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Lisa Orrell, The Promote U Guru 
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Archive for the ‘Facebook’ CategoryBad Social Media Etiquette Could Be Killing Your BrandMarch 19th, 2015Hi All! Back in 2012 I wrote a blog post entitled “Do You Suffer from Social ‘Me’dia Syndrome?”. It was picked up by tons of other blogs and also led to my being asked to write variations of it for several online business communities and magazines. I bring this up because yesterday I spoke to a client of mine who was asking me about Social Media strategies. After my chat with her I realized that it was a good time to revisit this topic in 2015. Why? Because MANY people are still clueless about proper Social Media etiquette! And that impacts your Personal Branding!  Have YOU forgotten the word “social” in Social Media? Here’s the deal…you have to participate to make it work for you. If you make it all “about you”, you’ve lost the entire essence of what Social Media is about! I find that many new clients who come to me are not getting much out of their Social Media and online marketing efforts because they’ve forgotten ONE little detail…they forgot about the word “social” in their Social Media strategy. Here are a few tips that will quickly illustrate my point: 1. Comment on other peoples’ blog posts. If you have a blog and want people to comment on your posts, you have to comment on OTHER peoples’ blog posts to start generating traffic to yours. It’s simple: If you read a blog post you like or have an opinion on, don’t just “keep it to yourself”. POST A COMMENT! 2. Retweet other peoples’ tweets: If you like a tweet from someone else, take a split second to click on the retweet button to share it with your followers. That’s why the retweet icon exists! To SHARE info with everyone and help cross-promote each other to help increase awareness for other people. It’s amazing how much more tweet-love and traffic you’ll get if you retweet, reply and comment on other peoples’ tweets. AGAIN…it’s part of being “social” in tweet-ville…and it’s part of Social Media etiquette! 3. Comment or Like other peoples’ posts on Facebook or in LinkedIn Groups: If you want more people to comment and/or click on the “like” button on your Fan Page or Profile posts, then do it more for other people! It takes less than one second to click “like” under someone’s post and sometimes just a couple of seconds to write a comment. Again, if you see a post that you like or find interesting, rather than just THINK to yourself, “That’s funny!” or “That’s cool!” or “That’s interesting!” or “That’s really helpful info!”, move your cursor up to the word “like” under it and simply click. Or type a short comment to acknowledge what that person posted! This may all sounds like common sense BUT it’s NOT common practice…which is why millions of social media hobbyists and small business owners are involved in Social Media but frustrated with it. They constantly just focus on posting stuff about THEM, their businesses, their products or events, their books, their families, their vacations, their kids, the songs they like, food they like to eat, etc., but they rarely take the time to acknowledge what other people post and share online. So…here’s my challenge to YOU: If any of this describes how YOU participate in the world of Social Media, make “improve my Social Media etiquette in 2015″ one of YOUR resolutions this year! You’ll be pleased with the results and will truly be participating the way the world of Social Media was intended. Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa  Simple Strategies to Get More Business on FacebookJanuary 13th, 2013Hi All! Social Media is an area that I not only conduct workshops and seminars on for small business owners, speakers and authors, but one that I provide private consultation on with every single client who hires me. Now, I realize that to some of you Social Media may not be a mystery for building your brand, lead generation and increased sales, however I will tell you it IS a huge mystery to most anyone who contacts me. The common questions I hear are: How can I get more followers on Twitter and attract customers? I have a Facebook Business (Fan) Page but how do I use for marketing to get more clients? I have no idea how to use LinkedIn, Pinterest or YouTube for business, so what should I be doing? How can I use social media for book or product marketing? And on and on and on…I’m not exaggerating when I say those types of questions are posed to me several times a week. Obviously each one of those inquiries could each be the topic of its own book (and many have been!), so I’ll narrow this down to ONE of those topics and tackle the others in future posts I write. Today I’d like to share an excerpt from an informative article written by Angela Stringfellow, a Business Writer who just had this article published on American Express’s awesome website for Small Business Owners and entrepreneurs, OpenForum.com. Her article is entitled: “10 Tips for Using Facebook to Boost Business”. To avoid copyright issues, here are just the first three tips she shares and then you can click on the link to read the final seven: Here are some innovative ways small businesses can use Facebook and capitalize on the power of this social giant. 1. Integrate Facebook connect buttons into your company website. Website visitors can easily connect to Facebook with the click of a button, enabling small business owners to maintain contact with potential customers even if they never return to the website. 2. Be responsive. Josh Grossman of e-Coupon service SavingStar says his company uses Facebook to communicate with customers and makes a point to respond to every question and comment promptly. Small businesses often thrive on personal interaction, and Facebook is a useful tool. 3. Make it easy to share content. Grossman explains, “Every coupon we post on SavingStar has a Facebook like button. Each coupon gets dozens or even hundreds of likes, helping to spread the word with users’ Facebook friends. All of our blog posts also have Facebook like and send buttons, and we use the Facebook comments plugin to make it easy for users to comment and share those comments with their Facebook friends.” The tips that Angela shares in her article are dead on, so I highly recommend CLICKING HERE to read the other seven! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa Valuable Lessons for How (Not) to Market on FacebookOctober 05th, 2012Ever since its initial public offering in May, Facebook’s life as a public company has been scrutinized, analyzed and commented on by the hour. During the lead up to their public debut, everything seemed rosy for the social media bandleader. Even General Motors pulling out of their $10 million ad campaign the week before the campaign didn’t do much to slow the company’s initial roll up to $38 a share. Unfortunately, the gaping problem that GM pointed out hasn’t gone away. Facebook’s sidebar ads suffer from a dismal click-through rate. Although the internet average is just .1 percent, Facebook’s click rate settles around a pathetic 0.051 percent. So is marketing on Facebook worth it? Of course! But not in the manner you might have previously thought. Social media is all about engaging. The point is to start a dialogue with customers. Just like your blog, the posts on your Facebook wall, Twitter feed, or Google+ page should be insightful, thought-provoking, and most of all, useful. Whether you’ve had success or failure in the past with social media (or you’re just getting started), remember these integral lessons whenever you’re launching or updating your campaign: Don’t Be a Broken Record Player Although tools that allow businesses to aggregate all their social media accounts in one place are useful, recycling a post across different platforms, this isn’t always the wisest approach. If a consumer likes your post on Facebook enough to follow your Twitter account as well, they might soon unfollow you if they’re bombarded with the same messages from multiple outlets. Of course, some outreach is best shouted from the rooftops. In general, however, treat each platform as its own. Make Each Post Unique The broken record player analogy works individually within an individual outlet like Facebook, as well. A week-long sale shouldn’t be touted in the same way each day (3 more days! 2 more days!). Try to think of a witty or relevant post to highlight the sale each day. If you’re a shoe store, post a photograph of yourself in a favorite pair and solicit follower feedback. Or, if you own a spa, reward followers with a Facebook-only giveaway for users that ‘Like’ your post that day. Don’t Over-Market Facebook recently launched ‘promoted posts,’ allowing business pages to pay a small fee in order to maximize the number of their existing followers they reach with a status update. Although this tweak can be highly useful when you’re hosting an event or a major sale, it doesn’t change the rules about what you post. If your update is a blatant and boring marketing pitch, it won’t convert the extra views into further sales. Use your website to promote your products directly, and use Facebook to talk about them. This spring, Facebook even launched a paid post beta program for regular users in New Zealand, allowing posters to make their updates ‘stickier’ on their friends’ news feeds for an extra dollar or two. If these become a regular option around the world, it could change the way our news feeds work, increasing the pressure even more for marketing content to be of a high quality that stands on its own, sales pitch aside. Stay Engaged Many businesses make the mistake of devoting themselves to a social media marketing plan and committing to a certain number of posts each day or week. But is it better to post three posts each day that get zero comments, or one post that results in a long stream of back-and-forth between followers? Ask questions in your posts and invite followers to ask questions in return. Be quick to reply when they post, helping to foster a conversation that will promote you as an expert in your field, building trust that translates into sales. Not to mention, the more comments and ‘Likes’ a post receives, the higher it ranks within Facebook’s news feed algorithm. Sometimes You Say it Best When You Say Nothing At All Are you totally unmotivated to post to your Facebook account today? If you simply can’t think of anything good to say, keep your mouth shut. The last thing you want is to lose followers due to boring posts or updates that shamelessly try to sell product. If you’ve got a case of ‘poster’s block,’ just log out and don’t post anything. Something good will come to you later. With Facebok struggling to further monetize and convince investors that it’s worth more than $20 a share (where it’s been hovering for most of August), there’s no telling what changes may be in store. Whatever alterations Facebook does make to its marketing options for businesses, the rules offered here are universal — with social media, start a conversation, establish yourself as an expert, and trust that the sales will follow. Blog Post Courtesy of: Senior executive Anita Brady is the President of 123Print.com. They are a leading resource for high quality customizable items like business cards, letterhead and other materials for small businesses and solo practitioners. 5 Key Strategies for Effective Facebook Advertising CampaignsApril 24th, 2012Hi All! I came across this extremely helpful article written by Melinda Emerson, The Small Biz Lady. Melinda always provides great content and info so you should follower her on Twitter @SmallBizLady and read her blog posts. Many clients come to me either confused about Facebook Advertising, or have never even considered running Facebook Ads. And I typically find most of them think Facebook Ads are probably really expensive. But, that’s NOT true! Not only can you choose the exact audience you want your ad to appear on the pages of, BUT you can also control how long it runs and how much you spend. Also, ads are great for promoting your events! You can run a Facebook Ad campaign leading up to your event and then stop the campaign once it’s over. Cool stuff! Again, you’re in total control of your campaigns and budget. For more info on all the general stuff about “how” to run ads, visit the Facebook Ads page. Okay…back to the purpose of this article! I’d like to share 5 tips Melinda offers once you’ve decided to run ads. “5 Areas to Focus on When Setting Up Facebook Ads” by Melinda Emerson. Please note this is just an excerpt from the entire article she wrote, so click here to read the whole thing! User Destination: Figure out where you want to send the users that click on your ad. There is a strong benefit to sending people to a Facebook Business Page, as well as sending them to a company website. It all depends on the marketing goal you are hoping to achieve. Costs per click will also vary based on where you direct people to go. A CPC landing page can make or break an ad campaign, but the landing page doesn’t necessarily need to be offsite. Facebook Business Pages allow for creative opportunities for landing pages including a contact form or a Facebook store among other options. Ad Type: Determining which ad type to choose can directly impact the success of a campaign. Facebook Ads are a common ad type that is structured most similarly to traditional CPC ads. Sponsored stories, event, post, and application ads can also be successful for brands but focus on more specific content. There is a strong social advantage for running ads that highlight a brand’s status update or event because they show “likes” and shares associated with that post. These ad types often see increased click through rates because of the social association. Targeting: You not only have the opportunity to target your current demographic, but can also connect with an audience that you would like to target as customers. Facebook allows you to target users based on every profile feature that they enter. Likes and interests are a feature that businesses need to take advantage of. If a business sells fitness products they have the opportunity to show their ads to anyone that “likes” fitness, health, working out, yoga, etc. The specific targeting allows for leads from a very qualified user group, which makes the Facebook Ad conversion rates much higher than traditional CPC campaigns. Reporting: In addition to the basic reporting that Facebook offers, there are other ways to track your user’s activity after they click on your ad. You can setup goals and conversion tracking in Google Analytics that can assist in determining the success of the ad campaign. Optimization: Continuously managing your ad campaign is vital to its success but knowing how to optimize it is what can really drive results. Knowing which ads are performing and why is what you’ll need to know to carry that success to the other ad campaigns. I hope her tips take some of the mystery out of Facebook Ad campaigns for you! Regardless of whether you’re a small business owner, coach, consultant, entertainer, book author or speaker, Facebook Ads are a great way to generate traffic to your Fan Page (Business Page), website, events, products and BRAND…and it’s highly targeted and cost-effective for lead generation! Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa Queen of Twitter Shares Social Media Tips for Small Business OwnersAugust 01st, 2010Hi All! Are you curious to know what it takes to get 70,000 (yes, I wrote 70,000) followers on Twitter? Are you interested in knowing basic tips that can potentially generate an increase in traffic to your website of over 5000%? Then you need to know about the fabulous Jessica Northey! She is pushing 70k followers and she has helped some of her clients see an increase in their web traffic by that gigantic percentage using Twitter as the driver. Jessica recently wrote a quick-hit list of around 30 tips that can help small business owners, entrepreneurs and solopreneurs (such as: coaches, consultants, trainers, speakers and authors) have more success using Social Media in their overall Marketing Plan. And she gave me the thumbs-up to share 15 of those tips here…and, sure, you may already know some of them. But, you may not. And unless you’re totally content with the amount of followers you have, and you’re totally happy with your web traffic numbers, keep reading! But before we jump into the tips, just who IS this Queen of Twitter on the verge of hitting a mega amount of 70k followers? Well, aside from being a Social Media Expert who is contributing a chapter to my new book due out this fall, “The Promote U Guru Guide to Branding and Marketing”, Jessica has 20 years of experience in the Media industry, including Television, Radio, Internet and Print sales, as well as being an on-air personality. Now, as The SocialMediologist, she is known for being able to create complete successful marketing campaigns and bridge partnerships. Plus, she is the Associate Editor and Social Media Expert for the popular entertainment industry blog, FullThrottleCountry.com. In her weekly column, Finger Candy Friday, she offers advice and opinions on social media trends and topics. So what are 15 of the 30’ish quick tips she advises? Here you go: 1. Set a strategy for Social Media optimization and be consistent. Nothing looks worse than months without activity! 2. Take advantage of the free applications like ping.fm to streamline your Social Media efforts. 3. Don’t forget the blog! It is such a great way to control your own content & establish yourself as an authority in your industry! 4. Think of Social Media like you were scheduling radio commercials. When is your target audience listening? 5. Don’t spray and pray. Narrow your message to your target audience. 6. Connecting with other people should be your number one goal. 7. Educate yourself and understand how your target audience uses Social Media. 8. Don’t put all your “eggs” in one basket. Diversify your Social Media efforts and use multiple platforms. 9. Add Social Media Platform Participation links to Business cards, letterhead, vehicle wrap, Broadcast and Print Media. 10. On Twitter, register with wefollow.com & twellow.com and use to find people w/similar interests to get social with. 11. Define your goals and manage your own expectations. 12. Don’t get caught up in the Social Media drama & try to stay connected to positive people. 13. Budget at least half an hour a day to Social Media efforts. 14. Download Tweetdeck, Seismic or Twitterific for a better understanding of how to use Social Media platforms to their full potential. 15. Use Social Media to have discussions w/followers. Ask them for feedback and see what they want! CLICK HERE TO READ THE FINAL 15! And don’t miss the last 15 tips…she shares names and links to tools to support and improve your social media marketing efforts. Want even MORE great tips to build your personal brand or business brand awareness, increase traffic to your website, and drive your target audience to your social media communities? Then also be sure to CLICK HERE to access my YouTube Channel! View short “how to” videos loaded with marketing, PR, social media, book marketing, and branding tips. Thanks for the great info, Jessica 🙂 And to all of you… Cheers & Happy Marketing! Lisa Why Having Social “Me”dia Syndrome Will Cause You to SufferApril 08th, 2010Hi All! As a Marketing Consultant and Business Coach, I speak with clients, colleagues, or audiences everyday who ask me why their Social Media efforts are dismal. To which I reply: “Have you taken the word ‘Social’ out of Social Media?” To which many respond with, “What do you mean?” People who approach Social Media as Social “Me”dia, struggle. So what DO I mean? Well, see how you answer these questions to see if you’re suffering from Social “Me”dia Syndrome: 1. If you have a blog, do you follow other peoples’ blogs and make (good) comments? Or do you just expect people to follow your blog and show interest in yours? 2. Do you really participate in the Facebook Fan Pages or Groups you’ve joined? Or do you expect everyone just to flock to yours? 3. Do you answer questions or provide solutions to people you follow on Twitter? 4. Do you re-tweet their tweets? 5. Do you thank people for re-tweeting you or following you? 6. Do you take the time to participate in #FollowFriday #FF on Twitter and give props to tweeps you really like so your followers will then know about them, too? 7. If you have a Facebook Fan Page, do you actually go there, daily, and post questions or helpful info that your Fans can respond to? 8. If you have a blog, do you invite Guest Bloggers to write posts and then source them clearly? 9. Do you reach out to people on LinkedIn, participate in Group Discussions, offer advice when questions are asked? 10. On your Facebook Fan Page, do you post interesting questions on the Discussion Board, let your Fans know, encourage them to answer the questions, and/or post new questions? If you answered “No” to more than 3 of these questions, you are suffering from Social “Me”dia Syndrome. You’ve taken the word “Social” out of Social Media and you’ve focused too much on the “Me” in Media. This means your branding, marketing, sales and lead generation efforts will suffer. And this means you and your business will suffer! Take 2 aspirin, shift your perspective, reassess your goals and efforts, and contact me in the morning. Chances are within a few weeks you’ll be feeling much better about your Social Media efforts…and the RESULTS!!! Cheers! Lisa Blog for Entrepreneurs Seeking Branding, Marketing, and PR TipsJanuary 26th, 2010Hi All! Welcome to my blog. For 20 years I owned an award-winning marketing agency in Silicon Valley where I developed brand platforms and marketing strategies for some of the biggest names in technology (Sony, SanDisk, HP and many others). Now, as the Promote U Guru, I offer all my knowledge and expertise to small business owners, entrepreneurs, authors and speakers. As a Publicist, Marketing Consultant, and Business Coach, I offer a unique blend of real-world experience to my clients. Have I written books? yes, I’ve written 2. Have I owned a business? Yes, I have been self employed for over 20 years. Have I had to launch and create a brand platform for myself? Yes, on several ocassions. So, I know what it takes. I’ve been in the trenches. And my clients benefit because of it. I encourage you to follow my blog…I’ll post guest blogs from other marketing experts, as well as offer helpful info about book writing, brand building, social media and much more. You can also follow me on Twitter for great tips and resources: @PromoteUGuru. I look forward to meeting you online or in-person…and helping you achieve the success you want. No hype. Just results. Cheers! Lisa |
