Blogging Is Extention Of Your Brand And Business - Social Media

Blogging is a critical part of Social Media. Blogging enables you to establish and position yourself / your Brand / your Business. Your Blog represents you and your Brand. Neglecting this aspect of your Social Media could be a little dangerous.

Here are few of the parameters that you may want to keep in mind:

• Keep your content new and fresh.
  
• Keep writing. The more you write the better you get. You improve in your writing skills and you get more traffic as well.
  
• Use of Keywords is crucial.
• Do respond and encourage interactions. It is critical.
  
• Be consistent. Do not neglect your Blogging Posts dates.
• Frame out what your Blogging will represent and stand for.
  

These are few of Blogging parameters. What are yours - do share here.

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

What Affects The Search Engines - Social Media

In the online world, Search Engines are critical. Knowledge of Search Engines form an important part of Social Media professional's  day to day activity. It is critical that you understand what a Search Engine is looking for and how best you can make use of the opportunity. While you do understand the important criteria of the Search Engine you need to keep in mind that the algorithms are updated and changed constantly. Hence what may be true today may not be so correct to use in the near future, or may not be so important in the near future. A classic example of this was Panda which was brought in by Google. Panda was claimed to be a more sophisticated and intelligent way to diagnosing what is a healthy Site / Blog / Social Profile Page / Link and what is just spam.

Search Engines are programmes, they are scripts, they are not human. Keeping this in mind here are a few pointers for you to get a brief understanding on what affects the Search Engine and how your Content could affect your ranking on the Search Engines.

• Though algorithms change there is no doubt that the quality and health of your Site / Blog is crucial. When we refer to health we are talking about the Content and the Frequency of Posts.
  
• If there are more people visiting your Site / Blog the the algorithms understand that this would be a healthy Site.
• If there are more people sharing to your Posts then this is a clear indication that the Posts are good.
• If there are people linking to your Site / Blog then again the Search Engine understands this as a positive sign.
  
• You will need to fix your KeyWord selection. It is essential that you start to identify a limited number of words as KeyWords.
  
• Search Engines also look at MetaTags. This is Off - Page SEO. Your MetaTag of Headlines, Descriptions, Labels etc are critical factors. They direct and entertain the Search Engine Crawlers.
  
• The images that you may upload are another crucial factor for Search Engine Indexing. The names of the Images should be based upon KeyWords that you would have selected.

These are some of the pointers that could help you in understanding what does a Search Engine look for normally.

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

What Social Media Is Not

We know Social Media is all about Conversation. If Conversations are taken care of properly and given good direction then over a period of time they become great Engagement avenues for your Customers with your Brand / Business. 

Here in this Post I will talk about what Social Media is not. Below is a quick list of what Social Media is not as far as Business and Branding goes:

• Social Media is not a broadcast platform for sales. With great conversations and engagement you will be able to develop loyalty and Customer connect. This will eventually lead to sales. Having said this, Social Media is not about creating amazing sales messages and bombarding your Target Audience / Community Members with it. People go to Facebook to communicate and interact. This interaction can be on friendly basis amongst friends, family or peers. It can also be to gather and share information. Hence they may want to know what is taking place, what is the latest and so on. They will not mind consuming information. What they will mind is getting tedious sales messages. People understand. They are not naive. It takes very little to 'un-friend' your Brand and Business. It takes less than 4seconds.
• Social Media is not really about yourself. Though people want to know what others do, they do not want inane status messages. It is ok to share a little company experience [as your Brand and Business Personality may suite]. However it is not so right to mention how tired you are.
• As the Page Administrator you need not jump into each and every Conversations that take place. However you will need to have a method to listing into each and every Conversations that take place. This means that when a Conversation is active you need to weigh if you can share anything of value or anything that enhances and or builds relationships. If what you will type, does not match any of these criteria then you need to really re-consider if you should step into the Conversation.
• While there is strength in numbers Social Media is definitely not a race to get more people to your Page. You need to have people who are your true Target Audiences. You need to have them join you not by pushing them but with their own free will. A chronological growth though slow will be more healthy and sturdy than a quick over-nite growth of Fans / Followers.
• Social Media is not about being a robot. In an endeavor to be professional please do not sound like a robot - a copy paste of same message to various people will not hold good - 'sorry we will get back to you' for instance.
• Abandoned Pages are huge fields for spammers. When you as an Administrator will not be present on your Page there will be spammers ever ready and willing to post their links. Ignoring your Page is equivalent to ignoring your Brand / Business.
  
• Maintain good ethical and respectful relationship. Do not behave highhandedly with your Community People. If you have mentioned that you will revert then you need to revert as soon as feasible.
• You do need to be consistent on your Page. If you come and say a hello once in a week it may be too weak for your Relationship. The right balance of Content and Frequency along with proper Ethics creates a lasting bond.
  
• Treat your Social Media as a commitment and not as a one off ad-hoc job that is to be completed. If Social Media is a one off case then better you do not do this.

There are lots of other myths that you may want to burst - share them here!

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

Tips On Keyword Selection - Social Media

Understanding Keywords is an essential criteria when you work in the online territory. It is the Keywords that will eventually get your right target to you in the online world. Keyword understanding, finding and usage is one of the most important tool that you have. The knowledge of Keyword is your mighty sword / pen. Keyword finding / research is not a one-time effort. You need to be continuous in your research.

It is the Keywords research findings that tell you where your market and category is going. Keywords are what people type onto search engines when they are looking out for a particular matter online. Hence to know the pulse of your Target Audience you are to be well tuned into Keyword research. This is a simple but great way to know where your Business / Brand is as compared to your category / market. Based on your finding you will be able to work on your On-Page and Off-Page SEO.

Your Keyword finding will enable you to estimate on what is your Target Audience seeking. Every search phrase is recorded by various Search Engines and you can retrieve this information in a simple manner. Identification and the final selection of Keywords depends on the value of the Keywords:

• The Keyword that ranks well when you research needs to be validated.
• Ask the question if this is right for your Brand / Business: The Keywords need to be in-sync with your Brand Personality. It should be able to identify with your Brand and enhance it.
  
• You need to check if the Keyword is relevant to the content that you have on your Site / Blog / Social Media.
• What perhaps you could do is physically go on search engine and type out the Keywords.
  
• Check on the number of paid ads that get thrown up alongside. This enables a little in indicating the strength of your Keywords.
  

These are couple of tips. Your turn share your tips here.

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

Precaution While Working On Link Building - Social Media

An important part of working on Social Media is to understand about Links and Link Building. Links are like little veins or tracks that guide the Search Engines crawlers [programs / scripts / algorithms] to go and check out the Site / Blog /Social Profile. Search Engines have built their algorithms in such a way that if you start to spam and paste your Link across without a relevant reason then your Site / Blog can be flagged and quarantined. Sometimes banned as well.

For this purpose it is essential to know as to what criteria should you look out for while working on Link building:

• It is essential to know the health and quality of the sites where you Post your Links.
• If the site where you Post your Links does not have a good traffic then it does not hold good for you.
• If the site where you Post your Links is not having proper content which is useful to readers and if it is not alive [frequent posting] then again this is not going to hold good for you.
• If the site where you Post your Links is not having content that is relevant to your readers then again the reader coming onto the site will not click your link as your link is not relevant to them.
• Post your links onto forums. Careful when you do this. If you go all out it will end up being rated by other members of the forum as spam. Unnecessary posting will not hold good.
• Post your links on Sites / Blogs and Forums which have good ranking.
• Directory submission is another good way to have Links back to your Site / Blog / Social Media Page.
• If at all you have Business Partners then it is a good idea that you share with them Badges which have inbuilt Link to you.
• If you can create content that have the strength to get spread out in a viral way then there too is great chance for you.

Link building is a slow process. It is to be done strategically and let it grow organically. My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

Facebook Posts Ethics - Social Media

Social Media is one of the great spaces where a Brand / Business can communicate with their Customer Set. If handled well you will find good and loyal people attached to your Social Media Page over a period of time.

Many a times one could get carried away when one is working on Social Media. Spaces like Facebook do hold a great reason to be carried away. While on Facebook Page Management you need to keep a couple of ethical behavior in mind:

• Strange and over friendly messages do not hold good on a Business / Brand Page. While you do need to be friendly and relate to your Community Members it is essential that you maintain professionalism. It is preferred that you do not cross this line.
• Usage of too much of short form and lingo will not hold good. Your Brand Personality may be catering to the youth or the teens crowd still slang will not hold good. 
• You need not hop into all Conversations that your Community People may hold with each other on your Page. Many a times you may see that people do tend to converse with each other if they are observing each other on your Page for a long time. Allow this conversation to take place if it is within the preview of your Page Philosophy. If it is outside your Page criteria then you can gently send out a message.
• Remember to revert and post back the required information as quickly as feasible. This is very critical in Social Media. People may not expect it in real time every time however the earlier you are the better.
• Have the ratio of auto Post much lesser than manual Posts. Facebook algorithms do not encourage third party auto feeds. Add to this a manually posted information is always more interacted.
  
• Do not copy paste some other Posts and messages. This is plagiarism. You may loose credibility over a short span of time. 
  
• Show that you are human and not a robot. Empathy is important. While maintaining professionalism do not end up being robotic.
  

These are some of the ethics. There are couple more. Do share your points.

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

Why Use #Hashtag In Twitter ? - Social Media

This sign on Twitter is the most known and used: #. It is called Hashtag. Though it may be a little difficult to organize content on Twitter #Hashtag has made it a little simple. Hashtag has made searching on Twitter easy. It has made the conversational thread feasible. You can search with # and have other people continue to converse. Infact # enables to have an alert system as well; during crises situation people Tweet out with # attached to words / phrases.

You will have yourself used the Twitter Hashtag at some point in time while Tweeting. The Hashtag is put along with a word or phrase. There is no space between the Hashtag and the chosen word. 

The uses of Hashtag # can be summarized as below:

• The main purpose of #Hashtag is so that your Tweets can be organized by you.
  
• In a way you create categories via the #Hashtag usage.
  
• Additionally people searching for that particular #Hashtag will be able to read your Tweets as well.
  
• A #Hashtag enables you to make the persons reading your Tweets understand for who or what purpose you have Tweeted. This way the right Target Audience will select your Profile to follow.
  
• A #Hashtag enables others to Re-Tweet your Tweets.
  
• Having consistency in your #Hashtag enables you to procure new followers who have similar topics to discussed.
  

What is your experience with #Hashtag of Twitter?

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

What Causes Social Media Crises?

Social Media has opened up new avenues of understanding for the Brands and Businesses. The days of mere push of information has taken a sharp turn. It is no more just push. Here there is pull as well. Together they make interaction feasible. While there is a debate that the Social Media space is owned by Customers I would say both, the Customer and the Brand have equal rights and ownership. Perhaps ownership can be defined by this fact: the one who uses Social Media correctly starts to own it. So if a Brand chooses to stay out of it and be lethargic then the ball is in the Customer's court.

Thus in simple words Social Media belongs to that person or Brand who stays on top of things. It is an era where you need to plan and execute with ease and consistency. You need to pre-plan on how you will tackle various types of situations. It may not be possible to plan for all events however it would be worth spending time and energy to construct a structure on what and how you will behave in a particular situation.

Many a times we may come across the view that controlling a Brand Perception now is out of question due to Social Media - however if we plan then it should not be very difficult. The perception of a Brand is developed with various factors one of them is Social Media. Usually a bad service or a defective product results in a Social Media crises. If your product does not deliver what it mentions, or your customer service fails, or your after sales service goes out of context then you are most probably going to face a Social Media crises. You may face a Social Media crises if your Social Media personnel does not behave and act in an appropriate way.

You can face a Social Media crisis whether or not you have a Social Media Page. You may think that since you are not on Social Media you can stay away from the Social Media mess and crises. Well, this is not true, an angry customer is not going to wait for you to arrive on the Social Media scenario. If you are not present then it is your loss, your loss all the more. Your angry customer will post the grievance anywhere and you will have to go chasing the messages.

Social Media will be used under various situations. Sometimes your stakeholders may be against your stock market value for instance. Reasons to have a Social Media crises could be ample and plenty. Sometimes an unhappy employee may just go ranting about how improper your systems are.

What makes a Social Media crises stand out and make a huge following? There are two factors that can make a Social Media crises go out of hand and create many people to go against you, your Brand, Product, Company and so on.

• The first point is that when a grievance is not attended with care, respect and a definite rectification course.
• The second part is when useless, unnecessary justification is given although there is a glaring problem.
  

When you attain the above two points your Social Media crisis will begin to go out of your hand.

So while the thinking is that the Customer has taken over I would say it is not so true if you play your role well. You can to a large extent control and rectify your Social Media Brand Perception.

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

Important Points For Your Social Media Endeavor

Social Media is developing into an active and a well recognized part of Marketing. Companies and Business Houses are recognizing the advantage in having a Social Media presence. In order to maintain an active and robust Social Media Page there are a couple of pointers that could be useful. Check out these parameters and do share your favorites too:

• Think of the activity as Communication extension. Look at the activity as part of building the Brand and role playing / behaving as per the Brand Personality. Your Consumer has many touch points with your Brand, one of the touch point is the Social Media Platform that you may be working on. This means that a singular Brand Message and a singular Brand Personality is to be in existence all across.
  
• Look at your Social Media Page as a space where your Customers will interact with you in two situations. Situation one: When they are angry they will seek you and Post the grievance. The second part is that since it is Social in nature they will view your Posts and Comments when they are on that particular site at their convenience. You need to respect their time and the reason why they have connected with you.
  
• You need to be active on your social Media Page if you are looking at your Community Members interacting and engaging with you. Do not think that if you have created your Business / Brand Profile Page you have got your Social Media presence. This is a myth. The term Social itself signifies that you behave and remain consistently Social. Be consistent and update your Social Media Page regularly. Ofcourse do not cross the the line and be a nuisance either.
  
• Many a times we see blatant sales messages being posted. This is again an incorrect approach. The idea of being on Social Media is so that you attain top-of-the-mind recall value and not so that you have a space to blast sales messages. You need to carefully develop and hand hold your Community Members. Give them lots of reasons to be on your Page.
  
• When your Community Members start to interact do make it a point to revert as soon as possible. If you feel satisfied that people are interacting and then do not share back then it is not worth being on the Social Media scenario. 
  
• Your Community Members could write just about anything on your Page. You will need to know how best you can monitor this. You also need to decide before hand on how you should deal with various situations. You need to know how negative comments for instance is to be handled.
  
• Make it a point to let your Community Members feel privileged. Make it a point to let them feel that they belong to your Social Page. Give them information that has not been out. Let them have a sneak peek at what is taking place with your Company / Brand / Business / Product / Outlets and so on. Let them feel that because they are on your Page they are receiving first hand  genuine inside information.
• Have a trend and stick to it. Have a weekly trend like question answers etc. Let your Community Members know that there will be an interaction hour on a particular day of the week at a particular time. This will make them look forward to the time. This creates an amazing feeling and it opens up a real active engaging communication.
  
• Ask and you shall get. If you are doing all of the above then it is time to ask. Ask your Community Members to invite their Network. Ask them to recommend. Ask them to share with their Network what you may Post. Use this tool of asking very carefully. You need not get aggressive here or become a nuisance. Remember the discretion to act on your request is upto your Community Members you cannot force them. Remember that you are asking them to share what may hold them in good light with their Network. Do not ask / blast sales messages. 
  

Your turn. What are your key pointers. Share them here.

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

Google Plus Circles For Your Brand And Your Business - Social Media

Google Plus is one of the most talked about Network Sites in today's time. You look at the Tweets and it is one of the most Tweeted content on the internet. Though in its nascent stage as yet Google Plus has shown great advantages.

In this post am going to share a couple of features that are very advantageous for Brand and Business Networking.
Google Plus has a significant feature called Circles. It could be compared to what Facebook has as Lists.

Circles from Google Plus enables you to form various groups. You can have plenty of groups. For instance friends, family, work and so on. The Circles enables you to have focused and targeted information sent out. Thus your information is not sent off to people who may not be interested in that piece of information. In the same way you can click on any of your Circles and you will be able to view the information posted by members of that particular Circle alone.

Your people will not know the name of the Circle that you put them into.

An amazing part is that when you post you can select the Circle you want to share your post with. You can select individuals from your GMail as well. And here is the amazing part: you can select to share with your entire Circle as well as the network in their Circles. This is the point of extended / spread of information you can do. One more part is that you can share your post with people whom you may have not added to your Circles but if they have added you to their Circles you can send out information to them.

You can chat with your particular Circle exclusively. This way you can have many people chatting with similar interest or concern.

You can select what part of your profile information is available to which Circle. For instance if you have your professional Circle they will be able to view your education and employment while your friends Circle can view your relationship, location and so on.

If you are posting information that you may want to share and draw attention of a particular person then you can do tagging. You can simply tag by '@'.

The features in Google Plus enable you to do a quick research and ask on what is it that your Customer would be seeking. Ofcourse still the 'questions' section has not been well developed still you can make the best use of the post section.

Google has enable your android phone to be in sync with your Google Plus Network. This means you can be online when you are on the go.

You can have Customer Care taking place on your Google Plus - and have your Brand and Business reaching out to various persons and group of people [Circles].

Your turn: Would you look at Google Plus for Brand and Business?

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

SEO Pointers - Social Media

SEO is an important criteria for your online activities. SEO [Search Engine Optimization] if done accurately and consistently then it can be a very rewarding work.

Below are a couple of myths and pointers that one should consider while working on SEO tasks:

• Duplicate the content: Having a couple of blogs that are same is not the way to go. Also having same content across various Social Media Sites, Blog and Website is not a very good idea. There are two main disadvantages: One is that your Pages and Site will not be taken up higher by Search Engines and secondly your Target Audience will loose interest as wherever they go it seems they have to see the same copy paste job.
  
• Images are to be named as Image1, Image2 and so on: Spiders [Crawlers / programmes / scripts] of Search Engines do not 'read' photos, videos and audios. What they do read is text matter. Hence here is a great chance for you. Name your images as per proper and relevant keywords. You can name your images while saving them. Alt Text is an important feature.
  
• Link: Your best SEO is linking the various matter with each other. If you have referred to some point in another post then why not hyperlink the two. As much as external linking is important do remember to work towards internal linking as well.
• Another task of SEO is Keyword. You need to research on what is the right Keyword for your task. Keywords are critical hence before you start to post you need to be clear on your set of Keywords. They need to be intelligently used across all your online work. This starts right from your URL name and so on. Your Page Title, Headline, Sub-head and so on all should be having the intelligent usage of Keywords. There are two parts to this one is On-Page and the other is Off-Page. Use your Keywords in MetaTags and so on.
  

SEO should not be considered later - it is the first part that is to be done planning for.

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

Your Community's Network Is Important - Social Media

Social Media is a great platform for sharing information. It is a great platform when things go well and people share either what you want them to share or they share on their own a positive note about you / your Brand / your Business. There are various people sharing various matter. People automatically start to prefer a certain platform for a particular aspect. For instance: LinkedIn to show professional side while Facebook Profile Pages for friends and family.

On Your Social Media Page you will find that particular people share a lot while some do this less frequently and others may have not as yet done the sharing.

Have you tried to track and see if those who are sharing have the network that could be useful to you? Try to monitor and see who other than your immediate Community is getting to view what you Post. It is a critical and good to know aspect of Social Media.

Track the people and check if they also would be good to have on your Social Media Page. When your core Community Member is doing too much sharing and still no one from their network seem to join you perhaps it is time to understand that the sharing may not be so much of value. You need to have a quick check on those people who share less frequently. Perhaps they may be having an actual relevant target audience in their network. It is a simple understanding that people connect with people who perhaps have some similar liking. There is huge potential in the network of your Community Members; it is your task to see as to what may make the difference.

Your Community Member would be having in their network people who have some similar choice. This section could be a huge potential for you to take your Brand / Business ahead. Check this aspect and go ahead.

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

Get Your Community To Talk - Social Media

While you work heavily on your Social Media Pages it is imperative that your efforts pay off. One of your objectives would be to have your Community Members talking about your Brand / Business. When people start to talk about your service / product is works very beneficial for you. At one level you have a viral spread taking place and at another level you have your Members acting as ambassadors for your Brand / Business.

There are various ways in which you could enable your Community Members to get talking about your Brand / Business:

• Get them involved: If you could enable user generated thinking pool for your product / service then you will not only know where you stand but also get to know what is expected. Sometimes just a little add-on can make your offering get more preference from your Customers. A collaborated output has far more better acceptance and trial.
• Create a 'want': Get your Community Members to apply / opt in for your trial. This will create a 'look-forward' feel. When they are eligible and get an opportunity to use / try your product / service - this will create more buzz and talk. A feeling of being the 'privileged' person gets people to feel that they 'belong' and this will in turn benefit you as well.
• Happy people create more happiness: When your happy Customers spread the good word and their positive experience it enables more people 'willing' to join you rather than what your sales pitch would have created.
  

So go on and create the buzz. Social Media is an amazing platform.
My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

Creating A 'Like-able' Environment - Social Media

Many a times you may have wondered on what would create a more favorable environment for your Social Media presence. What should you do and not do. After your audience joins your Social Media Page what are the parameters that you need to take care of. Here are a couple of parameters that perhaps may come handy:

• Asking questions: Social Media Sites like Facebook for instance enables you to have a quick survey. This way you can understand what your Community Members are seeking, what they like, what puts them off and so on. You can use questions as a great space to understand the various facets of your product / service / Social Media Page and so on.
  
• Listen: While you do ask questions you will require to read between lines as well. There could be brief conversations going on on your Social Media Page. Listen to these. Create alerts for your Brand / Business and check on what people are talking. Listen in to what is said about your competitors as well. Listening to what people write for searching can also be a great way to know what Keywords are to be used.
  
• Behind the scenes: People like to know the trivia. There is no harm in sharing on what is taking place at your corporate office / branch office. People like to know what other people are doing. Sharing is not bad. Share by way of text, video, audio, photos and so on.
  
• Do not sell: Please stop bombarding sales messages. Social Media is a very different work, it is not sales broadcast platform.
  
• Surprise and delight: This is definitely one of the best method. It works on ground, it works in direct marketing and it works on most marketing platforms like Social Media as well.
  
• Give value: While surprise and delight is a great way another amazing method is value addition. Try to see how you can go that extra mile to satisfy your Member, how can you provide matter that others cannot / do not.
  
• Honesty and transparency: Any Business requires transparency along with honesty. This goes without saying.
  

You can read the below nine pointers that will enable you to understand in depth the various ways in which you would want to handle your Social Media Audience:

• A good note to go through would be on how you could go about planning and handling the Social Media requirements: http://goo.gl/65bCQ
• A note on handling of negative comments: http://goo.gl/tHTMP
• What are the Social Media uses for your brand and marketing objectives?: http://goo.gl/IDvFr
• 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
• Segregating Your Community Members: http://goo.gl/3y49u
• Measuring Your Customer In Social Media: http://goo.gl/EjAHQ
• A note on Types Of Your Audience Personalities in Social Media: http://goo.gl/vrYUd
• How To Decide The Frequency Of Your Posts On Social Media: http://goo.gl/wM2fL

Having said this the last mile is critical: Your product / service should deliver what its promises.

Your turn - what would you look at?

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

Community Testimonials Via Social Media

Social Media enables you to have a captured audience. This is your Community. This Community is to be nurtured and retained over a period of time. You do need to dedicated a percentage of your daily time to your Social Media Community Members. You need to slice your Data and see how is the community progressing. Segregating your Community Members: http://goo.gl/3y49u and measuring your Customer In Social Media: http://goo.gl/EjAHQ is the key essence. It is essential that you know who your Members are. You do need to decipher what they are seeking and why they have joined your Social Media Page. Once you understand your Members you will be able to segregate them and understand who are your active Members. A note on how to measure your Social Media efforts: http://goo.gl/uRv12

While you do this you need to check at your back-end on which Community Members are your good Customers. These good Customers are to be nurtured so that they in turn become your Brand ambassadors. They can give a testimonial and make others aware on the positive experience about your Brand / Business. Having a testimonial from your existing Customer is a very valuable asset that you can have.

There are two ways in which you could receive the testimonials:

• You could request these Customers, who are your Community Members as well, to share their experience with your Brand / Business
• The second way is the unsolicited method - which is better - is that they on their own put in a good word on your Page

Either ways remember to thank them. It is entirely your Business decision to decide on which of the two routes you may prefer from the above points. After all Community Management on Social Media sites like Facebook is not just about having a Fan / Business Page set up: http://goo.gl/WgqSK. If your Customer is happy they will volunteer and share their experience. It is best if you have a collection of unsolicited testimonials.
Unsolicited testimonials are a great way of showcasing your good service and product. It is more genuine and is more believable. It enables you to enhance the positive perception towards your Brand / Business.

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

What Is Google Wallet - Social Media

Google will soon be rolling out Google Wallet. This is a payment system that will enable you to just flash your cell phone at the payment counter. Your payment system has shifted from paper notes to plastic credit card. Now as Google launches this you would start to see yourself and people around you paying via cell phones. Essentially this will be an android application. While Google Checkout is the online payment system provided by Google, the Google Wallet is the mobile / cell phone enabled payment system.

How will Google Wallet work?:

• The application enables your phone to store the virtual versions of your existing plastic cards onto your cell phone
• When you will tap your cell phone your payment information goes out
• At some stores it will enable loyalty information as well [this is if the store has a set-up for loyalty programme of Google Offers]

In Short:

• Google Wallet makes your credit cards fit into your cell phone
• Makes your phone into a wallet

So, are you all set to use it?
My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

What Are Facebook Deals - Social Media

Facebook recently launched Facebook Deals. The basic principles and modus operandi is the same as what Groupon is.

Facebook Deals comprises of the below factors:

• Group buying
• The more people buy, the more discounts will take place

Facebook Deals got introduced during the month of April 2011. The programme is still in its pilot stage. It offers online coupons to customers who can avail of discounts from their local stores. This pilot is introduced in limited cities: Atlanta, Dallas, San Diego, Austina and San Francisco. Facebook's intention is to roll across other cities and countries soon.

Has it rolled into your locale? Share your experience with Facebook Deals.

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

Social Media is Mass Comm., DM And PR

Social Media is to be seen as an extension of marketing and branding exercise. Social Media should not be a domain which works on its own in a silo and isolation. It requires the same effort, strategy and brain storming that any other channel would require. Thinking of Social Media at the end when all else is decided could be a slightly wrong approach in today's environment.

Social Media should be a part of your overall strategy. The Brand Personality that you may create for your service or product is to be extended via your Social Media endeavors as well. Many a times we will notice that Social Media is a live test of the brand personality. Ofcourse the modus operandi would be different. However our target audience would be part of the overall target audience itself. Social Media Sites are one of the touch points for your Customer set. They would be experiencing your Brand at various levels like at the sales counter, TV, hoarding, online advertising and so on.

Social Media has an amazing mix of direct marketing, mass communication and public relations. You can choose to broadcast your message, or connect with your individual target on a one-on-one basis. Or you can use the Social Media platform to manage crisis, and work around as a public relation tool. You have an option to make the best use of Social Media platform. It essentially depends on what your marketing requirement is. You need to analyze your marketing situation and then decide what role would Social Media play. Once you decide on this then you can decide on how the role will enable you to achieve your marketing objectives.

How has your corporate looked at Social Media. Is Social Media top of the mind?

Interesting read:

• Benefits of Online Reputation Management - Social Media

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

What Are Facebook Credits - Social Media

Have you wondered what are Facebook Credits? Facebook Credits are virtual currency that you can use to buy applications, games and so on. The purchases are done only on Facebook via logging in to your Personal Profile.

You can own these credits by purchasing them. This purchase can be made via your PayPal or credit cards. In short your Facebook Credits can be purchased via real currency which is transferred online.  

If at all you wish to know what how much Facebook Credit you have or what is the balance then go to your 'Payments' Tab via your Account Settings. You can buy your Facebook Credits from this same tab of 'Payments'.

Facebook Credits were first introduced in alpha stage during May 2009. Post this in February 2010 the beta stage was brought in which lasted till January 2011. The Facebook Credits have grown in size and popularity. In March 2011 a subsidiary was created to handle payments due to its large size. The subsidiary is called Facebook Payments Inc. Currently there are approximately 150 developers who encourage use of Facebook Credits in more that 650 Facebook games and applications. This represents approximately 70% of virtual goods purchase on Facebook.

Do you use Facebook Credits? Share your experience here.

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

Should You Buy Facebook Fans? - Social Media

We hear one or all of the below:

• Buy Facebook Fans
• Want Facebook Fans
• Link Exchanges
• I Fan You And You Fan Me
  

Do you think that outright purchasing Fans solves your marketing concern? Who perhaps could be looking at this?

Lets look at a different scenario: Imagine there is a retail outlet in the brick and mortar world. The retailer buys some 10000 people to just come to the retail outlet. Why does this not take place in the brick and mortar world as a main operative thought? You may think that the shop capacity vis a vis the number of persons does not make sense. So, lets bring down the number of persons and increase shop capacity [remember we are in our imaginative world of brain storming]. Will this process still hold good? People don't buy such thinking. Why are they then looking at this in the online world?
Having said this, there would be a few who will deliver to you the quantity of Fans as per what they promise while commencing with your Page. If they say they will get you an x number within a time frame they will deliver. For this they will do proper marketing like: advertising, direct marketing and public relations. They do not have a pandora box from which your Fans will tumble out.

Usually Social Media professions don't promise initially. Between 3 t 6 months you can guesstimate on what will be your Fan quantity. Don't be in a hurry. Organic growth is the best. You will be able to retain people. Remember you want real humans, who are really looking at your category and who want to really connect with your Brand / Business House.

Did you know?:

• Technology enables bot system which can create Page Likes without human contact
• Why not check in the first place if they have a Fan Page?
• If they are making claims of getting you 10,000 Fans then check how many Fans they have on their Fan Page - why not check that?
  

Lastly: If someone Fans your Page, you are not under any obligation to Fan their Page.

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

How To Decide The Frequency Of Your Posts On Social Media

Have you wondered as to how many times should you Post / Share / Comment on Social Media? Too much is not good and too less is worse. Your frequency + content are factors that determine if your audience will stick with your Brand / Business Page.

There are various factors that determine the frequency of your Posts:

• Category: This is the crucial factor. For instance if you are in the news category then naturally you need to be very frequent - people would like to have information as it unfolds in the world. If you are in the beverage or any other FMCG then people would like to have information about what you are associated with as well. For instance if you have a beverage that is positioned on freshness then people will like to know more about freshness and so on. Having said this your target audience does not consciously look for the attributes it is for you to develop the same.
• Customer Mindset: Your frequency is directly proportional to your target audience's thirst and capacity to consume information via online Social Media Sites. For instance if you have a beverage which is for senior citizen's particular pain relief unlike what is shared in the above point you may want to slow down a little bit with your frequency.
• Brand Personality: Your frequency also depends on what personality you want to portray. If you have a personality that is on snobbery then it is best to be a little less frequent.
• Seasonality: If you have an offer or sales going on then your frequency will vary from what is shared above.
• Out of sight is out of mind. This is very true in case of the online world. Less according to you may not really be less. The reason being is that your Post is just one of the many that your target audience's Page Feed is receiving. Your post may never be noticed.
• Predictability is good; but bad without excitement. It is good if you decide that you will post just thrice a week and then stick to it. However you will need to drop in an interesting Post at times to break the monotonous method. Too much monotonous methods can lead to lack of interest.
  
• Auto Posts: Reduce the frequency of auto posts. Auto Posts create distance. 
• While you may think you are posting often your target audiences Feeds do not state the same. Careful: if your target audience does not have too many Pages that they may have joined then your Posts need to reduce.
• Theme: If you have promised that every day you will share a breakfast news then no matter what stick to this. In crucial situation announce before hand that they should not expect the Post.
  

The Frequency is very important. It creates affinity. It makes your audience 'look forward' to your posts. Set the pace right. It is critical that you analyze when your audience interacts.

Your turn. What is your frequency to Post? Share your learning here.
My Business Page is on Facebook at:  http://www.facebook.com/pervarakapadia Do join me.

How Does Panda Affect You? - Social Media

You will have heard about Panda by now. After Google Instant we have Panda walking in. It is the latest algorithm brought by Google Inc., early this year. It essentially is a fight against the much infamous content farms, copy paste work and link exchanges. Your Blog and Website could get affected by this.

Check on your Page Rank. Have you slipped recently? This could be because of Panda. Panda is popularly known as Farmer. It farms the good sites and brings them upfront on the search.

Google is usually silent about its algorithms. They do not want people to manipulate and exploit the knowledge. This is a positive; when people do not know completely on how to bring their sites up high on the search by malpractice. Even then black hat SEO does take place. 

How will Panda affect you?:

• You will receive much more relevant search results which will enable you to reach to the required information much more faster.
• Panda seems to be appreciative of comments and conversations hence your Social Media Sites work out to be a big positive for you.
• If you use SEO strategy then Panda will start to get fond of you. Do not go in for black hat SEO. Panda will figure this out.
• Avoid link farms and packages. At some point you may get tempted but resist this as bad fruit. When you avoid such tactics Panda will be nice to you. 
• Google emphasizes that user experience will get better with Panda. 
• If there is low quality content then delete it and move it out immediately. You may think it is small quantity of content. However a little can also bring your site down on search.
  
• Avoid densely populating the content with keywords and links. However an appropriate usage of links and keywords will work to your advantage.

What is your experience with Panda? Did Social Media engagement and conversations manage to bring you up on search?

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

Your Auto Posts On Facebook May Not Be Read - Social Media

Facebook has been transparent about its algorithms. They are called EdgeRank. It is this algorithm that decides on which post should appear on your Personal Profile Feeds in Facebook. Recently you may have noticed that posts coming from similar third party auto posting sites are getting clubbed together.

This will result in your Fans not clicking each time to check out what all is clubbed together.

The reasons why they sooner or later could stop clicking the clubbed auto posts all-together:

• The quantity of Posts clubbed together is high sometimes as much as 51 Posts are clubbed together for example
• Once the pandora box of clubbed Posts is opened the recent Feeds seem to be pushed down
• When the clubbed Feeds are allowed to tumble out many a times you will notice Posts which are hours old show up throwing the recent Posts down

In short till this situation is not taken care of by Facebook you will need to post manually.

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 To Use Facebook Page To Engage Your Customers - Social Media

Facebook has become one of the major Social Networking Sites. Infact as a matter of speaking, and in comparison, it is called as one of the largest nations coming into force - or shall we say is already into force with the political revolution that it enables? Ofcourse Facebook is an electronic site which goes to say that it the people who cause the revolution.

With over 500 million persons on Facebook you are bound to find your target audience on Facebook at-least 99% of the time [leaving out countries that don't allow Social Sites or for the persons who are not into Social Networking on Facebook]. The simple logic of any Brand or Business is that - be where your target audience is. Any Brand would like to have multiple touch points with their Customers. Any Brand would like to make the best use of the various touch points. So, naturally Facebook becomes ideal online and Social space for Brand and Business houses to be in. This is the space where you can befriend your Customers and gently lead them to your objectives.

We all talk about engaging our audience. We understand that engagement will gently lead them to be loyal to us. Thus, in due course of time they would be our best ambassadors.

In this post I shall try to share on how you can engage with your audience on Facebook.

Amongst the many features that you will find on your Facebook Page the main features which can enable engagement are:

• Share: There is no harm in requesting your Community on Facebook to share. Ask them upfront to share! When they get to share and talk with their network it gets better for you. Firstly your Page matter is going viral. Secondly your Community gets more engaged as they get their network appreciating the content and thereby a reinforcement takes place towards your Page; in other words towards your Brand / Business.
• Links: Engage them with interesting content. Share the links of content that is relevant and meaningful to them.
• Photos and videos: This is the universal truth: Pictures not only say a thousand words but they act as eye stoppers as well. On your Community Member's feed they show up as thumbnail. Thumbnails work as wonderful eye stoppers.
• Create question answer: This is an amazing poll system that Facebook has put up. Here you can actually get votes to a survey, you can generally ask a question and so on. The good part is that it reflects easily in the Feed of your Community Member's Home Page
• Interesting status updates to draw conversation: Your status updates need to generate a conversation. You can either post an opinion whereby your Community automatically answers, or you can ask for an opinion. You need to get a discussion going.

Make the best use of the Page that Facebook has created.

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

Types Of Your Audience Personalities - Social Media

When you handle a Social Media Page for your Brand or Business you need to keep in mind the type of audience that you have. Everyone is not of the same and similar mindset even though they would be connected via a single Page with your Brand or Business. There would be difference in their mindset, in the way they consume your information, in their lifestyle and so on. There are a couple of ways to understanding as to who is your target audience and how should you be re-acting to them. 

Parameter One:

Essentially the first line of identification ofcourse would be based on your own product / service category. This would determine as who would be joining your Social Page. The first line of understanding your target audience would be on the lines of knowing who would essentially join you. You would have your Brand Personality drawn out and hence you would also have sketched out on who is your target audience. For more information: Your Social Media Output Should Be An Extension Of Brand Personality

Parameter Two:

After they join your Brand / Business Page: There are ways in which you can definitely cluster your community. If you have a purchase record and if your back end data collection is robust then you will be able to know as to who are your active, passive and lapsed customer sets. More of this information you will find here: Segregating Your Community Members - Social Media Do read this so as to understand how you can segregate your database on your Social Media Brand / Busniess page.

Parameter Three:

The next step is to identify your target audience. There are universal truths about human behavior. This would be true for the online world as well.
The types of personality that you will encounter could also be clustered based on the responses that you would receive on your Brand / Business Social Page. Lets see the type or persons that you would encounter on your Social Media Page:

• Joining All Recommendations or The Obligating Types: These are the obliging types. A friend may have recommended your Page and they would have promptly joined it. Not all of them would be off your target mark as the friend would have thought while recommending that your Page would be relevant to the person.
• Silent Type or The Dead Group: They have joined your Page. However they will never [almost never] seem to respond, interact and join in any conversation. They leave you in the riddle to guess if they have hidden your feeds in their home page for instance on Facebook. 
• Cut Short: They respond with 'yes' and 'no'. There is no further story to what they say.
• Obsessive Spammer: Ah these have joined your page with a single purpose. They will copy paste their link on your posts, comments and wall.
• Devil's Advocate: These have amazing thought process. They will have the other point of view to practically all that you mention.They can make you irritated. Many a times they are healthy as well, as they show you the other side as well. It would be interesting to have engagement with them if they are not unnecessary posting just to draw attention towards themselves.
• Aggressive: These get angry at a drop of the hat. If ego is hurt then they go aggressive. It is unintentional, however it is in the nature of the person.
• Interrupter: They seem to step into a healthy discussion and seem to suddenly appear without being a part of the entire talk from the beginning. They feel that they have every reason to get into any conversation. It could be just a 'like' at times on Facebook. They feel compelled to share their information.
• Active Responder or The Right Ones: This is the one to cherish a little more. They are more the relevant types for you.
  
• The Anonymous: This person is someone who has a fictitious name, a fictitious identity and many a times no image. This person is close to the 'Obsessive Spammer' at times and sometimes is the 'Interrupter' type.
  

Definitely the above personalities are not always exclusive. There would be an over-lap as well which you need to sharply recognize.

A point to be kept in mind is that not all engagement lead to conversion and business. So within those who are great participants we need to further check on their purchase recency, frequency and monetary value. However the active ones are to be respected and taken seriously. They are the reason why we could be in news and come up good on search engine rankings. They are precious to us on our pages. They probably will convert as we would be in their consideration set in their mind.

And, ofcourse we have the RFM [recency, frequency, monetary] cluster / segments who necessarily are important and crucial to us.

What do you think? What is your experience?

Interesting read:

• Easy Steps To Write Blog Posts For Your Brand And Business - Social Media

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

How To Protect Your Social Media Work

As a Social Media person you would be putting in long hours of research, time, energy and deep understanding on what you may post / write on Blogs and other Social Media Sites. Your work could be by way of content curation or by way of out of the box thinking. Whatever format and route you may apply, it would be original and authentic when you pen it down. While you go about doing your work on a daily basis there are people who would like to copy paste what you do and simply put it up on their Blog / Website. What happens here is that sooner or later traffic would start to go there as well. Am sure you will have heard of such cases.

What exactly is copying:
The online content theft is popularly known as plagiarism. In simple terms plagiarism is copying either directly or coming close to another author's language, thoughts, ideas or expression - and representing them as one's own. In other words an obvious theft.

In order to protect your work there are a couple of things that you could do:

• License: You can upfront put up a mention that the material cannot be used in any way by anyone. You can link your site with Creativecommons which will give you a banner that mentions that the material is protected. From this site you get a license that secures your work. Creativecommons is not a law firm so they will not enforce any law. However when you have their license of ownership protection, you can question the other party.
• Monitor: You can have your matter regularly checked. There are a couple of sites which enable you to check if your work is taken / picked and produced as some other person's work. The most popular one is Copyscape. The others are Plagium, Copygator and so on. You will receive an automated notification when your matter is reproduced elsewhere.
  

The tools that can help you to monitor and keep a check are:

• Google Alerts
• Plagium
• Copygator
• Feed Burner
• Digital FigerPrint
  
• Tineye

If you do want to be open to sharing:
There are sites like Fairshare which enable you to post your material and get paid for this if someone picks it up. Their modus operandi is: The more people that use your articles, the more views these used articles get the more you get paid.

Your turn: How do you protect your online matter?

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

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.