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Google+ Invites

July 11, 2011 Molly White 6 comments

I finally scored an invitation to Google+ late last week. I’ve checked it out, made some circles, read updates and reports; and read every major tech/social media person’s reviews, including Ben Parr at Mashable, MG Seigler at TechCrunch, and of course, Robert Scoble’s review. I’ve watched people dole out invites and had them suddenly cut off. And I’ve seen my twitter stream, and now google+ stream filled with commentary on the system.

My first reaction to the site was that it’s just like Facebook, but doesn’t have the user base.

Now, several days in, I’ve been given the ability to invite people into the inner sanctum of Google+. I posted a notice on my personal Facebook profile, my business page, and my twitter account, about an hour ago. There haven’t been any takers on my twitter account or business page, but I’ve had 4 people that are close friends or family members, request an invite.

First was my sister, but she has no idea what it is.

Then sure enough 3 additional people, whom I wouldn’t consider to be super into technology or social media, posted under the update or sent me a message requesting an invite.

Two things strike me here, 1) the irony of using Facebook to recruit people over to Google+ and 2) word has gotten out on the street about Google+ (aside, apparently, from my sister).

Currently, my review remains the same: seems just like Facebook, only on Google. I do however, think that Facebook could take some hints from the ease with which you can create and add people to your circles. Hint, Hint Facebook!

This is more traction than Buzz and Wave had to my recollection. The true test will be in how these people use Google+. Will they just play with it or will they adopt into the system and really use it? Have you gotten your invitation yet? If not, comment here with your gmail adress and I’ll send one your way! What do you think about Google+?

Google+ Facebook, Google+, marketing, referral, social, social media, social media manager

Fabulous Facebook Page-Dapple Gray Designs

June 30, 2011 Molly White No comments

I love finding small businesses that are using Facebook and other social media outlets in the best possible way. When I come upon a business that gives me current, useful information, takes adavantage of the free tools available to build out their presence and engages their audience, it makes me smile. Sometimes I find myself liking a page, even if I don’t ever intend to frequent the business, just because the page is so awesome.

And then you know what happens, I end up frequenting their business because their stuff keeps coming up in my newsfeed and I’m reminded why I liked their page. Since I liked their page, I’m probably going to like their product or service. Because that’s what good social media does!

I’ve decided that it would be fun to regularly highlight the businesses that I think do a great job with their social media and explain why I love them.

First up, Dapple Gray Designs. Full disclosure, the owner is a friend of mine, but she is not a client. She engages her fans, partners with businesses like her own and with blogs whose reader base is her target customer, uses the free apps available to customize her page, rewards and interacts with her fans, and keeps people updated on the most current inventory and news about the business. The only expense for this page, is the product that she gives away. Everything else on here is free.

Dapple Gray Designs, makes and sells adorable children’s clothes at reasonable prices. The clothes are sold on Etsy, at boutiques, and through the Facebook page itself. Suzi, the owner, has worked really hard to grow her fan base and market herself, almost solely through her Facebook business page. In less than a year’s time she has accrued over 1,000 quality fans. I mention quality, because it isn’t all about the number of fans a business has, it’s about the likelihood those fans will frequent the business.

Dapple Gray Designs, partnered with blogs that catered to mothers who would likely purchase her designs and started offering giveaways through these blogs. A condition of entrance, was fanning her page.

Then once people started liking the page, and buying and winning her clothes, she encouraged people to post pictures of their children wearing the clothes. Once people did that, she would repost the pictures to ensure that all of her fans saw the cute kids in the cute clothes.

This is a great way to encourage people to interact with a page. Who doesn’t want to brag about how cute their kids are and hear other people tell them that their kids are in fact, the adorable!?

Suzi also uses her status updates to showcase new products and announce their availability.

And since people are being encouraged to actually go to her page, not just read about Dapple Gray Designs in their newsfeed, Suzi has taken full advantage of the FREE custom tab apps that are available. She’s using, Static HTML for Pages as a welcome landing page, Payvment as a shopping cart from within Facebook, MyEtsy which ports her etsy page to her Facebook page, and the Sweepstakes app to host a giveaway on her page.

On top of all of these tools, Suzi, very cleverly, hyped up a big promotion for when she hit 1,000 fans. Suzi partnered with other shops and designers of handmade goods for children and hosted joint giveaways encouraging entrants to like both the Dapple Gray page and the partner page in order to enter the contest. She used Google Forms to create entrant forms, and the notes section of the Dapple Gray Designs fan page to list the details of entry as well.

The 1,000 fans celebration contest is still running, I’ve entered to win a few things myself! Hats off to Suzi for using all of these tools to her advantage and for doing such a successful job marketing Dapple Gray Designs.

Facebook, social media blog, cross marketing, Facebook, fan page, marketing, referral, social, social media, status updates, viral marketing, word of mouth

Social Media Statistics in Video Format

June 29, 2011 Molly White No comments

This video was produced by Socialnomics, author, Eric Qualman using June 2011 information.

There are some powerful takeaways from this video including the information listed below.

If Facebook were a country it would be the world’s third largest, yet Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google, aren’t welcome in China
95% of companies using social media for recruitment, use LinkedIn.
Lady Gaga, Justin Beiber, and Britney Spears have more twitter followers than the entire populations of Sweden, Israel, Greece, Chile, North Korea, and Australia.
The Ford Explorer launch on Facebook generated more traffic than a Superbowl ad
69% of parents are friends with their children on social media
34% of bloggers post opinions about brands and products
90% of consumers trust peer recommendations, 14% trust advertisements

Facebook, social media, Twitter blog, Facebook, Facebook Ads, fan page, marketing, personal, referral, social, social media, social media manager, status updates, Twitter, viral marketing, word of mouth

30 Social Media Statistics

June 28, 2011 Molly White No comments

Here is a list of 30 Social Media Statistics from the last several months. These were orginally posted by Jeff Esposito, and then reposted to All Facebook.

5 percent of online shoppers note that social media influenced them to visit a retailer’s website (Foresee)
82 percent of 18-29 year olds utilize a form of social networking (Pew)
42 percent of American internet users over 18 actively use Wikipedia (Pew)
40% of corporate Twitter accounts engage in some kind of customer service (Burson-Marsteller)
In 2011 marketers will increase their social media usage by 75 percent (Brian Solis)
48 percent of consumers combine social media and search engines in their buying process (GroupM)
10.5 percent of CMOs say social marketing efforts are effectively integrated into their overall marketing strategy (MarketingProfs)
97 percent of the top US charities utilize Facebook in their marketing efforts (UMass Dartmouth)
Of all social networks, YouTube has the highest Net Promoter Score with 50 percent of users saying they would recommend it to a friend (MarketingProfs)
~140 Million Tweets are sent each day (Twitter)
24 percent of adults have posted a review of a product they have purchased (HubSpot)
41 percent of the companies report that there is no staff dedicated to social media (Useful Social Media)
89 percent of companies note that social media will become a useful cog in their marketing mix moving forward (Useful Social Media)
35 percent of small businesses utilize social media in their marketing mix (eMarketer)
Facebook expects to bring n $4.05 billion in ad revenues this year (eMarketer)
Facebook is the leading social network for nine out of 13 Asia-Pacific countries (Edelman)
One out of every six minutes spent online is on a social network (comScore)
73 percent of the US internet population visits Facebook each month (comScore)
62 percent of Facebook users between 35-54 years of age have liked a brand (eMarketer)
64 percent of Twitter users are female (Pew)
85 percent of LinkedIn users are Caucasian (Pew)
47 percent of journalists will use Twitter as a source for a story (Digital Journalism Study)
Less than 3 percent of micro businesses utilize Twitter (Vistaprint)
61.2 percent of Facebooking females list themselves as married less than a year, compared to 44.3 percent of males (AdAge)
The average media site integrated with Facebook has seen a 300 percent increase in referral traffic (Search Engine Land)
61 percent of Facebook users who have liked a brand note that they are more likely to purchase from that brand (AllFacebook)
96 percent of Americans use Facebook (Business Insider)
80 percent of social media marketers are using the platforms to increase brand awareness (eMarketer)
Only 8 percent of US internet users utilize Twitter despit despite having a 92 percent awareness level (Edison Research)
46 million Americans check their social media profiles daily (Edison Research)

Facebook, social media, Twitter blog, cross marketing, Facebook, Facebook Ads, fan page, insights, marketing, social, social media, social media manager, status updates, Twitter, viral marketing, word of mouth

Facebook Business Page vs. Personal Facebook Profile Pages

June 23, 2011 Molly White No comments

Yesterday, I attempted to write a blog listing all of the businesses in the Lutherville Timonium zip code that have a presence on Facebook, Foursquare or Twitter. It was a time consuming venture on it’s own, but with the added bonus of my two little girls interjecting every 5 minutes, it proved to be beyond my attention span and time limits for the day.

However, in the time I devoted to it, I came up with about 15 businesses and their listings. Of those businesses, THREE were misusing Facebook!! That’s 20%!! What were they doing wrong?

They were acting as a person on Facebook.

I can see where they made this mistake to begin with (because as a person you can actively solicit people to be your friend) and why they are continuing on this terrible path (because once you acquire all of these friends, what are the chances that every last one of them will like your new business page), but it kills me that they do so! To me, it is as big a faux pas as double dipping. There is a distinct reason that Facebook has created a separation between businesses and people. It’s very simple; receiving friend requests from businesses is more invasive than robo-dialing, direct mail, and spam combined.

That same reasoning is why there are limitations when acting as a business page on Facebook. Facebook allows businesses to comment on and interact with other businesses but unless a person has a completely public profile, a business can not comment on or interact with a personal profile on Facebook, except within the confines of their business page.

And speaking of completely public profiles, many businesses that are misusing personal pages, are misusing them to such an extent that much of the information that they would like to share with the public is kept hidden by Facebook’s privacy settings. That’s because people who don’t know the difference between a personal page and a business page, often don’t know about the control they can exert over their privacy settings (which btw, are set up mostly in favor of protecting people, in my opinion).

Aside from the reason stated above, an actual Facebook business page is far more appealing for businesses than a personal page because of the huge amount of customizations that are available. It’s true, a business can not go out and actively solicit people to like them, but you do have the ability to make your page as useful, if not more useful than your website.

You can add custom tabs to a business page that are just like pages on a web site. There are several free Facebook apps that allow you to set up a shopping cart on your Facebook page. Open Table has a free app that allows you to let people make reservations right on your page. And there are free Fan-gating apps that let you create a landing page directing people to Like your page in order to receive some fan only content/benefit.

To acquire new fans you can use Facebook advertising to solicit people to like your page, at a totally affordable price!

Oh and, as a person on Facebook, you are limited to 5,000 friends, because it’s reasonable to assume that no person has more than 5,000 actual friends. As a business, the sky’s the limit on who likes you!

Facebook, social media Facebook, Facebook Ads, fan page, marketing, personal, social, social media, social media manager

Behind the Curtains of Facebook Business Pages

June 20, 2011 Molly White No comments

The thing about social media sites is that they are all about showing the “Great and Powerful Oz”, in other words, they show the person behind the curtain. Who is it that is running or working for businesses that you like on Facebook or follow on Twitter, or whose blog you read?

Is it the business owner herself? Is it a random employee? A person in the marketing department or someone like me, a person outside of the organization who is hired to run the social media? And what’s the real difference?

If the person is doing his or her job correctly, the difference is nill. The voice of the business on social media sites should convey the same tone that has been delivered via their additional marketing efforts.

In the case of small businesses, many times, an owner simply doesn’t have the time to dedicate to the maintenance and development of social media outlets. I on the other hand, am on Facebook ALL day long. I read it from my phone when I’m not in front of my computer and I have the tab on my computer pinned in my Chrome browser.

To run a Facebook page effectively, one must not only update and communicate with their fans, but must also stay up to date an in tune with their vendors, competitors and community and what they are doing on Facebook. It’s good business sense to also go ahead and like those pages personally, as well as on behalf of the business.

For example I work for several businesses in the events and wedding industry. I am happy to say that I have been happily married for more than 7 years. I do however, follow a wide variety of wedding and event blogs, wedding vendors, bridal retailers and brands, and a handful of caterers, photographers, florists and other businesses associated with event planning as well as wedding sites and magazines. They are not only a source of information, but also of inspiration.

I also meet, email and speak with my clients regularly and have acquired a solid feel for the way they conduct themselves in their businesses. Because it is my job to act on their behalf when on Facebook, Twitter or blogging. While I may not be a traditional employee, I am in fact, part of the staff, for my clients. I even had the privilege of attending a client’s wedding this past Spring and was included in the company baseball outing just last week. Just a day’s work for this Social Media Manager

I run my own business, but I feel like I am part of each of my clients businesses as well. It’s the best of all worlds and I absolutely love what I do.

Courtesy of Business Insider

Facebook, social media blog, Facebook, fan page, marketing, social, social media, social media manager, Twitter

Want More Fans, Use Facebook Ads

June 7, 2011 Molly White No comments

I spend a lot of my time reading sites like AllFacebook, InsideFacebook, Social Media Examiner, Social Media Today, and Mari Smith. These sites post multiple items a day, every day of the week and their main focus is Facebook for Businesses. Search any one of them and you will find that they all recommend on some level or another, the use of Facebook Ads. As do I.

Ever notice them on the right hand side of Facebook? They’re little but they’re mighty powerful. Especially when you see them over and over again. Ever wonder why they seem to follow a pattern or seem perfectly suited to you?

It’s because the amount of granular information available to target your audience is Ahhhmazing!!!!

Any page with more than 1,000 fans!?! The possibilities are endless! Have competition in your business? Target their customers! Are you a small business whose customer is likely to be a fan of a Nationally recognized brand? Target that brand! And you can build your list with as many specifics as you’d like.

The icing on the cake is the ability to target friends of fans! Because if you see an ad on the right hand side of Facebook that says that your friend also likes that business, aren’t you more likely to like it too?

Targeting your audience is only half the battle. You also have to come up with an image that is 110×80 pixels big and a 135 character call to action. Not to mention that you then should create a custom landing tab on your Facebook page that is just for the ad. In the landing tab you need give people a reason to like your business. Because once you compel someone to click on your ad, you then need to make them click the like button.

Once you’ve done all that, you can select to run your campaign for a specific period of time or to just run it continuously. If you run it for a set period of time you get to select the budget for the duration of the campaign or set a daily budget. Yup, you spend what you want to spend, and Facebook even helps out by giving you a suggested price per click of the ad. In most cases it’s between 80 cents and $2. The suggested price per click means that that is the absolute most you would pay per click, not what every click will cost. The most expensive clicks occur during the highest traffic times on Facebook.

With your budget selected you’re ready to roll. Let the campaign begin and then watch what the Ad analytics tell you! You’ll be able to see the reach, clicks, impressions and success of your campaign and based upon this newly gained knowledge you can chose to tweak and change you ad at any time!

Want to try it? I’ll hold your hand through the whole process, it’s easy, I promise!

Facebook, social media Facebook, Facebook Ads, fan page, insights, marketing, social, social media

Join Pinterest Now, Thank Me Later!

May 31, 2011 Molly White One comment

My love of Pinterest makes me think of the opening lines to Ke$ha’s song “Your Love is My Drug”.

Maybe I need some rehab,
Or maybe just need some sleep
I’ve got a sick obsession,
I’m seeing it in my dreams

I’m looking down every alley,
I’m making those desperate calls
Im staying up all night hoping,
Hit my head against the walls

Because, truly, I am addicted to and obsessed with Pinterest. I joined over the weekend and haven’t stopped browsing it’s pages since then. I’d heard about it through sites like Techcrunch and Mashable, and then I started hearing friends on Twitter talk about it. But the tipping point for me was when a friend on Facebook, wrote this status update:

And that sealed the deal for me. I had to see what all the fuss was about. And am I ever happy I did!

So what exactly is Pinterest and why am I so into it?

It’s like browsing an endless supply of magazine’s and catalogues that have been flagged and marked so you only see the best stuff inside. And it’s all grouped together in categories for the easiest browsing possible. To start off, check out the TasteMakers section:

Here you can browse through a variety of people and categories (boards as they are referred to in Pinterest), to get a feel for what’s going on. Once you get comfortable with it, you can then start to pin things yourself. Pinning something is simply adding a visual link to a website. For example I’ve pinned these DIY hanging baskets in my DIY category.

If you were to view this image in Pinterest, you could click on it and be taken to the website that offers the tutorial on how to make these. These, by the way, were the inspiration for my next house project; hanging baskets in my kitchen to hold my cooking magazines! I started a whole DIY board full of projects I would like to undertake, some for the home, some crafty fashion stuff, and some gardening goodies.

There is something for everyone on here and each picture will lead your mind in a whole other direction of browsing and searching. Not to mention that it is a great way to categorize your own stuff too! And of course there’s an iphone app for it!

I’m so into this site that I’ve sent requests to friends that aren’t technically inclined and to many of my clients because I think this could be useful to pretty much everyone. For my friends that enjoy shopping and fashion, this is a great way to find the latest trends. For my clients, this is a useful tool to showcase their products. For my friends who cook, there is endless food porn and inspiration. For crafty people, this is a gold mine of inspiration! Whatever your interest is, there’s something on Pinterest for you.

social media iphone, personal, pinterest, social, social media

Social Media + Smartphone = Lifesaver

March 29, 2010 Molly White No comments

On Thursday, March 25th, my 3yo daughter, Isabelle took a ride on the outside of the escalator and my friend, along with a custodian at the mall, yanked her to safety near the top of the escalator (the height of the escalator was about 15 feet). In the process, Isabelle hurt her mouth and jaw.

I took one look at her and knew we had to go to get X-rays because I was pretty sure her jaw was broken. At the time, I was unaware of the implications of a broken jaw. Our first stop was Patient First, where an X-ray was administered. While it wasn’t clear that a break had occurred it was enough to prompt a call for an ambulance. We rode, back and neck immobilization braces and all, to Johns Hopkins Hospital’s pediatric ER.

Once at the ER, Isabelle was given a CAT scan, which revealed not only a broken lower right jaw, but also a dislocation. We were admitted and told that the surgeon would visit us in the morning. While we awaited the go-ahead for admission and the hour of midnight approached, I hooked up my computer, juiced my phone and used social media to alert my friends to Isabelle’s perils and situation. I’d also sent out some texts and made phone calls earlier in the night. While Isabelle FINALLY slept, I found comfort in the comments and conversations of my friends on Facebook and Twitter in the post midnight hours.

And from there, almost without thinking, I chose to use Facebook as my means to communicate the goings on of our brief hospital stay. I used my status updates to fill in friends and family about when her surgery would take place and when the Doctor, appeared, just one hour after we left Isabelle’s side in the OR , to proclaim that he was able to set her jaw and fix the dislocation without making the expected incision and without having to wire her jaw shut, I rejoiced, and shouted it out to all my Facebook and Twitter friends.

In return, I found an outpouring of support, and received numerous offers of help. Upon our return home with strict instructions from the Doctor to keep her on a liquid diet and restrict her movement, I have found Twitter and Facebook to be a great outlet for my stress, and again, a great resource for comfort and support.

Armed with only my Droid, for the most part, I was able to inform and update every single friend and family member about Isabelle’s predicaments. They got photographs of her injury, cat scan, and recovery. They were able to communicate with me directly, and yet in a non-invasive way. Their emails, posts, tweets, and texts could be read and responded to at my convenience.

Only seldom did I pick up the phone and have a conversation and for the most part is was a challenge to do so. The texts, posts, emails, tweets, and messages were far easier to manage and maintain.

My communication has changed significantly in the last 24 months and will continue to shift. More and more, I rely on the apps on my phone as opposed to the phone itself. The ease of disseminating information on social networks lends itself naturally to communicating with a broad group of people.

The same can be said for businesses. Using Facebook and Twitter to dispense information to your customers and clients is fast, easy and effective. If my personal page had been a fan page, the insights column would have been blowing up. The information I was posting was timely and of interest to my friends and they therefore responded to it. That same concept translates for businesses. Having a fan page and a twitter address is only half of the package. You must use it to converse with your fans and followers.

Facebook, mobile, Twitter Facebook, fan page, insights, mobile, personal, social media, Twitter

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