Are You Workin’ Your Facebook Page?

Posted on August 28, 2010 by Eydie

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If you have a Facebook Page – are you workin’ it? If not, you might be losing business. One of the Golden Rules of a Facebook Page is to be authentic and ACTIVE!

Click the play arrow to hear my message about Facebook Pages – and I’ll admit – there is a bit of a promo included as well!
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(Click the button, second from the right, to see in full screen)

How do YOU like to use your Facebook Page? Leave your comments below.

Eydie :)

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Posted in Facebook, Gold Mail, Networking, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Networking, marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

What are you doing to extend your sphere of influence?

Posted on August 26, 2010 by Eydie

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FastCompany.com, an online magazine helping businesses work smarter and more efficiently, launched “The Influence Project” in early July. Sponsored by HubSpot.com, a marketing resource site, the intention of The Influence Project was to bring together the web’s brightest and most influential people.

To get this project started, 60 thought leaders were gathered, and each was given 60 seconds to share one thing which was essential to building influence.

The Influence Project defines influence as, “not only about having the most friends or followers. Real influence is about being able to affect the behavior of those you interact with, to get others in your social network to act on a suggestion or recommendation.”

The following quotes are from some of the 60 most influential online thought leaders today:

Mike Volpe: “We share lots of things that most companies would keep internal. By sharing both the good and the bad, you build digital influence.” @mvolpe

Michael Port: “Consistency demonstrates commitment. You’re going to earn trust because you’re consistent.” @michaelport

Robert Scoble: “Follow better people. The better your inbound is, the better your output will be. And your output is what people follow.” @lizstrauss

Carol Roth: “Align yourself with outstanding strategic partners.” @CarolJSRoth

Scott Porad: “Make connections with people online, and then go and meet them in person in the real world, offline.” @scottporad

Laura Roeder: “Just start talking to people! Don’t worry about what to tweet, just start responding.” @lkr

Dave Navarro: “Find people who have your audience already in place and co-create products with them.” @rockyourday

Ann Handley: “Ground your content in who you are. Don’t be afraid to have a point of view. But also give it wings to soar freely and be shared.” @marketingprofs

Shama Kabani: “Create video content around your area of expertise and then distribute. Distribute with gusto!” @shama

Yaro Starak: “Learn how to talk more about other people. If you’re looking to influence a certain thought leader, talk about them.” @yarostarak

Erica O’Grady: “Make people around you more successful than you are.” @ericaogrady

Gary Vaynerchuk: “Talk about things you know. The reason Wine Library TV worked was because I knew what I was talking about.” @garyvee

Nathan Hangen: “Don’t worry about getting attention from other people. Make something worth talking about.” @nhangen

Mitch Joel: “Get active in other people’s communities. Get out of your own head and get into other people’s spaces.” @mitchjoel

Cathy Brooks: “Think about the authenticity and consistency of your voice across your entire online and offline presence.” @cathybrooks

Brian Clark: “Learn to be a storyteller. Narrative – it’s what makes us human.” @copyblogger

Aaron Kahlow: “Think about social media not as its own strategy but as strategy to enhance your existing marketing and business goals.” @aaronkahlow

Alexandra Levit: “Target between five and 10 individuals who you admire, whose work you’ve followed, and gradually start getting to know them.” @alevit

Brian Solis: “How do you become a thought leader? It starts with ‘being’ a thought leader and then connecting the dots back to you.” @briansolis

Do any of these thoughts resonate with you? Could you use these in your social media marketing efforts? These all make so much sense – it’s almost common sense. But so often we forget to do the simplest of things.

How far does your influence spread? Who would you like to be influencing? Share your thoughts by clicking the comment link below.

Eydie

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Questions and Notes – New and updated features for a better Facebook experience

Posted on August 17, 2010 by Eydie

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Facebook has once again added new features to stir up some buzz amongst its users. The first new feature is a recently launched application called Facebook Questions. You might not have seen it on your well yet as it is still in Beta testing mode. Facebook, in its usual fashion, is rolling Questions out to a select few and to those who apply to be a Beta tester. http://www.facebook.com/product_application/

So, what is Facebook Questions and how will it change the way you’re currently using Facebook? According to Facebook, this application will “let you pose questions to the Facebook community. With this new application, you can get a broader set of answers and learn valuable information from people knowledgeable on a range of topics”. I see Facebook Questions as similar to the LinkedIn Answer feature.

When you ask your question your answer is generated from a pool of 500 million people around the world. Users can ask their questions, which are displayed in the Questions Dashboard, the news feeds of the author’s friends, friends of friends, and people who like things related to a question’s tags. Answers are voted as helpful or unhelpful by users.

Facebook Questions seems to me as a great new tool for businesses. Two of its features include tagging and topic exploration so when you answer questions relating to your industry and expertise, people will more than likely research you and your business further.

The second new Facebook feature involves Notes. Not everyone use Notes and it might be because of the inflexibility of formatting. If you wanted to bold or italicize a word or phrase, or add a bulleted list you needed to know some HTML. Also, editing old Notes content was somewhat cumbersome.

When you check out the new Notes features you will see a familiar text editor. No more searching for the correct HTML code to help you bold a word. What a time saver!

Facebook has also added tagging of Pages. As you were able to tag your friends in notes, now Pages will show up in a box on the note’s page. According to Facebook, “When viewing Notes from a Facebook Page, you can browse notes in which that Page has been tagged by one of your friends or by people who shared their note with “everyone”.

One last new Notes feature is the cleaner layout. Along the left hand side of the page, right under your profile picture, you will see a menu of links which help you to find your notes, friends’ notes, pages’ notes, drafts and notes which others wrote about you. This makes finding targeted notes more easily.

Now, not all new things at Facebook go without hitches. There are some users who are experiencing some glitches. In part, it could just be the user not knowing how to use the new features properly, as well as Facebook having its’ own issues. Be patient – it will all come together for you!

How will you be using the new Facebook features? Leave your comments below.

Eydie :)

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Posted in Blogging, Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Media, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Networking, Social Media for Beginners, Technology | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

3 Reasons Why Writing an E-book is Smart Marketing!

Posted on August 16, 2010 by Eydie

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Q.  I recently started my own business.  I’m active on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, plus I have a blog.  While doing some online research, I read that writing an e-book is a good way to promote myself. What would an e-book do for me and for my business and how would I use it to raise my visibility? John L.

A. Congratulations John! Starting your own business is exciting! Today, there are so many marketing options for small business owners to take advantage of and it seems that you are on riding on the right track by creating visibility using online networking sites.

Your Internet research paid off John. Writing an electronic book, better known as an e-book, is a powerful tool to use for growing your business.  E-books are a multipurpose vehicle as they can be used as a product for sale or a promotional item to be used as a give-away.

Your question has opened up a very interesting topic. Therefore I will be writing a series of three articles to address the subject of e-books and its place in business growth. This article will tackle the reasons why you should write an e-book, next week I will tell you how to write one and then I’ll finish up with how to market your e-book to be used as a promotional item or as passive income.

The three main reasons you should write an e-book are:

  1. Additional stream of income.  E-books are one of the hottest and lucrative “work from home” businesses on the Internet today.  An interesting and sought after topic, with a catchy title, can go viral and bring in extra income while you sleep! 
  2. Promotional marketing.  Using your e-books as a promotional product is an excellent way to introduce your potential clients to your products and services.
  3. Establish yourself as an expert.  This is the most important reason you should be typing feverishly!  An e-book can help you gain credibility and you become the go to person in your industry. 

So you see, John, writing an e-book can be used in many ways to blend in with your other marketing strategies.  Take the time to not only write one, but multiple e-books which can be used for different situations.  Write some to sell and some to use for promotional purposes.

Have you ever thought about writing an e-book? What would yours be about? Share your thoughts with us!

Eydie :)

Check out some of my e-books here!

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Posted in Blogging, Business, Business Blogging, Ebook, Social Media, business networking | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

5 suggestions for getting people to comment on your blog

Posted on August 14, 2010 by Eydie

 

Q. “What are some ways to get people to comment on my blog? I know people are reading it, but they’re not writing comments”. Sally A.

A. Your question, Sally, is one which is asked by thousands of bloggers worldwide. After all, we write our blog in order to get feedback from our readers, right?

According to Jakob Nielsen, web guru and former Sun MicoSystems engineer, about 1 out of 100 visitors to your blog will actually write a comment. About 90 percent of your visitors are basically Lookie Lous who are just passing through, 9 percent of them contribute occasionally, and the remaining 1 percent are regular visitors who are actively engaging by commenting on your articles. These numbers are averages and don’t necessarily apply to all blogs. If, you, too, are looking to improve your comment traffic, here are five ways to encourage people to post comments on your blog.

Invite people to comment: Your readers may be new to the world of blogging and they don’t know what it is that you want them to do. And even if your readers are familiar with blogging, you still need to tell them what to do. Invite them to post their thoughts by telling them to leave a comment. Because some comment links are placed at the bottom of the article and some are found close to the title, let readers know where the link can be found.

Ask questions: Asking questions is probably one of the most effective ways of engaging people in conversation – whether in a face to face situation or on the Internet. Include questions within your blog post, as well as a call to action at the end of the article. Ask your readers to answer your questions, share their opinions, and contribute additional information to your post.

Be open-ended: One of the reasons you have a blog is to show yourself as the expert in your field. Because of this you want to share everything you know with your readers – but think twice before you cover everything about your topic. Writing an open-ended article leaves some room for your readers to fill in the blanks, gives them the opportunity to show what they know, and to ask more questions.

Name names: Write about other people in your industry, or industries which compliment yours. When you mention other people, add links back to their blogs. If you know them personally, email them to let them know you’ve given them a mention in your blog. This usually gets their attention and they’ll post a comment; as well as share your blog with their community.

Comment on other blogs: When you engage with others on their blog, more often than not, they will return the favor by engaging with you on yours. Don’t forget to post links to the blogs you’re active on to your social networks. If you promote other blogs, then those bloggers will promote yours as well.

Post your blog articles on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, ask friends to repost and share with their community, and by all means, don’t forget to respond to those who took the time to post a comment on your blog!

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Posted in Business Blogging | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Before you friend someone on Facebook….

Posted on August 7, 2010 by Eydie

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It might be just me and my own personal pet peeve - and you can tell me so in a comment below – but I truly believe that before you go out and friend people on Facebook you really should have all your ducks in a row first.

I receive numerous friend requests from people on a daily basis. If I friended everyone who sent me a request – well, I think I’d have thousands of Facebook friends. But I don’t. I don’t friend every Tom, Dick or Harry who sends me a request.

Today’s article was promted by yet another request for friendship from someone I don’t know, and one from someone who I think I know – but wasn’t sure. No profile picture, no profile information, no anything – not even a message saying, “Hi Eydie! It’s been a long time since we’ve seen each other. Hope you remember me from…..”

So, I don’t confirm all the requests. Mainly because I have guidelines. I believe in quality and not quantity. Silly as it may seem, I want to know WHO you are first, and WHY you want to be my friend. It seems pretty reasonable to me – do you feel the same way?

Here are some guidelines everyone should follow – whether you are new to Facebook or a regular user:

  1. As a new user – complete your profile BEFORE you friend even one person! Your profile only needs to contain enough information to tell people who you are. You don’t have to add anything personal, you don’t have to write your life’s story – just give us SOMETHING to go on! Why would anyone friend you if they don’t know anything about you???? 
  2. Add your profile picture BEFORE you friend anyone. In the case of the person I think I might know (above), a picture sure would have been nice. It might have jogged my memory a bit and encourage me to friend her. Please remember that a headshot is more effective than a group shot (which one ARE you??), your pets, kids or even your logo.
  3. If you are going to privatize anything on your account – please privatize your photos. It just doesn’t make sense to me that you set your profile and wall as private, yet your family photos are out there for the world to see! Protect your children and grandchildren first!
  4. Facebook is all about conversation. Facebook provides you with a golden opportunity to engage in  conversation!   You are able to send a personal message to the person you are friending. This is your opportunity to introduce yourself and tell the person you are friending WHY you’d like to connect on Facebook! No selling – just a friendly little message! Talk to those you are friending – the conversation starts the moment you send that request. If you don’t take that opportunity then you’ve missed the whole idea of Facebook – and social media on the whole!

Okay, I do understand that many people are using Facebook for personal reasons…and I guess then the rules are a bit different. But, in my case, most people connect with me, not only for my friendship, but to learn more about what I do, how I can help them – and how THEY can help me! So, it’s in their best interest to tell me who they are BEFORE they reach out to me.

What do you think? Am I being a bit too uptight about this?? What, if any, guidelines do you follow when deciding on confirming a friendship?

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Posted in Facebook, Social Media, Social Media Networking | 11 Comments

Social media is the gift of endless possibilities

Posted on August 2, 2010 by Eydie

Social Media birthday
Today is my birthday. Yup, another year older and wiser, and I suspect that I will receive a number of virtual birthday greetings via Facebook today. It’s a good feeling when someone takes the time to send a quick message to acknowledge you on your special day. Hint, hint! But today’s article is not going to be about my birthday. It’s going to be about how Facebook, or almost any other social media tool, brings us the gift of possibilities!

Over the past two years I’ve learned a thing or two about social media and how Facebook, in particular, serves up unlimited possibilities. When given the opportunity, people are so willing to help others, celebrate in your happiness and console you in sadness. I saw, first hand, how this works.

Recently, my mother turned 85 years old. My sister began a snail-mail campaign to see if she could get 85, or more, people to send my mother birthday cards. What a great idea! My niece decided to post a status update on Facebook about our quest and asked her friends to send my Mother cards. I saw the possibilities of something amazing happening here so I did the same.

Mom received over 100 birthday cards – yes, some of them from family and friends, but a good number of them from people we had never met! Cards from Facebook friends poured in every day and my Mom was so excited to receive them. She called every day to read them to me.

Social media helped make my Mom’s 85th birthday one she will never forget!

One of my past blog articles was about success on Facebook and how one status update, from Denise Wakeman, ignited into the creation of a blogging mastermind group. We began with four bloggers, in different parts of the world, and we now have six. I see even more possibilities here, and I’m sure we’ll have more join us as the word gets around. Although we originally found each other online – we didn’t keep it there. We talk to each other using Skype. Now, we can hear each other’s voices, see each other’s faces, and our relationships have been taken to a more personal and emotional level.

Can we relate all this to building our business online? Yes we can! The reason my mother got so many birthday cards was because my niece and myself had been building relationships with our Facebook friends all along. I noticed that only those people with whom I was actively communicating with felt compelled to go out of their way to send my Mother a magic moment. And in regards to my blogging buddies, well, I originally responded to a person who I trusted – and the other people responded to her as well because of their trust in her.

Trust allows people to be comfortable with you, your product or your service. Actively and consistently engaging in conversation allows others to get to know who you are. You also get a better perspective of how other people think and feel about certain things. No one will buy from you unless they know, like and trust you.

Building relationships builds trust. Trust builds business. So, sign into Facebook and start building those relationships. The possibilities are endless – but it’s all up to you!

Eydie :)

Eydie Stumpf is a social media manager based in Corona who specializes in creating an Internet presence for business owners and entrepreneurs. Send her questions via http://facebook.com/EydiesOfficeVA ,  or eydie@eydiestumpf.com.

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Posted in Blogging, Business, Business Blogging, Facebook, Networking, Skype, Social Media Marketing, Social Media Networking, marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Making the Most of Photos in Your Blog!

Posted on July 27, 2010 by Eydie

 

camera_touristIt’s a fact! People love photos! Bloggers have found that by adding photos to their blog posts people are more likely to read it. Even if the photo is only slightly related to the article itself, it draws the reader into the story.

If you have a digital camera and photo-editing software you already have the tools to begin adding images into your blog easily and quickly. Getting your photos uploaded is incredibly easy to do. Whether you store your photos on your computer or on photo-sharing sites such as Flicker or PhotoBucket, getting your images, and videos, into your blog doesn’t require a Masters Degree!

The main tools to have on hand are:

1. A digital camera, or if you have a camera which takes film – make sure you have the developer burn the photos onto a CD for you.

2. A way to get your photo from your camera onto your camera, such as a USB cable or scanner.

3. Image-editing software so you can crop, resize and even touch up your photos such as Adobe Photoshop Elements (most blogs will only take jpg or gif format – 72 dpi).

4. Optional: A photo-sharing service (Flicker, PhotoBucket). You will need YouTube for videos;however. YouTube will give you the embed code to use in the HTML end of your blog post (really, it’s not difficult).

Once you’ve got your photos uploaded to you blog, add tags/keywords and give your photo a description. The tags and keywords are needed for the Google spiders to search and the description is needed just in case your photo’s link is broken and all you have left is a little red X in the box where the photo was supposed to be.

Give your photo a link to either your website (recommended) or to another online resource where blog readers can lean more about your blog subject. Google spikers love links too, so don’t just add them to photos. Add links throughout your blog post!

If you are going to use a photo from a source other than yourself, please make sure you check to see if it is protected by a copyright. Unless the creator of the photo has given you specific permission to use his/her property, you cannot use it. And if you do get permission, best practice is to link back to the original image. Keep in mind that this is also true for ANY content you find on the Internet.

To find out is the creator has given permission for it to be used, go to www.creativecommons.org or contact the owner of the photo directly.

Happy Blogging!

Do you have a favorite photo source?

Eydie :)

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Kay Newton on how social media has made changes in her life…

Posted on July 26, 2010 by Eydie

 

Recently I asked my social media friends to share with me their social media success stories. One of my newest friends, and blogging buddy, rose to the occassion… here is her story….

Kay Newton

People from all over the world have found me through my facebook profile page, facebook fan pages, twitter, blogs and websites or I have found them through their on-line presence. My circle of influence builds slowly and takes commitment yet I am sure it will get to a tipping point and things will happen very quickly. 

Just one comment made at the right time by myself or another social media fan and we have something in common, something to share. As time goes by and you build your friendship it takes on yet another meaning. Not only do you share comments, you begin to trust each other. 

Recently one of my facebook fans invited me to a BBQ here in Spain. We were 20 people in total, all of us had spoken via the keyboard yet never met. Even my 15 year old found the experience fun. We all knew so much about each other, so much to talk about, there were no first face to face meeting shyness. 

We shared information, on-line tools and talked well into the night. We are such a diverse group; Brendon Dennerwill, Victoria Amengual, Astrid Kauffman, Anthony de Souza, Paul Betts, Roger Swain, Sandra Lehnis, Naor Topaz, Max Newton now meet regularly to help each other develop our social media presence as we all realize it’s importance in today’s business. We have even begun to think of joint projects, something that I am sure would have not happened running business in the ‘old way’. 

Commenting for me is the key to success in Social media. When Denise Wakeman from The Blog Squad posted one sentence on facebook it changed my life yet again. My comment to her post led to contact from Erno Hannink in Holland, which led to Eydie Stumpf, Jaime Schroeher-Graham, Miriam Pace in the States and Ronda Kay in Israel. Now I am a member of a Mastermind Group, a group of motivating bloggers, we meet regularly and help each other optimize our sites. 

Now to the best bit – clients! Slowly but surely they are beginning to knock on the door. For me as asa Mid Life Coach for women this has many advantages. We have already built a base of trust before we begin. This saves time and energy and often without the client realizing I have already had the pleasure of meeting their true authentic selves. 

What are the disadvantages? It takes time, discipline and commitment – but what doesn’t! 

www.KayNewtonCoaching.com / www.MallorcaLet.com / www.WifeinMidLifeCrisis.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/Kay.Newton / www.facebook.com/Kay-Newton-Coaching
www.facebook.com/WifeinMidLifeCrisis /  www.Twitter.com/WiMLC

What changes has social media made in YOUR life? Please share with use by clicking the comment link below… Eydie :)

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Posted in Blogging, Business Blogging, Facebook, Social Media, The Blog Squad | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Service with a Smile

Posted on July 21, 2010 by Eydie

 

Is service with a smile something which has gone by the wayside? Sometimes I think it has.

Yesterday I had to make four stops to various locations and I was at the mercy of a receptionist each time.  Now, although I’m going to talk about an off-line experience – this also relates to on-line customer service situations!

Receptionist #1: Let’s call her Jane. Jane greeted me with a wide smile and a hearty greeting. We engaged in some small talk, giggled a little bit, conducted business, and off I went. Wow, that made this stop a pleasant experience. It set the tone for the rest of the day – or so I thought!

Receptionist #2: We’ll call him Mr. Personality. I approached his counter and gave him my usual cheery hello. He just stared at me with this strange, blank look on his face. What a bummer, because I just came away from Jane’s office and was feeling quite happy, and now I’m here with Mr. Personality and he took away my happiness. A cloud suddenly hung over me.

After telling him why I was intruding in his world, he rolled his eyes and gave out a huge sigh. At this point, if I had an alternative place to conduct my business I would have walked out of there so fast – but, I didn’t have an alternative – I was hostage to this man. 

Finally, he told me what to do, and I did it. Then I sat, and sat, and sat. As I sat, I noticed that his cranky, and indifferent, personality hadn’t changed with any of the eight other people who had walked in after me.  The only happiness I had in that office was when the gal who was sitting next to me began complaining about the receptionist’s attitude! Yes – I can get into that!

Mr. Personality never wavered – and even as I paid him he was still a grumpy, sulky man. I never even received a thank you! And as luck will have it, I need to see him again tomorrow. BUT, the ending will be different this time. My business with his company will be over tomorrow, and I intend to tell him, straight to his face how he makes people feel.

Receptionist #3: Sally made my day happy again! She couldn’t have been friendlier or more helpful! Thanks to Sally, the cloud was gone and all was well with the world. Sally actually went over and above the call of duty. Amazing what a smile and a great attitude can do!

I had met Sally a few days before, so there was already a connection. But even at our first meeting Sally was full of sunshine!

Receptionist #4: Brunhilda was just not a pleasant person at all. Now, she wasn’t outwardly mean or grumpy – she just didn’t have any expression on her face, in her voice or in her mannerisms.  Pretty much like a wet dish rag. Blah.

I had seen Brunhilda a few days earlier as well. Matter of fact, Sally and Brunhilda work at the same place, but in different departments.  Did someone forget to tell Burnhilda’s department that attitude is everything?

When we first met she piled up paperwork for me to complete. As she presented me with each form she explained them to me in a ho-hum, monotone voice. Okay, I get it, she probably does this all day, every day… but Good Golly Miss Molly… wouldn’t your job be more interesting and less bothersome if you had some sort of personality?

Before seeing Brunhilda for the second time, I called her – twice. I left her a voice message each time and she had ample time to return my call. When arriving at her office, guess what – she wasn’t there (I found out later that she HAD listened to my voice message and she KNEW she wasn’t going to be in her office when I said I’d be there – and STILL she didn’t call me). So, I left the paper work with a note saying I’d be back on Thursday. Finally, today, she called me wanting to know why I just dropped off the paperwork.  She left the door wide open for me to tell her, firmly, what was on my mind. Nuff said!

My point here is that friendliness, courtesy, helpfulness and respect are key components of customer service, whether on or offline. As far as online is concerned, people can’t see or hear you. Providing great customer service in this venue can be MORE difficult than in the ‘real world’!  People can’t see your facial expressions or hear your voice.  So, it’s important to wear a smile when typing your carefully chosen words.  If you’re virtual conversation with people makes them feel as badly as my face-to-face conversations made me feel then you need to put your bad attitude in a drawer, and throw away the key.  

Your positive attitude can also turn a grumpy customer into a happy one. Why make life harder on yourself? Your good customer service skills will only help you build your business, retain the clients you have and put you in a better place in the world.

Remember – Customer service can make or break a business. 

It’s just as easy to be friendly – plus your day WILL go faster and more smoothly.  It takes more muscles to frown that it takes to smile. So smile – and you make the world smile along with you!

Good or bad, share your customer service stories with us. Please click the Comment link below.  

Eydie :)
(see, I even sign my name with a smiley face – whether it’s online, email or handwritten. My smiley face has become part of my brand)

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Posted in Business, Customer Service | Tagged , , , | 7 Comments