, and checking in on foursquare!”  I would have thought, “Gee, that’s clever.”  Instead, I get a commercial and I’m left feeling empty and used.

.@ArbysFoursquare How about just thanking me?I already spent money!

— Nathan Smith (@CoffeeNate) January 27, 2012

The world is changing.  Social media is transforming the way that businesses interact with customers.  Customer service is slowly beginning to look like it did 100 years ago.  There will be growing pains along the way, and some will catch on faster than others, but the consumers who use social media [approximately %90] will hold them accountable.  We are seeing, and are going to continue to see, consumers being in more control.  Nowadays, if I buy a product that is defective, or I have a not so pleasant experience at a hotel, I’m not calling the 800 number or sending an email.  I’m tweeting them, and hitting them up on facebook, and I have gotten much more traction with this than I ever have with the behind the scenes email or phone call.

I’d love it if you would share a social media FAIL or SUCCESS in the comments below!

::UPDATE::

About 10 minutes after I tweeted about this post, Arby’s responded. See our conversation below. Let’s just say, “Nice recovery!”

@Zynali We’re testing other types of messaging and appreciate your feedback.

— Arby’s (@Arbys) February 4, 2012

@Zynali We appreciate the learning from your experience & we’re in the process of pulling that tweet out of the set of replies.

— Arby’s (@Arbys) February 4, 2012

@Zynali If you DM us your mailing address, we’d love to send you a gift card to use on your next visit to Arby’s.

— Arby’s (@Arbys) February 4, 2012

• I have an American Express charge card (not credit card). I earn points, which I can use to buy things.
• I ordered a product, using my points, from Brookstone on October 21st. It was a Christmas present.
• November 2nd I asked for an update. I was told the item was shipped directly from the manufacturer (On The Edge), and they would forward me more information as soon as possible.
• Weeks go by… we go back & forth. I’d talk to someone, they’d tell me something. 8 or 9pm that night, I’d get a voicemail with a different answer.
• Finally, I cancel the order and move on. Or so I thought
• That night (a Tuesday) I’m told the product is out for delivery (even though when I talked to them earlier, it hadn’t been shipped yet) and to refuse the delivery. It’s scheduled to be delivered on Thursday.
• Wednesday morning I get a notice from the UPS Store that I have a package. Crap. It was delivered a day early.
• I spend the next few weeks going back & forth to get an RMA number and return shipping label. Again, I’m told it will be sent to me, nothing happens. All the while, the nice folks at the UPS Store allow this giant box to sit in their store.
• Finally, on January 17th I talk to someone who confirms everything (including my email address, which they had completely wrong (I blame the Amex rewards system for that) and manages to get the shipping label to me. I forward it to the UPS Store, they send the package back for me.

Frustrated with Brookstone, I tweeted:

From now on I’m only getting @AmericanExpress gift cards when I redeem points. @Brookstone really screwed up this order! cc @BrookstoneCEO

— Eric Nagel (@ericnagel) January 17, 2012

Here’s where I give them credit. I tweeted about them before, but apparently the first one didn’t get their attention. Including @BrookstoneCEO may have done it. Their social media team sent my name to an upper-level customer service rep, who then looked up my order, read the history (maybe the first person to read the order history, before talking to me), then called me to apologize. Not only that, she listened to me vent and ended the call by offering me a $50 gift card for my troubles.

Some companies “get” social media; others do not, and their brand is being tarnished each day. Compare @DeltaAssist (Delta Airlines, who talks to their passengers) to @USAirways (US Airways, who broadcasts messages and ignores their passengers). It’s not like people aren’t trying to talk to US Airways (they are!), but US Airways isn’t listening.

In an instant, I can send a message to 4,000 other people via Twitter. If one of them retweets my message, it can go to thousands more, and keep going until tens (if not hundreds) of thousands have read what I wrote.

Any brand should not only be monitoring their own brand name for both complaints and compliments, but also monitor generic keywords for customer acquisition opportunities and monitor competitor brands for disgruntled customers and news. Depending on how popular the brand is, this may be a part of an existing job, a single person’s full-time job, or require multiple people providing coverage 24 hrs / day to represent the brand in the social media space.

I wasn’t in it for a $50 gift card – believe me, it wasn’t worth $50 to spend that much time on the phone with them. I’ll find a charity that can raffle it off and donate it to them. But kudos to Brookstone for listening to 1 customer and making things right. Start monitoring your brand online today.

Eric Nagel is an affiliate marketer and Internet Marketing Consultant based out of Buffalo, NY. He’s also a huge fan of Tim Horton’s, which drives Nate crazy.

The Simple Way

1. Click the ‘Like This’ link as before
2. You will see your facebook insights for this page
3. At the top right, just above the graph, you will see a link that says “SEE LIKES”…click it!

That was easy, just never explained by the fb peeps.  The other way you can do this is a bit more involved the first time you do it, but you can bookmark it and always see it with one click in the future.

How To See Who ‘Likes’ Your Facebook Page

You can still get this valuable information by using this little trick to see who is connecting to your page:

1. First, you need to find your facebook page id (skip to step 8 if you already know your id)
2. Navigate to the facebook page that you want to see who your fans are.
3. Right click and select ‘View Source’ or ‘Page Source’
4. Hit cmd+f to search (ctrl+f if using a pc)
5. Enter this into the search field: /feeds/page.php?id=
6. Immediately following the, /feeds/page.php?id=, is a string of numbers, this is your facebook page id
7. Highlight and copy the page id number and save it somewhere
8. Copy and paste this link into your address bar https://www.facebook.com/browse/page_fans/?page_id=XXXXXXXXX
9. Replace the XXXXXXXX with your page id number that you just saved
10. Click enter

FACEBOOK TIMELINE UPDATE!

Now you have the same list that you are used to seeing when clicking the ‘Like this’ facebook link

I hope you find this information helpful!  If you do, please leave a comment below

Follow the 2011 SSMARt Innovation Awards LIVE!

Participate via Twitter by including the hashtag #ssmart11

It is really simple to do, but I’ll walk you through it in 3 easy steps.

1. Go to your facebook business page and hover your pointer over your profile pic. You will see a caption appear “Change Picture”…click it.

 

2. Next you will see your profile image and a couple of options below it, click on “Edit Thumbnail”

 

 

3. Traditionally, you only had the option to drag your pic around in the window, but now you can tick the box that says “Scale To Fit” and your image will automatically be rescaled to fit in the thumbnail view!

 

%99.2 of the world knows that Facebook is an excellent platform for business.  Despite this, only a small percentage of those businesses know ‘how’ to do it right.  My biggest pet peeve is when I receive a ‘friend’ request from “ACME Landscapers”.  I think to myself, “Hmm, I don’t remember anyone named ACME from highschool, nor do I know anybody with the last name ‘Landscaper’.”  It sounds ridiculous, but that is exactly what these clowns have to type in when creating a Facebook personal profile for their business page.  Here are a few reasons why you should never do this, and how to fix it if you started out on the wrong path.

Do NOT use a facebook personal profile for business because;

• Facebook will shut you down- Using a personal profile as a business is a quick way to get your page removed from facebook, because it violates the facebook terms of service.  Not only will you not be able to access you profile, but all of your contacts that you worked hard to nurture will be lost.  All of your messages and content…gone forever!  Imagine climbing to a few thousand valuable facebook members, only to have the cord pulled out, yikes!
• The Sky’s The Limit? - While facebook pages don’t have a limit to the number of connections you have, personal pages cap out at 5,000.  That may sound like a steep number when you are first starting, but it is attainable if you are interesting and engaging.
• You Are Annoying! - Who wants to be friends with a baber shop?  Really, you are annoying, and circumventing the system to try and game more connections will not bode well for your business either.  While consumers crave a deeper connection with those they do business with, they don’t want “Doug’s Care Care” looking at pictures of their children.  You have to earn the title ‘friend’, there are no head starts.
• Loss of SEO Benefits -Content shared via a personal profile is not indexed by search engines.  On the other hand, all content shared via a business page will
  
  

  be indexed by the likes of Google. This will make your brand easier to find, and offer a boost to your website’s SEO efforts.

• No Helpful Analytics – Personal profiles do not have the facebook page Insights that business pages enjoy.  There is a great deal of useful information about what demographic is ‘liking’ your content, as well as what works and what doesn’t.
• Facebook “Places” - If you use a personal profile for business, then you will not have the ability to merge your facebook page with its corresponding ‘places’ page.  The facebook places page, is the one that people with smartphones can ‘check in’ to.  You can merge this page with your facebook business page to increase interaction with connections on facebook and consolidate them.

What if I already created a personal profile for my business?

So you made a mistake, we all have.  As with anything else, it’s not what you did that counts, it’s what you do afterward.  You created a facebook profile for your business using the personal type of profile and you want to make it right.  It is quite easily done by following these steps…

1. If you don’t already have one, create a real facebook personal profile.
2. Sign in to facebook & login using your business’ profile information
3. Download your profile content by visiting this link and click “Learn More” https://www.facebook.com/editaccount.php  Follow the instructions provided.
   (You can skip this step if you don’t mind losing your previously shared content and profile information.  The migration process will retain your profile pics and all of your ‘friends’ will be automatically converted to ‘Likes’ (fans) but all other photos, links, and posts will not carry over to the new page.)
4. When you are completely ready to convert your profile to a facebook ‘page’, visit this link http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php?migrate
5. Now you will be given 6 categories of pages to choose from.  (see image, right)  Select the one that fits best as it will offer your page functionality that is specific to your needs.
6. Complete your business profile information, add content such as photos, information, tips, and questions.
7. Highlight and copy the url of your business page.
8. Logout and log back into facebook using your personal account.
9. Paste the url of your business page into the address bar, then “Like” your page.
10. Logout and once again log back in using your business facebook login.  Go to your business’ page and in the left column, it will say “XXXX people like this”  Click that and you will see a list of people who like your page.  Find your personal account name and click “Make Admin” located right beside the picture.  Now you can control this page from your personal account.  Don’t worry, none of your connections will be able to access any portion of your personal page unless you choose to change the default settings.
11. ENGAGE!  Now it’s time to interact with those who have chosen to connect with your facebook for business page.  Do this by always being attentive and promptly addressing anyone who takes the time to leave a comment.  Thank them, talk to them, be authentic, and they will become an advocate for your brand!
12. Claim your facebook username.  When you first create a page your url will be something like facebook.com/pages/you-page-name/45523456643455  That looks pretty disgusting on a business card, not to mention hard for people to type in.  Once your page has 25 connections, you can visit http://www.facebook.com/username to choose a vanity url (username) to change it to something much cleaner and easier to promote, facebook.com/YourPageName
13. Grow your following by letting your existing connections know about your page, the use of compelling facebook ads, and including your facebook link on all promotional materials.
14. Repeat step #11 over and over again!