The Importance of Google My Business
July 16, 2019 In Blog 18 Comments

Launched in 2014, Google My Business (GMB) provides business owners control over what “shows in the search results when someone searches a business.” GMB allows businesses to manage their own business data through creating a new profile or claiming an existing auto-generated profile. A GMB profile includes basic business information, including address, hours of operation, phone number, as well as user-generated reviews.

The majority of businesses believe that GMB is a set-it-and-forget-it product; however, there’s more to GMB than meets the eye!

Let’s talk about the two features you should be using:

1. Photos

There are a number of photo options that businesses can utilize on GMB, including both static photos, and videos. Photos by Owner can be segmented into interior, exterior, at work, team, and identity photos, whereas Photos by Customer are a single grouping. What many people fail to realize is the ease that customers can view photos when viewing their GMB listing on a mobile device.

If you’re a business with a presence on GMB, you’ll want to check to ensure all the photos available on GMB are up-to-date! While you’re there, taking a peek at the number of views, you may be surprised!

2. Posts 

Recently, GMB launched the “Post” feature, a product similar to their now defunct Google+ (G+) social media platform. The this ‘post’ appears within a business’ GMB listing This function allows managers to:

  • Add Update
  • Add Event
  • Add Offer
  • Add Product

This is an excellent way to promote blogs, events, or promote specific product offers!

Each of these tasks can be completed through the full or app version of GMB.

Not sure if your business has a presence on GMB? Search: google.com/business/

 

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Facebook Page Manager App Not Working?
May 28, 2019 In Blog 1 Comment

The Facebook Page Manager App allows Page administrators the ability to manage up to 50 Pages using a smartphone or tablet.  It was designed as a dedicated tool to manage your Facebook Pages, derive high quality and actionable insights to help you propel your business forward.

If you’re currently not utilizing the Page Manager App, you can download here:

Over the last month, however, I have experienced significant challenges with the Facebook Page Manager App. After a recent update, I found myself unable to post content, like or comment on engagement, boost posts, create stories, or host LIVE videos. I couldn’t do anything.

Each of the error messages were different:

  • Sorry, Something Went Wrong | There was a problem posting your status. We’ve logged the error and will look into it. FALSE
  • Request Permission to Advertise | To boost posts for this Page, a Page admin needs to give you permission. CLOSE
  • Can’t Start Live Video | Please check your internet connection. FALSE

With these error messages noted, I scoured the Internet. Asked Facebook Help. Deleted and reinstalled the App (several times). Made sure I had the most recent iOS. Nothing seemed to work. I had a useless app on my device,  and an upcoming workshop focused on utilizing the app. I was running out of ideas.

While the error messages were confusing and all different. I thought about this from an alternative perspective. Thinking about the problem from a logical standpoint, I still had FULL privileges when using a laptop or desktop. The problem was that I had lost all administrative privileges while using a device… It must be a security setting… somewhere!

When taking another look at personal preferences on business.facebook.com, I clicked “Business Settings” then “Security Centre.”

Under “Two-factor authentication” I noticed something that wasn’t there anymore… this was not enabled (which it had been previously!). Facebook flagged my device as an unauthorized device, thus not allowing me to create content.

To re-authenticate, I visited: https://www.facebook.com/security/2fac/settings/

The process included Facebook texting a code to my device, and then me to manually insert this code.

IMMEDIATELY  I was able to manage my pages again! IMMEDIATELY!

Problem solved my friends!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Developing a Social Media Strategy
April 16, 2019 In Blog 1 Comment

Does your business have a social media strategy?

Social media is more than creating accounts on the ever-popular Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and then posting your pre-made advertisements or “Happy National Donut Day” graphics.

Social media should be about creating and maintaining and conversation with your audience through the appropriate social media channels.

Developing a social media strategy should be clear, succinct, and simple.

  1. Competitor Analysis

Take a peek at what your competitors are up to on social media. Visit their corporate website to gain access to social media links, then visit each of their social media channels.

  • What channels are in use?
  • What is their following?
  • What is their content strategy?
  • What are they doing well?

(If you have an existing Facebook Page, you can add competitors to the “Watch-List” that allows you to simplified statistics regarding your competitor’s performance.)

 

  1. Target Audience

As you’ve heard before, you need to understand YOUR target audience. If you think that “everyone” is your audience, you need to ask yourself these questions:

  • Who are your current customers?
  • What customer group do you want to grow?
  • What are their demographics? Psychographics? Interests?

 

  1. Goals & Objectives

Before launching a Facebook Page, or starting an Instagram account, you need to understand why your business should be using social media.

  • Increase in-house sales / online sales
  • Increase blog readership
  • Increase app downloads

Answering this question will start to guide your social media strategy, because it will point your content in the right direction.

  1. Strategy

No – sharing the exact same content, including text and image, to all of your social media channels is NOT a strategy. In fact, if you choose to engage multiple social media channels, you should be committed to creating unique content for EACH channel. Below is a chart of the character limits, optimal image size, and hashtag use for each. Simply reviewing the chart will remind social media administrators that each social media channel is unique and should be treated as such.

  Text Image Hashtags
Facebook Page 63,206 characters 940 x 788px No
Twitter 280 characters 1024 x 512px Yes
Instagram 2,200 characters 1080 x 1080 px Yes
LinkedIn Company Page 700 characters 1200 x 1200 px Yes

 

In addition, each social media channel is visited by a unique population. Pew Research has prepared some in-depth research on this topic, including the below demographic analysis:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Depending on your target audience, you may choose to enable a specific social media mix. Simply looking at the popular social media in relation to age brackets will provide a strong indication of which social media channels are most suitable.

In addition, content can be one of the most challenging aspects to social media management. The thought of posting content daily, or at minimum a few times per week can be daunting. Simply posting corporate advertisements or Happy National Day of Awareness just won’t cut it.

  • What images/visual will you use?
  • Will you be directing them to a specific website/webpage?
  • Will you engage user-generated content?
  • Do you have a theme for your content?

This is the tip of the iceberg to starting the development of a social media strategy.

What are your social media strategy questions? Share below!

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Who Owns My Facebook Page?
April 11, 2019 In Blog No Comment

Facebook Business Manager helps advertisers integrate Facebook marketing efforts across their business and with external partners. You can use this free platform to run and track your ads, manage assets such as your Pages and ad accounts, and add an agency or marketing partners to help manage your business. When you create a Business Manager, it becomes a central space to manage your business separate from your personal Facebook profile. You’ll manage your Pages and ad accounts in Business Manager, so you never have to worry about mixing business content with your personal content.

When setting up a Facebook Business Manager, it is required to include a “Primary Page.” The first Page you add to your Business Manager is your primary page. You can change your primary page as you add more Pages to your Business Manager. To learn how to change your primary page in Business Manager, click here.

With the recently integration of Facebook and Instagram, you may face new challenges. For example, under administrators on the Facebook Page, you may notice a new administrator, someone that you didn’t authorize. Not to worry, if you recently converted your Instagram account to a business account, and then connected (or tried to) to a Facebook Page, you’ll notice a new “person” who owns the page. That “person/account” was created during the conversion process. To remove this “person/account” you will need to disconnect the Facebook Page from Instagram, and Instagram from Facebook for this account.

You may notice under Business Manager that the Page says “Owned by Individual People” rather than the company name. Here’s how to fix this:

  1. In Business Manager, click “Business Settings”
  2. Under “People & Assets,” choose Pages
  3. Without changing or removing anything that currently exists within your pages, click “Add New Pages” on the right hand side, then choose “Add a Page.”
  4. It will prompt you for the URL of the page you want to own. Paste that URL in the box.
  5. Click “Add Page.”
  6. If you are the admin of the page, it will automatically add it to your owned pages.

 

For the majority of users, this will be the solution. However, for others, you may need to remove the account entirely from Business Manager (MAKE SURE YOU HAVE ADMINISTRATIVE RIGHTS BEFORE YOU REMOVE THE ACCOUNT!).

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4 Types of Negative Posts and How You Can Handle Each One
September 6, 2018 In Blog 15 Comments

 

Ah negative posts. We’ve all seen them. Do we all love them? Not so much. Do we all know how to deal with them appropriately? Also, maybe not so much. Here’s how you can handle each type of negative post.

Troll

A troll is known for deliberately posting inflammatory or irrelevant comments that can be harmful to the wider community reading those comments. It’s a good idea to monitor the post for any follow-up responses. Alternatively, the post can be deleted or hidden if there is any derogatory or vulgar language in the comment itself.

Misinformed User

Misinformed posts are those posts which contain content that is inaccurate. These posts are generally regarding news and events. It’s a good idea to jump into the conversation and provide accurate information.

Unhappy Client

While it’s unfortunate that your unhappy client is expressing their feelings on a public domain, it’s important to provide a response to the individual with a solution to the problem. The general rule is to respond twice with the second response containing a phone number or e-mail address for the user to have a private discussion with you. This is your opportunity to shine and provide superb customer service to resolve the issue

Ranter or Rager

These types of posts generally come from someone who comments with the intent to cause a debate or stir the pot. The best solution is to monitor these posts with the hope that other social media users will provide a medium to create a healthy debate. If the user continues to fuel a debate with you, then follow the suggestion mentioned in the previous point.

 

Silence or lack of action is often not the best solution, especially on a public domain such as social media. While it may be tempting to block a user or delete a negative post or comment, you’re missing out on an opportunity to rise above.

Do you have any tips for managing a negative post? Share your them in the comments below!

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