What Does 'Questions' Mean On Facebook For Social Media Professionals?

You will have seen and used the 'Question' feature on Facebook. This feature is available to Pages and Personal Profiles as well.

Facebook 'Question' is a very useful tool for Page Administrators. It enables your Brand and Business to get your Community Members engaging with you.

Have you ever wondered what would be the reach of the 'Question' when used?

Lets just understand a situation:

When you post via the Facebook 'Question' your 'Question' will appear in the News Feed of your Community Members. If your Community Member interacts / answers then it will create a story on their Profile Page. once this takes place the same story will reflect onto their Network and get featured in their Network's feeds. If someone from this Network interacts with your 'Question' then again it will reflect at the third level Network.

Interaction on 'Question' means either participation in the 'poll' or selection of 'follow' the 'Question'

What this means is that 'Question' is a very lethal tool. It can go viral very easily.

Though, at this point in time search engines cannot index the 'Question'.

Use the 'Question' to your advantage!

My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

The New 'Send' Button From Facebook - Social Media

Very recently Facebook has introduced a new social plugin, the 'Send' button. This button is to be installed onto your Blogs or Websites. Just when the 'Like'  button completed a year of its existence we now have the 'Send' button.

In essence the 'Send' button enables you to send the information from the Blog / Website to people on your network as a message. Thus if you do not want a particular information to feature on your network's feed and if you do not want that the whole network of your friends view it then this is an incredible facility.

Many a times there are articles and posts of  Blog / Website that may be of interest to very few people. It may not be general interest to all persons. In such cases when you share the entire post with everyone it may start making people turn a blind eye towards your feeds as they are not relevant material to them. With the result people may start to 'hide' your feed on their home page. The 'Send' button enable you to come clear and be out of such situation. So only those persons who will find the post relevant from the Blog / Website will receive the matter.

Unlike the 'Like' button, the 'Send' button enables private sharing.

Where can you send the matter from the 'Send' button?

• You can send the information to a person in your Facebook Network as a message
• You can post it onto your Facebook Group's Page
• You can email it as per Facebook email id given to Personal Profile Pages
  

No doubt it is great for focused, private sending of information. What is your take on this button?  Share your inputs.

My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

Benefits Of 'Like' On Facebook- Social Media

On Facebook - The Page connector button that connects your Business / Brand Pages with your Community Members is the 'Like' button. There are many misconceptions about the 'Like' button. Do they really like when they click 'Like' is a very debatable thought. The reason being that they may have connected to know information or because they feel they can complain and vent out their grievance here.

There is another debate that makes its rounds - quantity as against quality. Ideally we all would like to have quantity and quality. However this takes time and energy. Many a times people start off with quantity as their goal. For instance people feel that more the quantity that like the Page, better will be the sales and better will be the bottom line. The principle here is that greater and broader the catch even after filtration the number of potential target will be on the higher side. Though this is debatable this is a very common myth that runs in the business houses. Taking advantage of this thinking we will come across many who make claim such as: 'get 1500 Fans on Facebook'.

While there are misconceptions and myths to 'Like' lets take a step back and understand the benefits of 'like. Assuming that you will be doing the Social Media strategy in the right way and will not be the one who is considerably convinced with the misconceptions. The benefits of 'Like' on Facebook would be:

• First and fore-mostly the benefit of 'Like' is that you can send off a newsletter that goes into your Community Member's message section [under the message section is the 'other' where newsletters reside']. You can send to your Community very focused information that they can react upon.
• You can segregate your target customers so that you know who are active, passive and lapsed. Once you segregate and cluster them you can then connect with them and plan on how to make them move up the ladder.
  
• You can connect with them in actual real time and attend to their questions, concerns and so on. You as a Business / Brand have a chance here to show your empathy and enable your irate customer to understand that you are concerned and that you do care.
• This is your chance to act, behave and show your Brand Personality. On the Page you can actually live up to your brand image and create a brand personality that your Community Members can relate to. Thereby you grow in relevance and familiarity.
  
• You can draw out a performance matrix on what is working and what is not. Thereby you can associate the findings to your bottom line and ROI. You will be able to work out your KPI for the next couple of months based on these findings.
• With a Business / Brand Page you can do a quick Qualitative research as well so as to understand and know what best triggers the emotional connect with your Community Members and your Business / Brand.
  
• Here is your chance to create the privileged feel for your Community. Let them have special offers and so on which would not be available otherwise. Thus they will feel belonged and one with your Business and Brand.
  
• What's more, if you post something of relevance / topical / what they like then there is a huge chance of your information going viral. It is very easy to share information, just with one click your Community can share with their network. The authenticity of shared information is much higher. People believe in what they receive from their known sources like their own network.
• Interaction and engagement is the core of all Social Media existence. This can be achieved on your Page. What better value than having your Community captivated by your conversation and add to it they participating in it as well.
  

It is a good idea to have a Facebook Page for your Brand and Business. Don't miss out on an opportunity.

My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

Nurturing Your Community - Social Media

Community Management cannot be taken for granted. You don't build a Community of relevant individuals over night. It takes time. It takes leadership qualities. Acquisition takes time and energy. Retention is even more intensive.

To maintain and nurture your Community is the core task. If your Community is satisfied they will be the best ambassadors that you could ever have. Cherish them cause they are precious.

There are a couple of factors that you need to keep in mind when working with your Community on Social Media.

• Human: Have a voice. Relate to people as a human not as a robot. Many a times one ends up like a robot while trying to be professional. Though you need not cross the line and become overtly friendly, you do need to express yourself and relate to people. You are communicating to people in an environment that demands interactivity and social behavior.
  
• Team: Remember it is a team. The spirit of Community lies in it having a momentum of its own. You need to get that spirit up and running. For this at times you may need to be a leader while at other times you need to mingle and be one with your people.
  
• Authentic: Be authentic. Show your true self. Be genuine. This is your make or break road to credibility.
  
• Respond: Please do not put up something where people comment and you as Page Admin are just not around. Naturally you cannot be 24 hours all of 365 days. However you do need to be there and be see alive. When you set up a Page you are making a promise of being there.
  
• Consistency: The stream of posts that come on your Community Member's Facebook Personal Profile Home Pages is rightly called Feed. You need to keep the feed going. Pre-decide how many times you will post. Out of sight is out of mind. And, too much is also not good.
• Fresh: While being consistent try to keep topical and fresh communication flowing. Content curation is essential in these time.
  
• Privilege: People have joined your Page with various reasons. One reason is to belong. Give your Community something special. Make them feel special. After all they are special no doubt. This could be by way of advice, pre-launch information, consultancy and so on.
• Contests: Give your Community a challenge. Have votes, chance to win and so on.
  
• Quality: Don't bring in suddenly too many new people. Grow organically not by just quantity.
  

So go on talk with people online the way you would when you meet them.

My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

Keeping Track Of Competitors On Facebook - Social Media

As Facebook Page Administrator you would be constantly looking for ways and methods to keep yourself updated with the various activities taking place on your Page. Thankfully Facebook has introduced the notification system wherein you can keep yourself in the know if anyone comments or posts on your Brand / Business Page.

Apart from keeping track of your Page you need to track your competitors as well. What do you do? Do you have a method? There are a couple of tools available online that can enable you to track and be on top of information.

A simple but very effective tool is hyperalerts.no. Have you tried this as yet? It enables you to receive email notifications of the posts and comments that are made on your Facebook Page. It does not stop here. You can keep track of other Facebook Pages where you are not an administrator. You have the option of receiving alerts on an immediate basis as it happens, or every hour, day, week or month. The choice is yours.

Have you tried hyperalerts? What is your experience with this site. Do share in your feedback. What similar platform do you use?

I work as Freelance Social Media Network Online Professional. My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

Measuring Your Customer In Social Media

 

We know how Direct Marketing and CRM [Customer Relationship Management] use the RFM model.

 

RFM = Recency, Frequency and Monetary Value.

• Recency = How recent has the customer purchased
• Frequency = How often did the purchase take place
• Monetary= How much was the spend / purchase made of

Here you slice and dice the data. From this model you can decipher who are your active customer sets, who are passive and not reacting and those who have been active and have for some reason gone out of action. This and more can be done with the data. For instance you can figure out who are your high paying people. You can take business decision if you want to concentrate on the customers who are more value by monetary terms but may not be as frequent as the medium monetary value customers in a given period and so on.

In a RFM model there is lot of permutation and combination that could take place. For instance you can slice / segregate the Recency factor into:

• Customers who have purchased in the last 90 days
• Customers who have purchased between the last 91 and 120 days
• Customers who have purchased between the last 121 days and 365 days
• And so on

The depth of slicing your data depends on the category that you have. For instance an impulse or FMCG or a monthly product can have more depth while if your product is consumer durable which after purchase requires atleast 5 years for the customer to make the next purchase then naturally the recency parameter will not need to be sliced in depth.

RFM can have its deviations to suite your type of category. For instance if you have too many products, variants and sub-variants then you can add a P to the RFM which makes it RFMP. Need more deviation? You can change M to D. Wherein D = Duration.

To analyze the RFM:
You can do this with high end software or you can do this manually on excel sheet. However, your back end data collection is required to be strong. You need to have a method and a system in place, wherein the data gets populated when purchase is made. Only then you can do your analysis.

The above is just a glimpse and short synopsis of what RFM is and how you can put it to use.

Let's consider the Social Media Community that we have. Let's look at Facebook Business Page as an example. We have a list of people connected to our Page. You may need to physically put them onto your excel sheet, or build a software that patches this process. The main problem that you may have to overcome is the name of the person on Facebook needs to match the name of the person who is purchasing. People may have a different identity on Social Sites. You may have to connect with each and share with them the relevance of them giving their true name so that you can match the identity on Facebook and in real life. Usually people share as there is always a possibility of receiving a reward in this, they would be given something more due their good standing in the RFM scenario. Once you have this in place [it is an ongoing process] then you can have your regular analysis as shared above.

 

Over a period of time the measure can be made to understand the life time value of the customer in your system as well. You can look at it as CLV, LCV and LTV. For this you need your data to be over a couple of years to have any concrete understanding.

• CLV / CLTV= Customer Lifetime Value
• LCV = Lifetime Customer Value
• LTV = Lifetime Value
• CV = Customer Value

When you work on the RFM module knowing and measuring CLV should not be a problem. You know who is contributing towards your bottom line, you know if the person arrived via Social Media sites, you can measure you customer value on Social Media.

Once you know the customer value you can estimate and put a price to that customer as to how much you want to spend on the customer. To measure the customer on lifetime value you need to have the below parameters:

• Churn Rate = This is the percentage of your customers who move / end their relationship with your company in a given period
• Discount Rate = Herein you are to check on the capital cost that is put into a particular customer set
• Retention Costs = This is amount of monies that your company spends on a particular customer set in a given period to enable retention
• Period / Duration = This is the critical measure. The period of time that you designate to the above calculations. Minimum advisable would be 3years as your data would not be robust till then for you to derive concrete idea.

Ofcourse the above is a simple glimpse. There is work and longtime dedication if you want to work towards attaining the real value of your customer sets.

ROI = The most debated, questioned and doubted attribute in Social Media. Call it by any name you are referring to the bottom line.

• ROR = Rate Of Return
• ROI = Return On Investment
• RP = Rate Of Profit

The measure arrives from understanding what you have invested and what you have benefited with [Taxes to be understood as well]. To explain further it is the monies gained / lost by calculating the net gain and the gross gain. ROI is calculated in percentage.

In Social Media let's look at Facebook:
You know what all creative you have done, viral videos, wall papers, any technology, Social Media person's monthly cost and so on. Break this into capital and variables. Then calculate based on the re-actions that you have pre-decided. The re-action could be purchase for instance.

Need not be ROI each time:
You may want to not look at ROI each time. Value of a Community person is in their interactions on your Brand / Business Page, their sharing with their network and so on. Not every-time you may want to calculate in terms of figures. In real life how would you calculate word of mouth? Well if you have a loyalty programme then don't you ask who referred you? Just the way we have member get member programmes you can have on the Social Site as well the member get member programmes and so on. Have mutual benefits: let the person who brings in the new customer also benefit and let the new person also gain.

How do we know if the customer has come via Social Media Site?
This is answered by the age old method of tracking. When you want to know if a direct mail has worked or nor don't we give a code in the mail that customer would carry to do their purchase and redeem it to avail discounts. Similarly your Social Media can share codes which can be brought to the purchase counter. It could be a QR Code, MCoupon, On Social Site coupon and so on.

Social Media is an amazing space. You can do mass broadcast and direct connect. The space is such that it enables both. You can do CRM as well. Your choice, your business and marketing and branding decision.

Good to read:

• How To Measure Your Social Media Efforts

I work as Freelance Social Media Network Online Professional. My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

 

 

Treat Your Community With Respect - Social Media

Engage with your audience. We all hear it all the time. Engaging with your audience is the core in Social Media. Keeping your Community engaged on Facebook for instance is what matters the most. While it sounds easy, many a times it could be the most difficult task for some. Engagement essentially means involving, getting the audience to interact and gently leading to a conversational mode. The benefit of this is that you start to relate with people as brand / business. Your brand / business starts to become more relevant to your people.

The question is how do you talk with people. It is only feasible when you and they meet at a mutual point of understanding. What we would call a rapport in normal colloquial English. It is a connection that we sense and exhibit by way of dialogue. Dialogues need not always be in agreement, you may choose to disagree however the line of conversation continues.

There would be many deterrents while engaging. One of the prime ones could be the way you look at your Community.

Perhaps the first and foremost aspect of engaging with your Community would be to not look at them as Fans [incase of Facebook]. Here is where most problems take place. Here is where restrictions come by. Just because Facebook has chosen to call the connection / permission button as 'like' we all tend to call our Community persons as Fans. Announcements such as 'become our Fan' are quite questionable. In Direct Marketing and Loyalty Programme scenario we try our level best to call / name / brand programmes which people would like been seen in. We try to name the membership and then go on to address our Community with that membership. Do we address them as 'hi Fans'? If you do have an offline programme then why not continue the same online. And if you do not have an offline programme then why not think of it for your 'Fan Page'. Except for very few Brands perhaps the aspect of Fan is slightly far fetched. Instead of saying 'become our Fan' will the message get dissolved if we say 'converse with us on Facebook' and such other lines.

There are various reasons to click the 'Like' button. Let's not be misguided.

Reading matter that may interest you:

• Do They Really Like When They Click Like?
• Does 'Like' On Facebook Lead To Purchase? - Social Media
• How To Have Value Added Conversations In Social Media

My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

How To Procure Community Data In Social Media

Social Media lends itself to Customer Relationship Management [CRM]. Although it may be an indirect method to procure data you can still understand what are the trigger points that can work best with your Community Members. For instance if you are on Facebook and if you have a Community on your Business Page then a quick run through of your key Community persons can show you what they like and what matters to them.

Here are simple pointers that can work as starters:

• 'Listen' in on your own Page what they interact with, what matters to them, on which topics the Posts and Comments are coming in and so on.
  
• Next is the timing. You will observe that there are certain days and time bands when your Community Members interact and engage with you and other members. Make sure you note these and create a reminder on when next you are going to talk with your Community.
• Facebook has this wonder upgrade recently done. Wherein you can now make your Facebook Business Page as your main Home Page. When you will do this on your left hand side you will see 'recommendations'. The algorithm at Facebook is such that recommendations made to you are based on the 'likes' of your network. Hence you can assume to a large extent that your Community is onto the recommended Pages. Thereby you can look at it as what they like.
• And finally the 'Question' field that is so nicely given to all of us on Facebook. How well have you used it? It is a smooth way to generate information plus enables conversation. Add to this it has an amazing viral spread to it.
  

Simple? Your turn. how do you 'read' data of your Community on Social Media.

Below shared posts could be interesting read for you:

• Social Media a CRM perspective
• Social Media Is CRM
• Social Media Is Best Played By Your Nearby Provisional Store?

My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

Social Media Professional's Skill Sets

If you think that Social Media is an easy job then yes you are correct. It is easy for experienced persons. It is a task that skilled people can see through during crises. It is result oriented that passionate professionals can bring to the table.

Many a times I come across people asking why is Social Media not measurable. Or that since it is just the task of setting up of a profile, putting an image to the avatar and there you are your teenage kid can also put up Tweets and Posts. And some questions are borderline - the middle way: someone in the company who is not loaded with too much work can be authorized to put up Posts.

All these questions are genuine and legitimate. Answering the question of measuring Social Media, well it is very much measured and checked against ROI. The parameters may be different but at the end of the day we all are talking bottom line and ROI.

Answering if it is what we think about just setting up a profile page and doing conversations- well this is like saying that since your friend knows drawing they can do advertising. Yes, it is as closely mismatched as this.

Social Media requires the person to have the following skill sets:

• Dedicated professional, who 'likes' the Social Media sites. This 'like' means that the person really see Social Media sites as a space to interact and to search information. The person really should be believing and trusting the sites as a resource of serious information. They should for instance be consuming news for instance. The person would be 'listening' at various discussion taking place.
  
• We really cannot restrict any of our clients / customers from connecting with us all of 24/7 on Social Media you need the person to be aware of listening tools. Tools that make the person know what all conversations are taking place about your brand, business, category, competition and so on.
  
• A person who understands your brand philosophy, brand personality and can translate this into action and behavior onto the Social Media Pages. A financial institute would behave very differently to a particular situation as against a beverage brand, for instance. It is critical that the person understands and translates the brand print into actual behavior.
  
• This also requires a person who understands consumer mindset, usage and attitude not only towards your brand but also towards the category and towards the online net and Social Media Site as well.
  
• In addition to this it requires that the same person understands mass communication and direct marketing along with the knowledge of the online medium as well. The person requires public relations as well and is adept at rising a flag when crises are about to take place.

So there you are. Who will you recruit? Who is your Brand Voice in the world of Social Media?

Below could be interesting information and reading material for you:

• Community Management on Social Media sites like Facebook is not just about having a Fan / Business Page set up: http://goo.gl/WgqSK
• A note on how to measure your Social Media efforts: http://goo.gl/uRv12
  
• See how you can be misguided: You Will Receive 3000+ Followers Guaranteed, Just Buy The Package - Social Media
• Ask quality not quantity: Social Media - Get Me 1500 Fans On Facebook

My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

Segregating Your Community Members - Social Media

Social Media enables you to broadcast your message to your Community and it also enables you to tag individual persons and chat with them. Social Media is an amazing environment; here you can practice the entire spectrum right from mass messaging to one-on-one messaging.

If this is the case then what have we done so far with this amazing platform. Have we identified various clusters that can take place from our Fan / Business Page Communities? What we could do perhaps, is segregate our Community Members into various clusters.

The most basic format of segregation would be Active, Inactive and Lapsed.

Active:
People who are engaging with your post and comments on your Page.

Inactive:
Those that are not active.

Lapsed:
Those that have been active once and have then refrained for some reason.

Ofcourse the more we segregate the more intense and dynamic the grid could become. However on the Social Media section this could get tedious for some people who have too many Community people attached. So the least format could be Active, Inactive and Lapsed.

Once you have identified and segregated your Community Members you can then start to connect with them differently. You will have to take a business decision if you want to touch and connect with the Inactive cluster. While you need to keep in touch with your Active base and try to re-connect with your Lapsed people.

There perhaps is not an urgent need to dice and slice your data too much, a little segregation alone can take you a long way.

Your turn - how best do you segregate your Community Members?

My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

Advantages Of The New Functions Of Facebook Fan / Business Page And iFrame - Social Media

Change is constant; and in the case of Facebook, change, definitely is consistent. By now you will have noticed that all Pages on Facebook will have been upgraded to the new format. This goes for even those Pages that may have not opted into the new look some time back.

The new Pages have a lot of advantages with them, especially for the Page Administrator / Community Managers. These functions definitely are useful for brands and business in touching base with their Community Members.

• For instance the capacity to post on other Pages as the business / brand Page and not necessarily as Profile Page gives a huge benefit. The fact that you post as a brand / business makes people directly click onto your Page and arrive at your end. Besides, you are creating a great association and personality via your behavior for your brand.
  
• The other much welcomed feature is notifications. Previously, you may recollect, that you had to physically scroll on your Page [the Page of which you are the Administrator] and check if there are any comments / posts which you need to address. Ofcourse there are third party applications that facilitate the notifications to come right into your inbox. However Facebook did not have one of its own. With this notification you can immediately know from your email inbox itself what is the content of the comment / post, put up by your Community Members and who has said it. This enables you to respond in almost real time and saves you the tedious task to scrolling on your Page all the time.
• The third good part is that you can give a face to your Page. In the sense you can now let your Community People know who is manning the Page. This works at two levels, one is that people relate to persons more than just some static Page / brand / business talking and secondly you get your publicity as well. Ofcourse if you do not manage well then you can be the target of some hideous stressing discussions as well. No doubt there is an option to be unseen as well.
• Another good part is showing other Pages associations. As shared above you can now post and comment on other Pages as your brand / business Page. Which means that you will have 'liked' them as your brand / business Page, only then you can post and comment. When you do this the Pages that you have 'liked' show up on your Page. In this way association starts to form in the Community Mindset and this could be a little step towards credibility formation for your Page.
• There are other significant feature lead upgrades like: the masthead that can be used creatively so that you can extend your brand / business personality / features etc in a visual way. This is similar to one you have on your Profile Page.
• The edit feature is available easily - this is on your right hand side. The good part about this is now you can change your category of the Page incase you are stuck with something not so correct.
• You will have noticed by now that there are no more tabs on your Page top side, these are now moved to your left hand side. The good part is you can have them a little longer and have descriptive text.
• And finally the FBML feature is totally deactivated. This does not mean that your existing FBML matter is deactivated / deleted. These will remain and not be deleted. However if you do want to make new tabs you will now need to upgrade and learn the iFrame technology. With these you can start to have more tab type features on your left hand side.

Below, I will touch a little deeper on what is iFrame and how can you best possibly use it:

If you are personally or have a connection with tech person then iFrame is what you will relish more than FBML. Unlike FBML, iFrame allows you to have an eternal web page embedded onto your Facebook tab. Which means that your external Web Page can have the technology intricacies of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript like any other Web Page does. What basically you need in this case is a small patch / script / programme that connects your Facebook Page with your external Web Page. Yes, this is what iFrame enables and lends itself to.

Which means that you need:

• scripting / programing knowledge,
• a server space where you can upload your files if you want to fetch data, just the way you would build a Web Page,
• the patch which is Facebook Developer application: http://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/477
  
• and creative, content management, planning etc.

Below are steps that you can take to create your iFrame starting from http://developers.facebook.com/blog/post/477 Page.

You will require like all other applications with Facebook 'allow' the request for permission dialog. This is similar when you apply any new first time application / game connection with your Facebook Pages. Click on the allow button. So if this is your first time then you will require the one time 'allow' permission given for the request.

Having done this, on top, on your right hand side you will see 'Set Up New App' button - click this.  Once you do this you will be taken to a dialogues box asking you to give a name to your application - you can name it best keeping your focus on SEO and Page requirement. Give the application a name, click the agree button. Once this takes place the click the 'create app button'. You will be taken to the usual security question of answering if you are a human. Indulge in this and move on.

Now you will see that you have landed onto an 'About' registration form. Go on Fill it up!.

Under 'About' you will see 'Website' fill this form as well.

Next is the 'Facebook Integration' fill this as well. 

Click 'Save'. Most crucial function.

Once you do this you will be taken to the summary Page.

Now what is left? Well you need to install your own application onto your Brand / Business Page on Facebook.

On the summary Page itself you will see the link icon namely 'Application Profile Page link' on your right hand side. Hope you have landed by now onto a huge Page that looks similar to the regular Facebook Profile Pages. Well on this Page look to your left hand side. Once you do this a pop up dialogue box will appear asking your to select the Page you want this new application of yours to be installed upon. So, go on select your page. The Pages get get seen will be the Pages that you are an Administrator of. Click 'Add to Page'.

Now go to the Pages that you have selected and check if your application is there. Your new iFrame app should now appear on your selected Fan Page / Pages.  In-case you don't see it there immediately first refresh this Page. If there is still a problem then do a little tweeting with your setting. From your Fan Page, click on the 'Edit Page link'. Then click on Apps and find the application that you just added. Click on the Edit Settings link next to the app and Add link.

So? how does your new tab look? Share your experience.

I work as Freelance Social Media Network Online Professional. My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

How Social Media Weaves Its Way Into Your Life

Social Media enables you as the Page Admin and Community Manager to connect with individuals on a one-to-one level. Just years ago it would be difficult for a common man to be heard and listened to by brands and business houses, Social Media has made it feasible for heads of an organization to dip into real time conversations and know where their brand and business is going, or not going.

Sometime back when calling / telephoning, writing letters and sending emails would be falling to deaf ears Social Media has made the company people stand up and react in almost real time. You could make numerous calls to the customer care and the complaint section of the company. All your pleas and anger would fall to deaf ears. You could almost be compelled to make do with a low quality product that you may have just purchased. In comes Social Media and the gravity of the situation turns on its head. A comment sent off by a grieving party creates a mass effect and hence companies have people dealing with this right away.

There are many amazing situations that you will recollect. For instance when emails came into business - procuring the email id of the top people would be a huge detective task. These email ids were one of the top well kept secrets. Today we are not really bothered with email id investigations as a simple Twitter handle connects us right to the top guys and into their mobiles as well [if they gaze at their Twitter via their cell phones].

The ripple effect of Social Media has not only been seen in the business world but it is also visible in the political issues. Elections are won with Facebook Page help. Would one have thought that an entire nation knows when to react with just one click? A revolution can take place with a single status update.

A crisis situation can avail of help with single status update. Today doctors are viewing the photos uploaded by their network and immediately sending an alarm of probable disease or operation to be done. What's more a whole operation was done with Tweets from one surgeon to another team a couple of years back.

What's more, missing people are found. You will have read how people have been found and re-united via networking connections. When there is crises and acts of terror people have kept their status flowing so that the outside world know that one is still alive.

A criminal activity is tracked and Social Media communication stands as evidence for the court. The stalker who was never seen as a suspect could be having huge evidence of illicit activities over the Social Media. The courts of the world are looking at information via Social Media as concrete and authentic evidences.

Naturally if the judiciary system can open its doors to Social Media then why would a character analysis from a recruiter be left out. Today HR personnel are also looking at Social Media to source, identify and even evaluate a candidate. What's more this is an amazing source of reference as well. Infact Social Media Sites like LinkedIn enable you to procure referral and comments about your job / work etc.

You don't have a job? You need credibility to be built up? Start with Social Media share information, solve problems online and see how you start to have a following. This in turn draws people who will want more of this experience and you could have a job in hand / your business going. A Blog does wonders here.

Citizen journalism is a growing concept in the world of journalism - this is taking place on Social Media without actually being termed as citizen journalism. You see something good or bad, what you may approve or disapprove, what may make you jubilant or angry you can quickly update on your Facebook Profile Page. You may see an oppression or a celebration and lo! you can upload this via video, audio, text photo and so on.

It is difficult for most to sleep and call it a day without a peek at the Facebook and Twitter status. And ofcourse what we login to for a quick peek ends up being minimum an hour and so on. We are logged in and very concern about someone else frame of mind. Our own state of mind is not understood by us till we broadcast a post and then we also along with the world understand what is happening to us, what we like and dislike.  Social Media Triggers Us To Be Helpful!

Ofcourse we have the negative side of Social Media as well. As the saying goes too much of good thing if not controlled can lead to negative effect. Having said this the good of Social Media cannot be ignore.

Your Turn - how did Social Media help you?

My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

Who And Do - Are Important Criteria To Understanding Your Target Audience In Social Media

As a Social Media Page Administrator / Community Manager how do you look at your Community? Do you take a look at your community? The humans who have joined you / your Page have a reason to do this. The reasons could be direct and obvious at the tertiary level.

For instance an offer and discount expectation could make people look forward to your Page, or some privileged preview and a sneak peek of a new launch could make people enthusiastic and so on. Reasons could be ample. They would be genuine however they would last for as long as your Page supports it. Over a period of time repeating yourself with various similar stories could drain the spirit and enthusiasm out of the Page. Unfortunately soon a blind eye turns towards your posts that throw up on your community members Feeds at their Home Page. It is not that you are to refrain from giving discounts and offer, or a sneak peak and so on. These are universal truths that make the consumer move. However if you want conversations to take place and healthy engagements to take place with regards to your Social Media Page then you need to look at triggers. What are the triggers that your community member normally reacts towards, what makes things go viral, what is it that makes the buzz take place.

Have you managed to go a little deeper. Have you checked on 'who' are your community people? What do they 'do' on your Social Media Site that you and they both co-exists? Don't be carried away only by analytic in quantitative terms. Quantitative terms are good no doubt. However qualitative understanding is also critical. To-gather quantitative and qualitative give us the whole picture.

Many a times you will notice that it is the qualitative understanding that could take the lead in determining as what is the emotional trigger and connect.

In order to know and understand your target audience in qualitative manner it does not mean that you violate privacy norms or start to stalk people in the online world. However a cursory look and a little bit of method can be used to understand who your persons are and what they do in the online Social Media world.

There are two broad and main criteria that you need to concentrate on with regards to deciphering the qualitative understanding of your community member. One is 'who' are your connections and the other is what do they 'do' online on the Social Site that you co-exists with them.

Your turn who are your connects what do they do within your Social Media Site have you figured?

What you may want to read:
How To Have Value Added Conversations In Social Media
How To Measure Your Social Media Efforts

My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

How To Have Value Added Conversations In Social Media

We all hear about having conversations on Social Media platform. We hear about have 'engaging' conversations. Involving humans to converse, share, comment, post and so on. Thereby creating better value added networking environment.

Lets just step back and understand what is the meaning of conversation. The essence of conversation is broken down by the 'sending' and 'receiving' criteria. It is 'encoding' and 'decoding', when this takes place it is 'interaction', a two way process. On the minimum side it can be two persons and ofcourse you can have more than two persons involved as well.

It would be easier to define conversation by saying what it probably is not: It is not a monologue. Though a monologue can be a catalyst to initiate a conversation.

Conversations could be face to face  and / or over a medium. The medium could be phone like telecon, SMS and so on, it could be over net like GTalk, Yahoo chats, emails, Social Networking Sites and so on.

Conversations can be of various types. They could be serious, they could be humorous, a mix, and so on.

What are the kind of conversations that you should have on Social Media Sites while working for your brand and business is a question that we need to answer. Before we start to answer this lets take a quick understanding of the people that you would want to have conversation with. Lets dwell a little deeper into the business side of conversations on Social Media Sites.

People join Online Social Sites because they would like to see what is taking place there, this could be to know about their friends and relatives and so on. The reasons are plenty. It could be to socialize, to keep in touch, to stalk, to check out details and so on. Perhaps to pass time and therefore engage into games like Mafia Wars and so on. When you wish to have a conversation with your customer set it is imperative that you know and understand on why they have connected with your Page. Based on this knowledge will you be able to leverage your conversations that are relevant and meaningful to the audience. Conversation need to be relevant or else the person is sure to leave your Page sooner or later.

You need to know what does your target customer set think of the Social Media Site. Do they use it frequently. Do they use it to learn and consume news and information. Do they use it to share, post and so on. When you can define this you will know and understand how deep will your conversations become eventually.

Do they trust online discussions? Do they share information that enables their network to say for instance buy something at a discounted rate and so on. When you will be able to pin point on the type of talks that they do it is then that you will be able to cater to their requirement and involve them.

Emotions play a very important role. If you can trigger the emotional connect then your audience will be connected with you in a deeper manner. There are a couple of important parts to your conversations:

• How does your target audience feel and behave while on Social Media Sites: This is imperative. As shared above you need to understand the usage and attitude towards the particular Social Media Site that you are considering.
  
• Why do they join your Page: As marketeers you may indulge in giving out certain offers if people join your Page. However keep in mind the bigger picture. People do not only want to see a complete Page full of discounts and so on. The excitement will go out. Have a Page philosophy.
  
• Page philosophy: While you have your Brand Philosophy in tact you also need to decide on what is your Page Differentiation and Philosophy. It is essential that you pre-decide on the reason as to 'why should people join your Page'. Is it that they will receive exclusive offers, or a launch preview etc.
• What you mention: It is critical you have a list of things that you would like to mention. This ofcourse needs to be in tandem with what your brand stands for and what your customer set is looking for.
  
• How you say it: This is all about tone of voice. What you say needs to be accompanied by the manner and tone of voice. This forms the essence of the brand behavior.
  

Along with this ofcourse you need to have your brand personality drawn out and well developed so you know how to behave on the Sites. Social Media Networking is part of the overall marketing scenario. It is not a separate silo that one works within. Our Social Media efforts are an extension of the brand's overall marketing efforts. Just like any other aspect of marketing like advertising [print, tv, radio, outdoors etc], Social Media is also one of these. Ofcourse the modus operandi would be different. However our target audience would be part of the overall target audience itself.

More to read: Parameters To Plan Your Social Media Strategy

My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

Emails Are Part Of The Social Media Environment

Social Networking and Sites / Media is not confined to just the Social Sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and so on. Ofcourse it is this and much more. For instance it is email as well. What would your take be for emails? Would you say that email is part of the Social Media environment?

Well lets for a moment step back and take a bird's eye view of what perhaps is Social Media.
Social Media comprises of us humans interacting on a common usually open platform / sites like for instance Facebook. Via this we share, post, comment and have interactions on an ongoing basis. So, we share text, visual and audio information. Some of these generate responses and others terminate into silent silos. Some create a slight interaction while others get us into deep engaging conversations. Add to this we use it for personal reasons and for business as well.

On the other hand what are we doing with emails?
Well very much similar. The trail mail enables us to understand the conversations at various time intervals due to its time stamp. We share via forwards. And yes we do personal and business communication as well. While email will still be considered for confidential document transfer, it also enables us to have a quick chat. It involves us and definitely in-depth conversations are taken care of.

Just the way Social Media Sites form the daily online activity for many, emails too are seen on daily basis by plenty of people. A safe bet is that people on Social Media would definitely have an email id while people with email ids may not have a Social Media Profile. Email Marketing could be on principles of Social Media

What is your take. Would you look at emails being part of the Social Media environment? Emails Are A Part Of Our Lives - Social Media

My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

Social Media Sparks Egyptian Revolution - ‘In The Space Below - Guest Writers And Interesting Topics’.

‘In The Space Below - Guest Writers And Interesting Topics’. 

Below is from Thomas Morrison

Thomas Morrison

@twmorrison75

I am a freelance writer who writes on topics that are current and progressive. I am also a co-editor of Everything Left along with my friend Jack Lundee.

http://everythingleft.wordpress.com/

Everything left relays the latest Liberal-based current events and political news to its readers.

Social Media Sparks Egyptian Revolution

Social media is no longer limited to status updates and posting photos from a friend’s birthday party. Social media has quickly become one of the most influential factors in grassroots socio-political mobilization across the globe. The January 25, 2011 revolution in Egypt gained a major foothold with the application of social media tools like Facebook and Twitter. Since the existence of media, individuals have used it to demand more governmental transparency and mobilize allies.

On February 9^th former President Bill Clinton spoke at New York University. The former president was lecturing on the Dayton Peace Agreement. This agreement ended the1995 Bosnia Herzegovina genocide. During the lecture President Clinton compared constant news media coverage in the case of the Bosnia-Herzegovina Genocide with the role of social media in assisting communications during the revolution in Egypt. While the former president said the constant news coverage during the Bosnia-Herzegovina Genocide was different than the role social media played during the Revolution in Egypt, both captured global attention at different points in time, springing out of the human desire for information. Clinton reflected back on the quality of technology available when he was president 16 years ago, “There were just 50 Internet sites and the average cell phone weighed 5 pounds”. Clinton heads up the Clinton Health Access Initiative (CHAI) alongside personal counselor Doug Band who provides much needed help to the organization, which was founded in 2002 as the Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative. Mr. Douglas Band also oversees plenty of foreign operations at the Clinton Global Initiative.

On 25 January 2011 after a successful revolution had taken in Tunisia, inspired by the events, many Egyptians began protesting against the unemployment and poverty that had settled in Egypt as a result of the country’s 30-year autocratic rule by former President Hosini Mubarak. Protesters used social network services like Facebook and Twitter to show the world what was happening in the country, arrange protests and governmental and military responses to the unrest. On the second day of mass protest in Egypt, the Internet, PDA access to the Internet and text messages shut off by Egyptian government. The government’s effort to disable ‘insurgent’ communication in Egypt was unsuccessful. A handful of transnational human rights activists, translators and bloggers used Facebook, Twitter, chatrooms and other social media platforms to relay messages from protestors, journalists and human rights activists to further the grassroots social mobilization while allowing the world to witness step in step exactly what was going on inside of Egypt. Social media makes social organization easier and effective. Social media used by Egyptian protestors brought together individuals who shared common goals and ideas, but also offered a medium for planning. In the case of Egypt, social media forced the government to take accountability. Transnational social networks made it very difficult for governments to lie and hide from their citizens. As January’s events have shown the world, social media interconnects individuals creating a transnational network armed with information.

While the Bosnia Herzegovina genocide and the recent revolution in Egypt are to completely separate events under girded by different politics and history, a human’s desire for information has always been insatiable. At many points in history individuals have combined ingenuity, passion and technology to link themselves with people and societies across the globe.

25/2/11

What Makes Your Facebook Page Post Feature On Feeds? - Social Media

While Google's search algorithms are well kept secrets Facebook is transparent about the algorithms that it uses for Posts of Pages to appear on the Feeds of the Fans / Community Members.

The Facebook algorithm is called EdgeRank. EdgeRank consists of three main variables. They are:

• Affinity
• Weight
• Recency

Affinity: This is the number of times the person and the Page interact.

Weight: Is the number of times comments, likes and such interactions take place.

Recency: This is the time since content was posted.

So basically what does this tell us in short: The more immediate, the more times people interact with Page, and the more they comment is better for the Page posts to come up and be seen on the Feeds of Fans and Community Members. 

Did you know: Almost more than 90% of filtration takes place - which means you have 10% chance to show up on your Fan's Community Member's Feed!

My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

Should You Spread Thinly Or Densely On Social Media Sites?

While working on Social Media, what I have noticed is that as a Brand / Business head you would like to spread out on many Social Media Sites. Yes, this no doubt is a tempting option. The reason is simple and obvious - that you would not like to miss out on any opportunity of connecting with your target audience like your Customers and Clients. You naturally are trying to be on search engines as well and so spreading in this regard could be an option.

Spreading out on too many sites makes it a little difficult to manage. One way to look at it is that you start to post similar messages all across, this method is not a good solution. The reason being is that the 'privileged' and 'exclusive' content that you should be offering on your Social Media Site to your Community Members starts to get lost and diluted. Add to this if you have a very big community then catering to individual person's comments / posts / queries could be problematic and could be complicated.

Instead if you are on a couple of sites only then you can concentrate well. You can cater to your Community Members well and be more focused and precise. Add to this you can attend to your Community while you are on the move via your cell phone for instance.

What is your take? Share your views here. Should You Spread Thinly Or Densely On Social Media?

My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

Parameters To Plan Your Social Media Strategy

What are the parameters that one is to consider while working on Social Media? What is it that can make it tick and the lack of it can make it a resounding failure. We all commence the Social Media project with a bang. All concerned persons are very enthusiastic and very keen as well. Many would start to enroll and read up on any help Page found online. No one doubts the enthusiasm and the passion with which it all is started.

However somewhere you will notice that the steam is going out. Suddenly not many who showed interest initially are no more interested. Add to this the intensity of the passion and enthusiasm diminishes. This is inevitable given that other priorities take over and somehow interest and involvement levels decreases.  

What perhaps requires to be done is that you may need to have a check list that enables you to keep your understanding and your team's processes in place.

A quick check on parameters would be as follows. I have given hyperlink to various aspects that need a little more explanation so that you can read each criteria in its complete perspective.

• On-Page SEO: It may not be essential to know technology in order to do SEO. Yes, there are specialists who can do off - page SEO which is done via programming and in the edit HTML formats. However with limited knowledge of programming you need to be aware of where all you can work to ensure that the various search engines throw up your page when your target audience do their search.
  
• Key-Word:This is critical. Before you post your first comment / information you need to decide and be sure of what are your Key-Words. This would emit from doing Key-Word research of your category, competitors and what your Brand is to personify and identify with. Add to this be realistic and think in terms of your target audience. What would they type in search engines is essential that you know.
  
• Brand Personality: It is important that your written words and any behavior stays inline with the Brand Personality. Same goes for any audio and video that you may upload.
  
• Page Philosophy: While you have your Brand Philosophy in tact you also need to decide on what is your Page Differentiation and Philosophy. It is essential that you pre-decide on the reason as to 'why should people join your Page'. Is it that they will receive exclusive offers, or a launch preview etc.
  
• Escalation Matrix: When you receive a query from your customer who is connected on your Page / Blog / Site what will you do if that query was not thought of previously. You need to have a person in the Company at your Client's side who can answer you almost 24/7.
  
• Consumer Mind-Set: This is crucial. You need to understand what your customer thinks about your category, brand, competitors, online as a medium and the particular Social Media Site that you plan to establish your brand / business in. For instance there are customers in certain part of the world who will not use Social Media to talk with certain categories where they feel it is best to meet the relationship officer. So you need to understand your customer's usage and attitude towards the Social Media Sites.
  
• Tackling Negative Comments: This is inevitable. At sometime or the other someone will post a very critical remark and so on. Your tackling of negative comments should be in line with your brand personality.
  
• Competitor Study: Both, Direct Competitor and Notional as well. Who is your competitor, what is their offline and online activity is all important to be well understood. And yes what are they doing on Social Media Sites is crucial for you to keep updated with constantly.
  
• Understand The Social Media Site's Functionality and Its Perception As well: It is best to really know the functions of the Social Media Sites that you take up. To use them optimally is the best way to get results.
  
• Have A Diary Of Content Posts - Keep To Consistency And Freshness: Post information that is relevant to your customers. Post information that is topical. Inform and befriend your customer. Befriending does not mean that you cross the limits though.
  
• Monitoring / Listening and Measuring Tools: There are lots of free and paid tools that you will get online. Use these regularly. Listening and then taking part in conversations is the key. Ofcourse this does not mean that you step into a conversation and become an irritant.
  
• Adaptability To Change As Per Feed-Back From The Measuring And Monitoring Tools: Rules and plans should be pre-decided, however they are not to be rigid. You need to change your plan of action if required.
  
• Pre-decide On Key Performance Indicators: This is important. It is sometimes the main cause of Social Media endeavors being left half way, people loosing interest, the steam goes out and the top management puts these efforts in the side line. Have your performance indicators well laid out. Let them be realistic and let them be such that they contribute towards the marketing and business goals. For instance having lots of followers and fans should not be a blind criteria, how much are they engaging and involving is important.
  
• Add To This It Is Crucial That The Person Working On The Social Media Sites Has Relevant Knowledge Of Direct Marketing Along With Social Media Knowledge
• A Delegated Leader Who Will Be Responsible And Accountable And Has Authority
• Acquisition: It is necessary that you plan how and from where your target audience should flow into your Page.
  
• Retention: How will you nurture and limit the attrition is also vital.
  

Social Media is like an investment. What you do today leaves footprints on the internet that enables you to draw positive fruits later on. Ofcourse if you do not use it wisely then you could suffer as well. Social Media requires focus, planning, adherence to plan, continuity, consistency and freshness.

When we do all of the above we can then be ready to start our venture into Social Media. Any other parameters that come to your mind share them here.

My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia