So you’ve decided that Social Media Marketing fits into your marketing strategy. The next step is to create your profile on Facebook, Twitter, etc. (Please note we intentionally excluded MySpace.)

Setting up a profile may seem basic, the usual information, the general corporate message, blah blah blah.  But let’s look at the end game – enticing people to want to connect with you and your business. Your profile is your introduction or “how do you do,” and you only have seconds to make that first impression. Better catch their attention, or lose them forever! A word of warning, at set up, some of the options on Facebook  can lock you in to a status that might not be the right fit. Choose wisely, more on that later.

A General Tip

Use a profile image that looks good full size as well as when cropped smaller.

Why? Keep in mind that your posts will appear in a stream of information cluttered by posts from other people and organizations. You want to stands out from the noise.

Facebook will allow you to choose which part of your profile image is displayed in the smaller size image. If your image is complex, please please please take advantage of this feature.

Simply click on “Edit your Profile Picture” and choose “Edit Thumbnail”

Facebook

To set up a page for your organization, click on the link on Facebook’s home page labeled “Create a page for a Celebrity, Band, or Business.” This will walk you through the process of setting up a business page.

It seems basic, but it is surprising how many organizations set-up a personal profile and not a business page. Personal profiles are for people.  Pages are for Business, Rock Bands and Angelina Jolie. You might not think it is a big deal, but it is. See below if you are asking the question, “Why?” If you are a Business, starting out with a personal profile will be hard to fix later. Simplify your life and start out with the proper type of page.

Reasons Why a Page is the Way to Go

1. It is a direct violation of Facebook’s Statement of Rights and Responsibilities to use personal accounts to advertise or promote yourself professionally.  One day you may find that Facebook has deleted your profile and you’ve just lost all of that time and effort, not to mention friends.
2. People interact with pages in a different way than they interact with personal profiles. These differences will become more significant as your base of “fans” or people who “like” your page increases.
3. You will limit yourself from connecting with many users because of the security issues that arise if you create a profile instead of a page. See “More on Security Concerns” below.
4. There are significant differences in how your information is presented to other users. Take a look at the images above. They show the basic differences between a personal profile (left) and a business page (right). Check out the irrelevant and slightly humorous information in the personal profile on the left. The business page on the right is more relevant and professional.
5. With personal profiles, your friends will be able to post items on your wall. Your ability to manage what is posted on a personal profile is limited. Pages give you a lot more control.
6. If you use a personal profile, people will be able to “tag” you in photographs and thereby associate images with you that you cannot control.
7. People may be hesitant to connect with a personal profile vs. a page because of security concerns (more below).
8. Pages have access to Facebook’s “Insight” reports. These show you valuable demographic information about your fans. Personal profiles don’t.

More on Security Concerns

If you’re thinking of becoming a “friend” of an organization that has a personal profile rather that a page, consider this:

The unknown person at organization that is responsible for managing the profile will be able to view all of your posts as if they were one of your friends.

A business page administrator cannot view the personal content of fans. The administrator of a personal profile can see everything, even if your Facebook security options are set to “friends only.” As you post items to your profile keep in mind that some unknown person has access to absolutely everything you have on your personal profile.

Do you really want someone unknown person at the local newspaper (or any other business) looking at pictures you only intended to share with your family and friends?

Twitter

Getting started on Twitter is a lot easier than Facebook. Twitter doesn’t distinguish between business and personal accounts, so the process is the same for both.

Setting up Your Profile

Twitter only asks for four pieces of information from you in order to create your account:  Full Name, Username, Password and Email.  We told you it was easy!  But … there are a few things you should consider before you choose your “full name”, the name that will appear on your public profile and “username”, http://www.twitter.com/username.

Twitter’s search function isn’t as comprehensive as a search engine like Google. Twitter does not return search results based on the username (@StantonStreet). Instead, it searches what is entered as the “Full name.” This is why it is important to fill out the profile information completely and strategically. Consider how people will be search to find you.

The examples above show two profiles of local media outlets. You’ll notice that they both completed the Full Name field, but the one on the right didn’t consider that most people will probably search for “KVIA” instead of “ABC-7.”

Once the account has been created, you can also add information such as “Location,” “Web,” and “Bio”.  The more complete your profile is, the more credible you appear, increasing the potential that people will follow you.

Design Your Page

Twitter gives you a lot of flexibility when it comes to designing how our page will look. Be creative and make your page look as professional as possible. You can choose from one of Twitter’s pre-designed templates and just upload your logo, or completely customize the page to meet your needs.

How to be found Twitter:

• Following a link from your website
• Searching for your Full Name
• Searching for a word or hash tag that appears in one of your posts
• Seeing you on someone else’s follow list
• Seeing you as a follower on someone else’s list
• Seeing you mentioned by another user

All except the first three require that you already have some followers or are following others. Initially, most people will find you by clicking on a link on your website or by searching for your profile.

Click here for Part 3 – Consider the Timing!

or Part 4 – Pause Before You Post

Click below if you missed Part 1.

Social Media Tips – Part 1 – The Basics

Just in case you are still on the fence about Social Media Marketing, Google’s redesign gives you one more reason to go social!  Search Engine Journal’s article, “Why Google’s Redesign Could Be Good News for Social Marketers,” puts it simply, “It’s all about the real estate.”  And now, Social Marketing is getting its fair share on Google’s search results page in the form of Twitter/Buzz, Forums and Blogs.  Essentially, Google is giving their search engine users what they want, more Social.  Shouldn’t you do the same?

Read the Article

This is the first post in a series designed to give you helpful tips so you can effectively use social media for your organization.

Over the past few years we’ve watched social media develop, along with the varied ways people use the internet.  Most of all we’ve analyzed how social media affects organizations, corporations and small business. We’ve run several social media campaigns, and we’ve learned a lot of the ins and outs of how to make them successful.

This has allowed us to catalog social media best practices and as well as make a list of common mistakes.

The result is an evolving list of tips that we will share over the next few weeks.

The first part is very simple – The Basics. All of these are obvious, but you’d be surprised how frequently organizations don’t follow them.

Use proper spelling and good grammar

Despite the tendency of many social media users to abbreviate, misspell, and truncate, you must keep in mind that your brand reputation is impacted by how you appear in social media.

Consider the platform and your audience. Because of space limitations, it is more permissible to abbreviate on Twitter than it is on Facebook. Also, if your audience is typically not very formal, then it is OK to relax the standard a small amount.

Use absolute dates

Although both Facebook and Twitter display the date (and general time) when something was posted, it’s not always obvious.

Bad:

Better:

Best:

Don’t include your name in posts

When your post appears in the timeline of your friends, fans, or followers, it always has your name right next to it. Avoid duplicating your name by posting it in your message.

Bad:

Better:

On Facebook it is even permissible (and creative) to use your name as the beginning of a sentence:

Click on the link below for more tips!

Social Media Tips – Part 2 – Setting It Up

Social Media Tips – Part 3 – Consider the Timing

Social Media Tips – Part 4 – Pause Before You Post