When I started using Facebook it was only accessible to those of us with college/university email addresses. (That was 2005) So, you can imagine that my friend list was pretty limited at that point – to “pals” I went to school with (or had gone to school with back in the highschool). I didn’t worry much about what information I shared about myself because I knew my small group of Facebook friends quite intimately. Now my “friend” list has grown to include family, business contacts, long-lost friends, and those who I barely know (mostly friends of friends). Up until recently this was an “issue” that nagged at me everytime I got a new friend request…..how in the world would I keep being “me” while at the same time not sharing too much with certain people??
Of course one solution is to direct people to a fan page where they can “like” your business instead of being a personal friend. Fan pages are handy for keeping personal and business separate (we have a page for Sunstar Creative and plan on keeping it going strong) and keeping prospective and current customers connected to what’s happening in your business, but here’s the downside: Pages make it difficult for people to get to know, like and trust you as a person.
So what’s the solution? Lists! If you’re not already using lists, get ready for a fundamental shift in how you use Facebook. I feel so much better now having organized the structure of my Facebook account. Here’s the scoop:
You can sort your “friends” into different lists and share information with them accordingly. This way you can make it so that no one except close friends can see when you’ve been tagged in a photograph (phew, those old college party picks are safe now), you can even make it so that your status updates are protected from certain lists of people. There are so many options, but here are the steps:
1. Create Your Facebook Lists
Choose a logical way to categorize people. I have a group of people who I think of as “friends” in general who I give full access to by default. Everyone else I have certain things that they are restricted from seeing. Here is an insight into my lists so you get an idea of how you might want to organize yours:
Close Friends (those who I share the most with and are not restricted from anything) Note: You don’t need to sort these people into a list because the way Facebook works is everyone has access to everything by default and you start restricting access from there. I simply do not restrict access for my close friends. Note #2: In my case, I have sorted close friends into a list because it allows another neat feature: you can view their updates in a separate timeline from everyone else you’re connected to in Facebook by clicking on their list name under “friends” in the left sidebar).
Family (have access to almost everything)
Professional Distance (business contacts, anyone who I don’t include in my inner circle but I still know fairly well – has access to my updates and selected photos and videos)
Quite Restricted (friends of friends, people I barely know, those I don’t want to see even my status updates but I’m not ready to delete as friends)
To create a lists from your Home screen in Facebook:
a) Click on Friends (in the left sidebar)
b) Click the “+ Create List” button (in the centre column)
c) Name the list descriptively so that you’ll remember the name of the list and what type of people are in it. Add people to the list by selecting their names.
2. Set Privacy Settings
Now it’s time to start restricting access for those who are part of your various lists.
a) Click on Account in the upper right corner > select Privacy Settings from dropdown:
b) Click on Customise Settings at the bottom:
c) Manage each area of your privacy by clicking Custom in the drop down menu:
d) Start typing the name of the list you want to restrict from seeing that area and select it:
3. Protect Your Photos
To set who can see your various albums you do this at the time of uploading new albums, or to do it for albums you already have up, select “Edit Album Settings” on the page you’re in for your other privacy settings and complete the same process you just learned:
Conclusion:
It feels great to know who can see what in my Facebook page and to be able to accept friends and business contacts without a second thought. Every time I accept a friend request I add the person to the appropriate list and all is well! I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial and that it gives you the same peace of mind when you set up your account with lists. Cheers!
The home page of your website is an opportunity to ‘wow’ prospective customers. In fact, it might be the only opportunity you ever get if you don’t put your best foot forward. What do I mean ‘put your best foot forward’? Like a job interview, you need to consider your appearance and what first impression you’re making. If you are applying at a tattoo parlour, you’ll make a fool of yourself if you show up in a $2000 Armani suit – but at a Mercedes dealership you’ll most likely be respected on first sight. So, knowing your audience is important. Knowing your strengths is also key. How does this apply to the web? On your website home page, you want to impress your target audience and make them feel at ease. On the note of highlighting your strengths, you don’t want to overwhelm a prospective customer with all of your offerings at once along with twenty calls to action or they’ll struggle with option paralysis.
This is where ’sliders’ come in. Uber popular all of a sudden (with good reason), ’slider’ refers to the rotating slide show you’ll see featured on almost every web 2.0 site this year. This allows company’s to showcase their work and/or their various services or product offerings in an instant without overwhelming a prospect with text. It is a graphical snap-shot of your company aimed to intrigue and elicit click-throughs and deeper investigation.
Below you will see an example of a website we recently launched for a local painting company. It features this slider technology and is worth checking out in the live version so you can see what I mean by “sliders”:
But first, here’s what the website looked like before. You can see that there is no main focus of the site, and little to inspire a prospect to go deeper into the website:
Take a look at the live version of the site to see what I mean by “slider” – it’s a non-flash, search engine and mobile (and iPad) friendly function. Personally, I am really excited about it. What do you think?
HubSpot is a great resource for social media education. If you’re passionate about marketing (for your own business or others’) then I definitely recommend reading their blog or subscribing to their eNewsletters. This morning I checked my email, and I found this presentation from HubSpot. Many of the slides in this presentation jumped out at me, it is so worth browsing through.
Some of my favourites:
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“Social Media Marketing: Enables others to advocate for your business through compelling content”
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“Twitter is like a text message with a BCC: To The World”
This is the redo of a video I often show to begin my social media seminars. Things are changing so fast in this industry that the redo will probably be out of date in a matter of weeks, but that’s the way it goes with the times that we live in, isn’t it?
I was lucky enough to be picked as a panelist to present at the recent BC Social Media Summit at the Vancouver Island Tech Park a few weeks ago. I wanted to share the video footage with you. The image quality is quite dark, but the sound is good. I’m presenting a case study of our client, Creating Occasions, who uses Facebook and blogging very effectively.
Simple definition: a location-based game where you get points for “checking-in” at different locations (today I visited the grocery store, a coffee shop, a pet store, and a convenience store), and adding new locations to the map.
You can “unlock” badges which then show up on your profile. My favorite feature, the ultimate in perpetuating consumerism at local businesses – you can become the “mayor” of a certain location by being the person to visit that location the most. This can become a competition between foursquare users who all frequent the same location. I also really like adding “tips” which are comments about a certain business, and “tags” which allow people to find the location based on those keywords.
“What is the business application for this?” you might be asking. Here are some initial ideas:
Get Repeat Business: Some coffee shops, for example, are giving away free coffee to the current mayor of their establishment – a really fun way to increase customer loyalty! Logan’s Pub in Victoria is doing it. Take a look at Logan’s on foursquare. So is Highland Pacific Golf Course!
Encourage Customers to Share What They Like: People leave “tips” at different locations for their friends. I just left a tip for friends that Fiamo Italian Kitchen has an amazing goat cheese salad. When they visit, or come into proximity to that location, they’ll get my tip.
Keep track of what customers are sharing about your business. Foursquare is looking for businesses that want to participate by giving the mayor of their establishment a deal and tracking their customer’s activity: http://foursquare.com/businesses/
Note of interest:
If your customers can’t find your business, they will often add it to the map – and sometimes incorrectly spell it. This is why it pays to be the first to create your location – ensuring that your patch of real estate is staked-out properly in the wild west of foursquare.
I’m sure we’ll be revisiting the topic of foursquare soon. In the mean time, see a related application I came across that shows you the foursquare posts in any location FourWhere
What are your thoughts on foursquare? Is it something you use, or would consider using?
In April we’re starting our in-depth seminar series on how to use social media for your business at the Ambrosia Centre, and this is the appetizer to that.
Some of the topics we’ll cover:
Why Traditional Marketing is Losing its Appeal
Inbound Marketing – What it is, and how it can help your business
Top 10 Reasons Why Businesses are Getting Involved in Social Media
Twitter & Facebook for Business - Success Stories (Local & International)
It’s time to start using social media effectively for your business. This means learning the etiquette of Twitter, studying how other businesses (both locally and internationally) are succeeding with social media, and learning how to implement an organized “inbound marketing” strategy.
Why bother? Here’s why!
Let’s look at some recent stats:
A Wetpaint/Altimeter Study found companies that are both deeply and widely engaged in social media significantly surpass their peers in both revenues and profits. The study also found that company sales with the highest levels of social media activity grew on average by +18%, while those companies with the least amount of social activity saw their sales decline -6%.
Time spent on social media jumped by 82% between 2008 and 2009.
Naked Pizza, a New Orleans Pizzeria that specializes in healthy pies, set a one day sales record using social media. In fact 68% of their sales came from people “calling in from Twitter.” On top of that, 85% of their new customers were from Twitter. So, yes, social media does work for small businesses.
The Workshops
Hosted in beautiful downtown Victoria at the Ambrosia Conference and Event Centre (638 Fisgard St.), this series will feature a combination of lecture-style learning and mastermind break-out sessions in small groups. A tasty, energizing brunch will be served mid-way through each workshop and refreshments will be available through-out. This series is a lot of fun and past participants enjoyed following one another and tracking their progress with inbound marketing.
What others are saying about Marketing 3.0:
“It was a great combination of lecture and interacting with small groups so we could learn and receive suggestions from each other. Terri is a great wealth of knowledge!” Christine Ball, The Oswego Hotel
“Astounding, practical, great group process” Dr. Joseph Martin
“Terri – thank you for opening my eyes to the unlimited possibilities social networking offers me – it is soooo win-win!” Joanie McCorry, Perido Tulips
“Because of the cutting-edge skill I learned in these workshops, I have absolute confidence in the speedy success of my new business.” Aaron Banfield, The Sanctum
“I’ve learned that social media is a requirement. I can’t avoid it.” Devin Craig, Investors Group
“I’ve come away with a great understanding of social media marketing and inspiration to utilize much of what was presented and discussed” Richard Swinden, Halcyon Communications
Session Schedule
Saturday, April 17, 2010 8:30am – 12 noon
Inbound Marketing: Your clients are surfing the internet – are they finding you?
Twitter: Why and ‘How-To’ use it for your business.
Saturday, April 24, 2010 8:30am – 12 noon
Facebook for business: How to get results with fan pages & advertising
LinkedIn: Maximize the potential of online connections
Saturday, May 1, 2010 8:30am – 12 noon
Blogging: One of the best marketing tools of 2010
Putting it all together: creating your company’s inbound marketing strategy
Time management, reputation monitoring & management
Cost
If you decide you want to attend only one or two sessions, they can be paid for individually at $89 plus tax per session. Attend all 3 sessions for only $250 plus tax.
In the past, this event has sold out quite quickly, so please register online (no need to pay online – just enter your name and email address to reserve your space). You will be given the details of where to mail your cheque to solidify your booking. REGISTER NOW
One of the best things you can do when you first join the Twittersphere (and something you’ll continue to do regularly if you know the power it holds) is to re-tweet (RT) the tweets of others. (Read to the end of this article to see what a re-tweet looks like and how to do it yourself)
Reasons to Re-Tweet:
1) It shows you actually read the tweets of others instead of just logging in to do your own tweeting. This behaviour of logging in to post your obligatory tweet for the day is especially common for businesses. They see their twitter stream as a place that should be filled only with news about their business, promotions and so forth. The problem with this is these businesses are are using a “social” network yet they are treating it like a space to broadcast the corporate monologue (think one-way communication like commercials on TV). Re-tweeting can really be your friend here because it breaks up the monotony of the corporate monologue. This brings me onto my next point…
2) Re-tweeting is a way to give back. If you take the time to read someone’s tweet, follow the link to whatever they are referring to (if there is one), and decide to re-tweet it out to your followers – the person who wrote it will be delighted. Think about it – you’re basically telling them “I am helping you to get the word out because I think what you tweet about deserves to be passed on!” – what a compliment! For example, just a week ago Origin Gluten-Free Bakery opened a retail location in Victoria so I re-tweeted one of their messages that jumped out at me:
3) It’s also a great way to subtly get on to someone’s radar. Perhaps it is someone who you want to “get in good with” because they are a mover and shaker in the twitter community, a prospective customer, or potential referrer. Perhaps it is someone who you are following but who hasn’t yet followed you back. You can also re-tweet someone’s tweet even if you don’t follow them yet – so it’s a great way to try and build your following without having to “follow to be followed”.
4) Retweeting is a way to acknowledge a new tweep and help them to build their following. If you notice that someone is brand new to Twitter, you can either mention that to your followers such as “Welcome to Twitter @________” or you can re-tweet one of their recent posts.
Why do you re-tweet? Let us know in the comments below.
How to Re-Tweet
1) Twitter has introduced a “re-tweet” button which makes it super easy to do, and then you can find your re-tweets in the sidebar.
If you use the button, though, you have no opportunity to post your own comments or edit the post in any way. Here is a re-tweet using Twitter’s “Re-tweet button”:
Here is the old-school way of re-tweeting where you copy and past the tweet, add the RT and the @ symbol before the tweep’s username, edit the tweet down if it’s too long, and add any comments you want at the end:
Programs like hootsuite make it easy to RT and add comments without you having to copy and paste. You will also see that some people use “via” instead of “RT” – it means the same thing.
Elements are preceived as either figures (objects of focus) or ground (the rest of the perceptual field)
The figure-ground relationship is one of several principles referred to as Gestaltprinciples of perceptions. It asserts that the human perceptual system separates stimuli into either figure or ground elements. Figure elements are the objects of focus, and ground elements compose an undifferentiated background. This relationship can be demonstrated with both visual stimuli such as, photographs, graphic design (figurative or abstract) and auditory, such as soundtracks with dialog and background music.
When the figure and ground of a composition are clear, the relationship is stable; the figure element receives more attention and is better remembered than the ground.
In unstable figure-ground relationships, the relationship is ambiguous and can be interpreted in different ways; the interpretation of elements alternates between ground and figure.
or
Can you spot the dalmation?
Below is an example of how figure-ground relationship applies to logo design:
Here the company name is the figure…
and here the company name is no longer the figure and therefore receive less focus.
The visual cues that determine which elements will be perceived as figure and which are ground are:
The figure has a definite shape, whereas the ground is shapeless
The ground continues behind the figure
The figure seems closer with a clear location in space
Elements below a horizon line are more likely to be perceived as figures, whereas figure above the horizon line are more likely to be perceived as ground
Elements in the lower region of a design are more likely to be perceived as figures, whereas elements in the upper regions of a design, are more likely to be perceived as ground
In any design, web design or otherwise, clearly differentiate between figure and groundin order to focus attention and minimize perceptual confusion. Ensure that designs have stable figure-ground relationships by incorporating the appropriate visual cue as listed above. Increase the probability of recall of key elements by making them key figures in the composition.
Latest Entry
Simple definition: a location-based game where you get points for “checking-in” at different locations (today I visited the grocery store, a coffee shop, a pet store, and a convenience store), and adding new locations to the map. 
In April we’re starting our in-depth 
It’s time to start using social media effectively for your business. This means learning the etiquette of Twitter, studying how other businesses (both locally and internationally) are succeeding with social media, and learning how to implement an organized “inbound marketing” strategy.
