Posts Tagged ‘how to’

How To Work Facebook: Part 1

June 24, 2010

Statistics show that Facebook is the most widely used social networking site on the Web. But, unlike Twitter, Facebook is not so cut and dry. As I explained in previous posts, Twitter is a microblog that limits a user’s message to 120 characters. There are various ways to leverage that message and network to others, but the idea of Twitter is very simple: You have something to say and you say it to the people who have chosen to listen.

Facebook is an entirely different animal.

Since over 500 million people use Facebook worldwide. I am going to start Part 1 of this Facebook series by making one assumption: if you are reading this, odds are that you have a Facebook profile. Fair enough? I’m not going to tell you how set up a profile or download your profile picture. Even if you haven’t done that yet, just log onto Facebook and let them walk you through it. The interface is quite intuitive and easy to navigate. I will show you all of the nuances and functions, but I’ll leave the getting started up to you.

So, why are people using Facebook? The most commonly reported uses for Facebook are for personal entertainment and self/business marketing. Facebook is an easy and inexpensive way for the average person to catch up with old friends, classmates, neighbors, or co-workers. And with 500 million users, it is an incredibly powerful platform for selling a product or service, soliciting donations to your nonprofit, recruiting talent to your firm, or spreading awareness about an issue that means a lot to you.

Think of Facebook’s power like this: Say you have a small, web-based consulting business and you want to send out some direct mail to promote your service. You can purchase a mailing list that consists of your target audience’s demographic, you can purchase the printed piece, and you can pay the postage. Let’s say you send out 10,000 pieces of mail and that costs you $7,000. With a typical direct mail campaign, you are supposed to be ecstatic if you get a 3-4% response. Congratulations. You spent $7,000 to engage 300 people. It probably took you several weeks and cost you a lot more than the $7,000 in monetary expenses. In half the time, you could have sent out the same message to millions of people on Facebook…For a fraction of the cost. 3% of a million people make quite a large group. 3% of 500 million is slightly bigger.

Now, I don’t mean to say that you can just set up a profile on Facebook and instantly reach even 100,000 people. But, with the right tools and a lot of effort, you can build a big enough network to seriously boost your business, product, or nonprofit organization. Like Twitter, it’s all about making connections and interacting. The next several parts of this series will show you just exactly how to do it. Stay tuned.

Where are you with your social media activity?

May 3, 2010

In an effort to take a break from the pure informational nature of this blog, I’d like to start a discussion about where you are with your social media plan?  My hope is to get some lively, group-style exchanges going so that we can all learn from each other.  Newbie, expert, casual user, or business user…tell me what you’re up to on sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flikr, or any of the free blog sites.

If you’re an avid user, feel free to plug your site or your service, too.

How To Work Twitter: Part 3

April 30, 2010

By now, you know most of what there is to know about Twitter.  But, there’s more!  Twitter gives you some tools to get yourself, your content, and your following noticed.  Let’s go over one big one now.

For me, the most important tool is the ‘hash tag’.

What is a hash tag?  First, let’s define a ‘tag’.  According to Wikipedia, a tag is “a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information (such as an internet bookmark, digital image, or computer file). This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching. Tags are generally chosen informally and personally by the item’s creator or by its viewer, depending on the system.”

In plain English, a tag is an electronic keyword that you assign to a web page, blog post, digital image, or other online asset that makes it findable during a web search.

Soooo, what is a hash tag?  A hash tag is the way you tag your Twitter posts so people can search and find them categorically.  The ‘hash’ part of the term comes from the ‘#’ symbol, which is often called a hash symbol.

Here’s how it all works.  Let’s say you are the communications and marketing person for a nonprofit that deals with funding educational support programs for homeless children.  Assume that you are looking to use Twitter to gain some exposure for your agency, as well as try to find other people and organizations in the country who might share similar missions or values.

Each time you post something on Twitter, you should be hash tagging your posts. Here is a sample of something you might post:

TeachTheHomeless:  1 in 10 U.S. Children are on the streets and not in school. Visit http://www.TTC.org to help. #homeless #education

Ignore the fake stats and the made-up organization and look to the hash tags.  The point of adding those tags is simple…searchability.  Now, anyone who searches #education or #homeless will be able to find your post.  The more people who can find your content the better!

But, hash tags aren’t just for searching.  After you post something using a hash tag (or see someone else’s post using a hash tag), you’ll notice that the hash tag itself becomes a link.  Click on the hash tag link and you are taken to a separate feed.  This feed is made up of every single Twitter post that contains that hash tag.  Popular hash tags make for very active feeds, and often times entire discussions take place by way of these hash tag feeds…much like a live instant message conversation.  Check it out and get familiar with the functionality.

Finally, just hash tag often.  And, keep your eyes open for  hash tags other people are using.  There are tons of them, and you can use as many as you can fit into the 140 character maximum.  I like to write down new ones as I see them, and then apply them to my posts as often as I can.

Have questions?  Leave a comment or email me!

Speaking of Twitter…

April 19, 2010

Are my blog followers following me on Twitter? I tweet a lot of good articles and ideas from other experts. Make sure you follow me as a supplement to this blog!

Twitter handle: JohnJStone

How To Work Twitter: Part I

April 16, 2010

¬Part I

By now you have all read about Twitter. Everyone from the mom and pop business down the street, to your local news station, to your 17 year-old niece has a Twitter account. You might even have one for yourself or your business. But, do you really know how to work it? Well, if you’re reading this blog I’ll go ahead and assume you’re not a Twitter whiz. But, don’t worry…by the time you get done reading this you will be armed with enough tips and ideas to become an expert.

Let’s begin at the beginning. What is Twitter? Quite simply, Twitter is a micro-blog. Why is it micro? It is a micro-blog because Twitter only gives you 140 characters (including spaces) to share your message with the world, whereas a typical blog is much longer.

The Twitter community is broken down into two major groups: people you follow and people who follow you. How do you follow someone? Look for the little picture of the gear/sprocket and click to see the dropdown menu…the ‘follow’ option lives there. When you follow someone on Twitter, you are subscribing to his/her Twitter content. But, instead of getting an e-mail to alert you that the blogger has posted new information, you get a ‘Tweet’ sent to your ‘Twitter Feed’. A tweet is simply a post on Twitter. The Twitter Feed is what you see when you log into Twitter and hit the ‘Home’ link. Your feed is home base, and where all of the action happens. You see people’s tweets, and its where they see yours. The more people you follow, the more tweets you will see popping up on your feed and vice-versa.

So, there are the basics. We know that a tweet is a Twitter post. You follow people who interest you and you get their tweets in your feed. People who are interested in you see your tweets in their feed. So, why the heck should we be doing this? And, how do I decide who to follow and how do I get them to follow me?

The answers to those two questions contain the beauty and the power of Twitter. I’m going to assume that if you are reading my blog, you know what a blog is. I’m also going to assume that you are somewhat savvy with social media. Otherwise, you would not have found my blog. So, I don’t need to go into the importance of social media marketing as a way to extend your company’s brand awareness or build your own personal brand. I’m guessing you get all of that. But, you just might need some help on understanding exactly how Twitter can help you accomplish all of this.

The answer to ‘why the heck should I be doing this?’ is easily expressed. The answer will likely make all of the mothers in the world cringe, but I think it’s 100% accurate. You should be on Twitter because everyone is doing it! That’s the answer to the social media question across the board, too. You’re not jumping off of a bridge because it’s the cool thing to do. You’re making the choice to embrace the way marketing is headed. The sooner you master it, the better. But, social media is not just about sales and marketing. Tools like Twitter can be used to find resources on anything from building a birdhouse to making tonight’s diner. Twitter is an outstanding tool for marketers, shoppers, recruiters, job seekers, and information lovers alike.

How do I decide whom to follow? This really depends on your goals. For our purpose here, let’s say you want to use Twitter to promote your nonprofit organization. After you set up your account and your profile (which can be pretty easily figured out using the ‘Settings’ link placed on the top, right of the home page), it’s time to start searching. The first place you want to look is anywhere you surf on the web. You should be looking for links and buttons that take you the individual or organization’s Twitter page. If you want to consume the information they share, follow them. The next place you should go to find people to follow is the website ‘search.twitter.com’. This is a Twitter search engine that will deliver everyone who is talking on Twitter about the search criteria you enter. If your nonprofit deals in human services, type ‘human services’ and search. Hundreds, if not thousands, of tweets will come up. Comb through them to see what relates to your nonprofit. If you see something interesting, visit the profile of the tweeter and learn more about what they are talking about by looking at other tweets in their feed. If they are tweeting valuable information, follow them. Also, take a look at whom they follow and who follows them for more ideas by clicking ‘following’ or ‘followers’ on the right side of their home page. Repeat the process above until you can’t stand it anymore.

The above practice will build you a nice list of people you follow. What it will also do is plant the seeds of your own following. Typically, the common practice on Twitter is to follow someone when they choose to follow you. When I have a new follower, which you can evaluate by watching the number of ‘followers’ (right hand side of the home page) go up, I visit that person’s profile to make sure they aren’t a spammer or a weirdo. If they seem OK, I’ll follow back. Maybe I’m not interested in anything they have to say, but it still builds a network. Plus, you never know where a good resource lives. Never assume that someone you follow or who follows you can’t become a donor, volunteer, employee, employer, business partner, or fountain of information and ideas.

If you have read this far, you know should know the Twitter basics for finding and attracting a following. There is much more, but I’ll save it for Part II of this topic. But, remember this: it’s not magic and it’s not overnight. And, don’t forget to be generating content that people are interested in or they won’t be following you for very long. Content can be something like a link to your new blog entry, a link to an article that you find interesting about nonprofits, and everything in between. My rule of thumb with content is this: would I be interested in this? If you ever answer no, then rethink the tweet. Twitter followers can be fickle, so always strive to tweet out good content. Like mom always said, if you don’t have something nice to say then don’t say anything at all! (Does that one make up for telling everyone to jump off of that bridge, mom?)