The Social Media Dictionary for Dummies

 

At Social Songbird we understand that in the ever changing world of Social Media, it is easy to get lost in all the techie jargon. 

paulstallard.me

We also know it's not easy to wrap your head around everything the first time, so that's why we're putting everything in one handy article. Go on, make us a bookmark, you know you want to.

And hey, whilst we're feeling generous, we're going to throw in a few tips on how to use these tools effectively. So, let's begin:

Analytics: From the minute you create a Twitter account you get access to analytics.twitter.com - just not many people know about it. These analytics help you keep track of your account's growth and if you head there now you'll be sure to spot most of the words below.

previdenzafacile.com

Having a Google account gives you the same sort of thing but it's called Google Analytics... Creative huh?

Insights: Okay, so Facebook wanted to be different and they called their analytics something else. It's the same thing with a very similar layout, just remember, you only get Facebook Insights if you have made a Facebook "Page."

Reach: When you're looking at your analytics/insights and it's telling you what your overall reach was, it's actually telling you how many people's news feed you made it on to that month/week/day (depending on your settings). 

Post Reach: As opposed to just "reach" your post reach is the number of people who saw either an individual post, or you can choose to view an accumulated figure for all your posts.

Impressions: Impressions are pretty similar to reach. They're simply saying how many times your post appeared on news feeds. However, your reach may be less than your impressions, because one person can see multiple impressions. 

So to recap: Reach is how many actual users saw your post and impressions is how many posts in total made it onto a news feed at some point. 

Organic VS Paid: Likes and reach (and many other things) can be paid for on social media. So if you're looking at your social media account and it's telling you two sets of figures (one organic/one paid) it means somewhere along the line you have paid to promote your account.

thenutritionhealer.com

Paying for reach/likes is not a bad thing and in fact most big brands and pages still pay for their social media posts to get to the top of our news feeds. Being 100% organic may sound good, but you won't get too far without a little help.

Your paid figures should always be higher than your organic, if they're not you're doing something wrong. The usual mistake is being too specific when selecting your target audience. Facebook is pretty good at telling you if you're trying too hard.

There's a limited number of people who will want exactly what you're offering, so don't be afraid to broaden your horizons.

None the less, don't fall into the trap of saying "EVERYONE" because trust me, whilst it might look good on the outside, an account that isn't targeted is a lot worse for your business than an organic account with less followers.

Boosts: A boost is one of the ways you can reach a paid audience. This type of promotion can only be applied to your Facebook posts. When you click this button (in the bottom right corner of your post after it's published) you will be met with a screen where you can create a target audience and select a budget (minimum £1 a day).

We've discovered that boosting is the most cost efficient form of promotion for the amount of likes, clicks and views you get. 

Top Tip: Make sure the post you’re boosting includes all relevant details and a link to your website. Make it friendly but also keep it applicable... i.e. don’t choose that cute pic of a cat stuck in a cereal box, chose that awesome graphic you had made with your logo in! It's all about brand awareness, guys! 

Promote: As opposed to boosting, promoting a page is putting the entire business page out there. This will only include your description, your cover photo and your profile picture. Whilst it's great for getting people to your Facebook page, if it's traffic to your website that you're after: a boost is your best bet. 

Either way, whether you promote or boost, they should appear like these Sponsored Posts in your News Feed:


Top Tip: When promoting your page you can choose to have it in"Desktop News Feed," "Desktop Right Column" and "Mobile News Feed." 

We highly suggest that you remove the "Desktop Right Column" from this list as it is not very productive and will run out your budget quicker! 

The reason we think that this one doesn't work too well, is because few people will check that side of their screen.  We all know it as the "advert area" - however, with the Sponsored Posts embedded within the timeline, it's a lot easier to "accidentally" read them.


Engagements: No, you're not getting hitched! Engagements are basically interactions. These include all the likes, comments, shares and post clicks that your page/post is receiving.  Post clicks can't be seen by your followers, but they're actually the most important. For every post click you get, that means someone is actually clicking and (hopefully) reading your article/enjoying your cute cat/visiting your website.

Scheduling: We're all busy people and scheduling is actually one of the most handy tools that Facebook has to offer. Setting up your account to do all the posts whilst you carry on with a normal life means you're not spending your time updating Facebook every hour or so!

Twitter does offer a similar tool, but it's a little more complicated and hard to come by (so we'll save that for a whole different article - keep your eyes peeled though).

How do you schedule?
When you make a post, in the bottom right corner you can publish it or, if you click the drop down arrow, you can schedule it. From here, it's easy peazy. You chose a date, then a time and bam. Scheduled. 

You can then view all your scheduled posts whenever you want, edit them, delete them and re-schedule them. You can even backdate them if you missed the date!

SO!

There you have it. A tailor made list of Facebook & Twitter's confusing jargon, I hope it's cleared a few things up for you.

Remember to keep your eyes on our "How To" section of Social Songbird for more articles like this.

And good luck!

Author: Megan Herdson

Megan is a country girl who moved to the city with some big dreams. She is studying her MA in Creative Writing whilst also managing an American Football Team.  She loves her blog and wants nothing more than to have her words read. That and to win the Championship, obviously. Follow her @MeganAtSMF

Source

The Do's and Don'ts for Small Businesses on Social Media

All businesses want to grow their social media presence, but there are a few tips to make sure you do it right. These techniques are extra helpful for small businesses that won’t have all the rules and regulations set out for them pre-tweet.

shanebarker.com

So here, let us help you make sure you never make some of these fatal mistakes whilst you’re on the web:

1.       DON’T mix pleasure with business

We think there’s nothing more important than being able to sign out after a long day of work and not get sucked back in. This is so easy to do, you just have to keep your personal account separate from a work account and don’t ever let the two merge.  

Imagine if you accidently sent your customers pictures of your dinner and your girlfriend infographics of the marketing trends for 2015. So much could go wrong.

Keep a personal account and set up a whole new account to manage your pages. Keep everything professional on that account and only sign in during your working hours.

If you’re worried about people contacting you, leave an emergency number, or put opening hours on your page so they know when to expect a reply.

2.       DO use the scheduling tools

To help you post and enjoy family time all in one go, there are tonnes of scheduling tools out there. Sendible is our favourite. You can sign out the minute you leave the office and it will continue to send off posts and tweets automatically, well into the night.

These are particularly helpful if you’re going away and you want to keep your social media pages interactive for a couple of days.

3.       DO research before you post

Make sure your content is current. There’s no point posting news about the housing market that’s 3 years old.

Equally, make sure you don’t post something negative. If your business is in double glazing, don’t upload articles about alternatives to double glazing.  

4.       DON’T share your competitors products

Sometimes we find a fab article or an infographic. It says just what we want it to say, but then we realise… we look closer at the website and it’s covered in someone else’s logo. Or worse, within the article, they keep mentioning somebody else’s product. As great as this content was, it’s now utterly useless.

Don’t post this to your page, or you’re just sending customers away. Instead, use this new information for yourself and try to find a similar article/image without the advertising.  

5.       DO shake things up

I know you might think a cat reading the morning paper is a bit silly, but everyone loves cats.

Don’t be afraid to try posting new things.

It’s not always possible to make posts and tweets that are 100% relatable to your business, so branch out and see what your audience like.

Pictures and videos are very popular, but don’t forget to just try to communicate with your followers: ask questions, find out what they want to see. These things all help get a conversation going and soon enough, your interactions will be sky high!

Follow these simple steps and you should be safe. We know a lot of it is common sense, but it’s easy to get swept up into the Twitter-sphere and lose a bit of perspective.  

So remember to stay vigilant, remain politically correct and you can easily avoid those accidental racist retweets (we’re looking at you, New England Patriots).  

Author: Megan Herdson is a country girl who moved to the city with some big dreams. She is studying her MA in Creative Writing whilst also managing an American Football Team.  She loves her blog and wants nothing more than to have her words read. That and to win the Championship, obviously. Follow her @MeganAtSMF

SOURCE

How To Build a Business on Facebook

Getting Your Business On Facebook

socialmediaarts.com

In the current climate one of the most cost efficient and easy ways to start advertising something you do, is to make a Page for it on Facebook. The feature is user friendly and free to start up, so why not give it a go?

With this article I'll take you through: 

1.      Set up

2.      Boosting & Promoting

3.      Accessing Your Page from a Mobile

4.      Removing Your Page

Set Up

First, you want to go to the top, right hand side and select ‘Create Page’ on the drop down menu that appears.

There’s no limit to how many pages you can manage and there’s no need to get a whole new Facebook account to use this feature. It’s easily done through your personal account and they don’t interfere with each another.

The first step is deciding what category you fall into: Local Business or Place, Company, Organisation or Institution, Brand or Product, Artist, Band or Public Figure, Entertainment or Cause or Community.

Once you select your category, this form appears asking for basic details. If you run your business from home, just put your home address here. You can hide this from the public at a later stage, if you want to.

The next stage is a little more specific.

a.     About

-          Add up to 3 categories that best describe your business. There’s a huge list of handy suggestions ranging from “Gluten free food” to “Yoga and Pilates.” This will ensure your business comes up when these categories are searched for, so make sure they’re relevant!

-          Add a description. You don’t have many words so keep it succinct, catchy and to the point.

-          Put in a link to a website or Twitter page.

-          Pick a unique Facebook web address. Make sure this is sensible and as near to your company name as possible. This helps keep everything as professional looking as possible.

b.     Profile Picture

Simply upload an image from somewhere on your computer or import one from any other websites you have. The import option is a helpful tool which manages to source images from the chosen URL and then brings them up for you to use again. This is particularly handy if you don’t have any original images on the computer you’re using.

c.      Add To Favourites

Another handy Facebook tip for quick access is to add your page to your favourites. I’d definitely recommend using it. It will put a link to your business at the top left hand side of your Facebook home page, below the ‘News Feed,’ ‘Messages’ and ‘Events’ tabs.

d.     Target Audience

It is important to be specific here, or you will be bringing traffic to your page that isn't interested in your product.

Do some research into who your target audience may be? 40% of 18-25 year olds drink coffee daily. Are women more interested in health food? Who lives in your area? Are there office workers and commuters travelling through the city that could make good clientele for your business?

For the interests, I’d suggest having as many that are relevant to you.

An extra tip: if you hover over an interest such as “coffee,” for example, it tells you that there are 314,160,600 people on Facebook talking about or expressing interest in coffee at the moment. This is one way to see what’s trending and what might be beneficial to focus on.  

e.     Final Touches:

Invite your friends to share and like your page.

It is important to update your page regularly and you can change your profile picture and upload cover photos to make your page really look the part.

In your ‘About’ section at the top of your page you can add more details to your business. You can add opening hours, a longer description, menu and much more all in the ‘Page Info’ section. There are endless ways you can personalize your business page.

2.    Boosting & Promoting

There are options to boost your posts and promote your page, but you have to spend a minimum of £1 a day in order to use this feature. The more money you spend, the more people your boosts will reach.

Promoting your page will send out adverts onto people in your chosen area’s Facebook page. You can pick new images, or use the ones you have on your page at the time. Make sure to edit the text as there is another word limit.  Add interests again, making them as specific and target orientated as possible.

Once you've carefully selected your advert details you can edit your budget and time scale.

Boosting your post is done using similar prices and details, except you are boosting one post/status in particular not the whole business.

3.    Accessing Your Page from a Mobile

Whilst this “How To” has been all about using Facebook on a desktop computer, it is just as easy to do everything from your mobile phone or tablet.

Facebook has a Help Center under the Managing a Page section of their site which offers not only Desktop help but also Feature Phone, Mobile Browser, Android, iPhone and iPad help.

4.    Removing Your Page

If you ever want to delete your business page, all you have to do is go to the page and click ‘Settings’ in the top, right hand corner. Then, under the ‘General’ section, right at the bottom is the ‘Remove page’ option. Click ‘Permanently Delete’ and your page is gone forever.

But remember, there are no limits to the number of pages you can manage, so don’t click delete unless you’re sure,because you won’t be able to get it back. 

Author: Megan is a country girl who moved to the city with some big dreams. She is studying her MA in Creative Writing whilst also managing an American Football Team.  She loves her blog and wants nothing more than to have her words read. That and to win the Championship, obviously. Follow her @MeganAtSMF

Source