Category

Communications

Nov 01
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10 Things to Do On Your Facebook Fan Page

By Communications

So many companies, retail stores, nonprofits, restaurants and small businesses are making a colossal mistake. They’re creating Facebook profiles for their businesses — not pages.

Here’s the difference: I am a person, so I have a Facebook profile. It looks like this:

FB profile

This is the Facebook page for the Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport (client).
CHO page

It’s not easy to figure this out, since Facebook changes almost daily but what you want for your business or organization is an Official Page, as seen below on the right. NOT a Community Page, which is the choice on the left.

Official FB page

Once you’ve set up your official Facebook Page, here are 10 things you can do with it, to generate “likes” or fans and build your community.

1. Add all events and post them

2. Post photos from events

3. Ask the community questions

4. Introduce topics for discussion

5. Feature key volunteers/members

6. Provide educational material

7. Link to external articles and other content of interest to the organization

8. Pass along special offers to the community when available

9. Celebrate organization “wins”

10. Inform the community about legislation and advocacy action they can take when appropriate.

Oct 28
Love0

Moderating Blog Comments: The Discussion on Spin Sucks

By Communications

Oddly enough, I’m only posting this to drive you to another blog post on another site. I really want you to read this post: Moderating Blog Comments on Spin Sucks, the fight against destructive spin. Pay attention to the conversation unfolding in the comments themselves. It is a discussion worth your time and consideration.

The handling of blog comments – to moderate, to not moderate and all that resides between the two – has long been discussed. Many of us have different opinions on the topic. Personally, I don’t moderate, meaning, I don’t approve or delete comments before they appear — they are automatically published and if the comment is in violation of my comment policy, then I will remove it later. I’ve only had to do this once in about seven years of blogging so for me, it works.

I’m interested in this conversation though, and how Livefyre, the tool helping the conversation happen, will change the way we interact using comments on blogs.

Join the conversation — what do you think about moderating blog comments?

Sep 21
Love0

5 Ways to Get Started on Twitter

By Communications

A friend of mine is new to Twitter. In fact, he has a new job and as part of the job has been asked to become active in using it to help promote the business. He needs to fast-track to success on Twitter so just for him (hey, this is for my friend Tom, not for you! Stop reading this!) I’ve put together a list of five things Tom can do to get rolling with his Twitter account:

1. Create a bio that more fully tells us who he is and what he does. The bio should include his location and keywords about the business he’s in.

2. Increase the number of people he follows. Since Tom’s business is based in Charlottesville, Va. he should start there. I’ve done some of the work for him, using Tweepz to grab the people in Charlottesville who are active Twitter users.

3. Integrate his Twitter account into his other social platforms. For example, on LinkedIn, include his Twitter handle in the last name field and where LinkedIn lists Twitter in the profile fields as I’ve done with mine below:

4. Start tweeting! Yes this seems obvious but Tom has yet to interact with Twitter followers or the users he’s following, nor has he tweeted about what he’s doing or what he’s thinking.  Be thoughtful. Be interesting. Link to content you think others might find of interest. Be helpful and responsive.

5. Use a management tool like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite. It’s really cumbersome to try to manage a Twitter account when you begin following more than a few users and more than a few begin to follow and interact with you. It is also nice to be able to see, on one screen, your @ replies and direct messages in addition to the steady stream of updates from your friends. Schedule at least an hour a day to log in, catch up and engage with the Twitterverse.

After he gets the hang of this Twitter business, Tom can gauge his success by measuring his Twitter effectiveness using Klout.

Welcome to Twitter, Tom (and the rest of you who are new to tweets); we wish you much success!