Is your Facebook fan page supercharged and utilizing its full marketing super powers? Maybe you’ve gotten so bombarded with “social media best practices,” you’ve taken a break from your Facebook efforts altogether. We don’t blame you, (although we don’t encourage that anti “social” media behavior), but your business can’t afford not to use this flourishing marketing platform. So stop your Facebook frenzy, press the pause button on your optimization overload, and tune into our 5 simple ways to optimize, or rather, help people find your Facebook business page and become avid fans.
1. An Optimized Profile Picture
A profile picture is worth a thousand Facebook posts. It is your presence to the Facebook community and your “face” in all posts and interactions with fans. In order to optimize your picture to its full potential, keep it streamline with your company website logo and any other platforms you have online (LinkedIn, Twitter and blog). Your business profile picture can also be the perfect opportunity to capture three important features: business logo, what your business does, and a call to action.
For our /excelamktg profile picture, we include our branded “mktg” logo on top (which we use as our thumbnail), what our business does in the center, and a call to action at the bottom (we encourage fans to “learn more about /excelamktg!”).
Tip: Remember to keep your profile picture aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Avoid packing in too much imagery and/or wording, as it could be distracting and appear spammy. The masterminds at our excela creative department designed our logo.
2. Custom Photo Row
Your photo row consists of 5 pictures that appear under your page name. These photos will randomly change position each time the profile is refreshed, or a picture added. Many businesses leave their row at random, but when you have the capability to get creative, wouldn’t you? By doing so, your photo row can turn into a great way to keep your branding consistent, professional and streamline.
Tip: Choose 5 photos that will make sense no matter what order they appear. For our client Erica Anenberg’s photo row, we highlight various styles of her popular Twosome™ rings:
3. Appropriate Featured Likes
Facebook pages have the option of choosing 5-featured pages that your brand “likes” and essentially, associates with. These pages appear as thumbnails under your “Featured Likes” column. Normally, these thumbnails randomly list in any order, but in your settings you can set these Featured Likes to 5 pages that will always appear. Customizing your Featured Likes is a quick and easy way to showcase what type of business you are, what kind of message you want to emulate and it gives a custom touch to your Facebook page. After all, you are who you associate with, right? Well, your fans will look at you that way.
For our client Face Place, we chose to include celebrities who embody the type of image Face Place desires, and type of audience they like to attract:
4. Vanity URL
Your vanity URL is your virtual nametag. It will determine the success of how search-friendly you are as a business. With over 800 million ACTIVE users (not counting total pages), you need to be specific to rise above the noise. You want to ensure that your Facebook isn’t, “facebook.com/kjhdsfg123424,” but rather, a URL that is search-engine friendly like, “http://www.facebook.com/sunsettower.” To create your vanity URL, simply click on your page’s “Account Setting” in the top right hand corner and enter your desired Facebook “username” in the box provided.
There are truly endless possibilities to customize your business fan page (FBML, apps, etc.), and while these might seem like daunting tasks, they are a necessity in our social world. We are here to elevate your small business and get you on your way to Optimization Om.
What will be the first change you make to your Facebook page? Visit /excelamktg for further customized Facebook ideas, designs and insider tips for optimizing your Social Media.
Be sure to check out our Social Media on a Budget web series. Each week, our panel of experts will take a closer look into the social media hot topic of the week.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Dec 28th, 2011. 
By now I am sure that you have heard of Fiverr, right? If not, then let me give you brief description about Fiverr and how you can make money from it.
Fiverr is really quite simple, all you have to do is offer a gig (service or product) of some kind and wait for people to order that gig from you. The reason the site is called Fiverr is because everything that is sold on the site costs $ 5. So what this means to us that want to make money with Fiverr is that we will get paid $ 5 for every gig we sell.
Now that you know a little bit about Fiverr, I want to give you some tips to make money with Fiverr the easy way. What a lot of people think is that you have to have some special skill in order to make money on Fiverr but the truth is that you don’t. There are people on Fiverr making money doing voiceovers, taking pictures of their legs, singing songs and even being somebody’s friend on Facebook. As you can see, there are a lot of things that you can do to make money with Fiverr.
So let’s stop wasting time and get started on those tips.
Tips To Make Money With Fiverr
Multiple Listings
One of the things that you have to do in order to make money with Fiverr is to have many different listings (gigs). The reason you need multiple gigs is because the more you have, the more chances people have of seeing what you are offering them. Think about it, if you were to put an advertisement in the newspaper, it would be much better if you put a few different ads so that you get more exposure. This is the same thing with Fiverr and if you want to make the most money possible, then you have to offer more gigs.
Quality Service
Not only do you need a good amount of gigs, you need to offer a quality service or product. Most people think that quality is everything and it is very important, but there is more to it than quality. The reason why I say this is because you have to get your name or service out there first and then you need to mesmerize them with the quality that you bring to the table.
Descriptive Title
If you are looking for an article writer, would you click on an ad that says, “Good photographer for hire”? No, you would only click on a title that would appeal to you. This is where a descriptive title comes into play. What I highly recommend is that you not only give the buyer what they want but you need to describe your gig as best as you can in the title section. Being that the title is the first thing anybody will see, you need to spend some time on it to make sure it is perfect.
Relevant Tags
Not only do you need a great title, you need to place tags in your gig as well. The nice thing about Fiverr is they have a section on their website where you can search for what you want. This is where it is imperative that you place relevant tags in your listing so that people who are conducting a search will find you that way. One thing that you want to do is put the most relevant tags first and then follow those up with more general tags so that you can get the most views possible.
If you are ready to start making some money with Fiverr, then you need to get started right away. The reason I say you need to get started right away is because the sooner you start, the more money you will make in the long run.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Dec 27th, 2011.
It is easy to forget the person on the other side of the internet is human.
It is easy to pretend you are tweeting with an imaginary person you’ve never met — because it is very likely you never have met. When you add a comment to a blog post, it is easy to write emotionless. When you record a video, it is easy to avoid looking at the lens.
It is also easy to apologize to yourself.
There are two easy ways to show your humanity and they involve using other forms of media to socialize.
1. Pick up the telephone.
Reach out and call someone.
You start the conversation by saying hi. The rest is easy. Dialogue will flow if you are yourself; especially if you two shared a private moment prior to the call. Maybe you responded to a tweeted joke or you wrote something memorable on a bulletin board.
Follow Irene Koehler and Sid Burgess who understand the value of making a phone call completely out of the blue.
2. Send a letter.
Everyone can be reached by postal delivery, so why do you shy from sending letters? Why shy from asking to receive them?
When Dan Slee asked for addresses to send vacation postcards, I got one.
When I solicited my tweeps to write me via paper, Bryant Adams replied.
It is easy to know how to contact someone.
It is easier to actually do it.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Sep 16th, 2011.
Getting the desired traffic to your blog can appear to be a daunting task. It is almost impossible until you begin to do the right things the right way.
Thousands of blogs are started monthly, yet only a minor percentage actually get descent amount of readers. The others toil and toy until they are eventually lost in the abyss of redundant blogs.
There are seven sound tactics that can get you more readers faster than most other people. You may have read or heard of some of these tips before, but they are timeless truths. If you have not implemented them, please pull yourself by your bootstrap now – they are simple and effective:
1. Get More Readers to Your Blog from Social Networks
The value of social networks in driving traffic to websites is unquantifiable. Many people have recorded huge success just by introducing Facebook and/or Twitter comment boxes, share buttons etc to their blog. Google + is here, and many people are already taking advantage of it.
2. Get More Readers to Your Blog by Being Active in Communities
As you already know, you look for fishes in water, leopards in the wild or zoo, and birds in the air. Similarly, you need to get to the communities where your target audiences regularly go, to get them to your blog.
You will find a lot of people to help in relevant forums. Help others genuinely without undue pressure that they should visit your blog. In addition, you should comment regularly on similar or complementary blogs. This is an easy way to get to your target audience.
Remember, a link to your blog should appear in your signature and should be labeled appropriately.
3. Get More Readers to Your Blog from Search Engines
If you have been operating your blog for a while now, you are probably getting some traffic from search engines already. However, you need to maximize this.
First, if you have not submitted your blog URL to the major search engines, you should do that immediately. Then, ensure you link back to your blog in your signature in forums and comments on other blogs. Thirdly, intentionally link back to your blog from articles you post on article sites and other blogs. Fourthly, strive to focus your blog on a narrow set of keywords where you can rank high.
4. Make your Blog Attractive to Get More Readers
First impression matters a lot, and our outfits form a major part of our first impression. For a blog, the aesthetics determines whether your visitor should respect and stay with you or not.
A badly designed or badly arranged blog can quickly put your visitors off. So, spend more time to make your blog appealing or get a professional to handle that for you. Use pictures for your posts to make them visually appealing.
5. Write High Quality Contents to Get More Readers to Your Blog
Content is king in blogging. If you ever get visitors through search engines, social networks or links, only your content can make them stay.
Web surfers are constantly searching for the best information online. If you are slack in this, you may lose them. High quality contents that are capable of answering the questions of surfers should be your target. Bear in mind that, having great headlines also constitutes quality in content creation.
6. Be Consistent & Post frequently to Get More Readers to Your Blog
The Internet is wide and very diverse. The attentions of surfers easily shift. If they are not getting what they need predictably and when it is needed, they can easily move to other blogs.
The subtle truth is, you have to behave like a father to your audience – predict what their problems are and solve them before they tell you. If not, someone else will offer them what they want.
7. Use Personality to Get More Readers to Your Blog
Blogging is part of the Social Media. Thus, readers are also interested in your personality type. Do not be afraid to make opinions or reveal your side of an issue. Know this! You can’t get them all. It is actually better to get the ones that like you just the way you are than playing fake.
Above all, ensure you regularly set specific, attainable goals for your blog. Be ready to part with some money to get your blog going, if you have to.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Sep 14th, 2011.
Getting started using a social media site like Twitter to market your local business online can be somewhat overwhelming. It’s a lot to manage – writing tweets, sharing links, finding and following local users, growing your own follower base – the list goes on and on. So, how can you know what tips work well best for local businesses on Twitter? To provide some ideas, we sat down with people who use Twitter every day to market to local consumers and asked them to share a few of their top Twitter tips. Check out what our ReachCast Web Presence Professionals have to say about using Twitter for your local business.
1. Follow Local Twitter Users to Build Local Reach – “If you’re having trouble finding ‘real’ local people to follow and are only following other businesses, find the Twitter account of a local celebrity, public figure, or person of interest. See who’s following them and you’ll likely find those ‘real’ local people to follow!” - ReachCast Web Presence Professional Jen Holub
2. Get the Most Out of Your 140 Characters – “Get creative with wording to maximize your character count, but don’t let spelling and grammar go out the window! Don’t lose your professionalism just because social media can be an informal platform. The best tweets can be read in a matter of seconds without confusing code or abbreviations. If you have a lot to say, link to a blog post or video – a great way to get the reader looking for more.” - ReachCast Web Presence Professional Vanessa Mosharaf
3. Rock the Retweet – “Don’t be afraid to retweet! Many business owners are hesitant to use Twitter’s retweet feature, but it can be very helpful to your efforts. People love to be retweeted, so make a special effort to retweet customers, especially when they mention or check in at your business in a tweet. You should also follow other local businesses and retweet them when they talk about the community or other relevant topics. And if you give, you shall receive! Those who retweet are more likely to be retweeted, meaning more exposure for your business on Twitter!” - ReachCast Web Presence Professional Bradley Bowen
4. Thank New Followers to Grow Follows – “Something that can help you acquire more followers is to mention any new followers and to simply thank them for following. This can help followers grow at a much faster rate. People want to be mentioned on Twitter, and if you mention them, they’re likely to mention you as well!” - ReachCast Web Presence Professional Ashley Stalnaker
5. Talk Like a Human – “Your business Twitter account should talk like a person—even if it’s representing your company or brand. Think of your Twitter account as a walking, talking personification of your entire company. Depending on your brand, you can take this idea to the limit: Use the first-person and invent a Twitter personality for the brand! This personality can discuss current events, community activities, and engage in pop culture so your consumers can relate to you and to your brand.” - ReachCast Web Presence Professional Germaine Paul
6. Get Involved in Conversations – “When it comes to using Twitter for your business, it’s important to not only provide business and service-related information, but also make it a conversation! Your customers are out there wanting to hear from you. Let them know there’s a face behind the name and a smile behind the tweet! Engage with your followers and they’ll remember your effort and give you a call!” - ReachCast Web Presence Professional Hayley Wood
“The best Twitter campaigns I’ve seen are done by businesses who use it for more than just promoting a new deal or item. Have fun and just try to talk with your followers like you would offline! You’ll find that more people will want to follow a business that is having a conversation with its followers as opposed to a business that uses it strictly for promotions.” - ReachCast Web Presence Professional Ryan Thompson
7. Use Third Party Tools to Manage Twitter Tasks “You can use third-party tools to help your business get more out of Twitter and generate more quality leads. For example, take advantage of third party Twitter tools such as Qwitter, Manageflitter, WeFollow, etc. to help you manage who you follow on Twitter to get better results and make better use of your time.” - ReachCast Web Presence Professional Nick Marino Jr.
Are you using Twitter to market your local business online? What tips or tricks have you learned for getting the most out of Twitter as a local brand? Share your thoughts, ideas, and feedback in a comment!
We’ve Got More Like This! Tweetable Twitter Articles
- 15 Tips to Increase Twitter Followers for your Local Business
- New to Twitter? Our Top Picks from the Twitter Glossary
- 7 Ways to Reward Your Facebook & Twitter Followers
- How To: Respond to a Negative Twitter Reply or Complaint
- Steal these Social Media Stats: 15 Amazing Facebook and Twitter Facts
Author: Tiffany Monhollon writes about online marketing, social media, reputation management, and web presence optimization for ReachCast. Find her on Twitter and Google+.
Filed under Internet Marketing by on Sep 13th, 2011.
