Facebook Friday: Active Management

Good morning, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

Today’s Facebook Friday reviews a service business – Active Management, a business consultancy firm.

What’s Happening on the Page now

• 325 people like the page
• The page has been going since August 11^th 2009

What’s working:

• Great landing tab using video
• Good regular posting
• Great that they have the URL www.Facebook.com/activemanagement
• The slideshare tab has a number of great presentations on it, however I am a little confused as to why presentations by people other than Active Management are on there

Recommendations

• The info tab basically contains nothing!  This is a huge missed opportunity, it needs to be rich with keywords explaining what the service is and about the company.  Even though there is not that much space in which to write text there is currently nothing about the business.
• Look at increasing the size of the profile pic (there is 180 wide by 540 pixels high to play with) to include an image/s as well to make it stand out more
• Use the thumbnail tool for the thumbnail pic, so that you are not just getting “ctiv” but something more interesting, baring in mind that this needs to standout in likers newsfeeds
• The welcome tab, although it is interesting I didn’t get the same message as the info box “We are Australia’s only fitness consultancy who has been a personal trainer, sales person, manager and owner! We understand your challenges.  We provide you the tools to make your business profitable.”  As a result I am left feeling rather confused I got the impression it was about business coaching….
• Although the posting is regular it isn’t engaging people, there is one guy who comments every now and again, but that is more or less it.  The posts need to be more interesting and engaging, instead of just stating facts/articles.  Ask questions, check out the blog post on Power Posting.  Make it easy for people to respond to posts, give them either or options, ask easy questions.
• There are a lot of tabs on this page, and I suspect that many aren’t being viewed, it would be a good idea to check these out at www.facebook.com/insights and see where people are going and then tidy it up
• The discussion tab hasn’t been used for 6 months, so I would suggest use it or lose it
• The reviews tab – there are no reviews, so either get someone to write one or two or get rid of the tab, it makes it look like there is nothing good to say!
• There is nothing on the notes tab, again use it or lose it
• The “we read” tab has obviously been added and the page admin has thought I’ll come back later and modify this and hasn’t.  This is not a good reflection on the business, it adds to the slight feeling of confusion
• There is a tab called Active Mgmt which has EVENTS, BLOG and MEET JUSTIN TAMSETT.  There is nothing in the events section, so there is not much point of having that if it isn’t used.  The blog is good, but you can’t subscribe to it there and then, you need to go to the box on the wall to subscribe – Facebook are getting rid of boxes, so it would be better if people could subscribe where the blog is.  The meet Justin section could easily be included in the info tab.  This tab is I am guessing created by Thinktank Media, because they have branded it, I would think about this, it gives the impression that Active Management and Thinktank Media are related, I don’t know if they are or not.  But this tab is doing nothing for me, and should be ditched and replaced with a blog tab using an app such as Networkedblogs.  Plus this tab is recommended viewing on the welcome tab, but I think it is disappointing in content
• Check typos when posting
• On the wall 30 minute sales training events are mentioned, these should be added to the events tab if that is going to be used
• There are a number of favourite pages mentioned, so what about using the notes tab to show how Active Management have helped these fitness club, in a kind of mini case study on each one
• How about including interviews with clients and having client testimonials on the Youtube tab
• There are tips on the website, but these could be incorporated into the Facebook page as well, even having something like a tip a day for 7 days, this will keep people coming back to the page, and encourage new people to like the page
• Encourage visitors to tell their story of what they have experienced in their club
• Perhaps have a q&a section on the page once a week for visitors to ask Justin questions
• Invite celebrity posts, eg someone who has been running a club for 10 years to give a top tip and then someone who has been running one for year.
• There are a few call outs for more fans/likers, but give people a reason to join – there are free ebooks on the website offer them these, don’t assume that people are going to spend time finding them

Summary

The Active Management page has all the info in there, but there needs more consistency in terms of message.  Having poked around on the page for about 30 minutes I know think that it is all about business consultancy to the fitness industry, I knew nothing of Active Management before.  However when I first arrived on the page this was not the impression I got, and to be honest I am still a little confused.  I think that there is too much reliance on the visitor clicking onto the website for more info, which if they don’t get it from the Facebook Page they just won’t do.

The page needs to position Active Management as an expert in their field with useful tips, comments and articles.  At the moment it isn’t doing this effectively, as it isn’t clear enough.

Did you love this review? You can get your page reviewed by the Chief Rabbit for only $49.95, just email info@SocialRabbit.net

Free Facebook reminders….

Good Morning, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

Today I am on my soap box, but you ALL will benefit.  First a question….

Lets see how you all end up voting… results will follow.

I am very interested to see what the results say, because this Rabbit thinks that the reason is a lack of consistency due to no consistency in terms of posting and activity in general on the network.  The business starts out really fired up, but then this doesn’t continue, instead they get busy with other activities and their social media activities become a bit of an after thought… is this you?

You may not have a social media strategy which may be why this has happened, in which case you need to get one!

If you have a strategy but just aren’t consistent then it is Super Rabbit to the rescue!

For 7 days we will send you an email a day with a reminder and a tip of the day for your Facebook page, you can sign up whenever you like for FREE, just click on this link http://www.facebook.com/SocialRabbit?v=app_7146470109.  If you are not on Facebook you can still access the tips, the link just takes you to a sign up form.

I hope you take the opportunity to get info from the Chief Rabbit sent to you, it will help you to get your page firing.  We are just trialing this for 7 days, but if everyone loves it we will look at keeping it going.

Tell me what you think about this in the comments, is it going to be helpful?

Good Examples of Real Estate on Facebook

Good Afternoon, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

Today I want to start a new section of this blog, each week I will choose a different industry and give you a variety of examples of what businesses in that industry are doing on Facebook.  My hope is that it will give you ideas for your business and inspire you to build your page.

1) Houlihan Lawrence in the USA, the page is not huge – they have 475 people who like it.  They have a fantastic landing tab, which gives you information on the agency, information on house prices in different areas, plus you can use the search to check out different areas – this takes you straight to their website.  They have added YouTube to the page, the videos are all house tours, which I think is a clever way to use what they are already producing in social media.

2) Miami Beach Real Estate in the USA, this page has 3111 people who like it.  Once again they have a great landing tab that means you can started looking at property right away, plus there are two other tabs; one which gives you a market snapshot of the area, so you have an idea of how many listings there are a week and what you can get for your money – the clever thing about this is that it is transparent, giving people the information that they need right up front so they don’t have to search for it, therefore making their life easier.  The second tab allows you to search more in depth into properties, again making the buyers life easier.  The other thing to notice on this page is that there are very very few posts promoting properties, instead it is market information and local news.  Obviously this works really well as there is a lot of comments from page visitors.

3) Altitude Real Estate in Western Australia have 7567 people who like it.  These guys rather than push real estate have made a community hub offering discounts from other businesses, prizes to be won, and encouraging other businesses to post offers on the wall.  This is a really good use of customer engagement via Facebook, they are not selling or pushing their services, but instead making themselves synonymous with the community, where you live is part of that.

4) Prudential Douglas Elliman Real Estate in USA have 1341 people who like the page.  They are using the events tab really well, to promote their events, such as talks on the market, but also to promote events happening in the community.  It would be better if they included a nice image for each one, but there were very few pages I looked at that in Real Estate who were actually using the events tab.  It is a great way to promote what is coming up, and you can invite your readers along, including those NOT on Facebook.  It also shows that you involved in the community, which people like to see.

5) Nexus Real Estate in Western Australia only have 209 people who like their page, but it still has a lot of information for readers.  I particularly like this tab which they have put an RSS feed onto of the discounts that you get through being a Nexus customer.  They are promoting other businesses, showing that they are involved in the community and giving people a reason to use them.

Today you have seen five ideas you can implement on your page, if you are in real estate or another industry a lot of it is transferable.  Next week I will look at another industry, if you want to suggest one please tell me in the comments below or on the Social Rabbit Facebook Page.

Adding a Blog to your Facebook Page

Good morning, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of Social Media.

This week a friend of mine – Kirsty Dunphey asked me how she could add her blog to her Kirsty Dunphey Weekly Newsletter Facebook page, she’d tried and failed, I suggested she use the Networkedblogs app and sent her the link, thinking that’s that and got on with my day.  However a short time later I got another email saying the link wouldn’t work.  Now Kirsty is pretty switched on with technology and it made me think if she is having issues what about all of you out there who aren’t switched on?  This post is for you, and the Kirsty’s of the world who may need assistance.

So you have a blog – it can be on any platform, eg wordpress, blogger etc.  Here is the step by step guide to adding it to your Facebook page.  If you aren’t a words person and would prefer to watch, I’ve made a YouTube video of it as well.

1. Open Facebook and login
2. Go to http://www.facebook.com/networkedblogs
3. Click on ADD TO MY PAGE under the picture on the left hand side
4. Choose your page from the box and click add: then close when you have added it to all the pages you need
5. Go to your Facebook page, click on EDIT MY PAGE and go into the back end of your page
6. Find the Networkedblogs app in the list, click on APPLICATION SETTINGS
7. Select ADD so that it reads: tab added
8. Click on the ADDITIONAL PERMISSIONS tab and tick the box which says publish to my wall – this means that every time you post a blog on your blog it will feed onto your blog tab on your page and add a post to your page wall.  Then click OKAY
9. Click on EDIT under the Networkedblogs app
10. Click on REGISTER A BLOG
11. Type in the name of your blog, this can be anything it won’t be seen by others it is just for your record, so that if you have more than one you know what each one is
12. Type in the URL of your blog, this will be the website address you usually give out to people
13. Type in three topics that are most relevant to your blog, so if you write on small business topics you might choose: small business/solo businesses/business owners
14. Choose English as your language unless you write in another!
15. Fill in the description box, ie what is your blog about then click NEXT
16. If you get an error message saying that they can’t find your feed then you need to type it in.  Usually it will be: http://yourblog.com/feed.  No error go to step 17
17. You will now be asked if your are the author of the blog, choose YES or NO.  Note: you can import blogs which aren’t yours, so don’t think that this is a trick question!
18. If you aren’t the author and have said NO, the next screen will ask you who is, if they are a Facebook friend of yours you can fill this in, if not then click SKIP
19. You will then arrive at this screen This is confirming that your blog is in and ready to go! (This is an example where I have chosen Seth Godin’s blog, it’s a goodie, click on it to go to it)
20. Next go to your Facebook Page again and click on EDIT MY PAGE
21. Find the Networkedblog application in the list and click on EDIT
22. You will now see your blog on a table like this: Here you can see I have five blogs listed, you need to tick the boxes of the blogs you’d like to feed onto your page, you can have more than one.
23. Once you have chosen your blogs you need click to grant permission to publish the blog to your page – this is point 2 on the page, if you don’t then nothing will appear
24. Then finally hit SAVE
25. Go to the front of your Facebook page and the blog tab should be there, if you can’t see it then click on the >> at the end of your page tabs, it should be listed there.  Check that it is working and looking good and you are all done!

Now there is no excuse to link up your blog onto your Facebook page….  Tell me in the comments when you’ve done it as I’d love to see what people are doing.

Facebook Friday: The Little Scarf Shop

Good Morning, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

Today is the first of the page reviews that people have paid the bargain price of $49.95 for.  The Little Scarf Shop Facebook page surprizingly enough is related to a website that sells cashmere scarves 🙂  It has 171 people liking the page and has been going since December 21^st 2009.

What’s working:

• Lovely pictures posted
• Good photo albums for different collections
• Good information in the info box
• Great that they have the URL www.Facebook.com/thelittlescarfshop

Recommendations

Keywords

Below is a table of the top 25 keywords in Australian search (as per Google’s keyword tool).  However 100 keywords came up in the search.  Basically when people are searching for scarves these are the words they are using, therefore these are some of the words that should be incorporated into the content on the page.  The reason is that it helps with SEO (search engine optimisation) so the page will appear higher in the rankings when people search in Google or Bing etc.

KEYWORD	GLOBAL MTHLY SEARCHES	LOCAL (AUS) MTHLY SEARCHES
scarf	5,000,000	201,000
scarves	2,740,000	49,500
shawl	1,220,000	27,100
pashmina	673,000	14,800
shawls	550,000	9,900
silk scarves	165,000	5,400
scarf accessories	201,000	5,400
fashion scarves	27,100	4,400
womens scarf	40,500	3,600
tie scarf	135,000	3,600
wool scarf	74,000	2,900
cashmere scarf	165,000	2,400
scarf knitting patterns	40,500	2,400
red scarf	110,000	2,400
mens scarf	110,000	1,900
pashmina shawl	110,000	1,900
pashmina scarf	90,500	1,300
pink scarf	49,500	1,300
skull scarf	40,500	1,000
wholesale scarves	27,100	1,000
cotton scarf	27,100	1,000
scarf dress	33,100	1,000
scarf tying	27,100	880
winter scarf	40,500	880

Recommendations

• The info tab basically contains nothing!  This is a huge missed opportunity, it needs to be rich with keywords explaining what the product is, what colours it comes in and about the company
• Look at increasing the size of the profile pic (there is 180 wide by 540 pixels high to play with) to include an image of someone in a scarf along with the logo
• There are no reviews on the page, so encourage people to write them, perhaps offer a discount off your next scarf
• There is no landing page, this is really important with a product that is so visual, have a landing page that includes the Autumn winter collection to show people what is on offer, this could include an enewsletter signup form for your newsletter to build your database
• Add a store application (eg Vendor) to the page, this uses paypal for payment, and could result in extra sales, plus you could offer special deals for people who like your page through the store, eg a free booklet on tying your scarf.  It is important that your Facebook page is a community that people want to be part of.
• When posting photos use ones from the website and therefore people can click on them to go straight to the store to buy
• Make short videos showing people how to tie the scarf to add onto a video tab on the page, you have explained in one post, but it might be easier for people to see, this could even be done as if they are looking in a mirror so that they can follow the video and tie it at the same time
• Make a video on washing your scarf, sounds very basic, but people will be nervous about washing it at home themselves.
• Respond to all comments on the page, it encourages people to post more as they know you are listening
• Ask questions in the posts, eg what do you wear your scarf with?
• Use the polls application to find out info such as favourite colour
• You could include information on what cashmere is, explain to people make it easy, ask people what they think it feels like, eg cotton wool etc.  Try to get people to imagine so that they want it
• You could ask people what are the strangest ways you’ve used your scarf, eg the woman on the page who commented that a child wiped their nose on it
• You could have your scarves traveling around the world, where has yours been?  Encourage people to send in pictures similar to the post you have from Neema
• How about writing a piece with pictures which is 1 scarf 100 ways, or maybe not 100, but similar to the pieces you see in fashion mags, so that people can see that you can wear it with pj’s, tracksuit, work clothes, party clothes etc.
• You could write notes on the notes tab on which colour scarves suit which skin/hair colours
• There needs to be a posting strategy around the page, decide first of all what your purpose is for the page, then use that when posting, decide on how many days a week you want to post and then make sure each post is adding value to your audience.  Currently there are a lot of selling posts, which is ok if they are spread out amongst others, but they aren’t.  Look at the reason why people come to your page, and what scarves are all about ie fashion and tie that (literally!) into your posting.

USA audience

You mentioned you want to target the USA audience.  There are a few ways to do this:

• Facebook ad’s, targeting them at women in the USA, you can choose fashion as an interest for them, that is going to be the quickest and easiest way to get people to your page
• Go to USA fashion or magazine pages and post value adding posting, eg did you know that wearing a scarf like this gives the illusion you are 2 sizes smaller (I’ve made that up) then you can afterwards put from The Little Scarf Shop (hyperlinked) and people will go and check you out

Both of these can be used with any audience you are trying to target, but it is all about adding value, not just spamming another page with hey I’ve got a great red scarf!

Summary

You need to give people a reason to visit your page not just once but again and again, as you offer them something that they want.  Just promoting buy a scarf is not going to do that, it needs to be more than that.

Using Facebook ad’s is a very cost effective way to get new people to your page, you don’t need to spend that much, it could just be $10 a day.  Use it to get them to your page, not to your site, then when they have liked the page you will have them there to keep talking to, instead of them hitting your site and leaving.

Did you love this review? You can get your page reviewed by the Chief Rabbit for only $49.95, just email info@SocialRabbit.net

Facebook Welcome/Landing tabs are a MUST!

Good Morning, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

Every Friday I review a different Facebook page, and nearly every week I say “get a landing tab”.  You may be fed up of me saying this, but IT IS IMPORTANT….  Yes I know you were planning to get to it next week, but there is no time like the present.  For those who are confused a landing/welcome tab is the place you decide you want non-likers to your page to land and it tells them quickly what your page is about.

I have always been a HUGE advocate of  the landing/welcome tab, but now finally I have some evidence to hold up in the air and wave at you all.  Below is a quote from a social media company Brandglue.

“We ran an A/B test just four weeks ago to guesstimate the efficacy of a landing tab.  We drove visitors to the fan page of a major brand using ads. Those ad-driven visitors converted to fans at a rate of approximately 47% WITH a landing tab. When we turned off the landing tab, those same ad-driven visitors converted to fans at approximately 23%. A VERY noticeable loss in conversions over the course of the campaign.”  Jeff Widman from Brandglue May 2010

Are you convinced now?

Now I have your attention you may say but what do I put on it?  Below are some examples (click on the image to go straight to their page), basically the world is your oyster go wild.

WIN PRIZES TrueBlood TV show, on the welcome tab you can register to win the ultimate fan experience.

REWARDS Starbucks – you can check your rewards card or sign up for one.

QUIZ’S ABC News – gives you a reason to like the page and engages you straight away.

GAMES McDonalds engages visitors with a game

FREE DOWNLOADS Smirnoff gives people a reason to click like

DIRECT PEOPLE TO STORES Cold Stone Creamery has a bright image that you just can’t ignore, plus you can click to find your nearest store from it.  Plus below the image they encourage comments from people on what they think of the favor.  I am guessing that they change their image monthly.

SIGN UP – Social Rabbit offers people a simple landing tab which explains what we do and allows them to sign up for the enewsletter.

Hopefully all these images have given you some good ideas of what you can do on your page.  Remember it doesn’t need to be complex, bright and simple works well, but you can link it through to your website or your newsletter sign up.  You can do your own landing tab in FBML or for very little you can pay a designer to do one for you.  You can change the tab as often as you like.

If you have a cool landing tab I’d love to see it, put the link to your page in the comments below or on the wall of the Social Rabbit page so we can check it out.

14 Facebook Page Basics You Should Know

Good Evening, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

Every day more and more people are joining Facebook for their business, so I thought I would take a step back and help those newbies who need the basics.  For those old timers out there you can just sit back and give yourself a pat on the back for having already done/known all of these 🙂 (if you haven’t do them now, I won’t tell anyone!)

1. Get your Facebook username (a unique url) for your page.  You need 25 likers before you can get it.  Once you have your 25 likers go to www.Facebook.com/username (you must be signed into Facebook) and click on SET A USERNAME FOR MY PAGES (it’s in blue at the bottom).  This is below the set a profile username, do not get confused.  Then choose your page from the drop down list and type in your username, hopefully it will be available.  You can’t change this once it’s set, so choose wisely and don’t make any typos!
2. If you are writing a post either on your personal profile or your page you can tag another page or profile, but you have to LIKE the page or be FRIENDS with the person you are tagging.  To do this for example for Social Rabbit (which I am sure you all like!) you type “@social rabbit” you will then see a box appear under the post with the Social Rabbit page to choose (see image below), so just select it.  If you have done it right after you click onto the next word Social Rabbit will be in blue. 
3. If you are going to put your website address in the info box under your profile picture include http:// so that it hyperlinks (ie goes to your website when people click on it)
4. The info box under the profile picture only takes 250 characters, so make sure you include at least 2 of your keywords in there to optimise your page for search engines
5. You have 180 pixels wide by 540 pixels long for your profile picture, so make the most of it
6. Once your profile picture is uploaded you can change what is seen in the thumbnail (that’s the tiny picture that shows up next to your posts).  Just click on the pencil next to your profile picture (see image below) and choose EDIT THUMBNAIL, you can then move your image around until you have it showing what you want
7. You can move your tabs at the top of your page around by moving your mouse over one and dragging it to another position.  However the wall and info tab’s will always be in positions 1 and 2.
8. You can only show 6 tabs at the top of your page at any one time, for your visitors to see more they have to click on the 7th tab which is 2 arrows, they can then see the other tabs that are available.
9. If you post on your page as the admin you will NOT get notified by Facebook if someone comments on the post – you need to go back daily and check for comments and respond.  However if you comment on your post (or someone else’s) you will get a notification that someone else has commented on the post as well.
10. Once you have set up your page and want to invite your personal profile friends to join click on suggest to friends (see image) and select who you’d like to ask.  Anyone who has already joined your page will look dull, so you can’t invite anyone who already likes it.
11. In case you are wondering you CANNOT currently change the name of your page, unless you delete your page and start again, so I hope you have chosen wisely 🙂
12. The person who created your page is the page creator (funny that!) and currently you cannot transfer this to someone else.  However you can have as many admins as you want on the page
13. To add a page to your page’s favourites go to the page you want to add and click on add to my pages favourites.  This window will pop up so just select the page you want this added to and hit save. Be aware that by having another page on your page’s favourites you are basically endorsing that page, as it is a form of cross promotion.
14. Finally if you want to put a heart image in your post type ❤ it will come out as a heart once you hit the share button.

You are now ready to get out there and get your page firing with these 14 tips, if there is more you want to know please post it in the comments below or on the Social Rabbit Facebook Page.

Facebook Friday: Magnetstreet Weddings

Good Morning, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

It’s Facebook Friday again, this week I am reviewing Magnetstreet Wedding’s Facebook page with 273 people who like it.  These guys are based in USA and it’s nice to have a business from a different country involved.

What’s working?

• Fantastic to see that they have their unique URL
• I love that you can request a sample in a box on the wall, but why not also have this mentioned on the info tab – make it easy for people, you don’t want them missing it
• The design contest is fantastic!  A great way to engage your audience and the outside world, plus it has had over 30,000 poll votes!  My only negative on this is why isn’t it promoted elsewhere?  As you will see from your Facebook insights, not everyone clicks on every tab
• Good question on strapless gowns that has good comments
• Good responding to comments made by the page admins

What could be improved?

• I landed on their wall, but I have NO idea as to what they do, I see some nice looking cards, but the info box, tells me absolutely nothing…..  This has to be fixed up.  Currently Facebook is only offering 2 options for new visitors to a page, the wall or info tab, no more welcome landing tab 😦 so it is even more important that this box is filled in.  If the landing tab option changes, I will let you know
• The info tab, tells me that they do wedding stationary, but it hardly contains any keywords, what is so great about this wedding stationary vs. another companies?
• I don’t know where this company are based… well I do because of the phone number it’s the US, but where?  This may impact people’s decisions, plus do you ship overseas?  There are a couple of countries outside of the US! 🙂
• There is next to nothing in the company overview, remember social networking is all about adding a human angle to a company.  Tell us when it started, where it’s based what it can do for customers
• I can subscribe to the Bride Vibe which is good, but what is it?  I am guessing an enewsletter?  But it might not be, try to look at everything from the view point of an outsider, and if you’re not sure ask someone who knows nothing what they think you mean.  Remember people are busy, they don’t have time to second guess what you mean, make it easy
• Looking at the reviews in the boxes tab it seems that these guys do more than just wedding invitations, so why isn’t this made more of?  Why not have whole tab using FBML to show people what can be done
• The reviews apparently come from a site called Wedding Wire, so why not include that site in the information tab – make it easy for people
• They have a big area (180 by 540) for the profile picture, why not use it to show off more of the products
• What about including the blog feed onto a tab using the networkedblogs application so that people can easily read it, at the moment an RSS feed is posting the blogs onto the wall, but with networked blogs they would post onto the wall and have then all on one tab
• They could add the notes tab and have notes of collections that people have ordered, lots of people need visuals to understand what can be done
• There is too much posting of just links/rss feeds without any conversation going on.  They need to be communicating more by asking questions, making suggestions.  The best way to do this is monitor what is and isn’t working by counting the number of comments and likes different posts get and then focus more on those ones which are getting the results, but also ask the likers what they would like to see
• There are some great save the date widgets on the website, could these be changed into app’s that people can download and add to their personal profile?  It would help spread the word about the company and add value to brides
• There are other free tools on the website, such as computer screen wallpaper, these should be promoted on the Facebook page, so that people get more value from the page, rather than just info on the product
• They could incorporate another poll asking people to vote on their favourite designs, this gives people an idea of what designs are available, or ask visitors which products they used for their wedding day

If you would like your Facebook Page reviewed by Social Rabbit and posted on the blog you can for a special price of $49.95.  Previously all pages have been reviewed for free, but we have been inundated with people wanting their page reviewed, so we have decided to introduce a small charge.  When you get your page reviewed you get awareness for your business, as well as ideas on how to improve your page.  Each page review is put on the Social Rabbit blog, Social Rabbit Facebook page and tweeted out via Twitter, so you are getting your business seen by over 3000 people!  Book your page review now! GO TO THE SOCIAL RABBIT FACEBOOK PAGE, CLICK ON THE STORE TAB THEN CLICK ON SPECIALS

No more welcome landing tab unless you have over 10,000 likers

Good Morning, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

Well this Rabbit woke up this morning only to find out that the world of Facebook as we know it has changed (again).  There was a message yesterday (May 19th) in the developers chat room that explains what has happened to the landing/welcome tabs of Facebook pages.  Below is the message

Hello all,

We apologize for not messaging this earlier. Facebook recently made a change requiring that Pages be authenticated before enabling the ability to set a landing tab beyond Wall or Info. To be eligible for authentication, a Page must have greater than 10k fans or the Page admin must work with their ads account manager. If you are already working with an account representative, please contact that representative to begin the authentication process. If you do not work with an account representative, you can use this contact form to inquire about working with an account representative.

Also, for advertisers who don’t have a representative or 10k fans, and want to run ads and land users on a specific tab, you can still do so with standard Facebook ads by making their Destination URL as the URL incl. your tab.  Unfortunately, this currently will not work with “Fan”  ads.

Thanks,
Matt Trainer

What this means to the regular small business owner is:

• You have to have 10,000 likers or more on your page to choose that they land on a welcome tab, otherwise you only have the choice of the wall or info
• Alternatively if you spend over $10,000 a month with Facebook in ad’s and have a Facebook account manager you can choose where they land
• You can still have a welcome tab and give it out to people as a URL when directing them to your page from outside Facebook, however you will have to give them a URL like this: http://www.facebook.com/SocialRabbit?v=app_10442206389 which just looks ugly!
• If you are using Facebook ad’s to drive people to your page again they can only land on the info or wall, unless you have over 10,000 likers

With only 4% of pages having more than 10,000 likers (source: Sysomos) this seems to be a crazy move by Facebook.  With people already angry about privacy, they are now annoying business owners, who run Facebook ad’s and therefore contribute to the millions that Facebook makes.

It’s MADNESS!!

What do you think of this?  Tell me in the comments or on the Social Rabbit Facebook Page, if you are visiting the page, can you also encourage 7000 of your friends to as well please!

UPDATE: May 21st – Facebook have now changed this back again… for how long who knows

9 ways to Share to Grow

Good Evening, Social Rabbit here with your guide to the world of social media.

Firstly, an apology for all my avid daily readers, yesterday just completely ran away with me and I didn’t blog, so to make up for it, I will blog twice today 🙂

Today’s topic Share to Grow encompasses all that social media is about, the sharing of ideas, value, results, helping others without expecting a return and growing your business based on the fact that people trust you and love what you are doing.

How you can share to grow:

1. Write a blog post in your area of interest/expertise and post it on your Facebook page, on Twitter, on LinkedIn etc.  Add it to http://www.ezinearticles.com have it on your website, share what you know with others, believe me it works!
2. Write a whitepaper (whitepaper’s are basically pdf documents on a topic, usually a few pages long) on your area/passion and give it to people through social media, again it positions you as an expert and allows you to get your brand out there
3. Create a short video and share it on YouTube/Facebook/Twitter, this doesn’t have to be super high tech, you can see what we do on Social Rabbit TV.  If it’s amusing and/or useful it will go viral spreading the word about your business
4. If you have done a presentation recently, as I did today, then create yourself a free Slideshare account and upload it.  The presentation I did on using social media for B2B is now up on Slideshare.  If you look around Slideshare you will see that the presentations are sometimes a few slides and sometimes lots, so you just say what you want to and then put your branding on it, just try to make it topical
5. Use the answers section in LinkedIn (click on the more button on the top navigation to get to it), answer questions from people in your areas of expertise, you will find that you will quickly grow your network and opportunities will start to come your way
6. Read other people’s blogs and make comments – not just a cool thanks comment, but adding value, it could be an example of when you have seen that working, or asking for more clarification, if you add value feel free to put a link back to your site/blog at the bottom
7. Write up a case study of your successes with social media/or other topics, tell the world, don’t be modest.  There are lots of doubters on social media out there looking for ideas and suggestions, so tell them what results you can get.  Plus it helps others when they are writing presentations.  For the B2B preso I did today I struggled to find case studies that actually gave results – a lot of people do not share well.  The case studies can be used when responding to blogs, answering questions on LinkedIn, posted on your blog, tweeted out, posted on slideshare and will get you a lot of exposure
8. If you are using Twitter regularly search on hash-tags that are relevant to your business, and then respond to comments, eg I sent a tweet asking about venues in Brisbane for the events next week, I got a response from a conference centre asking if I needed any help – I liked that
9. If networking groups are looking for someone to talk on an area you are an expert in volunteer (it’s highly unlikely you will get paid), but it is good exposure for your business, and again positions you as an expert and you can share your knowledge with others.  Don’t forget you can approach them as well.

The moral to this story is put yourself out there, you are an expert (in something) so show people.  Opportunities do not very often just land in your lap, instead you have to put the work in for them to fall.

I’d love to hear of any successes you have had sharing with others, please tell me in the comments or on the Social Rabbit Facebook Page.