Practical Social Marketing: Get Heard. Build a Following. Make Money

Practical Social Marketing: Get Heard. Build a Following. Make Money.

By:

Jacob Curtis of FollowFanPage.com and Jim Harmer

Copyright 2012 © Improve Photography LLC. All Rights Reserved

KINDLE EDITION

CONTENTS Author’s Welcome

Introduction

Section 1: Get Heard

Chapter 1 The Social Strategy

Chapter 2 You Can’t Start a Fire Without a Spark

Chapter 3 Spark to Fire: Creating Engaging Content

Chapter 4 Status Triggers

Chapter 5 Why Do People Engage With Brands?

Section 2: Build a Following

Chapter 6 Fill in the Blanks

Chapter 7 Answer the Question

Chapter 8 Playing with Dates

Chapter 9 A Call to Action

Chapter 10 Infographics & Visuals

Section 3: Make Money

Chapter 11 Selling Your Status Updates

Chapter 12 Testimonials = Sales

Chapter 13 Make Money with $tatu$ Update$

Conclusion

Author’s Welcome

This book was created to help further inspiration while providing valuable ideas to generate greater interaction and fan page community involvement on any social media platform. There are several ‘gold nuggets’ within this book that should wisely be used, once your page has sufficiently grown, in order to maximize its reach amongst social media. The idea is to not only give you the tools needed to create a successful fan page but also teach you what can be done on your own to create an atmosphere that encourages professional and fun discussions. Social media is to be used as a space between fan page managers and the brands they support while providing the freedom of conversation by its followers. My hope is that this book will be a tool where the concepts and examples can be revisited over and over again to help your personal creativity as your fan page develops and grows.

Fan pages are created not just to get likes but to also increase brand loyalty through more personable exchanges. There are many examples of businesses that jump in to create a place for their community to gather and grow. They add their profile pictures, an amazing graphic or two, some basic information about the organization, and maybe contact information. Once all the basic profile information is up and running they figure the current relationships that have been built outside of the social medium will just start to follow their new social page. They forget relationships must be nurtured through social interaction with others which promotes a creative atmosphere and adds the value that individuals look for within a fan page. In order to truly master the lessons that are taught in this book in regards to status updates as well as learn additional lessons and concepts pertaining to fan page growth, I recommend becoming a part of the FollowFanPage.com community. As a part of the community you receive a FREE weekly podcast that discusses social media marketing and weekly articles. On the Facebook page daily tips and news pertaining to social media are shared to help improve your fan page experience. I will personally respond to any questions that you posted on the Facebook page as I want to hear your questions or concerns to help you meet your page goals. Jacob Curtis

Introduction (But not one of those boring introductions that everyone just skips)

According to the Small Business Administration, there are approximately 650,000 small businesses born each year, and roughly 590,000 business closures during the several years before

the worldwide economic recession. When the recession hit, however, more businesses in existence have closed thaN have been opened from 2008-2009 (the most recent date for which data was available, but given the continued economic downturn through 2012, one could only assume that matters have worsened since then). Those are sobering statistics. Small business owners are the most dedicated workers on the

planet, and yet a shockingly large percentage of them end up losing their companies--and

frequently find themselves facing massive debt and bankruptcy.

What causes these businesses to fail? In our opinion, business closures are almost always caused

by one of two causes: (1) Negligent or unwise management of funds, or (2) Inability of the

business to generate sufficient customer interest.

This book’s intent is to address the second cause through social media. It is also the thing that

has probably kept you up at night at least once in your journey as a small business owner--

wondering how to get customers interested in your business.

While the example of small business owners is poignant, it is incorrect to assume that all parties

interested in social media marketing are business owners. Religions, community organizations,

and even governments all wish to use social media to connect with their audiences.

The real issue faced by businesses or anyone seeking to be heard by the public, is that attention is

easily won, but commitment is a hard-fought battle. Last night, on my drive home from work, I

saw six businesses who had paid a teenage kid to dance around wildly with a sign in an effort to

grab my attention. This type of attention is easily won, but I am not any more committed to

those businesses than I was before seeing their signs.

Unlike attention, commitment is a hard-fought battle. Our goal, in endeavoring to learn social

media marketing, is to get heard by a vast audience, and then convince that audience to not only

become a patron of your organization, but to become a fan and devote themselves to your

organization or brand.

Although that task may seem difficult or impossible, consider the value that it carries. In 2008 -

2012 as those millions of new businesses closed their doors, other businesses thrived like never

before. Those businesses felt no impact of the economy as a whole because their customers were

not driven by price or convenience--they were true fans. They were committed to the

organization, its people, and the way the organization or business made them feel as a customer.

Those businesses had built a community rather than a customer list, and their businesses

boomed.

To illustrate this point, consider our personal success in social media. Jim owns

ImprovePhotography.com as his main business, and Jacob has consulted frequently on the social

media efforts of that business.

I work full time as an Internet entrepreneur and have been blessed to see unbelievable success in

my personal business endeavors. My main website is ImprovePhotography.com, where I teach

photography to millions of people in over 210 countries across the world. I have seen

tremendous success on an international scale, but my business began much more simply. I began

teaching photography to local students in Naples, Florida.

I worked desperately to generate a customer list and start up photography classes, but I soon

realized that it was difficult to get heard. I set up a website and began a social media campaign

to get people to become interested in my photography teaching.

For months, I blogged and spent countless hours on Twitter to begin my social media campaign,

but saw nearly no success. I was competing for the attention of potential customers in the

loudest, fastest-moving, and crowded market imaginable. Advertising my services on Twitter

felt like screaming into the wind. My message was entirely missed by the masses.

I then changed tactics and began working on Facebook. I created a Facebook fan page and

began posting on the page every time I wrote a photography article on my site. I had invited all

of my personal friends and family to the page and generated about 150 “likes” by this point.

Then, nothing happened. Nothing at all. I only saw a few people go from the fan page to my

website, and no one was interested in purchasing my photography eBooks.

I have a bachelor’s degree in Communication, but I found myself utterly incompetent. The truth

was that traditional notions of communication through advertising did not work on new media.

My advertisements and pleadings for others to become a fan of my business fell on deaf ears.

As with most winning ideas in my life, the solution to my problem came from my wife. She

admitted honestly that my social media efforts were not “social” at all. If I wanted to connect

with the masses and build a following, I needed to do it on more friendly terms. Applying this

advice, I changed the way that I communicated with others on social media. Instead of posting

about the things I was interested in them knowing (like when I released a product), I began

posting about things that my potential customers would be interested in--like quick photography

tips.

My status updates on my Facebook fan page changed from “Wow! Check out my new book!” to

“Quick tip! Your sunset pictures will look more colorful if you darken down the exposure.”

After all, that is what my customers were interested in--learning photography. Each day I woke

up and thought long and hard about how I could engage with the fans on my Facebook fan page

and slowly convince them to become a true fan of my business.

Along the way, I made untold numbers of mistakes that slowed down my progress, but that one

bit of advice alone was sufficient to grow my following. By working diligently to create the best

resource in the world for learning photography, potential customers came in droves. That same

fan page now grows at the rate of 150 new fans per day! Why? Because the customers are

finding something built to help them and not me. My business success because of that page is

merely a consequence of creating that resource.

Dale Carnegie, author of How to Win Friends and Influence People, explained the same principle

in different words: “You can win more friends in two months by being sincerely interested in

other people, than you can win in two years by trying to get others interested in you. “

With my community of followers built by honestly caring about teaching my potential customers

what they wanted to learn, I then began my efforts to monetize the business. With the techniques

that will be described later in this book, that simple photography website generated a generous

six-figure income in its first year.

That is our story of how we got heard, built a following, and made money. Your story is yet to

be written, but we are confident that if you closely follow the principles in this book and work

diligently, you can achieve any business goal you have dreamed up in your mind--even if it is so

lofty that you have never dared share that goal with anyone else.

Section 1: Get Heard

CHAPTER 1

The Social Strategy

“Goals are not prizes to be won, but the culmination of calculated, strategic effort”

If you are anything like most small business owners, you answer the “What is your goal?” question simply--to get more people to follow me on social media so I can get them to buy my stuff! That goal may seem concrete enough, but such a vague hope will not serve you well in dominating social media. As you begin your efforts, two questions must be answered: (1) What exactly do I want to accomplish, and (2) What specific steps or phases must I undertake to accomplish that goal? In college, we hated when our professors in the business department talked about business plans. It often feels like business professors, online business gurus, and virtually every business book talks more about making a business plan than they do about how to implement a plan. With this understanding; however, we simply must discuss your social media strategy if you want to work efficiently. Our process involves only six preparatory steps that must be undertaken before you actually get to work on your social media campaign. Skip this planning stage at your own peril. You have been warned. Step One--Pick a number. Your business endeavor is unique to you, and it has different social media needs. Knowing the topic of your business, how large of a following can you realistically create in the next year?

Setting this goal will depend drastically on your industry. A local flower shop in Billings, Montana, may decide that an obtainable and valuable goal would be to build a following of 4,000 social media followers within a year. At the same time, a website that teaches job interview skills may decide that an obtainable goal would be three times that many followers. Right now, pause for just a moment. Pick a number. Decide what you can achieve, and dare to

work for it. This number is a benchmark that helps you reach your objective. If you don’t have a

number you’ll never know if you surpassed the goal or if you underperformed.

Step Two--Choose an individual. Before I do any social media work, I always think of a person that I will be writing to (usually an imaginary person). For example, in writing this book I imagined my exact target audience and then distilled that audience to one person. Coincidentally, the person I imagine when writing this book is a young entrepreneur who has a website and knows basically how to use social media, but just can’t get his Facebook page to grow past 80 “likes.” I recognize that this step may seem “hokey” but I guarantee that if you are willing to try, the effects of it will be felt in everything you do online. Your writing will seem more personal to your readers, who will constantly write to you and say things like “That article was EXACTLY what I was looking for!” The other thing that this exercise accomplishes is forcing you to define a target market. Step Three--Create a Time Frame. Most people are afraid of deadlines. What they don’t know

is a deadline can be your best friend in achieving your objectives.

It is a period that you dedicate to meet personal goals to progress your social marketing work.

This time frame can be used to review your social media strategy as well as periodically evaluate

the progress of your online community.

A good idea would be to pick the beginning of every month to revisit the successes and failures

of the previous month. After which, set new goals that need to be met before the upcoming

month. This recurring event is a time to plan and prepare a strategy that can be executed within

the set deadlines. By properly managing the time spent marketing and building the social page

success will be easier to achieve.

Step Four--Select a network. On what social media platform should you focus your efforts? Each social media network has different strengths and weaknesses and each should be used for different businesses. Consider the following as you make this determination. Google+ is a relatively new social network with a beautiful interface and advanced features like hangouts, where users can video chat with up to 10 presenters and unlimited watchers. Its user base is mostly tech-savvy creatives and the users are more likely to engage with unknown experts in their industry than with their own personal friends. A large portion of Google+ users use the site infrequently, and only a small fraction of the population has an account.

Facebook is the world’s largest social network. Its users connect almost exclusively with their personal friends and family. They engage only with their very favorite brands and businesses. Facebook users commonly access the site 4 to 5 times per day on a variety of devices. Notably, Facebook is probably the best social network for local businesses because its users most commonly friend people who they actually know and who consequently are likely to live in the same town. Facebook is, in some ways, anti-business and is reluctant to allow businesses full control over their fan pages. Twitter is a large social network where users only share text “tweets” rather than multi-media items. Twitter users often follow hundreds of people, businesses, and brands and only see a small fraction of the tweets from those sources because of the pace at which the stream of tweets flows. Pinterest is the world’s fastest growing website. It is a platform for users to share multimedia

items only (no text statuses) on “pinboards.” The user base is over 90% female at the time of

this writing and the large majority of shared items on Pinterest are craft, health, and art items.

Pinterest is seen by some as anti-business because users must click multiple times on items

before the pinned pictures take the user to the original website from which it was pinned;

however, I have found Pinterest in my personal experience to be one of the best social networks

for my niche.

There are countless other social networks that you may consider to work on as your main social media platform, but most readers of this book will find success on one of these sites that have seen widespread adoption. For example, suppose you are creating a social media plan for a website that teaches pet owners how to groom their pets at home. The target market for such a website is not particularly tech savvy, is not necessarily male or female, appeals to an international market, and the information to be shared is largely visual since pictures of grooming tips would be helpful to potential customers. In this case, Facebook and Pinterest would most likely be the most successful sites to target. On the other hand, a website that reviews cell phones and new technology may find better results on Google+ and Twitter where more tech-savvy users are likely to be found. As a last example, a car dealership in Boise, Idaho would likely find success on Facebook because it does not seek potential customers from around the country or world, but only those who are local to Boise. Facebook has the most powerful tools to make this local campaign successful. Step Five--What’s in it for them? The oldest and truest rule in marketing is WIIFM (What’s in

it for me?) This means that a marketer must provide what the user wants. Consider what value

you could provide to potential customers on social media.

Be cautious in devising your strategy for step five. I often see businesses answer this question

with something as generic as, “Well, we do the best construction work in the city, so users will

get the value of working with us.” That simply will not work.

The question is not what value your business as a whole provides to customers, but what your

social media page provides to customers. That value needs to be something more than simply

“allowing” your customers the privilege of knowing when you have a sale. If your selling

proposition is so untailored to what the customer wants, you are almost assuredly going to fail in

your social media campaign.

A local graphic designer may determine that she can offer value to her social media customers by

taking pictures of signs in the city where she works and critiquing how they could be improved.

This will help her customers to know how they can improve their small businesses.

A website that teaches how to play the guitar can not only link to articles they write on the topic,

but share videos of their customers sharing what they learn through the website, or even write

quick guitar playing tips as a status update.

A local real estate agent could teach fans about how to capitalize on short sales and highlight the

hottest neighborhoods in the city. They could share examples of how their investor clients buy

and sell homes to make a profit, and give tips on how to prepare your house to sell it. Instead,

when I have followed real estate agents on social media, they always just post pictures of homes

for sale--hundreds and hundreds of home listings. I can get that information elsewhere, but if

they would share their knowledge of the market and how it can benefit me, I would trust them as

an expert and go to them to sell or buy a home.

Knowing how to provide value to your fans is the single most vital component to a successful

social media campaign, and we will provide dozens of practical examples of how you can

achieve this as this book continues.

Step Six--Brand it. This is the last preparatory step you must take before you begin spreading

the word about your business.

Before your social media page is ready to be seen by the masses, it must be a clear reflection of

you and your company. First impressions matter and thousands of people will soon be making a

first impression of your business.

This process must begin with your company logo. In researching social media, we performed

heat map studies of our website. This type of study tests where the eye of viewers goes when

they first load a web page. In nearly every instance, the eyes of the viewers went immediately

for the top-left corner of the page, which is where a company logo is typically found.

If you need to create or update your company logo, I highly recommend 48hourslogo.com (and

no, they are not paying us to say that). In fact, we have used 48hourslogo.com to create the logo

for FollowFanPage.com and every other website we have started. On that site, you offer a prize,

for example, $85. Then designers from around the world read what you want in a logo and then

submit their entries. You select the winner for dozens of options and then you keep the logo and

give the prize to the best design. We like it because it is incredibly inexpensive and you get to

pick the cream of the crop instead of being stuck with what one designer thinks. Other websites,

like 99designs.com operate the same way, but are far more expensive in our experience.

Some social media sites allow you to do far more branding than the simple logo profile picture.

For example, YouTube and Twitter allow users to create the background image for their profile

page and Facebook and Google+ allow for a large cover image.

Now that you have completed these first preparatory steps, you are ready to invite the public to

your social media presence and work on getting heard and building a following.

TAKE ACTION

1. Pick how many followers you need to have a successful fan page. Write down the exact

number and place it somewhere visible. Look at this number every day and imagine what

you need to do to take your page from its current base of followers to achieve that goal.

2. Do some simple social media housekeeping items:

I) Pick a social network that best suits the needs of your audience.

II) Write 15 ideas of how you can tailor content from the page to the needs of your

followers. Don’t just sell products; give knowledge and useful tips to build trust.

III) Choose a time every month that you will sit down review your social strategy as you

build your fan page.

IV) Create a logo that reflects your brand that you can add to the page.

CHAPTER 2

You Can’t Start a Fire Without a Spark

“All fires--and all social media campaigns--begin with the same ingredients

If you have ever gone camping and started a fire, you were undoubtedly taught at some point that fire can only occur when three elements are in place: (1) air, (2) fuel, and (3) heat. The fuel is what is actually being burned, such as the logs on a fire. Heat is an obvious effect of the fire itself, but it is also necessary to ignite the fire. All fires require a heat to be applied to the fuel in order for the fire to ignite. Last, air must be available to the fire or the flame will immediately die. The same is true with any social marketing scheme. First, you need air. These are the potential customers who are all around you, but are not being used because your fire has not yet touched them. Next, you need fuel. That fuel is the content you can provide to your users. The best fuel is original and creates a memorable experience for the customer. It is informational, funny, or spiritual and seeks to give the customer valued content they want but have yet to find. The last ingredient, and the most frustrating to add when starting a fire, is the heat. Anyone who has started a campfire knows how frustrating it can be to get a fire to ignite sometimes. The same is true with social media. Sometimes it can seem that you have everything perfectly in place, but you can’t get your campaign to spark. Nothing seems to get things moving and generating customer interest. The effects of a spark-less fire are obvious when I analyze social media campaigns for business. I often see great status updates that provide value and a nicely designed page, yet the company is unable to get followers. A social media profile must have a critical mass of followers before it can begin to grow. It is nearly impossible for a brand new social media profile to grow at the rate of 150 new likes per day, but that is an attainable goal once you already have a sizeable audience because your users can spread the word for you. The objective of this chapter is to show how any social media campaign can get the first spark of a following that can eventually blossom into a profitable community. The first step to undertake in generating the first spark of interest in your brand is to reach out to your existing audience. Invite in anyone and everyone that you already have a connection with and who can support your page. This will often be friends and family who you don’t necessarily want to sell to, and that is okay. Suppose you have chosen to establish your main social media presence through Facebook. If you are like most Facebook users, you probably have about 300 friends on your personal Facebook page. You may even be in a partnership and have a partner who has an additional 300 personal friends on Facebook. The fastest way to grow your page is to simply go through all of your personal friends and invite them to join your new Facebook Fan Page for your business. After completing this step, it is likely that your new page will have approximately 80 or 100 followers who joined the page through your personal invitation (depending, of course, on how

much your friends like you). Many of those followers are probably your close friends and family who you do not want to sell to, but some of the followers will likely be old high school friends who you know and who trust you, but who you are not so close to anymore that you would not be able to sell to them. In short, you have a few perfect customers. You have now bridged the gap of zero followers and you now smile ear-to-ear as you see your new Facebook fan page with the number “80 followers” on it. This is a good start, but 80 to 100 followers is insufficient to get the fire going. Not to unnecessarily drag on with the fire analogy, but this closely resembles a fire that is only burning the kindling and has not yet ignited the larger and more stable logs on the fire. The 80-100 follower stage of a social media profile is a delicate time for a campaign. The way that a social profile grows is when followers spread the word about your business to their followers, which creates a chain reaction that can drive tremendous amounts of business to your fan page. But at this small stage, there is not yet a critical mass of followers that is large enough to spread the word faster than some of your followers will lose interest. The challenge is to grow those 80 fans into 800 fans as quickly as possible so that excitement and interest in your business does not dwindle. It is likely that your invitations on your personal social media profile only brought over a fraction of your friends who may take your bait if they are given the right offering. Do not fail to continually invite your friends to join your page so as to grab as much of the “low hanging fruit” as possible. Your invitations friends receive to join your fan page do not need to be pushy or annoying in any way. While many people will simply ignore your status that says something like, “I created a fan page for my business. Go like it.” They are unlikely to ignore your day-to-day posts about YOU in your business. For example, “I’m working on a logo for my business fan page. Which one of these design pictures do you like best?” This is the type of post that will gradually build interest among people who you may not have had contact with in years, but who would be interested in your business with the right invitation. With this base of fans, the way to continue to grow your following is to put such high quality and engaging content on your fan page that your friends will spread the posts and page to their friends, and on and on in perpetuity. Take Leo, for example, a photographer in Los Angeles, California. For his photography business to be successful, Leo needs to develop a customer base of about 200 clients. If he could shoot every wedding, Christmas card, baby photo, and family picture for those 200 clients over several years, his business would boom! Leo invites his friends to his Facebook fan page and achieves 95 likes. Of those likes, 30 or 40 of the people may be too close of friends of family to sell to (he just doesn’t feel comfortable charging his mom). This still leaves Leo with 55 to 65 potential clients for his business. If Leo writes engaging content on his social media page, and those potential clients share the content to their friends, Leo has just gained new potential customers. Again, if these new

potential customers become engaged in Leo’s social media page and they share more of Leo’s status updates or ideas with their friends his pool of contacts will grow. If at least one new customer comes because of the efforts of others and their willingness to share the quality content found on his social site he will quickly develop a base of 100 customers. If those 100 customer do the same thing and share what was gained from the social site and service that Leo gave and he gains one more customer from them than he will have grown his business to 200 customers. Those 200 customers are more than enough to support his photography business for several years, as long as he stays in touch. By maintaining these relationships he can take pictures for the family, school, weddings, etc. That is the power of social media and the influence it can have. The more your content is shared the greater your reach. Friends and associates that view the shared content will quickly gain trust of the page and brand because the recommendation was made by someone they know. While this method of attracting your personal network and then spreading the fire is proven to be successful for most businesses, some businesses may find it more preferable to simply purchase an audience. Many social networks allow companies to purchase advertisements on the side of the screen where users can follow that company with one click of the mouse. In very general terms, this costs approximately 50 cents (U.S.) per follower. If your business can afford to purchase one or two thousand followers as a base of users to build your social marketing empire, this may be a viable option. Simply put, the quickest and surest way to get a spark of interest in your business is with your current network. From there, the fire is guaranteed to spread as long as you put out content that is sufficiently engaging. TAKE ACTION

1. Figure out which friends and associates you could refer your social page and services.

Write a list of at least 150 people. Personalize the invitation to each individual.

2. Create engaging content that these new fans would be willing to share with others. Write

five powerful tips that will lead to further engagement and shares on your fan page.

CHAPTER 3

Spark to Fire: Creating Engaging Content

“Driving engagement is the NUMBER ONE RULE to having a successful page”

Any page that is trying to break the general mold of a stagnant community needs to do more than what other competing pages are doing. Driving engagement is the NUMBER ONE RULE to having a successful page. Without fan engagement the page is failing. It doesn’t matter if it has 1 million likes, followers, or whatever. Yes, having more people that like a page is great because the reach can be further but if very few individuals are getting involved with the page, content, and other fans then the community is failing. Involvement by the page administration and those who come to the page will drive sales, business innovation, and valuable feedback pertaining to products or services. There must be a form of consistency and out of the box thinking by the page administrators. Once more, a page’s duty is to create enough excitement that causes fans to return to the page again and again. When developing status updates that can drive engagement it is important to understand which work the best to promote involvement from others that frequent the page. Some common status updates and ideas used are: photo / image, video, text status, and share a link. Each has a benefit to why and when they should be used but studies have shown that some status updates are more visually appealing than others. These same visually appealing posts can create a quicker connection with its fan page audience which in turn leads to a greater amount of shares and comments.

Photo / Image

Photos / Images are easy for the eyes to skim over. This type of visual can create messages that are either easily or difficult to understand. That is why in an attempt to convey a strong message with a visuals you must make it applicable to your fan page, brand, or idea so that it can drive the message across to the viewer. If done properly these visual messages can drive brand recognition of a product, entice a desire to purchase a certain service or product, and create an emotional attachment. People will be inclined to post or share these images when they feel a connection to it. A fan page in turn must understand what its community wants so it can share photos / images that can cater to these emotions and lead to increased fan engagement.

Video

Videos are an excellent tool in producing engaging content. A video can be more personal to the viewer as it provides several elements that touch different human senses such as: hearing, seeing, and personal feelings of attachment to the subject matter. The audio and visual aspect of a video creates the perfect environment where these viewers are emotionally drawn to it and are more willing to share this experience with others. The downside can be the length of time to watch the video as many using social media are quickly passing through their personal news feeds and might not have time to watch something for a few minutes. A quality video is short yet concise with sharing its purpose. Videos should always tie in the fan page and its overlying theme. Videos that accomplish this are easily shared and receive responses in regards to the quality of the content.

Text Status

A text status is the most commonly viewed status update shared on most major social sites because they are easy upload. Although it is the easiest or most widely used method when creating content for a site, it still requires quality text and additional time to contemplate what you are going to share. Not every little thing you think about should be shared as some updates may detract from the overall quality of the page. Frequency won’t always equate to doing a great job with providing valued content to your followers. Every status that is pure text needs a little time to create the right post that will create engaging responses from the fan page community. True page engagement will occur when quality posts are shared that invoke a sense to respond.

Share a Link

Links are interesting because they can be seen as ‘Spam’ by the fan page community if shared on a frequent basis. There must be a purpose to any links that are posted and the frequency of these posts cannot overpower the other content that is shared on a fan page.

People want to read what information the fan page has to share. If every post comes from a third

party resource the fan page will be seen as an irrelevant middleman that can be ignored. Links

are good to share GREAT content but must be used at a minimum and should never be used as

the primary source of status updates. A fan page cannot survive solely under the shadow of other

resources.

TAKE ACTION

1. Post 1 new status update every day. Some of these updates can be short and sweet while

others are unique (like an image or video). Each post must build value for your community.

2. Try something new! If you don’t post visuals or video often on your page, surprise the

audience. Create original content to share with them today. By stretching yourself to create

engagement, priceless lessons will be learned about building a vibrant fan page.

3. Write a list of five things that might be hurting your pages fan engagement and five

things that are helping fan engagement. Make any changes needed to improve.

CHAPTER 4

STATUS TRIGGERS

“All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit,

reason, passion, desire.”

Aristotle

One of the first principles to learn when creating breathtaking status updates is, “What makes others respond to a status update?” If you understand the answer to that question, it will affect every action you take as you build a community on social media sites. Many fan page managers post unnecessary content that doesn’t cause a sense to share, read, like, or comment. The reason being is most of the posts created and shared are done without forethought of how they will really cause a reaction. Ask yourself, “Is the main intent to produce something valuable that can become viral or merely to fill up your fan page with content that doesn’t create an emotional attachment with your community?” I would hope the answer to this question would be to produce viral status updates. Although some will be better than others, you can still put effort into producing a status update work of art.

Let me share my thoughts on status triggers. Status triggers work with people’s emotions and can cause laughter, joy, fulfillment, frustration, irritation or anger. It all depends on what you post and the feedback you expect to receive in return for the shared content. I would encourage anyone to refrain from status updates that will create anger, irritation, or frustration. A good healthy fan page is based on building up the theme of the social fan page as well as building up others who visit the site to create an enjoyable environment for everyone. For a status trigger to produce positive responses you need to touch the emotions of the community with whom you share. Posts get shared more when the reader can connect and respond to the content. With every post keep in mind, “What’s in it for the reader? Does it give something which appeals to personal tastes, does it teach a new skill, or is it just plain amusing?” These questions are valuable to completely understand how to make a post that can spread fast and effectively. Anyone who will ever interact with a status update will only do so when they see the value it will add to their lives or to the lives of others who they network with. I have seen some common yet powerful status update triggers from the following ideas: share experience; let the community share their knowledge; and share something funny.

1st - Share Experience

A powerful status trigger that is used sparingly is the fan page administrator’s personal experiences. When these experiences are used to teach and instil new knowledge or skills to all of its followers it will empower the page to be a place of learning. New insight gained by a follower is a strong testimony about the value of the fan page and its brand. This is a prime opportunity to entertain the minds of those who encounter your page and share thoughts of how they can also be successful using the product or service you are providing via the fan page. Generally speaking, people are interested in learning how they can master the skill, service, or product that is offered. By shedding new light with simple tips and status updates, your audience will be grateful and will show it through sharing or commenting on the post.

2nd - Let the Community Share Work and Knowledge

This trigger technique allows participants to express their emotions through personal work and knowledge. By opening a conversation and asking for ideas or help, many will offer their support because they have ideas that can help you and the general public. You may even ask for your community to provide pictures of their work. This rich content added by others within the community will get everyone actively involved in sharing and commenting on one another’s post. What a great way to allow your followers to truly become a part of the page. An artist always loves when his work is admired and seen by many at an art show and there is no difference when an individual opens up about themselves and their work with others.

People take pride in their knowledge, skills, and work. They are willing to share with others which is why it is so important that you give them the opportunity to do so. Take advantage of this great trigger and allow members of the community the opportunity to be heavily involved with the success of the fan page through their posts and insights.

3rd - Share Something Funny

Status triggers that are funny, smart or inventive will usually draw heavy traffic. Status updates

that appeal to an individual’s humor, to their intelligence, or are visually enticing will attract an

audience that is willing to comment on the status and share with friends.

Many fan page followers need to have the ice broken every once in a while. It is important that the tone of a page is set but try to keep the mood light in order to have a little fun. Many individuals will respond when these types of status updates are shared. Someone who enjoys what they see or read will share this great content with their friends and family. They are excited by the ‘status update treasure’ that was discovered, when it appeals to their tastes, and are open to show off the status by liking or sharing it with others.

Status Trigger Power

A status trigger is what you aim to implement on every status update at the end of the day. Quality triggers can lure in countless numbers of people with the end result being these same individuals responding and sharing what they read or saw. Any fan page can go from good to great for their particular fields by wisely putting status triggers into action. I believe you can do it! TAKE ACTION

1. Find 10 competitors in your market. Write down the emotions that are triggered with

the posts that are shared with their personal audience. How do their responses make you

feel? Do you want your community to have similar feelings? Why or why not?

2. Write a list of at least 20 ideas that you could use to invoke emotional triggers through

your status updates. Implement these ideas and record the results to understand if they

were successful or not.

CHAPTER 5

Why Do People Engage with Brands?

“It's not what we do once in a while that shapes our lives, but what we do consistently.”

Tony Robbins

What are the top three brands you can think of off the top of your head that you LOVE? Now what are the top three brands you HATE? Now why do you LOVE and HATE these brands? Just think about that and how these different brands have created that strong Love and Hate relationship because of various factors. Brands are extremely powerful. A brand can proudly represent the products or services offered by a business or they can be seen as a dreadful mark that must be avoided at all costs. Brands that are seen poorly by the eyes of its users will hardly be referred to friends or others. If anything is said by unsatisfied customers it will most likely be based on the experience that was had. Poor experiences lead to poor reviews which can lead to poor success and minimal page engagement. On the other hand a successful brand can build a large following quickly because of the trust and name recognition that it has. This huge following will equate to nothing if the page doesn’t work to create further engagement and excitement which can lead to additional brand loyalty and revenue growth. Most individuals are willing to engage or share their thoughts on a branded page from time to time if the page provides additional value to them; however, a simple page concerning your business, brand, and organization is not enough.

If a truly engaging and socially interactive page is sought, a brand must create status updates that draw attention and comments from its community. People want to be dazzled, amused, and taught. Status updates create an opportunity where all of these areas can be met.

Kraft Social Marketing Kraft(R) Macaroni & Cheese fan page on Facebook has done everything right to strengthen its brand and

connect to its loyal fans. The focus of the page is on the product and every post incorporates that product

while reaching out to fans. They are the kings of engagement with their social page and are constantly thinking outside of the box to expand their social reach.

Everything that they share with its community is something of value that builds further brand awareness.

Everyone should quickly scan their fan page and and take note that the reason their fan engagement is high isn’t because of the loyal fan base that was created before the social page was founded but rather the

quality of posted content is exceptional which in turn generates the social interaction that is sought.

Kraft applies many of the social marketing skills that need to be adapted within any fan page. The time

spent on creating these powerful posts is much more than just a few meager seconds. There is thought

placed in each post and for the specific time and day it is shared to get maximum exposure amongst its fans.

Kraft’s consistency with its posts also helps fans to get in a routine where they will expect funny and

smart status updates from Kraft on a daily basis. This type of organization is needed to maintain an active community that comments and shares the status updates provided by Kraft.

The success of Kraft is exactly what this book aims to achieve with your personal fan pages. Fan bases

might be slightly smaller but the interaction and involvement of the fans can be just as high if the right

techniques are implemented. Fans love to engage with brands they love but only when that page is heavily

invested in all of its customers.

By thinking out of the box to share quality status updates, a brand’s fan page will provide the

social experience individuals seek.

Take Action

1. Visit ten social pages of brands you absolutely love. Take notes on the status updates

they are using for their personal pages and see how you can personalize those ideas to your

page.

2. Build a brand. Know what your brand is and share content that is centered around that

brand at all times. Make sure that YOUR BRAND COMES FIRST! Avoid constantly

linking to other brands or products as it diminishes your brand and pages values.

Section 2: Build a Following

Over the course of the next few chapters, we will discuss some of the most powerful techniques

we have found in creating engaging content on social media websites. These techniques are

essential to building a large following.

Understandably, it is difficult for beginning social media marketers to understand the importance

of creating outstanding status updates, tweets, and other social messages. Before we discuss

what status updates have generated the most “likes” and comments from our users on social

media, it is worthwhile to explain why we dedicate so much time in this book to crafting status

updates that drive engagement.

When social media began to take shape with sites like MySpace and Facebook; the sites worked

by showing each and every status update of a user’s “friends” on their feed. For example, of a

user was “friends with Martha, Adam, and Tom, then all of their status updates would show on

the user’s feed. The same was true with business pages. If a user liked the business page, then

the user would then see each status update from that page.

In 2011, social media began to change. Facebook released an algorithm called EdgeRank. The

purpose of EdgeRank was to surface the most relevant content to users, and hide all content that

Facebook did not think the user would like to read.

This was a dramatic switch for social media marketers. In the past, a fan page that updated its

status would have the status distributed to each person who liked the page. A Facebook fan page

with 20,000 followers could distribute its message to all 20,000 followers with ease. With

EdgeRank, however, this system changed. Now that business could only distribute its status

updates to the users who (1) liked its page, and (2) had interacted with the page by liking or

commenting on status updates recently. This meant that most businesses with 20,000 fans could

suddenly only send their messages to ¼ or fewer of its fans.

Since Facebook made this change, other social networks like Google+ have followed in its

footsteps with algorithms to hide content that it determines will not interest the user.

This knowledge should make bells and whistles go off in your head! A main key to developing a

large following of fans for your business is to get them to engage with your page by uploading

pictures to your fan page, liking or commenting on your status, or writing on your Timeline.

If you fail to convince your fans to engage with your page, your audience will be cut

dramatically.

It is worth mentioning at this juncture that not all social networks employ algorithms to weed out

irrelevant content. At the time of writing, Twitter and Pinterest do show all updates from

profiles that the user has followed.

In either case, a major challenge of all social media managers is to create engaging status updates

that will encourage users to click “like” or in other ways interact with your page.

The next several chapters of this book contain practical ideas for status updates that you can use

in your social media campaigns to drive engagement with your profile.

CHAPTER 6

Fill in the Blanks

“People in general are more open to respond when given the opportunity to answer in the way

that they would want to.”

When you were younger did you ever read Choose Your Own Adventure books? Apart from those books being entertaining, they provided the user the chance to create their own path and choose their fate. The choices made could go in many directions but in the end the reader usually

enjoyed the experience. The reason for this enjoyment came because they were a part of the story; they became a part owner by deciding what actions could be taken. How this applies to you as a business owner, social media page manager can be demonstrated by how you can implement this type of thinking in your status updates. By allowing some creative freedom with your status updates people will feel more inclined to comment. People in general are more open to respond when given the opportunity to answer in the way that they would want to. Fill-in-the-blank status updates will allow you to see the personalities and thoughts of your audience as they create posts for the status that has been shared. Another great aspect of these status updates is the flexibility it has to meet different needs of the originator. You can easily incorporate your business, service or product while opening the conversation to further responses from your readers. Here are several ideas you can use personally on your fan pages using fill-in-the-blank status updates:

14 Examples of exceptional fill in the blank statuses that are proven to

drive engagement

1. Life is like a can of soup: it’s all good until ________. Life is like a (substitute with product) of (substitute with brand name): it’s all good until

________.

2. Spring break is to fun as Followfanpage.com is to ________. Spring break is to fun as (substitute with brand name, product, or service) are to ________.

3. Fill in the blank: Graphic design is ________. Fill in the blank: (substitute with brand name, product, or service) are ________.

4. The President I would like to share a photo with is ________. The President I would like to share a (substitute with product or service) with is ________.

5. The actor / actress I would like to share a drink with is ________. The (substitute with a title for a group of people) I would like to share a (substitute with product

or service) with is ________.

6. If I had a million dollars to invest in health I would buy ________. If I had a million dollars to invest in (substitute with activity, product or service) I would buy

________.

7. If I was stranded on an island and could have ONE thing I would have ________. 8. Pie + Ice Cream, Peanut butter + Jelly, Art + ________. Pie + Ice Cream, Peanut Butter + Jelly, (substitute with brand name, product, or service) +

________.

9. I would cheerfully trade my favorite ________ for a new tablet right about now. I would cheerfully trade my favorite ________ for a (substitute with product or service) right

about now.

10. Hot drinks and snow go together like ________ and ________. 11. ________ goes best with my steak. ________ goes best with my (substitute with product or service).

12. My new year’s resolution with weight loss is ________. My new year’s resolution with (substitute with product or service) is ________.

13. Your greatest memory / moment with your motorcycle is ________. Your greatest memory / moment with your (substitute with product or service) is ________.

14. Spring breeze is in the air again… Bring on the blossoming trees, blooming flowers, more sunshine and ________!

CHAPTER 7

Answer the Questions!

“Successful people ask better questions, and as a result, they get better answers.”

Tony Robbins

Asking great questions while focusing on the skill, service, or product of your fan page is extremely important. It can’t be emphasized enough how frustrating it is to visit a fan page and notice how many questions they ask without including anything that deals with their market or subject! Some fan pages try to become your friend by asking simple things such as: “What will you do this weekend” “Any plans for the holidays?” “How’s your day?” While it is true that you need to be personable, there is a way to do it while including the focus of your fan page in every question you ask. You must strive to share, comment, and post updates about your area of expertise while making it fun and socially inviting for responses from your community. How do you incorporate your subject matter into everything without coming off too boring or overly pushy about what you do? Here are several tips:

1st - Refrain From Too Much Fan Page Pride

It is great to be excited when you hit a benchmark with your fan page growth, page longevity, changes, etc.; however, the purpose of a fan page isn’t just to elicit responses of how great your

page is. It is more important to ask questions that will create a lot of response and interaction from the community that pertains to their successes or concerns. The thoughts and experiences shared on their behalf about the page are more valuable than anything that you could write or say. Your audience wants to talk about themselves and how the focus of the page has impacted them. Let them do the talking and you will see a shift in the involvement of the page as it becomes more about the people and their thoughts on the pages brand or theme.

2nd - What Does Your Market Want?

Create questions that are applicable to your target market. Try to focus on things that are of interest to them and don’t ask off the wall questions that have no connection. Questions need to make a connection with them and the service or product you are offering so that they feel a need to interact with the page.

3rd - Be Different!

How simple or common are the questions that you are asking? Do these questions go outside of the norm and promote various creative and fun responses from the community? Take typical questions like, “How’s your day?” and instead ask “What fun (picture / food / craft) will you commit to do / make before days end?” Fan pages must make the typical pages into non-typical pages. Visitors must be excited to see what information you are providing but also what great questions you are posting to get greater involvement between the page and everyone else. By looking at how you word and ask questions on your page, you can change the performance of the page almost instantly. The right question can invoke powerful responses from others. In turn, questions can create additional brand loyalty as more and more involvement takes place. For some great questions that you can use on your page, check out the following:

16 Powerful Questions You Can Ask

1. Another month has come and gone. What are your favorite April memories with photography? Another month has come and gone. What are your favorite (substitute month) memories with

(substitute with product or service)?

2. What do you procrastinate the most with cooking? Any tips on how to get back on top of it? What do you procrastinate the most with (substitute with action, product or service)? Any tips on

how to get back on top of it?

3. Off to enjoy hiking for the weekend. What will you do with your free time? Off to enjoy (substitute with activity, product or service) for the weekend. What will you do with

(substitute with activity, product or service)?

4. If crafting was an indie rock band, what would it be called? If (substitute with activity, product or service) was a wood stock band what would it be called?

5. Every cruise tells a story... what’s yours? Every (substitute with activity, product or service) tells a story... what’s yours?

6. What’s your favorite memory with your car? Share your favorite memory with your (substitute with activity, product or service)?

7. Why do you deserve a 25% discount code? The best 5 responses will get it. Why do you deserve (substitute percent) discount code? The best (substitute quantity) responses

will get it.

8. What would you do for a new car? What would you do for a new (substitute with activity, product or service)?

9. Has your journalism ever got you in trouble? We want stories! Has your (substitute with activity, product or service) ever got you in trouble? We want stories!

10. Here’s a riddle for you today! Why did the smartphone go to the beach? Share your answers below. Here’s a riddle for you today! Why did the (substitute with activity, product or service) go to the

(substitute with place)? Share your answers below.

11. If you were stranded on a deserted island with a lifetime supply of homemade cookies... would you even try to escape? If you were stranded on a deserted island with a lifetime supply of (substitute with product)...

would you even try to escape?

12. What’s the best time of day for a run? What’s the best time of day for a (substitute with activity, product or service)?

13. It’s important to teach good habits at a young age - like going to college football games! What lessons did you learn early in your life? It’s important to teach good habits at a young age - like (substitute with activity, product or

service)! What lessons did you learn early in your life?

14. What’s the most successful road trip you’ve done with your friends? What’s the most successful (substitute with activity, product or service) you’ve done with your

(substitute with friends, family, coworkers, etc.)?

15. Can you write a better slogan for our company? Let’s see it! 16. If you could share a hunting trip with anyone, who would it be? The skies the limit! If you could share a (substitute with activity, product or service) with anyone, who would it be?

The skies the limit!

CHAPTER 8

Playing with Dates

“Why create excitement when holidays already do it for you!?!”

There are common holidays that are well known across the globe while other holidays are lesser. But no matter how big or small a holiday is it provides you with material that can be used for status updates every year. That is the best part about holidays…they always come back around the following year. Most individuals have strong emotional attachments to various holidays as well which can create a great deal of excitement as status updates are shared and affiliated to those events. The general public will reflect on larger known holidays as they are highly anticipated. People are very anxious to share the excitement and hype for the festivities that they will enjoy. Everyone has shared something about holidays with others whether it’s shooting off fireworks for the Fourth of July, being with family during Christmas, or cutting the turkey for Thanksgiving. Why create excitement when holidays already do it for you!?! Use this to your advantage by creating status updates that tie in the holidays with your fan page. Don’t go the traditional route and wish everyone, “Happy Holidays” or “A Merry Christmas.” Conversation will be bland and disengaging if anyone decides to respond to a routine update. Instead, try something a little less traditional such as, “While enjoying holiday with family and friends what plans do you have with (...)?” There are ways to wish people a great time for the holidays while also getting the community involved with sharing the activities, products, or service that the page discusses. Don’t forget that there are many lesser known holidays that could be celebrated and incorporated on any fan page. Sometimes the unique and unheard holidays can make a fun, innovative status update.

9 Must Post Ideas for the Holidays

1. Share a personally inspired poem about Thanksgiving using the word ‘design.’ Share a personally inspired poem about (substitute holiday) using the word (substitute with

activity, product or service).

2. March 4th: March 4th is the only day that calls you to action. So go do something with yourself, MARCH FOURTH and read a book! March 4th is the only day that calls you to action. So go do something with yourself! MARCH

FOURTH and (substitute with activity, product or service)!

3. Thanksgiving: How THANKFUL are you for your camera? How THANKFUL are you for your (substitute with activity, product or service)?

4. Christmas: How does your new game make you MERRY this Christmas? How does your new (substitute with activity, product or service) make you MERRY this

Christmas?

5. Halloween: What SPOOKTACULAR activity will you be doing with social media today? What SPOOKTACULAR activity will you be doing with (substitute with activity, product or

service) today?

6. St. Patrick’s Day: The LUCK OF THE IRISH is upon you today! What festive thing will you photograph today? The LUCK OF THE IRISH is upon you today! What festive thing will you (substitute with

activity, product or service) today?

7. International Pi Day: Share a creative picture of pie day using something from the fan page for inspiration! 8. Leap Year: Today you have been give an extra day! What will you be creating? Leap Year: Today you have been give an extra day! What will you be (substitute with activity,

product or service)?

9. Chocolates and roses on Valentine's Day is sooo unoriginal. Who would rather get a Jet-Ski? Show us with your thumbs! Chocolates and roses on Valentine's Day is lame. Who would rather get (substitute with activity,

product or service)? Show us with your thumbs!

CHAPTER 9

A CALL TO ACTION

“Action is the foundational key to all success.”

Pablo Picasso

A call to action is a method or technique that you can use to reach out to your audience and promote deeper responses. It is a unique idea that can benefit any page as you strive to accomplish the goals that have been set in creating an active fan page. It is a powerful resource. It can initiate massive amounts of creative responses from others; however, it is your job to think of something fantastic to share on your page which can stir the emotions of your fan page community. A call to action is a little more than answering a question. It is an opportunity for followers to truly share who they are by posting visuals, links, comments, etc. about them. These individuals are being invited to truly become a part of the community and

not just be another person answering a questions. The main idea of a call to action is to further promote innovative and fun posts on behalf of others that can build an exciting environment for your page. Now here are two examples of when a call to action can be used, one was done successfully and the other was done unsuccessfully.

Unsuccessful Example

Let’s say you visit the web page of a large retailer. They are going to instantly show all the great discounts and savings they are offering that day; however, most of the great savings and discounts aren’t catering to your needs. The web page shows discounts for cookware, clothes, furniture, and electronics, all of which are universally needed items, but it’s not giving you, the consumer, exactly what you want. Retailers (not possessive) attempt this shotgun approach and try to throw everything they have at you hoping that something will appeal and lead to a purchase. Eventually you find what you need and buy it, or you will leave the website because it’s not connecting to you, the shopper. The site used several calls to action in the form of deep savings and discounts on several products, none of which were catered directly to your needs. Because these calls to action were poorly executed, you were not enticed to buy anything from the page. It didn’t create that powerful emotion that drives you to action. Several sites are guilty of similar actions. You visit them and they share several great deals, articles, etc. but they overlook trying to create something unique for each and every user that visits their page. People must feel that the page content to speak directly to them. They want to feel important on your page and by directing the content to their needs you are able to personalize it. Once personalized, it will take little work to call them to action.

Successful Example

A good example would be someone looking for a home. They know the type of home they are interested in, the location they want to live in, how many rooms and bathrooms are needed, and finally the price they are willing to pay. With that in mind, a site can easily provide that individual exactly what they are looking for. That is the idea of a call to action. Although you aren’t trying to make a sale every time, you are trying to get valuable responses and can do so by creating content that appeals to your fan page community. You have the luck to not be the large retailers that use the shotgun approach in an attempt to reach just a few of their visitors hoping that someone will buy what they have. As a fan page you serve a community that wants to get something back from you. They have different tastes, backgrounds and preferences, but what they have in common is how much they like your page.

You can interact with a large portion of that page by creating simple, yet quality content that applies to your specific audience. A page can create calls to action by directly telling fans that they can share their work. Be creative and it will be easier to reach the right audience while giving them what they want rather than what they don’t need. You have the ability to grab their attention with something they enjoy and are passionate about. There are various ways to create a call to action that asks for user participation that is above the norm. Here are 6 examples of calls to action you could use.

6 Calls To Action

1. Link to your website and we will like your page! 2. If you could share a hunting trip with anyone, who would it be? The skies the limit! If you could share a (substitute with activity, product or service) with anyone, who would it be?

The skies the limit!

3. Share a picture doing something crazy with a skateboard. Share a picture doing something crazy with (substitute with activity, product or service).

4. We want to see your latest craft-inspired pin on Pinterest. Share below! We want to see your latest (substitute with activity, product or service) inspired pin on Pinterest!

Share below!

5. We want to see how creative our fans are! Take a pic of your favorite landscaping creation and share it below with everyone as well as for a chance to be featured as the fan of the week via our profile! We want to see how creative our fans are! Take a pic of your favorite (substitute with activity,

product or service) creation and share it below with everyone as well as for a chance to be

featured as the fan of the week via our profile!

6. Describe your skill in photography with a movie title. Describe your (skill, love, knowledge, etc.) in (substitute with product or service) with a movie

title.

CHAPTER 10

INFOGRAPHICS AND VISUALS

“It's a visual world and people respond to visuals.”

Joe Sacco

One easy way for you to have something go viral while creating a massive amount of comments is by creating smart and attractive visuals. This type of campaign is a great advertisement for any page that can easily be shared on any social platform. Visuals catch the attention of readers much quicker than simply posting words. The first thing people see while viewing their personal news feeds from friends and pages they follow will be these visuals. It is important to take control of this powerful tool and create something that is visually appealing. It must also drive a point across that can easily be shared and commented on. Here is a short list of different visuals and how they can be used to enhance the status updates that are shared.

1st - Visual Advertisements Advertising a contest, discounts, a new launch, etc. can bring about attention, but it might not get the responses you hoped for. Advertisements should be simple without having too much content so it doesn’t drive away potential viewers because it is just screaming, “I’M AN AD AND YOU NEED TO BUY ME OR PAY ATTENTION TO ME NOW!!!” Visual advertisements should grab attention through visual appeal and very little written comment. People will feel more comfortable sharing something that doesn’t look or feel like an advertisement from your page. Of course this sometimes might not be the case if you are going to have a free webinar, podcast, or free product for customer loyalty. The word ‘FREE’ on an advertisement is music to the ear and in this case people will gladly comment and share to show their appreciation and desire to spread the word to as many people as possible.

2nd - Infographics An overload of written content on a graphic can happen unless you post only simple statistics and information with some small graphics to catch attention. Infographics can be a powerful tool to spread information but you have to understand that any written content must be short and concise so that anyone who views it can quickly scan through it. The simpler it is the better. These graphics can become viral if done right.

3rd - Caption This Caption this is a very simple idea that can create a great deal of comments. All you have to do is post a fun, creative photo and in the comments space provided on the social media platform write, ‘Caption This...” People will write whatever they think is taking place in the photo. It is a fun way to learn more about your audience and to do something a little different than what you usually do. You can even draw a simple picture with the ‘Paint’ program.

4th - Comical Yet Underlines Fan Page Comical, cute, or fun pictures are okay but they have to be aligned with the overall theme of your fan page. Don’t create or post any visual that has nothing to do with the content that you provide

your fans. Make sure every image counts and covers something from your fan page so that there is an overlying theme that is consistent. There is plenty of room to show something that is funny or cute as these visuals can be easily shared by your community, but once more, make sure any visual ties into the subject matter so that the right impression is given to first time viewers / visitors. Visuals are extremely inspiring and have a great deal of power because the attention that is instantly drawn to them. There are plenty of resources online that can help you to create or purchase an image that you can use. Here are six ideas of visuals you can personally create or share with others.

6 Visually, Comment-Inspiring Ideas 1. Golden Fan Awards - Host an annual awards event for fans that won a specified contest.

Examples could be: Most comments, shares, likes, creative posts, best shared image, etc.

2. Give us your best caption for this photo! 3. Share an image or photo that is inspired by the fan page. BE CREATIVE AND HAVE FUN! 4. What kind of banner / image can you create for our page? Share below and we will feature the winning image! 5. “You just won the scavenger hunt! Go post on our Facebook wall where you found this

image!”

6. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to make a new friend on our fan page. Like this status and comment below to learn more about others in the community!?!

Section 3: Make Money

After using the techniques taught about being heard by others and applying the tips and ideas to

build a following through powerful status updates your page has now reached the final section.

This section emphasizes the importance of how any fan page can make money.

Too many fan pages miss great opportunities to sell their services and goods to their fan base.

There are several ideas and principals in the next few chapters about how you can effectively

integrate sales into a social site without scaring off your community. These ideas are fairly easy

to implement and encourage a lively page that focus first and foremost on the content that you

provide before adding additional value via what you sale.

Sales on a fan page requires a little finesse but by properly implementing the following lessons

you can move your fan page from good to great.

CHAPTER 11

Selling Your Status Update

“Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll show you someone who has

overcome adversity.”

- Lou Holtz

Selling your status requires the innovative thinking and quality posts as discussed in previous chapters. It also requires that you get to truly know the fan page community on a more personal level. Let me share a metaphoric example. First Scenario

Joe (fictitious character) moves into a new house and doesn’t know anyone in his neighborhood. It is a new experience to him and he is excited to be here. Joe starts to unload his things when Mark (fictitious character) his neighbor comes over. Mark tries to push Joe into paying for his mowing service. Joe is turned off because he doesn’t know Mark and can’t trust his services. Mark talks to Joe about how great of a job he will do and even offer a discount to buy his services. Joe declines and Mark leaves. End of encounter and now neither Joe nor Mark will talk again.

Second Scenario

Joe moves into his new home and begins to unload his things when Mark, his new neighbor, comes over. Mark helps Joe unpack his furnishings and moves boxes inside. Mark gets to know a little about Joe about his background and why he moved. Joe starts to trust him even though he just met this neighbor for the first time. Mark starts to talk about his lawn mowing business and how he noticed that Joe’s lawn could use a little clean up and offers his services. Joe is much more willing to listen because he knows Mark a little more and is appreciated for the help he offered earlier in the day. Joe accepts the offer and is excited to know someone in the neighborhood as well as get his lawn cleaned up. Recap

Let me recap a little here. There are many fan pages that ignore the idea of the second scenario and usually try to follow the first scenario by offering deals, sales, and discounts. Instantly these pages try to push their community to share their status updates, to buy their products, or tell their friends to like the page. This method is not sustainable and will not build a healthy community that trusts the brand, products, and services that are offered. Anyone who shares a status or comments typically does so when they trust the resource. Fan pages must be like the second scenario where the neighbor offers help. A fan page must look for the needs of all their visitors and fill it with status updates that will give them the value sought. That value can be informational or build on their likes / hobbies. Page administrators must be prompt to respond to questions or concerns so the community knows you are actively involved with each individual. As can be seen, there is much more than just building a page on a social network. The community must be comfortable with you and know that the page is there to help them. When this connection is made between the community and page the status updates will be able to sell themselves. People will willingly share, repost, like, and comment. To sell a status update the page must create a vibrant community that is loyal and trusting of the page itself. A fan page must focus on its community if it expects its community to focus on it. TAKE ACTION

1. KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE! Write down the general age group and demographics of

the audience you are trying to reach. Create a survey to see whether your posts are directly

benefiting your demographics.

2. Respond to every question and concern today! Try to provide in depth and quality

responses that show you care about community.

3. Visit 25 profiles of fans that engage frequently with your page. Learn as much as you can

about their likes and dislikes and why they come to your page. Personally thank these

individuals for their involvement on your page with a public post.

CHAPTER 12

Testimonials = Sales

“When someone is truly satisfied they will want to share those experiences with others.”

Testimonials about the quality of a fan page or a brand will empower it more than any marketing could ever do. A company can spend countless dollars on advertising but if there is little positive feedback the chances of making any sort of sales dwindles. In general someone is more willing to make a purchase when they know others have used the product or service and have given it great reviews.

Think about a large online retailer such as Amazon. You go to their site and type in the exact

product you are looking for. It will show you a list of products and the customer ratings as well

as their reviews. These ratings can be positive testimonials about how great the products really

are or they can be a products worst nightmare because the customer goes on a rant about how it

doesn’t work or meet their exact needs. Now let me ask you how often do you look at the ratings

any given product gets before buying it?

Online businesses have changed how anything is purchased because the consumer wants to know

what others think. They need to know to build up their confidence about the quality of their

potential purchase. Positive reinforcement from others and their great experiences can be that

final push needed for an individual to make the purchase.

To put this into perspective even more let’s think about a little known brand called Apple. Joking

about the little. This company was a nobody for a long time. Profit was going down the drain and

customers paid little attention to anything they offered. Than one day they decided to revive the

business. Steve Jobs took back his seat at Apple and made drastic changes to their product line

and research and development. New ideas that would shape the industry and the world of

technology as we know it began to emerge. These new ideas all started with something called the

ipod and its online store Itunes. It took the world by storm. People could now purchase the one

song they wanted and this new device was hip and the quality of it far surpassed its competition.

Quality and innovation became a standard at Apple. New customers started to flock to them

because word of mouth was spreading its product line like wildfire. It couldn’t be controlled.

People want to be loyal to the business and everything it offered because they heard countless

testimonials from their friends and associates about the quality of these great products and the

usefulness it could have in their lives. These new customers began to be heavily invested in its

revived products as well like Mac computers and Macbooks. Apple continued to innovate and

provide quality products that drive further recognition such as the Ipad and Iphone Touch.

Many loyal customers will verbally share their love of the company and its products with those

they come in contact with in person or online. An even stronger testimony is the quantity of users

who own products and carry them around everywhere you go. It is easy to see someone using an

apple product anywhere you go. This is what your fan page can do. It might not be quite as big as

Apple but it can exceed expectations for your market if people start to share their experiences

and testimonials of the fan pages services.

This is what will bring a strong following which in turn will lead to strong sales. Customers that

hear and read reviews from others will be more inclined to make a purchase. They will quickly

learn that what the page offers is either quality of not. Even if your page is trying to build itself

up don’t lose hope. Keep pushing the quality and create an atmosphere that every visitor will

enjoy and want to engage with. When someone is truly satisfied they will want to share those

experiences with others.

This is where it is important to only sale the very best products or services on the fan page.

Reactions towards what is showcased on the page can be good or bad. If what is offered on the

fan page is absolutely terrible you will hear about it quickly. Comments will begin to pour in

about the bad experiences that various individuals had. Those potential customers who might

have been interested will see these reviews and will think twice about buying anything from you

or even worse, following your page.

On the other hand if something is posted where many individuals have had spectacular

experiences they will not be shy to share them. These happy customers will post testimonials

about the benefits of the service or product and will even respond to other inquiries from visitors

about questions they might have.

It is hard for a brand to purely convince an individual why they should buy into anything the

brand says or offers based on their biased opinions. A fan page can influence reactions and

responses by engaging with them and creating status updates and content that will make the fan

page environment much more enjoyable. On the other hand an individual will gain confidence

and trust about a brand quicker as others start to refer their services. Testimonials will always

speak louder than a fan page’s words and will be the quickest way to grow sales once the page

does everything else it can.

TAKE ACTION

1. Ensure that every lesson and principle in this book are applied to your business model

and fan page to create positive testimonials.

2. Think of 10 changes that can be made to the fan page to promote testimonials from your

followers so products and services can be offered and sales goals achieved.

CHAPTER 13

Make Money with $tatu$ Update$

Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work –

Thomas Edison

Now that you have built your brand, created noteworthy status updates, and built strong relationships, it is time to make a giant leap in the progress of your social media presence--monetizing it. If you are a large organization, small business, or charity, this is important to learn. The primary reason of building loyal fans and a strong brand is to create an opportunity to sell products or services that will create additional value in the lives of the community in order to create greater monetary value in your pocketbook. There are various ways that social media profiles can be profitable for companies and other organizations. Too often, social media professionals think of social media as merely a vehicle that can drive traffic to websites and in turn earn money, instead of thinking of social media as the money-making apparatus itself. This concept of the social media following having inherent value is highlighted in Facebook’s takeover of the photo app Instagram. Instagram made zero dollars off its app. Zero. Not a dime. Yet, Facebook spent one billion (like million, but with a “b”) dollars to purchase it. This is because Facebook realized that the value of the business is in its following. Any mobile app, website, or social media profile, is worth money if you can generate enough of a following. Monetization is easy once you have a following. Just a small example of the techniques that we have used to generate hundreds of thousands of dollars online include the following methods: discount codes and daily deals, building excitement for new products and services, and reposting popular products. We will examine each of these methods and how they can be properly implemented below.

Discount Codes / Daily Deals As we mentioned previously in this examination of social media marketing, the difficulty of monetizing social media is that social media users are especially defensive to marketing on social media. For example, a Facebook user logs on to her home screen and sees that her neighbor is pregnant again, pictures of her co-worker on the beach during her vacation, reads news of her brother in another state, and then sees the following message from a business page that she had liked. “10% off all orders made in the next 24 hours only!” The point from this example is that blatant marketing messages on social media usually do not go over well with social media users. Given the context of a social platform where users interact with friends, marketing messages seem pushy and overly corporate. Daily deals websites have achieved something that few other social media sites have. They have succeeded in using marketing tactics in a social media environment. Daily deals websites, like Groupon or Living Social, operate by offering a small number of reduced-price items and heavily encourage users to share the deals through social media. In fact, Groupon alone has generated a customer base of well over 50 million subscribers in just a few short years.

If social media marketers mold their marketing approach to make it better match the social environment, they can take advantage of huge sales. On one of the websites that I run, 90% of monthly sales are direct referrals from social media, even though that site attracts 300,000 visits per month through other sources. So jump on the deal wagon and share discounts codes or daily deals on your social media pages. This will feel like a fantastic reward for frequent visitors when they notice the occasional offers here and there. Customers LOVE buying something when it is on sale because they get a the quality item or service at a reduced cost. When extra cash is saved it is music to the ear. These savings will in turn lead fans to share their excitement for the discounted deals with others on the business page or personal page. But as you post coupons and other deals on your social media sites, remember that this is a social

environment and sales pitches need a “social flair.” In order to make them a better fit for social

media. For example, you might say, “Today we’re going to hit 20,000 fans on our Facebook

page. We really appreciate your support, so we’re offerinig a 30% discount available ONLY to

you Facebook fans. Use coupon code XYZ.” This technique is incredibly valuable for social

marketers. In fact, I posted a similar status on my business’s facebook fan page this morning,

and the status is directly responsible for generating $1,133.28 in net sales over the last three

hours. It WORKS!

Offer these sporadically to make them unique and not a daily routine. You certainly do not want anyone to feel like every day is the same day because it isn’t “special” anymore. Why do you think there is so much excitement for Black Friday (day after Thanksgivingin the United States)? Because it happens once a year! Special events with special rewards are much more exciting than a constant barrage of deep discounts and coupons. If you over-sell your fans, they will begin to feel like they are being “sold to” instead of being enthusiastic fans of your brand.

Building Excitement for New Products and Services

Unlike traditional advertising in magazines, on television, and on the radio, social media marketing can be done over long periods of time. For example, a television ad will be shown a few times and then will go off the air. The time between when a user sees one ad and then the next ad is so great that the viewer is unlikely to put the messages of the two ads together. This makes it nearly impossible for marketers to build excitement for an upcoming product or service. Social media marketing, however, is perfect for building a perfect product launch for your product. It is social media that is responsible for iPads and iPods and other Apple products becoming so valuable and exciting in the minds of consumers, that they wake up before dawn and wait in lines for hours to purchase products. The excitement is directly related to the buzz generated online through leaks of the product’s development. Using social media as a product launch tool is a great idea to excite any fan page community. Think like a large blockbuster movie, before the movie is released it has teaser trailers and promotions that excite customers. If done properly, fans won’t be able to contain their

excitement any longer and will want to share with others their enthusiasm to see the movie. The reward for releasing trailers and smart promotions are fans who will want to attend the movie. Because time was taken to market and excite the crowd rewards and box office success is usually reaped for these efforts. Adapt this idea into your fan page’s status updates. Market anything that is about to be launched

by building the blockbuster momentum. Share small tidbits of the project with your current

community to plant a seed of excitement for the release date of the product. Post the work that

has been done to design and development the product or create the service to demonstrate the

emotion behind what will be sold. Discuss the benefits it will provide to the community. Share a

‘Release Date’ to further build excitement, and even ask fans periodically for their feedback on

the development of the product.

Developing a “product launch mentality” in your social media marketing is one of the most

certain ways that you can predict good early sales when a product is released. Without building

that momentum for a product during the developing stages, you will likely create a product and

wait as it sits on shelves until consumers become interested and learn of the product’s existence--

and by then, the excitement of a new product will have vanished.

Any fan page can create a blockbuster moment for a product or service that they offer. Build momentum and excitement through these ideas and implement them into your status updates to drive sales.

Reposting Popular Products / Services

If there is an older product or service that has had a great sales record don’t let it go to waste. Occasionally remind the fan page community about it and why it is beneficial to them. Make a fun or informative status update that can spark additional interest in something that has already been developed. Never let good products / services go to waste. Share them without being overly pushy. As long as it offers value and meets current needs it is important to excite fans about purchasing it.

Don’t Miss the Money Flight As these ideas and others are implemented into your personal fan page the money will follow. It

may come slowly or quickly; however, the most important thing is to monetize the page as soon

as possible and to not get left behind.

For example, Tony wants to buy some tickets for a vacation. First thing Tony will do is talk to

his wife about the trip. They will sit down and discuss places they want to visit and how much

they are willing to spend. Once the discussion is over and the decision has been made about

going to Hawaii Tony will jump online and order the plane tickets. To get ready for the trip they

will take time off work and make preparations such as how much to save and what needs to be

packed. Eventually everything is planned out perfectly for this vacation.

Finally the day arrives for the ‘Big Break’ that both Tony and his wife deserve. They arrive to

the airport and before boarding the plane they get cold feet. They think about what their friends

and family will think, how long they will be gone, and what if they don’t like the trip. All of

these thoughts spell disaster in their minds and they both decide to turn around and head back

home because they are comfortable with where they are at. They have given up the expenses that

they paid already for the trip and this new adventure because if was outside of the norm. The

flight is missed and their lives never change for the better.

Pretty depressing story huh? Well instead of a trip that is well planned and takes time to put

together imagine your fan page. All of the effort that has been placed to create the page and build

a following will amount to very little if a chance isn’t taken to monetize the page. This is the new

adventure that is presented before you. Are you willing to try something different and build a

community that trusts the page and its content? Will you offer them something that will enhance

their lives through a product or service you offer?

The page’s community is willing to take a leap if the page itself constantly produces quality

content. They see all of the work that has been put into the valued content that is shared and are

willing to pay for something that can additionally add to the value gained on the page. Don’t

hesitate to give them what they want. Take action right now and think about what can be offered

on your fan page to increase fan loyalty and consumer sales.

A social page is a powerful tool that must be used appropriately if true success is sought. After a

strategy is created and great status updates shared it is time to go to the next level and create

additional value with what you sell. Don’t let this opportunity pass you by and go back to the

norm of building a page without any aspirations of monetizing it.

TAKE ACTION

1. Post a Product / Service that the page offers and share in 7 words or less why it would

benefit your fans. If that’s not enough offer a ‘Discount Deal’ to sweeten the offer.

2. Visit 5 top competitor sites and their fan pages. Take note of how they are offering

products to their fans and what is or isn’t working. Learn from their mistakes and

successes and implement it into your page.

3. Strategize how you will promote a new product / service through the fan page. Create a

short outline with a minimum of six posts that can be shared to create excitement for its

release. Share one of these posts every 3 days until the release of the service (if possible

share a ‘sneak peak’ of it with a short video clip, an image, a small excerpt of the content,

etc.).

A BRIEF CONCLUSION

Once more, status updates can make or break a fan page. By properly posting informative and innovative updates throughout your personal page you will create that experience followers want to have. People that return to pages over and over again and contribute on them with comments and shares will only do so when they feel that they have gained something out of it. So start right now creating the atmosphere these followers deserve. It is important to implement the ideas and lessons learned into your page instantly. By creating valuable status updates and getting involved with the page relationships will be nourished and a community will start to thrive and grow on your fan page. There is no better time to implement what you have learned on your fan page than right now. There are many individuals who are willing to follow and read your information but they need to see greater consistency and ‘Out of the Box’ thinking to help them decide on becoming a true fan. Don’t forget that although you have some wonderful ‘Golden Nuggets’ of status updates and ideas at your disposal, you still need to build a strong community. This is done through your efforts as you share informative posts, update your social networks with recently created blog posts, share lessons learned from your personal research, and provide daily / useful tips. Your social page followers don’t always need exciting and visually amazing posts to be satisfied. As you

inter-mingle your posts, you will be able to inform people of your product or service while keeping them

involved in your community. Don’t cast away the small and equally important activities, but make sure

that they go hand in hand so you make create a community that is knowledgeable and fun.

A successful fan page needs to be tended to frequently and immediately. As such, it is equally importantly

to continuously study and learn more about what you can do to improve the social experience of your fan page. To learn more about how you can build and grow your personal page I invite you once more to be a

part of a social community based around social media marketing at FollowFanPage.com.

If you have found this book for status update marketing helpful, please pay it forward by leaving a review

at Amazon.com. Thank you for letting me share these powerful status updates and tips with you and good

luck to your personal fan page growth.

You will likely forget many principles from this book, but do not forget

these most valuable techniques that were taught.

Treat potential customers like members of a community rather than a customer list, and your

business will boom.

For a status trigger to produce positive responses you need to touch the emotions of the community. People want to be dazzled, amused, and taught. Status updates create an opportunity where all of these areas can be met. The quickest and surest way to get a spark of interest in your business is with your current network... the fire is guaranteed to spread as long as you put out content that is sufficiently engaging. Driving engagement is the NUMBER ONE RULE to having a successful page. If they do not engage, they are no longer fans. In fact, they are unlikely to even see your status updates. A page’s duty is to create enough excitement that causes fans to return to the page again and again. By allowing some creative freedom, individuals will feel more inclined to comment. The right question can invoke powerful responses. Visuals catch the attention of readers much quicker than simply posting words. When a connection is made between the community and page, the status updates will be able to sell themselves. Testimonials will always speak louder than a fan page’s words. The primary reason of building loyal fans and a strong brand is to create an opportunity to sell

products or services that will create additional value in the lives of the community.

Quality status updates and posts will create quality responses and customers!