The 7 Easiest Ways to Lose Business on the Web

Even the big guys do it. The huge corporations with massive research budgets, who hold focus groups and have en entire team devoted to decoding web site traffic, where they’re going wrong and what is working for them. Even these guys make some of these mistakes. But they are not immune. Whether your business is a small, home-run, one person operation, or a massive, international corporation, if you employ any of the following tactics on your web site, it is 100% guaranteed that you are losing customers.

1. Methods of contact. You’d be surprised how many web sites are out there who still don’t have clear, explicit details on how to get in touch. Beyond that, the majority of web sites out there offer only one or two means of communication. It is fact: people have their own preferred method of contact, be it email, forms, phone or drop-ins. Sometimes they prefer to message you over Facebook, and sometimes, even an @mention on Twitter is how they want to get your attention. Whichever it is, if you’re not offering it, they’re not going to stick around to tell you. They’re just going to leave. It amazes me how many companies out there won’t post their email address as a clickable link. While I totally understand the absolute frustration that comes with immense amounts of spam, you have to ask yourself, “is not getting a lot of spam more important to me than getting those potential customers who have left because they can’t click to send me an email?”. I myself leave web sites on a daily basis if they don’t have a clickable email link.

2. Music. I’ve been working on the web for 10 years and this remains my number one pet peeve. I can’t believe the absolute lack of respect some people show by putting auto-loading music or sounds on their web site. 99.9% of the time I am surfing the web, I am at work and a large number of other web surfers are at work while they browse the internet. If I go to your web site while someone in my office is on the phone, I would be interrupting an extremely important phone call. Even worse, if I am in a meeting or on the phone myself. This happens almost daily, as my clients and I look over other web site for ideas. Other people could get in trouble and will avoid your site at all costs while at work. Is this what you want? Is having some awful music on your web site worth losing a lot of potential customers and clients because they leave your site the second they hear the first note?

3. Entrance pages. Think about it. It’s an extra step people have to take to get to your sales pitch. What logic is there in that? Absolutely none. And in many studies, entrance pages have proven to be the number one cause of lost sales on web sites.

4. Flash sites – beyond the fact that these are not very SEO friendly, which means you have less of a chance to rank well on Google, Yahoo! and Bing, they also demand certain software, they alienate a lot of mobile phones, including the iPhone, and they make the forms within them incapable of being filled out with auto-fill, and a lot of people won’t bother to fill out a form they can’t use auto-fill to fill out. Sites that are entirely in flash are the number one way to make sure you’re losing the most business possible on the web.

5. Unoptimized images – Massive graphics that have not been optimized for the web can make your site slow loading for a lot of users, including the mobile phone users, which is a rapidly growing portion of web users. If your web site takes more than a few seconds to load, unless you’ve posted the cure for cancer, expect no one to wait it out.

6. Physical address – if you haven’t got your physical address posted, you’re probably losing clients. Not because people want to stop-in, but because they feel that a site without a physical address, could be located anywhere and run by anyone. It’s not very transparent and creates an air of distrust on your web site.

7. Lengthy forms - Why, when someone just wants to send you a question about your product or service, would you need their entire mailing address, postal code and all? Do you need 8 different phone numbers for them in this age of voicemail, email an texting? Fax number? Really? Are you going to send them a telegram, too? Here is a general rule to follow when designing your web site: from the moment a visitor loads your front page, each step it takes to get in contact with you is a step guaranteed to lose business. The more you make people fill out in a form, the less likely they will get to the end of that form. So, if you can get away with just their Name, Email and their questions, you’re going to do a lot better than someone asking for their birth date, blood type or level of school completed. Don’t believe me? Check out this jaw-dropping article: The $300 Million Button

When I tell people that one or a few of these things need changing on their web site, I sometimes get the response, “but, everyone tells us how much they love our web site!”. Not true. Only the people who love your web site tell you how much they love it. And I’m sure there are some people who do. However, just because you’re not hearing from anyone that parts of your web site are outdated, inefficient and poorly designed, doesn’t mean it’s not the case. The people who don’t like your web site, will rarely stick around to try and find a way to tell you. I have worked in this industry for 10 years, and been an avid web surfer for much longer, and I personally guarantee that if you practice any of the above points, you are losing customers.

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6 Easy Ways to Save Time Running a Social Media Campaign

One of the first things I hear from people when I talk about Social Media, is that “it’s too time consuming”. While that can very well be the case as it is very easy to get distracted – with a little self-discipline and some handy tools, it does not need to be time consuming at all. Here are some easy ways I go about saving time while running numerous Social Media campaigns.

1. Integrate – this is the easiest and quickest way to syndicate your content across platforms and to get the maximum exposure out of it without having to login to countless networks. Simply integrate them all with each other so that when you post to one social network or your blog, they are all updated. Several tools to help you accomplish this are:

Ping.fm – set up all your social profiles in one place and when you want to update them all, simply login to your Ping.fm account and post your update. It will get sent out to all the accounts, profiles and networks you have set up to work with this service.

Twitterfeed.com – Take any RSS feed, such as the one from your blog, or from your Twitter account or even a Yahoo! Pipe, and send it to Twitter, Facebook, Ping.fm and more.

Twitter Tools – This is a plugin for privately hosted WordPress blogs, which sends all your blog updates to Twitter and allows you to add a Widget to the sidebar of your blog that lists all your recent tweets.

Networked Blogs – An app for Facebook, this tool lets you run your blog RSS feed straight to your Facebook profile or fan page. Whle tere are other apps that do this, Networked Blogs is by far the most reliable and it comes with the bonus of having a blog profile on the Networked Blogs web site.

Feedburner – Feedburner tracks your RSS subscribers, allows you to let people subscribe via email, and you can have it automatically post to Twitter.

A lot of social networking sites have Twitter and Facebook integration built in, such as Foursquare and Glue so don’t be afraid to poke around in the settings and find out what more you can do with your favorite social networking site.

2. Create a Calendar – Utilizing your favorite Calendar software such as Google Calendar or iCal, set up your day-to-day schedule for handling your social media campaign and stick to it. I find this helps a lot with blogging – each day I have a certain type of blog post in my calendar. For example, the calendar for a Music Blog I write for looks like this:

Monday : New music web app review – review of a new, upcoming web app tat relates in some way to music.
Tuesday: A List – any sort of list, 12 easy steps… , 6 ways to…, top 8 ___ of all time… etc. These have the most potential for becoming viral.
Wednesday : Video of the Week: Choose a music video you like, and post it.
Thursday : Upcoming concerts – a list and info for concerts in the area.
Friday: Follow Friday – feature a cool music-related Twitter user.

There are so many more types of blog posts you can write as well: book reviews, recipes, photo of the day or week, or if you’re running a business perhaps customer of the week, product profiles, promotions, employee of the week, interviews, polls, questionnaires, and lots  more. I find that having this already figured out beforehand, coming up with a topic becomes that much easier.

You can also include in your calendar, Facebook page updates, Twitter updates. Allot yourself 15 minutes each day for each, to respond to your fans and followers, post your own comments for the day and maybe pictures or videos.  Once the 15 minutes is up for each, leave it be and if it needs any more attention do it when you’ve finished all your other work for the day. I have set up my own calendar to include a visit to Facebook and Twitter in the morning, at lunch and then again at the end of the day if needed.

3. Use your Smart Phone – There are a ton of apps for iPhones and other smart phones that allow you to post to Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Glue, and so many more. Use them, set them up to auto-share your activity or share your activity manually. One example is Shazam – did you know that when you get Shazam to recognize a song, you can then Tweet that you just tagged that song, and post it to your Facebook profile? You can also set up Twitpic so that when you take a picture on your phone, you can just send it to your Twitpic email address and it will be posted to both Twitpic and Twitter. When you shoot a video with your iPhone, in the share menu you have the option to post it to YouTube and if you have your Youtube account setup to share with Facebook and Twitter, all your friends and followers on those networks will see that you uploaded that video.

There are also the apps like Tweetdeck, Facebook, Foursquare, WordPress and Twitter that allow you to access those social networks directly. Post status updates on the go, check in wherever you are, post blog posts while riding the train. All the idle moments you spend waiting in line at the bank or the supermarket, waiting for your check after lunch, sitting on the bus or waiting to board a plane, can all be harnessed and put to good use with your smart phone and a few social media apps.

4. Edit yourself – If you’re one of those people who have a tendency to go on and on and on about something, be conscious of that while you’re writing blog posts, status updates or even emails. The fact is, the longer something is, the less likely people will get to the end of it, no matter how well written or said it is. Always assume your audience is intelligent and can get the point the first time you explain it. Otherwise, it can feel, for a reader, condescending and even insulting at times.

5. Kill Blogger’s Block – There are so many great ways to do this. First, every time you think of something to write about, write it down. I use Things on my phone and sync it with the Things app on my computer, so any time I’m somewhere where I can’t start a blog post, I just add an item in the project in Things that represents my blog, with the subject of the blog post I just thought of. Then, when I am near my computer, I sync the two versions of Things and when I’m stuck for a blog post topic, I refer to that list.

Another way to beat blogger’s block is to subscribe to RSS feeds for blogs and news sources that relate to what you blog about. I use Google Reader to subscribe to RSS feeds – it allows me to star items, which I do when I want to blog about something that I’ve read, or revisit it later when I have more time. When you read something that interests you or that you have an opinion on, write about it and link to the article or blog post you read that spawned your post. This can get the attention of the blogger who posted the item that inspired you, which can lead to comments, link sharing and more readers than usual.

Finally, when all else fails, revert to your FAQ. Frequently asked questions are just that for a reason. A lot of people want to know the answer to them. And if you answer one of those frequently asked questions in a blog post in more detail than they would find in your FAQ, you’ll find that a lot of people appreciate the information.

6. Crowdsource – Ask your readers, your fans and your followers to submit content. Keep a form on your blog for story submissions, allow your Facebook fans to post things on your wall (although keep this closely monitored), have photo and video contests, or even short answer question contests on your Facebook page. Reward your fans for submitting content and being social within your networks, with prizes, or titles (fan of the day), bragging rights and recognition.

social media, twitter, facebook, blogging

Your Facebook Page Checklist Part 5: Integrating Other Social Networks

This is the fifth in a series of Facebook tips that will make up a checklist for you and your company to get the most out of a Facebook fan page.

Most businesses with a Facebook page haven’t limited their social media efforts to just Facebook. Some also utilize Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace, Foursquare and maybe even a blog. If you’ve got other social accounts elsewhere, integrating them with your Facebook page is a great way to cross-promote and use your fanbase elsewhere to increase your fanbase on Facebook and vice versa.

There are many apps and plugins that can help you integrate your other social network accounts with your Facebook page, so lets cover a few of them.

Integrating your blog: So many people are afraid to blog, which is a shame as it’s such a fantastic way to get people to your web site, to create potentially viral content and to really give your customers, clients and fans a sense of who you are. If you have taken that leap, and are realizing how beneficial and actually fun blogging is, then you should integrate it into your Facebook page.

The best way to do this that I have found, is NetworkedBlogs. This is a Facebook application, and you can find it here: http://bit.ly/b70RGi – just click this link, then choose “Add to Page” under the logo, and choose the page you’re working on. Next you want to click “Go To Application” and allow it access to your Facebook info. Once you have installed the application, it will take you to the app itself, where you can click the “Register a Blog” button. Follow the steps to register your blog and once that is complete, you should have a blog profile page in the networked blogs app that looks something like this one: http://bit.ly/dlluJB. When you go to this page for your blog, click “Feed Settings” under the thumbnail image. On the following page, you will have the option to publish the feed to your personal wall, as well as all of your Fan Pages. Click “configure” next to the Fan Page you want to publish it to, and then make sure the button for “Auto-publish blog posts to Page Wall” is selected. At this point, you can publish a test post and go check out your wall to see that it’s working.

What this will do is, every time you post to your blog, a short snippet, a thumbnail and a link to the blog post will automatically be published to your Facebook page’s wall.

There are other apps and tools that do similar things, but I find none of them are all that reliable. NetworkedBlogs has never failed for me and it comes with the bonus of having a profile for your blog on the NetworkedBlogs web site as well as the blog directory for the app on Facebook.

Integrating Twitter into your Facebook page: Again, there are a ton of different apps and tools that can help you send your Tweets to Facebook and your Facebook page updates to Twitter. Any of the following will do the trick:

Twitter for Facebook
Twitterfeed
Ping.fm

Integrating LinkedIn with your Facebook page: This isn’t as developed as Twitter or blogging, but it’s a good way to promote your LinkedIn profile nonetheless. Go to this application: My LinkedIn Profile and click “Add to Page”. Choose the page you’re working on and then go back to the Edit Page screen for that page and find the My LinkedIn Profile app you just added. Click “Edit” and enter in your LinkedIn profile ID and choose whether or not you want to have it as a tab.

Other Social Media sites and apps have Facebook integration built in , such as Foursquare and Glue. Simply login to your Facebook account when it prompts you to.

Another great tool is social media aggregator, FriendFeed. This is where people can follow every social account you have all in one place.

The 5 Most Common Social Media Myths

Everyday, I have at least one person tell me why they will never get involved in Social Media for their business. I can usually deliver a compelling enough argument to change their mind, but I am still continually shocked to hear what some people think Social Media is and how terribly wrong they are. Here are the 5 most common myths I come across in day-to-day business.

1. Social Media is for telling everyone about our daily routine, filling them in on the most mundane aspects of our lives. This is just so not true. I had one person tell me today, and I quote, “I couldn’t care less about what someone had for breakfast”. Of course you couldn’t care less, and I can’t remember the last time a single Facebook or Twitter friend filled me in on what they ate for breakfast. In fact, even though I have a foodie blog and lots of foodie friends, I don’t think I have ever once been told on Facebook or Twitter what someone had for breakfast. I have seen plenty of links to fantastic breakfast recipes, products and places to eat breakfast. I have read countless articles about breakfast and how it can affect your entire day, how to eat an efficient breakfast or how to squeeze breakfast in even in the busiest of routines. But not once have I ever had to read what someone had for breakfast. What most people who haven’t tried social media don’t get, is that the vast majority of social media is used for sharing content. Kind of like the news, except it’s consumer-driven, crowd-sourced. You also have complete control over what you put out there, and what you let in. You can block users who only post mundane events in their life, and you can choose to only share what relates to your business. It’s totally up to you. The bottom line is, however, that whether you’re there or not, someone is talking about you, I guarantee it. Which begs the question, do you want to know and possibly have control over what is being said about you or your brand?

2. Social Media is just another popularity contest. Sure, if you’re a 15 year old girl. But for a business, it’s about getting to know your customers, engaging with them, hearing them and improving your product and service to better suit your target market. It provides a platform with which you can create transparency with ease. It builds trust and brand loyalty and all of these things, eventually, turn into success and money.

3. I don’t think my target market is using Facebook or Twitter. Would you be surprised to know that the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is women over 55? Did you know that the age group with the most Twitter users is between 35 and 54? Even more shocking, did you know that just a couple of months ago, Facebook surpassed Google as the most visited web site in North America? Do you think SEO is necessary for your business’ online success? Then you must see the value in a Social Media campaign, too! These trends are not changing, they are getting more forceful. It is estimated that by the end of this year, Facebook will have 600 million users. That would make it the 3rd most populated nation in the World, if it were a Nation. That’s more people than the USA. That’s more people than Canada. The largest portion of whom are between 35 and 54. Still don’t think your target market is using Facebook?

4. I don’t have time to start another marketing campaign. Social Media is not a marketing campaign. It’s customer service, damage control, marketing and sales all rolled into one. In fact, I consider it a time saver. I can run my business almost entirely within the realm of social media. I can conduct customer service calls, chats and messages. I can sell my products and services. I can refute the misconceptions so many people have about what I do. I can develop trust, loyalty and awareness. AND I can market my company. But the absolute best part, is that once you get that ball rolling, your customers do the marketing for you. They suggest your page to their friends, they comment on your photos, share links on their walls, check in at your stores, and share good experiences with your brand. It is, by far, the easiest way to build a brand in today’s business world.

5. I get enough business from my Yellow Pages listing. While it is always great to be visible in as many places as your taret market is looking, Yellow Pages and other directory type services, have been on the decline for a long time now. With the emergence of Social Media and Mobile apps like AroundMe, unfortunately these once incredibly useful services are going to become obsolete. Relying on them at this stage in the game is a recipe for disaster.

I used to be an SEO (Search Engine Optimizer). When I started out, it was easy and extremely inexpensive to get a great SEO and see great results. As time went by, however, and more and more companies saw the value in it, it became more competitive, more expensive and results took a long time to see. Social Media is in it’s starting stages, like SEO was a few years back. Right now, it’s inexpensive, it’s relatively easy and it’s a whole lot of fun. But if you wait it out to see if it’s just a fad, when you finally do see the light, it’s going to be expensive and complicated.

It is unfortunate that so many people see Social Media in this light, because the fact is, it’s a revolution. It’s very much like the industrial revolution and if you don’t hop on the train now, you’re likely to miss out.

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7 Easy Ways to Update Your Social Media Spaces

Social Media is definitely about being social, but it’s also about content and coming up with new content to post on a daily basis, in several difference spaces, can be a difficult task to manage. Here are some super easy ways to keep your social media spaces fresh and lively:

On your blog:

1. Post a list, kind of like how I am now. It’s one of the biggest fads on the internet right now and it’s because a list seems like less of a time commitment to read. Your audience will know it’s going to be to-the-point and not waste their time. And don’t get stuck on the number 10, mix it up a little. Be creative.

2. Post a link to an article you read recently that relates to your blog content, but don’t forget to post a short commentary in your own words. Give the original author full credit as well.

On Twitter:

3. Retweet something you found useful. Thank the author!

4. Follow Friday, but not on Friday. Choose a great Twitter account to mention, but just one, and tell your followers to check it out and give a short reason why. Don’t forget to put an @ symbol before the username of the account, so that the account owner will see that you’ve mentioned them and be thankful.

On Facebook:

5. Ask your fans a question about themselves that they will be eager to answer. If you’re in the accommodation business, you can ask what events people are attending around town this weekend. If you have a pet related business, ask what kind of dog is best for a family and why. If you have a restaurant, ask your fans which dish is their favorite. There are endless options for what you can ask your fans and have them be eager to answer.

6. Take a poll. Install a polling application on your Facebook page and set up a poll for your fans to vote in. Go controversial if you you don’t mind things getting heated. It can draw in a lot of people.

7. Mention another page in response to something they posted. All you need to do is like the page you want to mention and then on your page, in the “What’s on your mind?” status update area, just type the @ symbol and start typing the name of the fan page you want to mention. It should come up in suggestions. Select the one you want and then type your answer to something they asked. It will show up in both your page’s stream as well as the other page’s stream, so it’s a great way to be visible on someone else’s page while actually contributing to their conversation.

These are a great start, but don’t forget to update the old fashioned way as well, with full-length, valuable blog posts, Tweets about what’s going on in your business, and status updates about your products and services on Facebook.

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Your Facebook Page Checklist Part 4: Your Photo

This is the fourth in a series of Facebook tips that will make up a checklist for you and your company to get the most out of a Facebook fan page.

The first thing people notice when they come across your Facebook page or are invited to it, is your page’s main photo. It is your very first impression and it needs to stand out. Here are some ways to get your photo to stand out:

1. Have fun with the unchangeable aspects of a Facebook page such as the font colors and layout and lines along the top. Utilize the same fonts and font colors that Facebook uses to make it look as though part of your image is actually part of the page. The font Facebook uses is Lucida 11point and the font color is #3b5998. You can also have fun with the line that runs behind your page logo by reading the following article: 5 Creative Ways to hack Your Facebook Profile Photo

2. Utilize the entire available space. Facebook pages have an area of 200x600px available for your page’s image. Use the whole space by creating an image exactly that size. It’s some of the most valuable real estate on your Facebook page, so make the most of it.

3. Use vibrant colors and high quality images. Crisp images & professional graphic design give your Facebook page visitors a sense of professionalism and make it easier for them to become fans.

4. Include contact info. At the very least, have your web site URL in the image.

5. Suggest what to do next. If you have a custom tab you want your Facebook page visitors to hit, suggest it in your image. Tell them what to do next rather than hoping the find something interesting on our wall and sticking around. Include a call to action, like “Sign Up Now!” or “Get Yours, Today”.

6. Finally, allow for Facebook automated cropping that occurs when it makes thumbnails for your page’s image in users’ news feeds. Make all information you do not want to be cut off, appear within 176 pixels in the middle of the 200 pixel width of the image. That way, it won’t get cut off and will appear in the thumbnail. Be sure to edit your thumbnail as well to make sure everyone is seeing what you want them to. Simply go to your Facebook page, hover your mouse over your page’s image and click “Change Picture” and from the drop down list, choose “Edit thumbnail”.

And that ought to do it. Make sure it’s not to busy, doesn’t have too much info and is easy to read and it will prove to be an effective Facebook page  image! Post a link to yours in the comments when you’re done as I would absolutely love to see them!

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Your Facebook Page Checklist Part 3: Engagement

This is the third in a series of Facebook tips that will make up a checklist for you and your company to get the most out of a Facebook fan page.

A lot of people who set up social media accounts and pages miss the mark because they’re forgetting one thing: social media is called that because it is social. You must be social on social media, in order to benefit the most from it. You can’t just throw up a page and expect people to flock to it. If you build it, in fact, they will not come.

So, how do you draw them in?  Here are several tried and true tactics that will give you a great head start:

1. Suggest your Facebook page to friends by using the “Suggest to Friends” link under your logo. Ask your fans, friends and followers to do the same.

2. Ask your fans their opinion on something related to your product or service. Daily. ie. a brand like 7-11 could ask, “what is your favorite flavor of Slurpee?” or a Real Estate agent could ask, “what part of town is the best to live in, and why?”. Don’t ask the same ting over and over, ask new questions. When you first start your page, you may not get a lot of response, but as long as you keep trying, the fans will start to answer your questions, and the greatest part, is that they tend to keep coming back because most users get notified when someone else comments on something they commented on. A quick, easy way to repeat visits.

3. If you have events in the real world, take photos and post them. Use the Facebook photo tagging feature to tag the people you know in those photos, and then the photo will appear in their stream on their profile, and they will be sent a notification that someone has tagged them in a photo. This enables all of their friends to see the photo, drawing them to your page also. Facebook users are always curious to see new photos of their friends.

4. Respond to your fans ASAP. Everyone likes to have something they’ve said acknowledged. Letting a comment on your Facebook page go ignored for days, will only lead to less and less people participating on your page.

Follow these few, simple steps and you will be well on your way to having an active, lively page with many repeat visitors.

If you would like a consultation on how you can make this work for you, click below:

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Your Facebook Page Checklist Part 2: Your Landing Page

This is the second in a series of Facebook tips that will make up a checklist for you and your company to get the most out of a Facebook fan page.

This is probably the single most important thing I can tell you about your Facebook page and getting the most from it: Never let new visitors to your Facebook page land on your wall. This is where you converse with and engage your existing customers and fans and is an important aspect to your Facebook page, but the fact remains, you do not have total control over it because it’s where other people post as well as you. Not allowing your customers and fans to post to your wall is not an option if you’re serious about your Facebook page doing well, because conversation is the whole purpose of social media. If you cut your customers off from engagement on your Facebook page, there’s really no point to having one. You might as well put up a large graphic that just says, “we’re not interested in what you have to say”. Not the most welcoming attitude.

So, to make sure you are encouraging conversation and engagement on your Facebook page, while still making sure your new users are not being put off by anything you haven’t got complete control over, you have to make sure your new visitors land on a static page that you do have 100% control over.

So, how do you do this? It’s really quite easy, actually. When you go to your page, and click “Edit Page” under your page’s profile image, you’ll see a section on the edit page that says “Wall Settings”. When you click that, there is a setting labeled, “Default Landing Tab For Everyone Else”. This is where you select a landing tab of your choice that all new users will see when they load your Facebook page.

You can take it a step further by making a totally customized tab, like the one on my Facebook page. Just go to my page and click the “Join” tab (if you’re not a fan yet, you’ll automatically land there): http://www.facebook.com/MyCrowd – you can see, it is a completely customized tab.

You can do this by utilizing the most useful Facebook application of all, Static FBML. Go to the application page here: Static FBML and then click, “Add to my Page” under the Static FBML logo. A dialogue box will come up with a list of all the Facebook Pages you administrate:

Click the “Add to Page” button next to the page you are working on. You can then go back to editing the page and you will see there is a new box in the list of applications you have installed on your page. It should be called “FBML”. Click edit under that heading, and on the page that opens up, you can edit the title, which will become the title of the tab:

Fill the rest in with plain text, or any HTML or CSS code. You can even create your own graphic as I have in the example above, and just add it to the tab using basic HTML code. Try to keep the width of the graphic to less than 680 pixels though as that is generally what looks good in the area Facebook allows within a tab.

Once you click the blue, “Save Changes” button at the bottom, you can go back to your Settings and you will see that the FBML box has now changed to say the title you set, with “- FBML” at the end. Under that, click application settings and a dialogue box will pop up. Click “Remove” Next to Box and “Add” next to tab. Once you have done that, change the wall settings and make sure that tab is selected as the “Default Landing Tab For Everyone Else”. And that’s all there is to it. Now you have your very own customized landing page for all your new Facebook page visitors.

Great ideas for using this valuable real estate:

• Reasons to click the ‘Like’ button on your page
• Advertise a promotion or contest you have going on
• Suggestions on what your new fans can do next after they’ve clicked the ‘Like’ button
• Newsletter subscription form

You’ll find that the more thought you put into how this landing tab looks, the faster you will gain fans and even customers.

If you would like a consultation with me on how you can best use this space, click below:

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social media, facebook, marketing

Your Facebook Page Checklist Part 1: Vanity URLS

This is the first in a series of Facebook tips that will make up a checklist for you and your company to get the most out of a Facebook fan page.

A Facebook vanity URL is a custom address for your Facebook page. When you first create your Facebook page, you’re given a default address like this: http://www.facebook.com/pages/MyCrowdca/194124965846 and as you can see, it’s not exactly something people are likely to remember or recognize, there is very little branding power and all those numbers and extras are definitely not good for the SEO value.

But that’s O.K. because Facebook allows you to, once you reach 100 followers, choose your own vanity URL or what they call a username. All you have to do, is be logged into Facebook and go here: http://www.facebook.com/username/. Once there, click, “Set a username for your Pages”, and from the following drop-down menu, choose the page for which you would like to set a vanity URL. Taking care to remember that once you select it, it cannot be changed, enter in the username you desire.

I just did this, as my last post can attest, and I hit a bug. Facebook kept telling me that, “Usernames must be at east 5 characters long” even though the username I chose was MyCrowd, which is clearly longer than 5 characters. What I did, after reading around, was just clear the text box, click check availability with the text box empty, and then enter the username I wanted again and click Check Availability again. This worked the first time I tried it, but some people are reporting that they needed to fiddle around with it a little longer. In any case, persistence is key and I’m sure Facebook will have the bug cleared up in no time.

Some tips for choosing a good username/vanity URL:

1. Don’t go general. Facebook is starting to shut down pages with too general a domain name. You are bound by the Facebook terms of use you agreed to when you created your Facebook page, to represent only your brand or business on your Facebook page. In other words, you can’t choose “bikes” or “soup” as your vanity URL. If you happen to sell soup, you’re better off choosing your business name: sarahssoups or something similar.

2. Make it simple. The shorter it is, the more likely people will remember it.

3. Brand it. Your business name is more powerful than any keyword. Use it.

After you’ve chosen your vanity URL, share it with everyone and update all the locations where you have a link to your Facebook page. The username I chose for my company is, of course, MyCrowd, which makes our new vanity URL http://www.facebook.com/MyCrowd

Just take a look at the difference and you’ll see why this is an important step to getting the most out of your Facebook page:

Before: http://www.facebook.com/pages/MyCrowdca/194124965846

After: http://www.facebook.com/MyCrowd

That concludes the first tip in our Facebook Page Checklist. If you liked it, please click the Facebook share button at the top of this post and share with friends. Be sure to check back tomorrow for the next in this series. If you would like to have it sent to you via email so you don’t have to remember to come back, just enter your email address in the sidebar to the right, where it says, “Get New Posts in Your Inbox”.

social media, facebook, consulting

MyCrowd Goes Vain: A New Facebook Vanity URL

With close to 800 fans now, I decided it was time for the MyCrowd Facebook page to finally get it’s own vanity URL. I was a little nervous when I checked the availability for MyCrowd, fearing I had waited too long, but I was in luck. It was available. So, without further adieu, the new vanity Facebook URL for MyCrowd.ca is (drumrolllll) http://www.facebook.com/MyCrowd. Pretty sweet, huh?

To reflect the awesomeness of our new URL, I also added some cool new features to our Facebook page. You can now fill out a short form and have the experts here at MyCrowd Social Media consulting take a look at your Facebook page and within 2 business days, get a checklist of tasks to complete so that you’ll be on your way to increased followers and being able to turn those fans into paying customers. Just hit our Facebook page, click ‘Like’ if you haven’t already, and then choose the “Rate My Page” tab.

You can also nominate your favorite facebook page to go head to head against another in our weekly Facebook Faceoff, just click the “VOTE NOW!” tab for more information. Yes, you can nominate your own page and yes, it is a fantastic way to get new fans to your Facebook page.

To celebrate our new and improved Facebook presence, I am going to be kicking off a series of blog posts that detail a single tip or hack each to get the most out of your Facebook page and your Facebook fans. Keep an eye out for the first in this series today.

social media, facebook, consulting