3 Ways to Turn Your Facebook Page Into an Epic Sales Machine

I’m sure you’ve heard the tale of the “Elephant and the Blind Men.”  It’s a simple story of six blind men being led to an elephant and describing their encounters.

The first one touched the leg and said the elephant is pillar, the second touched his tail and said the elephant is a rope, the third the branch of a tree after touching his trunk, the fourth thought the elephant was a fan after feeling his ear … and you get the point.

Sometimes by focusing on one area of one thing or even being up too close, we’re not able to get the full picture. That means we’re missing something and often that something is a huge money-making opportunity.

That’s true even when it comes to your Facebook Page. 

So when thinking about ways to make your Facebook Page more effective, take a step back and consider the goals you have for your page.  Is to drive traffic to your website? Interact with current and potential customers?  Sell products directly from your Facebook Page? Or all of the above? 

Keep your goals in mind as you read the 3 tips below to help you increase engagement and generate more sales from your Facebook Page.

CONTENT:

Posting content on a consistent basis is key to keeping your audience engaged. While the life of a Facebook Post is longer than a tweet, it’s still important to post 2-3 times a day to stay in front of your audience.

Be sure to post photos and videos of your products, videos from happy customers, and pictures of you in action. It “opens the doors” of your business and gives your audience a look inside to learn more about you and how your business operates.

If you see posts that are receiving a large number of Likes, Shares, or Comments consider investing in promoting this content to further market it. Not everything you post will be well received, however of those posts that perform well, take note and invest to further the reach of this content.

KEEP TRACK:

Social marketing isn’t easy and it takes a lot of time. In order to understand what works well, be sure to track your efforts so you can constantly improve results, build a bigger audience, and drive more sales from your Facebook Page. ClearStats is a great service that allows you to see which posts generate the highest engagement (clicks, Likes for the post, and Likes for your page) and view stats to see how this engagement is turning into sales for your business.

You may also want to learn more about EdgeRank is Facebook’s algorithm that determines what is displayed and how high a post appears on a newsfeed.

EdgeRank takes into account three elements: Affinity, Weight, and Time Decay. An “Edge” is any action that takes place on Facebook including a comment, Like, Share, or status update.

• Affinity looks at things like how often a user has commented, Liked, or Shared a brand’s post.
• Weight looks at the types of interactions a user has had with you and places a value on those interactions. For instance, a comment carries more weight than a Like, so Facebook deems a comment as a more valuable interaction when weighing how a user has interacted with you or your brand.
• Time Decay, as the name suggests, looks at how long ago the action/Edge took place. An action could be a comment, Like, Share, or a status update.

INTERACTION:

It sounds so simple, but interact with your audience on Facebook. It’s not enough to simply post messages, photos, and videos to Facebook. Be sure to get involved in the conversation if your audience is commenting on a post or asking questions. Be genuine and work to connect with your audience.

Promotions, contests, and sweepstakes are a great way to increase engagement and drive more sales for your business. You can incorporate a viral component into your promotions, contests, and/or sweepstakes by asking your audience to Like or Share a post, or Like your Facebook Page, in order to participate.

Just because you’re linking to your website from a Facebook Page doesn’t mean you have to link to your homepage or even to a product page on your website. Set up a separate landing page for your website or a product and test various elements to see how it performs. As you learn what converts well from your social traffic, incorporate elements from these tests across your website. Try using a tool like Unbounce to easily create and test landing pages.

BONUS:

Include a call-to-action at the bottom of each post or in the right column of your blog to be seen by each visitor. Do you want this traffic to sign up for your email updates? Would you like for visitors to sign up for a trial? Perhaps a demo? Whatever the goal may be, make sure you're giving proper instructions on what to do next.

I hope these 3 tips (plus a bonus) help you increase engagement and drive more sales from your Facebook Page. I’d like to hear how you used them or please share if you have others that we can add to the list.

Why Your Personal Branding Strategy is Failing You - And How to Fix it in 20 Minutes!

How many times have you driven down the road depending solely on your GPS only to make a wrong turn. You’re immediately warned by the voice on the system that she is recalculating and that you need to go in a different direction.  

If your goal is to take your personal brand global, there are some things you should and shouldn’t be doing.   

You already know how important it is to build your brand equity.  But can you tell whether you’re doing a good job and taking the opportunity to strengthen your personal brand?  

So, what if you could gauge whether you should be going right, left, or making a complete U-Turn?

Building your brand equity is serious business and as you know, each time you interact with the outside world you have the opportunity to strengthen your personal brand. Of course, the reverse is also true—every interaction also presents an opportunity to undermine the brand you have worked so hard to build.

Below are five common mistakes and how they can be easily fixed in 20 minutes or less.

1. Not claiming your personal domain name.

Usually, I’m not one to “sweat the small stuff”.  This is the easiest error to fix, and far and away the most important.  Whether or not you actually set up a personal website now is irrelevant – you simply must lock down the domain! The $8 you pay each year to keep it in your possession will be well worth it. 

Your 20-minute fix: Search GoDaddy.com or similar domain search sites and lock down your domain.

2. Your brand lacks consistency. You finally have your blog and Twitter account up and running, but after a week of being consistent with creating content, you become too busy and eventually forget about your social media strategy. This is a huge flaw in personal brands because people forget about the key to a strong brand is consistency. Even if it’s a weekly or bi-weekly blog post or one tweet a day, never let your followers feel like you disappeared.

Your 20-minute fix: Create content in advance so that when life happens (and it will) you have content ready to post.

3. You lack credibility.  Is your claim to fame your expertise in advertising or leadership development? Then make sure everything about your brand reflects your profession. Your followers will expect you to talk about the latest news and advice about your industry. If you aren’t displaying your passion throughout your brand, no one will believe your expertise.

Your 20-minute fix: Repost content from other experts in your field of expertise and add in your two cents! This method doesn’t take as long as creating new content but by borrowing from someone else’s credibility - you can still add to your own.

4. You don’t provide something unique. The purpose of building your personal brand is to market what makes you a unique from others in your profession or field of expertise. It’s important to find something which sets you apart from the other people in your field. If your brand is blending in with the rest of the professionals in your field, then it’s not strong enough.  So if marketing is your field of expertise but you also have a strong passion for horses, you may want to factor that unique interest into your brand.

Your 20-minute fix:  Be sure to center your brand on something that makes you unique and try to connect with people of similar interests.

5. There is a lack of trust in your brand

The Selly Sell Selly Pitch. I love this term from Chris Brogan, when he is about to talk about a product or service he is pushing or an affiliate link. He used “Selly selly selling coming right up” recently to warn me of a sales pitch in the next paragraph of his email, and invited me to read no further if I had no interest, or to even delete the email.  What worked here? Trust. When you trust a personal brand, you will always forgive a sales pitch thrown in – a small percentage of the time!

Your 20-minute fix:  A sure way to not come across as selly sell in your email marketing, social media and social networking, is to borrow from the Pareto Principle of 80/20 – provide quality, help, assistance and conversation 80% of the time, sell only 20% of the time.

What are your personal branding fails?

If The Social Media Platform Fits….

I once over heard an 8-year-old boy shopping for shoes with his mom.  When the salesman came out with a bright blue pair of running shoes in his size, he looked up at him and asked, “are they fast?”

Choosing the social media platform that’s best for you is almost like deciding on a pair of athletic shoes. Before making a purchase we have to decide whether they’ll be used for walking, running, or maybe they’re for a particular sport or activity like tennis or hiking.  If we’re trying a new sport, we might get the most basic sneaker, but as we get better and more competitive we know it’s time to look for something that will take us to the next level.

But no matter what we decide the no name brand or the top of the line, it isn’t so much the shoes that our feet in but what we do with them once we’re wearing them. 

In the fifth annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report from Michael Stelzner and Social Media Examiner, more than 3000 marketers reveal where they focus their social media activities, how much time they invest, what the rewards are and where they’ll plan their future efforts.

What social tactics are most effective?

Of all the questions answered by this report, identifying the most effective social media marketing tactics was the most important to respondents. In fact 90% of respondents wanted to know the top platforms used by marketers.

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogging and YouTube were the top 5 platforms used by marketers in the survey.

When answering this very important and popular question, there are a few important considerations.

Don’t fall for a simple list of the most popular social media platforms since what works for another company or brand may not work for yours. At the same time, don’t think that you have to conduct an exhaustive research project into which social platforms your customers are on before making any kind of social media marketing commitment.

The following three steps will get you started:

• Make sure you’ve clearly identified business goals and outcomes you can measure as a result of a successful social media effort.
• Think about your customers’ goals and how a social presence for your brand will help make them happen.
• Make sure you have a hub, whether it’s a blog or a social aggregator for your brand.

Your actual social media mix should be driven by what kind of social content and experiences will connect customers with your brand.

You can cross post content from your blog and any other relevant content on the web to the top 4-5 social networks: Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIn and either Pinterest or YouTube. 

This strategy works regardless if you’re B2B (Business To Business) or B2C (Business To Customer).

The most important thing is that you lace up your running shoes and enter the race!

President Barak Obama, Tracey Edmonds and Social Media By The Numbers

In 2008, the Obama Presidential Campaign made history in more ways than one. Not only was he the first African American to be elected president, he also was the first presidential candidate to shrewdly use social media as part of his campaign strategy.

Back then, using Twitter and Facebook was thinking outside of the box. By 2012, there were lots more media tools and Pew Research showed that 66 percent of social media users actively engaged in political activism on line.

Even though Mitt Romney’s campaign was on the media bandwagon too, it’s been said that just as JFK was the first President to really understand TV, President Obama was the first social media president.

Award-winning TV Film Producer Tracey Edmonds credits Twitter for her new YouTube channel.   “Alright TV was born from my social media network, and the daily exchange of positive, inspiring and uplifting messages that I have through my social network.”  She says she launched the channel with over half a million views online.

How are you using social media to launch your dream?

Are you wondering how your peers are using social media?

 

Wondering if you should focus on Pinterest or podcasting, or put more effort into Facebook?

In the fifth annual Social Media Marketing Industry Report from Michael Stelzner and Social Media Examiner, more than 3000 marketers reveal where they focus their social media activities, how much time they invest, what the rewards are and where they’ll plan their future efforts.

What if you could tap into the minds of 3,000 marketers to find out where they stand when it comes to social media marketing? How valuable would it be to know how your peers are handing the time commitments, social media platforms and measurement?

A few of this year’s social media statistics:

• 86% of marketers say social media is important for their business
• 69% plan to increase their use of YouTube
• 58% of marketers are blogging and 62% will increase blogging in 2013
• 49% picked Facebook as the single most important social network
• 89% of marketers state that increased exposure was the most important benefit of social media marketing

From the most popular forms of social media marketing to measurement, to integration with other digital marketing tactics, this year’s report offers answers and also asks more questions.

I’ll explore an additional 5 questions that marketers want answered in a series of future blog posts.

But first I’d like to know – what questions would you like to ask those who have been successful at social media marketing?

MYSPACE: Don't Call It A Comeback ...

Someone once said it’s not who does it first, it’s who does it better is what really counts.

Back in 2003 when crime drama the Wire was a primetime hit and the Hokey Pokey Elmo was hot, social media was invented in the form of MySpace. Myspace wasn’t really the first, there was also Friendster, Xanga and Beboe, but come on.

The appeal of My Space, “ A Place for Friends,” was that it gave users a sense of ownership.  From 2005 to 2006, user profiles on MySpace jumped from 2 million to 80 million.  They were untouchable, it seemed. But plagued by security issues and Facebook on its heels, the rest is history.  In the words of a 2011 CNN article, Facebook kicked Myspace into relative obscurity.

Myspace owners Tim and Chris Vanderhook hope to change all of that with last week’s re-launch of the site.  This time around, they say MySpace will cater more to the creative community combining social networking with streaming music.

So what’s so new about it?

• Gone is the unruly stream of “add” messages replaced instead by a photo-centric layout that echoes the pinboard feel of Pinterest.
• Along the bottom: a user-friendly music player that ostensibly links the old site, once used by scores of artists as a music sampling hub, to the new.
• Via the My Radio option, Myspace users can access 53 million songs through the player, which  the company claims delivers faster streaming and intuitive drag-and-drop functionality for a superior music experience

I don’t doubt that the technology will be on point. I just wonder whether for some it will be like going back to an ex.  Most people have a  “been there, done that,” attitude and may not even want to give the new MySpace a chance.

But if you’re going to be successful in the social media game, don’t turn your back on anything new.  Even if you don’t decide to sign up for it, make knowing about the latest technology your business.

   

Depending on what you’re trying to accomplish with your message, product or service, MySpace may be the perfect tool.

If MySpace is a success it will be one of the biggest comeback stories in history, but if it fails, there’s a lesson there too.   None of us in business can afford to rest on our laurels or assume we’ll be on top forever. 

The more you expose yourself to new and different platforms the more chances you have to discover what you need for taking your Global Visibility to the next level.

A Special Message For the Fathers Who Earned the Title

Father’s Day is Sunday, and the jokes, dissing, and pity party for dads who aren’t expecting anything from their kids and spouses have already begun. Well, let me say for the record, I’m not wit’ them. I look forward, not only to honoring my daddy and all the millions of good ones like him, but to use this forum to tell the haters it’s time to stop.

I am a huge Daddy’s Girl and I’m not ashamed to admit it. Always have been and always will be. He is my hero; larger than life to me and still what I want to be when I grow up. He was my first love and has set a very high standard for every man that has followed.

That’s not to say that I don’t recognize his weaknesses as well. I do. But this blog isn’t the place for that.

I could probably expound upon on all of his exemplary qualities for much longer than I care to write or much longer than you care to read. So I’ll cut to the chase.

The fondest memories I have of my father are centered around baseball and beer – the crack of the bat, the muffled sound of the ball hitting the glove, the laughter, cheers and good-natured bickering all set to the backdrop of the smell and sounds of the Budweiser Brewery are as vivid now as they were when I was ten. Best of all, it was usually just him and me and I basked in my father’s love.

Yes, my daddy set the bar high when setting the example of how I should expect a man to treat me.
So high in fact, the men in my life have had to take a running start and a flying leap just to get close to reaching it. It’s a blessing – and sometimes, I’m beginning to think, a curse – to have lived in a home with a father who did everything he was supposed to do and then some. A blessing for the obvious reasons; I always felt safe and secure. I always had everything I needed. I had his love and attention and didn’t have go out seeking it from other “father figures” I see women going after.

The downside is kind of obvious too. I thought that finding a man that did all the things my daddy did would be easy..

I’m not by myself. I’ve talked to a lot of women who had extremely high expectations from their husbands and children’s fathers based on their own experiences. They didn’t realize that a lot of what their fathers were had plenty to do with the women who was by their side helping them, loving them and supporting them along the way.

Thank you, Mama.

So if your man isn’t the man you think he should be, or your daddy wasn’t the daddy you thought he should have been, it could have been that you or the woman in his life wasn’t willing or able to give him what he needed to become the best man he could be. Not trying to ruin the mood of this blog, but I’m just saying …

And since I’m using this space to salute the fathers who always found a way to dig deep and put their families first, I’m going to do something that is against the TJMS rules. I’m going to shout out some of the daddies who have made a difference in my life:

Uncle Harold, whose nickname was Moose and whenever he wanted to talk to you, would invite you to step into his “office;”

Uncle Patrick, who is one of the most selfless, caring and kind men I know. Love him so much I named my oldest son after him.

My Grandpa – who didn’t have much more than a third grade education, but seemed like the smartest man in the world.

My Grandpops – who answered every letter I wrote. I received his last letter on a Friday night. The next morning we got the news that he died. I still have the letter.
To all the Hinsdale Court fathers for stepping in and being surrogate daddies, whether us kids liked it or not.

My boss – Tom Joyner – who created a legacy for his children and talks about his sons with such pride that you can’t help but be proud to be a small part of what he’s created.

J. Anthony Brown – for always putting the humor in child rearing, like hanging up on moms whenever he hears their kids in the background.

Willis – for always working to be a better man and a better father.

Bill Cosby and “The Cosby Show” reruns for showing a lot of men and women who grew up without daddy figures what to shoot for and for reminding us NOT to give daddy ugly sweater.

Roland Martin for stepping up and raising his six, count em, six nieces.  He definitely has earned the name “Uncle Ro Ro.”

President Barack Obama for showing the world a beautiful portrait of a black husband and father.
And finally to my Daddy – for being all of the above and then some. In Sade’s “Baby Father,” she says, “Oh child, don’t you know your daddy love come with a life time guarantee?”

So, whether you have daily daddy duty or give 100-percent the 50 percent of the time you have access to your children, you are to be commended for giving your children something no on in the world can give them or take way: Their Daddy’s love. And I wish for all the children to truly feel their Daddy’s love.


Happy Father’s Day!

Students, Job Seekers and Social Media Guidelines!

I found this awesome social media graphic about the role of social media in managing educational and professional relationships.

Fav tip: Never post work complaints online.

Compiled By: OnlineDegrees.org