#1 Reason Why I Won’t Buy From You

August 30, 2012 By Lisa Angelettie 6 Comments

This article was not on my editorial calendar, but something happened today that moved me to write on this topic. I was on Facebook and I happen to stumble upon a blogger who wrote a cool article about guest posting. I really thought it was good, so I thought I’d follow her and read a little more of her stuff. This blogger’s niche is “traffic”, so she had a link today in her Facebook stream (timeline) on how to increase your Google traffic using a simple strategy.

The link was to a page on her website which then automatically opened to a video. A pretty long video all about her new “traffic course”. The video had no value. It was very much a “long form” video sales page.

That pissed me off…

First, because her post on Facebook was somewhat deceiving. It led me to believe that I was going to learn a little something. At least one small tip. NOT! It felt very old school, slick styled, marketing 101. Social media is not the place for that. I want engagement and value, and then if you want to sell me into your traffic course — fine — but tell me that’s what you’re doing!

Second, the video was long. Too long for someone not even aware that I was going to be “sold” to. I think it was about 14 minutes. I watched it because at this point I was curious.

So here’s my point…

Now I don’t really like or trust this blogger. This is the #1 reason why I won’t buy from her. It’s not that she did anything ridiculously slimy, it’s just that when I make a decision to invest my money with someone, it’s usually someone who has attempted to engage me authentically, has been crystal clear, and has given me value FIRST.

If you are going for the sale from a social media site where the expectation is “engagement”, chances are the main reason why you aren’t making any sales is because the people in your network don’t trust you.

How To Easily Schedule Your Facebook Fan Page Posts On Facebook

August 19, 2012 By Lisa Angelettie 5 Comments

For some reason this is still kind of a best kept secret in many circles, but if you didn’t already know, you can now schedule your Facebook Fan Page posts through Facebook! Cool huh? This is muy importante (Girls High Spanish!) and one of my basic business rules – schedule, automate, or outsource as much as you can so that you have the time to do the things you love in your business.

So while I love writing content, all sorts of content, what I don’t love is stopping in the middle of something to post something to Twitter or Facebook, etc. Sure I can post first thing in the morning, but it’s important to post more than once and to more than one network for maximum impact — and so I rather that I have some posts set in place and ready to go.

Now does this mean that I won’t write something when the mood strikes? Of course not. If I have something personal or timely to say, I will do that — but many of my business tips and recommendations are things that can be planned and scheduled. And I bet you have a lot of those too! Okay, so time’s a-wastin’ (just finished watching Walk The Line:), let’s get to it…

Step 1 – Go To Your Fan Page & Write Your Post

Step 2 – Click On The Picture Of The Clock Timer In The Bottom Left Hand Corner

The first thing it will show you is a drop down box for the year. That’s because you can either schedule or backdate your Fan Page posts. Select the year you want the post to publish in. Typically you will select the current year.

Step 3 – Select The Month, Day, Hour, Minute For When You Want To Schedule The Post

Each selection will be offered in a drop down box. Very simple.

Step 4 – Click On Schedule Button & You Will See A Confirmation Box

Follow the instructions in the confirmation box if you need to make changes or cancel the post.

Step 5 – Rinse & Repeat!

How To Create Facebook & Twitter Sharing Links (With HTML)

July 22, 2012 By Lisa Angelettie 13 Comments

There are a few plugins and programs for creating sharing buttons for Facebook and Twitter on your blog, but you are limited in placement. Sometimes it’s just better to learn a little old school html code, so that you can ask for the share anywhere on your site — especially in the middle of juicy article! I recently did this with a new page I was creating and found that it was rather simple to do. So as usual, I’m sharing:)

Adding A Twitter Sharing Link

1. First thing I want you to recognize is that you are creating an html link. So if you know anything about making a basic link, you know that you have to open it with <a href= and you have to close it with </a>. That goes for any link.

2. When creating your Twitter link, you’ll simply be adding some code that creates the share function and automatically opens Twitter, creates text for the tweet, the link url itself, and the sharing text. So using the example below, you will see that the code <a href=”http://twitter.com/share?text= . This code will be used for any Twitter share link. What comes after it is the text you see in the actual Tweet, separated by %20 which creates spaces in your tweet. Next comes the url of the page you’re sharing. Last is the text that will appear on your web page.

<a href=”http://twitter.com/share?text=How%20To%20Create%20A%20Twitter%20Share%20Link%20On%20Your%20
Website&url=http://www.lisaangelettieblog.com/facebook-twitter-sharing-links“>Share This on Twitter</a>

Looks Like This: Share This on Twitter

Adding A Facebook Sharing Link

Facebook is even simpler because you don’t have to add all that code (%20) to add spaces. All you need to do is to make sure you have the sharing code and the link (url) to the page that you’re sharing, and Facebook will automatically open up a share box. It’s pretty cool.

<a href=”http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=http://www.lisaangelettieblog.com/facebook-twitter-sharing-links“>Share This Link on Facebook</a>

Looks Like This: Share This On Facebook

Put this tutorial and action by clicking on the “share” links and share this tutorial with others. Questions? Ask me over on Facebook or leave a comment below. I love to help!

*Special Thx Social Source Commons Blog

5 Social Media Myths You Can’t Afford To Believe In!

June 14, 2012 By Lisa Angelettie 5 Comments

I was recently at a conference for very high level corporate women executives and entrepreneurs where I attended a social media breakout session. While I didn’t learn anything new personally, it was really interesting to see just how much other people didn’t know. So based on the questions of many of those executives and entrepreneurs, here were five assumptions that many of them made about social media which could be killing your business (and made me cringe!).

Myth #1 – Social Media Takes Entirely Too Much Time

This is what people use to think about blogging years ago (laugh! laugh!). So here’s the thing…anything new seems to take time away from whatever else you were doing to market your business and build your brand. Just like blogging though, social media is a part of the web that is here to stay. The players may change (MySpace to Facebook, etc.), but the game remains the same. Social influence matters. So you have to decide first to do social media, make the time for it in your marketing plan, and make sure to leverage the hell out of it! There is no reason that you should be sitting online or on your phone all day engaging in social media when there are so many automation tools out there to help spread your content effortlessly. Can it all be automated? No. The key is to finding a balance on what should be automated and what shouldn’t.

Myth #2 – I’m Too Far Behind My Competitors

Ugh! I bought into this myth pretty early on with Twitter. By the time I decided to take Twitter seriously, several of my major competitors were way ahead of me in terms of followers and engagement. It’s also a problem if you are in a niche with major brands as your competitors, but guess what? You have to start somewhere. One step at a time. If you have a list, make sure to continuously encourage them to reach out to you on social media. If you are a solopreneur, more than likely, your list members and followers would love to reach out to you personally. So eliminate that via contact forms, etc. and ask them to engage you via your Facebook Page. There’s also a lot of tools out there that you can use to give people access to content if they pay with a “tweet”. You could try Pay With A Tweet for that. It’s free.

Myth #3 – Social Media Doesn’t Result In Sales Or Help My Business

I’m really baffled by this one, but many of the women believed this which I found utterly amazing. As far as brand awareness, social media works much like advertising but better because there is real social engagement about the product in real-time. An ad runs on television in hopes that it will keep the product or service in the minds of people going to make a purchase. Same holds true for social media. The constant engagement keeps the product or services’s brand in the minds of people who may make a future investment in it AND there is the added benefit of social proof. If 10 people online say that they love the taste of the new Pepsi Next on Facebook, then that has more value to me than simply just a commercial for the product.

And how about customer service? There are big brands like Virgin America who use Twitter and Facebook as their main customer service hubs. *Experts estimate that this saves Virgin about 13 million dollars in customer service expenses.

Myth #4 – There’s Too Much Chatter & Not Enough Substance On Social Media

Okay, it’s true. There are people who are out there talking about their fingernail polish and what they ate for breakfast! Plus all the social media experts are out there telling us that we have to build relationships on social media. Connect with people. Have conversations. Be real. Be transparent. But let’s be honest here, we are all in business, but we are all human beings as well. Here is another area in social media where you have to find a balance. People must feel that they know, like and trust you to make an investment in you. So if one of your members is having a 25th wedding anniversary and posts it in social media, then like it. Comment on it. People will notice that you are paying attention. People will connect with you on a personal level. As you do this, you also must balance this with posts and comments on what you’re doing in your business. A blog post you published. A video you just posted to YouTube. An aha moment. A good news announcement.

After Google, Facebook is my number #2 referral of traffic to my website. That’s nothing to sneeze at! So people are able to cut through the mindless chatter and connect with relevant messages. My traffic is proof of that and I bet you’ll see it too when you start using social media regularly.

Myth #5 – My Clients Don’t Use Social Media

I was in a room with many women who have corporate backgrounds and haven’t quite yet embraced the idea that this “new” marketing strategy is effective or even used by their customers but here’s a little enlightenment if you believe in the same: *the average internet user spends about 5 hours online each week on social networks, LinkedIn is the world’s largest business network and is used by over 161 million users, 11 new Twitter accounts are created every second, and 1 out of 8 minutes online is spent on Facebook. If none of these people are your customers or clients then I’d be very surprised.

I’m sure I’ve missed something. What social media myths have you run into when working with clients? I’d love to hear about them.

*SearchEngineNews

How To Convert Your Facebook Profile Page To A Fan Page

May 16, 2012 By Lisa Angelettie 14 Comments

Today I want to show you how you can convert your Facebook profile page to a fan page AND the pros and cons of doing so, based on a little experiment I did with my husband’s Facebook pages.

When Facebook opened up to the public and caught on with business owners we all began with a Facebook profile page. We all have one. Unfortunately for most of us, we were forced to mix personal use of Facebook along with business use and it made for a kind of “muddy” social media business model. No one really liked it like that. I didn’t want personal stuff from my friends pushed on my wall, and I’m sure some of my family members were like “What the heck is Lisa writing about today? We just want to hear about the kids!”

So in comes Fan Pages. Cool. We can use these for business. So now we have a profile page which if you used for business a lot, you still have a lot of those types of people sending you friend requests AND we have a fan page which up until a while ago we had a pretty good system for encouraging the “like”. With Facebook’s new timeline format for both profile and fan pages, that has changed a bit. But you either have just a profile page OR you have a profile and a fan page.

For example, if you do a search for “Lisa Angelettie Facebook”, you will see results for both my Fan Page and my profile page.

One day I accidentally ran into an article on Facebook on how to convert a profile page to a fan page and instantly became interested in what the benefits of that would be. Hey, I didn’t even know you could do that. So of course I didn’t want to experiment on myself! (LOL!) So I used my husband as a guinea pig and these are the steps that we took…

1 – Download all of your Facebook data on your profile page.

Go into the general settings of your page and you will find the link to download your personal data which will include your photos, timeline info, (see below). because once you convert to a fan page you will lose all of that data. The only data that is moved to your fan page are your friends which are now your FANS and your username. Uh, my husband was stubborn and refused to do this first step which he later regretted. So do this step!

What Personal Information is Downloaded During the Back-Up Process?

Personal profile information (groups, information, interests, contacts etc.)
Photos & videos
Wall posts
Status updates
Content that your friends have uploaded
Friend lists
Notes
Messages sent and received
Events that you have RSVPd for
Comments you have received and made on walls, photos etc.

[Read more…]

How To Make A Facebook Timeline Fan Page: 5 Essential Steps

April 2, 2012 By Lisa Angelettie 7 Comments

Facebook is the #1 social marketing tool for small business owners to create a broad reach but stay really up close and personal with readers. It’s important that if you are a small business owner, service professional, etc. that you have a presence on Facebook with a Facebook Fan Page.

But guess what? Facebook is ALWAYS making changes to create a better user experience, and the downside to this is that they are frustrating a lot of folks along the way. The latest change to Facebook’s Fan Pages (business pages) Timeline format is no exception.

You may be grumbling, if you spent major time or money customizing a fantastic landing page for your Facebook Fan Page — but hey, times are a-changin’ and I want you to embrace the possibilities of what’s ahead on Facebook, that’s why I will walk you through the only essential changes you need to pay attention to when creating and/or updating your Facebook Fan Page. Lickity Split!

This tutorial begins with assuming that you already have a Fan Page for your business, but if you do not have one it’s pretty simple. Login to your Facebook account and click on the “create a page” link usually found in the general settings section of your account, then move forward with this tutorial…

Facebook Fan Page Timeline Essential #1 – Cover Image

So the most important part of your new and improved Facebook Fan Page is the cover image. This image is the first thing that people will see when they visit your fan page. This means that you can NO LONGER create a default landing page that people see first. Typically this page would create an incentive for folks to “Like” your page or opt-in to your list, etc. This was a major blow to the business owner, but I get it, Facebook is trying to maintain a certain standard. So we simply have to play by their rules.

This image is “public” which means that anyone who clicks on your page will see it, so it’s important that you do not use any images, etc. that will violate copyright laws etc. On another note it’s important that this image capture you and what you represent. What you love. What you do. People need to connect with you and your message. So for me, I chose pictures of me so people know who I am, pictures of my family, my dogs, and then a blurb about what it is I do.

Other things that you CANNOT include in your cover art are:

Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”
Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section
References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or any other Facebook site features
Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”

To show you what NOT to do, here is cover art that I used on my main Facebook account while I was playing around with the Timeline feature which currently DOES NOT adhere to the new rules, because I have two website addresses listed as well as a call to action on getting free content. I will have to take this picture down asap so that Facebook will not ban my account:

When creating this image, it must be at least 399 pixels wide, but optimally should be a JPG file that’s 851 pixels wide, 315 pixels tall and less than 100 kilobytes (although I used a PNG file). You can create this image in Adobe Photoshop if you own it, GIMP which is a really robust freeware, or use a shortcut like I did and create your image in a word processing document then take a screenshot of it with something like Jing.

Profile Picture

If you notice, on both of my timeline cover art photos I have left a little space in the bottom, left-hand corner. That is because that is where Facebook will show your profile picture. This is the picture that will represent your page around Facebook and it’s a good idea to add a logo here or a picture of you if you brand yourself. I’m always playing around with my profile pic, and that’s the great thing about this process, nothing is written in stone. Create images for both your cover art and profile pic and play around them. See what best fits your business and your brand.

Facebook Timeline Fan Page Essential #2 – About Page

The next most important part of your fan page is the About Page for obvious reasons. First people are going to look at your cover art and then scan down and they will see your About section. This is a section I really didn’t pay that much attention to with my old fan page because I let the old default landing page do all the heavy lifting, but now it’s important to get this right. Your #1 objective is to get a link in there to your website since you were not able to put it in your cover art.

To make this happen, all you have to do is write all your information in the small ABOUT section of the about page. You don’t have a lot of room, so make every word count.

Here’s how my old about page intro showed up in Facebook’s new timeline format. Notice the address and phone number info was prominent:

Here’s how my new about page intro shows up in Facebook. Notice that I have included what I do and a link to my website:

Facebook Timeline Fan Page Essential #3 – Highlight With Apps

Next to the about section you will see four apps showing, typically they will be photos, likes, and then two others. The photo app shows in the first spot and you cannot change that, but the others can be moved around. Typically I wouldn’t move the second section which is “likes” because first you want to remind people to like your page and secondly, you want to show your likes as social proof that folks are stopping by your page and liking your content.

You can show a maximum of 12 apps but obviously you want to put your most important ones first because the first four are the most visible. I’ve seen different companies do different things such as app links to Twitter, YouTube, their newsletter, a custom welcome page, a freebie, etc. In the future, I’ll probably add a button for a free chapter to the book I’m working on, but for now I’ve linked to my Twitter and YouTube accounts.

Do you like this FB tutorial so far? Let me know by sharing it on Twitter Tweet

Facebook Timeline Fan Page Essential #4 – Highlight Your Content

So here’s something cool that you can do now on your fan page which will help you highlight your content. Hover over an important post and then click on the PENCIL to pin it to the top of your page. This makes it a “sticky” post that stays on top under your app section.

You can also click on the STAR to make your post wider (double width). I think that these particular posts look best when you have a photo to highlight, here’s an example from The Gap:

Facebook Timeline Fan Page Essential #5 – Use Private Messaging

Now you can receive private messages via your Facebook Fan Page and notification for those messages will conveniently show up in your new admin area. Honestly, if you are on Facebook at least an hour a day it’s probably a quicker way of communicating with your community especially around support issues.

I have a support site, my main site, and various niche sites and it would be interesting to funnel all of my “support” emails via Facebook. Of course the person would have to have a Facebook account, so I am not sure about this one, but it’s something to think about in the future.

*Sidenote – Your New Admin Area

With the update to Facebook’s fan page interface, there is a new admin area complete with a list of the latest notifications on your page such as who has just posted on your timeline, a section for your messages, a section for who has recently liked the page, a section titled “insights” which shows you with a simple graph how far your reach is on Facebook vs. how many people are talking about your page on Facebook, and lastly there is a section with tips on improving your page.

Final Comments

As we build our Facebook Fan Pages together, I will be writing more articles on topics that I am interested in such as sharing content effectively using Facebook’s new timeline format and getting more Facebook fans using this new format. If you liked this article and want to stay connected with me, please LIKE my page and if you’d like me to visit and like your page, please leave a link to it in the comment section below. Also, If you have any article ideas that you’d like me to cover in the future, please let me know by contacting me directly on Facebook.

Only The Cool Kids Need Apply — Are You One?

February 1, 2012 By Lisa Angelettie 3 Comments

The Big Shift

In a recent teleclass that I led on The 5 Biggest Shifts That Entrepreneurs Must Make When Writing Articles That Attract Clients, I talked a bit about the dramatic SHIFT that is happening on the web right now. Search engines like Google are now taking a very close look at whether or not your content is being shared via social media and ranking your content based on those factors. This shift will significantly shape your online reputation.

Uh-Oh Is This High School Again?

Okay, so this sounds a little bit like a popularity contest right? Well sort of. The more folks who share, like, retweet, and comment on your content the more IMPORTANT that Google thinks you are. So essentially it comes down to the more people who like you — the better you will do in the search engines, BUT there’s one great advantage you have…

You Have MAJOR Control Over Becoming A Cool Kid

Unlike actual high school, you don’t have to depend on an arbitrary hierarchy to decide whether your content fares well in the search engines. YOU are on the same playing field as all of your competitors and you are probably 2 steps ahead of all the “Big Boys” in your niche, because everyday people make the decisions on whether to share, retweet, and like content.

If your content is good, if it’s inspiring, if it’s compelling, if it’s entertaining — it will be shared, regardless of WHO you are. When Google sees this, they ASSUME that you are important and rank your content accordingly.

Okay Lisa – So How Important Is This?

This shift towards more importance being paid on social media influence is critical if you want to remain relevant — at least in the search engines. If you are not on social media or created an account a year ago and haven’t been active, it’s time to get on the grid.

If you must choose just one to start with, I’d go with Facebook because it is the largest social media network and it has undergone tremendous growth over the years and continues to do so. If you are a rapid implementer. then I’d sign up with the power 3: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

If you’re active in social media and want to check just how well you are doing in social media (your social media influence), then a great place to check is: Klout.com. *I have a little disclaimer here though. Don’t get real crazy over your numbers in Klout. Use your Klout number as a frame of reference for how you’re doing in social media and what you need to work on. Then leave it alone.

This Still Sounds Like An Uphill Battle

No, it really isn’t. Sure, there are always going to be leaders who were already powerhouses offline like Oprah and will do great in social media — but when it comes to shining in your niche — social media really does level the playing field. The #1 key is to make sure that you are sharing kick-a@#! content. Get that right and everything else will fall into place. I recommend that you get started by building a strong foundation with articles.

Okay, Now You…

First, if you found value in this article, I’d appreciate it if you tweet or share it with your community or comment on it. Pay it forward please:)

Now for my question of the day: Do you think it’s a good idea for search engines to use social media as a factor for ranking content? Do you believe it puts you at an advantage or disadvantage?

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