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Facebook-Email
Today, I got a message on Facebook from someone that wanted to use my services. Actually, I got an email on Facebook, then got a message to make sure to check my Facebook email. Only problem is – I don’t check my Facebook as much as I do email. It begs the question: do I need to be more attentive to my Facebook email over regular email? Will I miss an important message because they sent it via the social network?
I know what you’re thinking when I say email – junk, junk, junk, junk, nigerian email scam, junk, junk… But for me, email is my primary communication in this online world. The best part about email is I can keep important messages in one spot. Most people now have a email account, so contacting someone is not a problem.
But now with Social Network Direct Messaging – or as Facebook likes to believe “Facebook Email”, you can message someone in the social network over your conventional email. It does have advantage, like not having to know their email address. But is it a secure way to do business?
I get really concerned when it comes to conducting business over Facebook email. Not as much privacy (even though that is a big issue), more of the fact that I might forget about their email, or worse, if you need to pull that information later in life, will you find it?
Facebook is now on the kick of holding everything you can throw at it. If you post something in Facebook, expect it to stay in Facebook for years to come.
Connecting with someone on Facebook, or even LinkedIn is a great idea. It can even give you contact details that you can use to connect with this person. It’s always a good idea to make sure those details are populated so a person can get a hold of you.
Questions on this article? Feel free to twitter me @geekazine or email me directly at geekazine@gmail.com.Jeffrey Powers is a Content Creator, Videographer and Trainer over at Geekazine.com. He has been working in social media for over 5 years. He is also an IT Administrator for over 15 years and a Madison native. |
Cleanup You Website
This month is National Blog Posting Month (NaBloPoMo). This is where you get a little more serious about your blog and put up content for the month. We at Social Media Club Madison are trying to do the same. But it’s not only about posting new blogs, it’s about realizing the blogs that keep people coming back and improving on them.
Yes. You can improve on an old blog post. I do it all the time. Just today, I was re-editing a post on Geekazine about Blockbuster. If something changes, or if a small addition is needed that doesn’t need a new post, then I’ll clean up my old posts and add content.
Watch your Stats for Trends
The first thing I do is go into my stats pages and see what people are reading on my website. If you do not have a stats page on your blog, you should really get one. I suggest JetPack for WordPress.
There are 3rd party site programs for those who are on other content management systems. Something like Woopra will give you an idea who’s coming to your site, where they are from and what pages they visit.
Read and Correct
I am not an English major. I make grammatical mistakes all the time. However, when I re-visit a post, I can see it with “fresh eyes”.
I like to read the post aloud. When I stumble on a point, I review it. If I see redundancy in the post (ex: if you see “…that the…” in your writing, you have redundancy. Take out one or the other. It will depend on the situation of which one, however, you will not need both.), I remove it.
A new reader will not know I had mistakes on my site for so many months (or even years). I can also add SEO and other links as they become relevant.
Turn Spellcheck into a Learning Tool.
Here’s a little trick: If you get a word you misspelled, don’t rely on the computer spellcheck right away. Delete the word and re-spell it. Try it a few times, then when you are stumped, let the spell checker do it’s magic. You might find that your spelling will start to improve because of your attentiveness to the words.
Adding Content – Adding Edit notes
Some people will add a footnote saying something was edited after the post was published. This is a great idea if there was a correction. It’s even better if someone calls it out and you correct, referencing that person’s Twitter, Website or Facebook profile. You never know if someone will re-tweet an article if their name shows up as an editor.
You never know when an old post can become new again. I have had posts re-surface because of a news article, or a special on a product (in which they read the review I put out months ago). Cleaning up the post grows your SEO and could gain fans to your site. It’s not cheating – it’s rectifying a situation.
 Jeffrey Powers Questions on this article? Feel free to twitter me @geekazine or email me directly at geekazine@gmail.com.Jeffrey Powers is a Video Content Creator, and Social Media Life Coach at Geekazine.com. He has been working in social media for over 5 years. He is also an IT Administrator for over 15 years and a Madison native. |
Online-Community-Manager
In this day and age, you might be hearing of this job title creeping into job roles. Although the “Online Community Manager” has been around for years, it is now needed by any business that has content online and wants interaction. From Facebook pages to iPhone applications, the Online Community Manger is your ambassador to the customers and developers.
What is an Online Community Manager?
Online Community Managers have been around since the days of the BBS. Their job was to watch and interact with the boards. They would look for threads that pertain to their business, then open up communication and hopefully gain a customer. The job has changed since those days, but the basic idea applies; gain fans and customers, then show how this creates a Return On Investment (ROI).
They find new ways to connect with people. A YouTube video, an online chat. Meetups, mixers, video chats, and more. They get creative to bring your companies name to the forefront, and possibly noticed by standard media like radio or TV.
Do you Need an Online Community Manager?
If you just have a Facebook or Twitter page and someone updates it regularly, and that is the only thing you want out of it, then you might not want an OCM. However, if you want to get interaction, gain awareness, build a rapport, and increase fans, then you might need the community manager.
Think of a OCM as a promoter to a band. When the promoter books a band in a venue, they need to get the word out to the fans, or the soon-to-be fans. They create and put up posters, get advertising set up and talk to the TV and radio stations for support. They might even contact other “Sponsors” to help them increase the word. In addition, they could get together contests or other promotions (like 2 for 1 deals) where people can win tickets or other swag.
An OCM does the same thing. They put together plans to increase interaction with the customers you want to reach. They also field questions and relay problems to teams that can fix said problems.
An OCM would bring ideas to the table – like driving up Twitter fans through running a contest. Maybe put something on Facebook (a picture or event) to elicit response. Once approved upon, they run the event. Finally, at the end of the event, the OCM will gauge the market to see how much increased response and retention was recieved.
The OCM also does a bit of help desk. For example, if you have a Facebook or iPhone game that has a glitch in it, the players would comment there is a problem. The OCM would then determine the severity of the issue and let the appropriate department know. Once fixed, the OCM would update people of the status. This doesn’t replace your help desk, but it can add to the customer support experience.
Finally, an OCM is a trainer or host to another trainer. For example, if you have a webinar, an OCM will most likely be the DM of this webinar. They would promote the online connections and then introduce the speakers, also shuttle questions and comments to the speaker.
What to Look for in an Online Community Manager?
To begin with, they have to know how to be online. They need to have a flair with what could bring response from the crowd. They have to work with online analytics to show their interaction.
The Online Community Manager has to be on top of the game. After all, they need to grow an organic customer fan base. It’s not an instant task, but if the OCM has the knowledge, they will create a consistent growth model for a company.
This role can really become a savior for companies. You never know who you get from the interactions created. It could be an investor looking for a new company to back. It could be a company that wants to sponsor or work with you. It could be a reporter that wants to talk to you and write an article. It could be a radio station that is going to give you a discount on your ads.
Then again, it could be a bunch of satisfied customers and friends with word of mouth. That could be the best advertising you ever did.
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Jeffrey Powers Questions on this article? Feel free to twitter me @geekazine or email me directly at geekazine@gmail.com.Jeffrey Powers is a Content Creator, Videographer and Trainer over at Geekazine.com. He has been working in social media for over 5 years. He is also an IT Administrator for over 15 years and a Madison native. |
Friends using foursquare
Steve Gasser of Vivid Image, Hutchinson MN, and I (both Social Media Academy Alumni) recently had the opportunity to speak at the St. Cloud MN AAF Central MN (AKA AdFed) a professional association, this past week. The meeting of approximately 70 people was held at Creative Memories, an company that has embraced social media as a channel to engage with avid scrap booking fans and customers. While AAF Central MN has had several presentations on social media, Steve and I were asked to focused on some solid actionable activities for the group. I talked about integrating LinkedIn and Slideshare for the Business to Business (B2B) markets and Steve talked about tips for integrating Facebook, Twitter and Blogs.
It was great to travel to MN, which always helps me appreciate WI better. The leaves are turning and of course it gave me the opportunity to do a few video blogs in the car. Steve Gasser and I share a common philosophy and methodology in our approach to social media. We shared stories about the work he is doing with rural business and health care organizations. His wife is a community manager for Vivid Image clients and it was interesting to hear about the situations she has encountered with customers. Her challenge is in building trust within organizations so she can become the best manger for the social spaces these clients build into their strategy. They have been working with their retail clients on using foursquare in Hutchinson which is about 1 hour plus west of Minneapolis and has a population of about 40K.
Not to miss an opportunity to get my Flip Video in action, I did a few on the spot interviews on the foursquare topic. With the upcoming foursquare pub crawl, I questioned a few different folks from St. Cloud on how they were using foursquare.
Cory Hollenhorst, Account Manager, Meta13, St. Cloud MN
Mike Anderson, Quarterton Productions, St. Cloud MN
Marc Vaillencourt, Host and Executive Producer of The Conversation Hub
I hope you enjoy the interviews and make plans to attend the foursquare Pub Crawl on September 29, starting at Logan’s in downtown Madison. In the meantime, I am working on how best to use on my Windows-based HTC phone to check in somewhere.
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- American Express-Branded App Combines Foursquare With Shopping Check-Ins (readwriteweb.com)
- Image via CrunchBase
Locationary Wants to be the Wikipedia of Location: Tech News «.
Sharing tips and insights on location based tools leading up to our foursquare Pub Crawl on September 29. Its important to know that much of the location based information is incorrect or outdated. You can often hear comments like “Hey it says I am in the middle of the lake” or “it won’t let me check into the Monona Terrace, it says I am still in Milwaukee” if you are standing by someone who is trying to check in somewhere on foursquare, gowalla or other app.
An incentive base product that would encourage business owners and business goers to update a core database like Locationary would have the success of wikipedia in my mind. What do you think?
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- Foursquare Launching New Must-Have Button for Websites (readwriteweb.com)
- Location-Based Social Networking for Events & Conferences – An Interview with Foursquare (seomoz.org)
- Checked-In: How To Use Gowalla, Foursquare And Other Geo-Location Applications For Fun And Profit (lockergnome.com)
I recently have had the pleasure of an extended vacation to my home state of Maine. Maine! Gorgeous shoreline crammed full of lobster – that Maine. I eagerly tweeted my anticipation of checking into so many new foursquare destinations I’d really rack up the points. And oh, how my spontaneous tweets would usher in a new dawn of social media awareness in #damariscotta #maine – my ultimate destination and largely my home away from Madison. Why, who knew? Perhaps I could even convince a local bakery to offer up a free cookie promotion on foursquare? Oh, the possibilities!
Oh. Little did I know.
As I type, I’m surrounded by awesomeness I crave to tweet – local goat cheeses purchased at the Damariscotta Farmers’ Market, tasty vittles at unassuming little seaside shacks , my early AM run with the wild turkeys, a newly reacquainted love for and admiration of the local “rag” the Lincoln County News, and other grand adventures and musings. Yet I’m absolutely, utterly, digitally alone. No AT&T wireless = no foursquare. No Twitter! No Yelp! No Google Maps! No need for #hashtags! Help!
Good god, when wireless becomes available it’s like air to a suffocating man! Otherwise owning an iPhone in Downeast Maine is just a glorious lesson in frustration, a technological neutering of epic proportions. I recall the social media power that was once at my fingertips. I was a god. A god!!! Now I can’t even spell pretzle. (No dictionary.com application access!) This, my friends, is humbling.
Yet it’s also quite beautiful, taking a moment to live in the moment, vs blocking someone’s egress with my spontaneous tweeting. The clicking of the camera lens aside, my iPhone makes nary a peep – occasionally reminding me of some Gmail calendar synched event I must not miss. Such as cookies by the coastline, a daily occurence at 4 PM EST. (You really should join me.)
I’ll admit I want to stay here in Maine. Not for the fabulous views and wonderful, wonderful people, but truly because so much work needs to be done here on the social media front for small businesses - it’s a mobile media wasteland! Thankfully this work can’t begin in earnest until AT&T and other providers get their act together and pipe some signal into these rural areas, so there’s no rush. However I can’t help but think about all the social media success stories I hear from Madison’s small businesses and dream of the day these stories can be told in Downeast Maine too. For surely there are some stories to be told – if they can only get a signal to tell them in 140 characters or less…
Introducing the Brookie, a Bloom Bake Shop original
Today was the Middleton Big Event in – where else – Middleton, WI, and a few members of the Social Media Club got together to hit Bloom Bake Shop in time to see the 1:00 PM ribbon cutting. (Where DO they get those gigantic scissors? Can WE get a pair?) The ribbon-cutting ceremony was a hit – as were the Brookies, a special Bloom Bake Shop brownie-cookie hybrid of deliciousness, and much merriment was had by all. I’m quite pleased (and a tad bit ashamed to admit it) that I became the Mayor of Bloom Bake Shop on foursquare today – my first mayorship to date on this geolocation social application. For now that means I get bragging rights only, but I’m cool with that until Bloom adds a free coffee or treat to the deal. Drool!
But I digress!
Personal pseudo-accomplishment aside, while I was checking into locations like a foursquare fiend, I noticed Barriques (down the road a spell) was having a foursquare special – a buy one baked good, get one free offer. You’ll remember Barriques recently got on the whole foursquare bandwagon – an awesome thing – a few weeks back. While at this point I already had two brookies from Bloom, I’d never actually unlocked a foursquare deal before. So why not check it out I figured? The group was cool with this social media experiment and off we went to Barriques to do the baked good deed. Once at Barriques, I ordered a refreshing sport iced-tea, checked-in on foursquare and unlocked the baked good promotion! Unfortunately the cashier had never seen or heard of the foursquare promotion, but flagged down the store manager to ask. The manager remembered seeing something about foursquare in an internal email, but hadn’t ever used foursquare and didn’t understand how the social network worked, how the promotion itself worked, or if I’d done the necessary steps to get the deal. I could be a shady fellow, you know! (With a moniker like Fancy_Lad? Oh please.) But the day was saved when I used my trusty iPhone to walk the manager through my check-in process on foursquare and showed her exactly how I unlocked the deal and what the deal was. Once she saw it step by step, I was able to get my two-for-one cookies and trust me, no cookies have been quite so tasty – I worked for ‘em! The manager is in-line to get a smartphone (hopefully an 4G) ASAP – I know she’ll love it!
The Barriques booty - well worth the lesson!
But free cookie aside – and oh, it calls my name even now – what’s really cool about this little story is our little trip turned into a social media missionary of sorts and hopefully we’ve cleared the way for future Barriques Middleton foursquare users, and now the extra-fun part begins. I get to blog about the adventure, upload photos, Tweet, link, tag, give sponsors a little love and – oh yeah! – shamelessly plug the Brogan After Dark social on Monday – hope to see you ALL there, it’s gonna be a blast. Just wait until you see the door prize – who stuffs a Wienermobile? The Social Media Club of Madison, that’s who! (Oh the fun we’ll have.)
I gotta say, I love this social media stuff and helping others dig it too. I encourage you and your fellow Social Media Club members to get out there and have your own field trip. Use foursquare and go nuts – and don’t forget to tell us about what YOU did and how you helped spread social media literacy in your community. After all, this is a social club. Engage!
Today was a rough morning at the office – we’re out of coffee. The horror! I hope this never happens to you, I’m thinking of starting a support group.
Heading to Barriques? Don't forget to check-in on foursquare!
But I digress…
I can’t work without my AM java fix, yes I’m weak. So I hoofed it over to Barriques on West Washington for a “Punch in the Face” (literally – it’s my favorite coffee blend) and some beanage and noticed they’ve kicked off a foursquare promotion today. Sweet!
According to the official Barriques website:
Don’t miss out on great Foursquare specials at your favorite Barriques location. Make sure to ‘check in’ every time you visit to be eligible for discounts and freebies.
At this time I’m not sure what these discounts and freebies are, but you can bet your bottom dollar (don’t bet your bottom that’d just be silly) that they involve free coffee or tea, and who doesn’t like that?
Here’s a local business that gets it – so let’s help them be successful in its endeavor today. If you’re looking for coffee, head to Barriques and check in on foursquare – you never know, you might get a free cup o’ Java! Tweet about them today too – they can use the support of our club! (You’ll find them @barriques) Of course I’m hoping we can get them to host a Social Media Club of Madison Tweet-up social in the near future, it’d be the perfect spot for us connected types.
As for me, I’m proud to say Barriques gave me the kick in the petutie I needed to make the switch from Gowalla to foursquare. No looking back! This just goes to prove that geolocation isn’t just for New York City and L.A., it’s everywhere you want to be…and should be.
Now stop reading already, go get some coffee and check in!
