Facebook is rolling out a new feature today, the Facebook Subscribe Button. It allows people to get public updates from others whether or not you are Facebook friends. It also allows people to decide what content they want to see from their Facebook friends. Here’s what it will allow you to do:

•     Choose what you see from people in News Feed
•     Hear from people, even if you’re not friends
•     Let people hear from you, even if you’re not friends

How the Subscribe Button works with Facebook Friends
Right now, you don’t have much choice in what friend activity shows up in your feed. If you’re like me, you block all those annoying games, and get bored with some friends’ content, but other than blocking someone completely, there’s no way to filter it. With the new subscribe feature, you will be able to choose what you’d like to see. Here are the options you’ll have:

• All updates: Everything your friend posts
• Most updates: The amount you’d normally see
• Important updates only: Just highlights, like a new job or move

You should start seeing the Subscribe Button on personal profiles in the upper right corner of the page, as Facebook has started rolling this out today. However, it’s important to know that it will only show up on profiles for people who have opted in to the feature.

How the Subscribe Button works with Non-Friends
If you want to allow non-friends to see your public updates you must opt-into the subscribe button. Then, anyone who wants to subscribe to your public updates, can click the subscribe button on your personal profile. They will only see the updates you designate as public. They will not see information that you have previously set for friends only.

After you allow subscribers, you can decide who can comment on your public updates and whether or not you want to get notifications for new subscribers. To do this, click the Subscribers link that will be on the right side of your profile page. From there, you can also manage your subscriptions, by clicking the Subscriptions link.

How to Allow People to Subscribe
To allow people to subscribe to your public updates go to the Facebook Subscribe page and click Allow Subscribers. Facebook also has a short Facebook Subscription FAQ that you might want to read.

How to Post Public Updates
This isn’t a new feature but if you’re not sure how to post public updates, it’s easy. Just click the drop-down under your status box, and click on public. After you post your update, if you want to go back to posting for friends only (or another custom setting) be sure to click the appropriate option in the drop-down box again.

If you aren’t sure if an update you posted was public or not, just look for the icon off to the right of your post. If it’s the little globe, it’s public. The silhouette icon means it went out to friends only, and if it’s the gear icon, it went out to a custom group of people that you specified. For example, I made this update public, so it has the globe icon on the right.

I’ve been toying with the idea of setting up a Facebook page in my name, but just haven’t been sure I want to go that route. I have it made, and it’s sitting in “visible to admins only” mode for a while.  Now that Facebook has introduced the new Subscribe Button I think I’ll let that page sit there for a while longer. I already have a personal profile and a number of pages, so being able to use my personal profile for personal and business reasons may be a real time saver. If you want to subscribe to my public Facebook updates, go here.

. . . or, how doing the right thing in a tough situation can actually help your business.

Pet food companies are notorious for trying to bury their pet food recalls. It shows a real lack of respect for their customers as well as a lack of understanding of how social media works. They have been known to do all of the following, which are all pretty darn shady:

• Post recalls on their website, but in a place very few people (if any) will find them.
• Post press releases or other announcements about recalls late on a Friday night, a holiday,  or on a weekend.
• Don’t post them anywhere on their website. Instead, they let the FDA post them.
• Don’t use their own social media accounts to let people know about the recalls.

Pet owners are getting wise to these slimy tactics though. Many of us keep our eyes out for recalls and are eager to get the word out whenever we see them. I, for one, scramble to post a pet food recall at PetsitUSA. Many times, recall notices pop up on blogs and social media accounts long before they appear on the company websites. And we quite often call out a pet food company when we think they are jerking customers (and their pets!) around. Some pet food companies are learning though.

Recently Purina had to recall some cat food (FYI, here it is:  Purina One Vibrant Maturity recall) because of possible contamination with salmonella. Rather than try to sweep the recall under the rug, they set up pay per click ad campaigns on Google, Bing, and Yahoo to announce it. It’s been almost three weeks since the recall was announced, and their ads are still showing up in searches. Here are some screenshots of the ads:

Why publicize their own recall?

It’s simple, really.

The recall happened. It’s a fact. People ARE going to talk about it, so it’s best if people can hear about it from the source, Purina. The truth is, Purina will likely lose customers due to the recall. But, they’re going to lose a lot less than they would have if they tried to hide the recall. And my guess is that they will even gain customers because of the way they handled it.

Rather than letting social media work against them, Purina has figured out how to make it work for them, the pets who eat their food, and their customers. And not only is it the right thing to do, but it’s damn good PR as well! This isn’t just about pet food recalls though, it’s about how companies can use social media to their benefit, even in a tough situation. Many companies are catching on, and Purina’s just one example.

Even though social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, and others are essential tools to marketing your business, your website is still important! I see a number of people getting into social media, which is way important, but they’re not setting up their own website, which I think is just as essential. Here’s how I like to explain it to my clients . . .

Your world headquarters

Think of your website as your world headquarters. This is where you can show everyone what you have to offer, talk about the company background, when it was founded, your company philosophy, offer testimonials, have a blog where you can interact with visitors, give people a way to contact you, etc. Just like the world headquarters for any brick & mortar company, your online world headquarters is the ultimate destination for your business.

Your branch offices

While your website is your online world headquarters, your social media accounts are like branch offices for your business or like a kiosk in a mall. They give people an idea of things like:

• The ability to purchase products or services
• Your location (your website and brick and mortar location)
• Testimonials from clients/customers
• Contact information
• A little bit about the people behind the business
• How to visit the main office

The McDonald’s effect

When you have branch offices, you’ll have a presence in areas people frequent, which means more visibility. Think of McDonald’s. Whether you like them or not, they’re everywhere, and because they’re everywhere, most of us think McDonald’s when we think of fast food. The same strategy will hold true online. If people see you wherever they go, they’re more likely to think of you when they need a product or service your company offers.

And, where are people online today? Facebook, Twitter, Yelp, YouTube, and many other social sites. And, remember, it’s not just people who visit these sites who are likely to see you. Since search engines are incorporating more and more social sites in their results, if you’re active on them, you’re upping your chances of appearing on Google too.

You’re your own landlord

Let’s go back to the kiosk idea for a moment. Companies that operate out of kiosks have to conform to certain standards. Their carts have to be of a certain type, they have to present their products in a specific way, have special signage, etc. In other words, they must adhere to set ways of doing things. It gives them great exposure, but it may limit their creativity a bit. Social sites are the same. While they provide excellent ways to get noticed by more people, you might want to do something that’s simply not available on one of these accounts. Because you have a website though, you generally have much more freedom to do what you want.

Another thing to keep in mind, is that if you have your own website, you won’t run the risk of becoming a victim if one of the social sites you’re using changes drastically or even goes away. GeoCities is a good example of this. GeoCities provided people with a way to set up free websites and many used them for their small businesses. Then, in 2009, the service was discontinued and the websites were gone. People who didn’t move their files over to a different hosting account were lost. And even then, because they’d built up their SEO on URLs based on their GeoCities site, when they changed to a new host, they had to start over. Social sites are similar in that you’re at their mercy if they make major changes or discontinue their services.

Credibility

Having a website helps solidify your online presence and lends a bit more credibility to your company than if you just had social media accounts. However, your website and your social media accounts should work together so that when people visit one, they can easily visit the others if they like. So, even though your Facebook page, Twitter, etc. may be the main way you interact with people, it’s in your best interest to have a solid website as your online world headquarters.

When emailing someone through LinkedIn, you’ll have the option to hide your email address from them. If you hide your email address from someone who has their LinkedIn account set up to forward emails to their inbox, they will need to login to LinkedIn to respond.  Letting them see your email address means they’re more likely to hit the respond button and reply to you right away. This short video goes into a bit more detail, and shows how to ensure your email address is viewable to the recipient.

I get quite a few emails every day, and like to respond as soon as possible. But when I get ones sent through LinkedIn without a return email address, quite often I’ll let those wait til the next time I login to LinkedIn. I’d much rather email right away and get it taken care of, but there are times when I just don’t want to break my stride and switch to LinkedIn.

Some Facebook page admins can now change the name of their page. So far it looks like only pages with fewer than 100 fans have this option, and from what I’ve read, that’s probably how it’s going to stay. According to Inside Facebook, the most likely reason this feature is only available for pages with fewer fans is because Facebook doesn’t want people setting up generic pages and then changing the topic of the page later.

If your page has the option to change the name, you’ll see it in your admin area.  It’s important to note this does not affect your custom URL. If you do make a change, keep in mind that your fans will not be notified, so it’s best not to change it completely. If you do, make sure you let your fans know what you’ve done. And, if there are any other changes that go along with the name change, be sure to announce that as well.

You’ll also notice some nice changes in the admin area. The navigation buttons are over to the left of the page. I don’t see any change in functionality, but I do like the new layout.

To see the new layout, and see if your page has the name change option, click the “Edit Page” link on the left sidebar of any page you admin, or go to the Ads and Pages link on your home page.

If you’ve ever shared a link on Facebook, you may have noticed that the title and description that shows up aren’t always what you’d like them to be. For example, if you want to share an article you found in the local online newspaper, it might show the name of the newspaper in the title instead of the title of the article you want to share. You can actually change that and this tutorial I put together shows you how.

Changing the title and description on the link you want to share on Facebook can make the link more interesting to your readers, which means they’re more likely to click. It can also be used to add just a bit more SEO juice to your Facebook page (as opposed to your personal profile).

If you don’t have a Google Profile yet, you may want to consider setting one up for a number of reasons.  To see what one looks like, take a look at mine.

First, what is a Google Profile?

It’s a personal page where you are able to share information about yourself on the various Google services, but it’s a lot more than that too. It’s a publicly available page you can use to tell people a bit about yourself and your business, and add links to your blog, website, Facebook page, Twitter account, etc.

Why should you have a Google Profile?

• Think about it – it’s a Google product! Since they like their own stuff they’re going to make sure your profile shows up when people search for you. If you have a profile, and use your full name, it’ll show up at the bottom of the first page when someone searches for you on Google. (Search for me to see what I’m talking about – Therese Kopiwoda.)
• Your Google Profile can serve as a holding page for all your stuff. Since you can add links to all your social media accounts and websites, it’s a great way to give people a snapshot of who you are. Rather than directing people to your accounts separately, you’ll give them the URL to your page on Google and they can go from there. Better yet, get your own domain and redirect it to your profile. It’ll be easier to remember than the default URL (and probably shorter). Mine is simply www.ThereseKopiwoda.com.
• If you have a business you want people to find it, and since people want to know who they’re doing business with, your Google Profile is an excellent way to give people the info they’re looking for. In this way it helps build your total online presence – both for your business and yourself.
• Anybody who’s looking for a job needs to have a Google Profile! Hiring managers will look for you online before they call you for an interview. If you have a well-crafted profile with links to some of your accounts, and even some recommendations, your potential employer will find it.

How to set up your profile
Google Profiles are super easy to set up. Go to their setup page and follow the directions. It’ll only take a few minutes, and  you can tweak it as often as you’d like.

With over 400 million active users on Facebook, you know there’s a lot of spamming going on. A lot of Facebook spammers are looking for that small percentage of people who will fall for whatever sales pitch they put out. There are others though, who are making a real effort to use Facebook to market their business, make friends, or just learn their way around the most popular social networking website around. Unfortunately, they may not be aware of the fact that what they’re doing is getting them labeled as a Facebook spammer by the very people they’re trying to reach out to.

These five Facebook activities just might get you a big bad spammer label. If you’re guilty of any of them, you might want to rethink your Facebook strategy.

1. Your only activity is Friends, Groups, and Pages

Chances are, you’re trying to build up your friends list so you can blast people with your message – whatever that might be. As a result, the majority of the updates on your profile looks like this:

• Joe and Mary are now friends
• Joe and Andy are now friends
• Joe joined the group We be spammers
• Joe and Frank are now friends
• Joe likes Marketers and Spammers
• Joe and Michael are now friends
• Joe likes I Love Spam!
• Joe and Susan are now friends
• Joe likes I’m going to sell you all sorts of stuff
• Joe and Angela are now friends
• Joe and Steven are now friends
• . . . and the list goes on . . .

2. You should LIKE THIS!

You’re constantly sending page suggestions to all your friends – sometimes for the same pages over and over again. It’s fine to send a suggestion now and then, but when you send your friends suggestions constantly they’re likely to get tired of it.

3. You send friend requests to people you have absolutely no connection with.

You send a friend request to somebody you don’t know, and have no common friends. When the person you want to be friends with sends a message back asking if you know each other, you either don’t respond or you send a snotty reply.

If you really want to be friends with someone you don’t know, and have a good reason for wanting to do so, include a short note with the friend request. Just click the “add a personal message” and let the person know why you’re sending the friend request.

4. Using other Fan Pages and Groups to sell your stuff

You join Facebook Groups and Like Facebook Pages so you can post messages about your business. Recently someone became a fan of the PetsitUSA Fan Page and promptly posted a message that said

“PetsitUSA is now a favorite page of @my-facebook-page. Please make our page a favorite of yours.”

When I went to the Facebook Fan Page mentioned, I saw about 40 favorite fan pages listed, and each one of them had the very same message posted that was posted on the PetsitUSA Fan Page. Spammer.

5. It’s all about YOU! YOU! YOU!

Everything on your business page is all about you or your business. “Buy this!” “Look at me!” “Our company is wonderful!” Blah … blah . . . blah . . .

Sure, we all know Fan Pages are quite often set up to help sell a product or service, but rather than giving a constant sales pitch, interact with the people who like your page. Remember, it’s called social media for a reason.

Doing some of these things may seem like the right thing to do to get business, but think about how you feel when someone is constantly trying to sell you something. It gets old real fast and tends to backfire! There are lots of people who will go out of their way to avoid companies that are use the “in your face” approach to selling their products or services.

Facebook is at it again. This week they’ve announced some pretty major changes in the way your personal information is used. One of these changes is how your Facebook profile will be integrated with other websites – currently Microsoft Docs, Pandora, and Yelp. They call it “instant personalization” and you may or may not like it.

The way instant personalization works is that when you are logged in to Facebook and then go to Yelp, for example, you will see what your friends are up to on Yelp. And, of course if you have an account your friends will be able to see what you’ve been up to as well.

In addition to you and your friends seeing what you’re all doing, instant personalization allows the partner websites (Microsoft Docs, Pandora, Yelp) to access any information on your profile that you’ve set as viewable to everyone. This includes your name, profile picture, gender, where you live, friends list, and pages.

By default, Facebook has instant personalization set to be on but if you’re concerned about having your information carried over to other websites there is a way to opt out of it. There are a few steps involved in opting out though – it’s not as easy as just checking a box. You can uncheck the “allow” box in your privacy settings, but doing that doesn’t stop your friends from sharing your information. (You didn’t really think Facebook would let you out of it that easily did you?)

The folks at Electronic Frontier Foundation have put together a good step by step video on how to opt out. The thing to remember is that you’ll have to opt out of each website individually. And because Facebook intends to partner with more websites you’ll need to go through the process in the future if you want to opt out of each one.

Here are the links to the applications so you can block them:

Microsoft Docs
Pandora
Yelp

When someone comes to your Facebook Fan Page will they know immediately what your page is about?

Clicking onto a Facebook Fan Page can be like opening the door to a party that’s already started. You walk in and see groups of people chatting away about various subjects. At any one party, a small group of people may be talking about an upcoming charity event, others may be exchanging ideas on how to make a better spaghetti sauce, and still others may be talking about the weather.

If the person holding the party is a good host, he or she will greet you at the door, welcome you in, and maybe even show you around a bit. If the host isn’t all that great you may walk into a party where you don’t know anybody and feel a bit out of place. You might even leave without talking to anybody.

A Facebook Fan Page can be a lot like that party, with your wall as the main gathering place. It can be a bit confusing to newcomers if it’s not crystal clear what your fan page is about. When people land on your wall, they’ll see all the conversations going on but that doesn’t guarantee they’ll know exactly what your page is about. If people are talking about cats and dogs, they’ll get the idea that your Fan Page is probably centered around pets, but will they know for sure that you’re a pet sitter and that you take care of pets in Indianapolis, Indiana?  They’ll probably catch on sooner or later, but wouldn’t it be great if they knew as soon as they got there exactly what you wanted them to know about your page and why you’d like them to become a fan?

This is where a custom landing page comes in.

Your custom Facebook landing page serves the same function as that host (that would be you!) at the party. Since you can’t be there every single minute to welcome visitors and tell them what’s going on, your landing page does it for you. You can explain exactly what your page is about, let people know you’re happy they came, and give them a call to action. You might want them to download a free report, join your mailing list, or simply write on your wall. And, in order to write on your wall, that person is going to be required to become a fan of your page!

Unlike the standard info page on Facebook (which you do want to fill out), a customized landing page can be eye catching and include graphics, videos, and more. In fact, some people even use them as mini websites – sort of like a satellite office to their website.

Adding a custom Facebook landing page isn’t that difficult if you know html. You’ll create your page in something like Dreamweaver, install the Static FBML app onto your page, and then put the html code into the fbml.

See a few of the Facebook landing pages I’ve designed to get an idea of what I’m talking about.