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.

Security on Facebook

Yesterday a number of people found malicious and offensive posts on their profiles and pages. Unfortunately these posts were not from the persons indicated. Some form of hacking had taken place.

An excellent article was written in March on PCMag.com on two apps that can protect your Facebook account.

One app, Norton Safe Web for Facebook  is bundled with the Norton products, but anybody can use it for free. It scans your Facebook page's links and reports any bad ones.

If you're concerned about dangerous links (and you should be), there is also another app recommended and more info in this article at PCMAG.com .

Happy and safe networking

How important is your email address?

Small businesses look to the industry leaders for examples of how to best represent themselves as they strive to grow. Companies spend thousands of dollars making sure their logo, company colors, message and image are consistently and professionally represented. Their successful examples can usually be followed by other business as a template of professionalism.

One area that seems to be overlooked is the importance of your email address being consistent with your business. New businesses starting out are signing up for free email accounts, (ie:Gmail,Yahoo, etc.) as their business email, instead of using an email address with their company website name. Many people will add a second “business” email to an existing personal AOL account. Free email addresses say: I’m new, I’m small and I’m cheap; which is usually not the image a small business wants to project. 

Websites mirror the image of the company, many times with the company name as the website and/or domain name. To maintain a consistent professional image of your business your email address should be the same as your website address. Christine@mycompanyname.com, has a more professional image than mycompanyname@gmail.com

This shows not only a level of professionalism, but also assures your customer that you really are with the company. With growth of email scams, this one little area may make a huge difference to the very prospect you are attempting to reach.

Most website packages come with a minimum of at least one email address, which your webmaster could have forwarded to your free or aol address if you only want one area to check emails. This way it can still be convenient for you, yet show the most professional image for your company, large or small.

We placed a poll on a previous blog and the results seem to say the same thing:

How important is it to your professional image to have a business email address (yourname@yourbusinessname.com) instead of a free email address.

Essential 48%
Very Important 25%
Not Important 7%
No Difference 11%
Don’t know 9%

More concerns about Facebook security with address and phone number sharing

Despite congressional criticism, Facebook is planning to resume the aborted rollout of a feature that allowed the optional sharing of addresses and mobile phone numbers.


You can read their letter to congress here.


After their initial announcement, Facebook temporarily delayed the update, however it now appears that they will go forward with their original plans.


Are you aware how this effects your privacy? especially  on specific Facebook apps? Are you concerned or does it even matter?


Comment here or click the Facebook link below to comment on Facebook.


Happy, safe networking.

Facebook HTTPS:// How secure are you?

After Facebook announced its HTTPS browsing security, many people went about their day posting comments, playing games and using other applications, all the time thinking that all their activity and comments were hidden from anyone except the chosen few. Not true.


Facebook comments are still visible in many search results, as are “likes, and “places” and many Facebook app activities.


Facebook uses HTTPS whenever your password is sent to them, and according to Facebook’s announcement: “Starting today [January 26, 2011] we'll provide you with the ability to experience Facebook entirely over HTTPS. You should consider enabling this option if you frequently use Facebook from public Internet access points found at coffee shops, airports, libraries or schools.”


The word “entirely” can be confusing to many folks. The HTTPS is not turned on by default therefore you must manually activate it from your “Account Settings” page on Facebook.


The “entirely” confusion relates also to Facebook Apps which are not included in the HTTPS (in my experience so far). If you visit a non secure app in Facebook, and want to return to HTTPS, you should re-check your account settings to see if it unchecked itself.


While on Facebook, look at your URL address; if you see http: instead of https: then you don't have a secure session and you can potentially be hacked if you are using a public computer or a wi fi connection in a public place.

https:// ( HyperText Transfer Protocol with Secure Sockets Layer.) The data transferred is encrypted so that it cannot be read by anyone except the recipient. Https:// is used by website that are collecting sensitive customer data such as banks, financial groups and most online stores, and, you may have noticed a small “lock” icon appear in your address bar on these websites.

Go to Account|Account Settings|Account Security. FB defaults to the non-secure setting.
Click Change. 
Check the first box for HTTPS and the second box if you want to be notified whenever someone from a mobile device or new computer accesses your account. (This also means you at a new computer or your phone, etc)
and then click Save. 

Remember,:
...If you visit a non secure app in Facebook, and want to return to HTTPS, you should re-check your account settings to see if it unchecked itself.

... and most important: what you post on Facebook, whether your page or a friends is public, and in many way can be returned in search results or other tools.



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To stay abreast of trends and technology advancements, Sumner Davenport continues to participate regularly in developer forums and expands her knowledge through training courses sponsored by large internet marketing companies, developer forums and the internet search giants, as well as industry related events in her clients' areas of practice. By consistently monitoring trends, events and news, Sumner is better able to assist them in selecting the best venues for marketing their firms.
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A Little Humor

Hello, thank you for calling Computer Repair.


Caller : Hello, our printer is not working.


Customer Service: What is wrong with it?


Caller : Mouse is jammed.


Customer Service: Mouse is jammed? Printers don't have a mouse!


Caller: Mmmmm??.. Oh really?... I will send a picture.


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No opt-out from your address & phone number being given to Facebook apps

Your friend just suggested that you join them in a new game or accept a hug, a card, a link to your photos and activity or some other Facebook app. It may look like harmless fun, but is it worth it? 


Last Friday, Facebook rolled out new permissions that give applications access to individuals’ addresses and phone numbers.  In a Facebook developer blog post, they announced that it is adding it to the company's "User Graph object," or the permissions required to install an app.

Surprisingly many people still give out their home addresses and phone numbers on their profiles.  This makes sense for businesses who want their location known, but for individuals who are constantly finding their privacy invaded, placing your home address on any social network can be too much exposure.


When you agree to an app, a window pops up where you must click to allow it access to your profile, so you can use the app. Now these apps get more personal info about you than ever before.


Come apps require access to your friends information, through your profile and others access your data whether you re online or not.

It is important to review the terms and privacy policy of the app before clicking approve. Check to see if this app will openly share your information with their affiliates or 3rd party suppliers.  


Facebook can be a platform to boost your business connections, or a place where you chat with your friends. In either case you should select the apps you agree to with case and make sure your privacy settings are current. 


If your spam has increased in your inbox, you may want to check your apps and your privacy settings.


Happy networking...