Business Tip of the Week: 10 Words You Need to Stop Misspelling

Click to ENLARGE

Having a Journalism Masters – I have always been that friend critiquing everyone of their little grammar mistakes. But take it from me – a little English goes a long way.

Have you ever received an email where they misspelled your name or company? Or had a solicitor call only to butcher your last name, when it’s as easy as SMITH?

It’s one of my little pet peeves - people who don’t take the time to at least double check that they are spelling my name correctly when selling me something means I won’t take the time to buy it.

I once had an account executive at a large communications company I once worked for send me AND a client an email where she misspelled the word Hyundai. And he was a Hyundai dealer – and she was a specialized automotive account rep. Don’t embarrass yourself – take 5 minutes to re-read your email – and learn a little tip from your grammar fairy and memorize the 10 misspelled words above.

Trust me – you’ll thank me one day!

Google Analytics now has a Mobile App!

Did anyone else get as excited about this as I did when this came out??

This is definitely WHAT’S HOT this week in social media!!!

Tip – if you’re not using Google Analytics on your website – you SHOULD be! Go and download it now! ASAP! IT’S FREE FOLKS!

And it’s really easy to copy/paste the code into your website to track it.

The benefits?

You can see who is visiting your website, where they are coming from, how long they stay, what pages that view – and more.

Want to track your social media? You can even see that – see how much traffic your blog or Facebook is generating for you. You might be surprised to see more traffic coming from your Twitter account when you think it’s all from Facebook!

Research is where it is.

These are YOUR numbers – and numbers don’t lie. This is the backbone of any marketing campaign – the meat and potatoes. To see WHERE and WHAT is working for YOU!

What key words are users looking up in your industry? Are you using them on your site? Now you’ll know.

It should be the first step to any small business website. And now, you can view them on your mobile app! So you can see in real time just how well your website is performing while you are waiting for your dentist appointment!

Check out this article from Google themselves if you don’t believe me – http://analytics.blogspot.com/2012/06/measuring-mobile-world-introducing.html

Also it was the Social Media Examiner News of the Week – see their article here:

 

What in the World are Facebook Apps? Top Sites to Use.

What are Facebook Apps?

Those little pictures that now appear on your business page – yeah you can customize them! YAY!

I myself was having issues customizing Facebook Apps for my clients – at first all I could find was how to “develop” them within Facebook like a coding developer. Way too much work. And like the rest of us – who has the time (and patience!) to deal with that?? I just wanted my blog to have a link, and a nice little location for viewers to subscribe to newsletters!

So, thanks to one of my little tech women groups, Social Media Sisters, I asked them what they liked to use best to create them?? SOS!!!!

As always, Social Media Examiner became a hot tool for researching, and I looked into Amy Porterfield – who is a FACEBOOK GURU – and saw she had a great video that walks you through, as well as a few recommendations.

http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/facebook-apps-to-drive-facebook-timeline-engagement/

I started by using Lujure - which I recommend, however it is $30/month for unlimited apps, but I find it a small price to pay!

Other recommendations:

- Pagemodo
- Tabsite

 

Give all three a shot to see which one you may like best, different sites offer different functionalities. If you have a great recommendation – let us know too!

S.H.E. Summit Week Coming up June 18th-24th

Are you a savvy female in the technology industry like myself? Always looking for new events/conferences to attend and stay on top of your game? This one caught my eye that I came across in one of my tech groups.

See the summary/links below -

 

A new kind of event for women, S.H.E. Summit Week features 35+ grassroots, pop-up events designed to inspire you in work, life & everything in between! What’s your passion or curiosity? From entrepreneurship, networking, professional development to beauty, wellness, causes, art & film – the week gives you access to fabulous events and activities organized by women-led brands featured on ClaudiaChan.com and beyond! 35+ Events for only $79 – BUY NOW! Don’t wait…Space for each event is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.

 

What not to leave out of your will – social media accounts

I was intrigued to come across this post on why you should “leave” you social media accounts to someone when you kick the bucket.  Apparently with all the information they hold, they can be quite valuable – some appraising upwards of $50,000!

That’s something to (not) croak about!

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/what-not-to-forget-when-writing-your-will.html

Facebook Pages Manger App now Available!

Social Media Tip for the Day: Facebook now offers a PAGES management app! Horray! If you manage more than one page for your company, I highly suggest you download the app ASAP!

Read article here

Why Should You be Using Social Media?

This video explains it all. If you’re not using social media, you should.

 

Now how do you get started? Email me!

stephanie@socialmindedmediagroup.com

Does your Company PASS or FAIL? Test Your Social Media Response

We all know we WANT comments and interaction from our viewers/fans on social media, but how exactly to do respond to their comments? What if it’s a NEGATIVE response?

Social media response can be critical and damaging for a business especially when neglected. In light of the Susan G Komen response disaster, there are great lessons to be learned out there —Test your social media response:

#1 – Do you clearly have posted what your policies are and what is acceptable? Does your company have an internal social media policy that details what employees can or cannot comment or state opinion when representing your company? (If you don’t SMG actually WRITES and customizes social media policies, email me at stephanie@socialmindedmediagroup.com for more information).

#2 – TROLL  or RAGER Comments – Don’t “feed” them. If the comment is completely off the wall, a rant, ridiculous in nature and irrelevant, disgrard and DELETE.

#3 – UNHAPPY CUSTOMER or ON TOPIC Comments – Difficult to respond to usually because they may hurt your feelings, but you must remove all emotion and respond respectfully and thoughtfully. DO NOT DELETE. This will in light be a positive turn as your credibility will SOAR with the transparency. You will recover.

#4 – Unfortunately, you will take a small plumet. But YOU WILL RECOVER. Learn the lesson from Komen who deleted thousands of comments that were on-topic basically because they “didn’t want to hear it.” You don’t need me to explain to you how this was a sad, PR FAIL.

***Great model provided by Scribd.com (click image to view full site)

Facebook Timeline for Your Business – What you need to know

It’s like cilantro – you either love or hate the new timelines for Facebook. Regardless, prep yourself because everyone, including businesses will have the new timelines starting March 30th! I know, we all like to resist change and jump on the “hater” bandwagon, but Facebook really has added some cool new technology to its site, and as a business owner, you should be thrilled! Let me tell you why:

1. The cover photo. This is great for businesses as you potentially get a billboard for guests arriving on your page! (851×315 pixels) Get creative and design yours to attract the clients you want! (NOTE: Facebook does has some stipulations on what you can have in this photo):

*Cover photos cannot include:
A. Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or
“Download it at our website”.
B. Contact information such as a website address, email,
mailing address, or information that should go in your
Page’s “About” section.
C. References to Facebook features or actions, such as
“Like” or “Share” or an arrow pointing from the cover
photo to any of these features.
D. Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your
friends”.
Covers must not be false, deceptive or misleading, and must
not infringe on third parties’ intellectual property.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL PAGES PRODUCT GUIDE BY FACEBOOK

2. You can toggle between your personal page and your business page.
How many times have you tried to make a comment or post on your business page and it would only show as you yourself posting? It was one of my biggest pet peeves! But not anymore! Now you are able to toggle between pages, and even have personal “likes” versus “business likes” so you can keep everything separated (or combined if you choose) depending on your mood! (NOTE: Facebook doesn’t count “business likes” as “likes” on your own page, so if you are wondering why your numbers are increasing but you have pages “liking” you, this is why.)

3. Pinned Posts.
Now you are able to anchor stories to the top of your page for up to seven days. Say you have a big event coming up, or The New York Times covered your business in the paper – now you can anchor your story to show at the top post on your page for viewers for up to seven days.

4. Milestones. A cute new way to show your fans when you hit monumental strides in your business—reaching 40,000 fans, winning the Pulitzer Prize or winning the upcoming presidential election.

5. Interaction with Fans. Well guess what – you’re able to message fans again! YAYYYYYY! The new admin layout allows you to see your notifications to keep your post likes and comments in check, message fans and watch your insights, which means you can gauge your interaction on posts and use the data to analyze how best to connect with your fans (for us research addicts).

I am sure there will be more changes to come in the near future, but these little updates will help your business page thrive if used consistently! So get over your hissy fit on Facebook changes, and start using these to your advantage!

Surprising Social Media Traffic for January

They keep saying Pinterest is taking over – and here’s the proof! It’s already tied for 2nd place in average time spent on a social site in January. Impressive! Are you using your social sites accordingly?