Baby Steps to Facebook Pages
A few days ago I received this email from a small business owner ready to move forward with a social media effort.
It is now time for me to step into the new forms of social media & technology that are out there. I currently do not TEXT, FACEBOOK, TWITTER , use a i-pod or even know how to take pictures (on purpose) with my cell phone. I tried to set up a personal page and business page. Will you be my friend or fan?
I responded with some baby steps.
- Include the link to your Facebook page and profile when you send newsletters. Your email below forces me to go to Facebook and look for you. Most people will not take that extra step.
- Get a custom Facebook username. This is the link to your Facebook page – http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Marietta-GA/Marietta-Wine-Market/129897743722015?ref=ts Not exactly what you want to see in your newsletter, is it?
When you reach the magic number of 25 people liking your page, login to Facebook and go to Facebook.com/username
- Look beneath the peach colored box for ‘Set a username for your pages’ and click the blue link.
- Search availability for MariettaWineMarket as your username. You can’t use spaces and you can’t change the name, even if you spell something wrong.
- When you go through this process you can easily tell people your Facebook page is Facebook.com/MariettaWineMarket instead of the original ugly link.
- Look for people you know on Facebook and invite them to be your friend. People who know and love you and your business will gladly Like your page. So, go to your page. Look under your picture for ‘Suggest to Friends’ and click. All your friends will pop-up in a box. Click the ones you want to Like your page and submit. Facebook sends a note to all those people to let them know you have a page. Yay!
- Write on your Facebook page. These updates will appear when people who Like the page login to their accounts. Be social, not sales oriented. Write tips, news, events, discounts that will be valuable to your readers.
- Come over to my page at Facebook.com/SweetTea.StraightTalk and connect for more tips.
How would you help them get started?
How Much Does Free Cost?
Filed under: WordPress - Blog Tips, Plugins & How-To
WordPress is free. Facebook is free. Twitter is free. If I can do or get it for free why should I pay you? 
The most frequently asked question I hear — often not verbalized aloud.
There are a host of responses. Here are a few…
As easy as some aspects of WP are, there’s no way somebody could set up a site like this without a good knowledge of html to start with. The navigation links, tables, bookmarks and IDX would drive anyone else insane. -Linda Slocum
Social media is not free or easy, but if you employ the right people who can utilize these tools effectively, it can be an efficient choice to augment your other efforts. We should focus less on selling people on shiny new tools and more on building strategic plans and how tools can help us achieve the goals we have established. -Cara Keithley
I tell clients that I conservatively think I spent well over 500 man-hours learning Social Media and that was just to get started. I probably spend 2 hours a day learning each and every day… so at their salary, what is all that time worth? Funny how it makes the large number I just slid across the table seem not so large anymore. -brandmarken
If you want to trust your brand with someone who’s spammed their way to 100k Twitter followers in the last 6 months, then you weren’t the right client for me anyway. On the other hand if you’re serious about exploring the possibility of entering the social media space and are willing to dedicate the resources to ensure success, then we’ve got something to talk about. -Scott Schablow
Social Media isn’t free–depending upon the goals and size of the brand, executing Social Media strategies and programs may require monitoring, research, third-party software and services, development, planning, and resources to work effectively. – Augie Ray
Those “inexpensive” efforts take specialized knowledge and a lot more time to manage and execute. Things like public relations, guerrilla marketing, event marketing, and viral have always been more labor intensive and require a special kind of daily hands-on management. Same with social media. -Michelle Tripp
Wondering… How do you, as a buyer, determine the value of a service? Is it monetary? Time saved? Share your thoughts in the comments.
How To Send Facebook Page Updates
Filed under: Tips & Tricks - Sites, Software, Shortcuts
So how do you send Facebook page updates?
It’s pretty easy.
Just click on the “Edit Page” link on the sidebar. On the right hand side under “Promote Your Page” you will see a link which says “Send an Update to Fans”.
Sheesh! Hide and seek at it’s best.
h/t Nick O’Neill
