What's hot in social media?

 The only thing that changes faster than a politician's opinion after an exit poll is what's hot in social media.  And this week's star of the show is Pinterest.

When I first discovered Pinterest I though "How quaint!" and kept on moving.  It seemed like a fun thing but not really of much use to me, even socially - and certainly not for my businesses.  Then somehow I went back for another peek a couple of weeks later and was drawn in by the fun of being able to keep - or 'pin' - the things that made me smile so that I could revisit them at some later date. 

And revisit I did.  And again.  And again.

It was only after a fair few social visits that I began to realise that Pinterest could actually be a good way to share my work and get it seen. 

So I uploaded a dress that I'd made for my sewing venture mooandflo, and sure enough within about 3 minutes I'd got an email saying it had been repinned umpteen times and liked by gazillions of others (where gazillions = maybe five).

I even pinned my flobusiness logo, which has been liked and repinned for heaven knows what reason.  Maybe it's the dashing curve of the line, the bold use of orange, who knows. 

My interest was piqued.

So now I upload and pin most things I make, and I've found it does indeed lead to more views on the blogs and even the odd like on Facebook, though it's yet to lead to a sale.  Whether it's a good use of my time is yet to be seen.

Will it be a continue to be a phenomenal hit?  Will the bubble burst?   Will it prove itself useful to businesses in the long term?  Who knows? 

Either way, I seem to be hooked.

~ Dianne

Facebook Launches 'Offers' - a Coupon System for Businesses

Facebook just can't stand still at the moment - the latest thing to launch are 'Offers'.

What are Facebook Offers?
Business pages will be able to offer discounts to their fans by posting an 'offer' on their Facebook page.

Will they cost anything to create?
No, they are free to use.

How does the customer redeem the coupon?
The customer claims the offer by clicking on it on their Facebook page (a bit like 'liking') after which they will get an email to the address set to their Facebook account.  The emailed coupon can then be shown at the business's real life physical shop to get the discount.  There doesn't seem to be a mechanism for businesses that operate online only.


Excellent - I am going to rush off and create an offer right now!
Whooa there, cowboy.  Unfortunately, unless you are one of the big guns that Facebook has trialing it, 'Offers' are not available to you just yet.  Hopefully, though, it will be rolled out to smaller businesses in the not-too-distant future.

As always, I'll keep my ear to the ground and let you know as soon as there's news.

~Dianne

References:
https://www.facebook.com/help/offers

Video Tour of the New Facebook Business Page Timeline

This video walks Facebook users through the new timeline for business, with detailed help on the many features and what you can do with them.  It's over 8 minutes long but is well worth it, as it's very clear and concise, and covers a lot of the quirks too.

Watch it here 

~Dianne

How To Get Your Facebook Business Timeline

If you want to take a peek at the new business timeline features, go to Facebook's own page and it's all explained there.

In a nutshell:

• if you see the banner at the top of your business page asking you whether you want to use timeline, click 'learn more'.  This takes you to the 'learning more about facebook timeline' page
• Click 'preview your pages' (top left)
• You will be asked to log in as your personal account - do that.  This takes you to a 'page update status' page
• Choose the business pages you want to change over to timeline, turn on preview, and then - if you wish - publish.

That's all there is to it.

This is one of my business pages, post-pimping.

If you want a closer look at the new layout before jumping right in, have a look at these examples


https://www.facebook.com/theamazingspiderman

https://www.facebook.com/Starbucks
https://www.facebook.com/mooandflo

Do let me know what you think about the changes and how easy they were to implement.

~Dianne

Facebook Timeline for Businesses - The Latest

So, the announcement is out and as I awoke this morning in New Zealand there was already a wee banner on my Facebook business page asking me whether I'd like to preview the business timeline.  I said yes - nothing changed.  Hmmm.  Maybe it'll come later in the day. 

Nonetheless, here is a breakdown of what's what with Facebook Business Page Timeline::

• business pages' tiemline will roll out between now and March 30th.
• you can opt into it sooner than that, but by 30th March you'll have no choice.
• once timeline is operational on a business page, it will be the default landing place for visitors.
• the business timeline will have the big banner pics just as the personal timeline does.
• admins will be able to make certain posts appear larger.
• admins will get a new dashboard from which to see stats, comments, notifications, and other key information.
• admins will also be able to put one post per week at the top of their page and have it stay there.
• facebook users will be able to contact a business page direct, by message, privately, just as personal users can contact each other. (That app can be turned off if you don't want it).

So far, from my perspective, that all seems quite sensible and useful.  Here's hoping for a nice smooth transition.

Facebook Timeline for Brands and Businesses - Announcement Due

Facebook are due to announce more changes, and amongst other things they will be bringing in a timeline for businesses and brands.

Announced by Live Stream
They invite us to join them on Wednesday 29th February as they "...announce Facebook's newest and most powerful marketing products."  promising us hapless users that "Facebook and industry leaders will share new solutions, actionable insights, and strategies to drive business growth using social technology."

You can watch it live here.

Thumbs Up or Feed to the Lions?
Whether these changes will be received any better than the personal timeline was is yet to be seen.  Whether they cater for small businesses as well as they giants will be foremost in many minds - certainly the changes late last year seemed detrimental overall to the small business owner.

However, timeline might just lend itself well to promoting brands as it could provide a stream of branding and marketing information that Facebook users can easily access and read, and there's hope that this might be just as useful for us minnows as it is for the giants.

Timing of the Announcement
For us Kiwis, New Zealand is 18 hours ahead of New York, so we will have to be awake at 7am Thursday morning if we want to watch it live.  And it goes on for five hours. Crimminy!

I'm thinking maybe a fair few people will have other things to do at 7am and midday, like, maybe work, so I'll keep you all updated with news as it comes in via the blog and my Twitter stream

Watch this space.
~Dianne

Follow me on Twitter - Dianne Khan @ FloBusiness

Why Twitter is the Best News Source

Twitter is a relative newcomer to the Social Media scene and yet has an astounding following.

Every major event that I have wanted to know about this year has been more widely, more speedily, and more reliably reported by Twitter than the mainstream media.  When the earthquakes hit Christchurch, it was through Twitter that I first got a clear picture of events - which suburbs were hit, the level of severity, and so on.  And if a superstar does anything exciting, well it'll be all over Twitter like a rash within seconds.

Speed
News is tweeted within minutes or even seconds of an event, making Twitter faster than newspapers, radio and television by far.

Wide Coverage
So many people are Tweeting any given event that you will normally have many and varied viewpoints, making it possible to sift through and get a wider version of an event than mainstream media might give you.  It might also allow readers to see opinions and ideas they hadn't considered and which other media might not report.  Follow  two or three media giants as well as smaller fry to get a wide coverage of views.

Multiple Viewpoints
As well as following those you respect and hold similar views to, it's worth following people you don't have common view with.   Why? Well there are two excellent reasons:

1. There is nothing more valuable that considering BOTH sides of an argument, and 
2. Knowing what your adversaries, opposition or competition are saying is invaluable.

Tracking Events - Hashtags
Hashtags are what people add to tweets to categorise them for easy searching.  For example #Oscars or #Australia or #tsunami.   If any big news hits, use the hashtag to track the latest.  To do this just use the search box to get the latest, using whatever hashtag is being used by others.  The busiest ones are listed on your twitter home page so you can always see what is trending, although these are often facetious and not altogether helpful for newshounds or businesses.

Now, make sure your Twitter account is open at all times and check it regularly - you will be amazed what you will learn.

Social Media - is it really that good for my business?

I've met and spoken with a fair few business folk that think having a FaceBook page puts them at the cutting edge of things, and some business owners who don't use any form of social media at all, saying it's a waste of time.  I've got two things to say about that. 

 - Firstly, if you don't think social media has any effect on your marketing then you really don't understand it or what it can do when done well.  And just having a FaceBook page that no-one sees is not effective advertising!

You wouldn't shrug off TV, print or radio advertising so easily, so why shrug off the new age of promotion? 

- Secondly, you might be right about it being a waste of your time - but that doesn't make it a waste of your company's time and money.  If tinkering with the Internet is not your thing, get someone else to do it - pay someone reputable to create the basics for you and show you what to do, then take over from there - or, if you really don't want to faff with computers - get someone to do it all for you - your FaceBook, your Twitter, your blog, and so on.  Pay someone to be the face of your company on social media.

If you do go down the route of paying someone to do your social media for you, make sure you have specific achievements in mind - higher visibility and sales.  Be sure you are told clearly how performance will be measured, and don't be afraid to ask questions.

Anyone can shove a few things on the Internet - for them to be effective, they have to be done in a planned and targeted way and should produce results that can be seen.

Whatever you do, don't be afraid to embrace social media for your company, or you will find yourself increasingly left behind.

Image from http://www.ixlstudios.com/blog-40/259-how-to-avoid-a-social-media-nightmare.aspx