by jginsberg on July 15, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook
I have been waiting for Reviews on FaceBook Pages to be socialized (ranked in the newsfeed) for 2 years, today I saw the first sign of life. Recommend This Place. Now live on the left hand side of some Pages, you can write a recommendation that hits your newsfeed, promoting the Page. Essentially this acts as a Status Update! Are you ready to see FaceBook Socialize Reviews?
by jginsberg on July 5, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter
Events on FaceBook and LinkedIn have been huge, looking at the networks – we are in the early stages of a major revolution. What do I see coming down the pipeline? How about Events on FaceBook that you can pay for with FaceBook Credits? How about integrating your EventBrite Page with FaceBook? EventBrite claims to have sold over 32 million tickets to events and attributes $12 of revenue for each Share of your Event on FaceBook. How many people do you want to Share your next event? How about creating an incentive for people to check-in at your event on FaceBook – what is this worth to you? The hardest part of Social Events is getting people to invite their friends to your Event, unlock this mystery box and you are sitting on a gold mine.
Social Reviews? Yes, reviews are huge. Google indexes them and attaches them to your Google Place Page. Depending on your industry, you may want to use a service like DemandForce, that will solicit reviews from your customer and publish them in a Tab on FaceBook as well as to a searchable resource such as your Google Place Page increasing your SEO ranking. LinkedIn enabled reviews/recommendations for services and products on Company Pages on LinkedIn. This may be the missing link companies have been waiting for to find value in their company Pages on LinkedIn. Are you getting ready for 2012?
by jginsberg on June 29, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook
Is it official? MySpace is finally Dead? With a sale at the rumored 35-40 million, it appears so. Why? Because MySpace has been filled with dirty noisy spam for years. Yes, everybody wants to customize their Page and yes, most pages I saw were ugly. Will Bands still use it? Yes, but they will have to think about why they are not using FaceBook more and SoundCloud. Great example? Friend and client Wade Morissette is using SoundCloud to give away music he is testing and experimenting with. Why would he go to the ghetto of MySpace when he can have amazing resources to share his music with the largest community in the world? If you are a musician or band, build your community on FaceBook and feed them with music on SoundCloud and videos on YouTube!
What could MySpace have done? Keep it Clean!!! Note to FaceBook: You are managing your community well, keep up the good work!
by jginsberg on June 28, 2011 in Best Practices
First of all, this is all you really need, a link to where to get in line. Google Plus looks very promising (as every Google product does). In the world of Social Networking, Google has been less than interesting…consistently. That said, I still love Google and own their stock! Why? Because for some bizarre reason, I trust Google. It is a strange thing, but so far Google has always done the right thing. They hold all of our browsing history and as far as I can tell, they have not abused it. FaceBook has struggled in this area – I LOVE FaceBook and yet wonder when they will hug us after completely violating us with a full cavity search.
Why is Google Plus exciting? It could be the video conferencing (smells like Skype), or the integration with search (just imagine if FaceBook had made a deal with Google and their search actually was great instead of useless) or maybe just finally socializing my Google Profile. The question on my mind is “Who will I connect to on Google Plus?” Will it be people I know (FaceBook) or people I want to know (Twitter) or people I know and want to know professionally (LinkedIn)? Will there be a business purpose? As a technologist, I am excited. As a Social Media Strategist, it is too early to tell…
by jginsberg on June 17, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn
LinkedIn’s IPO a few weeks ago got me very excited, Why? Because I LOVE the social space. If you have ever read my blog, you know that I believe social media is a critical tool for social and professional networking. LinkedIn is the first of the social companies to go public and it motivated me to pick up a few shares. Not just because I believe in putting my money where my mouth is, but because I love that LinkedIn is growing by approximately 1 million users per month.
At a little over 100 million users, I think LinkedIn has barely even started growing. Why? Because we are social creatures, given the opportunity to connect and talk, we do! Do you want to make LinkedIn more interesting? Start searching your LinkedIn newsfeed (top right of newsfeed). You can filter your feed by keywords and fine tune the posts you see by degrees of connection. If you are not listening to the conversation, you are missing opportunities. LinkedIn is HOT like New York City in August – Start listening and engaging in the conversation!
by jginsberg on May 30, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook
You’ve got a Page on FaceBook for your business. You have started Suggesting the Page to your friends and even gotten a few friends to Share your Page. You are doing the basics, like including links to your Page in your email newsletter and printing the link on all of your collateral, but your Page is not growing fast enough. What’s next? FaceBook Advertising!
Set up an Ad on FaceBook for your Page. Keep the traffic directing to your Page and limit the Ads to friends of your Page. Why? Because a referral in business from a friend is invaluable. When people see your Ad, you want them to see that one of their friends has already liked your Page. This is the equivalent of a business referral.
What else? Tie in a Sponsored Story. This is a long tail Ad that will be purely Social (only friends of people who like the Page will see it). Why do you want this second Ad running? As you get people liking your Page, you will want to reach out to their friends. This Sponsored Story will be promoted in the news feeds of the friends of the new people liking your Page. This is Hot!
What are you waiting for, start your Advertising campaign today!!!
by jginsberg on May 24, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook
I like to say that FaceBook has the secret copy of ” How To Build a Closed Network” by AOL. As the site evolves, it appears to be more and more like AOL circa 1997, AWESOME!!! What has got me really excited recently is FaceBook Email. The latest upgrade is big, no it’s huge. You can claim your email, bridging the gap between social and private email. Yes, all the basics are there, attachments, forwards and a spam box. For FaceBook to become your default email, it has to play nicely with other email systems. The new FaceBook email is a true coming of age product. Tell me again why you are on AOL, Hotmail or Yahoo?
by Jamie Ginsberg on May 14, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn
I have always been convinced eating is a social experience, yet the number one comment against Twitter and FaceBook is “what do I care what you had for breakfast?”
There are a few topics we cover in small talk that covers the spectrum of our lives in relationship to the world…the weather, food and entertainment. These are the conversations that make up the social fabric we live in, the foundation of our constructed reality.
How can you participate in the conversation? Check-in on FaceBook next time you get to a restaurant. See if anybody comments. No smartphone? Write a review on FaceBook as a status update or even on Yelp. Maybe post a reply to someone’s check-in, tell them what you ate or what movie you went to afterwards. See what happens. Find out for yourself if anybody cares what you think about a movie or concert or sporting event…
Do you know what I had for breakfast?
by jginsberg on May 10, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook
I make fun of the Cleveland Clinic a lot in the world of Social Media. Why? Because they are the GIANT company in Cleveland and their Page on FaceBook has less people liking them than they have employees. A few months ago FaceBook “viralized” a new feature, Questions. This means, if you use the new feature, you will create a larger wave on FaceBook. Use Questions, it is a brilliant FaceBook feature. Plus, you can limit the potential answers via radio buttons, reducing potentially brand damaging answers.
Because I make fun of the Cleveland Clinic, I also offer them FREE unsolicited advice, see the picture below.
by jginsberg on May 2, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, Twitter
Are you willing to wait for the morning Paper to find out what has happened in the world? The face of news is changing quickly. From FaceBook to Twitter we are seeing breaking news spread like wild fire. Why? Because we are not the passive generation of the past. We are the generation that wants to Share news and Discuss news. We are the generation that will discuss Bin Laden’s death, not simply here that he died. Your friends on FaceBook and Twitter have opinions and they are more interesting than those of the TV personalities who are censored from saying what they really believe (even though nobody believes the news is politically neutral today).
If you want breaking news, stay tuned on FaceBook and Twitter. If you want to find out what happened yesterday, subscribe to a newspaper.
by jginsberg on April 30, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn
Now that you have built up your natural social network, what do you do with it? Get Coffee!!! For real, to harvest that Pot of Gold you have to get together with people. In person! Your local coffee shop or even bar for drinks. Get on your mobile phone and schedule meetings with the people in your network. Be a resource to them, help their business grow. Lend your talents to what they are working on, or simply listen! The Pot of Gold is right in front of you, Dig In!!!
by jginsberg on April 26, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook
Creating Lists in FaceBook is the key to staying up to date with all of your friends on FaceBook. Why is this useful? You can click Most Recent on your NewsFeed and filter your feed by the Lists of Friends you have created. This how I check the updates from my Yoga friends and my localized networks such as New York City, the Bay Area and Cleveland. I keep a few more Lists to cover College, High School and a few other smaller hobbies. Why else are Lists GREAT on FaceBook? You can Suggest a Page to a “Group,” Select your List as a network and invite all of the people you have put on your List. Note: This feature (Select All) is not available unless you have put them in a List or they are in a college network.
How do you create a List for your friends on FaceBook? Start by clicking Account (top right), the Edit Friends and finally Create List on the Top right of your newsfeed. You can either add people to the List on the spot or back up and create a few more Lists.Already have some Lists? Click here to figure out which friends are not on Lists and easily put them on Lists.
by jginsberg on April 25, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook
Do you like to save money? Maybe get a complimentary cup of coffee when you check-in at a restaurant like fire? FaceBook is letting you subscribe to localized Deals within your city/zipcode. Is this hot? Judging by the success of Groupon, Americans love to save money. Now you can find out where there is an incentive encouraging you to check-in. Exciting? Yeah, this is going to encourage competition and that is good for everybody. Competition? Yeah, Competition. Businesses are going to look at what their competition is offering as a deal and you the people of FaceBook are going to be rewarded with better deals.
Want to get in on the action? Subscribe to your local deals on FaceBook here. Update: Nice looks like Techcrunch and the NY Times are reporting this also 
by jginsberg on April 24, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook
Last night I was talking with Jill Jankowski at the House of Blues where we saw The New Pornagraphers (Great Band). Jill pointed out the transition FaceBook has made into the world of marketing by asking the question “What if there was no FaceBook?” This is a brilliant question we all need to ask! Contrast this question with “What if there was no newspaper?” Did you know the Detroit Free Press doesn’t deliver during the week anymore? The answer is simple, nobody will care when newspapers stop printing. The newspaper is dead.
FaceBook is alive and kicking. People have said to me recently, “yeah FaceBook is boring and people are losing interest.” I remind you, we are FaceBook. If it is boring, you either need to make some new friends or start contributing more. FaceBook is here to stay! When I think about Jill’s question, I realize I can’t imagine a world without FaceBook. I would deeply miss my old friends who I have reconnected with, the updates from bands and pages I “like” and all of the people I have met and connected with who I get to know on FaceBook. The transition is complete, FaceBook is the medium communications classes should be studying and copy writers should be focusing on for figuring out how to communicate with people on behalf of the Brands they write for.
If FaceBook shut down tomorrow, would you care?
by jginsberg on April 21, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter
Social Media enables us to reach more people faster than ever before. You can share more effectively and reach the entire world, for free. Sounds great right? What’s the catch? There is not enough of you to go around and you need to go around a lot more.
We are not chasing Rainbows here…we are looking for the Pot of Gold. Get in your car, buy your plane tickets, take the train or bus. Get together with your people in person and develop the deeper personal relationship that makes your social media come alive. This is going to take time, money and a commitment to being authentic in everything you do. Are you ready?
by Jamie Ginsberg on April 21, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, Video
We talk a lot about techniques and actions that will ignite your social media and build your community. It is critical to feed and nourish your budding community. How do you do that? Shareable Content!!!
What makes content shareable?
Our traditional response is Sexy, Funny and/or Educational. Pick any of these 3 areas, develop great content and your community will be well fed! There is a trend in a new category we all have to consider. INSPIRING. Content that is inspiring is very shareable. ask yourself as you develop your content, will this inspire people? if the answer is YES, you are on the right track.
Feed your community with shareable content and your community will grow!
by jginsberg on April 18, 2011 in Best Practices, LinkedIn
So, you landed the job you wanted, proudly added the new job to your LinkedIn profile and started working. Now what?
1) Update your company website in your profile so it is accurate. You can customize this by selecting Other as your type of website and putting in some details.
2) FIll in the description for your new job and update your summary and specialties as needed. yeah, this might feel strange as you have just started, but it is key for people to understand how and why you are a resource. Maybe even post a Status Update telling your network about your new position.
3) Connect to everybody you meet at your new job, better yet, continue to connect to lots of people just like you did when you were hunting for a job. Your network must NOT become stagnant just because you have a new job and are busy. You will always need a strong network/community. Continue to nourish and grow your network, it will make you a more valuable employee!
by jginsberg on April 7, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, Video
I propose there are officially 6 national networks for media. ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, YouTube and FaceBook. Huh? YouTube and FaceBook? Yeah. For Real. Think about the numbers. 2 Billion views a day on YouTube. People spend more than 700 billion minutes per month on FaceBook. How about that more content is uploaded to YouTube in 60 days than was created by the 3 major US TV networks in over 60 years.
Your wife has a FaceBook account, but you don’t? You have an account but only 35 friends? You look at pictures but never comment? Get out of the stone ages!!! If you are not on FaceBook you are missing the revolution. Hyper local news is happening right now. Checking your newsfeed on FaceBook is more interesting than cutting thru the advertising pages of a newspaper to find the few pieces of legitimate content they post. 35 friends, stop being so cheap with your friendship. Seriously, get over yourself. Give a little bit of your life and see what you get in return.
We are naturally social creatures. We are resources to each other. You make my life better by being in it. The question isn’t “what have you done for me?” It is, “what can I do for you?” If knowledge is power, than we all NEED FaceBook  - the collective power of your universe is ready and willing to help you.
Still don’t believe the revolution will be on FaceBook and YouTube? Ask the people of Egypt what they think…
by jginsberg on April 5, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook
Do you want to see who you have invited to FaceBook? Maybe DELETE some Invites that have not been accepted? This is the link you want! Check your Invite History and clean it up! Why? because if someone has been invited to be your friend and they have not accepted, they can still access your profile. If they haven’t accepted your friendship, why should you let them into your profile? If they decide they want to connect with you, they can friend you!
You must control access to your profile, cleaning up your Invite History is part of controlling your presence. What else should you do? Check your privacy settings! I suggest all of your settings should be FRIENDS ONLY, except for Pictures and Photos which should include Friends of Friends. Keep your Privacy exclusive and you can comfortably share with all of your friends!!!
by jginsberg on April 5, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, Twitter
I have been thinking about this post for too long and haven’t shared it. Make sure you catch the last bit on Questions.
As you post content on FaceBook and Twitter, ask yourself “Am I being a Shmuck?” Are you Educating or are you Selling? How can you sell if you haven’t educated the customer? are you pretending to educate? If you are, forget about it. We see right thru it, you are just being a shmuck.
What should you do? Develop quality authentic content that educates people. Let your competition be the Shmuck (I have a better word here that I like to use in conversation that starts with a D and sounds like Swoosh, but it is inappropriate and for some reason I think Shmuck is o.k).
Do you want a piece of Gold today? Your Page MUST start using FaceBook questions. This is a GREAT feature that is Viral by Nature (Like Naughty By Nature, but not a rap group). Why? When you Post a Question on FaceBook (Note this is a feature right above the status bar), the answers are seen by the friends of the people who “Like” your Page. If they answer the Question, they will see your Page and be exposed to your brand.
*Tip – Use your name or brand in the Question, it will be more visible!
Educate More = Sell More.
by jginsberg on March 28, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter
Laying on the beach this week (Spring Break rules), I watched a tall built guy spray sun screen on the attractive woman in a bikini next to him. For the first time in my entire technology loving life, my heart sank. In the old days, this guy would have been rubbing the cream into her skin, an intimate experience worthy of envy. Even more intimate and far more accesible for most of us, is the hug. Whether you are a 30 second bear hug person like my old college friend Ross, or a single shoulder lean pat on the back kind of person, we all need to hug more.
How can you use technology to create more intimate relationships, rather than create space and barriers between us? I am convinced FaceBook is the cream we all need to rub on more, the hug that is personal and engaging without being inappropriate. How do you hug more people on FaceBook?
Start with high fives. These are easy forms of personal contact that will not invade your space or make you feel uncomfortable. High fives are fun, quick little bursts of energy that will motivate you and somebody else. What is a high five on FaceBook? The “Like” button. Go ahead, try it. Clicking Like on one of your friend’s posts is easy and let’s them know you are there and you hear them. It is the most basic acknowledgement of your mutual existence, it is a high five.
If you are high fiving with ease, try hugging. What is a hug on FaceBook? It is a comment!!! Commenting on FaceBook is the way we create conversation, it is a longer touch that opens the door to deeper insight into each other, it is the Hug. Comment on basic banal details of life, from “I love that restaurant” to “I can’t wait for the sun to come out.” Commenting on the little boring details of life turns our black and white pictures into kodachrome. These gentle hugs are the glue that binds us together.
As you comunicate more on FaceBook, it will be easier to comment on more personal posts and even to make your own status updates. Â This is where we can engage in public conversation and share our thoughts. Stop waving at people and start hugging people more.Get to know each other better today. I don’t want to be the guy spraying sun screen on my wife at the beach, I want the physical connection of rubbing the cream into her back. I don’t want to be the friend you wave at either, give me a high five or better yet a hug.
Be Social, Hug More People.
by jginsberg on March 23, 2011 in Best Practices
After reading on TechCrunch about the new mobile app Color, I had to give it a try. What does Color do? It let’s you take social photos and see photos being taken around you. it has the same strange excessively public quality that Twitter has. Is it easy to use? Yes. I signed in and had taken my first picture in under a minute. There isn’t a lot of functionality right now, but I appreciate the simplicity of design. It has a certain elegance to it…
Will I use this much? Maybe. It will be fun at things like conferences, meetings and events. Places where you see a lot of people you might kind of know. Is it the next FaceBook? No. I’d rather look at any of the 62 Billion photos on FaceBook, then at the shaky photo from an event. However, I think the younger bar going crowd will really enjoy Color, the application lends itself to the young and uncommitted. Should you check it out? Yeah, photos are fun. Will FaceBook be doing this? Yeah…they kind of already are doing this with Checking In and Who is Here Now. Still this is a simple application without the baggage of FaceBook. Did I mention it is free?
by jginsberg on March 16, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter
I always tell people the best thing they can do for themselves is to promote somebody else. This is incredibly difficult when they networks we use are based in self-promotion. FaceBook asks you to post a status update with “What is on your mind?” Your mind! LinkedIn encourages you to “Share an Update.” Yes, it is all about you. Can you make it about someone or something else? If you do, you will receive a greater benefit than you ever could with self-promotion.
Sounds great, what should you do? Start by Sharing a FaceBook Page for something else than your business. This is a link to the FaceBook Page for Imagine, a great organization that is working to end Human Trafficking. Try using the Share button on their Page to promote them, it is 10x easier than sharing what is on your mind and it helps someone else.
You can do the same thing on Twitter, start using the Re-Tweet functionality to raise awareness for causes you believe in. We are doing the same thing on Twitter for Imagine. Re-Tweeting a message is the best way to promote a cause and share it with your community. Looking for a cause? Check out http://sharedwith.me – we built this amazing software so you can sign up with a cause once and you will automatically Re-Tweet one message a week for them. Could it be any easier to do something good with your status update?
Yes, you can donate your status on LinkedIn as well. Is there anything else you can do? Sure, write a recommendation for someone who you know that works at an organization doing good. Follow their company! Or the easiest action you can take is to Like or Comment on one of their status updates, exposing it to your newsfeed.
With all of these ideas, what are you going to do to Donate Your Status for Social Good?
by jginsberg on March 12, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter
Lately search engine optimization (SEO) has been on my mind. Why? Because when I am searching on Google I find links to content on FaceBook Pages, LinkedIn profiles, YouTube, Tweets and of course Blogs. The ability to drive traffic to your web site may be the only reason you dive into social media. If you can take over an extra link on the first page of Google, wouldn’t you?
5 Easy things you can do to improve your SEO with Social Media:
1) Optimize your Social profiles. Yes, clean up each profile with links back to your website on FaceBook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter.
2) Post weekly updates on LinkedIn – Promote your content with links to your Blog.
3) Share your videos on FaceBook and include links to your site in the post.
4) Embed your videos on your website, increasing the links between your site and YouTube.
5) Blog. Yes, it is that simple. Blogging will increase your presence and give you content to share with your networks. This is great content to share on Twitter and will Feed into your LinkedIn profile as well as your FaceBook Page. Make sure you add your keywords as Tags or Labels and put relevant meta data into your blog.
Yes, you can have a positive impact on your website traffic. Yes, this will take some time commitment. If you are committed to using your website to drive revenue for your business, then use your social presence to improve and support your search engine optimization efforts.
by jginsberg on March 4, 2011 in Best Practices, LinkedIn
Do you have a daily LinkedIn Practice? Start with the 2 minute drill.
- Log-in to LinkedIn and scroll down, look at your newsfeed. If you see anything interesting “Like” it or Comment on it.
- Spend 1 minute looking for a new contact.
Why do this daily? It is a simple GREAT habit. You will stay current with the news on LinkedIn directly from your network. If you do this Monday – Frday, you will easily add 250 connections into your network.
Want to be more Aggressive? Do the 2 minute drill 2-3 times a day. Do the 2 minute drill on FaceBook 2-3 times a day. What are you waiting for?
by jginsberg on February 28, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn
Every since De La Soul hit the scene in 1989, we have been reminded that Three is the Magic Number. What is the Magic Number and how do you put it to work for you? The Magic Number is daily practice that will contribute to your long term business development. Identify 3 people in your network and reach out to them every day. This simple daily practice will result in you contacting 1,000 people a year!
What does “reach out” mean? It can be calling, texting, an email (FaceBook counts) or simply liking or commenting on a post on LinkedIn or FaceBook. Can you call 1,000 people a year? Unless all you do is sales, probably not. It just takes too much time. Being personal and staying in touch with your network is not accomplished with a mass email or status update on one of your networks. You probably don’t have the time to meet people for coffee, breakfast or drinks 1,000 times a year either. Should you throw in the towel?
No! Start every morning by identifying 3 people (friend, cousin, ex-coworker, schoolmate) who you want to stay in touch with. Pick the network must appropriate and communicate with them. This should take less than 5 minutes total!!! Avoid excessive communication, make it simple and easy for them to reply to you or simply acknowledge your existence (think like button). Three is The Magic Number – Ignite your business with this daily practice.
by jginsberg on February 25, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook
The upgraded FaceBook Pages come with a new tool, the ability to use FaceBook as a Page. What can you do acting as a Page? You can “Like” other Pages. When you “Like” a Page, you have the ability to write on the Wall of that Page. You can NOT write on the Walls of people. This is a potentially powerful tool to create social capital between companies.
For example, I can become the Page for my company Cleveland Groove. Now I can navigate to Pages that are in my business community and comment on behalf of the company. Maybe share a useful link or simply participate in the conversation. What happens when Pepsi or Starbucks comments on my Page? Have we crossed into SPAM? What about when that really annoying company (please don’t be me) starts writing on the Cleveland Groove Wall promoting their services, usually without engaging in our content at all!!!
The question I am thinking about today, is when are we Building Social Capital vs. Spreading Spam?
by jginsberg on February 22, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, Twitter
The Twitter In Box is Dead. If you have more than 20 followers you have been spammed into abandoning your Twitter Direct Message system. It is strange that this potentially useful means of private communication has been rendered useless by spammers who auto Direct Message you.
In the early days of FaceBook, I sent multiple people the same message trying to promote software we had developed. After 10 messages FaceBook popped up a warning and told me if I continued to send repeat messages my account would be suspended. I sent two more messages and my account was suspended. Did I learn my lesson? Yes! It was quite humbling to send an email apologizing to FaceBook and requesting reinstatement. What am I suggesting here? The obvious. Twitter needs to shut the spammers down and make the private DM system useful. Until then, FaceBook’s email system will continue to grow and Twitter’s DM system will continue to wither….
by jginsberg on February 17, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, Twitter
What makes content shareable?
1) Funny
2) Sexy
3) Smart
Being funny is very hard, comedians are professionals and they practice and experiment to be funny. Being sexy is a commitment your brand or company may not be willing to make, meaning the risks may out weigh the rewards.
What can you do? Be Smart. Share your knowledge. You are an expert at what you do – you study, practice and apply knowledge every day that people want to know about. When you decide to create content for social media, make sure you are educating your intended audience.If you are a resource to them, they will include you in their community. If people learn from your content, they will share it. Think about what you know and make that the cornerstone of your social media campaign.
by jginsberg on February 10, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook
The Official FaceBook Page upgrade is coming, and if you don’t do the optional upgrade now, it will be done Automatically for you on March 10, 2011. Don’t wait, don’t complain – The Upgrade kicks @$$!!! Why? (see screen shots below).
- The ability to change your settings so you can comment on your Page again personally. This is nice if you are a member of your community!!!
- FINALLY – Get email notification when someone comments on your Page. Thank You FaceBook (Jamie bowing in deference).
- Greater control over communicating what Pages you “Like” and “Featured Page Owners” – This is is an opportunity to cross promote and build some social capital. Kind of like you might do when you link to someone’s website or Blog on your site.
by jginsberg on February 10, 2011 in Best Practices, Twitter
I was working with The Chubby Cook today, showing him the Twitter App we developed at Cleveland Groove – Bum Kicker. The app makes it easy to delete all of the people not following you back, rapid fire style. This is a simple, yet critical tool for building up your following, cut the fat!
We started talking about Lists on Twitter. There are plenty of Lists out there in your interest/business. If you have been put on Lists, great! Otherwise, start looking at the lists of the people you follow. Whether your lists are passion based or geographically based, find great Lists.
- These are great tools to identify niche communities of people you want to follow. Find a relevant List, look at who the List is following, if they are interesting and in your niche, follow everyone on the List. Some will follow you back, these people are important to your business!!!
- Click on the name of the person who made the List. Follow that Person!!! Ideally the List maker will see how relevant you are to that List and put you on it. This will improve the odds of people who are interested in this niche following you.
by jginsberg on February 8, 2011 in Best Practices, LinkedIn
Writing a recommendation on LinkedIn is the most positive action you take on the network. Why? Because the activity is promoted in the news feed and on the profiles of the writer and the beneficiary. If you are going to write recommendations, you need to have a few simple rules to live by.
- Always Be Honest – Really, all of your credibility is tied into each recommendation you write.
- Be Concise – Short and to the point. The point of negative returns sets in after 3 sentences. 5 minutes or less to complete, or write one for someone else.
- Never Ask & Always Return – Yes, Giving is Better than Receiving! Just write recommendations, let LinkedIn encourage the recipient to write one back for you. If someone writes one for you, write one back for them the same day. If you can’t write one back for them, do not accept their recommendation. If someone asks you to write a recommendation, NIKE…just do it. Now you have an IOU with them.
Whatever you do, become an active engaged member of LinkedIn. We have been waiting for you.
by jginsberg on February 4, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Video
As you evaluate your current state of marketing, social media is an exciting potential part of your plan. How should you get started?
1) Adopt a social media policy – This will give you guidelines to protect your staff and organization.
2) Select the Tools that are right for you – Every plan today HAS to include FaceBook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter. Depending on the content you are creating you should also consider a Blog (This is a BIG Tool).
3) Develop Goals – You have to be able to measure success and return on your investment. Goals will help you monitor and adjust.
4) Create your messaging/content – Wow! Step 4 may be the most dangerous step! You are not creating “Advertising.” You are feeding a community! Put on your creative hat and figure out what your community wants to eat!!!
5) Implementation and Training – Some of this is easy, some will take some research and resources. Your distribution and/or publishing platform must work cohesively and your team must become experts. This is where training is critical to your success.
by jginsberg on February 3, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn
Today, I was fortunate to work with 2 classes of PR and Marketing students at John Carroll University. Today, as I do at the end of each presentation I do, I give out my contact information. Suddenly, I feel like the naked guy in front of the room. Why? Because if you can reach me via FaceBook, LinkedIn or Twitter or even my phone – you will see my entire life. Social Media empowers you to lead a very transparent life. This transparency is the key to our success. Why? Because it is the only way we will get to know each other better. Social Media is only interesting if we are sharing the relevant to banal details of our life. Start living more transparently today.
by jginsberg on January 30, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn
Why do you want more friends on FaceBook and more connections on LinkedIn? Because as your network reaches a critical mass these sites become more interesting. On FaceBook your News Feed will become more engaging as you cross 450 Friends. Your local network will be large enough to have more action happening in it. On LinkedIn, as your connections grow your search improves (more first and second degree connections) – you should know at least 500 people in the world on LinkedIn.
Now that we have some goals, What are the top 3 ways to find more friends/connections?
1) Check your email monthly – new people you are emailing will be picked up by the filters.
2) Participate in the activity on the network. “Liking” content and commenting on Posts and Updates will expose your name to a host of new people. If the conversation is interesting enough you will make new friends! At the very least, you will become one step closer to your second degree network (friends of friends).
3) Live with the 24 hour rule. Connect up with someone within 24 hours of meeting them in the real world. If you are not meeting new people in the real world, take steps to increase your odds of meeting people. From coffee shop meetings, to breakfast, lunch and dinner – if you get out and socialize you will find people you like and want to get to know better.
by jginsberg on January 26, 2011 in Best Practices, Twitter
Twitter is an amazing tool for getting information immediately. Whether you are doing basic research or want to know the latest score of your favorite team, there are amazing resources for pulling information. If you want to use Twitter to drive traffic to your website or increase your business, what should you do? Follow and Follow Back. Why? Because it is the only way Twitter becomes a two-way conversation. Check out the Beta version of BumKicker when you are done, full disclosure – this is a product we developed at Cleveland Groove.
1) If people are not following you back, they are dead weight in your network – They don’t see your content!
2) People who do not follow you back have indicated they are not interested in communicating with you. Unless you have a passion for their content, find someone else to exchange information with,
3) The basic ratio for followers to non-followers on Twitter. Currently, you are limited to following 2001 Twitter accounts. When you have approximately 1,850 followers your ratio changes to approximately 20%. Meaning if you have 3,000 followers you can follow up to 3,600 people.
*Remember to be careful when following people, more than 500 a day can raise a flag with Twitter and result in account suspension!
Are you ready to get rid of those Bums not following you back? Check out the Twitter application BumKicker developed by Cleveland Groove to identify the people not following you back, and enable you to unfollow them with a simple click of the mouse (Kick of the Boot).
What do you do? Log in with your Twitter account. We will pull a list of the people not following your account back. Type in the code at the top to unlock the delete “Boot” and start Kicking those Bums to the Trash (unfollowing them). You can only kick one bum to the trash at a time, so pick and choose who you want to unfollow easily! BumKicker is in Public Beta right now. If you don’t like something, contact me.
by jginsberg on January 19, 2011 in Best Practices, LinkedIn
How do you find your network on LinkedIn in 3 EASY Steps?
1) Take out that stack of Business cards in your desk. Look your people up and connect to them. It will be like meeting them all over again.
2) Look thru your friends Contacts. You know a lot of these people, connect up with them.
3) Find your FaceBook friends on LinkedIn. I don’t generally look for LinkedIn users on FaceBook, but connecting to your FaceBook friends on LinkedIn is the fastest way to make sure your friends know what you do for business.
* Whatever you do – Set a goal and achieve it. “I will add 20 connections this month.” You can do it!
by jginsberg on January 16, 2011 in Best Practices, LinkedIn
LinkedIn has been quietly upgrading the features in your Company Profile. What was once a useless functionality relegated to hires and departures, is now possibly the most important FEATURE in LinkedIn. Check out our Cleveland Groove Profile on LinkedIn. You can see the services we offer and even a sample of our work. Even more important, we now have a reason to promote our company profile! What should you do? Dig in. Edit your company profile. LinkedIn is heating up in 2011…
by jginsberg on January 4, 2011 in Best Practices, FaceBook
I may be the only one who cares, but FaceBook has unofficially eclipsed 50 Billion Photos. Don’t believe me? Check the Math!
They Officially reported 17 billion photos and growing at 2.5 billion per month as of January 2010….with 400 million users!
That would equal 30 billion photos added in 2010.
17 Billion plus 30 Billion = 47 Billion Photos!
But wait there is more!!!!
Should we account for the growth to 500 Million plus people (25% growth at the least!!!) a conservative number…Do you think that the network grew by more than 25% and the amount of photos uploaded stayed flat? If photos grew just a little that could be an extra 8 Billion Photos!!!!
How about FaceBook reporting today that 750 Million picture were uploaded over New Years Eve? A new record, but note that is 3/4′s of a Billion Photos over a weekend. Are you kidding me?
I think the new number is really 55 Billion Photos. What are you doing? You should be uploading 200 photos to an album today!
by jginsberg on December 30, 2010 in Best Practices, FaceBook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Video
2011 is going to be a great year for social media as the perfect storm of audience and content mix together. Are you ready?
Top 7 Social Media Tips for 2011
- Clean up you personal FaceBook Page. Start by doing an inventory of your security and privacy settings, then edit your friend list. Delete some dead weight that you can not remember why you are friends with them, add each and every friend to at least one List.
- Review your LinkedIn Profile. Is your job description accurate, have you taken on any new skills or projects that are not listed in your profile? Have you joined any organizations? Are you missing any jobs that should be included?
- Delete anybody not following you back on Twitter. Really, cut the Fat. Anybody that is offended by this can start following you, at which point you can follow them back. The people that do not follow you back will not see your content, lose them.
- Get your YouTube Channel on!!! Put a little effort into adding in the details, flush out your profile and subscribe to some channels. If you have a Twitter account, integrate it in. Make 2011 the year you “Like” videos on YouTube and share them on FaceBook!!! Better yet, start making your own videos or hire my company Cleveland Groove to make you engaging and very “Shareable” videos. Video is the future and the light is getting closer, catch this train!
- Upgrade your Mobiles access to your network. Learn how to use that smart phone (or buy one), download applications that enable you to update your network and view what is going on. You MUST have applications for FaceBook, LinkedIn and Twitter loaded on your phone and easy to access. Start “checking in” on FaceBook, comment and Like more pictures and updates. Interact with your network, do not simply lurk. Mobile makes it easy!
- Share more pictures. January of 2010 we had 17 Billion photos on FaceBook, growing at 2.5 Billion Photos per months with 400 million people on FaceBook. If those numbers held steady, we have at least 47 Billion Photos on FaceBook. My guess is as we grew to 500 million FaceBook users and beyond, we added more than 2.5 Billion photos per month. Are you contributing to that massive collection of 47 Billion + photos on FaceBook? Are you setting up logical album names and maxing out the 200 photos per album like you should be? Are you getting people tagged in your photos?
- Go Out More. Really. Make plans with people or simply show up and make a new friend. This is the Gold at the end of the Social Media Rainbow!!! Connect up with people you meet out in the real world on LinkedIn or FaceBook, get to know them, include them in your world!
Follow these simple tips for 2011 and you will have an engaging and interesting year.
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