by karen clark - my business presence · 2012. 2. 11. ·...

Social Media for Direct Selling Module 3: Proliferation–Start Engaging! Have Fun Growing Your Social Media Presence Every Day By Karen Clark

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©Karen Clark/My Business Presence. All rights reserved. www.mybusinesspresence.com

About Your Instructor

Taking her own direct sales business to the highest level of the compensation in less than seven years was just the start for Karen. As the Director of Consultant Development for the corporation, she created training programs for the entire field before founding My Business Presence. Now an in-demand speaker and author, Karen is

dedicated to helping all independent distributors, self-employed business owners and entrepreneurs master the world of social media, including effective blogging and leveraging the search engines. Karen has co-authored two books – Incredible Business and Direct Selling Power. Her information packed, interactive presentations are guaranteed to help enhance the relationships you have with your customers by integrating person-to-person contact with smart Internet Marketing strategies. Her wealth of practical knowledge, her ability to simplify even the most advanced social media concepts and her fun, friendly style makes Karen a standout resource for online presence training. Visit her website at www.MyBusinessPresence.com for more information and to receive ongoing education through her blog, virtual courses, and hands-on workshops.

Voicemail: 707-588-9290 • Email: [email protected]



A Notice to Readers © 2011-2012 by Karen Clark/My Business Presence. All rights reserved This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold with the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional service. This document contains copyright protected content owned by Karen Clark/My Business Presence. This content may not be used in trainings, workshops, or seminars without the expressed written consent of Karen Clark/My Business Presence. Furthermore, no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system other than for the buyer’s personal use, without permission in writing from Karen Clark/My Business Presence. Thank you for respecting these guidelines. Published by Karen Clark/My Business Presence, Rohnert Park, CA Website: www.MyBusinessPresence.com Email: [email protected]



Table of Contents Module 3: Proliferation–Start Engaging! Have Fun Growing Your Social Media Presence Every Day ............................................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Table of Contents .............................................................................................................................. 4

Creating Community–Facebook Groups ............................................................................................. 5

Creating Community–LinkedIn Groups............................................................................................. 10

A Word About LinkedIn Answers ..................................................................................................... 13

Creating Community–Twitter Hashtags............................................................................................ 14

Facebook Tagging ............................................................................................................................ 17

Integration Among the Social Media Sites........................................................................................ 19

Syndicating Your Content through Social Media............................................................................... 21

Paid Advertising on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter ........................................................................ 23

Event Listings on Facebook and LinkedIn ......................................................................................... 24

Coming Up Next............................................................................................................................... 27



Creating Community–Facebook Groups

Creating a Facebook Group Do you have an inner circle you would like to have threaded conversations with, as a Group? The newest version of Facebook Groups might be just what you need. They are designed for Groups of already-connected Facebook Friends to discuss and collaborate from within Facebook. These are different from Fan Pages as they are automatically set to send emails for every post and comment made from within the Group, and members must manually change their settings to opt-out. My recommendation is that you use them with caution as you might annoy people who do not really want to get lots of emails or carry on ongoing conversations with you and your Friends – since they are automatically added and cannot decide for themselves. To start a Group:



1. Go to Groups on the sidebar of the Home page of Facebook (news feed) and click on Create a Group or visit http://www.facebook.com/bookmarks/groups

2. Click Create Group 3. Give it a Group Name 4. If you wish, change the icon to the left of the Group Name. These help your

members identify the Group in their sidebar list. 5. Type in Members’ names (must be Friends). You will be able to invite more later

any time, or send people the link to join themselves. 6. Select Privacy:

Closed: Members are public, content is private. This will post a line to your news feed saying So and So started/joined Such and Such Group but non-members will not see the content. You can find these Groups in the search and can request to join. Open/Public: Members and content are public. This will post a line to your news feed saying So and So started/joined/commented in Such and Such Group and non-members who are your Friends can see what you post. You can find these Groups in the search and join freely. Secret: Members and Content are private. This will NOT post a line to your news feed saying So and So started/joined/commented in Such and Such Group and non-members will not see the Group – you must be invited to join.

7. Click submit/create Group 8. Click OK 9. Post something to Group – Post, Link, Video, Event or Doc (like a Note) are

allowed. 10. Click Edit Settings to adjust your personal settings as a member – turn off email or

regular (red flag) notifications or select which things to be notified of. You can also choose to have the Group listed on the sidebar or not as a bookmark from the Home page.

11. Click Edit Group 12. Edit Email Address to give you an email address to send Group messages to –

those emails will be distributed to the Group and posted to the Group wall. This makes it easier for posting – just send an email to that address.

13. Edit Description to add a description of the Group and its purpose. 14. Click on Profile Picture (left sidebar) while in Edit Group to add a Group picture.

This can be something appropriate for the topic, or a logo, or photograph. Try finding something at istockphoto.com that works for your theme/topic.

15. Click Edit Thumbnail under resulting image. 16. Click on Members to see current members and to add additional Friends to the

Group. 17. Click on View Group to get back to the Group.



Important Facebook Group Notes: Group members will receive email notifications of every new post by default. Let them know they can visit the Group then click Notifications to turn off notifications. I usually make this one of my first posts they will see when they arrive, and then post it again occasionally. You can also put something about this in the Group info. If you have the Group listed as a bookmark on the sidebar, they will see a numbered flag there when there are new posts so if they know they will be visiting the Home page on Facebook regularly it is OK to turn off email notifications. If they do not visit the FB Home page often they may want to leave notifications on. They can adjust it to only show new posts vs. posts and comments etc. Also note that for each post someone places on the wall, they are automatically ‘subscribed’ and will receive email/notifications. Under each post they can click Unsubscribe if they really do not want to receive all the notices (especially for a popular topic). Additionally they can click Subscribe to receive notices on topics in which they have not yet participated. Lastly – to delete a Group, click on See All by the Members, then click the X next to each member to remove them all one by one. Then when you are done removing them, go back to the Group page, and click Leave Group under the gear icon on the right. When you are the last member and you leave, it deletes the Group. If you were simply added to a Group you do not want to be in (or someone is added to yours and they do want to be in it) you would just click the Leave Group under the gear icon on the right sidebar. Extra Facebook Group Features:

• On the top right within the Group are little pictures – click See All and you will see the Group description plus all of the members. You can make others Admin if you have some leadership you would like to be able to add people from here.

• Click Chat with Group under the gear icon on top and a new Facebook Chat

window pops up. When you type into this chat, all Group members who are online will receive the chat pop up window and can read and participate in a conversation among all online Group members.

• To create an article or longer document that will be “sticky” on the top of the

Group page, click Doc on the publisher on top. This creates a note that will be stored on the right side under Docs, and Group members can open and read



any time. This is a good place to put Group guidelines or information your Group members may want to see again later, or just to use for announcements or articles that are longer than a typical Group post would allow. Docs also allows for Bold and Italic and bulleted and numbered lists.

• Groups can also create Events – the procedure is the same as regular Facebook

events, but the event will be listed within the Group, and you have the option of automatically inviting everyone in the Group, and also to allow others outside the Group to be invited.

• When you are visiting your general Home news feed and find something you

would like to share, or you have an item on your own Profile or Page you would like shared with your Group, you can change the “On Your Wall/Timeline” drop down after you click Share, to send the item to your Group as a post. This can be handy for sparking discussion about an article, photo, or video.

Joining Other Facebook Groups Sometimes it is beneficial to join other Groups, whether or not you own and manage your own. You might find occasionally that someone in your network adds you to his or her Group. Be sure to adjust your settings within the Group if you do not want to receive emails for every comment. You can also click Leave Group if you really did not want to be added. Unfortunately as I mentioned before, the default is to automatically add you without having the option to decline. Participating in other Groups can be a great way to meet new people, and to showcase your expertise or simply who you are as a person. You cannot join a Group as a business Page, but you can as a Profile. To find an appropriate Group, type in a keyword into the Search box at the top of Facebook and click the magnifying glass. From there, click on Groups on the left, to sort the results by Groups. Within the results you will see the number of people who are in each Group, and a button allowing you to either join the Group immediately, or request to join which sends a message to the Admin so they can approve you or not. If you have a variety of Groups you could join, it is probably best to join the one with the most members, as that will increase your exposure. If it is an Open Group you can first click on the Group name to go and read some of the posts and make sure it is a good fit for you, or if it is mostly filled with spam/advertisements, which some Groups are. Your goal is to find a Group that is having meaningful conversations. You can tell by seeing how many comments some of the posts are getting. If there is not much conversation going on, chances are it is a passive Group and will not really help you in networking.



Once you have joined a Group, be sure to post useful and relevant content, like and comment on other posts, and generally avoid marketing messages except once in a while. It is best to read the posts in the past and get the “lay of the land” to see what kinds of posts are generally well-received, and follow suit. Definitely reach out to anyone you seem to connect with and add them to your network if appropriate.

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Creating Community–LinkedIn Groups This is where the real magic happens on LinkedIn! Read and respond to Groups that focus on your target market. Once in a while post your own discussion question or article, or a link to your latest blog post. Use Groups as an opportunity to share your personality as well as your expertise and you will find people reaching out to do business with you. Your focus on LinkedIn will always be to provide value – marketing messages within a discussion Group are generally frowned upon. There is a “Promotions” area where you can place advertisements – stick with that. If you are looking to hire someone, or want to be hired, check the Jobs area. Joining a LinkedIn Group When you on the Home page click the tab that says Groups. You will see there are a few choices there, let’s start with the one that says Groups You May Like. Based on the information in your profile and the people you are connected to, LinkedIn will make recommendations for you. Ideally you will join Groups with higher numbers of members to increase your chances of finding good connections.

From this list you can request to join Groups that look good to you, or you can find others. Use the search box on the top left to narrow your list down by categories or language. Alternately, click on Groups Directory to find a list of all LinkedIn Groups. Try clicking on the Similar Groups link when you have an idea of which Groups you might be interested in.

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Once you join a Group, you may need to wait for the moderator to approve your request as some Groups are closed to new members. In general you will be asked to visit your settings right away and can adjust whether you want to receive emails etc. Then visit the Discussions area to see what is going on. Chime in by providing your own thoughts and ideas within a discussion, or consider posting your own question or discussion topic. Visit your Groups regularly (once a week is ideal) so that people get to know you and trust that you are an active member of the Group. Starting Your Own LinkedIn Group Sometimes it is beneficial to start your own Group – especially if there is a specific keyword you would like to be known for on LinkedIn and there is not already a popular and active Group using it. For example, my focus on LinkedIn is to promote the keywords, Distributor Training, so I created a Group called Distributor Training and invited people I knew who are interested in that topic as well. Now on my profile, I have a clickable link to that Group and its name, which increased my ranking for those keywords in the search. To start your own LinkedIn Group, visit the Groups tab and go down to Create Group. You will then have several fields to complete to customize your Group:

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Once you have filled out all of the information it will ask you to invite your connections. You can also invite people by their email address. Once the Group has started, you will want to click on the Manage tab within the Group to visit all of the Group settings which determine whether the group is open or closed, and who is moderated or not, etc. In most cases if you are using this as a marketing avenue you will want to keep it fairly open, but if you find that you are attracting people who tend to spam the group you can adjust your settings any time. Post regularly to get the conversations going but allow others to post their own discussions as well. Encourage regular engagement by commenting on the posts others make as well as continuing to invite new connections to the Group.

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A Word About LinkedIn Answers LinkedIn Answers is kind of a sister to LinkedIn Groups in that there are discussions that occur there, and the participants are able to show off their expertise while helping another member out. The main difference is that they are completely public – you do not need to join any group to ask a question – and they are focused only on questions and answers. Go up to More and down to Answers and you will see. You can either pose your own question on the top, or browse other questions people have asked underneath, and contribute an answer. Either one is exposure for you and ultimately showcasing who you are as a businessperson. Use the Advanced Answers Search tab toward the top to narrow in on questions and answers in specific topics, and check the box to show only unanswered questions if you want to be first!

After the question is done being answered, the person who asked it has the opportunity to mark the answers as “good” or “best” which features the answer toward the top of the question. This means each person answering a question will usually put a lot of thought into his or her answers because there is an opportunity for extra exposure.

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Creating Community–Twitter Hashtags Twitter does not have groups or discussion boards but its version of community is done through what is called Hashtags. The word hashtag refers to the # symbol. When a group of people use a keyword, abbreviation or name preceded by the # symbol (such as #SMDS) it symbolizes a common topic that is easily searched for on Twitter. People “following” that hashtag know that the tweets containing that symbol are about that specific topic. #SMDS = Social Media for Direct Selling. If I were to tell all students in this course to use #SMDS when tweeting about the class, or when asking questions, then anyone who is searching on “#SMDS”could follow a stream, or news feed, containing only those tweets. This way, Twitter becomes like a chat room, with a stream of posts from a specific group of people tweeting about a specific topic. From the Twitter search page, or from your Twitter app on your smart phone, you can click Save Search and refer to posts using that hashtag any time to keep up with the conversation. To participate you merely need to remember to add the hashtag symbol and word to the end of your tweet. Example: “We are learning a lot about how to create community on Twitter in class today! #SMDS” Some smart phone applications, once you have searched for and saved the search for a hashtag, will automatically add it to your tweets posted from within that search, saving you the step of having to add it in each time. Sometimes you will see within your news feed stream that there is a clickable hashtag in a tweet. Go ahead and click on it and if it seems like a topic you would be interested in, click on Save Search. You can access your saved searches from your Home page, under Searches. This can be an efficient way to follow specific conversations. Who makes up or monitors hashtags? Anyone and no one! Whoever wants to gather a group of people who have something in common together can simply announce they are using a certain hashtag and all the people in the group can start using it if they want to keep their conversations together. Often you will see at conferences or other events the organizer will announce the hashtag in the beginning of the event. Attendees can then tweet about what is going on at the event during the event. This allows those at home to see what is being discussed, and also helps people at the conference know who else is there. Another way that hashtags are used is for Twitter Parties, or Meetings. In this case, the organizer announces a specific day and time to “meet” on Twitter using the specified hashtag. A popular example of this is #GNO which stands for Girls Night Out. This is held every Tuesday evening and there are moderators who lead discussions or

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welcome “guest tweeters” who discuss specific topics. They will even have contests or giveaways available only to the participants. These are very fast moving conversations, as many people are attending and using the hashtag at the same time. There are tools such as http://www.tweetchat.com and http://www.tweetgrid.com which help you manage the stream and slow down the conversation as needed.

Sometimes hashtags turn into real live gatherings – known as Tweetups. Within the hashtag conversation, someone will announce an in-person meeting (by tweeting about it of course!) and at this Tweetup, people will have a mixer of some kind, wearing name tags that display their Twitter name alongside their real name. This is a great way to network and meet people you have been having conversations with online, and with whom you already have something in common.

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To research the meaning of specific hashtags or to find some new ones, visit http://www.hashtags.org You will find some suggestions of popular hashtags there, but there are 1000s more out there. Try following one by saving the search, or creating your own if you have a network that shares a common interest.

You can also use the sidebar on Twitter to see the “trending topics” which often include popular hashtags.

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Facebook Tagging Tagging is a popular way of bringing attention to a post, comment, photo or video where you would like to mention a specific person. On a Profile you can tag other Profiles, and on a business Page you can tag other Pages. From Facebook Help Files:

Tagging allows you to more actively mention your friends and other things you are connected to on Facebook. It also lets you direct a post at specific people while still keeping the conversation open. Friends you tag receive a notification that you have tagged them and Wall story on their profile. They are also notified when someone else comments on the post they are tagged in. People who can see your post will be able to click the link to view the profile, Page, group or event you tag, but only if existing privacy settings allow this.

To tag someone in a Wall post or comment, simply type the @ symbol and start typing their name (they must be your FB friend) and a drop down menu with names will appear. Typing a capital letter will also trigger this, but sometimes that does not work right away. Select the one you mean to tag (you can actually erase the last name if you wish) and once you submit the post, their name will be clickable to their profile, letting you know it worked, and letting your other friends check the person out. Tagging can result in extra exposure for you as well as the person who is tagged, but do not abuse it and overuse it. Only tag when the post or comment is directed to the specific person or about them, and only if it would not otherwise be obvious that you are addressing them. Photos and videos can also be tagged. Once uploaded, on the left side there will be a link that allows you to tag the item. Simply click on the place in the photo where the person is in the picture and then type in their name. For videos, find the link to tag underneath the video and type in the names. Again only tag people who are actually in the photo or video. When you tag someone, the post or item shows up on their wall as being tagged by you, and the tag shows up on your wall or associated with the item. This means that both parties receive exposure to each others’ networks. An opportunity for you would be to have your picture taken with someone who is a client or potential customer, or who has a network serving a similar market to you, and tag yourself and the other person. Note that when taking the photo it is best to let them know or ask permission to

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post to Facebook since some people do not wish to have pictures posted in this way. I always say “I am taking this for Facebook, OK?” and most people do not object. Recently there has been a rash of “tag spam” which is when someone tags another person who is not even in the post, photo, video or note, simply to gain exposure on their Wall. This is unethical and irritating to the person who is tagged who then needs to remove the tag and/or delete the post. If you find yourself in this position, click on the link to your name in the photo, video or Note and you will find a Remove Tag link. For business Pages, you will also have the option of Remove Tag and Ban User – this will prevent that Page from tagging you again. Unfortunately for posts and comments, there is no way to “untag” yourself. You can, however, remove the post or activity story from your Wall. You can also adjust your Privacy Settings to determine whether you want to be able to review a tag before it is publicized. Go to Privacy Settings and then How Tags Work. You can also determine the visibilitt of tags here. I leave mine as Friends Only but if you are having trouble with this you can set it to Custom and then “Only Me” and others will not see your tagged photos or videos. Unfortunately you cannot prevent being tagged but at least this way you can prevent anyone from seeing the tag if needed. You do receive notifications of tags, at which point you can remove the tag from a photo or video.

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Integration Among the Social Media Sites As a time saver, it is possible to have each of your social media profiles “subscribe” to one another, thereby saving you a few steps once in a while. My recommendation is that you do not ONLY do these types of posts – because they are going to be duplicate across all the sites and your friends, connections and followers who are connected to you on all three may be annoyed. Further, each of the social media sites has its own lingo and culture, so one size does not fit all. However, I do recommend having your business Page post to your Twitter – since it will only be 1-3 posts per day, and Twitter moves so quickly, the posts are diluted by everything else going on there. Hopefully you are tweeting more than this but if Twitter is just not your thing and Facebook is, then having your Facebook post to Twitter at least gets some fresh content onto your Twitter on a regular basis. Then you simply need to check for replies, and comment on a few posts now and then. To have your Facebook business Page talk to your Twitter, visit http://www.facebook.com/twitter and follow the instructions. There is another option within Twitter to have your tweets post to your Facebook and I do NOT recommend this. The reason is that you can easily overwhelm your Facebook audience because Facebook is not meant to have 10+ posts per day. Furthermore, the lingo used on Twitter (@, #, RT etc.) is not appropriate for Facebook. Now if Twitter is where you like to hang out and you do want to post some of your tweets to Facebook to save time, there is an application called Selective Tweets that allows you to do this. Once you connect the application you could then just append the symbol #fb to any tweet you want to also post to Facebook. Use sparingly though! Get it here: http://www.facebook.com/selectivetwitter I do recommend you use the application that embeds your Twitter stream into your Facebook business Page as a subpage. The Twitter application from Involver does the trick: http://www.involver.com/pages/gallery.html To integrate either Facebook or Twitter to LinkedIn is a little trickier. First, you can embed your LinkedIn profile onto your business Page on Facebook (not personal Profile) by using the My LinkedIn Profile application: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=6394109615&sk=info Next, you can connect your Twitter to your LinkedIn in two ways – embedding the Twitter stream on the sidebar of your profile, and also enabling selective tweets to post to your LinkedIn by typing the #in symbol on tweets you want to go to LinkedIn. You

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also have the option when posting a LinkedIn status update to also post it to Twitter, which can be handy. It seems you can never have too many tweets! To add your tweets to the sidebar of LinkedIn go up to More on the top tabs, and down to Applications and add the one that is called Company Buzz. You can set this to display a stream of tweets about any keyword or company or Twitter profile. I have mine set to display my own tweets. To enable certain tweets being sent to LinkedIn, go to http://www.linkedin.com/twitter and connect your accounts. You can then set it to post from Twitter to LinkedIn when you type #in at the end of a tweet.

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Syndicating Your Content through Social Media There are additional ways to spread your social media content across the vast Internet. One of them is by integrating your social media sites with your own website or blog. If you have the ability to add html/code, or a widget or gadget in the case of a blog, you can post links to our social media profiles on your other sites via social plugins, or using images with hyperlinks. On Facebook, visit the Social Plugins page, which can be accessed by your Edit Page button, and Resources. You will find instructions there for creating the Facebook Like Box which you can embed onto your website or in a text widget or gadget on a blog. If you have a self-hosted WordPress blog/site you can also search for plugins that will do this more easily. One that I like is called Social Media Widget. You can connect all of your social media accounts as nicely displayed buttons in your sidebar. An alternative is to find an appropriate icon at someplace like iconfinder.com and use html code to display the image, and link it to your social media accounts. You can also proliferate your social media profiles further by using social bookmarking sites, and bookmarking them. In order for these to really work, you must also be socially bookmarking other sites and an active user. Every once in a while when you find a website, blog post or article that you want to save, you can add the link to one of these sites. Then when you also add your own links, such as your website, blog or social media profiles, it is much more credible. I use Firefox for my browser and use the Shareaholic add-on to make this easier. I post links to these social bookmark sites: http://www.digg.com http://www.stumbleupon.com http://www.delicious.com If you are a blogger, you can also submit your posts to these sites as you write them. Just remember to also be submitting other links, not just your own. Speaking of blogging, did you know that when you read a blog post, you are encouraged to leave a comment? This adds a rich layer to the content by adding a discussion around it. When you leave a comment on a blog, you are asked to put your name, email address and website before submitting the comment. Whatever website you list will be what is clickable from your name as the author of the comment. Try putting the URLs to your Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter accounts. When someone reads your comment and wants to find out more about you, they will be instantly connected to your social media presence. On some blogs, these links help increase your search engine ranking as well.

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Sharing Content from Websites and Blogs to Social Media Sites You may have noticed while out and about on the Internet that most websites and blogs now have “share” buttons. These may be Facebook like buttons or recommend buttons or share buttons, or they may be tweet or retweet buttons, or LinkedIn share buttons etc. These are designed for their readers to easily spread their content to their networks. What a great idea! Visit some sites that are relevant to the content you share in social media. Share an article via one of the social sharing buttons and experience how easy it is to do. This presents an opportunity for YOU to have the same happen with your own content.

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Paid Advertising on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter There are so many free or low cost opportunities to promote your business using social media that most independent or home-based business owners are reluctant to use the paid advertising features of these sites. You really can grow a powerful presence without using paid ads, however sometimes you might want a little extra push, or to speed up your growth. Maybe you have a new product launch, or a special event you need extra exposure for. Or you simply want to get more connections faster, when starting out relatively unknown. The great thing about social media advertising is it is very targeted, and you get to set the cost that is within your budget. This can range from $1 a day on Facebook, to $10 a day on LinkedIn, and $5000+ per month for Twitter. When you begin looking into advertising, play around with the various demographics. Facebook and LinkedIn use a similar type of targeted advertising platform in that you can narrow the “reach” (amount of people your ad will be seen by) to a relatively small number of people, but who will be more highly qualified and more likely to act on your ad by clicking or converting to a sale. You can specify age range, gender, language, location, or interests. For example if I sell housewares and I am targeting women over 45 in the USA I can target my ad to only those women over 45 in the USA who also “like” Good Housekeeping, or Oprah or a certain TV show. Go into one of the sites and play around with the advertising section and see what you come up with. Consider placing a small ad for a short time frame such as 1 or 2 weeks and see what happens. Facebook Advertising: http://www.facebook.com/advertising LinkedIn Advertising: http://www.linkedin.com/advertising Twitter Advertising (large companies only) https://business.twitter.com/advertise/start

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Event Listings on Facebook and LinkedIn Does your business have any kind of public event associated with it? This could be a live demonstration or open house, a vendor boutique, a workshop or class, or a booth at a trade show. It could also be a teleclass or webinar. Both Facebook and LinkedIn allow you to create events and then invite your connections or list them publicly. Facebook Event Listings On Facebook you have the choice of creating your event from your personal Profile, or your business Page or within a Group, depending on the type of audience you will want to know about your event. In most cases I would recommend first posting the event from your business Page so that the main listing is completely public (and indexed by the search engines) and then sharing it to your Profile and/or Group and inviting your Friends. To create a Facebook event from your personal Profile start here: http://www.facebook.com/?sk=events&ap=1 To create an event from your business Page start here: Visit your Page, and visit the Events subpage on the left. From there click Create an Event. To create an event from your Facbeook Group, visit the Group and then on the right side click Create Event.

When creating the event on Facebook you will want to upload a photo associated with the event. This can be a logo or other picture, or you can grab something from istockphoto.com. Be sure to fill out your description completely. If there is somewhere

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else you would like them to visit to complete registration, be sure to include that link (including the http:// part) in several places within the event description. For example, if I am conducting a workshop and am collecting RSVPs and fees through eventbrite.com I might use Facebook to get the word out but actually want them to register and pay for the class on my Eventbrite site. I would include a complete description but in 2 or 3 places I would also type something like “Be sure to RSVP and register at http://karensworkshop.eventbrite.com” Finally, select people to invite. These will be your Profile friends - you cannot invite business Page fans but your event will get posted to the Page wall and go out to your fans that way. You can also click Share from within the event and share to your Wall either on your Profile, Page or Group, or share to an individual through a private message. Once people have RSVPed within Facebook, you are able to send a message to them as a reminder.

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LinkedIn Event Listings To create an event listing on LinkedIn, go up to More and down to Events. If you do not see that option, first go to Applications and add the Events application. Once you have it and go to the Events area you will be walked through the process of creating it by clicking on the Add an Event tab.

On LinkedIn your event will automatically be publicly listed in the Find Events area, but it will also give you the option of sending a message to invite people in your connections or within Groups you belong to. This is handy for announcing your event to appropriate people. When someone views your event on LinkedIn they can select whether they are attending or simply interested. Be sure to track these as you may want to follow up with individuals who show interest. To do this you would need to visit their profiles and send a message, there is no mechanism within LinkedIn to contact people who have RSVPed to your event.

Coming Up Next

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Again, do not worry if you cannot fully explore each of the items in this workbook right now. I merely want you to be familiar with them and then complete the specific Action Steps for Module 3. It is best to do something now, then come back to do more later, than to be overwhelmed and do nothing. If you are already familiar with the basics then by all means dig deeper into each platform and fully maximize the available opportunities for you in each one. Please also check Additional Resources for even more advanced content. Coming up in Module 4 we will explore:

1. Real Life Examples of Effective Social Media Use 2. Report Card Time! 3. Bean Counting: Tracking, Insights and Analytics 4. The New ROI: Return on Interaction

Please be sure to join our Facebook Group where you can ask questions, share successes or even vent about the challenges you might be facing in this course. This group is here for YOU to utilize at any time: http://www.facebook.com/groups/SocialMediaforDirectSelling You are also free to EMAIL ME any time during the course with your quick questions. Email [email protected]. In our monthly webinars or teleclasses you can ask questions for help. Feel free to prepare your question in advance to ask on the line. If we do not get to yours, please email me and I will address it privately. Thank you for your participation in this course! Please visit the Module now to complete your Action Steps: http://www.momotraining.com

by karen clark - my business presence · 2012. 2. 11. ·...

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