Honestly, I have not “worked” my Facebook fan page the way I should have. As a matter of fact, I’ve fallen off with many of marketing efforts…shame, shame.

However, I recently checked out my fan page and another that I am admin for and saw that Facebook now gives you even more insight into the level of engagement your fans have with your page.

It’s called the Fan Interaction Dashboard

Page admins who post engaging, high quality content will have interactive fan bases capable of virally spreading content through the social graph. The following graph shows how fans are interacting with your posts and consuming your material.

Interactions: Total number of comments, Wall posts, and likes.

Interactions Per Post: Average number of comments, Wall posts, and likes generated by each piece of content you post.

Post Quality: Score measuring how engaging your content is to Facebook users. A higher Post Quality indicates material that better engages users.

Stream CTR / ETR: This graph is a measure of the Click Through Rate and Engagement Rate for your content appearing in the Facebook News Feed. If a user clicks on one of your posts, that will be counted as Stream CTR. If a user likes or comments on one of your posts, that will be counted in the Stream ETR. Please note that Stream data is based on a sample and therefore is an estimate of your Stream CTR and ETR. (Coming soon)

Discussion Posts: The number of Discussion topics users have created on your Page.

Reviews: The number of times fans have used the Reviews application to rate your Page.

This can be very helpful if you need to prove the effectiveness of using Facebook to management.

I don’t love the look of the graph. I wish it could be larger, but it’s better than nothing.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Check out this handout that I developed for a presentation, How Non-Profits and Government organizations are using Flickr. I compiled information from a webinar I attended and resources on the web.

I’m sure you’ll see ways that you can apply Flickr to your business or organization.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Here are a few great take-a-ways:

“Guerilla Tweetfare” by Dan Nickers

Once you’ve set up your Twitter account, use Twitter’s search tool (http://search.twitter.com) and search for people who are discussing your particular niche or product.

Then, join the discussion and provide useful information and value. Dan suggests being funny, not spammy. He says, ”When you reply with value, the person will most likely follow you, reply to you and thank you.”

When someone replies to you on Twitter, all of their followers become aware of the conversation and may see you as a good person to follow as well.

Dan sums up his article with this, “The obvious goal here is to create buzz. The more value, humor and legitimate feedback you provide, the more followers and attention you will receive.”

“Sweeten Up Your Social Networking” by Carrie Wilkerson

She shares Dan’s perspective and suggests…

• Guard your character. Twitter is a very large fishbowl. People are listening and watching at all times.
• Be conversational. Interact with people, show interest in them and see how you can be of value in their space.
• Be consistent and engaged. If you only go on Twitter when you’re bored, have a promotion, have a blog post or are seeking input, everyone will see right through you.

Carrie ends with…”When your audience knows you, likes you, and trusts you, they will want to know more about who you are, who you know, and what you have to offer.”

I believe Dan and Carrie did an excellent job of really drilling down to the core of how to best use Twitter as a marketing tool.

I admit I haven’t kept up with Twitter much in a few months. Effectively using social networking requires a commitment to spending some time on a regular basis socializing with the members. Remember, it’s all about the people and the community.

Happy Tweeting!

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Here are a few highlights:

1. Twitter is about sharing value in a fairly narrow band. For me that band includes ideas about marketing, selling, and succeeding as an Independent Professional. So when I tweet, that’s mostly what you’ll be hearing about.

2. My focus will be on sharing value with you, not talking about me. This will include links to blogs and other web content, ideas, tips, strategies, information and inspiration. If I share anything about me, it will be about insights that I think you’ll find useful.

7. I’ll ask questions and use my followers as a resource, if that’s OK with you. There’s still a lot I need to learn and with Twitter I can tap into this amazing network.

Yes, Twitter is an amazing network and one reason that I like it so much is that it’s okay to “do business” on Twitter. Unlike other social networks, promoting your business (from my observation) is understood, accepted and even expected at times.  Tomorrow I’ll give you a few key ways that you can specifically use Twitter, that I learned at a workshop last week.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Principles of Social Media

1. Social media requires a continuing dialogue. Don’t start an initiative (on any social network) unless you plan to stay there forever.
2. If you plan to stay in it for the long haul, start the dialogue. If you’re interested in people, they are more likely to be interested in you. Talk to them in their language (not your jargon or academic-speak)…and talk to them about things that resonate with their interests. The goal is to connect on a human level.
3. People trust personal recommendations. Active word of mouth influencers are the single  most effective marketing tool. Empower people to recommend you, then make it easy for them to do it.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Twitter is quickly becoming a valuable social networking tool for business owners. It is one of the few social networks that doesn’t mind a little promotion here and there. It’s actually pretty common. I’ve received quite a bit of website traffic from Twitter since I signed up. In the future, I’ll be keeping you abreast of the best practices for using Twitter for business.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.

Create a Facebook Contest and you can increase your Fans and their interest in your company or brand.

Check out these 7 examples of companies getting creative and increasing their fans and group members by having contests.

1. Barkings, a blog for Small Dog Electronics, an Apple Specialist, has an ongoing, monthly contest where they choose 2 of their Facebook Fans a month to receive a good bag of fun iPod and Mac accessories.
2. The Environmental Working Group held a one time contest in May. To enter, you had to post “some lovin’” on their wall within a 8 day period and you could win a Foodnews tote and a stainless steel water bottle.
3. Gamedev.net is encouraging their fans to get creative to win a free subscription to their website or a grab bag of goodies and a CD. To enter, you have to become a fan of their page and take a photo of yourself wearing a Gamedev.net t-shirt and upload it to the page’s album. This contest ends on December 13.
4. Mazda held a Mazda Design Challenge and asked Facebook members to submit a 150-word description of their vision of the 2018 Mazda3 and an optional sketch. The winning design sketch was sculpted out of clay at an Auto Show in Los Angeles, CA. The winner also received travel, accommodations, $1,000 spending cash and a new MAZDA3 to drive during their stay as well as an opportunity to take the microphone to introduce the final concept at its unveiling on the final day of the show.
5. Labs Are Vital, an online resource for laboratory professionals and those interested in the profession worldwide, held a scholarship contest using Facebook. Through submission of print advertisements, T-shirt designs, or videos that creatively expressed why a career in lab science is a great career to pursue, students competed to win scholarships provided by the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS), the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), and Blood Systems, Inc.
6. Earlier this year, the Bonnaroo Music Festival entered everyone who became a Fan of their page into a drawing to win tickets to their 2008 music and art festival.
7. The Cloverfield movie Page had a contest, where people who became a fan of their page were entered in a contest to win a camcorder, valued at $1,000.

These examples are just the tip of the iceburg of ways you can leverage your Facebook page and engage your customers.

So if you haven’t already set up a Facebook Page, do it today and start a contest to grow your fanbase.

No related posts.

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.