Connecticut web design, internet marketing and social media
6 Settlers Lane, Ridgefield CT 06877 - Phone 203.403.3493

7 Deadly Sins of Facebook Page Design

Lisa Wher, over at imediaconnection.com has written a nice hit list of the 7 deadly sins of Facebook Page Design.

In short they are:

1) Don't have a landing page
2) Don't have a fan-gated custom tab
3) Not displaying your social media properties in your Facebook info
4) Not listing all of your web properties in your info
5) Not managing your featured thumbnails
6) Not utilizing the full dimensions of the profile image
7) Not integrating your YouTube channel into your Facebook tab

Read the full article here:

*Note: We are currently working on a Facebook Page customization tutorial. Check back in a day or so.

All-inclusive social media marketing plan

Question:

How do I write an all-inclusive social media marketing plan? Looking to involve twitter, facebook, widgets, wiki, blogs? Any direction?

Answer:

It all depends on your goals. Start with that first. What are you trying to achieve? Brand awareness? Lead generation? Online product sales? Donations? Who is your audience? Do they even use social networks? What is your budget? What resources do you have to updating and maintaining your social networks?

Question Clarification:

We want to build an intimate relationship with our current and perspective market. We look at social media as an intimate form of advertising where we can educate, and hopefully create a following, a network of "fans" or brand supporters to greater increase our overall exposure and awareness, and ultimately build growth in our student and alumni base.....Wow, I think that is actually a good starting point getting that all out:)

My thinking with the various outlets was frequency and credibility, if they see us on twitter and then again on facebook, and then a resourceful video on youtube, I want them to WANT to come and seek us. I put myself in the customers shoes and sometimes, the same way ranking in SEO works, I rank companies and organizations that I see in multiple outlets, does that make sense, am I on the right page?

Michael, the questions you asked are exactly the keys I need to create my plan, thank you so much for taking the time to help direct me with this.

2nd Response:

Since you have a school, I would focus heavily on MySpace and Facebook as a large part of their community is tied around schools. I would encourage the marketing department to create profiles for the school itself, set up GROUPS accordingly and work that angle as an initial start. IE, on FACEBOOK, create YOURSCHOOL NAME GROUP and invite current alumni to join. I would also bookmark and connect with as many Alumni as possible as well as new students through the networks.On that level, I would most likely suggest some kind of "widget" marketing...some kind of widget that Proud Alumni can download from your parent site and post in their websites and blogs and profiles of Facebook and Myspace etc....say, like, their year book photos...that is if you have that data archived in a digital format...your librarians and archivist will either love or hate that idea...

Anyway, if you need some more help. Let us know.

Bar Band Social Media Success

Most people think of Facebook as just an entertainment site for communicating with old friends. Though, this is true to a degree, it is also possible to utilize the vast network of friends and colleagues to your business advantage as the example below illustrates.

A Facebook friend of ours plays in bar band called "The Usual Suspects". He recently booked a job because of his Facebook, My Space and Gigmaster activity, and more importantly, his friends "feedback".

Here is the note he sent.

"The Austin Grill (Rockville) was impressed with all of your comments and positive feedback between here [Facebook], Gigmasters and My Space. THANKS to all of you, they hired us for their big St. Pats Party. They were looking for a good bar band that plays fun stuff to sing and dance to, and I guess you guys persuaded them to hire us.

SO THANKS A MILION!!..."

While prospecting for new gigs, he directed the prospective employer to his Facebook, My Space and Gig Master profiles. The bar owner was extremely impressed with the user feedback, and so, as you read, hired the band.

Of course, after this upcoming gig there will be more photo's, friends, and, presumably, paying gigs. This is an execellent example of utulizing Facebook and other social networks to your business advantage.

However, for building the bands "brand", they should expand into having an independent website so "strangers", who may not know their name, nor be connected to any one of them, or their friends, can "discover" them through the search engines.

As it is now, the Facebook comments, members and network is closed. The search engines only find the most basic profile page and require an account for full viewing privileges and "friendship".

First, they should buy a keyword dense domain name (usualsupectsbarband.com) and set up their own website that allows for SEO, blogging, RSS, etc. (We recommend Joomla as it open source and scalable any direction). Of course, they should cross link their website to their Facebook, My Space and Gigmaster profiles and vice versa. Additionally, on their new website, they might also want to start selling t-shirts and tickets to upcoming events. (This is very easy to do with Joomla.) Doing this, of course, will make them even more impressive to prospective employers, and fans and they could also start generating revenue by selling ad space vs letting the social networks make all the ad revenue profits.

Of course, most of us do not play music, nor do we have an entertainment oriented product or service. So, how can Facebook be utilized to our business advantage? There are a multitude of ways, which I will be exploring in detail in other articles. However, below is a basic and simple tactic that is effective in starting to build your brand in the social networks.

First, create a profile of your business in Facebook, My Space and Linked In. (Linked in is a social network dedicated to business professionals.) If the network in question does not allow "business" entities, set the profile up in the CEO's name, or a high ranking executive. Sales people and staffers should also be encouraged to create profiles and network to one another and related business associates.

Second, send an invite to your customers, partners and appropriate vendors asking them to be friends. It may be prudent to craft the invite as a personal thank you and invitation.

For example:

"Hi,CUSTOMER NAME,

This is the CEO of XYZ company. I just wanted to send a personal thank you email for purchasing our XYZ product. I appreciate your business. If you have any concerns or feedback, please feel free to contact me via email or our website. I, or my assistant(s), will respond ASAP.

Additionally, I would like to invite you to become a Friend on Facebook, My Space, or Linked In.

To do so, just follow the links below.

Facebook - ADD URL To Profile
My space - ADD URL To Profile
Linked In - ADD URL To Profile

Again, thank you for your time and business.

Sincerely,
CEO of XYZ company."

Of course, CEO's of larger companies are most likely too busy to do this themselves. However, they should allocate a budget for a marketing assistant or consultant to execute the work on a daily basis. Doing so will lead to immense brand equity dividends because of the personal touch and social nature of people. Personally, I would be thrilled if Bill Gates sent me a personal thank you for using his software.