Social Media Camp: great things will happen

Four years ago, I attended Social Media Camp (SMC) for the first time. I was inspired. I learned new things, added some interesting books to my reading list and I met some great people. I also got to meet several people in person who I had already connected with on Twitter.

The first year I attended SMC, I never imagined myself returning to the largest social media conference in Canada as a speaker! It’s pretty exciting and I look forward to attending this year as a social media enthusiast and as a speaker. I am humbled to be on a list among other speakers who I look up to in my industry. I’m looking forward to meeting Sunny Lenarduzzi, who I first heard speak at the OMG Social Media Conference in Vancouver a couple of years ago.

Attending this conference was just one of the steps that lead me to where I am now. The second year I attended SMC, I won the Excellence in Social Media By a Student Award (there is an awards dinner connected to this conference). Soon after that, I started Social Sticks, a social media marketing business, helping other businesses with their social marketing content.

This year, the conference will be held from May 5 – 7 , 2016 at the Victoria Conference Centre. I’ll be presenting How to Get Your First 1,000 Followers on Twitter.

If you are thinking about attending Social Media Camp, let me know! I’ll be happy to grab a coffee and chat about why it’s worth attending and I can offer you a discount code so you can get $50 off your ticket price. It’s worth attending. You never know what it could lead you to next….

10 reason to create a Facebook Page vs. use a Personal Profile

The question about creating a personal profile rather than a business page on Facebook comes up quite frequently. Mostly it is with clients who are getting started on Facebook and are unaware of the capabilities and benefits of a Facebook page or didn’t even know this was an option. If you are still unsure which option is better for you, than keep reading.

Here are 10 reason why a Facebook business page is a better option for a business owner or entrepreneur (even if you are promoting yourself as a brand):

• Personal profiles have a friend limit 
  “I want to limit the number of people interested in my product or service,” said no business owner. Ever. If you have a personal profile, you are limited to 5,000 friends. When you think about it from a business perspective, why limit your business audience to 5,000 people? That doesn’t mean that ever single fan on your Facebook page is going to be a customer. They may turn into a customer down the road or they may just like your page because they know you. Imagine the possibilities if you could have 10,000 or more fans who like your business page.

• Facebook advertising
  If you want to reach new potential customers and maximize the reach of your posts, business pages have access to Facebook ads – something you can’t do with a personal page. Facebook has a variety of ads to promote your business that can target people in specific cities, countries, age groups or by interest.

• Access to analytics and data
  How nice would it be to know exactly how many people saw each of your posts and how many people clicked on the links you posted? If you have over 30 Likes (not friends) on your Facebook business page, you’ll have access to Facebook Insights. The Insights are only available to pages and provide you with useful information about your fans. Insights will share with you the female to male ratio, age, city, country, what times  your fans are most engaged with your posts and how many people each of your posts reached.

• Company information 
  Look at a business page and see how easy it is to find their company website, hours of operation and information. Where would you put that on a personal page? Personal pages also don’t have a call-to-action button on the home page, which can encourage visitors to sign up, call now, donate now, book now or watch video. Pages are also categorized different which affects Facebook’s algorithms.

• Schedule posts 
  One of my favourite features of a Facebook page is that you can schedule your posts in advance. You can also pin a specific post to remain at the top of your timeline if there is news or an event you want to highlight. You can schedule your posts to show up on your timeline for different days and times. It is handy if you plan on spending all day in a meeting and would like to publish a couple posts during that meeting. This feature is not available to personal pages.

• Assign roles
  If you have a personal assistant helping you manage your social media presence, do you want to give them full access to your personal Facebook account? Wouldn’t you rather assign them a role (limited to full access) to your Facebook business page so they cannot access your personal information and friends? This is also a smart way to keep full control of your social media account (why give them the power to delete it if they ever decided to sabotage you).

• Apps, tabs and contests 
  Adding apps, tabs and third party contests to your Facebook page can be added value and information for your customer. It’s also a great way to set up contests or include an e-newsletter sign up form. If you want more ideas on what to include, check out this great article on 15 types of Facebook apps. You can also search Facebook for different apps.

• Look professional 
  A lot of people want to keep their personal life limited to friends and family and use Facebook to connect with those people, not to be friends with an organization so that company can access all of their information. I would much rather Like their business page. This way, they can’t see my personal information (depending on how your security settings are set up) and there are other restrictions that a business page has when people like their page. They can see who has liked their page, but they cannot view the same information your friends can.

• Facebook reviews 
  Did you know you can write a review on a company’s Facebook page (five-star ratings)? Your review cannot be deleted by the business unless it is untrue or offensive (it contains inappropriate language), and the business will have to submit a request to delete it which is reviewed by Facebook. As a business, you do have a choice whether you want reviews to be visible on your Facebook page. This is a great way to gain credibility as a business, as long as your reviews are positive!

• A Facebook Page is an asset 
  If you ever plan to sell your company, your Facebook page is a separate piece of the business you can hand off to the new owner. If you used your personal profile to promote your business, that would have no value to a new business owner. If you have a good following, your social media presence can add value to your company’s overall selling value.

I hope this article helped explain the difference between a Facebook Business Page and a personal profile, along with the value of creating a Facebook business page. If you have any further questions, please email at socialsticks@gmail.com.

 

Follow me on Twitter @social_sticks

 

Website traffic: Are your customers coming back?

If someone visits your website, why should they go back? They (hopefully) found what they are looking for, but you want to give people a reason to come back to your website on a regular basis. If people don’t have a reason to come back, your traffic will slowly decline or you’ll have to dedicate more time to finding new traffic. Giving people a reason to come back to your website also keeps you top of mind when they realize they need or want your product or are ready to make a purchase.

Check your Google Analytics to compare your new vs. returning visitors (found under Audience – Behaviour). You may notice that returning visitors are spending more time on your website. On my Social Sticks’ site, the bounce rate, pages/session and time spend on page are consistently higher with returning visitors than new visitors.

Update your content regularly, and let people know when you do! Here are a few ways to encourage customers to spend more time on your website.

Informative Blog Posts 
Integrate your blog onto your website. Blogging about frequently asked questions or tips that will help customers made a purchase decision are great ways to build trust. After reading a post or two, they may want to find out more about your business or contact you. Sharing your blog posts through other social networks can also lead to new customers.

Upcoming Events
Does your business host events? If not, why not share industry related or community events? Websites that have an events calendar or list of events give people a reason to check back on upcoming activities. It also shows that you are involved in what’s happening in your community.

Newsletter Signup
If you are launching a new product, service, limited time promotion or have news to share with your customers, adding it to your website is a great start, but how do you inform your customers that you have updated your website? Encouraging them to sign up for your newsletter. Anytime I send out a newsletter, I see a spike in website traffic. It’s a great way to stay in touch with your customers to let them know what’s happening this month and a friendly reminder that you appreciate their business.

Easy to Navigate
Is the layout and design easy to read and navigate? If people visit your website and can’t find information quickly, they will likely leave and find it elsewhere. The layout of your website, font and images will affect your bounce rates and your conversion rate. You can also explore your Google Analytics reporting tools to see which pages people are exiting your website.

A Responsive Website
Is your website responsive? According to Smart Insights, smartphones were the second most popular device used to search the internet for 80 percent of people surveyed (laptop/pc was the most popular). People are using their smartphones to search on the go and they want their information fast. A mobile-friendly website is easier to read and navigate, and you want to make access to information as easy as possible.

Companies are always changing the way they do things. They are looking for more effective and efficient ways to increase awareness, generate leads and grow sales.

I threw the question out on Twitter and I got a couple great suggestions:

“Make sure their first experience is good and then stay in touch through marketing. Don’t expect people to remember.” – @Adamdince

“Write guest articles, put your website on your email signature, post awesome content often and have a great freebie.” – @RevNYou

 

Are you thinking about joining Instagram?

Instagram is a great visual tool to tell a brand’s story. If Instagram fits into your social media strategy, it’s a valuable way to share quality images and content and reach a new audience and customers – both locally and globally. It is one of my favourite social media apps to use for sharing photos and video. I have discovered several new trails to explore using the #ExploreBC hashtag and following other hiking related accounts.

Fun facts about Instagram:

• The average number of photos posted each day on Instagram is over 60 million, and over 1.6 billion likes each day.
• It is only available on mobile, however, you can use a laptop or PC to view images, like and comment but you cannot upload photos.
• You can now edit comments on Instagram.   
• This summer, Instagram released a new version to the App Store for iOS with improved photo-editing tools such as crop, blur, straighten and border and a few new tools, including a filter strength, shadows, contrast, brightness and saturation.
• The maximum amount of hashtags you can use in a post is 30 (please don’t use this many).
• When people with private profiles tag posts, they won’t appear publicly on tag pages.
• You can only tag your own posts, not other people’s photos or videos.
• Numbers are allowed in hashtags, however, spaces and special characters, such as $ or !, do not work.
• It is the seventh largest social network and growing rapidly.

There are other reasons to include Instagram to your social media profile, like driving traffic to your website, reaching a targeted audience and growing your brand. You can share “behind the scene” photos of your business, new products or services, events and more. Only use hashtags that are relevant to your posts and let your customers know you are on it! Do you have any suggestions for businesses using Instagram? Please comment on this post and share your ideas.

Follow me on Instagram!

What’s a Tweet Up?

For the past seven months, I have hosted monthly Tweet Ups at various locations around Nanaimo. The most common question people ask is “Do you just sit around and tweet at these Tweet Ups?” The answer is no! We don’t spend much time on Twitter at all. It is a great excuse to get people together that are interested in chatting and learning about social media. It is a great opportunity to ask questions, receive answers and share ideas. You are connecting with people you know from social media, friends and meeting new people in person.

Me and Elle at the first Tweet Up in September.

Every Tweet Up is based around a specific topic, such as the benefits of blogging, understanding Twitter etiquette, or how to measure your social media success. Quite often we go off topic, but it always generates new questions and concepts that leaves us buzzing with ideas.

Only one person showed up to my first Tweet Up (thanks Elle!), which ended up in almost two hours of social media and marketing conversations. Since I have started hosting these Tweet Ups, I have met a lot of new people, built relationships (new and old) and learned a lot more about social media. If you are in Nanaimo, check out my Facebook page to see when the next Tweet Up is…. and don’t forget to bring your business cards!

3 reasons to increase your Twitter followers

The ability to follow more people
Have you ever tried to follow someone but Twitter wouldn’t allow it? Twitter has limited the amount of people you can follow to prevent spammers from following every single account. Each account can follow up to 2,000 people, however, once you are following 2,000 people, the number of additional followers will depend on how many people are following you. There is no limit on how many people that can follow you, but you do need to continue to grow your follower base so you can follow new people without any limitations. There is no public formula on the amount of followers vs. people you follow, and every account will vary. This is a good time to do some house cleaning on your Twitter account and stop following inactive accounts. You can follow up to 1,000 new followers per day (that is a lot of time spent on Twitter for one day). I have been on Twitter for over three years and I am still not following 1,000 people!

The ability to increase awareness and grow your audience
If you are on Twitter to promote yourself or your business, then you will want to follow people that fall into your target audience. To increase awareness, follow people and start conversations with them to catch their attention. Tweeting useful information, news and tips in your industry will give people a reason to follow you. You can expand your reach by using #hashtags or if other people retweet one of your tweets – which is likely to happen if you are tweeting out helpful content! Growing your audience on Twitter and tweeting on a regular basis will increase awareness for your business and also direct traffic to your website if you include links to your website.

Making new connects on Twitter
Twitter is a great place to make new connections, especially with others in your industry. A number of times I have met people at business events and they have recognized me from Twitter that lead to great business relationships and friendships. I follow people that have the same interests as me, people that I am interested in and people I can learn from. Follow people you want to meet (please don’t follow Justin Bieber in hopes that you will meet him), but if there is a company that you would like to work with, start by following them on Twitter and striking up a conversation. You never know what it could lead to.

There are a lot of reasons to increase your followers, but quality precedes quantity. You want followers who are interested in what you have to say, and if your tweets are interesting and relevant then your followers should start to go. Good luck!

Canada’s Anti-Spam Law: Preparing for best marketing practices

The Canadian Anti-Spam Law (CASL) was passed by the federal government in 2010. It is not yet enforced, but I would recommend to start putting these practices in place. There is no set date when the law will become enforced, but the CRTC will offer a 12 month grace period for businesses to comply to the new regulations. CASL is a set of rules and regulations for sending commercial electronic communications to a specific person or group of people. Electronic communication would include email, social media and text messages used for business purposes. This law will apply to any business in Canada, including non-profit organizations, that is sending electronic communication in the form of a newsletter or selling products and services. Posting on your Facebook page and Twitter account would not apply, because you are not sending this to people directly.

Express Consent vs Implied Consent

CASL describes two types of consent: implied and express. When the law becomes enforced, consent is required before a business can send a person direct emails or other electronic communication. Express consent is when someone has been asked for consent to receive electronic messages and the sender has clearly stated their contact information and the purpose of the message. For example: Check this box if you would like to receive a monthly newsletter from Social Sticks. The business should clearly identify who they are. Implied consent is when an existing business relationship is already in place, the person has disclosed their information and did not ask not to receive emails. For example, if someone has made a purchase in the last 24 months or inquiry in the last six months, this would be considered implied consent. When possible, ask for express consent.

Preparing for CASL

A few things your business can do to prepare for the CASL are:

• Ensure you have an unsubscribe option on all mass emails (this is offered through services such as Mail Chimp and Constant Contact).
• Clearly identify your business name and contact information in the emails.
• Collect a record of consent, whether it is written or verbal, and keep on file.
• Remove opt-out requests immediately (most email services automatically do this).
• Confirm you have received either express or implied consent.

Posted by Kyla Karakochuk.

3 Ways to Grow Your Facebook Page

You have started a Facebook business page and have invited your friends and family to like it. But you’ll want to increase your fan base with real fans who are interested in what you have to offer, and possibly need your services.

Three ways to grow your Facebook page and increase awareness are:

1. Run a Contest or Promotion 

Running a contest or promotion is an easy way to increase the number of fans and engagement. Facebook recently changed its promotional guidelines so you can now run a contest and have fans either like or comment on a post, which would be considered an entry. You can also use likes as a way to vote if you are running a photo contest. Chances are contestants will encourage their friends and family to like their photo, increasing the presence of your page.

Like my Facebook Page!

2. Offer a Special Discount or Promotion Exclusively to Facebook Fans 

Make your fans feel special. Offering a special discount or promotion exclusively to fans gives them a reason to like your page. Current fans will appreciate the gesture, and it is a great way to get new likes. For example, if a golf club offered a free sleeve of balls to Facebook fans on a particular day, they would likely take advantage of the offer. If anyone wanted to take advantage of this, they would have to like your page. It is also a great way to track how many people redeem this offer (how many inquires did you get or how many sleeves of balls did you give away).

3. Like Other Business Pages 

Like other pages that relate to you or your business. If they noticed that you liked their page, they may reciprocate. Plus, it is a great way to stay informed on what they are doing!