For your business page on Facebook to be successful you obviously need Likers, the question is Likers at any cost? There are places you can buy Likers for your pages, there are loads of other tactics and strategies to get more Likers for your page including asking your friends, business acquaintances and others to Like your page. But if these people aren’t listening to you, commenting, sharing, liking and interacting with your brand then my question to you is what is the point?

So you are far better to go for Listeners, listeners actually want to know more about your brand and your business, products and/or services. They are interested in your marketing messages and expertise, they listen, engage with your posts, commenting, asking questions and sharing your posts to their friends as well as the ubiquitous liking your posts and comments. In other words they care and in return you care about them, a mutual admiration society so to speak.

This is one area it is important for you to go for quality rather than quality. Now you may be ready to argue with me on this point, believing as many do, that having lots of Likers makes you look more successful.

This is where we need to chat about Facebook algorithms.

Facebook Algorithms, Edgerank and News Feed Optimisation:

The very first thing you need to know is about the Facebook algorithms for your page which work in ways that punish pages that have little or no interaction. What? What did you say?

So your Edgerank (time you are allow to appear on your Likers walls and stay there) is directly affected if you have a lot of Likers and only a few people interacting and engaging on your page, because the algorithms work on a percentage basis. This means your News Feed Optimisation is negatively affected by your lust for a quantity of Likers with a low percentage of engagement.

When if you had gone after quality Likers or Listeners as I am calling them here, your reach and power would be positively affected by the amount of engagement on your page in relation to the amount of Likers. It’s all about percentages you see.

So a lower population of highly engaged Likers leads to more staying power on the Newsfeeds of your Likers and their friends of friends depending on each persons personal privacy settings. This means more reach for longer.

Now how do you feel about my premise that you need quality Listeners even if it takes longer to build your total Liker population? Are you starting to see the practicality of learning how to engage, converse and connect with your market in ways that gives social proof to each of your marketing messages and conversations?

So Annie How Do I Get More Listeners?

Engagement is the key.

Start highly topical conversations using questions, statements, videos and images. Share great information even if it comes from another site or from someone else straight off your Facebook News Feed. Keep an eye on what kinds of conversations are most important to your listeners by checking on the amount of engagement each one gets and post more of those kinds of conversations.

It’s a little like being at a networking gathering some conversations go nowhere, some fall flat and others take off and gather a larger group making the conversation lively and fun. Images and videos often work extremely well although the less wording and the shorter the video the higher the engagement.

Know your market, know what keeps them up at night, know what worries them, know what their big questions are, know what is important to them and know what makes them happy all within your niche us all this knowledge to start and continue relevant conversations with your Likers.

Have a point of view and an opinion, be controversial if you are - it doesn’t matter if it is not the normal point of view, just have one and share it with your Likers, if someone disagrees it can lead to some amazing conversations around that topic on your page. Above all be authentic about all this don’t play devils advocate unless it is truthful about you and your beliefs. Don’t just be controversial for controversy’s sake.

Ask questions social media is a great way to do some market research and find out what’s important to your market, what trending now in the minds and conversations your market is having about your area of expertise.

Now go out there and have those wonderful, important conversations, inspire your market to Like your page because they want to hear and engage with you and your brand. Remember people do business with people. People they know and like, really like which leads to trust and of course sales and loyalty. Let me know how you go with it all.

The Difference Between Likers and Listeners Saucy Social Media

Recently we purchased an ASUS Motherboard brand new from their local supplier, unfortunately for us we took delivery the day before the Queensland storms which resulted in flooding over much of our state including the Sunshine Coast where we live and Brisbane where our suppliers main offices and storage are.

It was also a Friday, the Friday before the Australia Day holiday, so after unpacking the motherboard in preparation for installation, my very techy son noticed that there was a problem with it, a bent pin and he said, “I am packing this right back up we cannot install it like this.” We then had to wait until the public holiday was over and rang the 1800 number to talk to our supplier, and it wasn’t working at all. So we  took the boxed ASUS motherboard back into the local store of our supplier  and they told us the bad news. Head office was completely flooded, if we wanted to get a replacement we would have to contact ASUS Australia directly.

Easier said than done, we found, as ASUS Australia obviously don’t want to be found, but find them we did a couple of days later and lodged a formal complaint and request for a replacement on their online form. A day later we finally got a reply to contact Brian Lim, which we did via email detailing the reason we were contacting them directly:

“I bought a new motherboard on Friday 25th January (2013) and after opening the box I found that the CPU socket was damaged (not caused by myself having never touched it). Upon seeing this damage I immediately repacked the motherboard into it’s box and contacted my re-seller, however due to flood damage in the coastal Queensland area they are unable to assist me with a replacement and asked me to contact ASUS Australia directly.”

The reply was to the effect to contact ‘name of reseller’, obviously he did read the email!

A few more emails back and forward and then nothing. So a day or two of waiting and I had had enough, I rang the local ASUS Service Centre – this young man with a thick accent kept telling me ‘that’s a lie, that’s a lie’ in no uncertain terms, when I told him we had been advised to contact them directly because ‘our reseller’ was wiped out temporairly due to the floods. I asked him for a direct phone number to someone we could talk to at head office and he just kept saying, “we cannot help you” over and over. Not helpful at all! and for future reference telling a customer who has a legitimate problem they are lying is not ok!!

So I dug deep and finally found a phone number for Brian Lim the man we had been emailing and who was noticeably absent, I called. It was not Brian who answered, he was away on holidays (nice and thank you to leave us in suspense while you are away on holidays Brian you do know we have no computer at the moment and we really would like to get it going again!!!!!!)

So as I tried to speak to Jun (not sure if that’s his name) Brian’s replacement another thick accent and told I was wrong, and even after my telling the short story of why I was calling him he said take it back to your supplier. Ummm… again they are flooded out and cannot help and they told us to contact you directly for a quicker response (not so far). “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, Jun said impatiently. “we have not received it here!”

“That’s because we don’t have an arrangement with you to send it yet” I replied.

“Take it back to your supplier and they will send it to us,” restated Jun.

“No! listen to me! our supplier head office is flooded out in Queensland and are shut down for about a month, we need a replacement now.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, send me an email and I will issue a RPL Number and just follow the instructions when we email it to you.” clunk! gone yes he hung up without notice.

So we did and we have sent the motherboard back to them, with a paid Australia Post tracking on it so that we know when it arrives and is received by them, you can understand why I don’t trust them at all to do the right thing. $250 worth of motherboard, brand spanking new out of the box and it is broken, it has already cost me over 2 weeks in lost computer time, nearly $30 to send it back to them and 2 long distance phone calls, plus the horrible aggravation of being called a liar, and hung up on when I am worried we won’t be able to get a replacement and how long this all going to take.

I bet they do this hoping people will just purchase another item out of sheer frustration and stop trying to get a replacement.

Well not this little black duck! Look out ASUS I am on your case and there will be more stories going out over the waves into all my numerous accoutnts, RSS and social media until this is resolved.

If you want a good name you better pick up your act and put some customer service into your business, someone who will listen and be nice when someone has spent their hard earned cash on one of your products only to unpack it and find it defective.

See two previous posts I wrote on Customer Service:

Customer Experiences and Social Media

Razzle Dazzle Them with Great Customer Service

I notice there are a lot of complaints about ASUS on all the IT forums, so just for your edification take note of these good customer service tips:

1) Answer your phone.

Get call forwarding. Or an answering service. But make sure that someone is picking up the phone when someone calls your business. (Notice I say “someone”. People who call want to talk to a live person, not a fake “recorded robot”.) For more on answering the phone.

2) Don’t make promises unless you will keep them.

Not plan to keep them. Will keep them. Reliability is one of the keys to any good relationship, and good customer service is no exception. If you say, “Your new bedroom furniture will be delivered on Tuesday”, make sure it is delivered on Tuesday. Otherwise, don’t say it. The same rule applies to client appointments, deadlines, etc.. Think before you give any promise – because nothing annoys customers more than a broken one.

ASUS FAIL – The jury is still out on this one

3) Listen to your customers.

Is there anything more exasperating than telling someone what you want or what your problem is and then discovering that that person hasn’t been paying attention and needs to have it explained again? From a customer’s point of view, I doubt it. Can the sales pitches and the product babble. Let your customer talk and show him that you are listening by making the appropriate responses, such as suggesting how to solve the problem.

ASUS FAIL – not one of them listened or even seemed to have read our story and repeatedly got things wrong.

4) Deal with complaints.

No one likes hearing complaints, and many of us have developed a reflex shrug, saying, “You can’t please all the people all the time”. Maybe not, but if you give the complaint your focus and attention, you may be able to please this one person this one time – and position your business to reap the benefits of good customer service.

ASUS FAIL – there was no attention at all given to our immediate problem, we were treated like a nuisance.

5) Be helpful – even if there’s no immediate profit in it.

ASUS FAIL – not helpful at all and it took us over a week to even get to the point where we could finally send and track the motherboard back to ASUS for some kind of resolution.

6) Train your staff (if you have any) to be always helpful, courteous, and knowledgeable.

Do it yourself or hire someone to train them. Talk to them about good customer service and what it is (and isn’t) regularly.

ASUS FAIL – wow! you really need to train some staff on how to talk to customers, especially those who have a legitimate problem.

7) Go the extra mile.

Whatever the extra step may be, if you want to provide good customer service, take it. They may not say so to you, but people notice when people make an extra effort and will tell other people.

ASUS FAIL – so far no extra at all in fact as little as possible of everything from them, not listening, not interested, not helpful….

8) Throw in something extra.

Whether it’s a coupon for a future discount, additional information on how to use the product, or a genuine smile, people love to get more than they thought they were getting. And don’t think that a gesture has to be large to be effective.

ASUS FAIL – I’m not holding my breath that’s for sure even though we buy ASUS and I have an ASUS laptop and so has my brother, so even though we are good customers so far nothing.

If you apply these simple rules consistently, your business will become known for its good customer service.

Good or bad, customer service leaves an indelible impression on potential and existing customers, even in today’s fast paced, technological environment.  And truth be told, most folks will endure more, pay more, and show fierce loyalty for courteous treatment, small perks, and the feeling of being valued.  Whether it’s a liberal  “return policy” at a store, businesses that acknowledge and reward your “relationship anniversary” with them, or service with a smile.

BTW ASUS: if you now do the right thing and give us some great customer service I hereby promise to post a new post detailing your positive response.

An interesting development on this post on one of the many sites my blog posts go out to, I got this comment on it:

Littlefish wrote:

Comment:
“Self-entitled and under-educated.  Despite the reseller’s warehouse being flooded, your arrangement is with the store from which you bought the product.  ASUS would have streamlined operations when dealing with their end-sellers, but don’t sell directly to the public in the same sense.  This is for a reason.

Despite your seller being flooded, they still have an obligation of service to you, and telling you that you need to do all of the legwork with Asus isn’t right.  The situation sucks, but that’s why it’s called a disaster.

You feel you’re entitled to demand special services from a group you don’t have a direct relationship with just because a product you bought has their brand on it?  Nope.”

This is my reply, what do you think is he right?

Thank you for that comment and very interesting point of view. Are you saying that just because a manufacturer distances itself from it’s products in the marketplace they should not bear the brunt of the responsibility they have to ensure their products are not faulty and render customer service to someone who is essentially their customer no matter where the product was bought? For me all corporate distancing and politics aside – it comes down to one simple fact: you (the manufacturer) are under a duty of care to supply said product in new and working condition when it has been paid for in good faith by your customer, if that hasn’t happened and the normal flow of return of communication has broken down (through flood or some other happenstance e.g. said retailer going out of business). You (the manufacturer) still has a responsibility and duty to make sure your customer is supplied with a working product and you (the manufacturer) still have to provide customer service to your customers.
It makes me wonder why you seem to have taken such an aggressive stance on this? Do you perhaps work for ASUS?
In it’s simplest terms you cannot get around the fact that I bought a product I expected to be in working order – I didn’t get it – so the brand name who is responsible for supplying said product needs to take responsibility for it and supply me with a working product. Honestly, it is time we got past corporate distancing and lack of responsibility and got back to good old fashions customer service. ASUS are responsible like all brands for their product and that responsibility gives them the chance to impress even more potential customers by giving great customer service above and beyond… when brands do this the wave of good publicity can result in even more sales. However everywhere I look ASUS have very little positive feedback on their customer service, everywhere I look there is an avalanche of negative feedback and personally I don’t care how big you think you are or how much you try to distance yourself from your customers – that is a bad thing and will come back to bite you one day.

ASUS Australia Customer Service Fail Saucy Social Media

It was becoming much too complicated. And if it isn’t too complicated for

some people, it’s still definitely too time consuming.

You had to worry about the following:

• Redoing videos over and over again to make sure you got everything rightin one take or face the daunting task of loading your raw video into Camtasiaor another editor to make everything perfect.
• Making sure your videos were optimized for the web (So they looked goodand didn’t take too long to start playing).
• Having a different mobile version of your videos to show users ofiPhone, iPad, Android and other mobile devices (More and more people are doingmost of the web viewing from their smart phones and other mobiledevices).
• Basically using “duct-tape” to try and put all the pieces together withCamtasia, Screenflow, Jing, Handbrake while continually looking for the”perfect” solution to make it all easier or less time consuming.
• Uploading large files to your own server, Youtube, Amazon S3 or othervideo hosting service.
• Getting the proper code in place to display your videos with the hopethat mobile devices would be able to see the mobile version of yourvideo.

Well, someone has finally done something about it.

Josh Bartlett, the creator of the industries leading video player called

Easy Video Player, has truly done something innovative in video marketing.

His Easy Video Player software had game-changing features two years ago

that other video marketing solutions have just recently tried to

introduce.

And on top of that, Josh could boast about the following:

• Tens of thousands of satisfied customers.
• The lowest refund rate in the industry for Clickbank (Only 2%).
• More top marketers and 6 to 7 figure launches use Easy Video Player thananything else. (Mike Filsaime, Chris Farrel, Ryan Deiss, Jason Moffatt, MariaAndros, Justin Brooke to name a few).

Rather than throw in a few, new and “cool” features and re-launch his

product simply for the money, he listened to his customers and did something

else.

He took over two years and hundreds of thousands of his own dollars to

create something that will change the way you market your business with

videos.

You’ll now be able to record, edit, publish, market and track all your

videos with one, easy-to-use solution.

Josh has just released this all-in-one video marketing solution on January 15th,

2013 with a free video series leading up to the launch.

Watch the first video

here.

He’s going to reveal the story about his journey and passion that led him

to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars from his own pocket to create the

ultimate video marketing solution.

And how you can now do the following:

• Drag and drop your video into a desktop application (Mac and PcCompatible) that will optimize and convert your video for the web, let youedit if needed, upload it and give you the code to copy and paste to yourwebsite.
• Record your screen or face camera from within this application and evendraw on the screen.
• Never worry about whether users on mobile devices can see your videos(It creates and displays a mobile version of your videos for you).
• Split test your videos to see which ones are shared the most, have themost engagement and which versions make the most money.

That’s just scratching the surface…

What all this ultimately means for you is that marketing your business with

videos is going to be much, much easier.

And you’ll make a ton more money while having more time to do what you

love.

Anyways…

Josh is also going to demonstrate the amazing power of his creation in this

series.

So go see how video

marketing has evolved.

Talk soon,

Annie Infinite

Easy Video Suite is Just So Easy! Saucy Social Media

A few months ago a friend of mine whom I met through our love of golf mentioned that she was very disappointed in her business’ progression and lack of website traffic. She had had high expectations of the website she contracted experts to build and paid an extraordinary amount to do so. Unfortunately it was built without much foresight for the future and thus some components are now mute, outdated, and do not function well with new technology. Since her website went live she still has no access to update anything herself, and this means any change requires her to pay by the hour for the developers to update on her behalf. A gut-wrenching example of this is a recent charge for 2 hours work (approximately $230 value) just to add a link to one of the pages. What a painful lesson for her to go through.

As you already know your website is by far one of the most essential online branding tools your business can own. It is also one of the most important key components to establishing your brand whether it professional, corporate, personal or a combination of the aforementioned. Your website acts as a window to your brand’s soul and therefore must not only be fully aligned with your purpose, but also be fully aligned with your brand’s distinguishing features, personality, and authentic voice. How well this is incorporated into your design will determine its future prosperity and in turn your own.

As a specialist in the field of Authentic Branding for almost 20 years I have had my share of clients who have made unfortunate decisions when starting out in business and websites. Generally these choices were based on a lack of knowledge, and believing that something, anything, is good enough as long as a website is on the internet to be found.

• ‘Build it and they will come’ – This no longer works, unless you build something pretty fabulous and launch it with quality integration marketing.
• ‘As long as I have a website up, no matter how it looks, then I will be viewed as credible and therefore a good choice’. Wrong! How it looks will make ALL the difference, as does having the right components in place.
• Static, uncharismatic, copycat (same layout or template being used), bland web designs still work – Boring! Often do not and will not attract return visitors. Bounce rates are usually much higher than average too.
• Website’s do not need all those fancy things that you read about – Actually your website will hardly be found without things like SEO, regular content blogging, social media integration, RSS feeds, analytics integration, etc. and it certainly won’t be memorable without authentic branding in the design, colours, words, personality; each in harmony with your logo and voice.

Here are a few quick truths about websites in today’s market (based on the most recent shifts and changes).

1. Audiences challenge us to get ‘real’ with them, showing our true colours so-to-speak. We can no longer hide behind just a brand name in the hope it will speak for itself.
2. Audiences want to engage with ‘us’, the face behind the name (or faces in multi-person businesses).
3. Audiences want ‘us’ to show them why they should stay, what value do we bring to their table and why we are the best choice for them.
4. Audiences make their first assumptions the moment they encounter your brand for the first time whether that is via your website, social platform, or some other medium.

In my experience, with many startup and small businesses on low budgets, more often than not the choice is to get a website up with as little out-of-pocket expense possible, hoping that if it is simply in existence it will bring forth the leads needed for success and they can build it up from there. Unfortunately the majority of those who walked that path experienced a costly lesson; having to face the decision to spend more money to fix their website only a few months later. Consider for a moment would you remember the title of an unknown author’s book if the jacket cover was nothing more than brown paper, let alone return to purchase it at a later date?

At the end of the day how you ‘present yourself’, from day one, actually does matter because anything you have to say won’t be heard (read) until after the initial attraction phase has passed. We now see an array of quality, engaging, websites being spread across our browsers; each one telling its own story the moment you land on it. Each one serves as competition for another depending on the industry it is marketed toward. Your website acts as a window to your business’ soul; you not only want to encourage them to look but to walk through every door discovering more about what you have to offer them and how important you are to their life, their business, their dreams.

So who do you entrust your highly important website to and how much should it really cost you to begin with?

1. Shop around, do your research and put together a list of all the things you want to see your website do. Add any ‘fancy’ features you see on other sites that you would like to mimic on your own and functionality that deem important for your branding, marketing and networking. It is all important to have in place to begin with.
2. Make sure you get a quote for EXACTLY what will be included and can be managed by the web developer you have approached.
3. Ask questions to get a genuine understanding of the depth of knowledge and skills your proposed web developer can offer. This is integral. Why? Because there are many, many, so-called experts and gurus in this field who ‘speak without accurate knowledge or skills’. Some know how to include the basics only cannot tell you how to use it effectively; and what use is that to you if you have something you cannot use.
4. Make sure the quote outlines additional prices for ongoing work by the hour, and states that each addition or change will be quote in writing in advance. This will ensure you are aware of any changes to their fees, and what it will cost upfront at all times.
5. Ask about your ability to access, training, updates, blog management and the like.

My acquaintance did not ask these questions and as such got duped out of over $40,000 for a brand development that claimed to give her the best and most elite website, yet they could not help her with something as integral as SEO. Her site does not show up in search results for the things it should, let alone on page one, and without any guidance instructed her to put together her own SEO elements and tags and they would then add it to her website pages. She was not offered any training, or instruction or information on ‘How’ to approach the design of correct SEO structures or assisted with the advanced research required for SEO to benefit her website the way she understood it should. Now her site must be rebuilt, only this time she is asking all the right questions so she gets exactly what she is paying for.

By applying these important factors you could be saving yourself a lot of money that could be better used elsewhere in your business. By eliminating having to rebuild your website shortly after its debut you can be increasing your ability to succeed exponentially. Avoid the costs of re-launching your refurbished website to the masses, yes the ones who were bored by the first attempt and avoid having to spend even more money getting your audience interested in you again.

Should you choose to not bother re-launching, re-marketing, and re-announcing the new website in the hope that now it is better it will draw them in on its own merit as time goes by you might be subjecting yourself to a slow website traffic recovery, yet perhaps you resign yourself to the possibility that this is how it should be.

Now what if, just perhaps, you invested in the initial outlay more thoughtfully to begin with and as a direct result you save thousands of dollars, needless stress and anxiety, and time spent trying to figure out what is wrong. You find yourself and your business establishing success much quicker, new leads are easily created and your website functions exactly as it should, as you had expected it to, to begin with.

That sounds more like how you would like the outcome to be doesn’t it? Website developments can cost as little as FREE all the way up to the 10’s of thousands. How much you invest in your website’s development is entirely based on the skills, technology and design you want built for your brand. Do your research, choose carefully, make lists of what you do and don’t want, and make sure at the end of the day you get a website that not only EXISTS, yet actually SUCCEEDS at being found EASILY, proudly stands as a statement for your Brand, and engages all that visit from the FIRST impression. You will be saving yourself a lot of nail biting, hair pulling, inactive, days and nights simply by applying the above principles to your website development strategy right now.

Good luck and all the best with your website, and ultimately your Brand’s future successes

About the Author: Tiffany Litherland is the Founder/President of Tiffany L Co. (incl. Quench Innovations division Australia). I believe strongly in your ability to create success and abundance in your life using the natural gifts and talents you have that are aligned with your soul and desired life. Once identified these are then developed to help you to Brand Authentically & to Shine Lustrously. My experience extends over 20 years in the fields of Public Relations, Media, Marketing, Web, Social, Display & Graphics Design & Development, Psychological Profiling, and Authenticity Leadership.

Tiffany Litherland on GooglePlus

In Plain Site: Are you getting your monies worth from your website developer? Saucy Social Media

As of January 15, Facebook is changing it’s policy for Cover Photos for Pages and Newsfeed Advertisements.

You will NOT be allowed to have Text of more than 20% of the image area (1/5) on the Cover Photo, and just remember your Profile Image is where your Business Name and Logo should appear. See the image above for reference on size of text allowed.

These boxes are only a reference as text can also be a combination of smaller areas that make up to 20%, time to use your imagination and get very specific.

The Facebook Rules for Timeline Cover Photos are;

1. All Cover Photos are Public and should be 851pixels wide x 315pixels high.

2. Covers CANNOT be Deceptive, Misleading, or Infringe on anyone else’s copyright, if they are you may find it disappears.

3. You may NOT encourage people to upload your cover to their personal timelines.

4. Cover Photos MUST NOT Include;

• Images with more than 20% text
• Price or Purchase Information, such as “40% off” or “Download it on yourwebsite.com”
• Contact Information such as a Website Address, Email, Mailing Address, or Information that should go in your Page’s “About” section.
• References to Facebook Features or Actions, such as “Like” or “Share” or an Arrow Pointing from the Cover Photo to any of these features or Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends.

Here is Facebook’s own information on sizes and allowance and their reasons for changing the text allowances for your reference:

The company is developing a grid-based text overlay detection tool to identify non-compliant images. A version of this tool will be available within Power Editor to help advertisers know in advance whether their images will be approved. Advertisers should keep in mind that text within logos will also count toward the 20 percent limit.

Ads and sponsored stories for News Feed that originate from Pages may not include images with more than 20% text (effective January 15th, 2013)

Facebook people react negatively to content that they perceive as inauthentic or impersonal. Since text is rare in photos from friends, text in brand photos triggers negative emotions in people. Instead of introducing text in your images, choose photos that send a message or tell a story on their own without words.

Box 1: 59 pixels x 15 pixels = 885 square pixels
Box 2: 59 pixels x 15 pixels = 885 square pixels
Box 3: 41 pixels x 20 pixels = 820 square pixels
Box 4: 130 pixels x 30 pixels = 3900 square pixels
Box 5: 105 pixels x 23 pixels = 2415 square pixels
Box 6: 402 pixels x 15 pixels = 6030 square pixels
Total: 14,935 square pixels – well below the 20% or 53,613 square pixels maximum limit.

Cover photos must be at least 399 pixels wide* and may not contain:

Price or purchase information, such as “40% off,” “Download it at our website,” or “Free Sunglasses All Summer Long.”
Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your Page’s About section.
References to user interface elements, such as Like or Share, or other Facebook site features.
Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends.”
In addition, cover photos may not be in violation of the Facebook Terms. source

New 2013 Facebook Cover Rules Text Allowance Reduced Saucy Social Media

You can upload a PDF or use their easy page templates to design online. Click on the image or on this link to get your own Glossi.

Glossi’s C.E.O., Matt Edelman, 43, is promising a seamless interpretation of the traditional magazine layout onto a digital platform, which he argues will help brands in the ongoing battle to engage customers, and it is hoped, win their loyalty.

“The magazine format is an emotionally involving format,” Mr. Edelman said. “It really evokes interest, passion and conversation in a way that the blog doesn’t.”

You don’t have to be a big brand or shopping Web site to make a fashion Glossi. Users can upload images, audio, videos, text and fashion’s current format of choice, the .gif, into folders. Then, page-by-page, they drag and drop media, write text and edit their publications, which can be browsed the same way one would browse the magazines at a newsstand on the street. Almost any topic, from beauty to gardening to pets, is welcome, though pornography is prohibited.

Check out a little more about Glossi right here: http://glossi.com/about/

How many ways can you think of to use a flip magazine like this? Live flippable brochures, read now ebooks, short magazines instead of a newsletter, launch ads for new products, books services…

Add a New Glossi to Your Marketing Saucy Social Media

First things first:

Randi Zuckerburg – “Customise your page. This should be the first thing a company does after having created their Page. Tab differentiation and a clear brand message represents good Page customisation. Make your users get to your Page and go, “Ah ha! I know exactly what this brand is.”

Jason Falls – “Every Bit of me networking as been targeted and purposeful.”

Mari Smith – “I have never been aggressive in pursuing followers, but I am proactive. I share all manner of photos from my various travels and engage people in the activities of my life.”

Pam Moore – “I don’t like to focus on one network over another. Instead I like to focus on an integrated strategy that leverages content to connect with audiences with a goal of meeting both life and business objectives.”

Annie Infinite – “Start with the end in mind and work forward from there. Know why you are setting up a social marketing strategy and what you want to achieve and then plan the look, feel and engagement from that place.”

Social Engagement:

Randi Zuckerburg – “Great ideas for engagement are seen on many of the best Pages and they include using your Facebook (any social media) to get immediate feedback, feature your fans, use video and images, use what you have to create interest,”

Mari Smith – “Experiment with posting outside of business hours. So experiment with posting during early morning periods (4 am-7 am ET), late evenings (10 pm-12 am ET) and on weekends. Thentrack what type of response you get. Don’t just try it one time and stop; mix it up each week. For example, let’s say you currently post on your fan page twice a day—make one post during business hours and the other post either early morning or late evening.”

PJ Jonas – “Involve your fans in your product launches. As close to the product launch as possible, ask your fans for their input.  Create a sense of urgency by sharing that you are making a final decision shortly and need their input now.  If appropriate, include photos of the possible choices. When you launch the product, thank them for their input and share what you decided on.”

Chris Brogan – “Share information that benefits your reads, but builds your brand, too.  Add media such as ebooks, videos, images and reports to add interest and provide value for your fans. Aim for an on-topic/off-topic ratio of 80/20 to keep your content mix interesting. ”

Mari Smith – ““To provide additional value and fresh ways for your fans to interact with you, periodically conduct live chat sessions or live webinars or teleseminars.

Erik Qualman - “Don’t try to build your personal brand or company brand alone. Go out of your way to look for opportunities to help others and give others credit. This may seem like a lot of work in the short term, but it pays off in the long run. Plus, it’s the right thing to do.”

Holly Thomasas - “All too often, businesses overlook the ‘social’ part of the phrase social media marketing and jump straight into the ‘marketing’ part… to their detriment. They forget that social media is dominated by a community of people who have expectations of the various social networks to which they belong. Very often, these expectations do not include having marketing messages jammed down their throats.”

Brian Solis - “Every business case is different. Your customers’ needs are different. Use a tool such as Research.ly to learn more about what your customers and prospects are saying, looking for and sharing. It’s here where you will find the insights necessary to inspire a campaign that’s relevant and meaningful.”

Mike Selztner – “Write in simple, consumable language, just as you’d speak—not like you’re writing a high school essay. ”

Annie Infinite - “I find authenticity and informality and real and interesting conversations on my page create loads of feedback and interaction. I ask real questions or pose real scenarios, thank my fans for their input and engagement after all it’s just like chatting over coffee with friends isn’t it?”

Monetising your Social Marketing:

Gary Vaynerchuk - when asked, “How do you monetize social media?” His answer: the same way you monetize any other media. Vaynerchuk says that from newspapers to magazines, to blogs and commercials, advertising has been the backbone of social media monetization. However, he points out that you shouldn’t even be thinking about monetization until you’ve built up traffic and brand awareness.

Amy Jo Martin – “Social media branding must be focused on people. Humanize your brandis the golden rule of social media, because humans connect with humans, not logos. Traditional marketing has always approached branding as a way to control the message. Certainly the executives who are asked to share themselves and their personalities through social media struggle becoming comfortable with this (except maybe Shaq). But it’s crucial for a brand to provide access to its personalities in some capacity because logos have zero ability to socialize. Controlled messages are distrusted in a world where social media can expose them so quickly. Revealing the people behind your brand builds trust. Trust is the first step to building loyalty.”

Annie Infinite – I have included this segment merely because this is a question that is asked over and over again, however any marketer will tell you that you cannot and should not try to ‘monetise your social media’, social media is only a part of your social marketing campaign which should be an ongoing, evolving, growing and open ended conversation about and around your brand, products, services and vision. All marketing these days is social, or at least should be!

Mari Smith – Mari never talks about monetising social media and in this I tend to agree, we monetise our brand see this slideshow presentation for more…

Expert Tips for Your 2013 Social Marketing Saucy Social Media

Preparing for storm, tornado, bushfire, flood, or other unexpected disaster has long meant monitoring the news and weather, stockpiling canned foods, hoarding fresh batteries for an emergency radio, stocking an emergency preparedness kit for whatever may arise, and maybe even evacuating. With the proliferation of now-ubiquitous smartphones, apps have become the must-have for preparing, surviving, and recovering from any crisis.

And this isn’t just about using a cell phone to dial for help. Following you will find a selection of inexpensive apps that serve as emergency preparedness and response tools for the 21st century.

Beachsafe

Beachsafe was created by Surf Life Saving Australia, and brings real-time beach safety information to a user’s smartphone detailing Australia’s 12,000 beaches. The free app covers weather, tide, and swell data, along with regulatory and hazard information provided specific to the users location. And if you question how up-to-date this app really is, rest assured that it is directly linked to Surf Life Saving Australia’s network of databases, ensuring that users have the freshest information. These features come together to provide beachgoers, coastal explorers, and residents of Australia’s miles and miles of coastline with the up-to-date information needed to anticipate and avoid danger while safely enjoying the sun, sand, and surf.

Before The Storm

It’s never too early to teach youngsters what to do before, during, and after a storm. Before the Storm is an educational game that provides middle school-aged students with an understanding of storm preparation and disaster resilience. The Australian Emergency Management Institute developed the free iPhone and iPad app, which is based on the Attorney General’s Department’s Storm Action Guide. Users complete a series of tasks in an effort to find all of the items needed to create an emergency survival kit. These supplies are then be used to prepare the house for the storm, and repair the house once the storm passes. Before the Storm is more than an app; it is an animated adventure that gives students the tools they need to survive the dangers of severe weather.

Surviving Disasters With Smartphone Apps Saucy Social Media

Like many small business owners every now and then it becomes necessary to fire a client. Have you ever done this yourself? Are you game?

The truth is some clients just suck you dry one way or another, the worst client of all is the control freak in my mind – you know that client for whom nothing you do it right, every thing has to be challenged and changed to suit them even though they hired you as the expert in your area?

For me every client and I are in a relationship and that means that the rules of relationships apply and the first touchstone of any relationship is TRUST!

A lack of trust is a lack of respect. For me a nervous client is not a problem I am prepared to go the extra mile and spend the time to assuage their fears and trepidation about stepping out of their comfort zones.

BUT! I am not prepared to spend my precious time doing the same job over and over until it falls within my clients comfort zones, nor am I prepared to put up with drama, drama, drama and being accused of lying when the client is having a cow because something I did pushed one of their fear buttons. Or when it is something I had nothing to do with at all pushes one of their ‘not good enough’ buttons and I end up taking the brunt of the flack as I am supposed to be up at 2am in the morning to delete the negative post or comment off their timeline immediately.

When is it time to fire a client?

First of all your priority is to assess each situation on it’s own merits, what responsibility do you have in the situation and what could you have done better? Are any of your buttons being pushed that have nothing to do with the client or with what is happening? Deal with your own stuff first and then decide if you can or cannot work with this client any longer.

When it all gets too hard - when your clients take up more of your time that you can ever charge for on silly calls, emails and ‘fixing’ things that don’t need fixing. Or your client has completely unreasonable expectations of the project even after you have been very clear about the scope of it before hand.

When they don’t trust you – this is a biggie, if your clients don’t trust you then you don’t have a good relationship and therefore they are going to blame you when things don’t go their way. They are going to ask the same questions over and over again hoping for a different result or they are going to make you do and redo everything until they are feeling safe and secure again which often defeats the purpose of hiring you in the first place.

When your client is not aligned with your own values and ethics – if your client asks and even expects you to do things that don’t sit well with you, don’t! Run the other way, if you make these compromises you may just find yourself in a place you would not like to be and with a reputation that doesn’t suit you either.

When your client consistently asks you to work with them and consistently cannot pay for the work you have done, or takes a long time paying it off without arranging this with you first – for me this shows a lack of respect both from your client for you and from yourself for yourself. Respect yourself enough to insist on prompt payment, unless the client has been up front and you have made the decision to allow them some time to pay.

When your client is abusive – ever! Goodbye! no changies no take backs GONE!

When your client changes their mind over and over and expects you to redo the work as a part of the original price or quote.

When your client doesn’t value what you do or has hired you because ‘they probably need someone like you as other businesses are hiring people like you’. Of course the words change but the real reason is the same, they don’t respect what you do, they don’t really feel they need what you do, they don’t understand it and don’t see the value in it – but everyone has told them they ‘have’ to so they are. If your client sees no value in what you do, they will begrudge every moment and every dollar and will be reluctant to pay and often will do their best to do a trade with you using services or products you don’t want in exchange.

Ultimately it all comes down to valuing yourself and what you do enough to make sure you get paid what you’re worth and work with people who value and respect you and what you do.

How to fire a client

Remember this, how you fire your client will determine what they say about you later and how you are viewed by your market. When possible do it with grace and as much honesty as possible without divulging the full truth, I like to say something like this:

“I want to  thank you for thinking of me, however now that I have had time to evaluate your ongoing needs I believe that “Joe Bloggs or Jane Doe” might suit your purpose and needs better than I do and I would like to refer you to them.”

At times I don’t refer, particularly if I believe the client is just too abusive or doesn’t value the service at all, in this case I am usually happy to be honest and say something like this at the end of the sentence, “I believe that you may not need this service at the moment…” or “I recommend finding a consultant who deals more with ‘this side of things’ as I prefer to concentrate on …”

All of these are honest, they just don’t disclose the negativity I may already be feeling for them, LOL.

There are times when things get out of hand a little as they just have for me, in this case the client has taken some very ordinary comments I made to her via email and twisted them to mean something else entirely, so I have fired her with as much grace as I can in this situation. It never pays to get angry about it all yourself, taking responsibility for the situation is of prime importance! They did nothing to you that you didn’t allow.

I am going to say that again – they did nothing to you that you didn’t allow. You teach people, even your clients, how to treat you. If you are being treated with disrespect it is because you have allowed it, if they are slow to pay it is because you have been reluctant to ask them for it in a way that gets results (and I don’t mean by being rude or aggressive). I want you to remember it is up to you to draw the lines in the sand right from the start, with your clients, it’s easy when you respect yourself enough to do this and when you do your clients will respect you as well.

This is a lot easier when you remember that you can draw those lines in the sand right at the beginning of your relationship with every client, with a smile on your face and peace in your heart.

Do you have a client horror story? Have you ever fired a client? How did you do it?

Tell us below…

Firing Clients Gracefully Saucy Social Media

I don’t know if you realise this, but the amount of users on Facebook reaching into the hundreds of millions almost 1 Billion now means that Facebook must pay for their own server farm. What’s a server farm I hear you ask? A server farm, also called a computer cluster, is a group of servers that is kept in a single location. These servers are networked together, making it possible for them to meet server needs that are difficult or impossible to handle with just one server. With a server farm, workload is distributed among multiple server components, providing for expedited computing processes. In the past, server farms were most frequently used by institutions that were academic or research-based. In today’s world, they are commonly employed in companies of all types, providing a way to streamline weighty computerized tasks. Facebook’s server farm is 300,000 feet of buzzing, scalding Facebook servers in a spot so cold, they can just let the air in. The climate-cooled farm will suck enough electricity to power up to 40,000 American homes, but amazingly will be powered entirely through hydroelectric power and looks like this – and is basically filled to the brim with computers in long rows and stacked 12 high so that Facebook runs the way you want it to run even with nearly 1 Billion people using it.

Next – Are Facebook Forcing You to Pay to Have Your Page Posts Seen?

Image via Digital Organics

The simple answer is no they are not. Yes their filter algorithms are getting tighter and more posts are being squeezed off your wall as their spam control tightens up and as the site itself grows larger and larger. The posts you will not see often on your wall though are filtered out by what Facebook call the Edgerank Algorthim  so you have control of that in a few different ways.

The reasons for the algorithm changes are mainly because we are all Liking more Pages and Friending many more people than we used to and it would be impossible to see everything, so the algorithm is set to allow you to see more of the people, Pages and posts you have interacted with before. Using your own actions as the basis for the filtering.

What the changes mean for you:

What Facebook says about the recent updates:

” We’re continuing to optimize the news feed to show the posts that people are most likely to engage with, ensuring they see the most interesting stories. This aligns with our vision that all content should be as engaging as the posts you see from friends and family.  

The more engaging your content, the lower the impact this optimization should have on your reach going forward

Feed is optimized to show users the posts they are most likely to engage with, where engagement is defined as clicking, liking, commenting, or sharing the post – or in the case of offers, claiming the offer.

Posts that are more likely to be engaging tend to appear higher in feed. Some of the strongest factors that influence this are how engaging an individual post has been for other users who have seen it, and how engaged a user has historically been with other posts they’ve seen from that page. Feed also takes negative feedback into account, which is the number of people who have hidden a post or reported it as spam.

Finally, if a page has a piece of content that it feels will be very engaging e.g. A good offer, a great photo, an announcement, etc. then using paid media to “boost” that post to fans in newsfeed can be an effective tool to increase engagement with fans.”

• The most recent changes to the Edgerank algorithm have filtered your posts right off the walls of those who never or very rarely interact with your page so many will simply no longer see you posts at all.  So what does this mean for you, the Page owner?  It means your engaged user percentage is going up up up. If earlier a 100 people saw your post and 10 commented, you would have 10% engagement. Now, 50 see it, 10 still comment, so you have doubled your engagement.

There are several ways you can make it easier for you to see more of the posts you want to see and to give your own posts a higher Edgerank Score and a few of these are listed below:

1. To see more posts made by Pages you Like and want to see more of you can create Page ‘Interest Lists’ and place all Pages into one of your lists, then by clicking on one of your Interest Lists you will see all posts by all the Pages in that list. They work just like Friends Lists. To do this click on ‘More’ at the bottom end of the left navigation column on your Home Page. This only works for people and you can only create lists when you are using Facebook as your personal profile. However they work like a treat to allow you to see more of the posts you like at any time and you can encourage your Likers to add you to one of their lists by letting them know about this cool feature. It’s easy to create a new list as you can see once you click on Interests: 
2. The other thing you need to remember is that there are two ways to view your wall, by: Top Stories or by Most Recent which will change what posts you see on your wall and I tend to switch from one to the other to check what’s new quite often. 
3. Next how do you get your posts to rate better with Edgerank? Watch this video below for a full explanation of Edgerank and how your posts can score much higher and be seen more often on your Likers Walls.

This is the site I was using in the video for reference http://www.whatisedgerank.com/ Now what do you think of all this? Are you still worried about why Facebook is doing all this filtering?

Facebook Rumours, Paying for Posts and Edgerank Saucy Social Media