Facebook Best Practices

Best way to get more likes-Facebook has an easy way for you to send invites to people in your email contact list. My favorite quote is “To have a friend, be a friend first.” Use facebook search to see if any acquaintances you know are using FB and then send invite to be friend. As a page you get likes, so like many pages, many of those people will like you back. I keep my personal profile page and business pages separate. When you post, include other people in your post. When you use the @ sign and then their FB name it will create a hyperlink and your post will appear on their page too. Post on other pages too, to get traffic to your site. For example: @wyomingentrepreneur (when you use the @ sign and start typing, FB has a box that pops up and shows possible names of friends/likes you can choose from.

Best way to go viral-Important to remember, you don’t determine to go viral, the crowd does. Who is the crowd, all of us using social media/Internet.

To determine the best widget or plugin, you first need to know what you want on your blog.

http://wordpress.org/support/topic/what-is-the-difference-between-a-pluggin-and-a-widget

http://www.tripwiremagazine.com/2012/10/wordpress-widget-plugins.html

Best shopping cart on FB: The best shopping cart for your FB page will again be determined by what you want it to do. A former SBDC director recommended Payvment.

Article: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/2617-shopping-cart-software.html

Best gallery for FB: I would try Flickr

You might like this article: http://mashable.com/2012/05/17/facebook-timeline-brand-tips/

Best 5-10 FB practices:

1-post everyday

2-check your page and engage with comments

3-Engage! Engage! Engage! It is called social for a reason!

4-Use photos and videos often

5-Download FB app on your smartphone and be spontaneous. Use your phone when you are out and about and post photos directly from smartphone.

6-Remember it is not all about you-Don’t continually post items for sale, etc. Post about your customers, offer education in your field of expertise, etc…

7-Let people post comments, photos, etc.

8-Post info that is interesting and will engage people.

9-View criticism as an opportunity to learn and grow and educate readers. Don’t delete negative comments. Delete spam and inappropriate language. You can set a filter for language.

10-Develop a strategy/policy-my example below:

Facebook

Role: Provide a place where small businesses can network; find info; find opportunities specific to small businesses; find resources specific to small businesses; and allow everyone to share.

Content Strategy: Post upcoming events (workshops, conferences, etc.- ours and other WY eco devo groups). Post opportunities & resources specifically and of interest for small businesses. Announce news about our staff and awards/success stories of small businesses, clients. Post photos and videos whenever applicable and often.

Tools: 2 Pages (Wyoming Entrepreneur and GroBiz/Idea), PitchEngine News app, networked blogs, smartphone apps

Management: Post an average of 2-3 times daily. Check feedback/comments and respond as needed-daily. Analyze Facebook insight data weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly make adjustments as

needed. Include WyEn website url to posts whenever applicable. Research and keep an eye out for apps that would enhance the pages.

Time: Daily for 15-30 minutes

Balancing FB and your life: Schedule it in your calendar once or twice a day and stick to the schedule. Be sure to check every 24 hours at the most. People may ask questions and you want to respond as quickly as reasonable.

Security Settings: This is different how you manage it between a personal page and a business page.

Most important business for a news journal business to be doing?

Remember FB is a tool, it shouldn’t be your primary presence, your website is or blog. Be sure one of these has your best profile out there. Link everything together; websites, blogs, FB, Youtube, etc.

As a news business you should also be on (my opinion) Twitter, YouTube, and post regularly to Digg, Delicious, Reddit etc. Try one of these and get consistent. These are social bookmarking tools. Try to post something to Digg everyday. Try to get friends to also post or share your Digg post.

Assign at least one person to consistently manage/maintain your social media presence. Know what your niche is-you should present something that people may not find anywhere else. Follow other news sites on FB, Twitter, YouTube, etc. Learn from them. Some great resources on social media: Mari Smith, Erik Spellman, Mashable, Social Media

Examiner, Facebook has many pages to help, to name a very few; too many and then it gets overwhelming.