• Before You Start: You have one or more active social media accounts.
• Learning level: 4 | Creating Solutions
• Article Last Updated: Wednesday, May 2, 2012

How Do Your Online Visitors See Your Business?

Recently, I walked into a local business for the first time. It was a factory showroom, so the space was functional and minimal. But a sense of warmth, of welcome, and friendliness oozed in the space.

How did they accomplish this with a bare cement floor, white walls, and almost no furnishings?

First Impressions Matter

When I walked into the space, I found a small table loaded with essentials: business cards and brochures. But it also provided pens (so I could take notes) and a selection of candies including breath mints.

At first, I was alone in the space, on my own to discover the items on display. Soon, someone came from the office and asked how they could help me. They invited me to look around and asked if I wanted anything to drink, and offered me a list of beverages including both hot and cold drinks.

A few minutes later, another employee walked into the space, and when he discovered me there, again offered me something to drink.

By the time I shook hands with the person I was meeting, I had encountered four employees who all welcomed me and offered me something to drink. In those few minutes while I was waiting, I had formed a strong opinion about this company, their brand, and their business culture. And I decided that I wanted to do business with this company.

All of this in a bare bones factory showroom space.

Make Your Visitors Feel Welcome

So what does this have to do with social media?

One of the key success factors for social media is your ability to make people feel welcome. That’s hard to do in a digital space. You get some control over your website through colors, layout and the words you use. But on sites like Facebook, everyone gets the same basic blue page, like a room with minimal furnishings.

How can your business really communicate your personality online so that potential customers feel welcome? Here’s a few ideas:

• Talk to people. When someone comments on your blog, replies to a tweet you sent, or comments on your Facebook post, make a friendly response.
• Anticipate their questions. Since the dawn of the internet, websites have posted frequently asked questions (FAQs). Make sure that you provide answers to common questions in logical places.
• Anticipate their needs. Like putting pens and breath mints at the door, what do your visitors need? Every business has different clients with different needs. What about an overview of how you work with clients? Or publish a chart that compares your products or services so people can easily see which one best fits their needs?
• Make it easy to become a customer. If you have a physical location, don’t just provide your address, add a map or a map link. On your website, provide a contact form that requires the information you need and gives them an expectation of how soon you will respond. On social media, provide links to your website and contact form.

When possible, do more than they expect from you. In my showroom visit, the pens were a nice touch. But the breath mints and candies exceeded my expectations.

This doesn’t have to cost much or take much time. I didn’t get free or discounted products–I got mints. Saying hello and offering me a drink took less than a minute of time away from their jobs. The gestures were all small, but all right on target.

A little switch went off in my brain. I realized that I was dealing with a company who would provide outstanding service and attention to detail because of how welcome I felt in those first minutes.

Turn Visitors Into Customers (And Fans)

If you want to build a thriving online community of fans who rave about your business to their friends, you need to exceed their expectations. You need to delight them with the small details that show you care about them and that you are paying attention.

In other words, it’s not enough to just do your job well. In the social media age, you need to figure out how to make your community members feel welcome. And you do that by putting yourself in their shoes and anticipating what they need from you.

Related Articles:

• It’s Not About You–It’s About Your Customers
• A Twitter Band-Aid Can’t Save Your Business
• Put Your Best Foot Forward With Technology
• How To Respond To A Negative Review

• Before You Start: You have a Facebook business page.
• Learning level: 3 | Building Skills
• Article Last Updated: Thursday, March 8, 2012

Facebook Business Page Timeline Changes

On March 30, 2012, all Facebook business pages will convert to the new timeline format. This change is not optional. It will happen automatically.

Here’s 12 of the most important changes you need to consider before March 30th.

Facebook Page Header

The timeline format changes the information and images displayed at the top of your page.

1. Cover Photo. Your page allows you to share a large image (850 pixels wide by 315 pixels tall) of your business, products, staff, or your client work. Here’s where you can get creative. There are some new rules you must follow. For example, you can’t include words for contact information, offer special prices or products, or ask people to like your page.
2. Profile Picture. Previously, Facebook took your profile picture and created a thumbnail image that it used when you posted or commented. Now, Facebook uses the thumbnail version as your profile picture. If your profile picture doesn’t work in the new format, you can upload a new one that is square (180 pixel maximum). When your profile picture appears on posts and comments, its only 32 pixels square. Make sure it looks right at this small size, also.
3. About Your Business. The About block moves from the left column to right under your profile picture. You can write up to 170 characters about your business, a big improvement over the last layout. However, if you want your website link to appear, you have to include the entire link, even the HTTP stuff at the beginning.
4. Views and Apps. Your existing tabs and applications are moved from below your profile picture to a single row across the header next to the About box. Four boxes appear here, but you can have up to 12 items here. The down arrow (beside the AWeber box in the example) lets your visitors access the other views and apps.

There is some good news and bad news about the new Views and Apps.

• If you currently have a custom landing page, you can no longer force people to land on a landing page. They will always go directly to your Timeline view.
• Your existing tabs still exist, and they are larger than before.
• You are stuck with the Photos box, but you can swap out the others. Make sure that your most important tabs appear as your first 3 boxes so they are always visible to your visitors.

Facebook Page Timeline

The way Facebook displays your wall postings also changes with the timeline format.

1. Highlighted Posts. You can feature a wall post by clicking the Highlight star (upper right corner of the post). This makes the post widescreen so it stands out in your timeline. You can also pin a post (upper right corner of the post) which keeps this post at the top of your wall postings for the next 7 days. Starred posts remain wide screen but move down as you add new items to your wall.
2. Posts By Others.  Previously, posts made by other people on your wall appeared on your wall (depending on your settings).  Now, Facebook lumps them together and puts them into a special box where people can see a summary and click to see more details on each post. With the timeline format, it’s possible to remove posts by others from your display, and you can break out individual posts to display in your timeline, but it’s a bit of work that you have to repeat for each post.
3. Standard Posts. Every post you make appears in a single column in your timeline. People can still interact with your post with all of the features you expect (like, comment, etc.).
4. Featured Likes. Facebook moves the Featured Likes list (selected pages that your page likes) into a separate box near the top of the timeline.

Facebook Page Admin Panel

With the new timeline format, your page administrators get some new and improved tools. To access your Admin Panel, click the button in the top right corner of your page.

1. Notifications. This is where Facebook shares notifications of interactions with your page.
2. Messages. With the timeline format, people can now send a message to your page. This is a great addition to the page features. If someone has a question for you about your business, products, or services, they can ask you in private rather than having to post on your wall in public. In addition, they can attach a file or a photo to their message.
3. New Likes. Facebook shares the names of the people who most recently liked your page.
4. Insights. From this box, you can access the improved Facebook Insights that show you detailed statistics of how your page performs.

Take some time to preview your page in the new timeline format and start preparing for the rollover now.

Related Articles:

• Get Your Message Out On Facebook
• Use Facebook As Your Page
• A Facebook Page Means Business

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Here is the recording from the second session of Create Ebooks Your Customers Will Love (January 2012).

Create Ebooks Your Customers Will Love (session 3) (65M) (1:22)

To download the recording, right click on the recording title (above). Choose “Save Link As…” or “Save Target As…”. Choose the location to store the file on your computer.

Don’t forget to schedule your 30-minute consultation call with me.

• Before You Start: You have a Facebook business page where you post items frequently each week.
• Learning level: 4 | Creating Solutions
• Article Last Updated: Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Do You Understand Facebook?

How well do you understand Facebook? Check your understanding by answering this question.

• Question: Does everyone who likes your business page sees everything you post on your business page wall?
• Answer: NO!

Does this surprise you? It shocks most business people.

Facebook News Feed Filter

It turns out that Facebook has a complicated formula it uses to decide what to put into each person’s news feed. It takes all of the possible items from all of their friends and every business they like, and figures out which items each person most likely will love to read. That’s right! Facebook filters what goes into each person’s news feed. So what does this mean for your business?

• Some who like your page may never see anything you post.
• Other people will see some of what you post.
• Most likely, no one who likes your page will ever see all of your posts.

What Is Facebook Thinking?

Facebook has a good reason for filtering the news feed. They want everyone with a personal profile to have a great experience on Facebook. So they want to provide items in the news feed that are most likely to delight each person. Facebook’s primary concern is not getting your business message out. Facebook’s primary concern is giving people (not businesses) a  wonderful Facebook experience. If that means eliminating your business wall posts from the news feed, they are okay with that. Facebook does give each business another way to reach people, a way that they guarantee will reach your target audience. That tool is Facebook ads. The odds are stacked against your business page wall posts getting the visibility you want. So is it even worth your effort to be on Facebook? And if you decide to use Facebook, is there a way you can still get the most from your Facebook wall posts?

Should My Business Be On Facebook?

Choosing which social media tools to use for your business is one of the most important decisions you make for your business. The right social media tools help you business in many ways.

• Showcase your products and services.
• Help you build stronger relationships with existing customers.
• Help you reach out to the public and potential customers.
• Increase the visibility of your business and products.

Facebook is the largest social media tool on the planet. It can help you reach your existing customers and find new customers whether you are B2B or B2C. It’s not a perfect platform for every business or every industry. But having a Facebook presence can help most businesses.

How May People See Each Post?

Facebook tells you how many people see each item you post on your business page wall. To see this, you must be using Facebook as your page. Display your business page wall. At the bottom of each post, right above the links for like, comment, and share, Facebook says: “X people reached.” This tells you how many people got this item in their news feed.

Measuring Post Visibility

You can calculate what percent of the people who like your page see each wall post. To do this, take the number of people reached and divide it by the number of likes for your page. For example, if Facebook says 48 people reached and you have 287 people who like your page, you take 48 ÷ 287, or approximately 17% saw that post.

Getting Your Posts Seen

There are things you can do to increase the chances of people seeing your business page wall posts. It’s really worth your effort to do these things. They can double or triple the visibility of each post. With a little effort, you can increase the visibility of each wall post and keep reaching deeper into your Facebook community. But to really reach your online community with your message, you need to be using tools other than Facebook. For example, you can:

• Share your Facebook posts on Twitter with a link to the individual post.
• Mention your Facebook posts in your email newsletter.
• Talk about your Facebook posts when you conduct conference calls or webinars.
• Add a link to your Facebook business page to your website and email signature.

The key to getting your message out on Facebook is to increase the chances of people seeing your wall posts. Then, use other tools to direct people to your Facebook page. Together, these practices will help you reach deeper into your Facebook community.

• 6 Ways To Get Your Facebook Wall Posts Seen
• Use Facebook As Your Page
• Connect With Facebook Tags
• Facebook Status Update Tricks
• Should My Business Be On Facebook?
• Facebook As A Social Media Hub
• Does Anyone See Your Facebook Posts?

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Here is the recording from the second session of Create Ebooks Your Customers Will Love (January 2012).

Create Ebooks Your Customers Will Love (session 2) (28M) (1:08)

To download the recording, right click on the recording title (above). Choose “Save Link As…” or “Save Target As…”. Choose the location to store the file on your computer.

Use the comments on this post to:

• Ask questions. I’ll be stopping by every day.
• Get feedback from others in the class.
• Add feedback to other people’s comments.

See you next week!

Here is the recording from the first session of Create Ebooks Your Customers Will Love (January 2012).

Create Ebooks Your Customers Will Love (session 1) (54M) (1:03)

To download the recording, right click on the recording title (above). Choose “Save Link As…” or “Save Target As…”. Choose the location to store the file on your computer.

Use the comments on this post to:

• Ask questions. I’ll be stopping by every day.
• Get feedback from others in the class.
• Add feedback to other people’s comments.

See you next week!

There are a few things you need to complete before the first webinar session on Tuesday, January 24:

1. Download and print the webinar workbook.

Your workbook contains information to help you during and after the webinar. It’s important that you use the workbook to take notes during the session so you have everything you need in one location.

Create Ebooks Your Customers Will Love Workbook (47 pages)

To download, right click on the workbook title (above).  Choose “Save Link As…” or “Save Target As…”. Choose the location to store the file on your computer. Then open the file and print it.

You will need the free Adobe Acrobat reader to view and print your workbook. (Most people already have this program on their computer.)

2. Start looking at other people’s ebooks.

There are as many ways to do ebook as there are people making ebooks! Nothing is right or wrong. There are options that are easier to read and use than others. The rest of the choices are all about style.

Here are some ebooks to help you get started. It doesn’t matter about the topic of these ebooks. You are not reading them to learn about the topic. You are reading them to get ideas about things you like and don’t like about ebook layout and formatting before you start working on your ebook.

• 10 Facebook Promotion Myths.
• David Meerman Scott. (choose any or all of his ebooks)
• Website Migration Handbook.
• International Women’s Day Gift.
• The Poinsettia.
• Five Mistakes Creative People Make With Money.
• One Minute Website.
• 16 Ways To Use Writing To Promote Your Business.

Or, you can do a search for “ebook” and see what you find.

3. Sign up for the first session.

On Monday, January 23, you will receive an email with the webinar invitation. Click the link to sign up for the session. You receive a customized link that will allow you to access the webinar on Tuesday.

You will receive a webinar confirmation email within a few minutes.

Would you like to rewatch the introductory video? I’ve posted it online for your review.

I look forward to seeing you on Tuesday!

• Before You Start: You have a business blog with comments.
• Learning level: 4 | Creating Solutions
• Article Last Updated: Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Blog Comment Insights

When you first start a business blog, you write your heart out, click publish, and wait for the comments to roll in. Sometimes, you have a long wait. But after time, your blog begins to pick up readers, then regular readers, and soon your posts are getting comments.

Now the fun begins.

Here are 5 things you can learn from your blog post comments.

#1 Hot Button Topics

Occasionally, you will write a blog post that seems to have a life of its own. It gets tweeted, shared on Facebook, and you are drowning in comments. That’s all good stuff.

It means that your post hit a hot button topic with your readers, and they felt compelled to share your post with their friends, and give you their opinion on it. It doesn’t matter if they showered you with praise, or told you that you might be the anti-Christ.  What matters is that you found a topic that people really care about.

This is a topic that you should explore in more depth. But be careful as you start planning future posts. If you got a lot of negative feedback, make sure that your next post has rock-solid logic, and that you express your opinion in a respectful manner. It’s not about stirring the pot. It’s about giving people new ideas and new perspectives to consider.

#2 Dead Topics

While you are building your audience, don’t blacklist a topic because a post didn’t get any comments. But when you look at your blog as a whole, the posts with fewer comments may be telling you that these topics missed the target.

This is an opportunity to revisit the topic with a new post with a fresh take on the subject. This time, add something new to the mix, a story about your experience, more opinion, and a catchy title. If the new article doesn’t resonate with your audience, put that topic on slow rotation and write about it infrequently. Or don’t write about it for a while.

#3 Burning Questions

I love when people ask questions in blog post comments. There is no better way to find out what is on the hearts and minds of your readers. When someone asks a question, they show you how they see that topic. Armed with this information, you can see new ways to write about this topic, and new background information your audience wants to hear from you.

Answer their questions in the comments, but use their questions to write more engaging blog posts in the future, also.

#4 Timing

One common question with no easy answer is: what time of day and day of the week should I post? You can ask the same question for your blog, Twitter, Facebook, and other publishing platforms. You can get a clue about when people are reading your posts by seeing the time of their comments.

Combine the comment time with their time zone to get a sort of profile of when people are reading your posts. You can try shifting your publication date and time to right before your most popular reading time to see if you get increased (or decreased) readings.

#5 Reader Identity

I use the email addresses of my blog comments to figure out who is reading my posts. Did they use a business email address or a personal address? Can I tell from the top level domain identifier (.com, .co, .au, etc.) where in the world the commenter is located? Do I have a lot of commenters from the same country or region of the world?

Ask yourself if the information you provide is truly international. Is there a regional variation or twist that might interest your readers? Can you start to include examples in your posts from other parts of the world?

Related Articles:

• The Value Of Your Experience
• Find Social Media Topics For Your Business
• How Does A Blog Help My Business?
• What is RSS? And Why Does It Matter?

Holiday Ebook Webinar (session 3) (60M)

To download the recording, right click on the recording title (above).  Choose “Save Link As…” or “Save Target As…”. Choose the location to store the file on your computer. Use the comments on this post to:

• Ask questions. I’ll be stopping by every day.
• Get feedback from others in the class.
• Add feedback to other people’s comments.

Thanks so much for your active participation in this course. Don’t forget to take advantage of the bonuses available only to you.

There are a few things you need to complete before the third webinar session on Tuesday, November 22th:

1. Download and print the session workbook.

Your workbook contains information to help you during and after the webinar. It’s important that you use the workbook to take notes during the session so you have everything you need in one location. Download the workbook file and print it.

Holiday Ebook Webinar: Session 3 Workbook (13 pages)

To download, right click on the workbook title (above).  Choose “Save Link As…” or “Save Target As…”. Choose the location to store the file on your computer.

You will need the free Adobe Acrobat reader to view and print your workbook. (Most people already have this program on their computer.)

2. Keep writing your ebook.

Use your detailed outline to guide you through the writing process.

3. Keep looking at other people’s ebooks.

You need to see a lot of ebooks before you can start making layout and formatting decisions for your own ebook.

4. Sign up for the final session.

On Monday, you will receive an email with the webinar invitation. Click the link to sign up for the session. You receive a customized link that will allow you to access the webinar on Tuesday.

You will receive a webinar confirmation email within a few minutes.

I look forward to seeing you on Tuesday!