Ask P3: Should I share the same content on multiple networks?

November 26, 2009 By Kelli Brown 1 Comment

This week’s question is a common one we’ve come across when clients begin using multiple outlets for their content.

I’m using Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook (fan page, group and my personal account) to promote our site and the content we post on our blog. We also use YouTube for video. When I post a new video to YouTube, should I share that video on the blog too? Should I post the link in Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn? We have a lot of overlap on the social networks and I’m afraid people will get sick of seeing the same content in three places.

Thanks for your excellent question! In short, my answer would be yes. But, we need to take a look at how content gets shared to understand the reasons why.

Let’s say you’re in charge of marketing, including social media, at a software company. You’ve decided to give it a shot and created a company blog. You blog regularly and get some good traffic, but you’re always looking to get more impact for the time you spend creating content. To gain a bit of exposure, you start sharing your content on three networks – Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. When you’ve got other content, you post it to a media-based site like YouTube, Flickr or SlideShare. So far, things are going well and you’re getting some success at engaging users, having posts go viral and converting a fair share of your new traffic into sales. In short, your social media is a success.

But you have this nagging worry that some of your geekier clients – stalkers, if you will – are getting the same barrage of content on multiple sites. You’re worried they’re going to get sick of you and stop sharing – or worse, stop using your software.

Not to worry – it’s not likely. While a user might connect to you on any multitude of formats (RSS from your blog, Twitter and Facebook, a fan of your YouTube channel), it’s unlikely they’re paying attention to you in each venue. Even though many of your users might be using all of the same social networks, they aren’t using all of them the same way.

Think about how you share content. When you see something you’re eager to share, do you run to Facebook or Twitter? Do you “favorite” things on YouTube and SlideShare or do you email the link to your friends (or share the link in another network entirely)? Are you active in social bookmarking sites like Digg and Delicious? No matter your answer, the point is this: you probably aren’t doing every one of them for every story that catches your eye.

Now let’s get back to your users. Even when the same story hits RSS, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, your users are going to share and spread it a little differently depending on their particular way of sharing content. By leaving out one network, you take a chance that someone who prefers to share in Twitter is going to copy and paste your link from Facebook, if that’s their preference for sharing. While it may not sound like much, it’s added work for a user – and a chance you may not want to take.

There’s another factor when it comes to sharing the same content – something akin to six degrees of separation. Although you might be connecting directly with the same people in Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, the people that they’re connecting with might be different. With the goal being that your network shares your content, the potential market you reach once you get a few steps removed from your original post might be dramatically different from network to network. Let’s look at a diagram to illustrate our point.

How networks share content

To be sure, there’s going to be some degree of overlap in each level of connections – this is especially true if you’re target market is B2B. That said, by the time my contacts have shared my content with their contacts, I’ve already reached a huge market I couldn’t touch directly. In this way, even a small but dedicated following within a social network can have a huge impact and reach well beyond their limited numbers with a valuable message.

Filed Under: ask P3 Tagged With: contacts, content, facebook, linkedin, network, rss, share, twitter

Ask P3: How do I give credit for links I share?

November 4, 2009 By Kelli Brown Leave a Comment

We’ve got a couple of questions to answer today – you can submit your questions at kelli@pixelpointpress.com.

Our first question comes for a recent class participant:

A link to an interesting article was posted in a group that I’m a part of. The group is moderated, which means that you need to be approved in order to see the posts. I’d like to share the link, but linking directly to the Yahoo! group will prevent most of my readers from seeing the article. Can I post the link to the actual article? If so, how should I give credit to the person who shared the link?

Let’s talk about how to credit links in various social media outlets:

From a private group: You need to share the link to the original article, as most readers might not be part of the group. In this case, you can cover your bases by crediting the original poster in the group (helpful if you know a real name) and perhaps mention the group you found it in (readers who link the link might consider joining the group).
From Twitter: If you’re the first retweet, it’s easy – RT @originalposter and the link. Things get a little more complicated as a tweet gets retweeted multiple times – you’re going to run out of space pretty quickly. A wide variety of techniques exist, from saving the original poster or the final poster that you’re retweeting, saving the last tweeter and using via for the original one, but one this is for sure – try and give credit. You don’t want to be perceived as a Retweet Thief.
From Facebook: By typing in the @ symbol in Facebook, you’ll be able to tag your friends and credit them for sharing content.
Cross-network: If you’re moving a link between networks, you can still credit the original poster using the same techniques above.

No matter the network, just ensure that you give credit where credit is due.

Add to Favorites link

P3's Favorite Pages

Our next question comes from a fan of our Pixel/Point Press page:

Can one fan page become a fan of another fan page in Facebook?

Yes, but under a different name. While people become fans, fan pages become favorites. To select another page as a favorite of your page, visit the fan page and click the Add to Favorites link. When your page adds favorites, the other pages will be displayed on the bottom left of the page in their own popout box. For example, Pixel/Point Press is a fan of French Creek Press, our parent company.

Our final question comes from a VP of marketing who finds herself at the helm of her company’s social media campaign:

Our company has decided to pursue marketing using a Facebook fan page, among other tools. I have been asked to moderate and evaluate the interactions in our page as well as possibly place some advertising. I don’t have a Facebook account – and I don’t want one. I also don’t want to be associated personally with our company’s brand online. Is there a way to administer these accounts without having a Facebook account?

Many people don’t know that Facebook actually offers two types of accounts for individuals: Personal and Business.

Facebook Business Services

You can’t get out of having a Facebook account altogether, but you can have a business account instead of a regular, fully featured Facebook account. If you’ve never had a Facebook account, you can create a Business Account that allows you to administer all your company needs – fan pages, advertising, and other interactions with the Facebook platform, like Facebook Connect – without having a personal profile.

A couple of caveats though: If you convert your business account to a regular account, you can’t go back. And if you already have a regular account, you can’t create a business account. As always, having more than one Facebook account violates Facebook’s Terms of Use.

Filed Under: ask P3 Tagged With: business account, credit, facebook, fan page, favorite, link, twitter

Ask P3: Should I cross post content from my Facebook fan page to my friends?

October 28, 2009 By Kelli Brown 13 Comments

Today’s question comes from one of our recent class participants:

I’ve built my Facebook page and I’m posting content to it from my site. My page is new, so I only have a few fans right now. But I have many friends in my regular Facebook profile. Should I post the content to my personal profile too, since more people will see it there?

That’s a great question. For example, our P3 fan page has about 100 fans, but I’ve got more than 500 friends in Facebook. Don’t I want to take advantage of that network? Or am I going to annoy the daylights out of the people who are socially connected to me but couldn’t care less about my work and self-promotion?

The answer is that it depends. Evaluate your connections on Facebook – and on every network you use – and determine whether or not they are likely to help you distribute your content. In most cases, it isn’t the size of your network that makes a difference – it’s the quality of interaction you can expect from those you connect with. If there’s a reasonable expectation that your friends would enjoy and share your content with others that might subscribe or become an active fan, tread gently and ask for their patience and help as your build your online presence.

For another look at how little the size of your network matters, don’t miss Debra Askanase’s post: The Case of the 4,000 Twitter Followers Who Don’t Care.

Filed Under: ask P3 Tagged With: content, create, facebook, fan, page, promote, rss

Social Media 1-2-3: Three steps to create a social media strategy

October 27, 2009 By Kelli Brown 4 Comments

Our first post in a series to help beginners (and maybe some more experienced hands as well) understand social media begins with strategy.

Often skipped entirely or dismissed as unnecessary, drafting a social media strategy should be the cornerstone of every social media campaign – regardless of the company size. Whether you’re an individual looking to rebrand yourself before a job search or an international company trying to target a new market, you need to have a plan. Let’s take a look at what goes into a social media strategy in three steps.

One caveat: This three-step guide assumes that you’ve already spent some time online listening to your market and you’re able to make an educated guess at how to target them. Before you can build a strategy, you’ll need to have set reasonable goals for your social media campaign.

Step One: Resources: Social media isn’t free. Before jumping on the Facebook bandwagon, take a hard look at what resources you can allocate.

Will a new social media campaign replace existing aspects of your current marketing? If so, will it free up budget? What content are you going to contribute? Do you have a regularly updated blog that provides more than simple self promotion? Is your company in support of promoting themselves as thought leaders in their industry? How often can you add new content?

Who will search for relevant articles to post? Who will answer comments on your blog and moderate posts to your Facebook fan page? How many staffers can be dedicated to the initial setup and learning curve of various tools? Will each staffer specialize in a specific area or will you need to cross train your staff to function with multiple tools? What skills do your staff already have and what will need to be taught/learned? Will your outreach be limited to business hours only or is it possible to allocate manpower over a larger part of the 24-hour cycle?

How much budget can you allocate to purchasing support tools for your strategy? Can you foot the bill for Involver’s toolset to make your Facebook presence more powerful and easier to manage? Will you and your staff have smartphones capable of sharing content from anywhere with a 3G connection?

To build a successful strategy using social media, you’ll need to take a hard look at three resources:

Time: How much time can you or your company dedicate to these efforts on an ongoing basis?
Talent: What skills can you leverage that allow you to reach out online in a new format?
Technology: Both hardware and know-how – can your current hardware get the job done and are your tech skills up to the task (or do you have a geek in waiting that could help you out)?

Step Two: Content: Before you create that corporate account at Digg.com, take a step back and consider what content you’ve got to share with the world.

The first part of content brainstorming should be a raid of your archives. Have you got good informational articles that can be repurposed as blog posts with a facelift? Do you have some PowerPoint presentations explaining your product or service that can be shared at SlideShare.net? Videos teaching someone some tips and tricks that you can add to YouTube? Audio files that teach – can they be made into a regular podcast? Content is king in any social media campaign, so consider first what you’ve got to use. In many cases, generating new content is also the most time consuming (and therefore resource consuming) aspect of your strategy, so make sure you use what you’ve already got.

But your own content is less than half of the equation. In order for your outreach effort to be a success, you need to become a valuable resource to your target market. And that means sharing a wealth of top-notch content that extends well beyond your own self-promotion efforts. If you’ve done a good job of building a successful listening system and know what content is relevant to your target market and where they can find those resources, you’re well on your way to sharing great links.

Instead of trying to steer your market to your content only, serve as an aggregator of relevant information on the Web in a variety of platforms. Become the go-to site for news and information, tips and tricks.

Instead of the staid model of solely diseminating information to your target market, become part of the discussion and encourage a focus group atmosphere.

Step Three: Tools: Finally, we reach the aspect of social media with which folks are most familiar. Once you’ve got the content, how are you going to reach your target market?

If you’re lucky, the most powerful tool in your social media toolbox might be your own Web site. If you’re unlucky, and your Web site doesn’t meet the needs of your target market, you’re going to have a hard time with any Web-based marketing campaign – despite your best efforts. Your own site is home base for your presence on the Web. If your ultimate goal is to sell a product, be contacted by a prospective client or be hired to perform a service, your own site is the most likely gateway for new business. Make sure you have your ducks in a row at home before spending resources trying to promote a weak site.

Whenever possible, your use of social networks like Facebook and Twitter should be a means of getting people back to your own Web site. Don’t let your networks serve as an end point. While it’s useful when someone shares your Facebook fan page, you’ll have a lot more leverage if the link they share is to your blog or Web site. Train your target market to come back to you as a destination for useful content. Any links to your site that are shared will improve your search engine optimization – this technique is known as inbound marketing.

Which networks are the best fit for your target market? Will you reach the same market on two different networks, such as Twitter and Facebook? What sites for rich media fit your content the best? Does your Web site have tracking software in place to determine from which sites people click through to you? Which networks are best suited to your specific goals?

In summary: Evaluate your resources, raid your archives for content and target your market on the networks that are most conducive to achieving your goals.

We’d love your feedback on our new series – Social Media 1-2-3 – here on the blog at Pixel/Point Press. To read more articles in this series, please bookmark this category.

Filed Under: social media 1-2-3, tips and tricks Tagged With: blog, create, facebook, fan page, linkedin, rss, social media, strategy, twitter

Introducing Social Media 1-2-3 – a new series of blog posts for social media beginners

October 22, 2009 By Kelli Brown Leave a Comment

Earlier this week, a friend challenged me to explain the premise behind social media marketing in three steps. After a short spiel, I realized it is possible to explain the basics in simple, easy-to-understand terms – and doing so might just help someone to take their first steps using a new tool or strategy.

While I strive in our classes to provide a wealth of knowledge in a very short time span, hoping to keep our students busy for several months after the classes end, I’m beginning to realize something: There’s a market for brevity.

To meet that growing need, I’m hoping to create a series of blog posts explaining how to get started in the wide worlds of social media networking and marketing. Topics will include:

Blogging
WordPress
Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter
Third-Party Twitter apps: Seesmic, TweetDeck, Bit.ly and others
Making the most of RSS feeds

And more. I’m also hoping my regular readers will help me generate some more topics. My goal is to provide a new post every Tuesday until I’m stumped for topics.

In another new addition to the blog, I’m asking readers for questions about how to use social media, drafting a strategy, etc. With your permission, I’ll reply to these questions and more every Wednesday on the blog so that others can learn from your questions. To send me a question, please email at kelli@pixelpointpress.com.

As always, thanks for reading, commenting, subscribing and sharing our content with others!

Filed Under: online learning, social media 1-2-3, tips and tricks Tagged With: beginner, blog, facebook, linkedin, rss, social media, tips, twitter, wordpress

Two new classes – Hands-On Twitter and Facebook on Oct. 25

October 11, 2009 By Kelli Brown 1 Comment

After teaching more than a dozen classes across Israel on social media marketing, we’re happy to be able to follow up on the most common requests our students made – hands-on classes that specialize in Twitter and Facebook.

Join us for hands-on classes with two of today’s most popular social media tools. These two-hour quick courses will walk you through, step-by-step, the social networking facets you need to begin reaching out on the Web.

Registration is first come, first served – class sizes are limited to ensure individual attention and time for questions. If the courses fill as quickly as our SMM classes, we’ll offer additional classes – let us know if a different time or location might suit you.

For more information or to register, please contact us at kelli@pixelpointpress.com.

Location:

Both classes will be held at JBS Business Class in Talpiot, Jerusalem. Directions are available here.

Date and Time:

Sunday, Oct. 25
Hands-On Twitter: 12:30-2:30 p.m.
Hands-On Facebook: 2:40-4:40 p.m.

Cost:

NIS 225 +VAT for either course; take both for NIS 400 +VAT

Details:

Classes are taught in English
Participants need a laptop – Internet access is provided
You will receive a cheshbonit mas

Hands-On Facebook:

Settings: Account, Privacy and Applications
Profile and Inbox: Custom URLs, sharing content and etiquette
Applications and Features: Photos, Videos, Groups, Events, Notes, Links, Credits, Chat, Pages, Real-time search
Marketing: Ads, Pages, Connect, Business Accounts, What is FBML?
Facebook Lite: Which one should you use?
Help: Troubleshooting your Facebook problems

Hands-On Twitter:

Your account: Your username, real name, profile, image, background, link to your site, etiquette
Follow: Blogs, importing e-mail addresses, search, third-party referrers
Get followed: Sharing content, asking questions and answering others
Learn the lingo: Retweets and via, hashtags, direct messages, favorites, blocking
Make it easy: Using third-party apps to tweet, group and track your traffic
Help: Troubleshooting and mistakes to avoid

Both classes will be taught by Kelli Brown of Pixel/Point Press.

Please contact us at kelli@pixelpointpress.com for more information or to register for classes.

Filed Under: classes, social media, social media marketing Tagged With: class, facebook, Israel, jerusalem, learn, tutorial, twitter

Is social media marketing a fad? Consider the statistics

August 16, 2009 By Kelli Brown 4 Comments

It’s a loaded question for most companies out there today. Is social media marketing a fad?

While I think every brand has to draw their own conclusions, I think the following video by Erik Qualman has some startling statistics that need to be given consideration.

Filed Under: social media marketing, statistics Tagged With: facebook, fad, linkedin, marketing, social media, statistics, stats, twitter, youtube

Coming in September: Social media marketing classes and more

August 11, 2009 By Kelli Brown Leave a Comment

After a whirlwind month of finishing projects and moving into our new offices (pictures to come as soon as we finish painting!), we’re happy to announce some of the cool things we have planned starting in September.

Back by popular demand is our Social Media Marketing class. Our first class will be held in Jerusalem starting on September 3.

This is a popular class so please reserve your spot as soon as possible. This time we are meeting at the beautiful JBS Business Class Center in Talpiot, Jerusalem. For anyone who missed a session from a previous class, please note that on your RSVP.

Date: Thursdays, September 3, September 10, and September 17

Time: from 9 am until 12 noon

Location: JBS Business Class; http://www.jbsbusinessclass.co.il/

Address: Hataasiya 8; 4th Floor; Talpiot; Jerusalem

Directions: The office is at Hataasiya 8. Hataasiya Street is the extension of Yad Harutzim after the Achim Yisrael mall. The building has an electrical appliance store on the ground floor called Traklin and an Orange office. The entrance to the office part of the building is on the right side – look for a big statue of a lion in a glass case. Go down the path, into the building and take the elevator to the 4th floor. Make a left and then a right when you get off the elevator.

Do you want to learn how to make the most of your presence online? Need help starting (or customizing – or promoting) a blog or Web site?
Consider joining us for three sessions to build your Web profile, reach new clients, and market yourself using free tools.

Cost for all three sessions is NIS 350. We’ll meet once a week a for three weeks.

Session 1: An Introduction to Social Media

Starting a blog
Using Facebook and LinkedIn for professional networking
Using Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter for marketing
Tips and tricks to get started quickly and effectively
hree ideas you (and your competition) haven’t tried yet
What not to do – common mistakes and how to avoid them

Session 2: Promoting your Social Media Efforts

How to promote a blog
RSS/Social bookmarking
SEO – Crafting effective headlines and tags, using XML sitemaps
Facebook groups and fan pages, LinkedIn user groups, Twitter tweets, FriendFeed

Session 3: Advanced Social Media Techniques

Creating custom blog templates
Developing Facebook apps
Plugins and more – bringing it all together
What’s next? Staying ahead of the curve
What to do when that’s not enough to beat your competition

I will be teaching the classes and am happy to answer any questions. I have several years of experience using open source tools for Web design and development, SMM and SEO.

After our social media marketing course comes to a close, we’d like to fulfill requests for two other classes: Using WordPress as a CMS and Creating Custom WordPress Templates. If you’re interested in these classes (or others), please let us know by dropping us a note at kelli@pixelpointpress.com or filling out the contact form below.
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Filed Under: classes, social media marketing, web development Tagged With: blog, class, cms, facebook, Israel, linkedin, rss, smm, social media marketing, twitter, wordpress

Tips for successful Facebook fan page after Involver

July 6, 2009 By Kelli Brown 17 Comments

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post on tips to create a successful Facebook fan page (also known as a public profile). One of the toolkits mentioned in the blog post was applications made by Involver.com. Hands down, Involver.com makes the best applications for Facebook pages. Their tools allow page administrators to easily integrate YouTube, Twitter, RSS, slideshows and much more into Facebook fan pages with ease.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one aware of how great these tools were. Involver.com also had a clue – and decided to monetize their tools by introducing a premium membership. Even at $29 a month (introductory pricing with one month free), the tools are a great deal. For a major company that’s trying to make the most of their Facebook fan page, $29 a month is nothing. I would strongly suggest anyone who can afford it keeps using their tools. If you need further convincing, check out some of the case studies available on their site.

Involver.com's array of tools for Facebook fan pages

But what about the rest of us? What if you’re just starting a fan page and you’re not sure how much of an investment to make? What if the only budget you’ve been allocated is your own time? What if the whole reason you got into social media marketing in the first place is because it’s free*?
Nothing out there right now can mimic the ease and simplicity of the toolset created by Involver. But let’s look for the next best solution to the most popular tools and how to get the same results.

RSS

To import your RSS feed – whether it’s a blog site or regular news site or press releases or Twitter – you need Social RSS. This very handy app allows you to import up to five RSS feeds into a page. You can choose how many items post from each feed and have a little flexibility in the placement. What’s better, you can still add the feeds to a page tab so fans will see “RSS/Blog” when they visit your site. Don’t forget to add a box to the main page so your feeds are prominent.

Twitter

Though there are countless Twitter apps out there that allow you add your Twitter feed to your page and update Twitter from Facebook (and vice versa if you’re using TweetDeck or Seesmic, among others), sometimes the simplest solution is the most effective. Instead of adding another app (and another tab) to the top of your page, add your Twitter feed via RSS as one of your five RSS feeds using Social RSS. To find the feed for your Twitter page, just visit your own page in Twitter – http://www.twitter.com/pixelpointpress, for example – and click the RSS link on the right-hand side. You’ll have similar control and fewer apps to manage with Social RSS installed.

SlideShare

Well, this is a no brainer. Instead of using Involver’s Slides for Pages app, just use SlideShare’s own app to share your presentations on your page. Link your Facebook account with your SlideShare account and fans will see your latest presentations as well as those you’ve marked as a favorite. Don’t forget to add both a tab and a box to the page to make it easier for fans to find your presentations.

Video

As it stands, I haven’t found a good substitute for YouTube for Pages. That said, Facebook’s own application allows you to upload video – several fan pages have made an impact using this simple but useful tool. A few to view are Pringles and Victoria’s Secret. The main benefit to using Facebook’s video function is that users can share their own videos with the same interface – no more separate tabs for user-generated content.

All the rest

When it comes to coupons and polls – as well as other custom branding – and your Facebook fan page, it’s time to learn some Facebook Markup Language (FBML). In short, it’s time to dive into the deep end and become a developer. Give it a shot and let us know what you learn by posting in the comments!
* For the record, social media is anything but free. The tools are free to use, but your time commitment is a very valuable resource. Please understand that social media isn’t for everyone – and that any serious marketing campaign takes resources. You get out of it what you put into it – and if you’re lucky, you get a bit more.

Filed Under: social media marketing, tips and tricks Tagged With: blog, facebook, fan page, involver, public profile, rss, slideshare, twitter

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Ask P3: Should I cross post content from my Facebook fan page to my friends?

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