Are You Ready? Social Media Day is June 30!!

The tradition began on June 8, 2010 when Mashable invited the world to "celebrate the revolution of media becoming a social dialogue" on June 30, 2010. See original SMD logo to the right.

Victoria, British Columbia was the first city to proclaim Social Media with Vancouver, British Columbia following with an official proclamation. This year San Carlos, California and the state of Arizona have officially declared Social Media Day on June 30.

This year is resounding with a bounce and a bowl. Mashable is hosting one event in San Francisco at House of Air, an indoor trampoline park, and one event in Williamsburg at Brooklyn Bowl.

If you're not near San Francisco or Williamsburg, don't dismay!! Host your own Social Media Day next Friday! People have registered over 1,386 Social Media Day Meetups already! Use the hashtag #SMDay on your promotions (Twitter, Instagram, Flickr and YouTube) and register on the Mashable Meetups Everywhere site.

Let us know!
What are your plans for Social Media Day?
Will you be hosting a celebration at your community?

Show Off Your Community! Tag Your Page in Facebook Photos!

Facebook users can now tag Pages in photos just like they tag their friends! Users can tag a Page without having 'liked' the Page. Currently, users can only tag Pages in the following categories:
-- Brand & Products
-- People

However, administrators can tag their page in photos regardless of the Page's category. Facebook is looking to allow users to tag more Pages (in reference to category) in the future.

Tag Your Business Page in Facebook Photos!

Privacy

Tagged photos will display in the Photos tab on the Page.

Tagged photos will respect the Page's current settings.

• Photos published to 'Everyone' will appear publicly on the Photos tab of the Page
• Photos published to "Friends Only" will only appear to their friends.
• Administrators can disable tagged photos from appearing on the Photos tab by going to the Edit Page > Posting Options > unchecking "Users can add photos."

Read more about Facebook's launch: Photo Tagging For Pages.


Are you going to start tagging brands and your community in photos?

Ideas! Tag your community in photos that....
residents post of resident events!
staff posted of the community on their personal pages!
show your community grounds or models!

Have You Found Your Listing on Citysearch? Claim it. Own it. Rock it!

Citysearch is a branch of CityGrid media (which includes CityGrid, Urbanspoon, and Insider Pages) which provides contact information, social media links, an integrated Twitter feed, and reviews of local businesses.

Citysearch listings reach 100 million people (as of January 2010) by distributing Citysearch's listing content to over 100 sites and mobile applications such as UpNext and other geo-location applications.



How to Claim Your Business Listing on Citysearch

1. Go to Citysearch.com and search for your community using the search engine. Click on your community’s name.
2. Click the ‘Own this Business?’ link located on the lower right of your contact information.
3. Enter your information to create a CityGrid Media account or click ‘Sign In’ to login with your CityGrid Media account.
4. Enter any additional information about your community and links to your Facebook and Twitter accounts. Click the Save button.



Troubleshooting
To create a listing on Citysearch go here.

To edit your business listing in the future, sign in to CityGrid Media's website.

To manage reviews you will need to upgrade your listing. Contact CityGrid Media's Customer Service at myaccount@citygridmedia.com or (800) 611-4827: Monday – Friday, 9:00 am. – 10:00 pm EDT.


What do you think of the integration of Twitter feeds and @mentions on your business listing?

Where Are You on Facebook Places? Claim it. Own it. Rock it!

Facebook is one of the most trafficked sites in the world with over 500 million active users (as of July 2010) collectively spending over 700 billion minutes on Facebook each month. Optimize your presence on Facebook by merging your Business Page with your Places Page(s). Claiming your Facebook Places page(s) will ensure all the information provide is accurate and up-to-date, and the claimed Places page(s) will add the following aspects to your Business Page:

• interactive map of your location
• option to get directions to your location
• 'Friends Activity' tab: shows the check-ins at your location
• 'Deals' tab: deals for users who check-in at your location
  
• number of check-ins visible in left column of page

Follow the instructions below to claim your Facebook Places page(s) which will merge with your Facebook Business Page.

Read our previous posts about Facebook:
March 31: Facebook Profiles and Business Pages...So, What's the Difference?
February 25: Why Wait? Upgrade Your Facebook Page TODAY!


How to Claim Your Facebook Places

1. Log in to your Facebook account at Facebook.com.
2. Type in your community’s name in the search engine and select your ‘Places’ listing. If there are too many results or you do not see the appropriate result, click the 'See more results'' link at the bottom of the drop down list. Find and click on your 'Places' listing(s).
3. Click the ‘Is this your business?’ link located near the bottom of the left column.
4. Click on the checkbox in the pop-up box to certify you are a representative of your community, and click the ‘Proceed with Verification’ button.
5. Enter the requested information and click the ‘Submit’ button. I would recommend adding a claimed and updated 3rd party listing (see earlier post for claiming Google Places listing) to possibly help speed up the verification process.
6. Enter either your company email (must include business domain name: example rachel@capturethemarket.com) or a scanned utility or phone bill which includes your business name and business address. Click the checkbox, and click the 'Submit' button.
7. Facebook will review your submitted information, and will email you once the verification is complete.
   

Troubleshooting
This verification process has been known to take up to 6 months. Be patient.

If you do not have a Facebook Places
1. Download the Facebook application on your smart phone and/or log in to the Facebook application.
2. Click on the ‘Places’ icon in the middle of the screen.
3. Click on the ‘Check In’ button in the upper right corner of the screen.
4. Type your community’s name into the search engine.
5. Click on the ‘Add "[Your Community]"’ link.
6. Add a short description about your community.
7. Click the ‘Add’ button in the upper right corner of the screen.



Visit our Facebook Business Page and see the effect of merging your Facebook Places with your Business Page.

Your Online Presence - Claim it. Own it. Rock it!

Online listing services and search engines can determine a lot about your business from various sources. These services and search engines are clever, but sometimes they find outdated or incorrect information about your business.

You will be able to provide more information, deals, photos and videos, and links on your claimed listings which will benefit you directly with better targeting and ranking. If you claim your listings, hackers and spammers will be unable to hijack your online presence, and internet users will trust your provided information.

This week we will be posting daily instructions on how to claim your listings on various sites and search engines. Our schedule is as follows (If you're uncertain about a site, click on the name to view our listing on the site):

Schedule of Instructional Posts
May 2: Google Places
May 3: Foursquare
May 4: Facebook Places (merges with Business Page)
May 5: Yelp
May 6: Bing Local
May 7: CitySearch
May 8: Yahoo! Local


Once you claim your listings, only you will be able to edit the information which will halt the spread of incorrect information and eliminate the risk of hijackers. Some sites and search engines will take up to 6 months in the verification process. Be patient. Once your updated information is online, the correct information will feed to and impact hundreds of listings and search engines.

Have Listings on Other Sites?
Comment and let us know what other site(s) you are interested in claiming. We'll add instructions to this blog on how to claim listings on your choice of sites.

Social Media and Inbound Marketing in 2011 - Where do you stand?

Social media impacts all other marketing forms because of inbound marketing. Inbound marketing utilizes blogs, SEO, and social media to make it easy for people to find you online. In America, 75% of people use social media and spend 15 minutes of every hour online on social media sites. The main ideas behind optimizing your social media engagement are as follows:
+ Be responsive
+ Be gracious
+ Answer questions
+ Respond to complaints

Walking the fine line between being social and selling can be a struggle. Produce content that is relevant to the needs of your target audience. You should still use coupons and deals such as Facebook Deals/Foursquare Deals, but if you over promote or are too self focused people will lose interest. If you're stumped for content, you can use polls and surveys to see what your target audience desires. Each social media site is unique, and so your content must vary in tone and personality depending on the approach for each social media site. Focus on the content and the lifestyle surrounding your business not just the features. People will share your content because they desire to contribute to the conversation, self-interest, altruism, validation, or affinity with the larger community.

Benefits of Social Media

• Generating exposure – 88%
• Increased traffic or subscribers – 72%
• Improved Search Ranking – 62%
• Resulted in new business partnerships – 56%
• Generated qualified leads – 51%
• Reduced overall marketing expenses – 49%
• Improved sales – 43%
  
  *image courtesy of Social Media Examiner
  

Optimizing on social media does require extensive time and labor. Only 50% of marketers have less than one year experience in social media marketing. Over half of marketers are spending over 6 hours each week (34% for more than 11 hours a week) on social media. Marketers spending more than 40 hours a week on social media have a great focus on video and blogs. 28% of marketers outsource social media tasks with the largest percentage being for design/development (17%).

#1 Focus for 2011 – Video Marketing/YouTube

56% of business are currently using YouTube, and 77% of marketers plan on increasing their video and/or YouTube marketing. For our current clients: Contact me with any questions regarding optimizing your community's video! If you're interested in a custom branded video for your community or a corporate video contact our team toll free at 866-778-7719 ext 1!

#2 Focus for 2011 - Facebook

550 million active users are on Facebook. 92% of businesses are currently using Facebook, and 75% of marketers plan on increasing their activities. 80% of B2C plan on increasing their Facebook efforts. See our previous posts regarding Facebook Business Pages vs Profile Pages and the new 2011 Facebook Business Page!

#3 Focus for 2011 – Blogs

Blogs have always been a strong area for social media marketers, and 75% of marketers are planning to increase their blogging activities. Businesses that link their blog to their Twitter account average 79% more followers.

Let us know!
What do you think of social media and inbound marketing?
What social media sites are you using?
What questions/comments do you have about your experience with social media?

Resources for more information
Graph and statistics in this post are from the 2011 Social Media Marketing Industry Report sponsored by Social Media Examiner
2011 State of Inbound Marketing report from Hubspot

Facebook Profiles and Business Pages...So, What's the Difference?

Personal Profile Information Page

Facebook Profile Page

A profile page is for a person and includes unique information such as a relationship status, birthday, work history, hometown, and more. You can use your profile page create a business page for the community and hold or grant administrative access to the business page in order to edit and maintain the information on the business page.

Facebook Business Account

Create a Business Page

However, you do not need to have a Facebook profile page to create a business page. If you want a business page, but do not want a personal account, you can create the page without having a profile. Once the page is created, Facebook will then ask you if you have a profile. At this point you can simply enter your email address and birth date to create what is known as a Business Account. Business accounts are used only to administer pages and ad campaigns. They do not show up in search results or cannot receive friend requests, so if you do not want to have a personal presence on Facebook, but still want to use it for work, this is the way to go!

Business Information Page

Facebook Business Page
A Facebook business page is a page specifically for a business, your community. A business page will increase your community’s SEO, reach to potential residents, and maintain a conversation with current residents. A business page contains unique information such as contact information, office hours, description about your community, website, and if merged with your Facebook Places can offer deals, a map of your location, and information on who is ‘checking in’ to your community, how often people are visiting your community, and how many people ‘like’ your community. You can even link your Facebook Business Page and your community’s Twitter account. Check out our recent post about the new Facebook Business Page updates.

Moving from a Profile Page to Business Page

It is actually against Facebook Terms to run a profile page as a business page, and if your profile account is discovered by Facebook, there's a good chance they'll delete it without warning. We’ve seen it happen many times. Switching to a business page will minimize the impact of a deleted account.

Here is how to get your business profile “friends” to move with you to your new official business page:

1. Send a message to any "friends" of the profile page suggesting that they become a fan of your official business page. Let them know that's the place where you'll be posting updates from now on.
2. Post a link to your business page on the wall of your old profile page. Drive all that traffic to your business page.
3. When you get a friend request on the profile account, send them a quick note to say thanks and direct them to the business page for the latest updates.
4. Focus all your efforts moving forward on cultivating your audience on your business page.

Facebook Business Pages are a great way to reach your residents where they are and share information, pictures, and of course, video! Check out our Facebook Page to keep in touch with us!

UPDATE: 
Facebook has recently added the ability to convert Facbook Profiles into Facebook Pages. You keep your name and all your "friends" turn into "likes." But beware, you may lose a lot of your info and media in the transfer, so be sure to copy and save it to your computer first! Also, once you convert to the business page, there is no going back! 

Why Wait? Upgrade Your Facebook Page TODAY!

Facebook is switching all Facebook Pages to the new format on March 10, 2011. Embrace the new style! Here are some tips on how to best optimize on the changes.

Show Off Your Community

Choose which photos you want displayed at the top of your page.  Hide any photos which vary from your design to leave your page with the best photos on top to interest visitors. The order of the pictures will randomize with each refresh of the page.

 

Customize Your Navigation

Your navigation links (formerly tabs) are now located under your profile picture (left side of the page). You can customize the names for each link by clicking ‘Edit Page,’ then clicking ‘Apps,’ then clicking the respective ‘Go To App’ for the link you want to edit, and editing the ‘Box Title’ content to the desired name.

Solidify Your Branding

The new format lists wall posts in a seemingly random order. Remedy this by clicking ‘Edit Page’ and changing the ‘Wall Tab Shows’ drop down menu to ‘Only Posts by Page.’ Only posts by your page will display on the first page of your wall. This will keep your updates, deals, and information directly in front of the reader.

Change Your Posting Persona

You are now able to interact with areas of Facebook as your Brand. Clicking the “Use Facebook As” link will switch you between your human name and your brand’s name. Using this feature, you can upload pictures, comment, and ‘Like’ pages and posts as your Brand.

Claim Your Facebook Presence

Merge your Facebook Business Page with your listing on Facebook Places. Once the pages are merged, you can offer deals, provide a map of your location, track who is ‘checking in’ to your community, and how often residents and potential residents are visiting your community.

Customize Your URL

You can now create a customized URL for your Business Page. A short and branded URL is easy to remember and more likely to result in Page visits. To create your custom URL click ‘Edit Page,’ then click ‘Basic Information,’ and then click ‘Create a username for this page?’