Tuesday Tips: When Engaging, Don't Feed the Trolls

This advice is often easier said than done, but it is important either way.  Don't feed the trolls. Engaging users is important, but engaging trolls can end very badly.

Whether your business' page is new or established, you will eventually be targeted by a troll. The troll may be a former employee, a person who wasn't hired for whatever reason, someone who is/was dissatisfied with a product or just someone who is out there to poke holes at anyone they've decided to target (for those people it's not really personal, they just get a rise out of causing someone else to react).

Sometimes it's hard to tell when someone is trolling but if they keep replying with a passive-aggressive attack on something you've posted, then it's time to be the bigger person and step away. Sometimes just a simple phrase of "I guess we'll just have to agree to disagree" and not posting further can help. Or "I'm sorry you feel that way" etc.

The important thing is to stop before they take it too far.

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.

Tuesday Tips: Be Authentic

This week's tip comes from another great quote from the CEO of Boom! Social. It's pretty good advice if you think about it a little bit.

“Be honest, be warm, be authentic, and put yourself in the shoes of your customers on social media.”
Kim Garst, CEO of Boom! Social
@KimGarst

Don't just be a brander, think like a customer. If this wasn't your product, would you want to be seeing this on social media of a product you follow?  If the answer is no, don't post it. For example - most people don't want to see politics or religion (unless the brand is a religion or political figure) on a product/company's Facebook page. A good tip to remember is if it's a topic you avoid in public situations to avoid uncomfortableness, you may want to avoid it on social media as well.

A big problem many social media managers face is trying to emulate other brands and be something they aren't. Be you. Be your brand. Be unique and stand out. Engage your fanbase (be warm) and answer as honestly as you can (without revealing information you don't want revealed - like how do you do this?)

The most successful social media marketers get their fanbase to like and interact - whether it be by asking/answering questions, sharing fun tidbits or trying something else out. Check out some of the social media sites for brands you follow and watch how they handle things. You may learn from it!

Enjoy!

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.

Tuesday Tips: Don't Give Up

There will be days - and not just a few - where you will feel that it is pointless to participate in social media.  No one is liking or sharing your posts. No one cares. And it only gets worse when you realize how low your reach and views are. You're ready to give up on social media and throw in the towel.

Don't. Give. Up.

If you are a relatively new, unknown brand, building your customers and followers and getting them to see your posts, much less like them and share them, is difficult. But if you give up now, you will never see where those likes and shares take you once you do start acquiring them.

Let's be honest, it takes time to build a reputation on social media. It takes time for people to see what you are posting and to engage in that.  You must consistently publish useful and meaningful content - whether it be questions, promotional posts, inspirational images, or videos - so your fanbase can find value in visiting your page and supporting your brand.

Many social media posters will tell you it took them months to get interaction on their pages - even up to half a year. I run several pages and some of my smallest following groups have the highest interaction rate, while the ones with thousands of followers have the smallest interaction rates.  It just depends on finding the sweet spot and getting those interactions going.

Pay attention to your stats and which posts draw the most interaction then post similar posts in the future to encourage further interaction.

Just don't give up on it.

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.

Friday Facts: 10 Surprising Social Media Facts

In looking through Pinterest the other night, I came across this pin and had to check it out.  It contained a very nice infographic with 10 facts about social media that I -definitely- didn't know and I think many of my readers will find this interesting.

Some of the facts include:

• Did you know there are specific days of the week to Pin certain things on Pinterest?  You can find out what you're supposed to Pin when on the infographic.
• Did you know Friday seems to be the best day for engagement on Facebook?  (Maybe it's because it's the end of the work week and people are surfing Facebook...)
• Do you know how many interactions per post you should strive for?  That information is also available on the infographic.

Learn about these three things as well as the seven other facts by clicking on the links below.

Source: http://www.business2community.com/infographics/10-surprising-social-media-facts-infographic-0946278#!birBLT

Pin It Here: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/492862752943671555/

(Note, I linked to the Pin I found it on.  Please re-Pin from there if you're going to Pin.)

Wednesday Words: Comment

Today's word, comment, is another one of those words that spreads through almost all forms of social media, as well as on forums and blogs.

A comment is a reply to a blog post or news post on a website or forum or a message on a social media networks. Comments are a way to generate engagement and interaction on social media.  Comments can be made by fans answering questions a page has asked its users, by the page owner responding to comments made by users, or can be comments made in reply to comments made by users.

Comments are a form of two-way communication on social media.  It's always good to be positive, and rarely if ever negative, when communicating with anyone through social media.  Most comments are public and anyone can view them - which means if you have an off day, everyone will see that and it will reflect upon you.  Remember to comment when people comment on your posts as it all helps with engagement.

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: Less Pushing, More Engaging

Sometimes it's hard to forget that social media should be used not just to push people to buy your product, attend an event, support a cause, etc. but should also be used to interact and engage with your followers.

Many social media marketers focus more on pushing their brand with a "Hey look at this awesome deal we have going, you need to buy now" and spend less time engaging with people who leave comments (sometimes not even responding at all) or responding to questions on their page.

Don't make this mistake!

Remember that you want to engage your customers.  Ask them questions, respond to their questions.  Like their comments and comment on their comments as appropriate.  Engagement is a two-way street and if you want your fans to buy what you push, you have to engage them.  If you want them to attend events or leave positive feedback, you have to engage them.

Keep that in mind as you schedule/make posts for this week.

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.

Sharing a Klout Blog Post: New Research: Topics That Get A Reaction

While I try to reserve posts that take you to other sites to be posted on Fridays and Saturdays, this article was just too good to wait till next Friday to post.

In the recent blog post made on Klout, they disclose statistics as to what topics get the most, and least, interaction via Facebook and Twitter.

The article contains several useful infographics as well as analytics and explanations as to some surprising outcomes from the research as well.

Depending on your brand/direction, this may or may not help you incorporate topics that generate interaction with your followers - but it's definitely something to consider.

Check out the blog here: http://blog.klout.com/2014/05/topics-that-get-a-reaction/

Tuesday Tips: Add Adminstrators/Managers to Your Fan Pages

At the beginning of March we provided a tutorial on how to add staff to Facebook fan pages.  Later this week, we'll add a tutorial for adding administrators to Google+ Pages and then to LinkedIn as well.  Today's tip, however, pertains to the previous and upcoming tutorials.

Add other administrators/managers/staff to your page(s).  This will allow them to post, respond and advertise for your page.

This is important for a small business, community or fanpage.  Often you and your staff are busy with other projects (I know I am) and having multiple people having access can allow them to take some of the load off your shoulders when it comes to maintaining a social media presence and engaging your fans.

And now, you don't have to worry about knowing who posted what - at least on Facebook.  Facebook now shows admins who of the admins/managers posted what to the page and who responded to who on the page - which can help deter negative engagement from staff too.  Remember, you want to try to stay as positive as possible with your fans on Facebook - even if they piss you off.

Facebook has several roles for page staff to assume, not just admin, so be sure to consider that when you add staff to a page.

As always, remember that admin's have a lot of power - be sure those you make admin are those you can trust.

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.

Thursday Tutorials: How to Change From Using Facebook as Your Page to Your Profile

This tutorial is a fairly easy one, but it's something that you have to remember to do each time you post as your page and to use it to switch back to your page before you post or you'll be deleting posts you make as yourself instead of your page.

I'll be using my Social Media Marketing: Hints and Tips Page for the screenshots.

First, click on your page as if you were going to read notifications, create a post or do something else with your page.

At the very top of the screen you will see an area in the middle that says "You are posting as: NAME OF PAGE HERE - Change to Your Name Here", as seen below.

The part that says "Change to Your Name" is a hot link.  Click on it.

The page should change to something similar to the screenshot below (just with your appropriate page name and your name there).

It's that simple.

Now you can scroll down and like posts you have made on your page as yourself.  Or comment on it as yourself, or share it to your wall easier as yourself!

Note:  You have to go to your page and change it because even if you see your pages walls on your wall and you click like, it will like the post as your page name, not yours.

Sharing, commenting and liking as yourself increases engagement on your page.  Not to mention some of your friends who many not have liked your page yet may see the post and like the page or post.

To change back to posting as your page, just click on the Change to Page NAME area and it will switch back.  Easy peasy.

Encourage your page admins and managers to do the same thing.  The more individual engagement and likes, the better!

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: Engagement

For the first Wednesday Words we're going to talk about a word that will be used a lot in this blog and that is "Engagement."

Engagement, also referred to interchangeably as interactions, refers to how users and your page administrators engage, or interact, with your page.

Engagement plays an important part in how many views a post gets.  As most current page owners know, only a relatively small percentage of your already active userbase see your posts - generally between 10-20%.  What most page admins don't know is that the more "users" who like, share, and comment will raise the number of people who see your posts because the posts are being engaged by users.

Every like is important.  Every share is important.  Every comment by users and by your page admins in response to your users raises the number of people who see your post because they are engaged.

It's why I encourage people who are admins on my page, not only to switch to their account to like a post, but to share it on their personal walls as well, and - perhaps - leave a pertinent comment on the page.

Sharing of posts is probably the most important thing.  The reason for this is more people will see the post on their walls when it is shared than the page - at least initially.

Just remember this: every like, share, and comment is considered users being engaged with your site.  Encourage your admins, your friends and your families to help you increase your reach by regularly liking and sharing posts.  You will see an increase in stats on posts they share compared to posts they don't share.

FYI for my readers - there will not be Wednesday Words for the net two weeks due to the holidays.  I figure people will be spending time with their families on those days and not online reading.

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.