Five New Year’s Resolutions to Level-Up Your Social Media Game

It’s time to ring in the New Year! That means celebrations, maybe some vacation days, and time to set your intentions and resolutions for 2019. We’re here to make the resolution part a little bit easier, with these five social media resolutions. We hope they’ll help support you and your business to go from coasting to thriving in 2019!



1) Wake up and smell the routine

“I posted on Facebook and Instagram twice last week, four times the week before, and I don’t think I’ve done any posts for this week...but next week I’ll try to get back into it and post- maybe three times…”

Sound familiar? You’re not alone in this struggle, but it really is an easy fix that can yield solid results. So if you only do one thing to improve your social media presence, let it be this! Get into a consistent schedule with your posts. Decide how many times a week you want to post on every platform, then stick to it. To do this, follow whichever method works for you - maybe you want to use your Google calendar to schedule mini appointments and reminders to write and/or post the content, or use the old school method of using a paper calendar as a physical visual of your plan. You also could create a spreadsheet that includes all of your platforms and the dates that you plan to post for each. The point is, get into a routine of weekly posts, and you’ll make your followers happy with the steady flow of content, plus you’ll pick up new followers along the way!



2) So fresh and so clean 

It’s time to clean up your act! But we’re not talking about literal dirt or even bad language. We’re talking about cleaning up your messaging and staying on brand. If the tone of your posts changes often, if the focus of your content seems to always shift, and if you don’t have a clear message threaded throughout all your posts, then it’s definitely time for some cleanup and brand clarity. One approach is to think about your brand as an individual person, with a personality and story that is all theirs, completely unique to them. What would he or she say? How would they act? If you’re not sure how to answer those questions, get your team together and brainstorm, so that you all know precisely who your brand is, and are all on the same page. When you get specific on who your brand is, then all your messaging should be aligned with that voice and style. And your core values should be communicated as a thread through all your posts.



3) Engage! 

Many businesses make the mistake of focusing only on the content they’re putting out, and they forget about connecting and engaging with their audience and potential customers. Don’t make this mistake! If this has been you, let 2019 be the year of engagement. Go to your followers’ social media pages/accounts, like their photos, comment when appropriate, and do so regularly. Then go to potential followers’ pages/accounts and do the same, and you’ll see your own followers increase. On Instagram and Twitter, an effective way to find potential followers is to search using relevant hashtags. If you already know the "how to" and the "why it’s important", but have had trouble making it happen, then add engagement as part of your scheduled weekly routine, in the same way that you set up time to create and post your content.



4) Should auld acquaintance be forgot… 

Something we often see when we start working with new companies is that they’re following a multitude of accounts on their social media platforms, many of which aren’t connected to them or to their business in any meaningful way. If that’s you, then it’s time to let some people go, so to speak. Set up some time to go through the list of who you’re following, and unfollow accounts that don’t make sense. For example, if you’re a restaurant in Seattle and you’re following a national shoe company. Maybe you really like the shoes, or they had a fun post you liked so you randomly followed them one day. That’s fine for your personal account of course, but it doesn’t really make sense in terms of your business. So go ahead and click “unfollow” and keep on filtering out superfluous accounts.



5) We get by with a little help from our friends. 

If you’re managing your company’s social media by yourself and are feeling overwhelmed, or if you’re working with a team but are unsure whether you have the right expertise involved, then it might be time to seek some help. If you’re experiencing the first issue (flying solo), then talk to the powers that be about how you could bring on other employees with social media management experience to share the load. If that isn’t an option or you don’t think your team has the necessary skills and expertise in the field, there are plenty of outside options to consider. A designated part-time employee could work well for you, or you could contract with an outside company to have them manage your social media. We admit that we’re biased, but for the latter option, The Social Stage is a great solution! We’d be happy to chat with you to see if we’d be a good fit for your needs.

Best of luck with your Social Media Resolutions, as well as with your other 2019 goals. From our Social Stage family to yours, we wish you a very Happy New Year!

Like Facebook Pages as Your Facebook Business Page - Social Media Basics

Liking other Facebook Pages with your Facebook Business Page is a simple business-to-business outreach and engagement technique. The Pages you like will receive a notification that your Business Page liked them, and hopefully they will like your Page in return and interact with your content.

The Pages you like will appear publicly on your Business Page under "Liked By This Page." 

The few featured Pages will rotate regularly, displaying up to five Pages. If you want certain Pages to always appear on that list, you can choose them in the Featured tab of your Settings page.

Clicking on the small "Liked By This Page" list will bring up the full list of Pages your Page likes. This list is also visible to the public. Clicking on the dropdown next to the Page name will allow you to get notifications from the Pages your Page likes, to see their posts in your personal News Feed, or to unlike them as your Page.

On the flipside, you can see the full list of Pages that like your Page under Settings - People and Other Pages - Pages That Like This Page. If you want to remove or ban a Page from liking your Page, click on the settings wheel to the right of that Page's name in the list.

When you like Pages as your Business Page, their content will appear in your Page's News Feed. To view that Feed, visit the Facebook Business Page bookmark page and click "Log In" next to the name of your Page. From there, you will navigate Facebook as your Page, and be able to like new Pages by looking them up in the search bar, and interact with content you see in the News Feed. The blue top navigation menu will show you that you are using Facebook as your Business Page. To switch back, click the dropdown arrow at the right of the top navigation bar, and click your Profile name.

You can also see the full list of Pages your Business Page likes, as well as the News Feed from those pages, anytime on your Pages Feed. To visit it, go to https://www.facebook.com/[your Page username]/pages_feed

Have fun exploring Facebook and liking Pages as your Business Page! If you have any questions about this process or need help managing your Facebook Business Page, please get in touch via my website.

Local TV Stations & Facebook Calls to Action

Local news agencies are making the most of their Facebook posts by using specific, targeted calls to action. This often takes the form of asking fans' opinions on controversial or positive topics. In many cases, however, this means benefiting from bad news by asking fans to share their condolences and sympathy in response to tragedies. Whether the topic is positive, controversial or tragic, these specific prompts serve two purposes: generating engagement, which boosts the Pages' EdgeRank, and reducing the likelihood of off-topic remarks and flame wars in the comments. Below are examples of calls to action from the four major TV news outlets in the Seattle area.

Among local news outlets in this area, CBS affiliate KIRO 7 seems most likely to prompt for responses to tragedies, such as this death in a car accident. Calls to action on tragic events like this draw an outpouring of support for those affected, but often a few negative comments towards the station for trying to benefit from a tragedy. In a formula that covers all the bases, KIRO's post uses a photo that appears to be pulled from the young man's Facebook profile, includes both a link to the story online and a prompt to watch the news story on TV, and closes with the call to action.

NBC affiliate KING 5 takes advantage here of a topic residents love to talk about - bad drivers! The photo they used is likely a screengrab from the news story. They lead the post with their excellent call to action that requests a specific type of feedback on a particular and popular topic.

ABC affiliate KOMO 4 taps into the popular throwback trend here. In a smart move that will increase their EdgeRank even further, KOMO's call to action requires users to engage with the photo they shared in order to answer the prompt. Like their friends at CBS, KOMO phrases their call to action as a statement rather than a question.

In their rather bland, cookie-cutter call to action, and accompanied by a stock photo, Fox affiliate Q13 comes across sounding like a psychologist. While people (dare I say Fox viewers in particular?) may have strong opinions about how the new Mayor is paying aides compared to the outgoing mayor, a clearer, more specific prompt would have been more effective here.

When crafting calls-to-action for your own Facebook Page, keep these examples in mind and strive to do the following: ask for responses to interesting, engaging topics, play with using statements vs. questions, tap into people's emotions, and ask for specific feedback.

Timing is Everything - Using Facebook's Scheduling Tool Can Help

There is a tide in the affairs of men, which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. 

William Shakespeare

Companies like Hootsuite and Sprout Social have made a big business out of scheduling tweets and Facebook posts, and for good reason. Scheduling posts in advance allows admins to better manage their workflows and take advantage of high-traffic and high-engagement times of day. There are plenty of arguments out there why you should or shouldn't sign on with scheduling services like these, and what times of day and days of the week are best. The consistent thread through all these arguments is that carefully timing your posts is crucial to maximizing potential impressions and engagement. 

Earlier this year, Facebook took some of the power back from the scheduling services by launching its own post scheduling tool. If you manage a Facebook Page, congratulations! You already have access to it. This post will cover how to use Facebook's scheduling tool, and some of its pros and cons.

In order to use Facebook's post scheduling tool, your Page must first have a Start Date (this is different than the Joined Facebook date.) You can edit your Start Date in the Basic Information section of your Page, or by scrolling to the very bottom of your Timeline. You'll be asked to identify at least the year of your Start, and the type of start: Born, Founded, Started, Opened, Created, Launched. You also can fill out the Timeline story of your Start Date with photos and text.

Once you have designated a Start Date, you're ready to jump in and start scheduling your posts. You can backdate or preschedule posts by clicking the little clock at the bottom left corner of the sharing tool.

Write your post as you usually would, including adding photos or links and even tagging other Pages. The ability to tag and to more seamlessly upload photos are two main reasons why I prefer scheduling posts straight through the Facebook platform. Once you have everything set to go (if you're posting a link, remember to clean up the header and body text in your link preview box, select a thumbnail if one is available, and then remove the URL from your post text,) select a date and time for your post to go out, and click schedule. The post will be added to your Activity Log.

If you are backdating a post, clicking Post will automatically generate a News Feed story and add the post to your Timeline. If you would like to add the post to your Timeline without generating a story, click the box next to "Hide from news feed."

Prescheduled posts will appear in your Activity Log. From there, hover over the top right corner and click the arrow to change the time, publish the post now, or cancel the post. One of the current disadvantages of using Facebook's scheduling tool is that posts can't be edited - they can only be cancelled and prescheduled again. So if I wanted to change the post below and correct it to reflect the correct highest engagement time from the Bit.ly study, which is 3pm, I would have to cancel and repost it.

So there you have it - prescheduling and backdating posts in a nutshell. Once you give it a try, let me know what you think! If you've already been using this tool, or if you use other scheduling platforms, which do you prefer and why? What are some advantages or disadvantages? What are your Page's highest-engagement dates/times? As always, if you have questions or need help, leave a comment or send me an email. Happy posting!

Facebook Photo Options for Pages: Pros and Cons

Facebook Page administrators have a few options and things to think about when posting photos, and they each have their pros and cons:

1. Add a group of photos to a new album. Post will appear as "Your Page added six photos to the album Retreats." with a preview of one of the photos. PRO: This uploading method is concise and simple. CON: This method is a lost opportunity for fans to see each of the photos individually. 
2. Add photos individually to an album over time. Post will appear as "Your Page added a photo to the album Retreats" with the photo attached. PRO: Individual exposure to each photo. CON: Each time, all of the comments and "likes" the album has received previously will show up. This can be confusing for some users, as the comments don't correspond to the images. (Because of this, the Disneyland page only uses option #1 when adding groups of photos to an album.)
3. Post photos to the wall. The photos will be automatically added to the album "Wall Photos." The post can any desired text and the photo itself. The text will become the caption of the photo in the album. PRO: Posts can include any text you want and comments and likes are made to the individual photo, not the album. If you don't like the original text you post, you can actually change it on the wall by editing the photo caption in the album. This is the one type of Facebook post that can be edited instead of deleted and re-posted. CON: All photos go to the "Wall Photos" album and must be moved if you want them in specific albums. 

My recommendation is to use option #3: post photos to the wall and then reorganize them to different albums later (without publishing a wall post about it when prompted by Facebook.) 


Another thing to remember is that whenever you post photos, you should decide if they're worthy of being among of the top five featured photos at the top of your wall. These are always pulled from the most recently uploaded photos, but if you don't want a recently uploaded photo to appear up there, you can remove it. 


Happy posting!

Use Facebook as Your Fan Page (Instead of Your Personal Profile)

Based on a comment on one of my earlier posts, I wanted to provide a simple walk through of how to use Facebook as your Fan Page instead of your Personal Profile. This will increase allow you to "like" other pages, see a news feed of their content and comment on and like their posts as your Page instead of yourself, and in doing so, increase exposure for your Page. Here's how:

From your Page, click "Use Facebook as (Page Name)"

OR

At the top of any page within Facebook, click "Account" then click "Use Facebook as Page" then click "Switch" next to the name of the Page you want to operate from.

You can then click on the Facebook Home button to view a news feed of content from the other Pages that your Page "likes", or you can find new Pages to "like" using Facebook Search.

You can also visit other Pages and write on their walls, and like and leave comments on their posts or posts by their fans.

When you're done using Facebook as your Page and want to switch back to your personal Profile, click "Account" then click "Switch Back to (Your Name)"

As always, if you have any questions please leave a comment or email me. Good luck taking advantage of this opportunity to increase exposure for your Page!

Can Facebook Page Administrators See My Profile Information?

As a Facebook user, you might be concerned about the amount of information you're sharing with the world, and rightly so! But do you need to worry about what the corporate big brother behind your favorite brand's Facebook page can see? That depends on your privacy settings. 

Most Facebook page administrators manage their pages from behind a regular Facebook account. That means that they can see the same information about you that other Facebook users see. How much they can see depends on what you allow the following groups to see: Friends, Friends of Friends, Networks and Everyone.

Facebook allows you to customize your profile info to show or not show to these groups. As I've mentioned before, you can further break this down to hide info and activity from certain groups of people. To do this, click Account>Privacy Settings>Custom>Customize Settings.

While you're at it, go ahead and customize the information that appears when users search for your name. 

Click Privacy Settings>View Settings and change the dropdown on each profile section that will show when a user looks you up in a search, depending on the category they fall in. Since I belong to fairly wide networks, I limit visibility of detailed information such as my friend list, hometown and activities to Friends Only. Since I want people outside of my Friends and Networks to be able to find me, I allow Everyone to search for me and send me direct messages and friend requests. People I have connections with may have an easier time recognizing me if they are able to see my education and work info, so I share that with Networks and Friends.

Customizing your privacy settings, especially since they usually default to "Everyone", will ensure that Facebook page administrators can only see the information you are willing to share with the general public.

Keeping it Clean: What to Do About Swearing and Undesirable Content on Your Facebook Page

Allowing fans to contribute wall posts and comments creates dialog, but fans are unpredictable creatures. Here are some simple steps for page administrators to keep their pages clean:

1. Profanity Filter - Facebook's profanity filter can be set to Medium or Strong to automatically disallow use of "the most commonly reported words and phrases marked as offensive by the broader community."
2. Moderation Blocklist - Additional undesirable words can be blocked through the moderation blocklist text box, separated by commas. 
3. Posting Policy - Page administrators can use a posting policy (in a Note or on the Info tab) to show fans and others that they are moderating content on the page. Policies should clearly state what type of content is discouraged (ie positive discussion) and what will be removed or reported (harassment). Such as policy can be as simple as City University of Seattle's: "City University of Seattle welcomes active participation on the CityU Facebook Page. However, we reserve the right to remove Spam or inappropriate posts."
4. Watchful Eye - Admins should keep an eye on the page to monitor uer posts and comments and respond accordingly. This is a good practice in general, but when it comes to moderating inflammatory or inappropriate posts or comments, it is essential. Such vigilance is especially important because users can get around the Moderation and Profanity Blocklists by tagging pages using the @ symbol.

Confirm Your Facebook Page Category

Heads up Facebook page admins - your page's category is now featured at the top of your business page, beneath the name of the page. This will help Facebook users better identify at first glance what type of page they are seeing. Now's your chance to confirm and/or change that category. You may see a message that asks you to "Confirm Your Page Category" next time you view your page:

You can use the two dropdown menus to edit the group (general) and category (specific) that classifies your page. Then click "Update Category." If the group and category shown are what you want, you can click "Update Category" without making a change. When Facebook switched to the new pages format, many page categories changed to an incorrect or generic type, so this is a good opportunity to make sure your page is listed correctly. The type of group and category that you choose affects the type of information on your Info tab, so if you do decide to change your group and category, be sure to check on the Info tab and make sure that the information displayed there is accurate and everything looks OK. If you'd like to update the categories in the future, click "Edit Page," "Basic Information" and then you'll see the same dropdown menus.

Is Social Media Right for Every Brand?

A friend of mine asked recently if I foresee a future where every organization has a social media presence. I said yes, but the question is if they'll all be effective. So when is social media not right for a brand, or what brands aren't right for social media?

Launching a social media strategy or campaign might not be right for a brand if:

• There is no clear or consistent business plan or marketing strategy. It's all well and good to start a Facebook page, but your new fans aren't going to stay with you for long if you're not clear about your products or messages or your plan for the future.
• The brand's managers don't have the time/knowhow to devote to social media or the ability to hire someone who does. As any social media addict or parent of a socially adept teen can tell you - social media is a time suck. If you don't have the time to devote to your social media strategy (monitoring your channels on a daily basis, interacting with fans and other pages, posting, etc) and you can't (or don't want to) hire someone who does, your brand won't survive or pull much weight in the social arena.

The issue of what brands may or may not be right for social media is contentious. You might think that businesses people don't want to talk about or engage with wouldn't do well, but just type "Funeral Home" into Facebook search and you'd be surprised. (822 people like Pray Funeral Home in Charlotte, Michigan) Even brands people traditionally shy away from admitting they like or don't usually want to interact with can do just fine. I would argue instead that brands that can't consistently provide engaging, meaningful content are the only type that aren't right for social media, and that can be changed.

So what do you think? Can you envision a future where every brand, business and organization  has an effective social media presence?

Thanks to @tomheg for the photo: http://tpdsaa.tumblr.com/post/2724755436/submitted-by-tomheg

News Feed Settings - Top Friends vs. All Friends

You may have seen friends posting status updates lately telling you to change your news feed settings because you're not seeing updates from all of your friends (or if you haven't seen such a message, this might be why.) In addition to giving you the ability to see "Top News" or "Most Recent" posts in your news feed, Facebook provides the ability to customize the "Most Recent" feed. The feed can show posts from all of your friends and the pages you like, or only the friends and pages you interact with most.

Many users are crying out in outrage that Facebook would hide posts from them. Personally, I like this feature because it ensures that I will see the updates that I'd be most interested in. I also customize my news feed by hiding posts from apps like Farmville, or posts from acquaintances good enough to call Facebook friends but distant enough that I don't need constant updates on their lives. It only makes sense to me, therefore, to trust Facebook's algorithms enough to show me posts from the users I interact with most. I like noticing when I have visited a friend's profile or interacted with a page more often and I see their posts begin to show up in my news feed. The difference is most obvious to me when I use the Facebook for iPhone app, where the news feed shows me posts from all of my friends and pages and I have to slog through to find posts that I'm interested in.

Since there has been interest in how to change this setting though, here's how:

1. In the news feed, click on the "Most Recent" dropdown. (Notice here that you can also customize your news feed to show separate categories of posts - Status Updates, Photos, Links and updates from Pages. You can also show posts only from friends lists - I have two lists created for people who have limited access to my profile information.
2. Click "Edit Options"
3. On the "Show posts from:" dropdown, you can select either "Friends and pages you interact with most" or "All of your friends and pages"
4. Select the option you want and click "Save" at the bottom of the box

In a way, opting to see posts from all of the friends and pages you follow makes your Facebook news feed more like a Twitter feed. It also means that depending on when your friends post and when you log on, it might become more expedient to visit their profile pages to see their posts. Remember that if you do opt to see posts from "All of your friends and pages," you can always customize your feed by hiding individual posts, posts from apps and posts from friends or pages you are no longer interested in. That's something that Twitter unfortunately can't offer.

From the standpoint of Facebook for businesses, business pages would probably prefer that users show posts from all of their friends and pages, because it increases the likelihood that the business's posts will be seen. If users opt for all friends and pages, businesses must time their posts ever more carefully to maximize impressions. If users opt to see only posts from the pages they interact with most, it becomes even more important that business make the posts on their Facebook pages relevant and interesting to their users.

Obtaining a Vanity URL for Your Facebook Page

Since most Facebook page URLs are long and cumbersome, it's a good idea to obtain a username and, thereby, a shorter "vanity" URL for your page. Here's how:

• To get a username for a business page, you first need 25 fans (This helps prevent people from "squatting" on usernames by just creating a page and naming it with very few fans.) Regular users can set a username for your profile page at any time.
• Go to www.facebook.com/username
• Select the name of your page from the dropdown menu

 

• In the text box that appears, type in the username you want, then click "Check Availability"

• If the username isn't available, you'll get a message below the text box saying so. If you think someone is infringing on your trademark by taking the username you want, contact Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=username_infringement. They are pretty good about responding to infringement inquiries.
• If the username is available, the box below will pop up - read these guidelines carefully and then click "Confirm"

• Once you click "Confirm" you'll get another popup telling you that you have been successful in naming your page, and you can now direct your fans to facebook.com/(your username). Congrats! 
• If you have any questions about setting your username, visit https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=900 or send me an email.

And as you may have guessed, my Facebook page is up and you can now visit The Social Stage at www.facebook.com/thesocialstage!

You can also change your username and vanity URL for your personal Facebook page by visiting your "Account Settings" page. Business pages can't change their usernames, but personal profile usernames can be changed. Be careful though - you can only change your username once!

Back to Basics: Posting a YouTube Clip on Facebook

It's easy for social media mavens to forget how tasks like posting video links can be difficult for others. For the not-so-tech-savvy Facebook user, here are the steps to post a YouTube (or other video clip or web link in general) to your business page. To share a YouTube video on your personal page, you can use the "Share" button beneath the video. This is the process for sharing videos on your business page:

1. Copy the URL from the website - you can find a shorter URL on YouTube by clicking "share" below the video. Additional options will drop down, including a shorter, simpler URL.
2. On your business page, click "Link" next to the word "Share"
3. Paste the YouTube link into the box that appears and click "Attach"
4. The thumbnail for the video will show up - you can scroll through and choose the thumbnail that you like. You can also click the "No Thumbnail" box to post the video without a thumbnail appearing. However, this will prevent users from viewing the video from within your Facebook page. They will have to click on the link and go to YouTube to view it.
5. You can also change the title of the video and the summary that appears by clicking on the text and editing it. Sometimes the text is too long or, as shown below, an additional URL will appear in the summary. Just click on the text to edit it or delete it entirely.
6. Click inside the box that says "Say something about this link" to write a comment about the video, then click "Share" and it will be posted to your page.

That's it! This same process applies for posting links to other websites as well. Happy posting, Facebook page admins, and feel free to email me with any questions.

Using Your Personal Profile to Post Comments on Your Facebook Business Page

Some of my clients have asked if they can post comments on their business pages from their personal profiles instead of from their business pages. In the past, my answer was unfortunately no. With the new updates to Facebook pages, the answer is now yes! Here's how:

• Visit your business page on Facebook
• In the top right corner, click "Manage" then click "Edit Page" in the dropdown menu
• In the left top area, click "Your Settings"
• Make sure there is no check in the box next to "Always comment and post on your page as (Page Name) even when using Facebook as (Your Name).
• Click "Save Changes"
• Go back to your business page.
• Comment on or "like" existing posts by the page or its fans and it will appear to come from your personal profile.

You will need to repeat this process to switch back if you want to leave comments as the business page. The new changes mean you can now also leave comments and "like" posts on other Facebook pages as your business page, but that's another story for another day.

Happy posting!

Lauren

UPDATE: This setting does not apply to Facebook's mobile application. Your likes, comments and wall posts will always appear to come from your Page, not your Personal Profile.