Wednesday Words: Circles

Todays's Wednesday Word is a word that, thus far, is only associated with Google+ (G+): Circles.

Circles is how you arrange your connections within Google +.  You can group your connections into circles with which you then select the names of the circles you want to share your posts with.

You can also put people into multiple circles.  I have circles for VIPs, close friends, family, acquaintance and industry contacts.
The interesting thing to note though is while Circles can affect your personal profile on Google +, it can also affect your business page there as well.  People can add your page to circles (which allows them to see some of what you publish), but for them to see more, you have to add them to your page's circles.

And, just like Facebook, this isn't an automatic step.  You have to do this yourself.

Keep in mind, if you want certain articles you post to your page to target certain members of your audience and not others, be sure to put them into specific circles, then select that circle for the item to be posted to.

In the coming weeks, we'll be touching on Google + and how to use it as Social Media along with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn.

As always, I welcome questions on any of the social media platforms and look forward to answering questions of my readers.

Wednesday Words are a series of definitions released on Wednesday each week regarding a word found specific to Facebook's social media platform, or may be a generic word dealing with social media.  These definitions are to help provide you with a better understanding of common and uncommon terms associated with Facebook and social media.   You can find all the Wednesday Words by clicking on the Wednesday Words tag below.

Tuesday Tips: Format Your Posts in Google +

Unlike most other social media platforms, you can format your posts in Google+ to make certain things stand out more - just remember that in the world of formatting less is often times better than more.

So what do we mean by formatting your posts?  Well you can easily add bold, italics and strike through to the text you add before you hit share.  Personally, I don't use the strike through feature.  I just delete it.

Now the way you can format things on Google+ is different than a WYSIWYG item.

For example.  If you want to bold a word, you surround the word with **.  So...I want to *bold* the word bold, you would put asterisks around the bold as seen earlier in the sentence.*

If you want to italicize a word, put _ _ around it. So the word you want to italicize would look like this: _word_.

To strike through a word, put hyphens on either side of it, like this: -strike through-.

Have fun, but remember: Don't over do it!

*Obviously we aren't on Google+ so it doesn't do it in the blog, but it does do it in posts.   You also won't see it till after you hit post, so your post will be filled with funky symbols until you hit post then it should bold, italicize, etc.

Tuesday Tips are a series of tips released on Tuesday each week regarding a hint or tip to help you manage and market your Facebook presence better.  You can find all the Tuesday Tips by clicking on the Tuesday Tips tag below.

The Monday Search: Social Media Job Openings Available as of 2/24/14

There are many jobs available out there for people knowledgeable about Social Media, but sometimes finding the job isn't easy.

Don't worry!  I decided to start a new article that highlight three to five or so jobs found on a plethora of sites.  Sites will be linked at the very bottom of the article and listed as sources.  Other sites may be listed as well.

Complex Media is looking for a Social Media Manager

They are looking for someone to fill the following responsibilities:

• Develop social media campaigns for channels including, but not limited to, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google+, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Vine
• Compile analytics reports on campaign performance, highlighting successes and identifying areas for improvement
• Provide input on all social planning and provide the digital POV
• Consistently participate during the pre-sale ideation phase and post-sale execution
• Act as a partner with the account team and a sounding board for ideas
• Provide continuous cultural, digital and trend forecasting to inform client recommendations and to educate and motivate internal teams
• Be on the pulse of marketing trends and how it applies to the industry

Requirements:

• 2-3 years experience in social media, preferably with a publisher (or brand with high volume of content and multiple inputs)
• Demonstrated success with social media executions on platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Google+, Tumblr, and additional emerging tools
• Knowledge of other digital marketing disciplines for integrated strategies (SEO, paid search, paid media)
• Must be comfortable working with a broad range of cross-functional staff—junior to senior, sales, marketing, editorial, design, analytics, etc.
• Excellent writing, presentation and communication skills
• Command of social analytics dashboards and Microsoft Excel
• Successful experience participating in cross-functional teams and with client partners
• A basic understanding of content management systems

If you are interested, and qualify, check out the job listing
here: http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter-jobs/jobview.asp?joid=162087&c=jfbatl

Philadelphia Magazine is seeking a Social Media Manager

Philadelphia magazine is searching for a social media manager. Candidate should have 3-5 years of hands-on social media experience and be relentless about following the latest trends and best practices. This position requires someone who takes initiative; can handle multiple projects at once; thrives in a busy, fast-paced setting; and is a team player. Responsibilities include:

• Overseeing the brand's main social media accounts
• Keeping staffers informed of trends and best practices
• Brainstorming and implementing social media strategies for key clients
• Hiring and working with outside social media vendors to execute certain projects

This positions requires someone with an in-depth knowledge of all relevant social media platforms, including experience with Facebook ads, Twitter search and response, Google+/Google hangout, and Instagram infograms.

Check out the full listing here: http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter-jobs/jobview.asp?joid=161448&c=jfbatl

Samsung Electronics of America is seeking a Social Media Manager.

The Social Media manager implements the Social Media Strategy and programs across Samsung’s various electronics product categories by using social networking sites to build brand awareness and preference, grow communities and engage with brand advocates. This role coordinates activities between PR, Support and Marketing units within North America, ensuring that Samsung’s voice and messaging is consistently applied.

Duties & Responsibilities

• Implement social media strategy across products in various digital channels.
• Source content from internal marketing groups, manages the social media content calendar and ensures proper voice and messaging is used by Community Manager.
• Work with Analytics and Agency teams to leverage social media optimization methods and increase community engagement
• Monitor trends in the social media ecosystem and raise opportunities to evolve the platform.
• Participate in social media reputation management with PR and Support Teams.
• Provide insights from monitoring to inform future marketing efforts.

Required Knowledge, Education, or Experience

• Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing, information systems or related business discipline.
• Minimum of 5 years of work experience in an interactive field required, specific experience in implementing social strategy, managing an online community, acting as a brand advocate.
• Deep knowledge of social networking platforms and their potential applications to drive business results.
• Enthusiasm for technology and passion for Samsung products.
• Excellent communication and writing skills.   
• Strong organizational skills.
• Good technical skills with the ability to pick up new tools and ideas quickly.
• Ability to work with in a deadline oriented fast paced team environment, while also assuming leadership when appropriate.
• Experience managing direct reports and/or agency relationships

Check out the job here: http://www.linkedin.com/jobs2/view/11681820?trk=vsrp_jobs_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A168677641393113454898%2CVSRPtargetId%3A11681820%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary

Other listings:

• Media Bistro Job Listings (note not all the jobs listed here are social media positions):  http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter-jobs/?c=stnav
• LinkedIn Social Media Job Listings:  http://www.linkedin.com/job/q-social-media-manager-jobs  and  http://www.linkedin.com/vsearch/j?keywords=socialmedia+manager  or  http://www.linkedin.com/job/q-social-media-marketing-jobs
• CareerBuilder: http://www.careerbuilder.com/Jobs/Keyword/Social-Media-Manager/
• Indeed.com: http://www.indeed.com/jobs?q=Social-media

The Monday Search is a brief listing of jobs available for those in the social media marketing field.  All jobs are found through internet searches and are just featured because they are of interest to me.  Monday Searches will contain links to sites with other job listings in addition to the ones listed here.

Weekend Sessions: You Have Questions...I Have Answers

I've had a few questions pop up related to Facebook pages.  As I have nothing planned to post on Saturdays - but the number of hits the blog gets drastically drops over the weekend because of no posts - I figured today would be a good day to answer one of those questions.

There seems to be a lot of confusion over Facebook pages and admin ownership, and more importantly, about pages being tied to Facebook admin profiles and their PayPal Accounts.

There will be more guides and tutorials regarding Page Admins and what they can/cannot do, but first, I'll explain the link between page admins, pages and PayPal.

Anyone can create a page and add people who are their friends as Admins to that page.  The original page creator can add PayPal or a credit card to pay for promotion fees.  HOWEVER, other admins CANNOT use those payment methods to run campaigns.  Each admin has to put in their own payment information and they are individually charged for any campaigns they run.

So for an admin to "delete a page" because the page is "tied to their Facebook profile and PayPal account" is a bunch of BS.  They can remove their self as admin, then it is no longer tied to them.  If they do this without other admins, it will delete the page.  But if there are other admins on the page, deleting their self as admin will not delete the page.

So, ultimately, other admins cannot charge promotions to your credit card or your PayPal.  Each admin/manager is separate.  They must pay for their own promotions for their page.  They cannot see statistics for promotions any other admin has paid for, nor can any admin see the statistics for what they paid for.

Hope that clears things up.

Weekend sessions are blog posts that occur sporadically on the weekends and answer questions that have been submitted to the author.

Friday Facts: How 6 Hours of Social Media Marketing Can Increase Your Sales

Doing research on a few topics for this blog as well as for one of my pages, I came across this article on Pinterest.  While the article is almost two years old, the topic matter and the information it provides is still fairly accurate.  The topic:  How 6 Hours of Social Media Marketing Can Increase Your Sales.

The article has some really interesting infographics and statistics, including these two statistics:

• Almost 52% of small businesses - an owner with 2 or more employees - reported increased sales from social media marketing
• 57% of businesses reported they had reduced their marketing costs

If your reading this blog, it's obvious you are wanting to learn more about social media marketing.  I suggest reading this article and some of the articles linked within to gain further insight.

Happy Friday!

Thursday Tutorials: How to Find The Info for Optimizing Posts

In a previous week, under Tuesday Tips, we talk about Optimizing Post Times.  Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to finish this article for that Thursday as I was out of the state for work and got a bit behind.  Have no fear, this week we'll talk about how to find the stats you are looking for.

So we'll look at the first screen you see as an admin when you look at your page as an admin.

Click on the "See Insights" button, which will give you a screen like this:  (note you will not see the See Insights option if you do not have a minimum of 30 likes).

If you scroll down a little bit more you'll see the basic stats, but what you really want to know is when people are viewing your posts so you know to post before that so it gets into their feed.  To see this, click on the Posts button (on the line with Overview - likes - Reach -etc).  That will change the page to this:

This page shows you two things.  The top bar is the number of people viewing per day of week.  The bottom graph is the "what times of days people view my posts."

For me, I post around 9 a.m. every day.  You see an increase in page views between just before then and through 8 p.m.  So posting in the morning is a good thing for me.  Other sites can show other fluctuations, such as early morning post views, or lunch time.  Pay attention to your users and you'll get a better idea of when to post it to be sure they see it.

If you have other questions, feel free to ask them in the comments.

Thursday Tutorials are a series of tutorials designed to help people who may not be as Facebook savvy as other people.  Some tutorials will be targeted towards newbies to the social media world, others will include tutorials for more advanced users.  Thursday Tutorials are written for the layman and are designed with everyone in mind.  You can find all the Thursday Tutorials by clicking on the Thursday Tutorials tag below.

Wednesday Words: Avatar

Avatar, not to be confused with the movie with blue aliens, is an image used to represent yourself on a forum, Twitter, Facebook, etc.  It can be a picture of yourself, a logo you like or any number of things that represents something about you.

People new to social media are sometimes confused by the term avatar.  For Twitter and Facebook, the avatar should be your company logo - that way the Facebook/Twitter post is easily recognizable while enforcing and enhancing branding of the name and logo.

The Avatar is what people will see and associate with you when scanning through their social media - so you want it to be identifiable and recognizable.

If you are unsure what you should do for your page's Avatar or your Twitter Feed Avatar, I highly suggest looking at other, similar Twitter Feed and Facebook pages, then go from there.  If you still aren't sure, consult with others.  You'd be surprised what people will suggest that just might work.

Wednesday Words are a series of definitions released on Wednesday each week regarding a word found specific to Facebook's social media platform, or may be a generic word dealing with social media.  These definitions are to help provide you with a better understanding of common and uncommon terms associated with Facebook and social media.   You can find all the Wednesday Words by clicking on the Wednesday Words tag below.