750 million active users!?
Today I read a great social media strategy guide called “The Potluck Guide” written by Kidd Redd of Paramore/Redd Online Marketing www.paramoreredd.com.
Wow, what a GREAT read and a wonderful source of information for anyone that wants to learn more about Social Media in an easy to read, get down to it and get it done format!
There are so many great pieces of information in here so i would recommend purchasing it on their website. Here is the direct link to it at http://paramore.is/potluck/
One of the things that I thought I would highlight today are the statistics on Facebook! It is timely for me to read this as I am on my quest to increase more awareness of my company FIITFU CRM Solutions website. Check these out…
- More than 750 million active users (at the time The Potluck Guide was written, in September of 2010 there were 500 million active users… what a jump in less than a year)
- 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
- Average user has 130 friends
- People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook
- There are over 900 million objects that people interact with (pages, groups, events and community pages)
- Average user is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events
- Average user creates 90 pieces of content each month
- More than 30 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photo albums, etc.) shared each month.
- More than 70 translations available on the site
- About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States
- Over 300,000 users helped translate the site through the translations application
- Entrepreneurs and developers from more than 190 countries build with Facebook Platform
- People on Facebook install 20 million applications every day
- Every month, more than 250 million people engage with Facebook on external websites
- Since social plugins launched in April 2010, an average of 10,000 new websites integrate with Facebook every day
- More than 2.5 million websites have integrated with Facebook, including over 80 of comScore’s U.S. Top 100 websites and over half of comScore’s Global Top 100 websites
- There are more than 250 million active users currently accessing Facebook through their mobile devices.
- People that use Facebook on their mobile devices are twice as active on Facebook than non-mobile users.
- There are more than 200 mobile operators in 60 countries working to deploy and promote Facebook mobile products
These statistics were taken directly from www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
So how are you promoting your business? Makes you think twice perhaps about getting a Facebook account for your business? I continue to advertise my business on Facebook, and will do so as the number of impressions I get are high, and Facebook sends me a report each week.
Have a great day, and here is to all of the 750 million Facebook user community!
The currency of real networking
This morning I met with Ken Bower, a great visionary man who has taken a small organization (literally selling to only two stores in the lower mainland) to a company that now sells across North America. A single father with two kids Ken Bower of www.mymonkeymoo.com a company that designs and manufactures different baby products has increased the visibility of this company to a level he didn’t even imagine when his logo alone was being sought after for hats and t-shirts for adults.
Our original conversation was on how social media has helped his business, he offered me a number of ideas that I wrote down to put in my roster of things to do. Starting out on a new Social Media mission is both exciting yet time-consuming! And it seems that each person I have met with, talked to, listened to or article that I read have so many different and great ideas! There are so many ways to get socially active on-line and countless places to find information of proper etiquette and ideas.
I was excited to find out what aspect of social media was his biggest boost in his business. I was surprised when I asked Ken “what was the single biggest thing you did when you took over this business to harness the momentum that you have now? “ His answer, which I honestly thought would revolve around social media, was quite simply the opposite. It seems the best way to get started is simply the old fashion idea of getting in front of people “we did a lot of travelling, went to a ton of trade shows, and aligned ourselves with people who were already blogging about products like ours”
Not to take away from the Social Media as he continues to drive his business this way, but it was interesting to get this from him when I thought for sure it would be something he did on Facebook, his website, blog, twitter or linked in.
So once you get started in your social media, then what?
- Stay consistent in your daily, or weekly postings
- Make sure your content has value, and you are a bit unique
- Appeal to your target market
- Align yourself with others online that have the same interest
- Get out and meet people!
If you don’t have any idea on who to meet or where to go, why not start out with one of the many networking groups that are out there?
If you live in the lower mainland, here is a list of a few of the organizations that I know that have huge value in them. I am probably missing a few, so if you know of a couple more that you would like to recommend then please send your comments and I will add them into this list as well. Some of these groups meet weekly and others monthly. Be sure to take lots of business cards with you when you go, and interact! It is up to you to get out there and start promoting what your business is and what you do. But a word of advice, don’t go to these meetings thinking that you are going to walk away with a ton of business on your first or second time. It is a process and one which has best results when you go to an event and get engaged in what others do, help others get what they need in their business – perhaps you know someone who may need their service or product, and develop relationships. Once you have accomplished that, watch the fruits of all your social media, networking and consistent drive for success come to fruition!
Have a GREAT week!
The currency of real networking is not greed but generosity.
Keith Ferrazzi
Below are some ideas of networking groups to get involved with – there are lots out there, and these are just a few that I am familiar with. Please feel free to post other that you are involved in and see value in attending!
SWAN – Successful Women Always Network www.swannetwork.com
MOM Café http://momcafenetwork.com/vancouver/
BNI Business Networking and Business Referrals www.bnicanada.ca
Enterprising moms network. http://www.enterprisingmomsnetwork.com/contact.html
Trial and Error
Back on my initial post, I listed a number of ideas that my readers and friends had given to me to help promote my new business. I wanted to report back to you how many of the ideas you suggested worked out. I am going to go through them in order of what was suggested, and show you the results to date. Then you can determine whether it would be a fit for YOUR business or not.
How to create more awareness of your business through Social Media
Suggestion #1. Pay for a link on Facebook. – This I found to be a fun, and effective means of getting my name out there. Facebook is very user-friendly when it comes to placing an ad. I put in the MAXIMUM amount of money I would want to spend on a daily basis (you only get charged for each click-through) and you can cancel at any time. So as long as you watch your Facebook account, this is very manageable. The overall number of people who clicked through was very small, however the overall impressions (meaning my logo was on Facebook to a very specific group of people who i wanted to see the FIITFU logo) was very high. Here is what a report would look like from Facebook about the effectiveness of my add. I had three different ads, each one looked a bit different (my logo was changed up a bit) and each had different verbage to try to promote the usage of FIITFU.
I am going to continue to allow this ad to run as I am having high exposure of my logo at this point which is great.
Suggestion #2. Send an email to all your friends asking them to like you on Facebook. This was an effective tool as it helped to add people on in a quick amount of time. I sent about 80 emails and asked them to like me on Facebook (by the way you need 25 likes on Facebook to get your own URL for a company or group as opposed to a NUMBERED URL. For instance, my URL is now www.facebook.com/fiitfu It use to be www.facebook.com/12345677.mj.fiitfu or something long like that, so it is much more professional looking now!) SO how did it work, at the time of posting my original entry, I only had 16 likes, I am now at 71. Still not the 1000 that I have as my goal, but as they say, life is about the journey, not the destination!!
Suggestion #3. Read this “eye opener” book on social networking. http://www.sociablebook.com. What a great book! I read Sociable, and it is an easy to follow and stimulate great ideas book! From this book my main thing that it has influenced me to do is start a VIDEO BLOG which you will see on this blog. (be sure to watch for it!) Some other great points it directs you to a number of different ideas and how to use social media to your benefit. The bottom line, JUST START USING IT! Social media is a very safe place for Trial and Error, and meant to be a supportive community for sharing ideas. Thanks to the boys that published this book, I would recommend it to anyone.
Suggestion #4. Take a course “Connectonomics” from local expert Matt Astifan http://webfriendly.me. I had the privilege of listening to Matt at a local SWAN networking group, and he really is an expert on Facebook! Matt and I have had some dialogue since his speech and he is also a great support when it comes to social networking. He has a course coming up on Friday July 15th – Learn the Secrets of Facebook Marketing on a Shoe-String Budget Faster and Better then your Competitors. Be sure to check out the link if you want to learn more about it. In the mean time here were a couple of important tips that Matt gave to me that YOU may also want to ensure you follow.
I just checked out your fan page, here is a quick tip. I recently noticed that people often get lost when on a Facebook fan page. The reason I have notices is that the banner is too long that it pushes the tabs below the fold. I recommend shorting your banner to 400 pixels high (you currently have it to the maximum which is 600). TIP 2. When you post an email address online it is a good idea to separate the @ symbol (for example learn [@] webfriendly.ca). Spamming softwares search the internet for addresses posted online and scrap them into excel files to be spammed on end for years… lol… They will also do this with many “info@…” email address because most companies create these.
You don’t have to be good at drawing to sketch your future…
“If You Don’t Know Where You’re Going, Any Road Will Take You There”
Andy Giddings
In 1996 I took a course called at the time “The Pursuit of Excellence” it was a course designed for self-awareness, holding yourself accountable and thinking outside of the box. I loved the course. One of the things that we did was goal setting and visualizing what you want in the future. We had to draw a PICTURE of what our life would look like 10 years from now… this is how my pictured looked if you can visualize this:
I drew a Very Simple picture of a home on the water, with hearts coming out of the chimney because our home was full of love, a dog, a child and trees all around us, with mountains in the back ground.
When I met my husband years later, I told him to be prepared because my dream was to live on the water (at this time I never did tell him about my picture that I still had in my office) We got married in September 2002, and for a wedding gift dear friends of ours took us on a weekend getaway on their boat, the meals were fantastic, the company great, and we docked in a bay overlooking these amazing homes with 50 feet of grass in front of them leading down to the water… this was to be where we bought a piece of property, and in 2006 we had a structure on that land on the water. Exactly 10 years from when I drew that photo.
Although the design of the house wasn’t exactly what I had imagined (we tried but the costs were going up and up with all my ideas) it is still MY DREAM, which I drew, wrote down, verbally told my husband about and it became a reality. In 1996 I was FAR from affording a home on the water, in 2002 we were still far from affording a spot on the water… but I knew somehow it would happen. We got the land for a real deal, I was let go from my company at the time with a package deal, and we put all of that money into building my dream, I have never looked back.
What is your dream? Where do you see yourself in 5 10 or 20 years? Perhaps you should draw a picture and keep it close… you never know what may come because of putting pen to paper…
Be the Michelangelo of your life….
Believe in your dreams!
Goal Setting, how do you do it and why bother?
You probably know by this point that one of my goals is to create awareness of my new software fiitfu.com. So that is great, I have a goal, but just saying that I want to create awareness is not very SPECIFIC of a goal. One more person is exposed to it and I have increased my awareness haven’t I? So it is getting the numbers down on paper and looking at them daily and reminding myself what I need to do to make it happen.
Here is some information on goal setting that I thought you may like to think about.
Goal Setting…
“The person with a fixed goal, a clear picture of his desire, or an ideal always before him, causes it, through repetition, to be buried deeply in his subconscious mind and is thus enabled, thanks to its generative and sustaining power, to realize his goal in a minimum of time and with a minimum of physical effort. Just pursue the thought unceasingly. Step by step you will achieve realization, for all your faculties and powers become directed to that end.” ~ Claude M. Bristol
An interesting concept, most people know they should write their goals down, but still very few do.
When you are crystal clear with your thinking, when you can identify your passion, what excites and drives you then you can be clear on your goals. Remember that the starting point of all achievement is DESIRE! We all desire different things in our lives, but your responsibility as an effective goal setter is to PRIORITIZE those desires.
Think about the following… You have the chance here to write down 5 wishes, 5 things that you would be granted if you wrote them here… Go ahead and write down your five wishes, you can put them in your journal, on a piece of paper you can put on your bulletin board or sticky note that you can put on your computer.
Interesting how when they are wishes, and you only have 5 you are more careful with what you want!
Be sure when you write these wishes down, that you utilize the present tense in positive phrases:
Example:
- I am in EXCELLENT HEALTH at my proper body weight, cholesterol level, blood pressure level, blood sugar level and all things perfect!
- I have $1,000,000 in my bank account
- I am building a new home on the lake, south-facing, with a deck that is 500 square feet
- I am driving a White Mercedes convertible
- I am free of all financial stress in my life
These wishes when written down, are now GOALS. Now let’s make these goals a reality!
Here is the best way to do that… in my corporate training we were taught to make goals
SMART
S = Specific
M = Measurable
A = Attainable
R = Realistic
T = Timely
- SPECIFIC – I have a $1,000,000 in my bank account that is very specific!
- MEASURABLE– Well you can measure that by simply looking at your bank statement, if you wanted to lose weight you would utilize a scale, if you wanted to build a home, you would see your completed home… you get the idea!
- Attainable – identify goals that are most important to you, and begin to develop attitudes and habits to get you there…start to see previously overlooked opportunities to bring yourself closer to the achievement of your goals. If you set your goals too far out of reach, you probably won’t commit to making them… the quote: “Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” Brian Littrell shows us that it is important to have Good Great and EXCELLENT goals. This will ensure that even if you don’t make the Excellent Goal, that you will most likely make the good ones, and you are still so much further ahead then you would have been!
- REALISTIC When setting goals, ensure that they are realistic and attainable. You have to asses your situation at the moment and determine what is realistic. Example, you want to lose 50 lbs, realistically you won’t do that in a month, however it is realistic that you would do that in a year or more. Making unrealistic goals is a way to set yourself up for disappointment, we don’t want that!
- TIMELY – A goal without a deadline is just a dream! Setting a goal, and a time to do that goal, you are able to put a schedule together to make sure it becomes a reality! When we have a deadline, we focus on what we need to do more, instead of stating “I will get it done tomorrow” you start today. A great way to get started on any goal.
What steps will you take to accomplish your goal, and what are you willing to give up to accomplish your goal? Remember, there has to be a big enough desire to accomplish this goal, and inevitably there will be a trade-off of something you have to give up to make your goal. So the question is how committed are you to accomplishing your goal? What is going to be your FIRST STEP?
Some big questions to ask yourself… but ones that will make GOAL SETTING more specific, and attainable.
Good luck, we will talk more on this subject as it is one that many have problems with! You are not alone!
By the way, I have not made 1000 LIKES yet on my Facebook page, however in a week I went from 6 likes to 46! About an 800% growth rate… if i do that again this week i will be at 384! One more week at that growth and i will be at over 3000 Likes! So please be sure to Like us on face book! you can use the link here: Be Sure to LIKE us on FACEBOOK! Or simply search FIITFU on Facebook.
Thanks!
Why did I create this blog?
Welcome to my HELP YOUR BUSINESS blog. Why did I create it? Well over the last few years I have been heavily involved in helping women in business, it has been a passion of mine to either mentor or volunteer my time to help both women already in business, as well as women that are looking to get involved in a business. I myself am an entrepreneur, I know that I don’t have all the answers, but by helping others I am sure to be better informed myself, and HOPEFULLY make a difference in others’ lives.
Just last month I launched a new business, www.fiitfu.com. FIITFU stands for Fortune Is In The Follow-Up. It is a Customer Relations Management software system designed specifically for small home based business’s and in particular those that are in Network Marketing (direct sales or multi- level marketing). So I have been investigating a bit on Social Media and how this may be able to help my quest in quickly letting people know about my business. I posted a question on LINKED IN and I loved all the wealth of knowledge that people took the time to get back to me with! I couldn’t help myself but share it with you!
So read on, and see for yourself some of the responses I received and the discussions it has created over the last few days. I hope you enjoy the read, but more so I trust that you can utilize some of this information for your business.
Social Media and Going Viral…
I sent out this recommendation request via LinkedIn Profile… to see just how fast I could turn my 6 likes, into 1000. I am going to preface this as well by letting you know that my LinkedIn connections are relatively small, and the majority of them had requested that I be “linkedIn” with them. Here is what the request said:
I’m sending this to ask you for a brief recommendation of my work that I can include in my LinkedIn profile. I am also sending this as a bit of research to see just how fast social networking can turn something viral.I am a bit in the dark ages when it comes to this stuff, right now i have all of 6 people that “like” my facebook link to FIITFU.. How fast do you think I can turn that into 1000 “likes”?If you have any suggestions on how to increase that please let me know, and I will also let you know how long people think it will take me to get to 1000 LIKES and then test their predictions!.
First off the responses that i got for recommendation where amazing! Thanks to all of you that sent in such kind words and recommendations for me, that was so unexpected but I loved every minute of it.
Then people also shared with me some amazing information on WHAT TO DO to increase your exposure and where you can research information on this… I will highlight these for you at the end as well
I also had one very honest person give me feedback which provoked me to think of the “purpose” of LinkedIn and facebook. She wrote:
“If you don’t mind my being honest, you are ‘out to lunch’ with this approach, and definitely with the 1000 likes hopes… Do you know how hard it is to get 1000 likes? Do you even have 1000 facebook friends, let alone strangers willing to “like” some link of yours? And did you know once people “like” your page (please tell me you’re promoting a business page and not a group or link…!) they probably never come back and never seen your messages in their feed? It’s a popularity contest (in a good marketing sense), but not a follow up strategy. Your e-mail newsletter is where the money is at.
Some points:
1) You’ve asked me for a recommendation of your work….but I’ve never experienced your work, nor do I know which type of work you want me to recommend. Mass e-mails like this won’t help.
2) What is FIITFU? Don’t assume anyone knows.
3) My top suggestion, if you really want to utilize social media for business purposes, is to learn the ropes.
So I appreciate this gals honesty, but it makes me wonder:
#1. Why did she ask me to join her LinkedIn group if she doesn’t even know anything about me? Do you feel that LinkedIn should be used just to increase your numbers on your page, or should you know someone more before making the request
#2. Is getting Likes on Facebook really just a popularity contest? Don’t you think that you will get higher exposure AND awareness if you get more likes… and in turn would this not help your business?
#3. People have said that it will take me 7 – 10 days to get 1000 LIKES. I will keep you up to date on this, right now i am now at 15 likes! So it doubled… perhaps it will double each day! wouldn’t that be cool. If you want to take a guess at how long it may take me to get to 1000 please let me know.
So here are some of the COMMENTS I GOT on ways you can learn more about Social Media and OR how to promote your company on Facebook and other areas. PLEASE NOTE THESE ARE WORDS FROM THOSE THAT EMAILED ME BACK… I AM NOT SURE IF THEY ARE GOOD SUGGESTIONS YET OR NOT… but I did want to share with you the recommendations that I did get back:
#1. Pay for a link on Facebook.
#2. In order to get likes on facebook, you have to send an email to every friend on your list and ask them to “like” fiitfu. Ask each one of them to ask their friends to do the same. You should also try and gather as many friends as possible by going through the suggestions and friend requesting them. You might also want to try linking your twitter to the facebook page using tweetdeck or a similar app and then actively update your twitter so it will appear on your facebook page. Also adding pictures and content to the facebook page will help draw people.
#3. check out www.PeterShankman.com and his book customer service for social media… great info on what you are wanting to do with social media etc.
#4. I want to direct you to a very good “eye opener” book on social networking. http://www.sociablebook.com/ I attended a Vancouver BOT meeting with the authors of this book about 1 year ago and found how easy it was to utilize social media. They are local vancouverites too. One thing I think would be very relavent for what you do is to have meetups. (explained in book) As you probably already thought of this, your product transcends industry boundaries, you could reach appropriate sales people at different organizations…Real Estate, High End retail, media sales, etc. Give free seminars on how to use your product too!
#5. …course I have seen on this subject is called Connectonomics and it is by Web Friendly (ok, my brother’s company, you will soon figure out, but quality speaks for itself, so if I’m biased you’ll be able to see through it quickly). Contact learn (@) webfriendly.ca and sign up for the next round of seminars asap! I’ve taken the course twice and it is the best way to get the latest and freshest on business tactics. He doesn’t recycle the same material over again – every workshop is updated with new research and info. Details on the company’s “basics” course is here: http://webfriendly.me/ but there is an advanced course called Connectonomics.
Try some of these suggestions out… I sure will be! If you also have MORE ideas on how to increase your social media exposure please let me know so I can share it with all the people that come to my new blog.
In the meantime i hope you LIKE my page! www.fiitfu.com 1000 is the goal… lets see how fast we can get there!
helpingyourbusiness 