People worry that timeline will put their entire lives on display or require a seemingly infinite amount of time to customize. Neither of these has to be true!

Read the rest of this entry »

Although looking up specific companies on social networks has been a common practice for years, many consumers have now discovered that they can use social networks to actually find a company that deals with the product or service they need.

Social media search is slowly evolving into a search service.

So how can your company get to the top of a social media search page? By using the right keywords.

Smart keywords choices and placement will give you a better chance of moving up on a social media search page. In this article, we are going to show you the  ways you can use keywords on your social media pages.

Find The Right Keywords

The keywords you decide to use will be different for different social media accounts. It is not a “one keyword fits all” operation. There are a few things you can do to find the right keywords for each of your social media profiles and pages:

• Lay Terms: Think about a common word that someone would use to describe your company. If someone couldn’t think of your company name, what would they type in the search bar of a social media site? To-do list software? Picture app?
• Desired Association: You may want to consider choosing a keyword that you want to be associated with. If you want to show up when the words “daily deal app” are typed into the search bar, make that one of your keywords.
• Competition Check: Competition isn’t a big issue when it comes to nabbing the number one spot of a social media search query, but it’s still something to consider. Once you think you have a good keyword, type it into the search bar and see what comes up. If there are a lot of very relevant companies, you may want to try a more specific keyword.
• Search Engine Optimization Keyword Research: If you have already performed SEO keyword research, it would be wise to revisit your findings and use some of those same keywords.
• Prepare for Different Social Media Sites: For example, if you’re an electronics company, think of keywords related to popular product models that will be useful on your Facebook page.

Once you have found a keyword that’s right for you, it’s time to actually start optimizing.

Photo Captions

The goal is to use keywords on your social media site whenever possible. One of the first things you can do is use these keywords to describe your company’s photos.

Most companies generally have several photos on their social accounts, but few actually put thought into the captions. It may take some creativity, but the more you can incorporate your keywords the better.

Links And Tags

If you are ever going to update a status on your account, try and use your keywords as much as possible. Although this may be difficult when linking back to another webpage, it’s entirely possible to add it into a status description or use as a hash tag.

All of the major social networks have a place for a small blurb about the person or company. For example, the company Higher Visibility may want people to find their company when they type the word “internet marketing agency” into the search box. By placing it in the headline, they’re optimizing their page for that keyword.

Headlines

Headlines are on-page drivers for search engine optimization, so you can bet that search engines will be indexing important headline content often. In addition, Facebook is a trusted domain, so it tends to rank higher in search engine results than the company website sometimes.

This is almost always true when it comes to an individual, but it’s something for companies to also consider. Ranking on major search engines like Google is important, so it’s always a good idea to give your social media accounts the extra push by using your target keywords.

About Section

Use your keyword in the about section on your Facebook page. Really lay on the keyword usage thick. You don’t want your summary sections to sound strange or unnatural, but if you have an opportunity to use your keyword, go for it.

What This Means for Your Business

Getting to the top of a search page on a social network is considerably easier than trying to get to the top of Google search results . People search for things on social networks all the time, but the idea of optimizing an account to reach the top of the search results is relatively new. There isn’t a lot of competition, but there can be a lot of gain for companies using social media keywords. In other words:

• Transfer your search engine optimization skills into social media search boxes;
• Get ahead of the curve before your competition; and
• Watch your fans and friends increase.

One Final Note

As the social graph continues to opens up over time, the general consensus is that search engines will be using this social data to improve their search results. Optimizing your social media accounts now is a great way to keep ahead of the competition.

Guest writer Amanda DiSilvestro blogs for KissMetrics. First and last images courtesy of Shutterstock.

The right-hand side of timeline will soon be the official home for the action-oriented applications that make use of variations on the like button.

As of this writing, the promised layout has yet to materialize on Facebook, so we’re still seeing wall posts showing up in both columns of the timeline.

But soon, the left side will effectively be the wall, and the right side will show what you’re doing in different applications.

The demos we watched last night suggest that this new right-hand column will have a chronological organization, just like the left side has.

Curating this side of the timeline will become a matter of deciding what to include and what to hide from view.

Moving your mouse over to the upper right-hand corner of each item on the timeline makes visible two icons:

• A star, which lets you choose to hide or highlight a timeline post; and
• A  pencil icon,which when clicked upon pulls down a longer menu of items. This includes hide the item, delete it, mark the item as spam, add a location or time to it.

Furthermore, you’ll want to go into the privacy settings in the upper right-hand corner of your screen and adjust how much of your activity in each application you want to go out to news feeds.

Click the little down arrow in the uppermost right-hand corner of the page, then click on “edit settings” beneath and to the right of “apps and websites.”

Then on the ensuing page, click the box labeled “edit settings” next to the column of apps you use, and then click on the next page click “edit” next to each app to adjust each one.

Do you want every one of your friends to know what you are reading online? Didn’t think so.

Read the rest of this entry »

Hopefully by now, we don’t have to tell you that you aren’t visible to all your page fans when you post, and most of fans never go back to a Facebook page after they’ve initially liked it.

Read the rest of this entry »

Virtually raising money requires contributors and Facebook keeps it real… easy.

Read the rest of this entry »

In today’s economy, businesses big and small are squeezing a dollar, but there is a way to market large while spending small.

Read the rest of this entry »

This time of year we see a lot of brands hosting promotions on their Facebook pages.

Giving away fancy electronic items seems to be the trend as of late.

However nice these prizes are, a more expensive prize does not always guarantee more likes.

There are other things to consider besides cost.

Here are five tips for choosing a prize for your next Facebook giveaway.

Be Audience Specific

Your Facebook audience are those people who have already liked or have potential to like your page based on their characteristics, interests and buying behaviors.

It’s best if your chosen giveaway item is not generic, but rather a prize you believe your targeted Facebook audience would appreciate.

Selecting a giveaway prize that is specific to your user group and their interests will help to increase the number of highly targeted Facebook fans your page receives.

Don’t Let it Cost An Arm And A Leg

You’d be surprised, giving away a $5 jar of jelly could generate just as many Likes as an iPad giveaway. For your first couple of promotions, try starting with a smaller, less expensive prize.

If the results of your first giveaway meet or exceed your expectations, you can feel good knowing you didn’t have to totally break the bank buying your giveaway prize.

Use What You’ve Got

When deciding on a prize for your giveaway, a trip to the store or an online purchase isn’t always necessary.

The most affordable and often the most exciting of prizes your company could giveaway are prizes from within your own business.

A chance to win free service for a selected period of time, a free product, or even a free piece of content are all great ways to promote your brand as well as save on a costly giveaway prize.

‘Tis the Season

Seasonally timed prizes are a great way to tie in a promotional theme, as well as attract new users to your Facebook page.

For example, during the first two weeks of February giving away a great jewelry set or a dinner-for-two giftcard are prize options that are appealing due to their seasonal relevance.

Using holidays or well-known festive events as a compliment to your chosen prize allows for you to be more creative with how you chose to promote your giveaway.

Discounts Count

Discount-style promotions are great because everyone wins. Traditional giveaways that promote having one grand prize can be can be viewed as discouraging to many users.

The mentality often is since there is such a small chance of winning, why even enter? To avoid this problem, promote a discount or coupon code with the use of a fan gate — that way, everyone wins.

Readers, can you think any more good tips to share?

The team at ShortStack put together this guest post. Image courtesy of Shutterstock.

Tinker with timeline and you can’t help noticing that your privacy defaults seem as if they’ve changed even if you haven’t touched them — the cumulative effect of many changes to the site all coming together.

Read the rest of this entry »

Welcomed by more positive reviews than the typical site upgrade gets, Facebook’s new timeline profile makes it feel as though Christmas came early to its over 800 million active users.

Read the rest of this entry »