Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Are you making it difficult for people to find your business on your social media profiles?

Social media has become one of the most popular avenues to promote your business. Smart marketers are adding social media (more than using social media exclusively) to their marketing plans.

There are a few common mistakes on these sites that may be working against you instead of supporting your business. Interestingly enough I seen social media "experts" and "strategists" making some of these same mistakes, which means they may be missing great tools to assist their clients.

There are many social media sites, some niche exclusive which can be a great addition to your marketing, however, my next two blog posts will focus on your company listings on Facebook and LinkedIn.

FACEBOOK:

Setting up a profile and a business page is easy. You can choose to use your profile to chat with friends or business associates or both.

Separate from your profile is your business Page. Hopefully your business page is set up as a page and not a profile. Facebook T&C disallows using a profile as a business, and can delete your account and all your hard work if you violate this. This point is addressed is a separate blog post.

When setting up your profile, the info section asked for your Education and Work.



If you have a Custom Business page set up, the system will attempt to connect you to your page. Otherwise it will create an empty placeholder page. You will not be able to edit this placeholder page. You can "like" this page, and also have others "like" it, however, as it is has no value to your marketing.



It is at this point that many people set up a business Page.

When you have a business Page established, the system will attempt to connect you to your page. It is not automatic. If your page was set up after you initially entered your Employment, you will need to go back and manually change the link.

When logged into your Profile, go to your "Edit Profile".



Click on the section Work and Education as shown in the above image.

Begin typing your business name EXACTLY as you named it when you set up the page. Here's where many errors take place. Facebook can only find your correct page when you enter the EXACT name you gave it. Sometimes it may be the same name as you previously entered, however this time Facebook will attempt to find your new correct page. Sometimes it will be the same exact name you originally entered, however, Facebook assigned numerical digits after the name and your correct page has different digits which has created a completely different URL.



When you see your correct company name in the drop down list, click on it.This will add it to your Employment section.



Fill in the remainder of the information and be sure to click "Save Changes" before exiting.



When you next see that both your correct Business Page and the placeholder page are listed, you can delete the one that you don't want.



If you have other company's you are affiliated with or employed by, you can add them here as well the same way. Note that the first one you add will be the primary one shown at the top of your profile and top of the list under your Work and Employment tab.


When you have a set up a Business Page, you are designated as the "owner" and you maintain the ultimate control. You can add administrators through your manage permissions and these Admins are limited to posting and editing. They will not have access to your profile or any other pages you own. I am an "Admin" for several client Facebook Pages, and my clients have the control to change that permission at any time.
When you attach your Business Page to your profile, it has the potential to extend your marketing reach. If you are using your profile for personal communications, you may consider setting up a different profile for profile for professional use and make sure your Business Pages are linked.

Someone from your personal profile may be able to visit your Business Page from your personal or professional profile, however, they will only find your profile if you have it listed as owner of your Business Page. If you are keeping personal and professional separate, then your professional profile should be listed as page owner on the page. You also have the option of not posting the page owner on your page.

Remember to set and monitor the security settings of your Business Page so you control if users can post content, versus only being able to comment on your posts.

Check back for a follow-up post on how to get the maximum exposure for your business on your basic LinkedIn profile.

Happy Networking.



About the Author:

Sumner M. Davenport is a Solutions Consultant. More than general answers - SOLUTIONS! As there is no one-solution-fits-all, when appropriate, she suggests her clients add social networking to their marketing mix. Among her services she offers creation of standard as well as custom Business Pages, plus management of content and exposure. For more about her services, follow Sumner M. Davenport on Facebook.