A Google Profile helps build your online presence

by Therese on May 27, 2010

Google Profiles help build your online presence

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.

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Five things that can get you labeled as a Facebook spammer

by Therese on April 28, 2010

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.

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Facebook Instant Personalization

by Therese on April 23, 2010

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

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Customized Facebook Fan Pages – what and why

by Therese on April 7, 2010

customized Facebook Fan PagesWhen 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.

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Saying thank you is a bit of a lost art

by Therese on March 19, 2010

say thank youOne of my pet peeves is how often people forget to say thank you. I know we’ve all been there. Maybe you sent a quick email to answer a question, did a favor in the real world, held a door open for someone, or any number of things. After all is said and done, the person goes their merry way and we’re left wondering why there wasn’t any acknowledgment. It’s not that people should bow down and pay homage, but a simple little ‘thank you’ can go a long way. Honestly, it doesn’t take long to type or say the words but oftentimes it goes unsaid.

It happens online and in the real world. We just aren’t as polite and respectful as we once were. So, when I went to listen to Peter Shankman, founder of Help A Reporter Out, speak at SXSW, and heard him talk about this very same thing, I loved that he was calling us all out about it. It may seem like a little thing, but it’s not really.

The bulk of Peter’s talk was about how smart self-promoters aren’t out there spamming people with the all too common “I’m great I’m wonderful, I can save your life” type talk. Instead, they’re willing to help others, and as a result they become the type of person who’s looked at as a resource – an expert in their particular field. They respect people enough to understand the 24/7 sales pitch is a real turn off.

Peter also talked about saying ‘thank you.’ It’s all part of being respectful and having manners. It doesn’t take much energy to type out ‘thank you’ and hit the reply button. And it takes even less time to say thank you. So why don’t we do it? Laziness? Disrespect? Too absorbed in watching the world revolve around us? I’m not entirely sure, but we sure as heck don’t do it enough.

With this in mind, I thought I’d try a little experiment – I set up a Facebook page where you can say thank you. You may want to thank your first grade teacher for opening up the world of reading to you. Or maybe you want to thank the guy who let you squeeze into traffic this morning. It doesn’t really matter, just go thank somebody! My hope is that it’ll spark something in each of us and remind us just how important those two little words are, and we’ll all start showing our gratitude a little more often. If we do it enough it’ll become a habit, and what a great habit saying ‘thank you’ could be for all of us.

Now please,  go say ‘Thank You.’

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Facebook profile backup with SocialSafe

by Therese on February 22, 2010

Do you have nightmares about your Facebook profile going away and losing your friends, photos, profile and wall status updates? You’re not alone!

If you were on Facebook at all this past weekend you may have experienced a certain level of panic as things got wonky (prompting some good subject matter for that nightmare.) They were having some server problems that seemed to take forever to get fixed. Strangeness was the norm. The wonkiness kept people from posting status updates, wouldn’t allow people to post on their friends’ profiles or to join fan pages, and even made some fan pages disappear for a while. If you spend much time at all on Facebook, you know this type of thing isn’t new. Unfortunately, it seems to be part of the whole experience.

If you’re looking for a little peace of mind to help keep your profile safe, Social Safe may just be the solution. It’s a downloadable application that backs up your Facebook friends, photos, profile and wall status updates. So, rather than just having all of your data on your Facebook profile, it’ll be safely stored away on your own computer where you can access it at any time. It doesn’t download your friends’ contact information, but you’ll at least have access to who they are. Should you need to restore your entire profile in the event of a catastrophic Facebook episode, you can at least be sure you’ll know who to get reconnected with. (Trying to remember a few hundred Facebook friends if my profile went bye-bye would drive me nuts!)

SocialSafe isn’t free, but it’s pretty darn close at only $2.99. It is well worth the money – and super easy to use. You’ll download SocialSafe, login to your Facebook account with Facebook Connect, and click on download. Once it’s finished you can view your Facebook profile content on your own computer.

Right now SocialSafe is just for personal profiles – it doesn’t backup Facebook Fan Pages yet, but the folks at SocialSafe are working on it. Hopefully they’ll get that worked out soon. And, of course Social Safe is on Facebook.

SocialSafe Explanation .. Introducing Wall Backups from Pascal Wheeler on Vimeo.

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Facebook Fan Page vs. Personal Profile

by Therese on February 15, 2010

Yes! There is a difference between a Facebook profile and a Facebook Fan Page.

Facebook profiles are for people.
Fan Pages are for businesses.

I cringe every time I see someone set up a profile in their business name. Here’s why:

People vs. business
Profiles are intended for people, not businesses. It’s actually against the Facebook terms to use a profile for a business. If the Facebook gods find your profile set up like this, it’s possible they may delete the entire profile. So much for all your hard work getting friends!

SEO
Your Facebook Fan Page can be a part of your Search Engine Optimization strategy. Why is that, you ask? It’s because Fan pages are indexed by search engines. Profiles are not.

If you’re like most business owners, you want as many people as possible to find you online. If you set up a profile in your business name, you’re not maximizing your exposure. Sure, your Facebook friends will be able to see your page, but new people won’t find you all that easily.

Fans vs. Friends
Fan Pages can have an unlimited number of fans. Profiles can only have 5,000 friends. If you’re trying to build your business, why limit yourself? It only makes sense to choose the option that allows you to have more people get on your bandwagon.

One profile – many Fan Pages
You can have multiple fan pages, but only one personal profile. This is important for people who want to promote different businesses or groups. I have my personal profile and fan pages for PetsitUSA, The Pet Food List, and Austin Pet First Aid, which are businesses I own. I also have one for Wishbones for Pets – a pet sitter charity I operate with the founder Janet Depathy, of Under My Wings.

Keep in mind that you can still connect with people on a business level through your personal profile. I use my profile to keep in touch with family and friends, but I also connect with quite a few people due to business reasons. Since people like to know the person behind the business, this is a good way to interact with them.  It’s  also one way for me to create my personal brand. Note: Before using your profile in this way, get clear on the type of content you want to post on  your profile. (More on that in an upcoming blog post.)

Set up a Facebook Fan Page or go to Facebook.com to set up your Profile.

Update (March 31, 2011): Facebook recently made it possible to convert a personal profile to a business page. See this post for more info: How to Convert a Facebook Profile to a Business Page.

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Facebook teleclass, September 22

by Therese on September 14, 2009

Facebook Teleclass

Next Tuesday, September 22 I’ll be doing another teleclass with Kristin Morrison of Six Figure Pet Sitting Academy. This class will be all about Facebook!

If you’re not tapping into the non-stop activity and reaching out to the vast numbers of potential clients on Facebook, you’re missing out on a valuable marketing resource for your business! In this teleclass you’ll learn how to use Facebook to market your business.

Here’s what I’ll be talking about:

  • Why Facebook is an important tool for your business
  • Why you may (or may not) want to grant access to your personal profile to business associates and/or clients
  • How and why to create a fan page for your business
  • Why privacy options on your personal profile are important to your business
  • The difference between a Facebook Group and a Facebook Page
  • Why you want to create a vanity URL for your personal profile and your business page
  • How to find friends and clients on Facebook
  • Using Facebook ads to promote your business
  • How to attract clients and potential customers to your business page
  • SPECIAL BONUS: Facebook Tips and Tools list to get you started after the class
Date: Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Time: 5:00pm PST / 8:00pm EST

How long is this teleclass? 90 minutes (30 minutes will be for Q & A from the audience)

How much: $20 (register by September 15) $30 (register September 16 or later)

This teleclass is being hosted by Kristin Morrision of Six Figure Pet Sitting Academy, and you can register here. As with our other teleclasses, this is open to anyone – you don’t have to be a pet sitter to attend!

I hope you’ll join us!
And, if you weren’t able to make it to our other social media teleclasses, you can purchase and download the classes as well as a tips & tools sheet at my social media website: http://socialmediahound.com/products/

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Is your WordPress blog up to date?

by Therese on September 5, 2009

WordPress is urging anyone who has a self-hosted WordPress blog to update as soon as possible. (Your blog is self-hosted if you have it installed on your own domain. If your blog url is something like yourblog.wordpress.com.)

Right now there is a worm making its way around old, unpatched versions of WordPress. This particular worm, like many before it, is clever: it registers a user, uses a security bug (fixed earlier in the year) to allow evaluated code to be executed through the permalink structure, makes itself an admin, then uses JavaScript to hide itself when you look at users page, attempts to clean up after itself, then goes quiet so you never notice while it inserts hidden spam and malware into your old posts.

The tactics are new, but the strategy is not. Where this particular worm messes up is in the “clean up” phase: it doesn’t hide itself well and the blogger notices that all his links are broken, which causes him to dig deeper and notice the extent of the damage. Where worms of old would do childish things like defacing your site, the new ones are silent and invisible, so you only notice them when they screw up (as this one did) or your site gets removed from Google for having spam and malware on it.

For more information, see the WordPress blog.

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LinkedIn teleclass, Tuesday August 25

by Therese on August 18, 2009

It’s time for another social media teleclass!

How to use LinkedIn to Bring in More Business / Connect with Potential Clients

Date: August 25
Time: 5:00pm PST / 8:00pm EST
Cost: $20 (register by August 18) or $30 (register August 19 or later)
Register here

If you’re not using LinkedIn yet, you’re missing out! I’ve been active on LinkedIn for quite a while and have made many great contacts – pet sitters as well as people in other businesses. Some have turned into clients, while others are people who I share a common interest with – and sometimes we’re able to help each other in one way or another.

LinkedIn is a place to find like-minded professionals, businesses, and opportunity. It’s a place where you can be found as well. Boasting more than 40 million users, LinkedIn is the world’s largest professional network. It literally puts networking at your fingertips, so that you can connect with trusted colleagues throughout the world. And, because of the unique tools offered by LinkedIn you’re able to streamline your search process when looking for business leads, potential clients, or collaborators.

Here’s what I’ll be talking about:

  • How you can use LinkedIn to grow your business
  • Tips on how to use LinkedIn to drive traffic to your website
  • Why you and your business need to be on LinkedIn
  • How to establish yourself as an expert in your chosen area
  • How to create a powerful LinkedIn bio that will attract attention
  • What to include in your headline, summary, and job descriptions
  • How to effectively use the advanced features of LinkedIn
  • What recommendations are, how to ask for one, and who to recommend
  • Why discussion groups are so important
  • SPECIAL BONUS: LinkedIn Tips and Tools list to get you started after the class

Whether you’re interested in finding employees, getting the word out about your business, or simply enlarging your own personal network, LinkedIn is a powerful tool you can’t afford to ignore.

Kristin Morrison, from Six Figure Pet Sitting Academy is hosting the class. Learn more about the class and register here.

Whether you’re in the pet care business or some other business, you’re welcome to join in. This class is for anyone who wants to learn more about LinkedIn – regardless of your occupation.

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