Social Media Consulting • Lead Generation • Social Networks • Blogs

The New Facebook Changes

Get used to it. If you have a Facebook profile, we'll all be getting our new profiles timeline soon - if you haven't already. Here's a presentation from Mari Smith on the new changes. Do you like them? 

Facebook Changes: A Complete Guide - by Mari Smith

View more presentations from Mari Smith

Facebook Pages Changes: No More Updating Fans

Don't even try to update fans after the 30th of September if you have a Faceook Page for your business or organization. Thanks, Facebook, reel us in, get us hooked, charge us?

Have you seen this? If you have a Facebook Page for your business - not a personal profile, this affects you. If you've been on your Facebook Page lately and click on updating fans, this is the message you'll see.

I wonder what tools they will have available for us. Right now their help section states:

Can I update fans of my page using Facebook Messages?

As of September 30th you'll no longer be able to send an update to fans using Facebook Messages. We want you to connect with your audience in the most effective ways possible, and updates that go to Facebook Messages may end up unseen in the "Other" folder.

Here are other ways you can expand your reach:

Post content on your page Wall so people see your updates in their news feed. You can target your posts by location or language by choosing Customize from the audience selector dropdown before you post. 

Consider using targeted Facebook Ads or Sponsored Stories to help grow and highlight your message within the Facebook experience.

Is this going to be a good change for us that use Facebook to grow your small businesses? What do you think? Do you use this way of updating your fans? 

 

Facebook Pages for Business Denver Class

Facebook Pages for Business Class in Denver on Wednesday, September 21, 10am to 12pm in the Tech Center.

Why are major brands including using Facebook to increase their brand awareness and sell services and products? Because it works. And you can use the same strategies to grow your business. Are you missing out on the free publicity?

Join us for this interactive class as we go step-by-step to create your Facebook Business Page. Find out the best times and what to post on Facebook to get more interaction and how to gauge your efforts. 

Bring your laptop computer. Please make sure you know how to connect your computer to a wireless connection.

Who should attend: Entrepreneurs, business owners, and marketing managers.

Prerequisites: Have a personal profile set up and completely filled out on Facebook, knowledge of maneuvering around the home page including answering messages, notifications and posting updates.

Class sponsored by Social Buzz Network, Corporate Office Centers and Your Marketing Gal. Class is Wednesday, September 21, 10am to 12pm, $34 includes snacks. Class is at Corporate Office Centers, 4643 S. Ulster Street, Suite 800, Denver, CO 80237, 720.228.4000. Jo Guerra, owner of Your Marketing Gal is proud to be the trainer for this class. She has taught hundreds of business owners how to market their brand on social media. Contact her at 303.632.2928 or email her.

Reserve Your Spot Today - Limited Seating.

Facebook for Beginners Denver Class

Confused on how to use Facebook?

Everyone is talking about Facebook for business. But before you soar, get the basics down.

Join us for this interactive beginner class in Denver where you’ll:

• get a great start on your PERSONAL Facebook profile
• explore the “Wall”
• post pictures, videos, status updates
• invite friends to join your personal page & more

Bring laptops and plenty of questions.  Don’t forget your business cards because a networking lunch social is included.

This class is for business owners or marketing managers that are brand new or fairly new to Facebook and plan on using Facebook for business.

Don’t waste hours online getting confused and trying to figure out Facebook only to do find out you’ve done it all wrong. Shortcut the process with this step-by-step Facebook for Beginners class.

If you want to use Facebook for business, your personal profile is intertwined with your business – even if you decide to keep everything separate. Learning the basic foundation will make the Business part of Facebook much easier.  

Class sponsored by Social Buzz Network, Corporate Office Centers and Your Marketing Gal.

Facebook Beginner Class will be held at Corporate Office Centers in the Tech Center, Thursday, July 21, 10am to 1pm, and is only $34. Class includes lunch and great networking. Register early - limited seating.

 

Corporate Office Centers is located in the Tech Center at 4643 S. Ulster Street, Suite 800, Denver CO 80237.

Jo Guerra, owner of Your Marketing Gal is proud to be the trainer for this class. She's taught hundreds of businesses and job seekers how to use social media marketing successfully. Contact Jo at socialjo1@gmail.com or 303.632.2928.

 

Denver Facebook Marketing Boot Camp Part 2

Part 2 of Denver Facebook Marketing Boot Camp took place on March 25 in the Denver area. This small-group workshop consisted of different strategies for marketing a Facebook Page including contests, inviting friends, events, connecting yoru blog, Facebook applications, claiming your page and much more. The group of business owners followed step-by-step to learn creative ways to market their business on Facebook - and to make sure they were adhrering to Facebook's policy. The workshop included a book detailing the different Facebook marketing strategies. Here is the presentation.

 

Facebook Denver Boot Camp Part 2

View more presentations from Your Marketing Gal

Ready for a workshop to take your online marketing to the next level? Check out Your Marketing Gal's calendar. Or contact us via email or at 303.632.2928.

Facebook Basics Boot Camp Part 1

Facebook Basics and Marketing Boot Camp took place in Denver, CO on March 18th and 25th. A group of business owners attended this small group workshop. It was interactive and hands-on with everyone bringing their computer and following along as we went step-by-step through the basics of Facebook. Basics did not mean beginner. People that attended already had a personal profile and were somewhat familiar with Facebook. Parcipants were able to start their Facebook Page for their business. All were encouraged to do homework in betweent the two workshops to get the most our of the class. Attendees were giving a complete book filled with techniques and tips to make the most out of Facebook. Following is the presentation I shared with the group.

 

Facebook Boot Camp Part 1

View more presentations from Your Marketing Gal

Upcoming classes, workshops and business events can be viewed at Your Marketing Gal Calendar.

Facebook Business Basics and Marketing Boot Camp in Denver

Launch your business success through social networking with this Denver Facebook business basics and marketing boot camp.

Facebook Basics Boot Camp Part 1

In order to soar on Facebook, you have to do it right. Did you know you could be shut down if you are using your personal page as your business? And you’d lose all your friends – so your hard work is down the drain. Learn the basics of doing Facebook right from a personal and business perspective. ­­ Are you needlessly exposing yourself?

• Find out about privacy settings
• How not to be a Facebook jerk
• How to brand yourself and your company by providing expert content
• Avoid the deadly mistakes people make
• And more business Facebook basics
• Best time to share content

This is part one of a two-part Facebook boot camp specifically designed for business. Don’t miss this great opportunity to expand your online footprint. Delicious lunch social follows. Class size is limited.  Bring your laptop if you'd like Part one of the workshop series is Monday, April 18th, 10am to 1pm at Zi Fusion, 7340 South Clinton Street Englewood, CO 80112, 720.287.1479.

Part 1 is Monday, April 18th, 10am to 1pm.

 

Facebook Marketing Boot Camp Part 2

You know the basics and are doing social media right. Now you are ready to create your Facebook Page and integrate marketing techniques that will grow your business. Differentiate your Facebook Page by using the right strategies.

• Invite your friends and customers
• Learn easy tweaks to get targeted people to like your page
• Find the right applications
• Publicize events
• Implement easy branding tips
• Run promotions to increase your "likes" the right way

Leave with a “tool box” full of marketing techniques to grow your business. This is part two of a two-part Facebook boot camp specifically designed for business. Delicious lunch social follows.  Part two of the workshop series is Monday, April 25th, 8:30am to 11am at Egg & I, 6818 S. Yosemite St. Englewood, CO.

Englewood, CO 80112, 720.287.1479.

Part 2 is Monday, April 25th, 8:30 to 11:45am.

 

Don't just be another person trying to learn everything about Facebook for your business by attending a huge conference with absolutely no personal contact. Make it personal - like business should be.

Each session is $59 or attend both for $99. Limited seating so register now.

You will more out of this workshop if you are already familiar with Facebook.

Option 1: Best investment: attend both sessions for $99.

 

 

Option 2: Attend Part 1 Facebook Basics Boot Camp for $59.

 

 

Option 3: Attend Part 2 Facbook Marketing Boot Camp for $59.

Receive individual training and attention from me, Jo Guerra. I've used social media for years to promote my business plus I've been training  and coaching companies to develop manageable, successful internet marketing strategies.  Contact me at 303.632.2928 or socialjo1@gmail.com.

Sponsored by Susan Corriere of Social Buzz Network. Contact Susan at 720.219.9139 or
susan@socialbuzznetwork.com.

Facebook Social Plugins for Your Facebook Page

Did you know that your Facebook social plugins are not available when using Facebook as your business page? I noticed when I was on my website that the facepile plugin I had previously installed was not available when I was using "Facebook as page".

And this is how my social plugin that I have on my website looked:

But when I went back to using it as "Jo", then my plugin showed up again.

And here it is restored:

What the heck is a social plugin? Well according to Facebook they are "...embeddable social features that can be integrated in your site with a line of HTML." The most important social plugin is the "Like" button according to Facebook. 

Here is Facebook's social plugin information and directions on how to put them on your website.

Ready to create your own Facebook social plugin? Just visit Facebook Developers page to get started on yours.

 

 

Warning: Don't Use Your Personal Facebook Page for Business

Is using your personal profile for business really against Facebook's terms? Yes, here's the scoop.

The question I ran across on Facebook recently was At what time does a person create a personal fan page? And when I've been on Facebook forums or listening to Facebook experts,  I see them warning people not to use their personal profile for business. And I've even read about people having their account disabled when using their personal profile for business. So, when is it time to create a Facebook page for your business? And is it really against Facebook's policy?

I dug and dug through Facebook's Help section. And finally came across this:

The account I created to promote my business, band or other organization is now disabled.

Per our Statement of Rights and Responsibilities, Facebook profiles must represent an individual. Users aren't permitted to maintain an account under the name of their organization, or use personal accounts to advertise or promote themselves professionally. If your profile was listed under a non-individual name, or was used primarily for professional promotion, this is probably why it was removed.

Here's the direct answer from Facebook's help page.

Imagine working hard on your personal profile - which is actually your business, building up to almost 5,000 contacts and then having your account completely disabled. Not a good thing, is it?

I read most of the Statment, which considering it is Facebook, is not that long. As far as having anything about using your profile for business, this is what I found:  

You will not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain (such as selling your status update to an advertiser).  (4-4)

So, it seems they consider using your personal profile as business a commercial gain and this is all I could find on their Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. I know we had an attorney talk to the Denver Entrepreneurs, a business networking Meetup group I facilitate, about social networks. And if you have any specific questions, you may want to hire an attorney to help you with any particular questions you have on different social networks including Facebook. I know I learned a lot from this attorney.

How about having more than one profile? Is that against their policy. Again, yes.

You will not create more than one personal profile.

This again is on their Statement of Rights and Responsibilities at (4-2) Registration and Account Security. And why would you want to anyway? It's hard enough to keep up with a personal profile and a Facebook Page (business). However, I have run across and have heard of people that have more than one personal profile.

If you are considering creating a Facebook Page for your business, make sure that whoever creates your page is either an owner or someone that that will be with your organization for a long time.  This is what I found as far as transferring pages to someone else:

You will not transfer your account (including any page or application you administer) to anyone without first getting our written permission.

At least it is possible as I've read that it is not. Do you know of anyone that has gotten permission to transfer a page? Know anyone that has had their personal account suspended or disabled because they have used it for their business page?

If you have any questions or comments, please post them here or Like Your Marketing Gal on Facebook and post them on my Facebook Page.

Social Networking: People Care What You Had for Breakfast

We thought no one cared what coffee you were drinking or what you had for breakfast on Facebook, LinkdedIn, Twitter and other social networks. Apparently they do.

Recently I read on the Social Media Insider that people cared what we had for breakfast. David Berkowitz observed that when people talked about what they had for breakfast, dinner or what move they had just seen, everyone commented. And I had noticed that one of my Facebook friends was always posting what she was making for dinner. Personally, I don’t care what anyone is making or having for dinner. But everyone else seemed to as so many people commented.

So I decided to find out if this was true by asking my friends on Facebook and contacts on LinkedIn: I just read on the Social Media Insider that people care what you had for breakfast. Do you care what other people had for breakfast?  

The conversations started out fun and continued. People said no and yes, and let me know what they had for breakfast (ummm, that was not the question, folks). And then the conversation progressed to hunger in different areas of the world – in both Facebook and LinkedIn. There were 32 comments on one of my LinkedIn groups (and we thought it was boring) and so many on Facebook, it was hard to personally respond back to all.

Even though I use Facebook and LinkedIn to brand my business and reach out to current and potential clients, I’ve noticed that when I ask questions that often have nothing to do with business, people answer. Here’s an example: Seen any funny videos lately? Can you share them please?  Yes, I received a lot of links to funny videos and I laughed away. Or What’s for dinner? Another popular question.

Is this about branding my company? No. It’s about reaching out to people and making them feel like they count. We all love talking about ourselves. So, when someone asks a question, we love giving our opinion or sharing knowledge. It’s what puts the social into social media and life. It’s about engaging with people. That is why we have to stay creative in our social media marketing efforts to reach our potential audience for business.

You’ve heard that if you are using social media for business you should share highly relevant useful information from your industry with your target audience. Perhaps you should change that to share highly irrelevant and boring information – at least to you.

My unofficial results of my experiment indicated that:

• People love quotes.
• People like to share what they had for breakfast, dinner and lunch.
• People love answering questions.
• People love sharing things not because it’s important to you, but because it’s important to them.   

One of my LinkedIn contacts summed this up perfectly: “People care less about what others had for breakfast BUT they care more about sharing what they have had themselves!! We all like to put a little of ourselves out there…”

And what did you have for breakfast today? Oh and just for the record, my breakfast consists of four cereals mixed including Kashi Go Lean, shredded wheat, wheat chex, bran flakes, bananas, berries, dried cranberries and skim milk - every day the same thing -  like a cat or a dog. Uh, like you care?

Hey, please like my Facebook page or follow me on Twitter (I'm not there quite as much, but I will be soon).