Google Plus for small and medium-sized companies
From Flowtown's Small Business Social Media Cheat Sheet:
Google+ is a social network operated by Google with profiles, status updates, circles, hangouts and sparks.
- Pros: easy way to interact with clients and customers. Can be integrated with other Google applications.
- Cons: Administration is difficult and some small business owners find most clients don't use Google+
How to begin:
- Google+ provides a step-by-step guide to setting up your Google+ pages with the ability to customize your page's public profile.
- Add team members, VIPs, and customers to separate Google+ circles to organize your news feeds.
- Connect your Google+ page to your website using the Google+ badge.
- Begin posting content such as status updates, videos or photos to your Google+ page.
Checklist: customising your Facebook Page before you start promoting it
For Facebook, Profiles represent individuals and must be held under an individual name, while Pages allow an organization, business, celebrity, or band to maintain a professional presence on Facebook.
Do you represent a real organisation, or are you an authorised representative of one? Then use this short checklist to set it up before you start promoting your Page with invites and Facebook Ads.
Profile Picture
☐ Create a Profile Picture of 180 pixels wide and between 180 and 540 pixels high.
☐ Check how the automatically generated 50x50 pixel Profile Picture thumbnail looks when you post on your Wall. If you don't like it, Change Picture > Edit Thumbnail to drag the picture until you like the result.
Left-column Navigation
☐ Check if your Profile Picture's height doesn't obscure your Navigation's visibility. If it does, make your Profile Picture less high.
☐ Prune your Navigation items by clicking "Edit" just below them. Hide ("x") or move the items until you like the result. Only Wall and Info can't be moved.
About Box
☐ Write a description of your brand, company or organisation in maximum 240 characters (of which the first 78 are shown) and publish it in the "About" section.
Likes — Page Favorites
☐ Let your Page can "Like" other Pages to have them show up in the Likes box. Facebook will randomly show 5 of them.
☐ Edit page > Featured > Edit featured likes to decide which "likes" to feature in the Likes box.
Photostrip
☐ Upload at least 5 Photos. The 5 most recent ones will form the Photo Strip on top of your Page.
☐ Upload and remove from the Strip until you like the result. Keep in mind that you can't change the order of the pictures, but you can hide them from the strip one by one.
Wall (Custom Tabs)
☐ Edit page > Manage permissions > Default Landing Tab to design a custom "Welcome" tab to convert visitors of your Page into Fans
☐ For a quick start, use a hosted 520 pixels wide JPG file for your Welcome Tab. If you're ready for it, replace it with a full blown iFrame app.
Starting conversations by creating compelling content
One of the big questions companies ask themselves as soon as they've decided to "start the conversation" in social media is: how should they fuel the engines? How can you open up the channels and start conversations, instead of just reacting to them?
The answer is simple: with a content marketing strategy. Or in other words, by producing and publishing lots and lots of content. Not just written text, but anything that promotes high levels of interactivity in social media, such as photos, videos and blog posts.
In the September 2010 report ‘b2b Content Marketing Benchmarks, Budgets and Trends’, content marketing evangelist Joe Pulizzi defines content marketing as follows:
Content marketing/custom media (sometimes called custom publishing, custom content or branded content) is the creation and distribution of educational and/or compelling content in multiple formats to attract and/or retain customers.
But what exactly is compelling content?
Contentmarketinginstitute.com just published an essential checklist for creating valuable content. The checklist is designed for digital content creators and marketing teams, and it defines valuable content using five benchmarks:
- Findable
- Readable
- Understandable
- Actionable
- Shareable
Let's have a look at the fifth benchmark, Shareable. Will the user share the content?
- Something to provoke an emotional response
- A reason to share
- An ask to share
- An easy way to share
- Personalization (add hashtags to tweets, etc)
Or in other words: make sure your content behaves like social objects, dominant and influential topics in on-line conversations as they are conducted in social media.
Further reading:
- Creating Valuable Content: An Essential Checklist @ contentmarketinginstitute.com
- Creating Valuable Content Checklist™ (.pdf)