Tuesday, March 15, 2011

The Facebook Adventure Begins


Greetings my fellow social media gods and goddesses. The Social Networking Express is now arriving at our next destination: The World of Facebook. We are going to be visiting this world for awhile so unpack your bags for day 1 of our visit. Today’s tour takes us to the Land of Posting on Facebook so that you can be familiar with what to post or not to post there.

The World of Facebook, where there is a thin line between personal and business, is perhaps the best social networking site so far. It has so many bells and whistles that one can get overwhelmed easily with what to do with it all.

So many got into Facebook to just keep in touch with family and friends and it is understandable when it comes to personal pages you would want to keep it that way. However, when it comes to your professional life you may not want to mix the two and this is where the fine line is drawn. The rule of thumb is personal page for you, business page (aka fan page) for your business but as your business page is linked to your personal page it is easy for that line to get blurred and fuzzy. What is best to remember here is that you are your business, the face of and the person behind it. You can use your personal page as a way for not only people to get to know you but for you to reach out to others. Here are some things to remember when posting.

Keep your personal page posts personable but not personal. Do not share anything on there you would not want to read in a newspaper if your posts were to be published there. Think about what it is you are posting for you are not only sharing a piece of you but it also gives people reading it something to relate to. People do business with others they know and trust. So post things of interest to you. Do you really want to post that you and your spouse are fighting? If you are posting a picture of your dinner, then say something about it. If it is something you made then talk about that. If the picture is from your favorite dining spot, then post information about that. Remember you are talking to people when you post and not at them. Would you email a friend a picture of a dish you just made without telling them more about it? Probably not, then don’t do that on facebook. When people read your posts they are listening to you. What are you saying to them?

When posting about such things as the news, weather etc make it inevitable so as to engage in a conversation with those listening to you. Negative posts end a conversation. If you post something like “I hate the rain”, where is the conversation in that? If you were instead post….Wow look at all that rain, how is it effecting your day? That invites people to respond. While you will want to express your own personality in your post, I am sure you get the idea.

The key to successful posts is to remember that you are conversing with your readers. This also applies when posting about your business, products or services. Would you post “Lunch Special 5.99 today” or would you post something more like. “You are invited to (insert business name here) for our lunch special of the best hamburger in town with fries and choice of drink all for 5.99” and then post a picture of your special. Another way would be to post “Are you going to be in Cape Coral for lunch today? Well you are cordially invited to join us for our 5.99 lunch special of and then talk about your lunch special. Think of it as inviting a friend to lunch. You can apply this technique to just about any business you may have. Think about how you talk to your friends about what you do and then apply that to your posts.

Your posts either personal or business should have value, should be conversational and invite responses. This is a skill set that you will develop and get better at the more you do it. Have fun with it. Enjoy it as you do when you socialize with friends or network your business.

Day 2 of our tour of The World of Facebook will take us to the destination of the Land of Interaction. So till then you are free to tour The World of Facebook on your own. Enjoy your stay!

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