Facebook Events is an application that lets you schedule your business events from a Fan Page and invite friends and fans to attend. Events can be “Public” in which case anyone can RSVP and attend or “Private”, which only allows invited guests to RSVP. Either way this app is a great way to help get the word out about your next event! Thanks to Becky O’Brien of Optimal Wellness for helping me test the process!
Add an event from your Fan Page
Sign in to Facebook and go to your Fan Page. One of the tabs should be “Events”. If you don’t see an Events tab click on the “>>” tab or the “+” to see more options, “Events” may be there if you have other tabs. Your Events tab will show and at the top right is a button to “Create Event”. This will bring up a page to enter your event information.
After you fill in the event information it’s time to invite people. Realize that the people that you are able to invite are “Friends” from your Personal Profile, not Fans. You might want to filter and select from that list or choose not to invite people at this point if it is a business event. You can always post and share from your Fan Page after creating the event. Don’t forget to add an image to your event so that you don’t get the standard event picture! When you create the event it builds and event page that allows people to post comments and see who else has been invited and who has accepted, if you click on the boxes to allow those things.
When you are done entering the event information, click the button to “Create Event”. This will bring up your new event page. From here you can invite more Friends (once again from your Personal Profile) using the link on the left under the picture. At the top there is a link to edit the page if you need to make changes and…..
Update Your Fans!
Clicking the link to update your fans will bring up an update box for your event that lets you invite your friends to the event. You have the capability to do some filtering on your list by region, gender and age. Add a subject and message then click send. Your friends will see the invitation in their news feed and have the opportunity to comment, share and RSVP directly from the post.
You can send additional updates as your event approaches. You might want to consider planning this out and using additional updates to announce speakers, VIP guests that have accepted the invitation, door prizes that have been contributed or other special news relative to the event.
Sharing Events
The best thing about social media is the ability to quickly share information. This is true of Facebook Events as well. When you see events posting to your News Feed from your network, click on the share button to send to your friends if you think they may benefit. When posting and updating your events, encourage your fans to share with their friends!
Please comment with any additional tips or lessons learned while using the Facebook Events Application.
This scene from the movie classic Raising Arizona reminds me of a conversation between a Social Media expert and the typical small business person!
“Well you’re on Facebook, right? You’re not on Facebook, you don’t have a page? And what about Twitter, well you just have to be tweeting…and blogging, are you using WordPress, Blogspot, what, you aren’t blogging? And make sure you use Hootsuite, or Tweetdeck or you won’t have any idea what is going on!”
I often catch myself doing it with my students and clients, and then slow down when I see the eyes glaze. Because of the value of social media and the ease of linking things together and sharing, it is difficult to talk about only one media at a time. For those who are overwhelmed and panicked, here are some tips for fitting social media to you. Make sure to leave a coment with your biggest challenge in social networking!
Some is better than none! Start with one application and build as you get comfortable. What you start with depends on the business and objectives. I like to get professional services people up on LinkedIn first and then get them blogging before digging into Facebook and Twitter. For retail I might focus on Foursquare first, followed by Facebook and Twitter.
Learn to Subscribe and Comment. Find blogs to subscribe to, people to follow on twitter and Facebook Fan pages to “Like”. Track those with experience and see how they do it. Write comments, respond to questions and ask them questions about their sites. It’s a great way to learn and an easy way to start getting your name out there.
Carve out an hour a day. Most social media is free, but if it’s a significant part of your marketing plan you have to put in the time. At first you will spend the hour learning more than posting, but as you get more comfortable and experienced the hour will become more and more productive. To start try spending 20 minutes learning more about social media, 20 minutes reading and commenting on other peoples posts and 20 minutes on your posts – thinking through what and when you will post throughout the day.
Read a good book on Social Media. I recommend the book Trust Agents because it focuses more on the philosophy and strategy of social media than how to use any specific tool. What you really need to understand is how you can add value to the network you are trying to build. For the “how-to’s”, there are a ton of step-by-step blogs out there.
Slow and steady wins the Race. Listen, you may go a couple days and not have time to post anything. It’s ok to jump back in! Even if you can only spend 30 minutes every other day, it’s better than nothing and you will see some results. Just like most other types of marketing, a little every day is better than a marketing dump every two weeks.
Don’t try to solve world hunger in your first week of social media! You will become quickly overwhelmed and likely stop after a couple weeks. Instead, pick one media app and go with it, focusing on establishing a routine and setting aside the time. You will get people telling you about a ton of other tools that are out there. Write them down for reference but make the time and get comfortable with the first thing before taking on the second and third.
It won’t be long until you shift from finding the time to network online to forcing yourself to stop so you can get some work done!
What’s your biggest challenge to social networking?
As part of my networking routine I join the email lists of new contacts. Yes it tends to fill the inbox, but more importantly it gives me something that I can forward as a referral for the people that I network with – it’s just easier for me. I’m not an email expert by any stretch, but I’ve seen, heard and read enough to identify some of the most common mistakes. Feel free to join my mailing list and hold me accountable to my own advice! Join Sigma College Email List
Make the Subject a Headline – I’m constantly reminded by my friend Scot Small at RevBuilders – “Unless you are Coke, your logo means nothing – you need a good, prominent headline”. The point is that people don’t notice our names and logos (yet), they notice and open good headlines. Search WordPress blogs for articles on writing subject lines for a ton of great articles.
Be Consistent and Patient – It may take months for people to start consistently opening your emails and discovering the value that lies within. For about 4 months after I started email marketing I heard nothing and open rates were sporadic. Eventually, after consistently emailing over a period of months, people began recognizing me by my brand and thanking me for sending out my class schedules and other information. Open rates steadied and I was able to start some A-B testing to refine. So, don’t give up!
Content that Adds Value – Keep the content relevant and to the point. My weekly email is simply a list of upcoming classes. You may have articles to publish or events to announce, but my recommendation is that you include a headline and excerpt, or the basic facts and then use a “read more” link to your web site (you may prefer a “call this number” action). This does two things – gets them to your web site (or calling) which is likely the reason you send an email, and puts more content on your web site for better search engine optimization. Most importantly, after time, your readers will know they can sift through the headlines and pick what they want to read very quickly, rather than paging through an 800 word email to find that nugget.
Create an Opt-in Email List – It took me some time to grasp the value of an opt-in email list. This is a list that you build through people joining online or giving you specific permission to add their name. Collecting business cards and adding everyone results in lower open rates, high “unsubscribes” and even some spam reports. Now sometimes there are reasons to do mass campaigns using purchased opt-in lists, but most small, local businesses should stick to a list that will help you build relationships and not alienate people.
Email marketing is a great marketing tool, especially when combined with other things. But, a campaign that is done poorly and forced on an unwilling audience can actually hurt your business. Make sure you continue to review, test and improve your email strategy!
Yesterday, my friend Becky O’Brien from Optimal Wellness recommended that I write something about why a small business owner, even an independent distributor should use social media. To keep it simple I’ll focus on Facebook, but the same general principles apply across applications with some unique benefits for each.
Customers are using Facebook and don’t seem to mind brief, useful posts from businesses they “like” – this sets up for you to have multiple touch points with a lot of customers and potential customers every day. Social Media is still a “passive” media where people understand a little promotion and it’s acceptable if it’s kept short and there is value mixed in. But, don’t get greedy by overdoing it.
Businesses like “word-of-mouth” business and Facebook is “word-of-mouth” times 100 – Let’s say your average fan has 100 friends and that you have 200 fans, not a bad start for a small, local business. If even 2 fans share one of your posts you have the potential to hit 400 people with your post! Build up your fans and you can see how quickly that number could jump. Oh, and these are word-of-mouth referrals FROM people who have chosen to “like” you, TO people who have chosen to be their friend!
Facebook advertising can be tightly targeted to a specific audience – I get Facebook advertising targeted to Naval Academy Graduates because it is in my profile. You can target by location, age, sex, relationship status….. That means if I sell wedding dresses I can target engaged women, ages 18-30 and filter out those who are already fans. That’s tight!
Facebook is warming up to business more each day, and I highly recommend jumping on the band wagon before business dominates and people start looking for less commercial alternatives. If you are just getting started remember to be consistent without being overbearing, spread posts throughout the day and week and add posts with value that are worth reading and sharing.
I’ll close with a link to a simple example of how my sharing on Foursquare, combined with Facebook to create awareness for a local small business. The post is
A couple weeks ago, I finally purchased my new Droid phone. This led to an increased frequency in my Foursquare posts – the posts you see on Facebook and Twitter stating that someone has just “checked-in”. Now that my friends and followers are seeing these posts I’m getting more questions about Foursquare, so I decided to shed some light for those that are in the dark on this unique social media application.
It’s Good for Businesses
Quite frankly, if it didn’t show some value for my small business customers, I wouldn’t be so enthusiastic about Foursquare. It’s good for business because it has the potential to send out your brand from a trusted source to hundreds of people every time a customer enters with a cell phone!
Here’s How it Works
Let’s say I am sitting at the Sigma College of Small Business offices in Haymarket, VA and decide that I need a cup of coffee and something sweet. I walk across the parking lot to Cupcake Heaven. While I wait for my tall decaf coffee and afternoon treat, I turn on my Droid, open the Foursquare app, select Cupcake Heaven from the list of nearby venues, add a note about how great the service is and “check-in”. This automatically sends a post to my Facebook and Twitter accounts and all my friends and followers see my comment and that I am at Cupcake Heaven.
So, do the math. If 5 customers like me walk into the store and each of us has 200 friends and followers, the name of that store is promoted to 1,000 people that day. Cost and effort to the store – ZERO!
Why Would a Customer Check In?
Just read your Facebook posts. I get posts from people when they wake-up, go to bed, eat, stub their toe, etc… So people will check-in just to be social. However, Foursquare offers tools for businesses to encourage customers to check-in. As the manager of Sigma College of Small Business I “claimed” my venue and can now offer specific promotions to people who check-in. Promotions can be based on number of check-ins or given to those who check-in the most – The Mayor. That’s right, if you are the person who has checked in to an establishment the most, you are given the title of Mayor, which is announced to all your friends and followers. People will definitely check-in for free stuff and a title!
There’s More!
As the registered owner of your venue, you have the capability to see who is checking in at your place and how often they are checking in – a great way to keep tabs on some of your most loyal and vocal customers. If you are a retailer or restaurant and not using this free tool, you need to put it on your list of things to check out. I’m still researching all the benefits, but this one seems to be a no-brainer, just set it up and let your customers promote your business! Did I mention FREE?
Subscribe! Part 1 covered the importance of getting interesting blog content brought to you in a convenient, efficient manner. Part 2 is a bit more hand’s on in showing you how to actually subscribe.
Decide where you want to see blog content
A great thing about RSS is that there are multiple ways to manage content. You can set it up in your web browser, through email or even feed it to your personal or business home page. I actually have some feeds that come up in my iGoogle home page, some that feed to a tab in Internet Explorer and some that go to an email folder in Outlook.
To determine which tool to use for feeding content you should ask yourself, “Do I want to see this post immediately, or have as a reference for later” The posts I want to see immediately, the timely information I want to comment on, are fed to my iGoogle personal page through Google Reader. Those I use for reference to search later feed to my browser or an email folder, and some feed to multiple places.
Don’t forget that following and commenting on other people’s blogs is an important part of social networking. It is how you listen and interact in the discussion, building trust and credibility with each thought and comment.
For step-by-step on three basic RSS feed techniques, click the links below. If you have any questions, suggestions or run into problems, drop me a comment. Although the directions are specific to an application, most similar apps have the same functionality.
Google Reader is a great little tool that helps aggregate the blogs you are tracking to your Google account. The reason I like it is that I have an iGoogle “portal” page (a page that I can personalize with info I want to see) and there is a “Gadget” that puts my feeds right onto my personal home page, the one that I see first every time I open Internet Explorer. This is what I use for those blogs I want to see and review quickly and then comment, especially on blogs related to educating small business owners.
1. Sign into your Google Account. If you don’t have a Google account:
Click “Create an Account Now” under the Sign in box
Follow instructions for setting up an account
Click on Settings in the upper right to add new Google apps
2. In the upper right of your Google page click on the “Settings” drop-down and select “Google Account Settings”. You can do a lot here to personalize your page and account.
3. If “Reader” isn’t listed under “My Products”, go to the “Try Something New” section and click on “More”
4. Under the “Communicate, show & share” section, click on “Reader”. This will place Reader into the “My Products” section where you can open and start using.
Open Google Reader by clicking the link
5. Open Reader by clicking on the link and you should see your Google Reader Page
Now it’s time to add a subscription.
Go to www.SigmaBizBlog.com or another blog you want to feed
1. Go to www.SigmaBizBlog.com or another blog that you would like to track. Select and copy the web address, or url for the blog. (you can also just type this in to the subscription box when the time comes if you know it)
Click on the "Add Subscription" Button
2. In Google Reader click on the “Add a subscription” button at the upper left, paste or type the url into the box that drops down and click “Add”.
3. You should now see your new subscription in the subscription box on the left and the latest blog post in the reader box.
Click on the Subscription to see the latest posts from that source.
Add the Google Reader Gadget to Your iGoogle Home Page
Click on "iGoogle" at the top right to open your iGoogle page
1. Go to www.Google.com and sign in if you aren’t already. This should open your iGoogle page (if it doesn’t, click on the “iGoogle” link in the upper right) and you should see something like this. Each of the little blocks is called a gadget and you can customize which gadgets you want on you page.
Click on the "Add Stuff" link in the upper right to get new gadgets!
2. In the upper right click on the link for “Add stuff”. In the search area type in “reader” and search. This will show you the Google Reader gadget and clicking “Add It Now” will put it on your iGoogle home page.
Search for "Reader" to find the Reader Gadget and "Add it Now"
3. Now, when you go to Google.com, your subscriptions will show up for a quick review. If you click on the title a preview window pops up so you can take a quick look without even leaving the page.
Although I walked through the Google method for putting subscriptions on your home page, most other portal sites that let you customize a home page will have similar functionality.
In Subscribe! Part 1 I talked about the importance of tracking and commenting on relevant blogs and news feeds to building your online presence. Internet Explorer and other browsers have the capability to help you manage your RSS feeds and this post will walk through how to send news and current blog posts to the “Feeds” tab in Internet Explorer 8. Other browsers should have similar functionality.
If you are someone who routinely uses the “favorites” functionality in IE to manage the web sites you visit frequently, then this may be the best place to track important RSS Feeds that you want to comment on immediately. I don’t routinely use the favorites part of IE so I use this method for sites that don’t update often, or for sites that I want to track for reference when I’m developing business curriculum. Remember, in social networking it is important to follow and comment, so keep your “high interest” content where you will see it often through your normal work routine.
1. Go to SigmaBizBlog.com or another blog or news site that you want to subscribe to.
Click on the RSS Icon in the upper right of the IE window
2. In the upper right of the window, in the menu area is the little orange RSS icon. If the icon isn’t orange, either you are already subscribed or the site doesn’t have RSS capability. Click on the RSS button and a “feed” page will load.
3. Click on “Subscribe to this feed” and then “Subscribe” in the window that pops up. The subscription will be placed in the “Feed” Tab in Favorites.
Access your saved RSS feed through the Favorite window on the Feeds Tab
4. To see your feeds, click the “Favorites” button in the upper left of the window and then the “Feeds” Tab.
5. Click on the subscription to see the latest post!
Remember that a big part of building credible online relationships is to listen and comment on the thoughts of others. Subscribing to interesting blogs with RSS, reading them and consistently commenting is a great way to be part of the discussion!
Another great week of weather and business. If you are willing to listen and reflect there are always oppotunities to learn.
Who Cares?
A great tip came from Asha Sedalia Bruot of ASHA Public Relations during a MAPS committee meeting this week. When preparing to write your next press release, ask yourself “Who Cares?”. Her point was that choosing the right audience is a must in deciding what to write, how to write and which media channels might be interested. The upcoming MAPS (Marketing, Advertising and Public Relations Strategies) Conference on September 22nd will be focused on developing a good public relations strategy – more to come!
“Customer Service” should always be top of mind
Kris Johnson of the PWCGM Chamber shared a story at Friday’s MB3 breakfast that we can all probably relate to. She was calling a relatively new member to offer a sponsorship opportunity and was deep into her explanation of the benefits of this particular sponsorship. The member gently interrupted and jokingly said, “Oh, you’re calling to sell a sponsorship, I thought you were calling to thank me for membership and see if all is well”. Knowing Kris and her record of customer service, she surely recovered and impressed by the end of the call. Her point was that we can all learn much more about customer service Wednesday at the Insight Series Luncheon “Customer Service” , with guest speaker Bobbie Walker, Partnership Marketing Education Director for Virginia Tourism Corporation, but this was a quick reminder for me. Everyone says that repeat business is the most profitable, but make sure you have successfully delivered on the previous sale before launching into the next!
Gas Mileage, Gravity and Centrifugal Force
I learned this week that a late model Toyota Avalon can go from Warrenton, VA to the PWCGM office in Manassas, then to the Western Chamber Office in Gainesville and finally to the Sheetz in Haymarket with the orange gas light on. In further news, on that same day I learned that a well placed gas cap wedged between the rear windshield and the trunk will last against wind and centrifugal force from the Sheetz in Haymarket to Warrenton and that 2 of 5 people on the road will take the time to slow down and try to point that out to a motorist on a cell phone. And for those kind people – Ok, ok, I know now what you were trying to tell me! Thank-you!
Happy Birthday and Happy Anniversary to my little sis Kristy MacIntyre and her husband Jamie at MacIntyre Engineering! Congratulations to the “Rev Man”, Scot Small of RevBuilders who hosted a wonderful Grand Opening at his new office in Gainesville this week. I heard that Chow Now was featured in an article in an upcoming Flavor Magazine – looking forward to reading that. My daughter Jessica Gorman finished a summer semester of classes in France this week, with flying colors I’m sure. Way to go Jess! And finally, a big Sigma Shout Out to all the recent graduates of Leadership Prince William “Third is Superb” class. I hear nothing but great things about this program and they are currently recruiting for the next session. Congratulations!
In our Network@Noon at the Western Office of PWC-GM Chamber discussion this week the topic was “RSS”. For those who don’t know, RSS or “Really Simple Syndication” is an easy way for anyone to syndicate their online content. Just like syndicating a radio show, syndicating a blog or other online content means that many others can subscribe to the content. So it really is just a method for distributing, receiving and managing online content.
When a web page is designed there is code that allows the page to be syndicated so that others can subscribe to the page or site. As a subscriber they can now receive updates in a number of ways – email, browser, social media and through special “reader” apps. There is nothing else required really, any time the site is updated it automatically “feeds” to you so you can read it, and then comment. There is of course a few technical details I’m leaving out, but you probably don’t really care about them.
Here’s why RSS is important
Let’s say I’m interested in 5 different news sites and 10 blogs for my industry. The news sites post daily and the blogs post new content twice a week on average. Without a subscription service I would have to go to all 15 sites independently to see the latest posts, and most of the blog visits will be a waste of time because they only post twice a week. Now, let’s say I subscribe to all 15 sites and have them feed new content to my web browser. Each time there is an update to one of these sites it will show up in the “RSS Feeds” area of my browser. Instead of going to 15 sites, most of which have no updates, I can now see and read all the updates in one place without actually visiting the independent sites. More importantly, you’re audience can subscribe and be notified every time you update!
Every expert in social media will tell you that it is important to interact with your online network. One critical part of this is to comment on the blogs of those people in your network. Using a subscription service let’s you track a large number of blogs and easily monitor topics that you want to comment on. In fact, even if you just have a web site and haven’t done anything else with social media, commenting on blogs is an easy entry point. Pick a few blogs in your industry, among your friends, vendors that you use, and even your personal interests. Subscribe to these blogs and then set aside a little time each week to monitor and comment. The “bloggers” will be encouraged and you will start to build trust and credibility with your online network, before you even get into your own blogging, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn efforts.
August 23, 2010 | Posted by Jamie Gorman 
Categories: Business Networking, Business Topics, Marketing and Sales, Online Marketing, Social Media | 
Tags: advertise, education, facebook, gainesville, haymarket, learn, management, manassas, networking, online, seo, small, social, Social Media, VA, Virginia, warrenton, web | 
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A couple weeks ago, I finally purchased my new Droid phone. This led to an increased frequency in my 
