Don’t Look at Him. He’ll Go Away!

There’s an elephant in the room and many still don’t want to do anything about it.  You know you should.  You know you need to.  You’ve probably been lurking a bit.  You may have been reading about it.  But you just can’t bring yourself to talk about it.  Why?

There’s no denying it.  Google+ is just one more thing to do!

Entrepreneurs everywhere are struggling to keep up with the growing demands of business ownership.   As if it weren’t already tough enough to start, grow and maintain a thriving business, now it’s up to you to be engaging, create content worthy of attention, manage multiple platforms, all the while keeping up with the steady stream of changes that seem to occur in social media on a daily basis.

You were probably just settling into a routine with Facebook and Twitter when… you guessed it… here comes Google+.  And now there’s one more thing for you to add to your growing daily To Do list.

So what would happen if we all got together and just refused to participate? What would happen if we just stuck our heads in the sand and kept doing what we’ve been doing without adding more? I’m afraid that just isn’t an option.

When the environment changes, if you can’t adapt, you can’t survive.

The importance of Google+  isn’t just about what it is today.  It’s about what it is today and will be in the future.  Google+ isn’t just about your traditional networking.  It’s networking, rankings and SEO in an optimized manner that’s customized for a society that wants everything NOW.  It was launched in 2011 and is predicted to have 250-400 million users by the end of 2012.

There are a few things that make Google+ different from your typical social networking sites.  Google itself offers an entire suite of business tools.  It’s Google as a whole that makes Google+ so important.  This is where Google really has an advantage over Facebook and Twitter!

Google is a secure, integrated, infrastructure to share, learn, collaborate, market and save time. Google is known as a search engine but there’s so much more there!  It used to be a tool that sent you somewhere.  Now it’s become a destination web platform all by itself.  Google offers a Calendar, Maps, Photos, Search, News, Reader, Email, Phone services and more!  And now it offers a fully functioning infrastructure to pull it all together for the end user in the form of Google+.

Businesses concerned with productivity and privacy can block Twitter and Facebook but blocking Google is practically an impossibility.  There are 40 million Google business apps users and 4 million businesses who use Google Apps for their daily functions.  The next generation of consumer is growing up with Google and their entire suite of products and services to choose from.  Still think you can afford to keep shoving this platform to the back of the room?  Think again!

Give him a big hug and welcome him in!

There are things on Google+ you just can’t get everywhere else:

• There is no Edgerank on Google+.  YOU decide what you want to see in the newsfeed!
• Type as much as you’d like in your status update!  Write a blog post if you feel like it!
• Reach out and interact with anyone you would like! No penalties or nasty messages if you circle someone you don’t know in real life. This opens up a world of opportunities for getting in front of new people!
• Get automatic placement in your target audience’s Gmail contacts when they circle you.
• We’re still in the early days of Google+.  If your competition hasn’t already jumped into this platform with both feet then now is your chance to set yourself up as the expert in your industry.  Become the ‘go to’ person in your field and by the time your competition realizes the importance of this new tool, it will be too late.

There are a few realities you can’t escape:

• Like it or not, Google has the power to point search results to Google+.
• Google+ profiles and business pages are powerful SEO tools that can help you get higher search engine rankings.
• Google+ is growing by an estimated 20 million users per month.  If your target market isn’t there already you can bet they soon will be.
• As businesses and consumers alike rely more heavily on Google in the years to come, it’s only natural that they’ll end up using the networking platform that ties it all together.
• Google+ integrates easily and seamlessly with all the other Google products that 40 million people are using on a regular basis.  It’s big.  It’s visible.  It’s hard to ignore!  Have you tried ignoring that big black bar across every Google page? Connect with your audience on Google+ and you automatically become part of that growing network they can’t ignore either.

Although the thought of adding one more thing to your day can seem very daunting, this is one time when I can’t stress enough how important it is to make some room.  Networking, SEO and some pretty terrific business tools all rolled up in one well established and fully integrated platform!  Don’t wait until your competition gains the advantage! Don’t wait until your target audience has come to rely on someone else!  Get started today with just a few minutes each day.  Big results are waiting!

Still not convinced?  Join me on Tuesday, April 24th at 2pm EST on Word of Mom Radio.  We’ll be discussing the updated Google+ platform, why and how to use it and I’ll even be covering the basic mechanics like how to post, how to find people for your circles, how to get in other people’s circles and much, much more!  http://www.bizmsolutions.com/home/social-media-help-not-hype.html

So go ahead and create your account (from your most commonly used gmail address) and look me up www.gplus.to/janiceclark.  Then join me on Word of Mom Radio and get your questions answered live!

“When there’s an elephant in the room introduce him.”
― Randy Pausch

Well here we are again! Facebook has been busy making changes to brand pages and now it’s our turn to get busy figuring it all out!

I feel as though I’ve written this post before. Oh, wait! I did! Last year I came out with a guide to all the Facebook changes that were occuring at the time and now here I am again posting another.

I debated on making a comment here about how frustrating all of these changes can be. I thought about sharing with you how difficult these sudden moves can be even to a social media strategist! But then I took a deep breath and remembered that Facebook is still a free platform where I’ve met so many wonderful people whom I network and partner with in order to bring in more business for us all. I thought about the tornadoes that devastated the midwest a few weeks ago and how families used Facebook to reach out to one another and stay in touch during the devastation. I thought about all the great benefits that Facebook provides us free of charge and suddenly wasn’t quite so willing to say anything negative about their decision to make these changes. And then I remembered one more of my absolute favorite quotes:

“When you are through changing, you are through.” ~Bruce Barton

So it’s with a smile and a deep “here we go again” breath that I share with you my 2012 quick reference guide to all the latest Facebook changes!

Going Live March 30th
Just a quick reminder that these changes will be mandatory as of March 30th. We still have a little time to tweak our pages and get them the way we want them before Facebook automatically changes everyone’s brand page over to the new Timeline layout.

Goal of the New Layout
This round of Facebook changes centers around brand pages and strives to offer the flexibility and branding capabilities that business pages have needed for a very long time. Although change can be frustrating (sorry, I did just have to throw that in there!) many of these changes are going to be beneficial. Page owners will have the ability to truly brand their main page via the new Timeline cover photo and control the information they want to stand out for their audience. Instead of a generic wall where posts live only in chronological order, we’ll have the opportunity to create an experience for our target audience that guides them along the story of our business, highlighting the content we find most valuable.

Recent Facebook Changes

*Please note: Some of the images below look small on this page.  Click on any image to see a larger version.

1) Default Tabs: Default Landing tabs/Welcome tabs are going away.

a) There is no longer an option to automatically send new fans to a specific page you’ve created. Everyone who goes to your page will automatically go to your wall.

b) The custom tabs you’ve already created won’t disappear. They will become thumbnail boxes at the top of your page just below the cover photo (See Applications below).

c) Custom pages will go from 520 pixels to 810 pixels

d) All custom pages will continue to have their own url so you can purposefully direct people to these pages if you would like.

2) Cover Photo: Every business page will now have the ability to add a large cover photo just like the ones that rolled out to personal profiles. Cover images can be 850 X 315 pixels. They must be at least 399 pixels. These are for branding purposes and may NOT contain any of the following:

a) Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”

b) Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section, References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features

c) Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”

3) Applications: As mentioned in the Default Tabs section above, custom tabs/applications will appear as thumbnail images at the top of your page just below your cover photo.

a) These tab images are 117 X 74 pixels.

b) You may showcase 12 applications at the top of your page. Only 4 of those will be displayed prominently at the top. Photos is automatically one of those applications. At this time, you can’t change the location of that particular app so technically you only have 3 applications you have control over in the top row. To change the location of one of the apps simply hover your mouse over the app you would like to move. You’ll notice a little pencil icon appear. Click this icon for a drop down list. At the top of the list it says “Swap position with:” now click on the app you would like to swap this app with.

c) You can change the name of your apps by choosing “Edit Settings from that same drop down menu (see illustration below). You’ll then get a pop up box that lets you Type the new name for your application/custom tab.

d) You can change the photo displayed on the app from the “Edit Settings” box as well. Simply choose “Change” next to Custom Tab Image and upload a photo of your choice. Keep in mind the size restrictions of 117 X74. Click the Okay button and you’re done!

4) Admin Panel: A new Admin Panel allows you to see all the same information as before – just in a new format. Click on the Admin Panel at the top right of your page and you’ll see your page notifications, new Likes, Insights and the new Messages option which allows your Facebook fans to send you a private message. Please note that although page owners can respond to private messages from fans, they can’t initiate private messages to their fans. This option will automatically be turned on for each page. If you would like to turn it off you can do so by going to the new Admin area, choose the Manage menu and then Edit Page. You will see the option to turn messages on or off here.

a) In addition you’ll see a menu which includes Manage, Build Audience and Help. Use these menus to make changes to your page, share your page with others and get help with your page.

Manage Menu

Build Page Menu

Help Menu

When you’re ready to minimize this section simply click on the Hide button next to the Help menu.

5) Page Layout: The new format now allows you to edit the way posts are displayed on your page.

a) Pin specific posts to the top of your Timeline – just click the little pencil icon in the upper right corner of the post and pin it!

b) These will only remain there for up to 7 days

c) Add Milestones for your business – Highlight big events in the history of your brand by clicking the line that runs down the middle of your Timeline and selecting ‘Milestone’. You will initially be asked to choose the year your page was created. Go ahead and do that and then you’ll see the option to add a Milestone to your page. Click anywhere else on your page to get rid of this menu.

d) Add posts correctly along your timeline. Was there something you wished you had posted early on when you joined Facebook but didn’t? You can make the post and change the date on it so it shows up correctly along your timeline!

e) Highlight a post by clicking on the star icon in the upper right of the post. This will expand the post so that it spans all the way across the Timeline.

Highlight a Facebook Fan Page Post

6) Fan Page Name: Do you ever wish you could go back and change the name of your page? Now you can! Simply fill in this form! http://www.facebook.com/help/contact_us.php?id=262629790471076

7) Profile Picture: The profile picture for your brand should be one that is easily recognizable and instantly makes people think of your brand. These must be at least 180 x 180 pixels and should look good as the thumbnail on your posts at 32 x 32 pixels.

8 ) Wall Filters: If your page is set to allow people who like your Page to post on the Wall, fans will now be able to view a filtered version of the Wall. As you scroll down the fan page of a brand that has published their updated Timeline and allows fans to post on their wall, you’ll see a box appear at the top which allows fans to control how they view your page. The first item on the menu is Timeline. When fans click on this they will see a drop down menu and will be able to decide if they would like to go to your About section, photos or view one of your custom landing tabs.

The next menu item is Now. It allows fans to decide if they want to view the posts and activity from a specific year in your business.

The third menu item defaults to Highlights. This filter allows fans to view your wall in one of four different ways: Highlights, Posts by Page, Posts by Others, and Friend Activity. This will allow each fan to easily see only your posts, the posts their friends made on your page and the posts that others made on your page.

9) Interest Lists: Interest Lists are very similar to Twitter lists. When you log into Facebook as yourself (not your page) you will be on your Home page. From the left sidebar you will find Interests (You may have to click on More at the bottom of the left sidebar in order to see it). Click on Add Interests to create a list of pages and/or friends who fall under a specific category. For example: You may create a list for Great Social Media Resources. I hope you’ll add BizMSolutions to it! (Yes, that was a shameless request for you to list me! LOL ) You will then be able to choose from your friends, liked pages and also categories of popular topics in order to determine which people and brands you would like to add to this list. Now all you need to do is click on your list in the left sidebar and your newsfeed will instantly change to the most engaging posts from the individuals on the list. You may also share your lists or subscribe to lists that others have created.

10) Insights:

a) Insight data will now only delayed by 5-10 minutes instead of 2-3 days.

b) Get insights into other pages. Simply go to a page with the new Timeline and click on the Like app just beneath their cover photo. You will now be able to view their likes and number of people talking about their page as well as gain access to their most popular week, city , most popular age group; new likes per week and weekly number of people talking about the page.

11) Advertising:

a) Premium Ads – designed to get your business in front of new people

i) Shown on the right side of the home page, in the news feed, in mobile streams and when someone logs out of Facebook

ii) Learn more here – http://ads.ak.facebook.com/ads/FacebookAds/Premium_Guide_2.29.12.pdf

b) Reach Generator – designed to get more engagement with current fans

i) Allows pages to reach 50% of their fans each week and 75% each month

ii) Not CPC or CPM models, but will be an ‘always on’ ad. Shown at the right side of the page and also will go out into the newsfeed and mobile streams

iii) Learn more here – http://ads.ak.facebook.com/ads/FacebookAds/Reach_Generator_Guide_2.28.12.pdf

c) Offers – only a few brands have access to Offers at this time

i) Post is sent through news feed of your fans

ii) Offer can be shared through the post and when offer is claimed http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/7-new-facebook-changes-impacting-businesses/

iii) Offers will be free

12) Misc. items:
These changes aren’t necessarily part of the new Facebook roll out but they are things I’ve found many people are not familiar with.

a) Groups can now choose a collage of members or a cover image

b) Facebook is now allowing some users to verify their accounts and use a pseudonym. Currently this is only available to certain people
http://techcrunch.com/2012/02/15/facebook-verified-accounts-alternate-names/

c) It is rumored that Facebook will be updating permissions for admins sometime in the next month. There is talk of allowing page owners to give different admins different levels of permission for the page.

I’ve heard many people recently express the concern that with the new Timeline they can no longer tell who is posting on their page. They feel as though they are always missing something. Do you feel the same way? These images are for you!

From your Admin panel in the upper left you will be able to get notifications when someone posts on your wall.

Here is how your new page will be displayed:

Still have questions? Join me on Tuesday for the Social Media “Help Not Hype” Power Hour with Dori DeCarlo on @WordofMomRadio http://www.blogtalkradio.com/wordofmomradio or leave a comment right here on my blog. I’d love to help!

“Why aren’t things moving faster?”

“Why aren’t I getting any sales?”

“When am I going to see a return on my investment?”

I often hear frustration and comments like the ones above from professionals who are struggling in the social media arena.  Many of these people have solid reputations offline and are highly successful in their industry.  Understandably, they enter the world of social media expecting the same results they have offline.  When the results aren’t what they expected, they quickly begin to wonder just why social media isn’t working for their business. Does this sound like you?

Here’s something that you may not know or like about marketing your business via social media.  When you enter the world of social networking, you start at the beginning.  In fact, everyone starts at the beginning!! There’s no way to fake it and no way to look experienced in this world unless you actually are!  It’s authentic, transparent and anyone can tell how long you’ve been doing it by your numbers, newsfeeds and the conversations you generate.  Whether you’re a highly acclaimed expert or simply a local entrepreneur with a good reputation in your home town, your offline experience and expertise does not automatically translate into immediate online social media success.

Everyone wants to jump into social media and automatically have thousands of followers, friends and connections. They want lots of traffic to their blog, a full audience at their webinars and they want to begin seeing a profit and achieve that coveted ROI that everyone is talking about.

Slow down!

Laying the Foundation

Social media success works in much the same way your success offline worked.  It takes preparation, hard work and persistence. In order to achieve the desired results you must lay a solid foundation for success.  Think about what it’s taken to achieve your current level of success. You may have attended college, pulled a few too many all-nighters, had a few internships, started at an entry level position, changed jobs, networked in a few organizations, and steadily embarked on your career path or paths.  Many people these days make several attempts before they settle on a life long career! Whew, that was a lot of work wasn’t it?! Your achievements have required consistency, dedication, determination and time to get you to the level of success you enjoy today. Things happened in a very specific order, starting with your education and time spent building the foundation of what would eventually become a profitable career.  It wasn’t possible to jump into a great career without first laying the groundwork for success.

People who are marketing their businesses successfully via social media are spending a great deal of time on the foundation of their social marketing plan.  Here are just a few things you can do to build a strong foundation for your own social media efforts:

1. Build a great website, with informative content and pages that are easy to navigate.  Be sure to include your social media buttons so if someone visits your website they can connect with you across multiple social media platforms in order to learn more about you.
2. Include share buttons on each piece of content on your website so your visitors can easily help you market your business by tweeting, bookmarking, liking or sharing your content on Google+.
3. Create a compelling opt-in offer to get the email addresses of your visitors.
4. Craft interesting, complete profiles on a variety of social media platforms. Create profiles for yourself and your business. A great bio that focuses on the benefits of working with you will do wonders and get people interested in your business. People do business with people, so make sure you include your professional photo wherever appropriate.  And don’t forget to include a link back to your website on each of these platforms.
5. Create a variety of valuable content to share with your audience. Offering value in the form of blog posts, video and slideshare will allow you to reach a much wider audience than if you’re only using one method.
6. Curate and share great content daily – yes daily! When you’re starting out in social media, you need to be present daily to gain traction and build your following.
7. Check your messages. All of your social profiles offer the opportunity to interact with your audience. Make sure you are checking to see if anyone is speaking to you.
8. Engage in conversations with your target audience and potential partners.  Your interaction in the form of retweets, shares, comments, plus’s and likes several times a day over the course of time will help get you on the right track.  Start conversations and offer opportunities for offline interaction. Choose a few people who might offer strong partnerships and invite them individually to a phone conversation.  Let people know that you intend to be a permanent part of the community. Let them get to know you.  Give them a reason to like you.

When will things begin to happen?

 With a strong foundation in place some things will begin to happen for you.

• You’ll start getting followers, friends and connections
• You’ll start connecting with your offline friends online
• You’ll notice more conversations directed to you and surrounding your brand online
• People will sign up for your opt-in offer
• More and more attendees will sign up for your free webinars and trainings
• You’ll begin receiving recommendations, leads and referrals

Then, and only then, come the sales! Everything happens according to this funnel one step at a time. Don’t try to skip a step! There are no shortcuts here!

Will this work?

Can success with social media happen quickly?  Of course! If you’re investing in the right activities and spending the time it takes to lay the foundation and make the right connections then you don’t necessarily need to wait years to see results.  Online efforts offer plenty of opportunities to achieve success much faster than offline efforts!

Social media is about engaging with your audience and peers, creating relationships, building trust, experimenting with what your audience wants, providing solutions and then making the sales!  So how fast can you make all of that happen?  I often tell people that social media works just about as well as you do!

How well are you laying the foundation for your online presence?

The phone is ringing, emails are pinging, deadlines are looming and that stack of paperwork on your desk isn’t getting any smaller!  Are there really only 24 hours in a day? Some days it’s easy to wonder how anyone manages to get anything done!

What I’ve described above has become a way of life for many business owners. The stress of trying to check off the To Do list and get it all done can quickly get overwhelming.  Combine the normal stresses of business with the constantly changing social media environment and it’s no wonder you see so many abandoned Twitter accounts and Facebook pages!  Is yours one of them?

So, what makes the difference? Why do some people do so well with social media when others seem to constantly struggle?  The answer is simple.  Successful social media users across all industries understand the one technique that is essential to success.  You must get out there and be social every day, meet new people and have actual conversations.  You must build relationships!

Relationships bring more than just enjoyable conversations.  They bring visibility, referrals and unlimited opportunities of many kinds.  It’s not enough to be broadcasting your message to the masses on a regular basis.  You’ve got to listen and you’ve got to respond.  Any successful business owner will tell you just how important partnerships are to the success of your business.  They are equally important to the success of your social media strategy.

And how do you build relationships?  By having conversations!!  Do you love working with people who only talk about themselves? Of course not!!   Now take a look at your social media sites.  Are you having conversations or are you only broadcasting your information?  Now, some of you may be saying, “Oh, I share other people’s content!” That’s great! But do you have conversations with anyone? Do you ever just reach out and say “Hi, @Janice_Clark ! Thanks for sharing such great content! I really appreciate you!”  Of course you’ll want to substitute the username of someone you’d like to meet here!  :)  When was the last time you did that? When was the last time you logged into Twitter and/or Facebook  with the intention of meeting someone new?

What’s that you’re saying?  You don’t have time for this type of behavior?  You don’t have time to meet potential new clients? You don’t have time to build potential new partnerships and get referrals? You don’t have time to meet your target market?

Zig Ziglar once said, “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.”

You now know the secret.  And it’s guaranteed to increase your chances of success regardless of your industry.  Now are you willing to commit? Get out there today and make a difference for yourself and your business! Introduce yourself to someone new! Say hello and see where it takes you!

As 2011 comes to a close and we begin winding down for the holidays, I have to reflect a bit on what’s happened to my business over the past year.  I’ve always been a big believer in making everything a learning experience.  2011 was definitely a learning experience!

Business grew tremendously! My client base doubled and I began working with several new virtual solutions providers (VAs, web designers, an SEO team, etc).  Growth can be painful and at times 2011 has been exactly that.  The good news is that it’s also been great!  My virtual providers are wonderful!   I’ve worked with some of these ladies for many years and I take great joy and pride in being able to help them provide a better life for themselves and their families.  I’m working with some wonderful clients as well!  They have great products and services that I honestly believe in and I feel passionate about helping them grow their businesses!

In short, it’s been a good year and  I’m pleased with all that we’ve accomplished!

I believe it’s essential that entrepreneurs truly look at themselves and their businesses from a distance periodically and make a conscious decision to work ON their business instead of IN their business.  That time has come for me.  As good as 2011 was, I recognize that I need to make a few changes in 2012 if I want to keep moving forward.

Recently, a new client brought a fabulous project to my door.  Her name is Allyson Lewis and she’s written a new book called The 7 Minute Solution: Creating a Life With Meaning 7 Minutes at a Time.  This book is about more than how to keep a clean desk or how to organize your office.  The 7 Minute Solution is a wonderful book that offers solutions for a better life.  You can learn more by following @The7MinuteLife on Twitter.  One of the first exercises in the book asks you to look at a list of foundational value words  like success, family, faith, achievement, etc and determine which ones are most important to you.  You actually sit down and choose the 10 things that are most important in your life!  No pressure, right?

As I sat down and began this exercise, I realized that I had been running so fast for so long that I wasn’t truly focusing on the things that meant the most to me.  I was simply reacting most of the time.  I always knew what was important in my life but until I actually had to think about it and write it down, I hadn’t really been fully focused on doing the daily tasks that would bring me closer to the things that mattered most.  In The 7 Minute Solution, Allyson reminds us that when we don’t know what’s important, it’s easy to believe that everything is.  She was right.

As I move into 2012 I now believe I have a clearer understanding of exactly what I want.  I now have a list taped to my desk of the things that matter most to me in life.  I intend to look at it as often as I do my daily To Do list.  Those To Do lists certainly work but they only truly work to your advantage if they support a larger goal.  In 2012 I’ll be working with a larger goal in mind.

In 2012 I’ll be building a new website that will meet my needs more fully and I’ll begin creating training products to enhance (and at time replace) the individual hands on training I’ve done for so long with so many people.  I’ll also be bringing  in a new assistant to help me handle the tasks that to date only I could do.  I’ll be scheduling specific days to create content and letting an assistant handle emails on those days, even when I’m around.  Basically I intend to make myself replaceable in 2012.

I believe in making sure that all of my clients receive 110% from me.  In order to do this I recognize that I can no longer work in my business every day.  In order to move forward I recognize I need to work smarter, get some rest and allow myself some breathing room to grow.  The extra time this gives me will ensure that each of my clients continue to receive the quality attention they need when they need it.

In addition, the extra time gives me time for me.  My family time, personal time and spiritual time are the most important things in my life.  In 2012 I’ll be working to support these goals as well.  A smarter worklife means more quality time at work and more quality time at home.  It might even mean a bit of extra time just for me!

Are you taking some time to work on your business? I’d love to hear what you’re all doing!!   Leave me a comment and let me know how you intend to make 2012 a better year for you!

Facebook is at it again! Lots of changes, unnanounced and in a very short period of time!

With all the changes on Facebook in the past few weeks, I felt it was important to put together a post detailing all the updates. I wanted to make it easy for all of you to learn about the changes without having to wade through 1000 blog posts. I asked on my Facebook page last week if you preferred video or a blog post with screen shots. Most of you asked for a blog post but a few requested video. I’ve decided to do both! For those of you who love video, you can get a quick update about the Facebook changes here – http://bit.ly/oJQ9aG

If you’d rather quickly scan the info and see pics then here it is!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on written updates versus video! Leave a comment on my FB page or right here on my blog and let me know which you prefer!

A Few Pictures of the New Layout

#1

#2

#3

Recent Facebook changes

1. Floating Menu The menu on Facebook is now a floating menu. It stays at the top of your screen as you scroll down the page.
2. Menu Changes: The menu has now changed. It no longer says Account – it says Home
   1. When you click on your name it takes you to your personal profile
   2. When you click on Home it takes you to your newly designed newsfeed
3. Status Update Window Closed: The status update window is no longer open by default. In order to publish a status update, click on the Update Status link at the top and your publisher window will open.
4. Birthday Messages Streamlined When you mouse over someone in your birthday messages section you can send the message without leaving your news feed page
5. Real Time Ticker This new, live ticker shows you every piece of activity from your friends
6. Smart Lists:  Smart lists are customized lists you don’t have to create or maintain. From your Home page go to the left sidebar and you’ll see Lists. When you hover your mouse over top of it you’ll see a link appear that says More. Go ahead and click on More.From this page you will be able to see your smart lists. These customized lists include lists for the following:
1. Work
2. Family
3. Location
4. School
7. Increased Character Limit :The character limit on posts has increased to 5000 – that’s up from 500
8. Custom Sharing Per Post:You can now choose to share each individual post with friends, a specific list or you can share your update publically. In much the same way that Google+ allows you to share with specific circles, Facebook now allows you to share with specific lists.
9. Updated Newsfeed: The newsfeed is now a combination of top stories and most recent so it’s both timely and relevant
1. Top news is designated by the little blue triangle in the upper left corner of each post. The items marked Top News are posts that Facebook believes are more relevant to you. They use the Edgerank algorithm to determine which posts you are most likely to want to see. For more information about Edgerank see my previous posts pertaining to the Edgerank experiment.
2. Either scroll down to see your Most Recent news or click on the link at the top of your newsfeed that says “X more recent posts”

10.  Larger Photos: You will now see larger photos in the newsfeed

11.  Subscribe to Profiles: You can now subscribe to profiles of people you may not be friends with. As long as an individual has adjusted their settings to allow others to subscribe to their public updates, you can subscribe to that person’s profile & receive notification of those public updates.  You could always see any one else’s public updates but the subscribe button allows you to receive an RSS feed of the public updates of any one person who interests you.  If you are friends with someone already then you are automatically subscribed to their updates.  This feature also allows you to be very granular about what you’re subscribing to.  You can choose to get all of their updates, most of them, only the important ones and/or you can choose to get updates about photos, games, comments, likes and more!

12.  Three New Lists: Close Friends , Acquaintences and Restricted lists have been created for you.  From your Home page go to the left sidebar and you’ll see Lists.  When you hover your mouse over top of it you’ll see a link appear that says More.  Go ahead and click on More.

This will take you to your List page.  In addition to the Smart Lists we discussed previously, you’ll be able to see the three newest lists Facebook has created for you.These three new lists are Close Friends, Acquaintences and Restricted.Close Friends: Add people such as family members, offline friends or strong alliances to your Close Friends list and you’ll be able to see all of their notifications in your newsfeed.  You can also use the new granular tools to customize exactly how much you see from them.Acquaintences: Adding someone to this list will ensure that although you still see updates from them, you won’t see as many.  You can choose to exclude these people when you post something by choosing “Friends except Acquaintances” with the audience selector.Restricted: This list is for people you’ve added as a friend but you don’t want to share with them, like your boss or your grandmother’s best friend.  When you add someone to your Restricted list, they will only be able to see your public content or any posts you tag them in.No one is notified when you add them to these lists.

13.  No More Messages With Friend Requests: You can’t send a message with a friend request any longer.  Now when you click on the Add Friend button you request will automatically be sent and you’ll get a drop down menu where you can go ahead and add this person to your lists.

14.  Add a Friend

Add Them To a List

15.  Pages Can’t Message Fans Directly: As of the end of this month pages will no longer be able to log into the backend of their page and send a message to all of their fans.

16.  Share Link on Pages:Facebook reveals who shares your updates.  You can click on this link and see exactly who shared your update!

17.  Friend Button on Pages: A new Friend button on your Fan page that shows you how your friends are engaging with that page.  See who has engaged with the page and whether they commented, liked or shared information on that page.

18.  Content Review Link on Profiles:  This new content review link allows you the opportunity to review and approve any content that Facebook thinks you may or may not want on your profile.  If it’s suspicious then you’ll be able to see it here and either approve or decline it.

19.  Verbage Changing on Like Buttons : You will now be able to change the verbage on the Like buttons you have on your website to “watched” “voted for” “read” or anything else that’s appropriate to the content you are sharing.

20.  Timeline: There is a brand new layout for your profile called a Timeline that will be rolling out in the next few weeks. (These screenshots are courtesy of TechCrunch).  The Timeline will replace your current Profile.  The Profile in it’s current state simply shares the latest information you post along with an info section where friends can read your bio.  The new Timeline is intended to be an overview of all the great things that have happened in your life.  Those items will stay there for others to see.  The new Timeline will be wider and much more visually oriented. You’ll have the opportunity to share a large cover photo across the top.  You’ll have a private activity log here where you’ll find everything you’ve shared on Facebook since you joined.  Click on any given item to feature it on your Timeline. In addition, users will once again be able to add applications to their profile/Timeline via the Lifetime Applications I mention in item #21.

How Your Timeline Will Appear To OthersHow the Backend of Your Timeline Will Appear To You

21.  Lifetime Apps: These new and more social apps are intended to help you share the content that matters most to you and your friends.  Facebook has partnered with companies like Nike, Foodspotting and others to allow you to share the things you enjoy the most (i.e. your music, shopping, exercise habits, TV shows, movies, favorite recipes, etc.) and let your friends interact without ever leaving Facebook.

22.  Custom URL: Business fan pages no longer need 25 fans to get their custom url.

23.  Change in App Permissions : Apps will no longer be required to get your permission every time you use them. After Oct 1 apps will need to disclose the information they use about you before you use them. Once you’ve granted that permission they can feel free to use it.

24.  SSL Certificate Requirement: Don’t forget – Oct 1 SSL requirementAs of Oct 1st, there’s a new requirement to have an SSL (secure socket layers) certificate for your customized landing page.  This will ensure that users who use Facebook on a secure connection (https://) can see any custom content you added via iFrame apps or other third party apps. Three options for you: 1) Use an app like TabSite that hosts your custom tab for you and they will have an SSL cert., 2) Get an account with Amazon S3 and host your own content there – they have an SSL cert 3) If your custom tab is hosted on your own website you’ll need to contact your hosting provider and get an SSL certificate.

*UPDATE TO ORIGINAL POST*

25.  People No Longer Need to Like Your Fan Page to Comment: Facebook is moving in a direction to allow anyone who can see content to be able to make a comment on it or like it.  When people come to your fan page they will now be able to come to your wall and comment or like without becoming a fan.

26.  Improvements to Insights: Just below the fan count on your page you’ll see something that says “people talking about this”.  This is the number of people on Facebook who have engaged with your page in the last 7 days

I look forward to your questions and comments! There has been a lot of information to cover and I’m sure more updates are coming! If you have any questions or need more details about anything in particular I encourage you to leave a comment for me here or on my Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/BizMSolutions

Well, it’s taken some time but we finally have an update for the Edgerank Experiment!  WARNING:  This is not a short blog post!  We found a lot of great information that resulted in more fans and a higher level of engagement for our pages!

I’ve tried to categorize the sections below for easy skimming.  If you’d like more detailed information about how we achieved results we’d love for you to sign up at the bottom of this post and join in the experiment yourself!  Enjoy!

How it began…

As some of you may know, a few months ago I read a post from All Facebook that stated “3% to 7.5% of Fans See Your Page’s Posts”.  I couldn’t believe that number was so small!  I posted on my own page asking anyone who saw the post to leave me a comment or Like the post.  Sure enough, only about 3% of my fans responded!

At the time of my original blog post I decided to run a little experiment.  I invited others to participate with me as well.  A HUGE thanks to all those who are participating!!  You’ll find a link to some of their pages at the bottom of this post.  I encourage you to fan them and join The Great Edgerank Experiment with us!  Please note.  Some of these pages participated by commenting and engaging with our page while we did the same for them.  Others actively participated throughout the experiment by changing their engagement behaviors and reporting results to help us get the results you’ll find below.  All of the pages listed below made a tremendous contribution to our experiment!

What you may not know…

Facebook is reported to have over 750 million users!  With numbers like that, no business owner can afford to ignore the marketing opportunities it offers.  Everywhere you turn, you’ll find more articles, tutorials and webinars proclaiming the value of promoting your business on Facebook.  The problem is that many businesses with a Facebook presence still believe that making a post to their own business page means that ALL of their fans will be able to see the post.  That just isn’t true!

News feed optimization…

Facebook actually determines who sees your posts!  First, you should know that Facebook has two options for your newsfeed.  At the top of your newsfeed you’ll see “Top News” and  ”Most Recent”.  Facebook automatially defaults to “Top News”.  Each person’s default newsfeed only displays a certain category of posts from friends and pages.  Edgerank is the algorithm Facebook uses to determine which of your fans will see your posts.  Every item you post is given a score with each of your friends/fans and the posts with the highest scores have a much higher probability of showing up in the newsfeed of individual fans.

*Want to know more about the newsfeed options?  Sign up for our experiment below.  One of the very first emails you receive goes into more detail.  We’ll also be sharing some videos about the newsfeed in the next week or two.

Three factors go into the Facebook Edgerank score:

1.  Affinity between the viewing user and the item creator – If you have a lot of engagement with your fans (i.e. sending them messages, liking their comments, viewing their profiles and basically taking an active interest in what they’re doing)  that improves the Edgerank of the item you are posting. [ Keep in mind that this means each object you post is given a score as it pertains to each individual fan.  Neither your page nor each of your posts have just one score]

2. Weight – This is determined by the level of interaction with a post. Facebook considers that a comment is worth more than a like so any item that gets a lot of comments will have a higher Edgerank score.

3.  Time – The older a post is the less important it becomes

In my original post I said that using automation tools to post on Facebook will practically guarantee a very low Edgerank score.  In reality, although we believe Facebook places a lower emphasis on posts made by 3rd party apps, our experiment showed that when used wisely, these 3rd party apps aren’t making a notable difference in the level of engagement on our Facebook pages.

The experiment…

When I started my experiment I wanted to find out exactly what it would take to get me into the newsfeed of more of my fans.   Facebook’s newsfeed automatically defaults to the Top News so unless Facebook decides your content is valuable to a particular fan, it may never even see their main newsfeed!  To start my experiment I did the following:

1.  I reviewed the fans on my page and reached out to those I thought could be a strong alliance for my business.  I invited them to become friends and opened the door for further communication.

2.  I tested the number of posts I was sharing each day.  Traditionally I had posted twice but noticed that many very active pages with a lot of engaged fans are posting quite a few times per day.  I decided to play around with the number of posts I was making and see what happened.

3.  I decided to post manually on my page instead of using automation

4.  I decided to try posting a variety of quality and interesting items per day.  Video, photos, questions, polls and great information that encouraged people to comment!

and then I did one more thing:

I invited some of my clients and several other businesses to participate as well.  In total approximately three dozen pages went into this experiment.

What you must know before you read the results…

1. Every item you post has an Edgerank score with each  individual fan on your page.  Your page itself does not have one Edgerank score.  It is possible for one item or object that you have posted to be considered very important or have a high Edgerank score with one fan but be considered unimportant or not relevant and have a low score with another fan.  So it may show up in one fan’s newsfeed but not in another’s.
2. We understand that three dozen pages isn’t a large number.  This was a relatively small experiment and couldn’t cover a wide variety of industries.  However, the results were very clear and consistent across the board.  In future, I hope to add more pages, continue the experiment and get even better results for those participating!
3. No one fully understands Facebook’s Edgerank algorithm.  The exact formula has never been released and so we can only estimate what is involved in it.
4. We used a lot of resources when I set up this experiment.  I will list my resources at the bottom of this post so you can go to each one and read more if you would like.  Lots of other people have experimented with Edgerank before me.  I simply enjoy testing things out for myself and am hoping to simplify the steps to creating a more engaged fan base for my readers so you can be successful more quickly.

This resulted in more interaction ….

1.      When someone first likes your page, your updates typically start going into their newsfeed immediately.  This changes very quickly if they don’t begin engaging with your posts or coming back to your page to interact. So when new fans arrive, that’s the time to grab their attention and get them to interact!

2.      The pages I had actively participating in this experiment got the most engagement out of posting 3-5 times per day

3.      Engagement increased when the pages made a point of posting a variety of interesting and engaging content

1. Questions
2. Polls
3. Links
4. Pictures
5. Video
6. Live chats

4.      Engagement increased when page owners planned their posts in advance and put some thought into the types of content that would make their target audience want to engage with them.  Some actually wrote out their posts a week in advance.  These pages did very well!

5.      Engagement increased when pages posted 7 days per week – Pages that went silent on the weekend seemed to have a harder time getting people commenting again during the week.

6.      Engagement increased when page owners asked fans to talk about themselves

1. Personal opinions
2. Knowledge
3. Interests

7.    Engagement increased when page owners posted something fun.

1. Cute photos
2. Cartoons
3. Jokes
4. Riddles
5. Games
6. Trivia

8.      Engagement increased when page owners reached out and friended their fans

9.      Engagement increased when page owners communicated with their fans via the page owners’s personal profile.  When a personal connection was made between the page owner and fans, the fans tended to pay more attention to the page posts and comment more regularly.

10.      Engagement inreased when page owners created events on their page that people enjoyed and expected

1. Trivia Tuesday
2. Promote your blog post Thursday
3. Ask the expert Fridays

11.   Page owners who used automation tools to post outside of business hours and on weekends still had a high level of engagement provided they participated in a strong variety of the items I mention above.  If the posts were thoughtfully written, provided variety, were entertaining,etc and the page owner typically posted manually and was actively involved on the Facebook page then the level of engagement showed no significant difference than that on manual posts.  3rd party apps like HootSuite (my pesonal favorite) have gotten a bad reputation because when the same 3rd party app has multiple updates within your feed, Facebook collapses the objects and only displays a single object.  If your fans can’t see your updates then they obviously can’t engage with them!  You can get around this by using those third party apps wisely.  Don’t use them for every post, but you can definitely take full advantage of them as long as you use them on occasion (i.e. weekends, after hours, etc.)

A Few More Things To Try …

The following recommendations came from my esteemed colleague Mari Smith.  She provided wonderful encouragment and support for this experiment!  Many are also from the Buddy Media links below.  You’ll find a lot of great information there!  We incorporated all of these recommendations into our experiment with excellent results!
 

1. Keywords that drive the highest engagement rates include words like, “where, when, would and should”.  Despite driving some of the highest engagement rates, these question keywords tend to be very underutilized in brand posts.
2. The word “would” tends to drive more “likes” in particular.  Fans may feel that using the like is a way to vote yes on these questions rather than making a comment.
3. How, who, what, did and why had the lowest engagement rates.
4. Keep posts short and simple. Posts under 80 characters tend to get 27% more engagement!
5. Long urls get 3 times higher engagement than short ones
6. Post in high traffic windows.  Typically between 10am and 4pm ET is the best window, however, that may vary by industry so do some experimenting yourself!
7. Brands who post outside normal business hours (in addition to the regular posts during business hours) tend to have a 20% higher engagement rate.
8. Engagement rates on Thursday and Friday are 18% higher than other days of the week!
9. Blogs that are automatically posted to your wall via the Notes app or Networked Blogs tend to have lower Edgerank scores.  Go ahead and use these apps but make sure you manually post to your wall!

How long does it take to get more consistent engagement?

During this experiment I have consistently either checked the newsfeed of the pages I was in charge of posting on (some of them belonged to my own clients) or I asked other people participating in the experiment to let me know if they could see my posts in their newsfeed.  According to statistics from Jeff Widman from BrandGlue and PageLever, “88% of your fans do not come back to your fan page once they’ve clicked the like button – they only see and interact with the content in their newsfeed”.   This means you’ll be competing for their attention against posts from their best friend, their mom and all the other important people in their lives!  All the more reason to put some serious thought and effort into creating engaging content!!  It took approximately 70 days before we each began to consistently see the other’s content showing up in our newsfeed.  It was a very exciting moment!!

In Summary…

Facebook NFO (Newsfeed Optimization) is very similar to SEO (Search Engine Optimization).  It’s very important and is certainly nothing to be taken lightly.  And if you have a website and are marketing your business on Facebook then you should definitely have a basic understanding of how each one works!  They can, however, get complicated, are subject to change and can end up taking valuable time away from a small business owner who doesn’t have the resources to hire outside help.  Social media marketing is just that.  It’s social.  If you really want more engagment then you MUST be engaging!  You’ll not only attract the individual user but you’ll also meet many of the requirements of good newsfeed optimization!

Here are a few recommendations to help you get started:

1. Post consistently
2. Offer a variety of great information
3. Share your knowledge freely and invite others to do so as well
4. Give people a reason to come back to your page.  If they come to expect certain things from you (Trivia Tuesday, Coupon Thursday, etc.) they are more likely to bookmark your page or come back willingly even if you aren’t in their newsfeed.  Once they start doing that, you’ll naturally begin showing up in their newsfeed!
5. Make a friend list for your fans.  Get in the habit of actively engaging with them!
6. Use the tools wisely.  Don’t rely on automation 100%.  Don’t rely solely on analytics tools to tell you if your fans are engaged.  Get in there!  Meet your fans!  Get to know them!  Talk to them!!  And measure your engagement by the people actually posting on your page!  Create those raving fans for yourself and they will carry your voice to the rest of your audience!
7. Results ary by industry and target audience. If at first you don’t succeed, keep trying! The key is consistency in effort!
8. You are not alone! Join the experiment, exchange ideas, find a partner and work together to find new ways to make that inspired connection with your target market! They’re out there!  It’s up to you to make your business stand out for them!

If you’re interested in participating in this experiement – because it will continue – sign up here and get 10 weeks worth of tips, advice and resources that will help you become more visible to your fans!  Join us in our experiment, share your results and let’s work together to get more visibility, engagement and interaction with your target audience! If you have any problems getting our emails just email us at info@bizmsolutions.com

Participating Pages

http://www.facebook.com/S1Bags

http://www.facebook.com/WordofMom

http://www.facebook.com/KLVirtualOfficeSolutions

http://www.facebook.com/foreveryoungclub?sk=wall

http://www.facebook.com/CaliforniaStaffingProfessionals?sk=wall

http://www.facebook.com/ministrymarketingsocialmedia?sk=wall

http://www.facebook.com/DesignSuccessUniversity?sk=app_208412272531040

http://www.facebook.com/YBDietitian?sk=wall

http://www.facebook.com/gunnjerkensmarketing

http://www.facebook.com/StoryMavericks

http://www.facebook.com/MSMBINC

http://www.facebook.com/VirtuousJewels

http://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaSuccess

http://www.facebook.com/pages/e-websmartcom/63418060911

http://www.facebook.com/HatsnHeelsWomeninBusiness

http://www.facebook.com/compassstrategies?sk=wall

http://www.facebook.com/computer.explorers?sk=wall

http://www.facebook.com/computer.explorers

Resources

New tool measures your Facebook page edgerank score http://bit.ly/g7Zuk2

BuddyMedia – How to make sure you’re in the newsfeed http://forms.buddymedia.com/whitepaper-form_facebooks-edgerank_A.html

Strategies for effective FB wall posts http://forms.buddymedia.com/whitepaper-form_review-strategies-for-effective-facebook-wall-posts.html

6 tips to increase your Facebook EdgeRank and Exposure http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/6-tips-to-increase-your-facebook-edgerank-and-exposure/

Does Using a 3rd Party API Decrease Your Engagement Per Post? http://edgerankchecker.com/blog/2011/09/does-using-a-third-party-api-decrease-your-engagement-per-post/

Posting to Facebook: The Truth About Third Party Applications http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/posting-facebook-truth-party-applications/229694/

So here’s what happened…

Earlier this week I read an excellent post from All Facebook that stated “3% to 7.5% of Fans See Your Page’s Posts”.  I was shocked!!  I’m sure that was the reaction they intended!

I decided to test these numbers and made a post on my own Facebook page asking everyone who saw the post to either leave me a comment or “like” the post so I could get a feel for how many people actually saw it.  Guess what!  Only 3% of my Facebook fans engaged with that post!

This little experiment of mine turned out to be an incredible wake up call!  Only 3% of my fans were even seeing my posts!!  Oh sure, there may have been a few more who saw it and didn’t engage for some reason and others who simply weren’t on Facebook that day.  However, it’s  doubtful that the majority of my fans saw it and chose to do nothing.  That leaves me believing that the 3% – 7% number I saw could be entirely accurate!

The problem…

With over 700,000 active members, Facebook now plays an essential role in the marketing plan of every business owner.  Unfortunately  your marketing results on Facebook aren’t influenced by you alone.  Facebook actually determines who sees your messages!  Each person’s newsfeed only displays a certain category of posts from friends and pages.  In order to determine which of your fans see your posts, Facebook uses an algorithm referred to as Edgerank.  Every item you post is given a score and the posts with the highest scores have a much higher probability of showing up in the newsfeeds of your fans.

Three factors go into the Facebook Edgerank score:

1.  Affinity between the viewing user and the item creator – If you have a lot of engagement with your fans (i.e. sending them messages, liking their comments, viewing their profiles and basically taking an active interest in what they’re doing)  that improves the Edgerank of the item you are posting.

2. Weight – This is determined by the level of interaction with a post. Facebook considers that a comment is worth more than a like so any item that gets a lot of comments will have a higher Edgerank score.

3.  Time – The older a post is the less important it becomes

In addition, using automation tools to post on Facebook will practically guarantee a very low Edgerank score!

In Summary:  The higher a post’s Edgerank score, the more likely it is to appear in a user’s feed.  The problem is, “How do I get my Edgerank scores up?”

The plan…

It’s time to get in front of more people!  It’s time to get more people engaged!  It’s time to dig my heels in and truly get people connecting on my Facebook page!  Why should this be a business goal?  Because greater engagement means happier customers, increased referrals, more opportunities for strategic alliances and ultimately higher sales!

The first thing I did today was create a baseline.  I noted how many fans I have and I also went to EdgeRank Checker and got an idea of my own Edgerank Score.  I noted how much interaction has been taking place on my page and how many people have been sharing my content.

Now it’s time to begin working on a plan for increasing those numbers.  These are a few changes I’ve decided to make:

1.  I’m reviewing fans and reaching out to those who I feel could be a strong strategic alliance for my business.

2.  I’m testing out the number of posts I share per day.  Traditionally I’ve posted twice per day but I’ve noticed that many very active pages with a lot of engaged fans are posting quite a few times per day.  I’m going to increase my posts and see what happens.

3.  I’ll post manually to my page instead of using automation

4.  I’ll post a variety of quality and interesting items per day.  Video, photos, questions, polls and great information that encourages people to comment!

I think that’s a good start!  Let’s see what happens!

My mission…

Over the next 60 days I’ll be on a mission to increase my own EdgeRank scores and get a greater level of engagement on my Facebook page.  During that time I’ll be documenting what I’ve done, how I’ve done it and sharing the results with you here!

So here goes..

The challenge…

I challenge you to join me!  Start by liking my fan page at BizMSolutions Fan Page.  Leave a comment and tell me you’d like to be a part of my experiment.  Make sure you leave a link to your fan page as well.  Come back to my Facebook page, comment often and I’ll do the same for you!  Let’s find out how visible our posts suddenly become in each other’s newsfeeds!  Let’s find out how all of this affects our EdgeRank scores!  Let’s find out what happens to the engagement levels on each of our pages!

Are you up to the challenge?  Stop by my Facebook page and follow along with my little Edgerank experiment. We may both be surprised at the results!

You may have figured out by now that when you add your own business to the employer section of your Facebook profile, it doesn’t automatically link to your business Facebook page. Instead it links to a generic community page that Facebook has created.

Wouldn’t you rather send people to your own Facebook page? I’m going to show you how!

Step #1
Download the Web Developer tool for Firefox. You can get it at https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/web-developer/

Once you download it you will need to restart Firefox in order to see the toolbar. When the toolbar is installed, it will look like this:

Step #2

Go to your Facebook business page and get the unique URL for the page. You can find this by going to your business and choosing “Edit Page”

Once you have clicked on “Edit Page” notice the unique url that now shows for your business Facebook page in your browser. Mine is 176264300988.

Step #3 Copy this number and go back to your profile. Choose “Edit profile”.

Now choose “Education and Work”

You should see a screen that looks like the one below.

Step #4 Place your cursor in the Employer field and then go to your new Web Developer toolbar and Choose “Forms”. Then choose “Display Form Details” from the drop down menu

Your screen will now be full of a lot of different fields. Don’t panic! It’s supposed to look like that!

Step #5 Go ahead and enter the unique # we got for your business Facebook page earlier and paste it in the employer id section. Right after <input name = “employer_id”>. Just below that it will ask “Where have you worked?”. Enter the name of your Facebook page exactly as it is shown on your page. See the example below:

Step #6 Next hit the tab key to move off the field. Your screen will now look like what you see below (but with your information of course!)

Go ahead and finish filling in the information about this position. When you are finished click the “Add Job” button.

Step #7 Go back up to the Web Developer toolbar and Choose Forms again. This time uncheck Display Form Fields.

Now your screen should return to normal and all those extra fields will no longer be visible. In addition you should be able to see the icon for your individual Facebook page in your employer section.

Now when you look at your profile you will be able to see the link to your Facebook page shown prominently at the top. Click on it and you should go directly to your Facebook page.

Wasn’t that easy?!!

By now you probably know that social media can be a valuable tool when it comes to promoting your business.  You may know how important a Facebook page is and you may even have begun using other tools like Twitter and YouTube.

What you may not know, however, is exactly how all of this works together to bring you new business.  Do you know how to get new clients?  Do you understand how to get repeat business?

Last year I launched a white paper that resulted in a 25% increase in sales for my business.  It was launched entirely using social media!  Click here to read the case study detailing the success of the launch http://bit.ly/VidConSn

It was with that launch strategy in mind that I decided to sit down and really consider some of the things I did that resulted in more sales for my business.  This list is by no means all inclusive.  I’m sure as time goes on I’ll be adding to it and I invite you to share your suggestions as well!

Want to know how to sell more using social media?  Click here for 23 things you can begin doing immediately to net more sales for your social media efforts! http://bit.ly/23wzsl