Why Bother with Facebook May 21, 2010

SocialPie newsletter | Facebook | May 21, 2010

Facebook is more popular than porn. If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s 3rd largest, after China and India. That’s a lot of eyeballs. Odds are pretty good a portion of those eyeballs belong to your target market. Using Facebook puts you in front of them.

Today we’ll start with an introduction to Facebook basics, personal vs. business pages. The next 4 weeks we’ll explore these Facebook topics:

• Using Facebook for competitive advantage without being a member
• Insights about those who “Like” your page
• Facebook Ads
• Customizing Facebook

Personal profiles & Business Pages

Every member of Facebook has a personal page. Personal pages are for people and that’s where YOU connect to your real friends. People with businesses can add a Business Page. And people can “Like” your business. (this recently changed from being Fan Pages).

Tips:

1. Facebook is free
2. Businesses cannot use personal profiles to promote themselves. They must build a Business Page from their personal profile. Break the rule and Facebook may shut you down.
3. People who “Like” your business do not have access to your personal page or your friends’ personal status updates.
4. “Liker” is not a noun
5. You can get a “Like Us on Facebook” box to add to your website; for free.

Facebook privacy settings for users have been a hot topic recently. On Tuesday, May 18, Facebook promised to introduce simpler privacy settings. Read more here.

I’m full. Next week: using Facebook for competitive advantage without becoming a member.

Facebook goes Out & About May 17, 2010

Out & About is a local guide to what’s going on in the Delaware area. Facebook was all over the May issue. Publisher and advertisers both got in the act. Within the first 5 ads, two included Facebook logos.  There was an article on a snarky Facebook Fan (OK, business) Page. And within the brunch article, several restaurants replaced their website address with “Find us on Facebook”. Take a look at the video for details.

Sponsored Tweets April 18, 2010

Twitter is going to make money. You may have heard this week Twitter announced a monetization plan. Big deal. You only care if it can make you money too; isn’t that right? There is a good chance it can. Twitter’s plan involves ads, no surprise. But not ads as we know them. Ads where you get to interact with the advertiser by DMing or RTing or Replying.

Here’s another blog post authored by Drew Hawkins. I won’t regurgitate what he says so well. Check out his article, it’s only 1 page. It gives you a sense of how this may or may not make sense for your business.

You can already interact with customers directly using Twitter. The question for your business is:  does it make sense for you to pay Twitter for a leg up in the search results.

(Yes, I’ve noticed the Twitter kick lately on the blog. I’ll get over it soon, promise)

Hootsuite Rocks Functionality April 16, 2010

Managing Twitter gets much easier when you actually leave Twitter.com and use a different application to tweet. After experimenting for about 6 months, I’ve settled on Hootsuite. And I’ve really thought it was the best, at least for how my head works.
Today I notices a new button at the bottom of Hootsuite’s screen, call “People.” Let me tell you I’ve fallen in love all over again. It shows you followers and concisely tells you just about everything you want to know about how you interact with them (following or not), the size of their influence (via Klout score), where their located (important if you need geographic influence for a walk in business like a dry cleaner or pizza place). And it shows you all your lists. Then the little gear button on the right and you can change your interaction with that user. And then scroll through everyone.
Here’s a screen shot:

Why is it SO great? It’s simple, visually organized and still jammed with functionality. Be still my heart. (yeah my friends think I’m a geek, too.)

The People button (bottom left-ish). Click on the image to enlarge.

Twitter 101 for Business April 15, 2010

Twitter knows it’s really simple platform can be difficult to master. And they know that’s a problem that turns large number of businesses off.

Recipe for Quitting

Twitterettes would like businesses to use it, but know how tough it is to find the time to master something when you are already working half days (whichever 12 hrs you want.) Enter Twitter 101, specifically for business.  Take a look, what do you think. Is it persuasive, does it simplify the mastery? Does it make you want to try? Let me know what you think.

Social Media Examiner Re-post: Five Small Biz Tips for Social Media Success April 10, 2010

Social Media Examiner

Over the last couple months I’ve talked with dozens of small business owners about social media. Two things they all have in common are being both interested and baffled by social media. Hopefully our conversations have fanned the flames of interest and quelled the nerves of befuddlement. Today a blog post by Peter Wylie really caught my attention I wanted to point it out to all my readers as well. He gives 5 pointers to  small businesses can grow by using social media effectively without big budgets.

The post is “Five Small Business Tips for Social Media Success.”

Here’s the Cliff’sNotes. It’s worth your time to read the entire post – IMHO.

1. Local color – provide local context in addition to industry expertise; the big brands can’t do that from the corporate marketing department
2. Provide value-make sure your content is clear in what the customer is going to get in return for their attention
3. Be consistent-post on a regular basis or customer’s won’t visit again
4. Diversity and connect – be on multiple platforms, offer unified but different updates on each platform
5. Competition matters – iterate your efforts by learning from competitors, large and small

Here’s the entire post.

Hello SocialPie March 18, 2010

I am becoming a brand.

For the last 2 years I’ve been immersed in social media through other brands and I have developed clients of my own. So far they’ve known me as Carla Bobka.

I have a corp name, set up on the fly over a year ago, incorporated and everything (thanks Superman). All of 7 minutes went into the name for incorporation purposes. Honestly it stinks, so I’m not using it except for tax (and healthcare) purposes.

So I’ve picked a name and a logo and printed business cards. The name and logo are intended to represent my who I am and what I bring to clients. Of course the reputation for that has existed for a long time. Becoming a brand really means wrapping that reputation is visual imagery. I want it to conjure: colorful, conversationalist, interesting, giver, fashionable, full of energy with knowledge to share; and make you smile. If you asked my friends they would also say it should include “well accessorized.”

Are you ready?

Here it is: SocialPie

SocialPie's logo (need to check on copyright)

SocialPie helps businesses put the right pieces of social media to work growing their business. I help them figure out which pieces work with their goals, and how to implement. Small and mid-size businesses are my specialty. I’m really good at relating social media examples that people connect to their own business. I have a talent for explanation.

People have never really known how to begin working with me, so I’ve added a page to the blog (top header.)

SocialPie doesn’t roll off my lips yet, I’m still getting used to it. Let me know what you think.

Carla