My dad was also an entrepreneur. He had worked corporate for many years but like me got tired of the rat race and set out on his own to build a successful telecommunications service company. The older I get the more I understand the reasons he liked some of the songs he did. It wasn’t only because they talked about playing poker or me “being his sunshine, his only sunshine.” It was because they hit the heart of both life and business in many ways.

To say we have went thru exciting changes since I made decision 2.5 years ago to be an entrepreneur would be an under statement. In the past year my husband left his corporate career of 15+ years and became my partner in business.  We  recently sold our first agency and just this week launched our new full service social brand & digital marketing agency, Marketing Nutz!

Although the past few weeks have been beyond crazy, it has also been a great time to reflect on where we have been and where we are going and how we can make this next chapter even better!

It’s easy to see the key components (cards we played) that enabled our success and also give us the foundation to move forward to this next chapter with such confidence.

Our hand of entrepreneur cards:

1. Vision
2. Flexibility
3. Agility
4. Innovation
5. Faith
6. Community

If you took any one of the 6 components above away, we wouldn’t be where we are. They are inter-related and dependent upon one another.

As we worked on our new agency brand story, social brand and digital execution, new services offerings based upon 2.5 years in the trenches of social business, we realized how despite all the learnings, changes and evolution in technology our vision and community were the two primary constants…

• Our vision is still the same as day one.
• People really do buy from people.
• It doesn’t matter if you have a website launched or not, amazing leads will still come in and contracts will be signed if you have established a personal brand, credibility and an online conversion funnel not dependent upon a silo’d website.
• Regardless what the name of our company is or where it is based, our community showed us they know, love and will be there for us.
• Our community came to bat for us when we needed them. They kept our blog readership up, leads coming in, prayed for us and held our back when we were tired and busy building chapter two.

If you are just starting a business, venturing into a new market, expanding your business, narrowing your focus or finally have decided to make the investment to integrate social media into the DNA of your business, I have one word of advice for you… VISION! You MUST know your vision. Who are you? What are you? Where are you going? Why are you going there? Why should your clients, partners, prospects, friends, colleagues follow you there? What will you do when you get there?

If you don’t have vision you will: 

• Never know when to be flexible.
• Never feel comfortable being agile.
• Never know when to hold em’.
• Never know when to fold em’.
• Never know when to walk away.
• Never know when to run.
• Never have 100% confidence in a decision to strike a deal, end a partnership or make a large investment.
• Be reluctant to invest in innovation and will wind up stuck in your ways or in the same box over and over.
• Lose faith as you don’t know what you believed in or where you were going to begin with.
• Find it difficult building community as without vision people won’t know where you are going and why they should tag, help or come along!

I’ll be writing more posts on this subject with a goal of helping you learn from our successes as well as mistakes. For now I’m going to leave you with our new video which describes our beliefs regarding social media. We believe the heartbeat of social media is people and that includes you.  Watch the video here –> We Believe – HeartBeat of Social Media

Some great words from our buddy, Kenny Rogers.

You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em
Know when to fold ‘em
Know when to walk away
Know when to run
You never count your money
When you’re sittin’ at the table
There’ll be time enough for countin’
When the dealin’s done

Now every gambler knows the secret to survivin’
Is knowin’ what to throw away
And knowin’ what to keep
‘Cause every hand’s a winner
And every hand’s a loser
And the best that you can hope for
Is to die in your sleep”

 Thanks to those who helped build us! 

Thank you to every one of you who have shared our blog posts, traded tweets, sent DMs or personal Facebook messages of inspiration, debated topics that helped us learn, shared your awesome content, liked our pages, Google+’d our posts, and most importantly gave me a “woot” when I asked for it. You need to know you are the sunshine in my days. You are appreciated and I am blessed to have you in my tweet stream, community and life!

What are your cards? 

What is the hand of cards you are holding? Do you have a vision card? Or do you need to get yourself a white board and set of markers and get to writin’ & drawin’? If you don’t know where you are going, why you are going then how are you going to know when ya’ get there?

Here is a video we just completed which highlights our beliefs and foundation for business and life.  I truly hope you enjoy it and that it will inspire you to get out the marker if your vision could use some work!

The second half of this post is a guest post from IBM.

IBM’s Yuchun Lee will be a guest on our inaugural launch of a daytime segment of  #GetRealChat today at 12pm et. Yuchun Lee is Vice President, Enterprise Marketing Management (EMM), in the Industry Solutions division, IBM Software Group. EMM is comprised of Coremetrics and Unica technologies, and helps companies automate, manage and accelerate core business processes across marketing and demand generation.

Mr. Lee will be tweeting live from Madrid at the Smarter Commerce Global Summit. We are excited to have Mr. Lee as a guest on #GetRealChat and look forward to hearing his insight on marketing innovation, and trends CMOs must know.

Like many of us, Mr. Lee has entrepreneurship in his DNA.  He started his first software company in high school! He serves on the Direct Marketing Association board of directors. He also was co-founder and CEO of Unica, a marketing and analytics software firm. He knows our world and knows the trends that CMOs must know to drive success.

Guest Post from IBM

Join the Conversation – Yuchun Lee Discusses Marketing Best Practices and Trends During Special Twitter Chat

During the Smarter Commerce Global Summit, Yuchun Lee, vice president and general manager of IBM’s Enterprise Marketing Management Group, will lead the Marketing Innovation Summit, which will bring together marketing experts and industry-leading customers from around the world. The Summit will engage attendees to explore best practices, enhance marketing skills, and learn more about the latest advances in Enterprise Marketing Management. This Summit will take a deep dive into the world of marketing, a key pillar of the Smarter Commerce initiative. But, the conversation won’t stop there.

Join Yuchun Lee, who will serve as the GetRealChat special guest on Wednesday, May 23, 12 p.m. ET, 6 p.m. CET as he continues the Marketing Innovation Summit dialogue. Yuchun will discuss key themes explored during the Marketing Innovation Summit including the latest in marketing offerings from IBM, “The State of Marketing” survey, and tips and trends regarding CMOs.

Follow Yuchun on twitter as he tweets from the @IBMSmrtCommerce handle and track the #GetRealChat hashtag to participate in the conversation. For more information on the Marketing Innovation Summit, click here.

What about you new kids on the block? I work with many of you so I know how you feel and what is keeping you up at night. I know the questions you ask. I know the lies you are being told or the assumptions you are making that are far from truthful.

The purpose of this post is to highlight some of these myths, lies and false hopes that may be keeping you from results. This post is not meant for those who can write a book on each topic. It is targeted to the newbies to social media, the business leaders who may know how to rock traditional marketing and other mediums but are struggling with integrating social media into business.

Your worth on this planet is not measured by a high Klout score or 100,000 Twitter followers!

Just because you do not know the first thing about social media, social business, social listening, campaigns, reputation management and monitoring, building a social brand or even how to tweet, does not mean you are any less of a person than the guy or gal with 100k Twitter followers. There are many who are still new to social. Please know you are not alone. You are not too late to the social bus. You might as well get on, grab a seat and get started on the right route to success!

15 Social Media Lies, Myths & Fairy Tales

1. Social Media is Free.  Yes, setting up a Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profile are free. Nope, you don’t have to pay to tweet, post updates all day or follow people. However, you must get real with the time spent. If you are getting ready to engage in social media for business please acknowledge right here, right now that it is going to cost you money, not make you money initially. The goal is to integrate social into your business where it can eventually help you meet your business goals and objectives. Do you really think you can do anything for free that is going to help you meet business objectives? Time is money and money is not free.

2. Same tactics work because social media is just like traditional marketing and advertising. Sorry Charlie but you can not split your corporate collateral from 1982 into 100 tweetable nuggets and expect to be a social rockstar by July 4th! Yes, social media can be simply another form of marketing, communication and methods to build relationships. However, it is a very different medium. Social is about building relationships and having a relevant conversation. The days of only using one to many communications blasting noise and little value are coming to an end. Your audiences demand more.

3. No need to plan, just be social. This couldn’t be further from the truth. We have several clients who one year ago went with a different, less expensive agency or consultant. Those agencies didn’t require them to first do the research to understand who their audience is and the best way they can provide value in a way that maps back to both the objectives of the audience as well as the business. Instead, they put them directly on the tweet streams, Facebook walls and told them to start posting. All of them have come back to us stating they made a mistake and that they wasted an entire year of trying to take the easy way out. They now realize that they need to do what we told them to do from the start, which is to understand their audience, set goals and objectives and build a plan to get there.

4. Random Acts of Marketing are good. If your project, task, or campaign is not in the budget, doesn’t have goals or specifics on how you are going to measure results, then it is a Random Act of Marketing (RAM) or Random Act of Social Media (RASM)! Random acts of anything to do with your business are not good and they will eat any positive return before you can get out the calculator!

5. Social business integration can come later. Wrong. Social media is more than a Facebook page, “follow us on Facebook” button or page of tweets. If you want to inspire and connect with your communities in a way that will bring both them and you results then you are going to have to get into the head of your audience, clients, partners and stakeholders. You must determine how you can help them achieve their goals. How can you map your services, products to their needs and provide value leveraging the social networks? The better you can integrate social media into your business sales, customer service, and marketing processes, the better you will be able to connect with and serve your clients.

6. Social media must consume your life. Once you start tweeting you need not say goodbye to your business, social or family life. It’s all about boundaries. Check out this article ”21 Tips to Balance Social Media Addiction, Tweets, Life &  Real Work!” for some tips on how to balance it all.

7. The corner office will never buy into social media. If you are having a hard time getting the corner office or C-suite to buy off on social media, you must stop selling and deliver real data. Talk to them in words they understand and that bring value to the business. If you only talk about followers, likes and retweets, chances are you’ll get kicked out of the board room as fast as you can hit the retweet button. Do your research and have a plan for how you can integrate social media into the business over a period of time, not overnight. Check out this post for some tips “24 tips To get the CEO Corner Office to Say Yes to Social Media.”

8. Must tweet what you ate for lunch. This should come as a relief to some of you who have bad dreams about having to share your boring salad or triple stack burger you eat for lunch. Trust me your followers will thank you for not doing such on a regular basis!

9. If you don’t know what to tweet, just spam. If you want to inspire and connect with your audiences then you must take the time to know them. Develop a content plan and editorial calendar that will help you create content that will help your audience meet their objectives. Not knowing what to tweet or post on Facebook is not an excuse to spam! Check out this video for some tips on how to identify if you are a real life spammer! Video: “Are You Spamming or Providing Value?”

10. Your offline brand can be executed as is online. Just because your brand palette has the mauve color your founder chose 20 years ago, it doesn’t mean you have to use it as a core color on all of your online and digital marketing assets. PLEASE hire a professional agency or consultant who can help you develop a social brand that represents your business and brand identity but does not look like it should be the shower curtain on the “Leave it To Beaver Show!”

11. Quantity before quality. If a social media consultant tries to sell you on the fact you need tens of thousands of followers to earn credibility, tell them to go jump in a tweet lake. Do your research and know that you get what you pay for. Five hundred organic followers that you earn with ethical practices including great content is far better than 10,000 you pay for that are never going to take a second look at your status updates! Check out this post for a real life example of “Social Media Consultant Gone Bad… Real Bad!”

12. Your audience is not on social.  I hear many business leaders state this. Yet when I ask them if they have done the research to back up their statement, nine times out of ten, they have not. So if you think your audience is not on social media I challenge you to do the double click and research if your assumed statements are true. My bet is they aren’t. At minimum there are probably influencers and strategic partners in your business ecosystem that are actively engaged in social media in some capacity.

13. You’re so far behind you must get there overnight or you’ll never catch up. Don’t even think twice about believing these statements if someone threatens you with such. Yes, you are falling behind, but no you are not left behind so much you need to give up or put everything in your business aside to get on Facebook. Slow down, take a deep breath. Chances are Facebook will still be there next month. What’s another thirty days? You have been without Facebook this long, you might as well take the time to plan, know your audience, map objectives and develop content that will connect you with the right folks. Download our free audience analysis and objectives worksheet.

14. Social buzz is a good measurement of results. Don’t get caught up in the social buzz of your inner circle of partners, employees and high school friends as false success. Check out this article where I discuss in full detail. “Social Media Buzz, The False Perception of Social Business Success”

15. The heartbeat of social is not people, it’s technology. Wrong. Yes, social media will not work without technology. However, social media will not work without people. You can create the best Facebook page, Twitter background, blog site, website or custom mobile application. However, unless you have a plan for how you are going to inspire and connect with your audiences, then it’s all for nothin’! The businesses and leaders who are seeing the greatest success are the ones who learn this early on. You can never go wrong by investing in people.

 Your Turn

Do any of these sound familiar? Were any of them things that you once believed and they held you back? What other myths or fairy tails were you fooled by? What advice can you offer others who are still trying to figure out all the social mumbo jumbo?

Get a Grip on Social Media:

This is the 8th in a series titled “How to Get a Grip on Social Media.” The series will include a free newsletter, webinars, whitepapers, tips and best practices to get a handle on your business and social media.

Subscribe to stay updated and be the first to be invited to upcoming events.

“Social Media Buzz, The False Perception of Social Business Success”

Is Your Content Worthy of a Like, Share, Pin, Retweet, Google +1?

15 Must Know Tips to Rock Your New Facebook Timeline Business Page

Can You Name 3 Reasons I Should Give a Rip About Your Facebook Business Page? 

Quit Blaming Facebook Timeline Changes & Fix Your Own Marketing Problems!  

15 Reasons Random Acts of Marketing (RAMs) and Social Media Don’t Work

The Only Guarantee in Social Business is Change

CEO Social Mindset: 15 tips for a Healthy Social business Mindset

What changed? As your knowledge deepened, community expanded and influence rose you somehow forgot those little things you once celebrated.

Many who go thru this very natural life cycle of online marketing success often get so caught up in the metrics and their own personal goals that it’s sometimes easy to forget about the people who got you there in the first place.

Community Doesn’t Happen Overnight

Community isn’t something that happens once just to help build you up from zero to one hundred or five thousand followers.  A real community is there for the long term. They are the people you can count on come thick or thin. They are the people who will build you up, tell you the truth even if it hurts and celebrate your successes because they helped you get there.

Scott Peck, the author of “The Different Drum: Community – Making and Peace” has some good words on this topic. Peck explains how conscious community building is a process of deliberate design based on the knowledge and application of certain rules. He talks of how communities go thru different stages as they form and build.

1. Chaos: When people move beyond the inauthenticity of pseudo-community and feel safe enough to present their real selves. This stage places great demands upon the facilitator for greater leadership and organization, but Peck believes that “organizations are not communities”, and this pressure should be resisted.

2. Emptiness: This stage moves beyond the attempts to fix, heal and convert of the chaos stage, when all people become capable of acknowledging their own woundedness and brokenness, common to us all as human beings. Out of this emptiness comes

3. True community: the process of deep respect and true listening for the needs of the other people in this community. Peck believes this stage can only be described as “glory” and reflects a deep yearning in every human soul for compassionate understanding from one’s fellows.

10 Reasons Why We All Need Community

1. Friendship. People are the heartbeat of social media. Without people there would be no such thing as social media.  Life is too short and too scary to spend it all alone or with people who are fake and afraid to let them see their real self.

2. Relationships as a life raft in a sea of technology change. Who cares if Facebook goes away tomorrow and is replaced by the next big social network “thang”? As long as you have a community built on real relationships, then they will endure the technology, social network changes. Your community, friends and online buddies will follow you wherever the technology tides may take you.

3. Push you to be your best. If you spend your days, nights and life only in your own world then you have nothing to compare it to. Healthy competition is good and healthy. Learning what your best colleagues, best competition or neighborhood small business is doing down the street is motivating.

4. Reality check. There is nothing better than having a group of honest, authentic, transparent online or offline colleagues tell you the blatantly honest truth about something you need a reality check for.

5. Guts to take risk. Taking risk is a healthy part of any business. When you know you have a community of friends behind you to give you an honest reality check of your next greatest idea as well as a group of peeps who will have your back and be there to help you stand when you fall can have positive impact on your ability to continue to move your business forward. Sitting inside all by yourself, afraid to take risk is likely going to be safe for the short term, but longer term could be putting your business at more risk as you are not growing or connecting with others who are also growing their business.

6. Get unstuck. You know the days I am referencing. The days you don’t know what to say, what to blog about, what to tweet or what to do next in your business. Those are the days you hop on Twitter, watch some videos on YouTube, read a few blogs from your favorite authors and spent the day being inspired by your community. If you feel stuck, then ask them for help. Chances are you’ll have a long list of folks ready to help motivate you in no time.

7. Learn. With as fast as the social networks are being built, evolving, morphing, and moving there is no way we can be an expert at every one of them overnight. It’s just simply not feasible. Not only can we learn about the social networks from each other but we can also learn about our target markets, supporting technology, best practices or a simple how to blog on anything under the sun!

8. Innovation. When you bring smart people together who are openly communicating, sharing knowledge, supporting one another, smart things happen.  Many new ideas, products and businesses are sparked from a simple online conversation or a relationship taken offline that started with a simple tweet.

9. Social sanity. In an influence, metric, tweet and follower crazed world it’s nice to be able to hop on Twitter, LinkedIn or Facebook and know you are not alone. It’s nice to know there are people who can relate to your excitement of a two hour of block of time set aside just for tweeting, or the celebration that you got a new technlogy or widget finally integrated into your blog or website. Particularly for those who’s offline colleagues are made of primarily folks who can’t spell let alone relate to why you would want to spend Friday night on Twitter, it sure is good there are some online friends who do understand!

10. Pay it forward and help one another. Just as you need to lean on your community for many of the things mentioned above and more, your community needs you too. You can pay it forward every single day on the social networks. You can help people learn, grow and be motivated. You can help them get unstuck, bring together a solution, launch a new business or simple learn how to Tweet or setup a Facebook business page. Whatever it is, make sure you focus on paying it forward as much or more than you focus on recieiving. If you focus on helping others achieve their goals and objectives as a priority, you will achieve your objectives by default.

Remember Your Roots Challenge

Once in a while it’s good to take a look around and realize all those you may have put on a temporary “ignore” are the ones who got you there to begin with! You may have been too busy focused on the likes, follows, influence scores and conversion funnels that you forgot who is giving them to you daily!

I’d like to challenge you to take this day to remember those who have helped you. Here are few challenge tips for the brave, the bold and the real community minded peeps:

1. Take a look through your Facebook timeline and pay closer attention to who is clicking like. Acknowledge they exist and do the double click to at least 2-3 of their social profiles. Check out their Facebook business page, blog and Tweet stream. Learn how they can help you, what they can teach you. Chances are you can learn a lot more from them that you may have thought possible.

2. Take 15 extra minutes a day for the next week to thank those who retweet you, say hi to someone you haven’t tweeted with in while.

3. Spend at least 15 minutes per day focused on the objectives of someone in your community versus yourself.

I can guarantee if you try a few of these simple tactics, the retun  you will see, feel and experience is beyond words or that of anything money can buy!

Are you in? 

What you say? You ready to take the challenge? You ready to give back to the community and benefit the many people who could use your help, knowledge, or friendship?

Heartbeat of Social Media Series

This blog post is part of a new series titled “The Heartbeat of Social Media“. It include a deep look at how communities work, what people are doing within them and how businesses can better understand how they can fit in, provide value and derive benefit as both a business as well as individual people.

Subscribe to the series for updates and access to special videos, webinar training and more. Would love to hear your input and have you participate in discussions and debates as we challenge each other to be part of what makes the social network heartbeat healthy and alive in 2012!

I’ll be hosting a free “Facebook for Business” as well as “Rock Your Blog” webinar with focus on social media optimization which will deep dive into some of the topics discussed in this post. Subscribe to the series for updates and early invitations.

The Heartbeat of Social Media

 Social Media Advocacy: 50 Tips to Rock Social Love & Advocacy

Social Media Tools & Tech: 15 Tips Not to Lose Your Mind

Are You Ignoring the Social Inspiration People Metrics? 

IBM’s Jay Henderson will be a guest on our #GetRealChat tonight at 9pm et. Jay is the Strategy Program Director, Cross Channel Marketing for IBM. He leads product strategy within IBM’s Enterprise Marketing Management group. His team is responsible for market analysis, customer insight, and industry marketing functions. Jay has more than 15 years experience in multi-channel marketing and customer analytics.

We are thrilled to have him share his knowledge and insights as a guest on #GetRealChat.

The IBM Online Retail Economic Indicator:

When it comes to shopping, consumers are increasingly empowered in the digital age. With increasing online shopping, channels multiplying and consumer habits evolving daily, getting an accurate reading in such a fast-moving environment becomes a major challenge for retailers, especially chief marketing officers, and leaders of the sales, customer service and supply chain functions.

In an effort to provide this valuable insight, IBM is introducing the online retail economic indicator, which tracks online retail sales and social sentiment of the US consumer to provide a complete view of the digital retail marketplace.

Issued quarterly, the retail economic indicator is designed to serve as the online companion to the government’s Advance Monthly Sales for Retail and Food Services report. IBM’s findings will be available on Wednesday, May 2.

Join the conversation as IBM’s Jay Henderson takes reporter questions during a media specific Q&A session on Wednesday, May 2, 2012, 3-4 p.m. ET. Register here to participate in the chat.

Chat with Jay who will serve as the #GetRealChat special guest on Tuesday, May 1 2012, 9 p.m. ET to discuss retail trends CMOs need to know and how these findings impact marketers and retailers alike. Jay will also discuss marketing analytics and social sentiment. Follow Jay on twitter at twitter.com/Jay_Henderson and track the #GetRealChat hashtag to participate in the conversation.

New to Tweet Chats?

Are you new to tweet chats? No worries! Check out this video for tips on how to get started! This blog post “Tweet Chats 101: 41 Success Tips for Moderators, Participants & Guests” is also loaded with tips for participants, guests & moderators. Hope to tweet you there tonight and every Tuesday night at 9pm et!

Klout, Peer Index & Kred influence scores, tweets, retweets, likes, comments, shares, pins, Diggs, Google +1′s, Stumble’s and the list goes on and on. Imagine what this list will look like in two years from now? Gives me a headache just thinking about it.

Doing the double click 

We offer businesses a service where we analyze and assess their existing social media strategy and provide recommendations for improvement. We base such recommendations on their business goals and objectives. We look at the client’s existing efforts, their social platforms, conversations, and how the community is engaging and responding to their efforts.

In doing such analysis we have been shocked how many businesses are 100% confident they are on the right track. Many of them are proud of their influence scores, they brag about retweets and top influencers who they are engaging with.

What happened to the business and marketing plan? 

However, when asked for their business or marketing plan they don’t have one or it’s a work in progress. They often struggle to provide basic goals and objectives or a simple summary of their audiences. Yet they are spending hundreds of thousands on a social media and web team. A social media team that is chartered with helping the company meet objectives that are not documented nor clearly understood by even one person on the team.

Note, this scenario is not just small mom and pop shops, but businesses of all sizes. Some new in market and many are leaders or soon to be leaders in their niche. Bottom line, they should know better. They seem to have thrown out business and marketing 101 with the bad economy.

Random Acts of Marketing are a dead giveaway 

If you do the double click on these organizations and spend even a few hours with them,  it becomes obvious why they have no conversion funnel, email opt-in list or basic results. Their website is developed using technology of yesterday. They are researching engagement and measurement tools before they know what to measure or why.

They lack the most basic skills for web development and social integration, communications, brand and message development, email marketing, and marketing in general. Combine this with the lack of goals, objectives and understanding of their own market and competition and it’s often shocking.

They are all running around busy, feeling productive yet the truth is their days are mostly spent on Random Acts of Marketing  & Social Media (RAMs). RAMs are not good for organizational health and will eat every last morsel of positive return on investment, relationship, action, or however you may like to measure return!

Talking to the wrong people

Because they don’t have a business plan, or even a basic understanding of their target audiences they have no priorities. They are trying to be everything to everyone. Yet, they are well on their way to being nothing to nobody.

When doing the double click on their online conversations these businesses are usually talking to themselves. They talk to their own employees, partners and friends. Yes, I believe relationships are important so don’t go sending me tweets stating I am missing the whole heartbeat of social media thing. Trust me, I get this and preach this and you can read it in an entire series I am writing “The Heartbeat of Social Media.”

My point is that if you are only talking to yourself all day and ignoring your target audience or leaving them out of conversation because you have no understanding of what they want to talk about or what they need then it is highly unlikely you will ever see a solid return on that social media and web team you just hired. At some point you need to have a relevant conversation with the right people.

Addicted to the BUZZ!

These businesses are skipping the entire planning process.  They are addicted to the real-time buzz so much they can’t turn it off. It’s like a bad IV that is stuck so deeply in the vein that removing it will not be easy. The CEO, CFO, EVP Sales are all addicted to the numbers. They like the retweets and the fact their Twitter following is growing.

I am not discounting the importance of the community based metrics. Community metrics are a foundation to the metrics and goals at the top of the pyramid such as revenue, ROI, brand equity, customer satisfaction etc.

However, what I am stating clearly is that if you are only basing your success on retweets, influence scores and popularity then you are standing on unstable ground. If you really want to become a social business, you must be open to a mindset change. Do you have the guts to sit thru an entire meeting with factual data of what is really happening in your social world. Any good agency or consultant worth their Twitter handle should have the guts and knowledge to provide you the real data, and help you set priorities and decisions for how to best embed social within the DNA of your business.

“We’re doing fine… really, we are!”

Because we are quite picky who we work with on these types of engagements, 97% of business leaders are ready to get real with the data and results. They are thrilled to finally have help in how they can better integrate social into their business.  After they see the data they are open to “slowing down to speed up.” They know they need to plan, set goals, integrate, align and better organize and staff for success.

However, there is still the 3% who wish they could put us on mute during the data review meeting.  They would rather go about their happy retweeting, influence score measuring ways. To them we say “good luck and let’s revisit this situation in a year and see how it works out for you.”  They usually come back a year later stating “wow, I wish we would have listened to you…. can you please help us?” Of course, if they are ready to make the mindset change we will usually take them back on with open arms.

So what do you do about it?

Is this you or your business? Do you think maybe you are falling victim to retweets, replies, mentions and influence scores over real business?  If you answer yes, then I will congratulate you! Acknowledging is the first step toward social buzz recovery!

Here are 20 tips to get your social media efforts onto the right path. Don’t give up. Don’t start completely over. You can still leverage what you have done. However, you must get a grip before it gets more out of control and you have wasted even more time and money.

20 Tips to Get a Grip on The Social Buzz & Measure Real Success

1.  Acknowledge  you are addicted to the social buzz and need to get a grip.

2. Accept that it is alright to slow down to speed up. Slowing down will bring you better results even in the short term versus continuing on the same random RAM path you are on.

3. Social media plugs into your business. Your business does not plug into social media. Do not try to fit your business into Facebook. Fit Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Pinterest into your business, not the other way around.

4. Take inventory of all available data and metrics. What tools do you have access to? What data and reports can you access? Track these in a spreadsheet with specific summary of the data and source. Do a quick analysis and summary of key metrics. What have you learned to date? Where do you need to improve?

5. Get focused on business goals and objectives. If  you have a plan, get it out. If you need to write one, then write one. Do not pass go or move to step #6 without this step. Take the time to ensure all stakeholders and key team members are trained on the plan and can recite the top goals and objectives in their sleep!

6. Know your audience. You MUST have a clear understanding of who you want to inspire and connect with. Download and use this worksheet I created to help you succinctly summarize the audiences and objectives for each. We utilize the Forrester Research POST methodology.  The worksheet is based upon such.

7. What objectives do you have for each audience? What objectives does each audience have for themselves?

8. Prioritize your top 3 audiences. Remember you can’t be everything to everyone. Your goal is to be something to somebody not nothing to everyone. Social media is about connecting with real people. It’s about real conversation based upon relevant content. Trust me, you can’t create enough content in the next three months to connect with all the audiences you currently have in your head. I know your type and am not afraid to tell you to sit down & start prioritizing! Use this worksheet as a guide to help you identify and prioritize your audiences.

9. Do a sanity check on your business plan, goals, and objectives. Does the data you have thus far support your business objectives? Were your assumptions made on audiences backed up by the engagement data you have thus far? Leverage your existing data the best you can to learn and optimize.

10. Get real with your engagement metrics. Who are you talking to on the social networks? Are you spending more time talking to yourself and your partners who are already in your circle of friends? Or are you also engaging your real clients, prospects, key influencers and others who will actually help you meet business goals and objectives?

11. Get real with your conversion funnel. Do you have a conversion funnel? Do you know what action you want your community, readers, audience to take? Should they opt-in to your email list? Do you want them to watch a video, subscribe to a video. You must get very specific here. If you have gaps you MUST slow down to speed up. Get your email service up and running. Setup the email templates as you have planned to do the past year. Set goals and objectives, metrics and a measurement system.

12. Get real with your team skill set and available resources. If your team doesn’t have the necessary skills to enable success then you must either train them or figure out how you are going to obtain the necessary skills. This may include terminating employees or re-assigning them to different roles. Without the right people to do the planning, integration, execution and measurement you will continue to struggle.

13. Implement necessary changes immediately if possible.  For example if your online covnersations are falling unequally away from the top three priority audiences you identified then you need to do a reset immediately. You don’t have to stop talking to the inner circle. You simply need to mix up the conversation so it is more balanced toward the audiences you have identified as a priority to help you meet business goals and objectives.

14. Identify what you want to measure then figure out how to measure it. Don’t waste your time researching social measurement tools until you know specifically what you want to measure.

15.  Ask the WHY questions.  Check out this blog post for some guidance. Why should your audience listen to you? Why should they share your post? Why should they care about a word you have to say. If you don’t answer this question, it’s honestly all for nothin’!

16. Remove the RAMs from the list. If you are addicted to Random Acts of Marketing then it is time you stop. Remove anything from your “to do” list that is not in budget, aligned with your plan or have supporting goals, objectives and plan for measurement of results.

17. Develop a revised social media plan. I do not have time in this blog post to write a plan. However, you must find the time to do such. If you have no idea how to do this then get help.

18. Get started on Plan B. If you have made it this far, congratulations! This is the plan that will succeed if you do it right. Integrate it with your business, focus more on your audience, their objectives and align them with your business goals. Don’t just focus on the tools and technology.

19. Get the help needed.  Hire an agency or consultant who can help you. Make sure they have the know how to not only analyze what you have done to date but also help you build a plan to help you optimize and improve with a goal of further integration of social media into your business.

20. Enjoy the ride. Social media business integration does not happen overnight. You might as well suit up, strap in and get ready for a fun ride. It’s all how you look at it. The tweet glass is either half full or half empty. I choose half full. How about you?

Get a Grip on Social Media: 

This is the 7th in a series titled “How to Get a Grip on Social Media.” The series will include a free newsletter, webinars, whitepapers, tips and best practices to get a handle on your business and social media.

Subscribe to stay updated and be the first to be invited to upcoming events.

Is Your Content Worthy of a Like, Share, Pin, Retweet, Google +1?

15 Must Know Tips to Rock Your New Facebook Timeline Business Page

Can You Name 3 Reasons I Should Give a Rip About Your Facebook Business Page? 

Quit Blaming Facebook Timeline Changes & Fix Your Own Marketing Problems!  

15 Reasons Random Acts of Marketing (RAMs) and Social Media Don’t Work

The Only Guarantee in Social Business is Change

CEO Social Mindset: 15 tips for a Healthy Social business Mindset

What if you took the same time you spend on the share bars, share buttons and tools and instead first focus on something worthy of a share? I know it sounds like a crazy concept because after all it’s far easier to focus on the bright shiny objects, geeky tools and data analytics.

Trust me, I am a data junkie and could literally spend all day helping my clients dig into the heads of their target audiences with a goal of embedding their brand in their brains!

Is your content worthy of a share?

• Why should I read your content in the first place?
• Why should I believe what your content says?
• What about your content is going to help me grow my business?
• What about your content will add value to my life?
• How is your content relevant to me or my business?
• Why should I like, pin, retweet or Google +1 your content?
• How is your content unique from the other million blog posts out there? How and what benefit are the members of my community and followers going to receive from the content?
• Why should I take action on your behalf?

If you really want success with online marketing and social media you must at some point provide relevancy. Yes, you can avoid this for a short period of time. You may be able to sell your boss and executive stakeholders on the number of retweets, likes and pins. Your board may get excited by the super star retweet you get from the latest singer rockstar from American Idol.

However, at the end of the day the same question still remains… what is your content doing for me? What is it doing for your audience? What is it doing for your business, stakeholders, shareholders and customers?

Content marketing defined…

Let’s take a look at the definition of content marketing.

Content marketing is an umbrella term encompassing all marketing formats that involve the creation and sharing of content in order to engage current and potential consumer bases. Content marketing subscribes to the notion that delivering high-quality, relevant and valuable information to prospects and customers drives profitable consumer action. Content marketing has benefits in terms of retaining reader attention and improving brand loyalty.
*Source: Wikipedia

Content marketing is a marketing technique of creating and distributing relevant and valuable content to attract, acquire, and engage a clearly defined and understood target audience – with the objective of driving profitable customer action.
*Source: Content Marketing Institute

The words that matter. Make note of these words highlighted above. Notice any themes?

• high-quality
• relevant
• valuable
• action
• retaining
• attract
• attention
• acquire
• engage
• action
• brand loyalty
• profitable

I know you are all smart enough to understand where I am going with this. You know what the words above mean.

So I am going to ask you the same questions… is your content relevant, engaging, high quality, valuable, actionable? Is it content that is going to inspire me to give you my attention? Will it inspire me to take action? To engage with you and your brand? Is it going to inspire me to take an action that will benefit you and your  business?

Well, I can tell you that if you are not thinking about the above words on a daily basis as they relate to your business, your Facebook pages, your tweets and your email blasts, then the chances you are going to attract me, inspire me to buy anything from you are few and far between.

10 tips to Create Share Worthy content 

1. Learn, download and embed the definitions and words above into the dna of your brain.

2. Take the same words and embed them into the DNA of your marketing and business plans.

3. Don’t let your relationships turn all digital. Talk to your customers, partners, stakeholders and prospects in real life. Get that eye to eye, hand to hand connection. Get in their head and in their heart. The people in your online and offline communities are truly the heartbeat of social media.

4. Don’t assume you know what you don’t know. If you haven’t asked your audience what they want the past two years I’d suggest you ask. You might be surprised in the result.

5. Set goals and objectives for measurement. You can’t optimize, monetize and measure what you do not track, so set goals and objectives early.

6. Be honest with your internal skill set. If you don’t have the right skill set internally don’t be afraid to outsource. There are many awesome writers who are affordable and can often deliver much higher quality work than what you can do yourself at a lower cost.

7. Get out of your box. If you have had the same team for the past few years, then you need to get an outside opinion. Even our agency occasionally hires an outside writer to help us with new perspectives and ways to connect with our audiences. A third or fourth eye can never hurt.

8. Be patient and invest time. It is going to take time and resource to create relevant, engaging and valuable content. Do not expect overnight results. Build your plan and work yer plan as granny would say! You’ll eventually get there.

9. You will never know what you can do if you don’t try. What’s the worst thing that will happen if you put a little more effort into your content marketing game? Can’t be much worse than those lonely share buttons can it?

10. Don’t be afraid to do the happy dance. Keep your head up. We all started somewhere. I can still remember the first days of launching my blog with a hope and prayer I would get one or two retweets. I can remember doing the happy dance when I started hitting 10 retweets a day. Set realistic goals and celebrate your milestones, not someone elses!

Free Whitepaper:

Check out this free whitepaper for 15 Tips to Stomp Status Quo & Zoom Your Brand! Content is more than words. Content must embrace, support and invigorate your brand. It must inspire your audience to listen and engage in what you have to say!

Get a Grip on Social Media: 

This is the sixth in a series titled “How to Get a Grip on Social Media.” The series will include a free newsletter, webinars, whitepapers, tips and best practices to get a handle on your business and social media.

Subscribe to stay updated and be the first to be invited to upcoming events.

15 Must Know Tips to Rock Your New Facebook Timeline Business Page

Can You Name 3 Reasons I Should Give a Rip About Your Facebook Business Page? 

Quit Blaming Facebook Timeline Changes & Fix Your Own Marketing Problems!  

15 Reasons Random Acts of Marketing (RAMs) and Social Media Don’t Work

The Only Guarantee in Social Business is Change

CEO Social Mindset: 15 tips for a Healthy Social business Mindset

If you are having major anxiety over the latest changes with the Facebook Timeline Business Pages then you need to do a serious sanity check on your online strategy.  As I wrote in this post, the problem may very well not be the technical and platform changes of the blue and white platform you do not own (Facebook) but the fact you have put all of your social eggs in one basket.

Evolution and change in technology is inevitable. We don’t own Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or Pinterest.  We borrow them. We are both their product and their customers. The owners of the social networks can do whatever they like with their platforms. They are in business to make money and the sooner you can accept that the better you can get on with your own integrated online and offline marketing strategy and drive results.

If you are concerned with the technical aspects of the changes for the Facebook Timeline business pages then check out this post  ”15 Must Know Tips to Rock Your New Facebook Timeline Business Page” which even includes a free template for the new Facebook Timeline cover image in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator formats.

However, after you adopt the technical specifics of the new Facebook timeline page you are still going to have the same challenges and/or problems as you did before. The same questions are going to come up over and over again in social circles.

• Why won’t people talk to me?
• Why do they like my page and never come back?
• Why won’t they share my content?
• Why won’t they opt-in to my email list?
• How do I get them to convert to a real sale?
• How do I see any type of business benefit from Facebook?

I have one question for you related to this post. You are not required to answer it now. I want you to think about it, and come back and answer it within the next week.

Question: Can you name three reasons why someone should like your Facebook business page?

• Why should they like it?
• Why and what can you provide to them that they can’t get on 500 other Facebook pages?
• Why should they do anything more than like your page and never visit again?
• Why should they comment?
• Why should they like the page?
• Why should they share your content with their community?
• Why should they click on any of the apps tabs?
• Why should they subscribe to your email list?
• Why should they trust you with their email to download your whitepaper?
• Why should they enagage with others in your community?
• Why should they enter your promotion or contest?
• Why should they watch your video?
• Why should they follow you on Twitter, Pinterest or connect with you on Linkedin?
• Why should they click thru to your blog?
• Why should they subscribe to your RSS feed?
• Why should they circle you on Google+?
• Why should they retweet your content?
• Why should they subscribe to your personal Facebook posts?
• Why should they think you and your products or services are relevant to their life or business?
• Why should they believe you have anything unique to offer them that they can’t get for free elsewhere?
• Why should they care you exist?
• Why should they care your brand exists?
• Why should they give you a second thought after the first?

If you can not clearly articulate three reasons someone should like your page, then I can guarantee the chances of them doing anything that is noted on the list above are few and far between.

What You Say? 

So tell me, can you name the three things? Why should I or anyone else like your page? Why should your target market like your page? Why should they care it exists? How are you going to be different? How are you going to inspire them to do anything but move on to the next page, tweet, blog post or pin on Pinterest?

Get a Grip on Social Media: 

This is the fifth in a series titled “How to Get a Grip on Social Media.” The series will include a free newsletter, webinars, whitepapers, tips and best practices to get a handle on your business and social media.

Subscribe to stay updated and be the first to be invited to upcoming events.

15 Must Know Tips to Rock Your New Facebook Timeline Business Page

Quit Blaming Facebook Timeline Changes & Fix Your Own Marketing Problems!  

15 Reasons Random Acts of Marketing (RAMs) and Social Media Don’t Work

The Only Guarantee in Social Business is Change

CEO Social Mindset: 15 tips for a Healthy Social business Mindset

As I settled in for a few minutes on #BlogChat, the big plans of a productive night on social media inclusive of a new blog post slipped away into never never, never tweet land.

As I Google +’d stumbled, Triberred, Twittered and Pinterested… time escaped, my night and almost this blog post escaped right with it. Thank goodness for @LiivLee who recommended that I write a post about such or you wouldn’t be reading this.

Anyway, as I tweeted, posted, planned tweetups, meetups, tweetchats, answered questions, networked with folks across the globe it reminded me why I love social media so much. It wasn’t time wasted and it’s definitely not the first or last time it will happen. I’m considering writing off Sunday nights to any productive online work and instead fully embrace the social aspect of it.

Anyone who follows me knows I believe plans are required, not optional when it comes to social media for business.  I also believe that “being social” is a requirement for success in social media. Yet “being social” all by itself won’t bring real results. You must have a plan that includes objectives, goals, and knowing your audience.  A plan to inspire and connect with your audience, and of course build a conversion funnel to monetize it at some point (if that’s your goal.)

Chances are slim that you can simply grab a Twitter account, setup a Facebook page and spend every day tweeting out randomness and see results unless there is a method to your social madness.

At the same time, you need to go with the flow.  You may set aside 30 minutes in an afternoon to “be social,” yet you may find that your community of followers and fans are busy doing other things.

On the other hand, you may have big plans like I did this evening to write blog posts, and catch up on other work. On these days or nights you may feel like the whole world is being social and you are being left out.

So what is a social tweeting, Facebooking, Googling, Pinteresting, Linking addict to do? How do you know when to tweet, blog, pin, post, talk, chat or turn off all of the above and hang with your in real life friends and family?

Here are 21 tips to help you manage time and balance the many different roles and responsibilities you have as a business leader and social media addict. Please add your tips and thoughts in the comments!

21 Tips to Balance Social Media Engagement, Addiction with Real Work

1. There is only one way to do social media and that is the way that works for YOU and your business.  My opinion is it all goes back to YOUR plan. Only you know your objectives, goals, audience, and what it is going to take to inspire and connect with your community. On some days your community may need information that educates. Other days they may need friendship, advice or advocacy. The key is to know your community, get in their head and connect with them!

2. Have a plan. The only way to social sanity combined with results is to establish a solid plan which integrates with your business. It must include goals, objectives, a plan to inspire and engage your audience, conversion funnels, content plans and more. I don’t have time to dive deep on this topic for this post. If you need help check my numerous other posts.

3. Acknowledge that “being social” by itself is not going to enable you to quit your day job or retire to the Bahamas this year.  Yes, you must engage as  a real human being. Give without expecting anything in return. However, without a plan you are destined for many wasted cycles and little real benefit in regard to brand awareness, community building, achievement of business goals and objectives or return on investment overall.

4. Know your community. Know your audience of partners, clients, prospects, evangelists, friends and colleagues. Get in their heads. What do they want to know, do, hear, talk about? How can you help them meet their business goals? How can you bring value to their life? The better you know your audience and community the easier you can connect with them with less time spent. When you know them then there can be benefits to even a short five or ten minute session on Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn!

5. Don’t over think everything. If you spend too much time over thinking everything you do and every minute you spend in social media you could be wasting what little time you have to actually engage and be social.

6. The heart of social media is people. At the heart of social media are people. People that laugh, tweet, post, sing, post tweets, share good, share bad and are looking for real people to do all of the above with. Take time to embrace the people, their minds and hearts. You can never go wrong investing in real people.

7.  Have your ears open more than your fingers typin’! Listen more than you talk. Join a tweet chat, use a social media listening tool, logon to Twitter or Facebook for 30 minutes and say nothin’ at least one a week! I dare ya’!

8. Do the five minute twitter follower mood test. If you are an avid tweeter this tip can do wonders for maximizing your tweet time! I can usually tell within 5-10 minutes at the tweet deck  how engaged my followers are and what they are in the mood for.

I will often times tweet a quote, link to quality content, and a simple coversational or question style tweet. Within just a couple minutes I can tell what kind of mood they are in. I look for retweets, comments and subscriptions to our newsletters. I may try another or send a conversational yet inspirational style tweet. I’ll watch close to how they respond, what content they are responding to, etc. Often times it is obvious if they are in a business mood and want serious data, tips or other types of content. I’ll test a variety of content based upon what I have available and what is available and being shared across the web.

Note, this all ties back to plan, knowledge of my audience etc.  Many people probably think I am just a crazy tweeting marketing nut. Yup, I am a crazy marketing nut. However, few know that I really do have a method to the madness. Well at least on most days that is!

9. Go with the flow. Be flexible. Be dynamic. As I explain above, if you take the time to know your audience, do the 5 minute tweet test, and listen more than you type, then going with the flow will become quite easy. There are some days you have no choice but to throw out the rigid plan and dig in to the heart of the people of social media.

10. Don’t throw out the plans, goals and objectives. At the same time I tell you in #9 to go with the flow, it’s also important you don’t forget your plan. You must not forget the reasons why you are engaging, leveraging social in the first place. Be careful of the consultants and agencies that tell you just to engage, tweet and post and not worry about the details. It’s perfectly alright to go with the flow and throw out the plan for an hour or two here and there. It’s not alright to do it all the time.

11. Create an editorial calendar. An editorial calendar filled with content that will help you inspire and connect with people in a way that will help you meet business goals has multiple benefits.  It will help keep you on track and maximize the time spent simply being social. It helps provide context to your tweets, inspiration to your audience and build relationships that run deep and wide.

12. Use time blocks. If you struggle with controlling your time enjoyed (or wasted) on social media then set time blocks for engaging, writing blog posts and other tactics. I started setting solid time blocks each day for engaging in social media with no objective but to “engage” in early 2011.  Doing such has had tremendous benefits on my personal enjoyment in social as well as business results.

13. Art before science in social media. The learning of the needed tech will come. Knowing the basics is plenty for most people just getting started. Relationships are the life raft to enduring technology evolution and change. If you have an engaged community sitting on the edge of your every tweet or blog post, it doesn’t matter what happens to Facebook or Twitter. When the tools and tech evolve, your community will be going right there with you! Embrace the art of inspiring, connecting and engaging with real people.

14. Increase efficiency with tools.  At the same time that you focus on the art of social, you also can’t completely forget the tools and tech.  Make sure you are taking time to research, select and use the right tools that will help bring efficiency to your efforts in social media. Some of my favorite tools include TweetDeck, Hootsuite, TweetChat, my iPhone and iPad, Evernote for writing blog posts and ideas on the go and numerous other programs. Experiment and find what works for you.

15. Don’t be afraid to ask for the sale or send a link to your blog.  During a long or even short block of engagement on the social networks don’t be afraid to sprinkle in a couple tweets that bring folks back to your home base blog or website. However, make sure your tweet fits within the context of the conversation and of course adds value to your community.

16. Don’t spend too much time comparing yourself to others. We all had a first tweet, first Facebook post and blog article published.  Even if I have tweeted thousands of time more than you, it doesn’t make me any better person than you. It simply means I hopped on Twitter before you did. If you spend all your time comparing yourself to others, you’ll miss the point of engaging with people who want to speak to, hear from and learn from you. Even if you have only been on Twitter for 30 days, I guarantee there are people who are just hopping on Twitter today and want to learn from you.

17. Don’t forget the in real life (IRL) friends, family and community. Don’t forget about the people in your life who you see, touch, walk by, meet or live life with you every day. They need your dedicated time, attention and focus too. You need them too even if that crazy blue bird is whistling your name!

18. Blend all of the above. The goal is not to have a separate online and offline life. The real ROI comes when all of these activities start to blend together. When real life friends become online friends, when online friends become offline friends. When tweets turn into friendships, business partners and even clients.

19. Remember what really matters in life.  There may be days where the kids are screaming, the dog needs food, hubby is out of town, laundry needs done and your favorite worship service starts at 7:00 pm. You know the chances of you getting all of the above completed before midnight are zero. For days like this find time saving tricks, tools and a pen to cross something off the list.

An example is my church has the most rockin’ first Wednesday service each month. It never fails every life matter gets in the way on these days. So what do I do? I jump on their online platform, hook up the service live to my laptop and big screen TV, turn off the lights and have the kids in bed before 9pm et! Then by the time I am done I am no longer worried about the laundry or the blog post. God has a way of reminding me of what matters and the fact I got to hug my kids for 1.5 hours while we jammed and listened to an awesome life message on the couch is good enough for me!

20. Social media is real life. Even though there are some people that still tweet behind the logo or behind double personality and duo Twitter profiles, the truth is most people are honest. There is only one you so be that person. The more you can be you, the better you are going to connect with others who are also being them. Make it a goal to take relationships offline, to find business partners and service providers who can help your business go zoom.

21. Breathe! As one of my favorite tweeters and best friends on and offline, @JessicaNorthey always says, “breathe!” We must take time in life to breathe. If we don’t breathe and have fun then what’s it all for anyway? At the end of the day if you are engaging with real people, building relationships, tweeting about life’s ups, downs and happenings, then it should be enjoyable. A session at the tweet deck shouldn’t feel like a root canal. Embrace the people aspect. Embrace the learning. Embrace the heart of social and the people in it.

Heartbeat of Social Media Series

This blog post is part of a new series titled “The Heartbeat of Social Media“. It include a deep look at how communities work, what people are doing within them and how businesses can better understand how they can fit in, provide value and derive benefit as both a business as well as individual people.

Subscribe to the series for updates and access to special videos, webinar training and more. Would love to hear your input and have you participate in discussions and debates as we challenge each other to be part of what makes the social network heartbeat healthy and alive in 2012!

I’ll be hosting a free “Facebook for Business” as well as “Rock Your Blog” webinar with focus on social media optimization which will deep dive into some of the topics discussed in this post. Subscribe to the series for updates and early invitations.

Are You Ignoring the Social Inspiration People Metrics

The Heartbeat of Social Media

 Social Media Advocacy: 50 Tips to Rock Social Love & Advocacy

Social Media Tools & Tech: 15 Tips Not to Lose Your Mind

The best thing you can do is stop complaining and get to work. The new Facebook business page timeline is here to stay at least until they decide to make the next round of changes. Might as well get use to it and make the most of it!

Below are some must know tips as well as loads of Facebook reference urls at the bottom to hopefully save you some time in case you get stuck or have further questions.

Note, there are more changes than what I included in this blog post. For this post I tried to keep it specifically focused on the “need to know” changes.

15 Must Know Tips to Rock Your New Facebook Timeline Business Page

1. Know the dates.

The new Facebook timeline is set to launch on all business pages March 30, 2012.  You can start playing with your new page now and see it in preview mode before actually pushing live. I encourage you to do this as soon as possible. Don’t wait until the last minute and then be stuck with a boring page that shows you were not prepared.

2. Create a new Facebook timeline cover image.  

The cover image provides amazing opportunities for branding and to visually inspire and connect with your fans. The options are endless as long as you stay within the Facebook guidelines outlined in #3 below.

Create several different timeline covers so you can provide a fresh and inspiration experience for your timeline visitors!

Image dimensions: 851 x 315

Download a free template I created in both Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator formats here.

3. Know the Facebook cover image content guidelines (rules).

 Facebook has set pretty strict guidelines for what can and can’t be displayed and communicated on the new timeline cover image.

What you CAN do:

• Brand the heck out of your company, book or personal brand. This include brand images, logos, photos and any other visual marks.
• Inspire your audience with visually appealing graphics, colors and images.
• Use simple language that will help you inspire and connect with your fans.

What you can NOT do: (Per Facebook cover guidelines)

• 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”

Basically the cover image is provided to inspire and connect with your fans. It is not meant for blatant self promotion or hard sales.

*Obviously make sure you have legal copyrights to all images and content.

4. No default landing tabs. 

You can no longer set a tab as a default landing tab. Now before you go off on a wild rant about how terrible this is, remember this is a post designed to help you move forward and do good things with your new Facebook timeline.  Got it? Okay, great! Now here are a few things you CAN do:

• Maximize use and space of cover image.
• Use the unique urls of apps to direct people directly to the app from pages outside of Facebook as well as posts, status updates within Facebook.
• Maximize use of the top apps shown underneath your cover photo.
• Use the apps for call to actions and to engage your fans.
• Use this as an excuse to get out of your box and focus on truly inspiring and connecting with your audience

5. Tabs are now Apps! 

Apps are the new tabs. Although you can’t set one as a default landing tab for new visitors to your Facebook page, there are still many ways you can leverage apps.

• 4 apps are always on display underneath your Facebook cover image.
•  You can utilize a max of 14 custom apps on your timeline.
• Create a custom thumbnail for your app. (see #7 below)
• Apps have a unique url that can be used to drive traffic to a specific app (see #6 below).
• You can change the order of the apps by clicking on the pencil to the right of each app and then selecting the app you want to swap it with for that particular spot.

6.  Use a unique url in place of landing tabs. 

Although you can no longer set a default landing tab, you can still easily get around this.  Since each app has it’s own unique url you can use the unique url to direct traffic from inside or outside of traffic to a specific app.

I suggest purchasing a unique url that you can use to drive traffic to your Facebook app of choice.  For example, I purchased the domain www.pamsfanpage.com and use to use it to direct traffic directly to my default landing tab. Now I will use it to drive traffic to an app of my choice.  The best part of using a domain that you own is that no matter how many times Facebook changes the apps, tabs, timelines, pages or other, you can stick to one or two urls that you use on a regular basis.

7. Create custom thumbnails for apps. 

It is super easy to create a custom thumbnail image for each and every app. Note custom images can not be set for photos and likes.

a. Create an image that is 111  x  74 pixels.

b. Click on the arrow to the right of your timeline (underneath the cover image). It will show a number which represents the number of apps you are using.

c. Click on the arrow next to the image of the app you want to change.

d. Click on edit settings.

e. Click on change (for the image)

f. Upload the new image

8. Fans can now send you a private message. 

You can not message your fans. The messsages are user (fan) initiated.  Messages are a good way to encourage one to one communication if you have an interest in doing such with your fans.

9. Milestones

You can set milestones for your business for current, or past dates. This is a great way to highlight key events such as grand opening, ribbon cuttings, launch of new products, new partnerships, business milestones and achievements.  Milestone images are 843 x 403 pixels.

a. Click Milesone in the sharing bar at the top of your page

b. Add a headline, date, location and details

c. Choose to add a photo

d. Click Save

10. Highlighted Posts. 

You can set any post to be highlighted which means it will take up both sides of the page. I know, the name “highlight” just doesn’t make sense to me either. I expected to see some type of real highlight. This feature enables you to bring special attention to a particular post within the timeline.

11. Pinned Posts.

You can set a post to be pinned to the top of the page. Pinned posts will stay on top of your timeline for up to 7 days.If possible, try not to wait the full 7 days before you change out the post unless you have a very important message to share. Chances are you have repeat visitors coming to your page throughout the week. Give them something new and fresh to check out.

12. Like button and interest lists. 

The like button will now show as “liked” for all fans who have already liked the page.

There are also new interest lists that can be accessed with a simple hover of the like / liked button.  You can create your own list as well as subscribe to lists the page owner has created.

Users can also select if they want to see your posts in their timeline right from your Facebook timeline by hovering over the same like button.

I will do more research on these feature and provide further detail in a subsequent post.

13. Know the required image sizes.

No need to over complicate this. Note the required image sizes and jot them down on a sticky. Stick it to your computer monitor and you won’t have to look them up or worry about forgetting them.

• Cover photo: 851 x 315
• Profile picture: 180 x 180
• Thumbnail image for apps: 111 x 74
• Highlighted & milestone images: 843 x 403
• Images within wall posts display as 404 x 404.

14. It’s what happens after the “like” that matters most. 

Don’t get too hung up on all these changes. If you are focusing on only “likes” then you have much bigger problems than the Facebook default tab going away.

As I always say, it is what happens after the like that matters most. Check out this post I wrote in December, 2010 which still stands true today for tips to engage your audience after the like!  “What Happens After the Facebook Like? 20 Tips to Engage Your Audience After the Like!

15.  Don’t freak out. 

The worst thing you can do is go into “freak out” mode. If you are completely freaked out over these changes then you really need to do the “double think” on your online marketing strategy. Remember, you do not own Facebook. Facebook can make any changes they see fit, whenever they decide to do so. It is a free platform and although you may have put too much weight into the platform for the success of your business, use the anxiety you feel today as a positive to move at least a few eggs out of the Facebook basket. Putting all your eggs in one basket is never a good thing, particularly when it is a basket you do not own!

Additional Facebook Resources: 

Below I have compiled numerous Facebook pages to help you get acquainted with the most recent changes as well as the standard guidelines for Facebook features such as advertising and promotions.

Start setup of a new Facebook Business Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages

Facebook Basics: https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=260315770650470&ref=hcnav

The Facebook Blog: https://blog.facebook.com/

Facebook Marketing Solutions Timeline Page: https://www.facebook.com/marketing

Build Your Brand with Facebook Pages: https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=198605806884743&ref=hcsubnav

Facebook Ads & Business Solutions: https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=195623423828629&ref=hcnav

Facebook Advertising Guidelines: https://www.facebook.com/ad_guidelines.php

Facebook Promotions Guidelines: https://www.facebook.com/promotions_guidelines.php

Facebook Cover Guidelines: https://www.facebook.com/help/search/?q=cover+guidelines

Facebook Pages Guidelines: https://www.facebook.com/page_guidelines.php

Amended Facebook Pages Guidelines for State & Local Government in the United States: https://www.facebook.com/terms_pages_gov.php

Facebook Platform Policy: https://developers.facebook.com/policy/ (apps on pages must adhere to these)

How to make a Facebook milestone: https://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=279680818764230#What’s-a-milestone?-How-do-I-make-a-milestone-for-my-Facebook-Page?

Facebook Community Standards: https://www.facebook.com/communitystandards

Facebook Data Use Policy: https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/

Facebook Statement of Rights & Responsibilities: https://www.facebook.com/legal/terms

Facebook Apps, Games & Credits: https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=310847352301318&ref=hcnav

Facebook App Basics: https://www.facebook.com/help/?page=222844857728639

Facebook App Guidelines: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/guides/canvas/

Facebook Personal Timeline: https://www.facebook.com/help/timeline

Facebook Safety Timeline Page: https://www.facebook.com/security

Facebook Family Safety Center: https://www.facebook.com/help/safety

Your Turn!

So what are your thoughts on the new Facebook timeline? Are you ready for the changes? Have you already implemented and launched the new Facebook timeline cover on your page? What are your favorite features of the new pages? What tips do you have you can share with others who may feel stuck or need inspiration?