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Everyone Is On Facebook

I met with a new client last week.  They were trying to decide whether to have a Facebook Business Page or not.

Their argument was “Everyone is on Facebook, so I guess we should be too.”  Guess what my next question was…

“Why?”

Facebook vs. LinkedIn For Business

Facebook is a very personal platform.  When you engage on Facebook, you need to speak to what’s important to them as individuals.  This was hard for the company to understand.  So I suggested a LinkedIn Company Page instead.

“We didn’t know LinkedIn had Company pages,” they responded.

LinkedIn has had Company pages for a few years now, but in 2012 they ramped them up to compete with Facebook Business Pages.

On a LinkedIn Company page you aren’t expected to connect as intimately with your followers as you are on Facebook.  It’s a great place to create business focused interactions and become a resource.

Even better, they’ve added Insight Reports that allow you to track your successes, traffic and to understand demographically who is following you.

LinkedIn Company Pages Insight Reports

There are two sets of reports Follower Insights and Page Insights.

On the Follower Insights page you’ll see:

• Total Followers.
• Total Impressions in the last 7 days (who has seen what you posted).
• How many updates you’ve provided in the last 7 days.
• Updates on engagement in the last 7 days.
• Follower demographics.
• And much more.

On the Page Insights page you’ll see:

• Number of pages viewed in the last 7 days.
• Number of unique visitors in the last 7 days.
• Number of page clicks.
• Page visitor demographics (different from follower demographics).
• And much more.

You can see how valuable this data is for a business.

Consider a LinkedIn Company Page

If you haven’t considered using a LinkedIn Company Page for your business, take a look at this option.  It may give you the interactivity you’ve been looking for as a compliment to your website without the Facebook minutia.

It’s a perfect option for businesses who want to connect with their potential buyers, use LinkedIn as a resource for referral sources, and generate leads from followers.

Are you hiring a social media manager?

Email me if you’d like a consultation on what to think about before, during and after the process.

The post LinkedIn Company Pages: Did You Know? appeared first on Life Simplified Learning Center.

Please note since this article was written, it has been rumored that Google Alerts may be going away in 2013.  Therefore we’ve added additional content at the end of the article of alternative resources.

What Are Google Alerts?

Google Alerts is a tool you can use to track if you or your company are being mentioned on the internet.  It doesn’t track social mentions, but it will track blogs, articles, news releases, etc.

How does this save you time?

If you are interested in what’s being said about you on the internet, this is a valuable tool because you don’t have to scour the internet for mentions.  It’s highly important when you are monitoring your business reputation online.  Depending on your settings, you can mentions as they are picked up by Google.

This allows you to respond in a timely manner to mentions, keeping you on top of things rather than finding out about them weeks later.

Other Tools like Google Alerts

There are other tools that allow you to track where you are mentioned on the internet and social media.  I’m currently exploring many of these to see how they save time.  As I learn more, I’ll share that with you.  In the mean time, you can check out this article with 5 Free Tools To Manage Your Online Reputation by socialmouths

Are you hiring a new social media manager, but aren’t really sure how to train them?

Email us for a 30 minute consultation to determine your needs.

The post Social Media Tip: Use Google Alerts appeared first on Life Simplified Learning Center.

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LinkedIn Insights

Did you know that LinkedIn Company pages have a boat load of Insight Reports you can take advantage of free if you have a LinkedIn Company page set up?

Let Us Help Decode the Numbers

Join us on May 7th from 3:00-3:30pm ET or May 24th from 10:30-11:00am ET and learn what the LinkedIn Insights reports measure, numbers to pay attention to, and how to use them for your business.

If you have a LinkedIn Company page or are thinking of starting one, this is an important webinar to attend.  It’s only 30 minutes and it’s free.  There’s nothing to lose in attending.  You’ll only gain important information to grow your business.

Share It

Here’s the best part.  Sign up for the webinar and you’ll receive all the slides and a recording of the session.  This way you can share it with others in your company responsible for managing your LinkedIn Page.  You don’t have to explain it.  Leave that to use.

Don’t Miss It

We’re only offering this webinar in May so you don’t want to miss it.  Sign up. Get the recording and listen to it over and over.  You won’t be sorry.

Register Here Today!

The post LinkedIn Insights Free Webinars Coming in May appeared first on Life Simplified Learning Center.

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Does reviewing your Facebook Insights feel like you’re on a roller coaster?  You’re happy when the numbers go up and depressed when the numbers go down.

Is that all your using your Facebook Insights for, mood swing?

These reports can help you develop a smart plan for your business if you use them for more than a daily jolt of adrenaline.  Below I’ve taken the 5 key numbers we’ve been talking about and given you some examples of how to use them.

Virality & People Talking About This

Virality and People Talking About This go hand in hand. Since virality is  a percentage of the other numbers, it gives you a true understanding of your most viral posts.  According to MozzillaWiki, good Virality scores are 1.5-2.0%.

People Talking About This will tell you what they are doing.  A Like is good.  A Comment is better.  A Share is like gold.

Engagement of your readers drives both of these numbers.  Virality shows you with which posts people engaged.  People Talking About This tells you what they did.  Notice what’s in common.  Are they photos, videos, or text?  What is the subject matter?  Can you tell what time of day you posted them?

Use these factors to post similar types of posts to increase your engagement.

Demographics

Looking beyond the demographics of your page, the demographics of your Reach and People Talking About This helps you understand the voice of your message.

For example, if the demographics of the people who like the page are split 50% male/50% female yet the people who are engaging are primarily female, think about using more examples pertinent to women.  When they read your post, they will feel more like you’re talking to them and want to share it with their friends.

Reach

As I said in the earlier article, Reach is how to attract new fans. Reach has always been important in marketing.  For example Billboards on the Mass Pike might reach 10,000 drivers whereas your local paper might reach only 2,000 subscribers.

What’s better about Facebook Reach is the people you’re reaching are somehow connected to your page or they wouldn’t see the content.  To drive this number again you want to think about engagement.  This goes back to what is popular and with whom.

External Referral Sources

Although not usually referenced, this is an important number to monitor.  It tells you where people are coming from.  If you have a Facebook icon on your page, but you aren’t getting any traffic from it, it’s not working.  Time to think of another strategy.

Review where outside of Facebook you’re driving people back to your page.  If you’re not seeing referrals from these sources, go back and start to make tweaks.  This will drive new interested traffic to your Facebook page.  Interested visitors become engaged Fans who down the road are your future customers.

What Are Your Next Steps?

1. Look at these numbers on a regular basis.
2. Determine small goals for each.
3. Review them in relation to your goal.
4. Notice trends.
5. Adjust your strategy accordingly.

If setting goals for all of these seems too daunting, start with one.  Once you feel comfortable, move onto another.

Review your numbers and trends so regularly they become as familiar as knowing your sales.  When used, they will help you develop a healthy pipeline of new customers.

Interested in our monthly webinars and workshops?  Sign up for regular updates.

The post Facebook Insights: What Do I Do With All Those Numbers? appeared first on Life Simplified Learning Center.

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Notifications Pop-Up, Blink and Buzz

If you’re trying to maximize your time on social media, having things pop-up, blink or buzz at you will not help.

Every time you are interrupted in a task, you naturally take recovery time or transition time between the two tasks.  If you want to maximize your time, you need to take control of those transition times.

The Blog That Almost Wasn’t

For example, let’s say you’re in the middle of writing a blog.  You have your email notifications on and you receive an email.  With out thinking, you glance over to the notification.  It triggers a thought that you need to send to that person.  You say to yourself, I’ll just send that quick email, then finish my blog.

By the time you send the email, you’ve lost track of what you are writing about.  It will take you a few minutes to get back in the swing of things.  Those are lost minutes not to mention the time it took to send the email.

Instead if you’ve set a time limit for your social media activity, as we’ve talked about, and turned off your notifications, you can smoothly complete your blog without interruption.  When you finish, you can check your email and respond accordingly.

Use Notifications Wisely

Notifications are good when you don’t want to forget something or waiting for something important.  Otherwise, they are merely a distraction.  Turn them off and focus.

The post Social Media Tip: Turn Off Notifications appeared first on Life Simplified Learning Center.

Now that we’ve defined some of the words used in Facebook Insights, it’s time to figure out what they mean.

There are 5 key numbers you want to focus on when you review your Insights reports.  You should be reviewing these numbers at least once a week and know how your page is trending.

Virality

Virality is a percentage calculated by dividing the number of people talking about the post with the number of people it reached.

This is important because it tells you exactly what posts were most popular with your fans.  By reviewing this number you get a better idea of what your fans want to talk about.

Demographics

There are three different demographic reports

First there are demographics of who Like the page.  This graph tells you about your fans.

Second there are demographics on the people you Reach.  This is important because it tells you about your potential audience.

Third there are demographics about the People Talking About your stuff (sharing, liking, commenting, etc.).  This tells you of your fans which segment are your advocates.

Reach

The Reach of your posts, tells you how many people have seen the page.  This is how far your message is spreading.  If you have 50 Fans and your Reach is 1,000 that tells you people are sharing your stuff with their friends.  This is one way your page grows.

People Talking About This

As I said above, these are your advocates.  Engagement is the life blood of your Facebook page.  When you look at the People Talking About This number it tells you how healthy your page is.  If it’s going down, stagnant or zero, you have a problem.

External Referral Sources

This number is found at the bottom of your Reach tab.  It tells you how people are being directed to your page from outside of Facebook.  If you have a Facebook button on your website, but no referrals here, you can estimate that your Facebook button isn’t doing anything on your website to attract people to your Facebook page.  You might want to change location, image, etc.

The other fact this number will tell you is if you are advertising or using public relations to grow your business, if you’ve mentioned Facebook are people coming over to your page from these sources.

A healthy consumer cycle has your future customers bouncing from your website, to your Facebook page, to your Twitter and back to your website for example.  If you don’t have external referrals, your potential customers aren’t bouncing around to check you out.

In the last article of this series we’ll talk about how to use these numbers to help grow your business.

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The post Five Important Facebook Insights Numbers – How to use Facebook Insights part two appeared first on Life Simplified Learning Center.

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Facebook Insights, Ugh

Every time I sit down with a client to go over how to use their Facebook Insights reports, I see their eyes glaze over.   There’s just so much information, most people don’t know where to start.  Who has time?

Facebook Insights Are Like Your Profit and Loss Statement

You’re Facebook Insights are like your monthly profit and loss statement.  They tell the story of what’s happening on your page.  It’s not just enough to look at how many followers you have.  You need to understand how engaged they are.  This is where your Insights reports come in handy.

Let’s start with some definitions:

• Like – someone who has chosen to follow your page and get your updates.  If you did a direct mail, these would be the people who put your postcard up on the refrigerator because they wanted to remember you.
• Reach – the number of people who had the opportunity to see your post.  Your post showed up in their newsfeed or tickler (the scrolling feature on the side of your page), and they were online to potentially see it.  Reach doesn’t equal read.  It means they had the opportunity to see it.  Again in traditional marketing, a billboard on the highway has a certain reach by the number of cars that usually travel that road.  It doesn’t mean people read it but they could.
• People Talking About This – the number of people who have engaged with the post.  To engage with the post they need to like it, comment, share, tag, respond to an event.  They need to take an action.  This is one of the most important numbers to pay attention to.
• Promote – the opportunity to pay a small fee to extend the reach of a post.  If your fans aren’t engaging (talking about) your post, your page might not be showing up as frequently.  When you promote a post, you reach people who haven’t engaged in a while, plus, if you choose, their friends.  Promoting is a great way to increase your visibility with people who already like your stuff.
• External Referrers – how people have found you and gotten to your page besides being in LinkedIn.  Usually this is from your website if you have a “follow me on Facebook” icon, etc.

Take a look at your Facebook Insight reports and start to get familiar with these terms.  Don’t spend hours doing so.  Instead plan 5-10 minutes to open this list and then look for these numbers on your Facebook Insights.

Next we’ll talk about how these numbers can help grow your business.

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The post How To Use Facebook Insights – Part One appeared first on Life Simplified Learning Center.

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Facebook Insights: Powerful Information At Your Finger Tips

Facebook provides you powerful information on your business page through the Facebook Insights metrics.  Are you tapping into it?

Most of my clients are overwhelmed by all the numbers so they shy away.

April is Facebook Insights Literacy Month

In April I’m focusing on Facebook Insights literacy.  If you have a social media strategy, but are only looking at your fan count, you don’t have an accurate idea of success.  The Facebook Insights help tell the full story.

I’m kicking off April with a short 30 minute live webinar, Understanding  Facebook Insights on April 9th from 3:00-3:30pm ET or April 24th from 12:00-12:30pm ET.

In addition I’m hosting an hour long webinar on April 30th on How to Build Facebook Engagement Strategy.  Engagement is the key factor to grow your business using social media.  We’ll tie this right back to the Facebook Insights metrics to measure success.

I’ll Simplify The Process

If you’ve been avoiding either the Facebook Insights reports because you’re overwhelmed, I’ll break them down for you, make them easy to understand and most importantly teach you how to use them to drive your business relationships.

Throughout April, May and June look for other workshops, blogs, and live webinars to learn more about not only the Facebook Insights reports, but LinkedIn and other strategy building secrets.

See you soon!

The post Facebook Insights Webinars Coming In April appeared first on Life Simplified Learning Center.

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Wasting Time Being Perfect

Being perfect in any area of your life can waste a lot of time.  I’m not saying legal documents or a doctor’s care shouldn’t be perfect.

What you can waste a lot of time on is perfecting minutia.

Social Media Isn’t About Being Perfect

Social media isn’t about being perfect.  It’s about being you.  It’s about expressing yourself.  It’s also a learning process.  If you’ve never been on a bike, you won’t be perfect the first time you try.  The same goes for social.

You should be respectful in your posts and you use common sense.  For example you don’t bad mouth your boss, use language you wouldn’t use in front of your customers or jump on Facebook or Twitter after a couple drinks.  You do have to think, but not over think.

Social Media Is A Learning Process

It might take you a little time to find your voice, learn the balance between information and entertainment, and how to effectively interact.

Give yourself a break.  Save time.  Don’t worry about being perfect.

Once you get rolling, you’ll wonder why you wasted so much time being perfect.  Instead you’ll enjoy the new relationships you are building personally and professionally.

The post Social Media Tip: Being Perfect Isn’t Required appeared first on Life Simplified Learning Center.

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Learning Lines

Have you ever acted?

It’s hard work.  You have to learn lines.  Figure out how the character would say them.  Not to mention sing, dance and move around.

What does this have to do with social media time management?

 Use Your Own Voice

When you try to talk in an inauthentic voice, it takes a lot more work.  Save time.  Use your own voice.

Class participants tell me they worry about what they will say.  They try to talk like the industry experts and fall flat.

Your audience wants to hear your voice so not only do you save time, but you make them happy too.

Use Your Own Voice – Naturally Save Time

Don’t waste your time and energy trying to be someone else.  Instead speak in your own voice.  Pretend you’re talking to your favorite customer.  The words will flow effortlessly.  Before you know it you’re done.

The post Social Media Tip: Use Your Own Voice appeared first on Life Simplified Learning Center.