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Location-Based Marketing: Foursquare + Businesses

January 12, 2012 Leave a Comment

Location-Based Marketing: Foursquare + Businesses

View more presentations from Kristen Vang

My Experiment With Unfollowing on Twitter

December 4, 2011 Leave a Comment

I don’t give my Twitter account the attention is deserves, but at the beginning of October I embarked on an experiment with my Twitter account. I used Twit Cleaner (it’s free) to go through the list of accounts I was following on Twitter.

Before I get into how my experiment turned out, here is a breakdown of why I liked this particular tool.

  • It breaks accounts down into categories:
    • Dodgy - spam phrases, @ spamming, duplicate links, duplicate tweets, app spam, advertising networks etc
    • Absent - No updates in a month, fewer than 10 tweets, deleted & suspended accounts.
    • Repetitive - High numbers of duplicate tweets or links
    • Flooding - So high volume you can’t see anyone else
    • Non-Responsive - No interaction, those that follow back < 10%, streams that are all feeds (facebook, twitterfeed etc)
    • Little New Content - Retweeting lots or just posting quotes
    • Not Very Interesting - People who talk about themselves a lot, or aren’t followed back very much
  • YOU choose who you want to unfollow from the report it generates. It does not automatically unfollow accounts. This is important because there are most likely people you want to continue following for one reason or another that may be lumped into one of these categories. (Celebrities, family members, “real life” friends, etc.)
  • It does not unfollow everyone at one time – is spaces the unfollows out over several hours – or days depending on how many accounts you’ve chosen to unfollow. This is important because Twitter may suspend your account if you do an excessive amount of anything in a short amount of time.
  • It does not use your Twitter password to access your account – it uses OAuth to access your account.
  • You can go choose a few (or a lot) of accounts to unfollow and go back to the report later and choose more. You don’t have to do it all at one sitting.
Now, what were the results of my experiment? Well, they were a little surprising to me. I truly expected a mass exodus of followers, but I was surprised.
Beginning numbers:
  • Following: 1,632
  • Followers: 2,030
On day 6 after a week of weeding through the various accounts on the list and choosing literally hundreds to unfollow, here were my final numbers.
  • Following: 923
  • Followers: 2,009
That’s right, I only lost 21 followers in that time.
Have you done a similar unfollow on your Twitter account? What were your results?

Public Speaking and Murphy’s Law

October 19, 2011 Leave a Comment

I would like to thank the Lexington Chapter of the South Carolina Medical Group Management Association for inviting me to speak at their meeting today. I, like a large percentage of people, have glossophobia – or, in plain English, a fear of public speaking. This is, however, one of my fears I am willing to address head-on, repeatedly if necessary. (I guess when it comes right down to it, there aren’t many “real fears” I have that I’m not willing to address head-on after a bit of thought…but that’s not important right now.) I’ve had this for as long as I can remember. I was probably ridiculed by classmates in elementary school or something, who knows.

Anyway, moving on … I am re-branding my social media services, so I had ordered updated business cards a week or so ago (complete with a QR code on the back) & had been tracking them on-line for the past couple of days, crossing my fingers they would arrive by this morning. When I left at 11 AM they still had not arrived.

I check the Google Map directions on how to get there (about 35 minutes away). Looks easy enough. Um, apparently not when Murphy’s Law rear’s it’s ugly head. I took the wrong exit.

I had my PowerPoint all done up & ready to go. I get there & the laptop they use for their A/V setup is a Mac. Not that big a deal since the PowerPoint file is totally compatible and will work fine. They have a “clicker” to advance the slides – cool. Oh, but wait … Murphy’s Law strikes once again. I open my presentation & it becomes glaringly obvious that I’m TOTALLY unfamiliar with the way the speaker’s notes area looks on the Mac. Since I couldn’t see half my notes (even with fiddling with the computer during the presentation) I ended up “wingin’ it” most of the way. I’m sure that was painfully obvious to the attendees.

My husband and I have a family cell phone plan & share minutes. A totally paltry 550 minutes for the two of us to share. We are such big phone users that we currently have 3,758 rollover minutes. (Did you catch the sarcasm there?) So, as you can see, my phone rarely rings. Even when it does it’s usually my husband. Since he was at home with my youngest today (not unusual for him, so it’s not like he’d need “advice”) and I was only going to be away from the house for about 2 hours he had no reason to call me unless there was an ambulance or fire truck involved somehow. Murphy’s Law, yet again. My phone rang 3 times in 5 minutes during my presentation! Yeah, I should have turned the ringer completely off, but you know, my phone almost never rings, so I really didn’t think about it. (Oh, and by the way, yes, I’m THAT person who has that Geico “world’s most annoying ringtone”. I just can’t help myself…I’m quirky like that. A ringity-ding-ding-dingy-dong!)

So, I’m driving home … I took another wrong exit.

And those cool new business cards … they were sitting on my kitchen counter when I got home from the presentation.

Buy, hey, at least I didn’t throw up! ;-)

Questions About the Facebook Subscribe Feature? Here Are Some Answers

September 24, 2011 Leave a Comment

Many people have expressed concern and confusion this week about the Facebook Subscribe feature. Most of this is because they simply do not understand what it is all about AND how to control it. Below are some of the more popular questions about the feature and links directly to the Facebook answer to that question. Enjoy … and let me know if you have any additional questions.

What’s the difference between subscribing to someone and adding a friend?
You should only add someone as a friend when you know them personally. If you don’t know someone personally but want to hear what they have to say, subscribing is a good option. When you subscribe to someone, you’ll only be able to see their public updates.

Why am I subscribed to Most Updates for all of my friends?
By default, you are already subscribed to MOST updates for all of your friends. You can adjust the types of updated you get from each person via the Subscribed button on their profile. To adjust this for a specific friend in your News Feed, hover your mouse over the Subscribed button on the friend’s profile. Decide how many updates you’d like to see in your News Feed from that friend as well as the type of updates you’d like to see.

How can I start getting subscribers?

  1. Go to your profile and click Subscriptions on the left side of the page, under your profile picture. (When the new “Timeline” profiles roll out, the Subscriptions button will be under your “cover” picture.)
  2. Click “Allow Subscribers” at the top of this tab.
  3. After you click “Allow Subscribers,” your settings appear. From here, you can edit who can comment on your public posts and when you’re notified about new subscribers.

You can also go to https://www.facebook.com/about/subscriptions to start allowing people to subscribe to your public updates.

How do I manage my settings for subscribers?
After you click Allow Subscribers, your settings will appear (see the Edit Settings button on your Subscribers tab). From there, you can edit your comment and notifications settings. To update these settings later:

  1. From your profile, click the Subscribers link on the left menu
  2. Click the Edit Settings button in the top right
  • Subscribers: Click “On” to allow people outside of your friends to subscribe to your public updates.
  • Comments: Click “On” to allow people outside of your friends of friends to comment on your public updates.
  • Notifications: Choose when you’d like to be notified when someone new subscribes to your public updates. Choose “No One” if you never want to be notified of new subscribers. If you’d like notifications about new subscribers, decide between notifications about Anyone or only Friends of Friends.

Please note that when you hide or decline a friend request, that person can still subscribe to your public updates if you have allowed subscribers. If you want to allow subscribers, but do not want a particular person to subscribe to you, see the “How do I block someone from subscribing to me?” question farther down the page.

Why doesn’t everyone have a Subscribe button on their profile?
If you don’t see the Subscribe button on someone’s profile, it means that they haven’t allowed people to subscribe to their public updates. You’ll see the Subscribed button at the top of your friends’ profiles by default (even if you haven’t allowed people to subscribe to you). This means is you already get your friend’s updates in your News Feed.

Where can I see whose public updates I’m subscribed to?
From your profile, click the Subscriptions link on the left of the page, under your profile picture. You’ll see the people you’re subscribed to there. (When the new “Timeline” profiles roll out, the Subscriptions button will be under your “cover” picture.)

How do I unsubscribe from someone?
There are a couple ways to unsubscribe from someone:

  • Go to that person’s profile. From there, hover your mouse over the Subscribed button on their profile and click Unsubscribe.
  • You can also unsubscribe by clicking the report link next to a post you see in your News Feed and choosing Unsubscribe.

After you unsubscribe, the Subscribe button on the top of their profile will reappear as an option. You can also adjust the types of posts from someone you see. Hover your mouse over the Subscribe button on their profile to customize what types of posts you see from them.

How do I see who is subscribed to me?
If you’ve allowed subscribers, you can see the people who have subscribed to you by clicking the Subscribers on the left side of your profile (under your Cover picture when the new Timeline profiles are implemented).
Friend Subscribers: Friends are subscribed to you by default, this means they may see your posts in News Feed.
Public Subscribers: These are people you’re not friends with who subscribe to your public updates. When you allow anyone to subscribe to your public updates, you’ll get to choose notification settings. If you do not edit your settings, you will only receive notifications when friends of friends become your subscribers.  If you don’t want a specific person to subscribe to you, or want to disconnect from a specific subscriber, you can block them at any time. 

How do I post public updates to my subscribers?
When you’re about to post something to your profile, set your in-line privacy control for the post as public. This will share your update with your subscribers and allow anyone to view the post.

Who can comment on my public updates?
If you decide to allow subscribers, by default friends of your friends (including people you’re subscribed to) can comment on your updates. You also have the option of allowing anyone to comment on your updates. To change who can comment on your public posts,

  1. Click Subscribers from the left side of your profile
  2. Click the top right Edit Settings button
  3. Choose On as your Comments setting

Should I create a Page or allow subscribers to get my public updates?
If your goal is to represent your business, brand, or product on Facebook, create a Page. Pages let you engage with people on Facebook, and offer tools (like multiple admin features and insights) that help you manage and track engagement. If your goal is to share updates from your personal profile with a broader audience, allowing subscribers is a good option. When you allow subscribers, anyone can subscribe and get your public updates in News Feed, even if you’re not friends on Facebook. You can have an unlimited amount of subscribers, and subscribe to as many as 5000 people. (You can have 5000 friends on your profile. At this point I am still researching whether it it 5000 TOTAL – INCLUDING your friends or if it’s 5000 friends and 5000 additional subscribes. My gut is that it’s 5000 total since you are subscribed to your friends by default.)

Can I allow only some people to subscribe to my public updates?
No. When you allow people to subscribe to your public posts, anyone you haven’t blocked can subscribe to you and see your public updates in their News Feed. You will receive notifications when friends of friends subscribe to you unless you edit your notification settings for subscriptions.

How do I block someone from subscribing to me?
If you don’t want a specific person to subscribe to you, you’ll need to block them from your account.

How do I turn off Subscribe?
Not everyone has allowed subscribers. If you have turned this on already, you can decide to change your mind and no longer allow subscribers.

  1. From your profile, click the Subscribers link on the left side menu
  2. Click the Edit Settings button on the right
  3. Next to the Subscribers setting, choose to turn subscribers Off

Can I move people who like my Page to be my subscribers instead?
We plan to make this functionality available in the near future. Please be aware that when this becomes available: 

  • Your Page will be deleted when you migrate
  • All the content on your Page—like apps, updates, photos — will be deleted

Adding New Facebook Apps – Step By Step

September 23, 2011 Leave a Comment

Here is a great tutorial on adding (and controlling) the new Facebook apps when they launch (they already have for some).

Is E-Mail a Secret Weapon for Social Media?

May 16, 2011 Leave a Comment

In my daily reading of some of my favorite social media related blogs, I ran across a post by Fred Wilson, a venture capitalist, about email and social media. It’s not “full of information” but I found his thoughts on the relationship between email and social media success very interesting. I thought it might be an interesting read for you also. Here is an excerpt with a link to the full post on Fred’s blog below.

…I remember four or five years ago, people, myself included, were asking if social media was going to lead to the end of email as we know it. In an ironic twist of fate, it turns out that email is social media’s secret weapon. And more and more social applications are leveraging the power of email to drive repeat usage and retention…

Social Media’s Secret Weapon – Email – blog post by Fred Wilson.

What are your thoughts on the relationship between social media and email? Have you found email campaigns increase the quality of the social media presence for yourself or your clients?

Podcast Marketing Success Strategies

March 29, 2010 Leave a Comment

While podcasting has been around for about seven years, there has been a stigma that podcasts are only viewed by Internet Marketers and technology people. Well, that might have been true initially, but times have changed! One of the greatest catalysts for the rapid growth of business podcasting in 2010 has been the iPhone. Waves of people have purchased new smartphones over the last 12 months and are readily downloading podcasts more than ever before! In fact, 70% of all podcast downloads comes from the iPhone, if you can believe that.

Podcasting is a highly portable and easy-to-implement communication tool for businesses to effectively build brand, connect with a target audience and increase their customer and client base.

Of course, business owners often lack the time and skills to effectively set up, produce and promote their podcasts. It is for this reason that VAClassroom has created this innovative and timely mini-course.

Registration is now officially open for the PODCAST MARKETING SUCCESS STRATEGIES Mini-Course.

The two-week mini-course officially gets underway on Monday, April 5, 2010, and is priced at a very reasonable rate ($147) for the first run of the program.

Please visit this direct link to the VAclassroom Podcast Marketing Success Strategies Mini-Course (click the name) to learn more about the course.

And, as always, if starting a podcast is something you’re interested in, but don’t want to mess with the “behind the scenes” part of podcasting, schedule a consultation with me so we can discuss how I can help take that off your plate!

HTML Editor on a Budget

February 3, 2010 Leave a Comment

If you do minor editing of your clients’ web pages, html ezines/newsletters or like to tweak the coding in wordpress blog posts & pages but are on a budget, you may only be able to drool over Dreamweaver. Many people don’t know there are options out there other than hand coding in Notepad. Have you seen any of the products from Coffee Cup? I’ve used some of their products and have found them to be easy to work in and far less complicated than Dreamweaver. And best of all, they have a load of free stuff! And, what you do buy from them is much less expensive than their “name brand” competitors! For instance, as of the writing of this post, their HTML editor software is $49. For those of you who don’t even want to mess with code, they have a Visual Site Designer for $49 also. Of course, this isn’t going to turn you into a stellar web designer, but it can certainly make things a little easier for those of us who are not web designers!

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