Can’t see your Facebook Recommendations Box?

For some reason, Facebook only allows Recommendations for Pages that have not only provided a physical location but chosen to display a map. In your case Rona, the Recommendations Box is visible because you are using the Maps Tab – if you removed this from your Tabs then the Recommendations box disappears. Attached are some screenshots to demonstrate this on my own Facebook Page.

You have the option of up to 12 Tabs (the boxes underneath your cover photo) on a Facebook Page, but if for example you did not want your actual address to be prominent, you could display the Map as the lowest Tab as I have chosen to do (because I run an online business from home so my physical address is largely irrelevant). As Facebook will only display four Tabs at a time anyway, the majority of people do not look beyond these on somebody’s page.

For the purposes of this training, I have disabled the Recommendations Box on my Facebook Page so that I can demonstrate how this works.

Once you have followed the steps let all of your followers know so that they can start to leave Recommendations on your Page!

Tweeting Smartphone Dashboard not to be saved from the Deckers’ yard after all. Or is it?

A mere two years since their rumoured £25 million purchase of TweetDeck, Twitter have announced that they will not be supporting the platform beyond May 2013. This is despite also having commented only recently that “TweetDeck gives the Twitter experience more flexibility and allows advanced users to gain valuable insight into what’s happening at this moment on Twitter….the TweetDeck team has been steadily innovating and improving the product, and we expect to see much more of that to come.”

The announcement was somewhat overshadowed by Facebook’s news feed PR frenzy despite the hashtag #RIPTweetDeck circulating during the past seven days. According to TweetDeck, they’re going to focus their development efforts on a modern, web-based version whilst ceasing support for old apps such as TweetDeck Air and TweetDeck for Android and iPhone this month.

Since Twitter acquired TweetDeck back in 2011, the platform has grown as a way to organise tweets into manageable threads and lists but this wasn’t enough to dissuade Twitter from killing off TweetDeck for mobile devices and Facebook.  As an already active user of the far superior and more dynamic (in my humble opinion) HootSuite, this latest announcement makes little difference, but what of the users who live or die by TweetDeck’s smartphone app functionality?

HootSuite has long outshone TweetDeck for Social Media Dashboard features and continues to offer far more bang for your buck, boasting one sign in for not only Social Media trailblazers Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn but also Foursquare, Google+, MySpace and even blogging giant WordPress.

HootSuite not only enables you to browse, post messages and status updates from Social Media platforms but also to multitask by posting to multiple accounts, attach pictures and shorten links simultaneously and also schedule posts for later times and dates, to for later.

If this wasn’t enough, you can also monitor/track your links and click-throughs which prior to HootSuite could only be done via third party applications.

TweetDeck had made moves to expand from a Twitter-centric product to one that supported multiple Social Media platforms including Facebook, Foursquare and LinkedIn, but in reality its usage remained Twitter based and not heavily used by the others. But now even Twitter is following suit in three months’ time Twitter by dropping TweetDeck for iOS, Android and Facebook whilst the service will survive on browsers and desktops.

So if you’re a desktop Twitter only user however, you can look forward to fast web apps for modern browsers and a Chrome app offering features such as notifications, search term auto-complete, search filters to help its users find what they’re looking for more quickly and automatically updated Tweet streams. Mac and PC apps for TweetDeck are also in the pipeline, according to TweetDeck.

Twitter users looking for TweetDeck alternatives should try TweetLine and Plume if they are Android users or HootSuite and Tweetbot for iPhone, whilst Sprout Social is compatible for both iPhone and Android.

Check out TweetDeck’s own words on the changes in their blog post from 4 March 2013.

Did you know that Soci@lite trains SMEs in all things HootSuite and is a HootSuite Certified Professional? For further details on how Soci@lite could help your business visit http://www.social-ite.info/store/products/hootsuite-training

Related articles

• TweetDeck app killed: 6 alternatives for busy social media managers (prdaily.com)
• With TweetDeck Gone, 6 Alternative Tools for Managing Social Media (entrepreneur.com)
• TweetDeck for Android being shutdown as team focuses on web app (androidauthority.com)
• Twitter to kill TweetDeck mobile apps (sfgate.com)

Three-Faced Book: the three key changes in store for the nation’s Social Media Sweetheart

So what has prompted Facebook to give the news feed its first facelift since 2009? The idea is to make the website more closely resemble its Android and iOS mobile apps.

1. Tabloid Newspaper style – the website version of Facebook will change from three columns to two so that the main news feed is bigger which will enable all posts, regardless of whether they are updates your friends have posted or adverts to have more space on the page. This ultimately means that images and videos will be afforded greater prominence than post containing only text. This makes a lot better sense when you consider that we are visual creatures and it has already been demonstrated time and again that photos and pictures resonate far greater with people than words.

2. Pop-out Bar – this will be added to the left-hand side of the page and contain the live updates ticker, links to specific friends, the chat and calendar tools and app bookmarks.

3. Feed Octet – in addition to the standard Facebook news feed you can select up to seven others, including a music-themed feed comprised of updates from artists you have liked, gig announcements and songs your friends are listening to through services such as Spotify. There will also be a feed displaying all your friends’ updates instead of just those selected by Facebook’s algorithms as we presently have.

So what do these changes mean for you?  For some worrywarts, adverts will now take up more screen space and be harder to ignore as a consequence and the focus of the redesign is to place more emphasis on adverts and make people ultimately spend more time on the social networking site.

Whatever the real reason, Facebook’s PR machine is determined that the message we get is one of scaled back  newsfeed content and more engaging posts. And, ultimately, this is the purpose of Social Media, right?  What do you think? I’d love to hear your views, so comment away!  You can preview the new look Facebook newsfeed here.

You might also like these posts:

• Facebook to showcase new look newsfeed (stuff.co.nz)
• Facebook’s tabloid new look (bbc.co.uk)
• Sharing is caring according to Facebook users (slashgear.com)

MailChimp Monthly Makeover: The Four Permissions

On 18 February MailChimp launched version 8, with the aim of providing more users with more power in a similar way to Facebook Business Page Admin roles.  If there’s one thing MailChimp are good at, it’s user participation! And they actually listen too. Despite a user database of over 2.5 million users with a wide range of needs and motivations for using MailChimp, they still collated all of the email feedback concerning access control, permissions, multi-user accounts, workflow, etc. and from that implemented these new permission levels and streamlined multi-account log-in (which has replaced Account Keys).

And they won’t stop there. As with all versions of MailChimp, v8 is a work in progress and beyond live they plan to further refine it and react to customer feedback to hone the offering.

Their mission was to optimise this new functionality for a smorgasbord of different users, such as large organisations with multiple employee usage and SMEs who outsource their Social Media management to PR Agencies, Online Marketing specialists or Virtual Assistants.

The Four Permission Levels

Admin: Highest level access to everything in MailChimp – account settings, billing info, account deletion, user permission access, etc. Admins are the only accounts that can invite other users. Only Admins have permission to export lists, so any link to that area will be hidden.

Manager: Can create campaigns, view lists and reports but can’t access account settings or billing, export lists or invite other users.

Author: Can create campaigns and design/edit templates, but cannot send them. Useful for say an in-house designer/writer or outsourced agency. Will not be able to see ‘Send Now’ or ‘Schedule for Later’ buttons – they will instead have an ‘I’m Finished’ button which will send a note to Managers and Admins so that they can log in and send the campaign.

Viewer: Only has the ability to view campaign reports.

Whatever permission level you are granted, if you manage multiple MailChimp accounts you will be able to use a universal MailChimp username and password to access them and on log in see a screen where you choose the account you need to work in:

Logging in and switching accounts

The same applies to switching accounts – simply hover over the account dropdown at the top of the screen to select which account you wish to work in.

You will also see that MailChimp have made a change to your display name too. Instead of your username you will now see you email address or name/company. They have introduced this feature to help you distinguish between your different accounts in MailChimp.

Account Keys converted into Admin-level users

Account Key holders are equivalent to Admins for your account, they will automatically be converted over to Admin level users, so if you don’t want this level off access, sign, log into your account and revoke any keys that are no longer in use or you just simply don’t want to be used anymore. Equally, you should also change the permission levels for any users that you don’t want to be an Administrator of your MailChimp account.

Other points to note

MailChimp’s API, Mobile Apps and third-party integrations that use our API will only function properly with Admin level access – Non-Admins will simply receive an error message if they try to access via one of these three channels.

So that’s about it on the new permission levels feature in MailChimp. If you’re not already using this fantastic, highly intuitive, uniquely user-centric, not to mention FREE (for up to 2,000 contacts) email marketing platform, isn’t it about time you did?

What do you think of MailChimp’s latest features – golden geese or lead balloons? I’d love to read your comments below!

You might also like these:

• MailChimp v8: Multi-User Accounts and Permissions (mailchimp.com)
• MailChimp Monthly Makeover: January (yoursocialmediator.wordpress.com)
• Content that rules: The Year in Review brought to you by MailChimp, Airbnb, and Sailthru (funnelholic.com)

Capturing email addresses the old-fashioned way!

Are you asking potential clients for their email addresses?

You would think that it is standard practice nowadays that most companies ask for your email address over your telephone number.

Email Marketing is still the fastest method and cheapest method of online marketing and communication, even above Social Media marketing. Done properly, Email Marketing will enable you to easily start to build a concise list of email addresses for free. You most probably pay for advertising your website and store so this can only be a bonus (Right?)

Even before that however, you should be asking all of your existing and potential prospects for their email addresses and the time and effort invested will result in an impressively quickly built profitable and responsive email list.

You may well experience resistance from some customers, who are bound to ask: Why do you want my email address?  Will I receive Spam? What’s in it for me? And other such questions.

Make it clear from the outset how they will benefit from disclosing their email address – employing vocabulary such as ‘Free Subscription’ ‘Special Offers’ ‘Exclusive’ ‘Club’ or ‘Customer Only Offers’, usually helps!

It’s also vital that everybody in your business who deals directly with customers knows follows this practice and is fully briefed on what you want them to say and ask your customers when requesting their email addresses. Do not take it for granted that they will all say it the same way.

There is always the option of a purchased email list however these are invariably expensive and out of date.  An incentive scheme is a far more effective way of motivation your staff and colleagues to collect email addresses. This will help to ensure that everybody is asking consistently and regularly.

Having enticed them to subscribe, you now have to continue to capture their interest and retain them! Send relevant and valuable information regularly to build anticipation, so that your Email Newsletter subscribers keep an eye out for your email. Keep it consistent and see how fast you can build a profitable and responsive email list and whichever method you choose, be it via offline or online sign-ups or both, make it as easy a process as possible for your customer.

Related articles

• Marketing Ideas: All About Email Addresses (marketing.cognition-coaching.co.uk)
• Guidelines for Creating an Email Marketing List (profitonknowledge.com)
• Using Emails to Build Links – Whiteboard Friday (seomoz.org)
• 5 Mistakes Organizations Continue to Make When Sending Email (sendgrid.com)

Four Easy Blog Income Generators

Many thousands of bloggers make money from blogging, whether it be to earn a bit of extra cash to fund a coffee habit, or enough money make a full-time living out of it. Check out Problogger’s Make Money Blogging MindMap (left) which pictorializes just some of the ways in which bloggers are making money from their online posts

Every blog is unique in how it can an income and some of the income streams I am about to recommend will work better for some blogs than others – experiment with as many as possible until you find which are most successful for you and that will likely include some that I haven’t listed here, but they are certainly a starting point.

#1.  Affiliate Programs

A wide variety of Affiliate programs can be run on your blog(s), most of which will probably only bring in small amounts of money but over time can really add up. Having said that, Affiliate Marketing is one of the easiest ways to make money online, i.e. selling the products of other merchants either via a banners or text link of the product(s) or writing a review about a particular product. In this form of advertising your performance is tracked based on CPA (Cost Per Action) or CPL (Cost Per Lead). Here are just a few recommended Affiliate Marketing sites:

• Amazon
• Book Depository
• ClickBank
• Commission Junction
• EpicDirect
• Google Affiliate Network
• LinkShare
• Thesis WordPress theme

• #2.  Google AdSense

AdSense can have an amazing effect on blogs – ProBlogger recommend using image and text-based ads of 250×300 pixels work best. I don’t have much luck with their ‘referrals’ program but their normal ads work a treat and continue to be the biggest earner for me.

#3.  e-Books

Whilst e-Books generally only sell for a small amount of money, sales from them can certainly add up over time and obviously the more you write and publicise them, the more this can grow as an income stream, particularly if you are also offering them as an ethical bribe.

#4.  Blogger Job Boards

Job Boards offer a service to readers and also add value to the blog, however there is a great deal of competition so much so that demand for jobs exceeds supply. For advertisers though, they are able to cherry pick from a pool of high quality applications from talented and creative bloggers.

What ways have you found to make money from your blogging online? We’d be interested to hear about your own successes and recommendations.

Other articles you might like:

• Is This Really Hard for Part Time Bloggers to Make Even $100? (homebiz.bukiki.com)
• Can You REALLY Make Money Blogging? [7 Things I Know About Making Money from Blogging] (problogger.net)
• How to Make Money Blogging from Affiliate Programs (freemoney101.typepad.com)
• The Shocking Truth about Consistent Blogging Success: How to Find Your Voice : @ProBlogger (cmoneyspinner.wordpress.com)
• 31 Types of Blog Posts for Every Day of the Month (iacquire.com)
• Problogger Celebrates 10 Years of Blogging with an Insane $10 Sale (weblogbetter.com)

 

Soci@lite’s Miniclass: What is Guest Blogging?

Guest blogging involves either writing blog posts to be published on other bloggers’ blogs, or another person writing a blog post to appear on your blog. Guest blogging is used by many bloggers because it is a really effective method to drive traffic to your website and as well as enabling you to network with other bloggers from your industry. Guest blogging also helps with branding and getting your name or company in the spotlight, building your social media presence and gaining more industry experience.

How 

• Research your topic and write the post before you pitch it to a submission site
• Find a blog that is accepting guest posts or contact a website that might be willing to accept a guest post
• Introduce yourself and tell them what you would like to write about
• Apply any suggestions or feedback from the host site concerning your content
• Include an optimised backlink to your website in the byline
• Vary where you post
• Respond to comments left on your post
• Include an author bio and introduce yourself to your readers
• Read other articles on the host website
• Promote your guest post to social media websites

Where

• The first and best place to start your research is the search engines – Google, Bing, Yahoo and the like. Compile a list of sites that you would like to contact for guest blogging
• Consider maintaining a spreadsheet detailing the name of each site, title of the article you submitted, contact name, email address, page rank, anchor text and the date that you submitted your article
• Try to seek out well-established blogs which feel offer you the best opportunity to attract like-minded readers as your own site
• Contributing your knowledge or experiences on other websites will also create a line of communication and encourage new readers to visit your website
• Find well-known websites or blog authors in your industry and contact them with a polite email enquiring as to whether or not they are willing to showcase one of your articles
• There are also a number of blog submission websites which rely solely on the submissions of guest bloggers which can be extremely helpful as long as they target your audience

What

• Submit to a website or blog where the content will be valuable or useful to its audience and ensure your content is unique and easy to read
• Be honest, straightforward and demonstrate your knowledge

When

• Wait until you have established a well-written blog and are confident in your blog and article writing abilities
• It is most beneficial to guest post whenever you have important or link worthy content to share
• Unique content is always the best way to target potential customers because it guides readers to your material

Guest blogging can be extremely mutually beneficial. The host site/author is provided with link worthy unique content and a link on your site and you as the guest blogger have the opportunity to not only direct traffic back to your website but content is king. Posting unique content will help your search engine ranking and hopefully search engine traffic no end. Guest blogging can also help you to gain backlinks, increase traffic, develop your company brand and acquire new customers.

Soci@lite Miniclass: Reciprocal Links & Anchor Text

Anchor Text and Reciprocal Links work together to provide invaluable link value to your website and have the potential to significantly increase your website ranking.

Anchor Text is the hyperlink or clickable text found on a webpage. Using accurate Anchor Text is essential for good Search Engine Optimisation and when used appropriately it can drastically boost your rankings in the search engines. The Anchor Text provides descriptive and useful information for the page that it links with.

Anchor Text also enables websites to use cleaner looking text rather a distracting hyperlink, e.g. <a href=http://www.social-ite.info>Soci@lite</a> would appear as Soci@lite on the page.

A common mistake is “Click Here” Anchor Text, which apart from neglecting to describe your  content to page visitors and search engine crawl bots, means you will not benefit from SEO ranking. At one time, Google Bombing used large amounts of Anchor Text to influence the rank of a link that directed visitors to unrelated content. However in January, 2007, Google created a new algorithm which reduced the impact of Google bombs.

Where to use Anchor Text:

1. External links (links from other sites)
2. Internal links (links on your pages)
3. Links on your main page
4. Navigation maps

Top Tips for Appropriate Anchor Text: 

• Branding: include the company or product name, e.g. Soci@lite Social Media Training & Consultancy
• Context: provide a relevant description, such as Social Media Blog rather than just Blog
• Keywords: include your targeted keywords to increase SEO benefits
• Readable: it is crucial that your Anchor Text makes sense to human page visitors, not just search engines
  Succinct: try to keep your Anchor Text under 60 characters
• Unique: each web page should have a unique Anchor Text to describe it – use variations and secondary keywords

Reciprocal Links are created when two websites agree to exchange links with each other. Anchor Text is crucial to this because you want your link partner to accurately describe your site and your site to also rank for the keywords that you are targeting. It is always good practice to use Anchor Text which is going to influence your SEO goals and positively portray your website. Search engines look at both the quantity and quality of sites that link to your site. A Reciprocal Link can bring more traffic and boost your website’s SEO ranking.

Ten Top Tips for obtaining Reciprocal Links:

1. Find high-quality complementary sites not competitors, unless the advantages outweigh the disadvantages
2. Initiate a link exchange by placing a link to a site on a relevant page of your own site
3. Contact the site owner
4. Inform the site owner of who you are, what your website is, why you’re interested in linking to their website, and how you both can benefit from the exchange
5. Inform the site owner that you have already linked to their website and if they agree to exchange links you are happy to modify the Anchor Text to something of their choosing
6. Provide them with the URL of the page where you’ve placed their link
7. Request that they link back your site and suggest a page where the link may be appropriate
8. Provide the HTML code that includes the hyperlink and the keyword Anchor Text so they use the correct Anchor Text for your link
9. If you have not heard back within a couple of weeks then send a brief, polite reminder, but don’t push it as they may reconsider in the future
10. Keep a detailed and organised list of sites that you have propositioned a link exchange with so you know who has provided you with a link and who you still need to contact

Although search engines such as Google assign more value to websites with the most relevant and superior links, it is of equal importance that the right Anchor Text is used in order for your keywords to be ranked and your traffic targeted. Try to diversify your link exchanges by not focusing on only high-value sites.

Finding high-quality link partners can be a difficult and time-consuming task however the eventual payoff is fantastic – good luck!

Related articles 

• 10 Myths That Scare SEOs But Shouldn’t – Whiteboard Friday (seomoz.org)
• How Link Building Has Changed And Why You Have To Change Too (koozai.com)
• Is Co-Citation the Future? (techattitude.com)
• 8 SEO Tips That Take 15 Minutes or Less – Search Engine Watch #SEW (teachercloud.wordpress.com)
• Prediction: Anchor Text is Dying…And Will Be Replaced by Co-Citation – Whiteboard Friday (seomoz.org)

Pew Research Center’s findings on the shape of News Media

According to Pew Research Center. Social Media captured the world media’s attention more than any other technology topic during 2011. In their Navigating News Online report of May that year, Pew analysed the behaviour of online news, they stated that ”if searching for news was the most important development of the last decade, sharing news may be among the most important of the next”.

Here are some of the headline stats. For the full report analysis, click here.

• 13% of digital news consumers follow news recommendations on both Facebook and Twitter
• 27% of Facebook news followers also get news via Twitter
• Facebook users are far more likely than their Twitter counterparts to have children (37% versus 29% for Twitter and 31% of all adults)
• Men were more likely to see Twitter as giving them a broader sense of the news (46% versus 35% who said they would get the news elsewhere)
• More than twice as many digital news consumers follow news recommendations from Facebook than Twitter
• On Facebook the news comes mostly through family and friends, whereas Twitter users tend to get the news from a broader mix
• 57% of Twitter news followers are male – versus 44% of Facebook users and 48% of the population overall
• Twitter users are also more likely to get news on their smartphones – 64% versus 47% for Facebook users

You might also like these related articles:

• Pew Research 2012 Digital Data Findings (mondaysbalcony.com)
• Social Media Strategy: “I don’t think my audience is using social media.” (digitalsurgeons.com)
• Businesses Operating in Social Media Denial (insurancejournal.com)
• Digital news surpasses newspapers, radio: Even TV is vulnerable (nextlevelofnews.com)
• Social Media Trends In 2013 By Webchutney [Guest Post] (lighthouseinsights.in)

Eight Etiquette Tips for Newsletter Sign-Ups

1. Make Sign Up Valuable

Most people want reassurance that if they sign up for a Newsletter, it will provide them with valuable information, not simply clutter their inbox with irrelevant content. Most are also wary of what information is delivered to their inboxes and fear being inundated with emails that are not relevant to them and also sent too frequently.

2. Make Sign Up Easy

Subscription to a website’s newsletter should be a two-click process in essence – enter your email address, click subscribe, receive an email and confirm sign up. Don’t make it unnecessarily laborious for your potential subscribers if you want them to sign up.

3. Make Sign-Up Prominent

This could be done via a sign-up box in your site’s sidebar (ideally at the top) which is then visible on every page of your website. On Soci@lite’s website I have provided the user with the ability to view a sample Newsletter so that they can see for themselves the type of content they will typically receive via email. This link also opens in a new window so that they don’t navigate away from the sign-up page.

4. Calls To Action & Ethical Bribes

Offer users with an incentive for signing up to your Newsletter, be it a free e-Book, download, Tips & Tricks on a certain topic each month, etc.

5. State How Often You Send Out

You should indicate exactly what they will receive by registering and how often they will receive those updates, i.e. at a set time each month, periodic updates with interesting topical news, how-to tips, links to resources, etc.? Or will they receive promotional emails that alert them of special offers and new products? Or are they receiving short messages that alert them of upcoming events, recent community activity, company news, etc.?

6. Provide A Link To Back Issues

On Soci@lite’s website I have provided the user with the ability to view all the Newsletter Back Issues so that they can see for themselves exactly the type of content they will typically receive. This link also opens in a new window so that they don’t navigate away from the sign-up page.

7. Consider your Target Audience

Technically, email Newsletter registration should purely function as a mechanism for collecting subscriber email addresses. Many organisations however see this as an opportunity to capture information about their target audiences and ask more questions than the potential subscriber may be comfortable with. As with every web form it is important for you to consider what you are going to do with the information you have collected from your subscribers. If you do not have a clear requirement or plan for the information requested then it does not belong in a registration form and should only be requested from your Captive Audience (see below).

8. Leverage Your Captive Audience

Also dd a newsletter signup link to any thank you page on your site, i.e. where visitors are sent after purchasing a product, completing a form, etc. They have already trusted the site for some form of transaction and are therefore your Captive Audience – they may well therefore be interested in receiving more information from you.

Regardless of how you decide to capture information and from whom, always ensure that you clearly state what you intend to do with that information.

Related articles

• A Pause on the Newsletter to Create a Better One (stateofsearch.com)
• 5 Tips To Make Your Newsletter Stand Out (theresesquared.com)
• 4 Guaranteed Ways of Capturing Potential Customer E-mails Using Your Blog (famousbloggers.net)