The Maine SEO Blog

So, recently I was asked a question by a friend about how to create an update on Facebook that you want most, but not everyone you are connected with to see.

Now, it’s common for many of us to have friends on Facebook that are simply acquaintances or people we’ve met once. Sometimes we friend, friends of friends so we can see photos they’ve taken at a recent gathering we attended or maybe it’s something we don’t want our boss and coworkers to see. Maybe you are friends with some of your competitors online and you don’t want them to see a particular business announcement.

Whatever the reason, there are certain updates that we don’t need everyone to see.

Luckily, Facebook has Advanced Privacy Controls that allow you to make each post have it’s own level of security. Here is how it works:

When you create an update there is a small drop down near the “Post” button called an Audience selector. See image below….

After you’ve created your update and before you hit the post button, make sure that you select the audience that you want to share the update with. You can make your update public, available for Friends only, Friends except Acquaintances or you can make the update only visible to yourself by choosing “Only Me.”

You can also select specific lists, so if you’ve created segmented Facebook lists, you can share with that list and only the folks you’ve added to that list will see the update. Check out “Facebook Rolls Out Smart Lists” or Facebook’s Help Guide on Lists for more info on creating Facebook lists.

Your next step will be selecting “Custom” from the drop down. Once you’ve selected custom you will notice that it is actually the same setting as if you just clicked on “Friends Except Acquaintances” only a pop up box allows you to also specify others that you want to hide your post from.

*Note: If you haven’t gone through your friends list to actually add those folks into the acquaintances category, this won’t help much as no one is listed as an acquaintance, so you will definitely need to add the specific people here.

Click in the box next to where it says acquaintances and start typing the name/s of the people you want to hide the post from into the box. For this example let’s say I’m trying to hide something from my boss, so I start typing his name in and this is what pops up…

All I have to do now, is click on his actual name when it pops up in the drop down menu and voila he is eliminated from viewing my post. You can add as many people as you want to this list for Facebook to hide your update from.

It’s as simple as that! I do recommend creating lists however if you find yourself constantly segmenting your content. It will save you time and make it easier to get the right messages to the right people.

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
What do you think of George hiding behind the plant?

Pinterest, Pinterest, Pinerest. You can’t be on Facebook, Twitter or pretty much anywhere else on the web these days without hearing about Pinterest. And, with good reason, Pinterest is blowing up! Folks are realizing the power behind the platform and just how useful it is for business.

Sure there are plenty of folks that are using it for just pure fun and enjoyment, but businesses are actually benefitting from this. Check out these 10 posts below that are super informative about Pinterest, how to use it for business and some of the facts about this awesome tool.

1. Amy Porterfield’s post: The 10 Commandments of Using Pinterest for Business Awesome tips!

2. TechCrunch’s post: This is everything you need to know about Pinterest This infographic is a great snapshot of “everything you need to know.”

3.  10 Ways to Use Pinterest to Reach Prospects via Fuel Lines. You’ll find tips on how to highlight your company’s testimonials, give agency tours and more.

4. For the measurement geek in you… Making Sense of Key Pinterest Metrics and Analytics Tools

5. Want some examples and case studies? Here you go… 5 Interesting Pinterest Marketing Campaigns. via Mashable.

6. Looking for some tools to “Supercharge” your experience? Check out 7 Useful Pinterest Tools to Supercharge Your Pinfluence.

7. Studies Say – Pinterest Now Generates More Referral Traffic Than Twitter

8. 26! Count them…26 Tips for Using Pinterest for Business! via Social Media Examiner.

9. Wondering who’s on Pinterest? Apparently the ladies according to this TechCrunch Article, Where the Ladies At? Pinterest. 2 Million Daily Facebook Users, 97% of Fans are Women.

10. And, last but not least… Kidolani.com’s “5 Steps to Improve your Pinterest Profile in Five Minutes.

If you are looking for more info on how to use Pinterest for Business attend flyte school on 7/17 here in Portland at the Portland Public Library. What better way to spend your lunch break than learning all about Pinterest for Business?

How are you using Pinterest? ANy Tips? Share them with us here in the comments section!

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
Pinterested!

Last week Facebook finally updated page admins rights by creating different roles. Originally if you wanted to allow someone to help you with your page you had to give them full access to the entire page. Now, you can give people just enough access to do the job they need to do while in the page.

For example, if you simply need someone to create ads for you, rather than giving them access to all parts of you page, you can simply give them access to your page ads and insights to look at how things are performing and for ideas on best ads.

The chart below provided by Facebook gives you a quick snapshot of what type of access each roll gets.

Only Managers have access to all activities including creating and managing other admins. Managing the different roles or assigning roles is quite simple.

1.  Go to “Edit Page”
2. “Manage Admins”
3.  And, select the proper role in the drop down next to that particular administrator.
4. Make sure you save changes

That’s it! This is a great way to feel a little more comfortable giving folks access to your page. Each employee can be in charge of a different role.

*Note – On the first day this was released I did hear feedback that certain roles were not working. It should be fixed now, but if that’s the case you can always give full access until it’s resolved or wait.

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
Facebook Manager

Facebook has finally allowed us to start scheduling our Facebook updates rather than having to do them all manually or use a third party like Hootsuite. So, how do you schedule a post in Facebook? Below are step by step instructions of how to do just that.

*Note: Posts can be scheduled in 15 minute increments and up to six months in advance.

To schedule a post on Facebook:

You will still need to use 3rd party tools like Hootsuite if you want to bulk schedule updates. However, in the past it’s been noted that using a 3rd party app to schedule updates results in a lower EdgeRank and therefore less reach etc. I wonder if because they are now scheduled within Facebook if they will be treated as a regular update.

What do you think of this new feature is it helpful or will you still be using a 3rd party app to schedule your posts when planning future posts?

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
I wish there was a bulk option!

Instructions and screenshot were taken directly from Facebook… you can find more info here www.facebook.com/help

Facebook recently released promoted posts. A new way to reach more people with your posts on Facebook. With Promoted posts you will be able to reach far more of your fans than with a traditional post, as well as your fans’ friends.

Currently if you Facebook page has more than 400 fans you should have Promoted posts available to you on your page.

All you need to do is start creating an update, or you can use a recent update that you’ve posted within the last 3 days. Type in the post that you want to promote and then hit the Promote drop down button.

Once you’ve clicked on the drop down button, you can choose how much you would like to set your budget at, Facebook uses this example below…

Depending on your budget, Facebook will give you the estimated reach of the post.

To share a post that you’ve already created in the last 3 days, you will just need to go to the comment area and the promotion drop down should appear as a choice.

*Note: You have to be using the page as yourself and not as the page in order for this to show up.

It’s as easy as that.

All types of posts can be promoted. They just have to be a new post or again, within the last 3 days.

What do you think of the new promoted post option?

Learn more about it by clicking the video below or by visiting www.facebook.com/help/promote.

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
Intrigued

How often should I post on my blog? How often should I update Facebook? And, How often should I Tweet? These are important questions and although the answer isn’t the same for every brand or business, I have found the following to be a good “rule of thumb.”

So, how often should you post on your blog?
2-3 times a week. I say this for a few reasons. One is that posting every day can be very time consuming and if you haven’t yet committed yourself to getting out 2 -3 posts, the likelihood of you getting out the extra 3 to 4 will seem almost impossible.

The more frequently you post the better it is for SEO and the more likely you are setting up an audience that is continually coming back for more. However, if you have nothing to say or the information isn’t fresh, it won’t matter how often you post.

Here are a few things to take into consideration when deciding how often to post:

• Do you have anything valuable to say?
• Who is your audience? Are they getting their info from blogs?
• What is your goal? Are you trying to increase traffic to your website and improve your SEO in general? Or are you simply using this platform as an announcement board for current customers?
• How much time do you have to put towards blogging? And, how much time does your average blog take you to write from soup to nuts?

All of these questions will help you answer how frequently you should be posting to you blog. Once you have a plan in place, then you will want to reassess it later by looking at your Google Analytics and other measurement tools to see if your current plan is helping you reach your goals.

How often should I post Facebook Updates:
We recommend posting to your Facebook page at least 3x a day! Really, 2 – 5x, but if you can do at least 1 -3 posts a day you should be in good shape. Check out my blog post on “how often your should post to your Facebook business page for Facebook success.”

There are also different tools out there such as Facebook Insights and EdgeRank Checker that can help you analyze what is working best for you. This tool in particular will tell you what types of posts are getting the most reach and engagement and also what times and days are working best for you to update your status.

Test out post frequency to see what works best for you and your audience. Here are some areas to pay attention to and keep track of while you are doing your testing:
Did your page Likes go up or down?
Are you reaching more folks?
Are people engaging with you more often or less often?
Are more or less people talking about you?
What types of posts do people seem to respond to the most?
What time of day do you seem to get the most engagement?

These questions should help you assess what the perfect amount of posting is for your brand.

And, finally Twitter! How often should I Tweet?

Tweets are a little more difficult to put an actual number on. Being part of the conversation and engaging with a good following is most important. But, while you want to be replying to all the conversations that are happening around you and to those chatting with you, you also want to have a good amount of content that you are pushing out as well.

Think about when you check out someone’s Twitter stream. What are you looking for? You want to learn a little bit more about what they have to offer and why you would want to follow them. You want to make sure that you are balancing your original content, with your RT’s and your @replies.

Check out What to tweet? to get more ideas.
How often do you post? We’d love to hear what is working for you!

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
Consistently Posting, Updating and Tweeting

Email still works! Yes, that’s right. Not only does it work, but it still has some of the best results of any marketing tool out there.

I am always getting asked what the best way to get new Facebook fans is, and while the common answers are Facebook ads and creating excellent content that people will want to engage with, many times we forget we already have resources at our finger tips.

This afternoon I was helping a client send an email out to their client base asking them to like there new Facebook page. Fast forward 20 minutes and she now had 59 new fans and 14 posts/comments on her timeline.

It doesn’t have to be super time consuming or have some crazy design. You just have to be yourself. Send a message using your tone of voice asking them to like your page. What a concept? Just ask for the like! It takes a few minutes and you are done.

As for an example, here’s what our email looked like…

Fairly simple huh? I suppose an image of a cute dog doesn’t hurt!

So, try building your Facebook fan base first with your current clients and email lists. Then make sure that you are creating engaging content that your fan base will want to share and interact with!

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
A FAN of email marketing

A common question I receive is “How do I get my Facebook fans to participate more on my page?” And, it’s a very good question. After all, if no one is sharing, commenting, liking or engaging with you in social media then you are missing out on everything that gives you any sort of benefit.

Here is a compilation of 7 blog posts that in my opinion give excellent examples of how to get people to participate with you on social media and really engage with your brand:

1. 12 Tips for Better Facebook Engagement: Give Them Something To Talk About
Okay, so I wrote this post as well, but I think it’s a really good summary of all the things that I used as a social media manager and we help our clients to implement that really get high engagement.

2. Want High Engagement on Facebook? Offer Coupons [STUDY]
Wildfire recently released a study regarding earned media and the types of campaigns you can run that will generate the most engagement… Coupons is #1. Keep in mind though there is a big difference between sharing and engaging. This is a good explanation of why you should create campaigns that do both. Check out the slides from the Wildfire Study.

3. Has Timeline Increased Engagement on Facebook?
This is a great article about how the new Timeline design has affected engagement. Big Tip here? If you haven’t made the switch over to the new format, you’ll want to optimize it now!

4. 10 Powerful Tips to Increase Fan Engagement on Facebook
This post looks at engagement from a more technical standpoint taking into consideration the day, time, structure, length and frequency of posts and its affect on engagement.

5. How to Measure your Facebook Engagement
What better way to know if you are actually increasing your engagement than measuring it? Well, here are some tips for measurement so that you are getting an accurate assessment.

6. 12 Top Community Managers Share Their Tips for Better Engagement
Mashable gathered tips from top community managers to help you boost activity on your social platforms — they’re grouped into various engagement-inducing “actions”.

7. What happens When Social Media Doesn’t Work
And, finally this last post is for all those that are doing social media right but STILL not getting the engagement or results they want.

How do you engage people on your Facebook page?

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
Please engage with this post!

Photography by CreativeSoul Photography.

How do you create a social media strategy? The same way you create any other marketing, PR or business strategy. With an end in mind. Like with any other part of your business you want to start with a goal. Until you know what the purpose of you being involved in social media is or why you are creating content you are wasting your time.

1. Set Goals: You may have several business goals such as increasing brand awareness, increasing website traffic, improving online sentiment, or maybe it’s that you want yourself, or your business to be seen as the industry expert. Whatever the goal/s is, make sure you start there.

Okay so now you know what you want to accomplish by participating in this space, the next step is to see if your audience is even there…

2. Conduct Research: Where is your audience? Is your audience already on social media? If so, what platforms are they using? Where is your brand being talked about? Chances are they probably are already on the big 3 Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but are they also participating in online forums or Pinterest? Are they reading blogs? It’s important to do some research and find out where your customers and target audience likes to get their information and share about their experiences.

3. SWOT/Competitive Analysis: What is your competition doing? Are they doing it well? Where are your opportunities? How can you do it better? It’s good to see what the competition is doing both well and not so well. This allows you to implement some of the strategies that they’ve already done the hard work to find out if it will work and to leave behind the things they are doing that aren’t working so well.

4. Develop a Social Media Content Strategy: The steps above should be considered in your content strategy as well as conducting keyword analysis so that you can create content that is optimized to improve not only your search visibility buy to use the same verbiage that your customers are using. You should also be connecting with industry leaders, following influencers, subscribing to industry related blogs and setting up Google alerts so as to stay abreast of the industry and get ideas for content your audience is interested in. Creating an editorial calendar can help keep you and your company accountable for creating content and also help with delegating tasks. The final step here is to create the actual content.

5. Monitor, Engage & Respond: There are several free and paid tools out there that you can use to monitor what is being said about your brand and company on the Interwebs. You can use Twitter, Facebook, Google Alerts, Social Mention, Tweetdeck, Hootsuite and many others. There are also paid tools like Radian6 and Sysomos. Whichever tool you use, you will want to make sure that you are monitoring specific industry keywords, your brand name and possibly your competition as well. This will give you the ability to respond when necessary and stay in the know.

6. Measurement and Analysis: Again, go back to your goals so you know what to measure. If it’s brand awareness you may want to measure how many Likes, Followers, RT’s, Mentions, Shared Stories etc. that you have on the different networks. IF you are trying to increase web traffic look at your analytics report. How many folks are coming into your site via the various social media platforms that you are participating on? What about blog traffic? And, then look at the overall numbers, has your overall traffic increased? If you are trying to improve online sentiment, take a peek at social mention or another tool and see if the numbers have improved. Or, you can start by tracking comments that are both good and bad… Did you have a baseline for before you started? How does it measure up?

There are ways to measure your Social Media ROI, you just have to know what you are measuring.

How do you create your Social Media Marketing Strategy? Share your tips with us here in the comments section.

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
“What’s the use of running, if you are not on the right road.” – German Proverb

Photo Credit: By Waponi

This might be a minor tweak, but I’ve noticed a recent Facebook change, that I and probably many Facebook Page Admins will appreciate.

Facebook simply changed the location of the “edit page” button. Yes, that’s it. But, it saves me from having to go to the drop down under “manage Page” and eliminating that small step, makes me happy!

That’s all. Now I wish that they would also move the switch between using facebook as yourself and as a page so it was a button on the side…

Did you hear that Facebook?

Joan Woodbrey Crocker
Thanks Facebook!