Posts Tagged: Facebook
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, November 04th, 2010
Several people have asked Out-Smarts lately what they should do about duplicate social networking profiles. It is normal for people to set up a social networking presence and to forget about it only to revisit at a later date and set up another. This can be true for personal profiles as well as business pages and can be damaging because it confuses those who search for you in these forums. Here is what to do about it.
Determine if you have a duplicate account
To determine whether you have duplicate accounts, simply sign in to the network in question and do a search for your name or company. If more than one result hits the target then you know you have gone a page to far!
Don’t loose out
All of these tools have capabilities that allow you to delete such accounts but before you do you should follow a couple of steps to make sure you don’t loose out:
1.Make a list of your connections on the account you plan to delete and identify those you want to transfer over to your main account,
2.From your main account, send an invite to those connections identified in step one.
We recently asked this question on LinkedIn answers which is a very handy tool for finding answers to questions quickly (but that is another blog post entirely). Thanks to all of those who answered – you can see the responses here. We liked the following response by Frank Feather the best as it is simple to follow. Thanks Frank!
Dealing With Duplicate Profile on LinkedIn.
Each profile is associated with a different e-mail account.
1. If you know the email (but not the Password) of the account you wish to close, try to log in and then click “Forgot
Password”.
2. If you do not know the Password, then you need to write to CustomerService@LinkedIn.com or go to the Customer Service link (bottom of page) and fill out the appropriate email form.
3. If you know both the email and the Password, read on …
Unfortunately, you are not able to merge profiles.
Please follow this step-by-step process.
Decide which account/profile you wish to Close out.
Log out.
Log into that account with its email and password.
Export or make a note of any Connections you wish to keep. (Export link at bottom of list of Connections)
Go to “Settings” (top right, next to Help)
Close the account.
Log out.
Log in to your remaining account.
“Import” any Connections from closed account.
Re-send invites, with explanatory note.
Go to “Settings”
Add any additional email addresses you wish
Designate one as primary/default.
Better not to pick work email in case you quit.
Then you won’t again accidentally create new profile.
Out-Smarts Services
Out-Smarts provides social networking training and consulting services to help you use social media tools effectively. Contact us now to find out more.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, April 16th, 2010
I regularly contribute blog posts on social media to the
Entreprenuerial Woman Magazine – here is the latest one on using social media to build your personal brand.
Personal Branding
The concept of personal branding has had a lot of coverage in these difficult economic times as people look to market themselves more effectively in order to stimulate their careers. Personal branding is, in essence, a means to package yourself in such a way as to present a particular image for career purposes. It is the way you market yourself to your peers and prospects.
The idea of having a professional image is not a new one – uniforms have been standard for many occupations for centuries. The difference with personal branding is that the concept is not to make you look like one of the crowd, but rather to make you stand out from it.
When considering your personal brand you should look at many factors: the way you speak, the way you look, the car your drive, your education, and your character, but the single most important aspect to consider when building your brand is that it has to be real. It has to reflect the real you. A personal brand that portrays a false image will be apparent to everyone you come into contact with and will do more harm than good.
Identify the unique aspects of your personality, skills and experience and use those to make “you†stand out from the crowd. By building on a personal brand that it true to you, your efforts will be more rewarded and your image will be more realistic and authentic.
Using social media is an ideal way to build your personal brand, to expand and reinforce your network, but there are risks that you should be aware of.
Tips For Building Your Personal Brand Online
Here are some tips that will help you take advantage of social media to build your brand safely:
1. When networking on Facebook or other social forums always use the privacy controls to limit access to your information (usually you can find these by clicking on “accountâ€).
2. Use Facebook, LinkedIn and other networks to make people aware of what you do or want to do. Highlight your unique experiences in these forums
3. Google yourself or use Pipl to see whats being said about you and do the Granny test on the results – if Granny wouldnt approve then perhaps the content isnt appropriate to enhance your business profile.
4. Use your profiles in these forums to present an appropriate professional image. Include a good headshot that is authentic and dont post any photos, videos or images that compromise your image.
5. Portray yourself professionally (as appropriate to your industry) in all forums.
6. Be true to who you are: transparency leads to trust – if you have a good reputation people are more likely to do business with you.
7. Remember that you have a valid and unique opinion. Dont be afraid to voice it.
8. Always be respectful of others. It is okay to disagree but be polite about it.
9. If you are young and looking for a job be aware that a party boy or girl image may seem cool to your peers but it wont help you get a job or grow your professional network.
10. Online networking is a vital tool for anyone trying to build a career but dont get sidetracked or sucked in. Avoid this by scheduling time for online networking and sticking to it.
11. Dont make friends with everyone and anyone. Be selective. It will help you manage the volume of information and will also expose you to less risk.
Personal branding is being used more and more to help people highlight their professional attributes and experience, grow and enhance their networks, build business and to find new careers. In our next post on this subject we will look more closely at which social media tools to use and how to use them to do this effectively.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, March 22nd, 2010
These days building relationships online is as important to growing your business or reputation as networking in the real world. Not only can you be more effective using social media but you can also get more done in less time.
The Internet is a great way to expand your career horizons and get to know new and influential contacts. Here are a few pointers to bear in mind when using social media to network.
1. Dont try to network in every Internet networking hub out there. Choose those where you get the biggest impact (i.e. those that your existing contacts already use, those that reflect your target audience, or those most applicable to your niche). The most popular are LinkedIn (Professional Network), Facebook (fastest growing) and Twitter but there are many networks that are industry or job specific (like Active Rain for real estate) too so take time to check them out.
2. Leverage existing on-line networks to grow new ones. I use the Out-Smarts’ Facebook Page profile to promote our Twitter account and vice versa and add more contacts in that forum
3. Promote your activity in your chosen forums by including it in business cards, profiles and on your website.
4. Use widgets. Most of the social networks allow you to widgetize a link to your profile. Add this to your site, blog etc and include widgets for other networks in your networking profiles.
5. Always remember to be professional in these forums – ask the Granny question and make sure your content is appropriate to your professional standing.
6. When you meet new contacts in the real world find then on-line and add them to your networks.
7. Trawl the friends of your friends and contacts and add those you know or those gurus in your business.
8. Dont spread yourself over to many networks or allow them to suck up your time. Schedule it into your day.
9. Join groups. Facebook and LinkedIn both offer groups. Join applicable ones and gain access to more people in your field.
10. Participate in the right forums. These should relate to your industry or market and to those of your prospects.
11. Ask and answer questions and use your status to attract new contacts.
12. Blogs can be a great way to build your network too. If you have a blog, always follow up with people who leave comments to connect with possible prospects and peers.
13. If you don’t have a blog then use blog comments as a forum to connect with influential bloggers in your industry, to build awareness of what you do and to add value for their visitors in turn.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, February 03rd, 2010
I had a slew of old friends find and follow me on Facebook recently and its great to catch up but most of them are newbies to social media and making their first forays in these networks. In watching their actions, I thought I would craft a post giving them some pointers they should consider to maintain their safety and privacy online.
1. Use the privacy settings (in Facebook click on settings at the top right hand side of your screen then privacy) to make sure that your personal information such as date of birth, home address, email etc are not there for all the world to see – don’t want to encourage identity thieves or spammers do we?
2. Off the Wall – don’t use people’s wall to communicate personal information or communications. If it is longer than a couple of sentences take it to Facebook email.
3. Remember that the first thing recruiters do these days is to check out candidates on Facebook. If you intend on ever applying for another job you should be cogniscent of this. If you plan on getting your boobs out or boasting about your drinking prowess to the world give it some consideration first. Always do the granny test, be careful of what you post and again use the privacy settings accordingly.
4. Be authentic – upload a profile picture so that people can see that its really you – or what you look like after all these years, as the case may be.
5. Be selective about who you add. Don’t add every TD&H who invites you and remember what mother said about strangers! Seriously though, being selective about who you connect with gives you more control if safety is a concern.
6. Be respectful and don’t use profanities too much – you never know when someone’s kid is watching over there shoulder (take it from me – this happens a lot!).
7. Be true to who you are. Transeparency is key to effective social media participation. Don’t try to present yourself as something or someone you are not. Imagine how embarassing it will be when someone crawls out of the woodwork and points out the truth – to everyone.
8. My friend Marc at Amuse Consulting says if its not worth saying out loud, its not worth saying on line. This is a good mantra to bear in mind when considering your status updates.
9. Block Em – If someone is rude to you in comments or on your wall, you can block them. Again go to settings, privacy and scroll down to Block List to do so.
10. Applications – you should be aware that most of the games and applications on Facebook are from third party companies you know nothing about and are often set up for the simple purpose of collecting you marketing info. Once you add the application, they have access to your information. Be wary of which applications you add and again use the privacy settings to control this.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, January 22nd, 2010
Yesterday, we talked about how you can use LinkedIn for recruitment purposes, today we look at some of the other tools available to support your recruiting needs.
Plaxo - another prominent professional networking tool with over 20 million users, Plaxo is similar to LinkedIn in that it allows you to search job listings and to connect with people who are hiring but unlike LinkedIn, it does not have tools aimed solely at recruiters yet.
Xing – Another professional network which is becoming more popular with over 8m users. It is very similar in its functionality to LinkedIn but posting jobs is much cheaper. The downside is that lots of users are in Europe so its not the best tool for North American recruitment purposes.
Other professional social networks that facilitate recruitment:
Viadeo
Biznik
Social Networks – Facebook
Facebook Groups: there are groups on Facebook dedicated to getting the word out about jobs. To do so you can join and post or participate. Examples include:
http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=jobs&init=quick#/group.php?gid=29593013279&ref=search&sid=745281396.2828234181..1
Facebook Pages – some companies have Facebook pages dedicated solely to helping them find staff. The best known example is the Ernst and Young Facebook Page.
Facebook Events – having a hiring fare? You can use Facebook events like this one to promote it.
Facebook Ads: allow you to post ads aimed at people you want to employ: location, education level etc.
Twitter
Twitter is proving a great tool to promote job openings. You can use corporate or staff Twitter pages to Twitter to your community about job postings or you can even have your own dedicated Twitter feed that serves this purpose alone like KPMG http://twitter.com/kpmg
As with any Twitter effort, your follow strategy will be important.
Twitter Ad-ons
You can also use third party tools like Twitter Job Search to search listings and post your own.
Here at Out-Smarts, we are looking to hire an intern right now. So far we have had 3 suitable and interested candidates contact us and all we had to do was post the fact to Facebook and Twitter. If you are interested please contact us, otherwise good luck in your recruiting or job search efforts.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, December 21st, 2009
This month we’ve invited some guest bloggers to contribute. The first is by friend and colleague Guacira Naves (Owner, The Online Strategy House):
The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of Its Parts
Over a decade ago, an online marketing strategy was comprised by separate tactics that had only one concern in mind: to drive traffic to a site. The game was relatively simple: a site would be built, it’d be supported by email newsletters, advertising, maybe some traditional media, and that was all that there was to it.
Then, marketers became aware of the importance of search engine optimization, and added that component to their plan. Today, social media marketing is the new kid on the block. Not only that – its changing how the other online marketing elements interact with each other.
Below is a sample of how this interdependence plays out – and how you can combine each individual channel for the greater good:
Twitter and Google:
- Googles new real time search results mean that tweets with your brand may now appear in search results. So, a strong visibility on Twitter can very well influence your site’s exposure on Google. Thats another reason to maintain an active Twitter profile, and populate it with quality content.
Twitter and Customer Opinion:
- Not only is Twitter the most important micro-blogging network, it is increasingly used as a search tool. It is a channel where people go to find the online equivalent to “word of mouth†about a product, service, etc. On Twitter, frustrated customers often share their gripes, and loyal clients rave about their favourite brands. Heres an example:
Imagine if you were looking for reviews on Virgin Mobile and came across the two tweets above. They may very well sway your decision-making.
However, Virgin Mobile could have stepped in to have their say. Itd potentially have an impact not only on the three individuals involved in that dialogue, but Virgins update wouldve been found in searches made for that brand.
Heres a positive example of how proactive companies observe Twitter conversations, and interact with users: on December 10th, I decided to try Pearltrees. I then tweeted this update:
Minutes later, I received a reply from Pearltrees CEO, Patrice Lamothe, with this message:
That update was not only relevant to me, but to any other individual making a search query for “Pearltrees†around that time.
So, the lesson is: people are going to use Twitter’s search tool to find information on your products or services. You might as well help them find information that is as positive as possible.
YouTube and Search Engine Optimization:
- YouTube videos are prominently represented in Google’s search engine results.You do have a YouTube channel, don’t you? Then, make sure that, among other things, your videos titles and tags are optimized. And guess what – this will help your presence in search engines, too.
YouTube and other Social Networks:
- YouTube also gives viewers the option to share a video via Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, orkut and StumbleUpon, directly from the videos YouTube page. You can also embed a video into your blog, and invite readers to share it – either by embedding into their own blogs, by adding it to Facebook, or inviting them to share it through social bookmarking sites like Reddit. Earlier today, I embedded this third-party YouTube video about Hewlett-Packard into my own Facebook profile:
I wasnt the only one. According to the video statistics, it was watched an additional 279 times as a result of links from Facebook. Reddit, a popular content-sharing site, had also generated 1,317 views.
Blogs and Search Engine Optimization:
- By frequently adding fresh, relevant content to your company’s blog, not only will you improve your brand’s presence and clout in the blogosphere, but you will help your site become more appealing in Googles eyes. That is because Google naturally gives more importance to sites that are updated on a regular basis.
Blogs and Twitter:
- Blogs can easily be set up to automatically promote a new post, as soon as it is published. You will be not only be driving traffic to the blog itself, but will also help to keep your Twitter profile active with new, original material.
I could go on and on. This just scratches the surface, but gives you an idea of how, nowadays, online marketing elements are so interdependent. When planned accordingly and executed in an orchestrated manner, these tactics will make the whole stronger than the sum of its parts.
About the author: Guacira Naves is an online marketing strategist who has 18 years of Internet experience. Her company, The Online Strategy House, develops and executes holistic online marketing strategies to help clients achieve their short, medium and long-term goals.
Thanks to Guacira for this. If you are interested in contributing a post – give us a shout!
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, December 14th, 2009
The question has come up a few times lately as to how to import your blog so that it appears on Facebook. With all the apps, tools and functionality Facebook provides, its difficult to know the right approach.
The best way is to use Facebook Notes to publish your blog RSS feed to your Page or Profile. Here are 5 easy steps that will help you to easily do this:
Import your Blog to Facebook
Step 1 – Go to your Facebook Page or Profile,
Step 2 – Click “Edit Page” right below your profile picture, your Page editor screen will appear,
Step 3 – Scroll down the applications on your page until you see Notes – click to edit,
Step 4 – On the right hand sidebar you will see the option to “Import a Blog” – click on this,
Step 5 – Where prompted, add the web or RSS feed URL of your blog then click the permission check to begin importing your blog.
If you have done this right, your blog will automatically post to your Profile or Page and to the feeds of your friends or fans. Good luck!
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, November 26th, 2009
There have been a slew of changes to Facebook recently and there are more coming. I wanted to document the most notable of them from a business use perspective.
Competitions
The first is the new rules regarding competitions. Earlier this month Facebook announced that you could no longer run any kind of competition on Facebook without getting prior consent from the company to do so (and good luck trying to get that). For more on that check out Mari Smith’s post – thanks Mari! Also check out Facebook Promotions Guide.
Page Updates
Wondering where the update fans link went to? Up until a couple of days ago if you wanted to send an update to fans you would click on the link just below the image on your Facebook page. Now its gone but the capability is still there, you just need to look in another place to find it.
Click to edit your Facebook page. In the admin screen look on the right hand side bar then scroll to find the promote your page heading then click on “send an update to fans” there. The process is the same from there.
Privacy
Changes are also ongoing in the form of privacy settings. The goals is to make them easier to understand. Here is some more info taken from the Facebook blog:
* Most of you liked that we removed more complicated technical and legal terms and replaced them with simpler language that everyone can understand.
* You preferred the structure of the new document, which provides key points at the beginning and easy links to jump to the different sections.
* A few of you asked for a redline version so you could compare the proposed revision to our current policy and see exactly what’s changed. We weren’t able to provide one this time because the policy was completely rewritten, but we think it’s a great idea and are committed to doing it for future proposed changes to our governing documents.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, September 28th, 2009
As more and more businesses begin to use Facebook to actively tap into an audience of over 300 million registered users there is some debate over the best aspects of Facebook to use to reach your intended audience. Companies can use Facebook groups or pages (or both) to build their social networking presence in this forum. Here is a resume of the advantages of each – to help you decide on your best approach.
Facebook Groups versus Pages
Advantages of Facebook Pages over Groups:
- A page is more “corporate†and gives you more control of your brand. It is the official page of the company on Facebook.
- Having a Facebook page gives you access to tools that allow you to track traffic to and interactions with your page.
- With a Facebook page can add applications like You Tube Box, Flickr, Twitter feeds to your page to make the content richer and attract more fans.
- Using Pages gives you increased exposure via fans – their friends see any actions they take on your Facebook page and your potential audience is larger.
- Fan pages stand out better on profiles – better branding.
- Unlimited news/updates to fans (Facebook groups are limited to 1000-1500 per message.)
- You can create Facebook Ads if you have a page- these ads are used to:
a) build more fans and followers in Facebook;
b) advertise company services and presence in this forum;
c) promote the your company to end users.
Advantages of Facebook Groups:
- Good way to engage stakeholders and interested parties;
- Groups are easier to find by Facebook users;
- A Facebook group is like a forum or discussion area where you are more of a participant so this can lead to enhanced loyalty;
- Groups are discussion or event centred and this can be a great means to attract feedback from customers as well as potential new customers to enable you to improve your offering.
With different options available to you in terms of Facebook Groups and Pages, its always best to start by asking the question who you want to reach, why and what your goals are? Knowing these will help you determine the most appropriate route.
There’s no reason, off course, not to have both a group and a page if you have time and resources to use these effectively but its always best to start with one and build from there – especially if you are newcomers to social media – that way your message won’t get diluted.
Thanks to DodogoeSLR’s andLemonTwist for the great Flickr images.
Written by Mhairi Petrovic, August 07th, 2009
Another Being Five Friday Funny. Bored? – upload some Facebook pics why don’t you!
