The Social Media Talk Show and Podcast with Dennis J. Smith Thu, May 9th, 2013 1:00 pm

The Social Media Talk Show – Social Media Tips for Business

There was a technical glitch this week which ended the show a little early. I’ve posted the tips and links from today’s show below. This weeks Social Media Talk show was 30 minutes of Social Media and WordPress information:

Social Media Tips for Small Business

No Cover Photos – Make sure that your Facebook Fan Page has a cover photo and that your logo shows in the cover photo or the small image to the left. The cover photo is 315 pixels in height by 851 pixels wide and the small image is 180 x 180 pixels but gets reduced to 160 x 160 pixels when uploaded to Facebook. Keep this in mind so your logo doesn’t get cropped or look wonky. You can use tools like Pixlr.com and PicMonkey.com to add text and more to your cover photo.

Special URL for Facebook Fan Page – When you create your fan page Facebook assigns it a long URL with a series of numbers at the end. This is too long to put on traditional marketing material or for others to remember. Instead you should get a special URL (username) to make it easier for others to find your fan page. Some of mine for example are http://facebook.com/socialmediaidaho or http://facebook.com/socialmediabook which goes on my marketing material. My friend Kathy of Kathy’s Kakes Idaho currently has the URL of https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kathys-Kakes-Idaho/341627424494 for her fan page. You can see how that would be hard for someone to remember. You can change your URL under “Basic Information” in the Admin Menu of your fan page or by going to http://facebook.com/username and selecting your fan page and then assigning it a special username.

Automate Your Facebook Post for Twitter – By going to http://facebook.com/twitter you can link your Facebook Fan Page to your Twitter account. Anything you post on your fan page gets shorten along with a special fb.me URL and gets sent as a Tweet on Twitter. When a Twitter user clicks on this link they are taken back to your Facebook Fan Page. Therefore you have the chance of gaining a new “Like” and you save time by posting in one place. There are plugins for WordPress that will automatically send your blog post to your Pinterest, Twitter and Facebook accounts.

Keep it Short and Sweet – Keep your post short and sweet and you’ll see more engagement on your fan page. That means more likes, comments and sharing of your post. Photos and Video get the most engagement so consider adding one of those with your post.

Consider a custom fan page – Add more functionality to your fan page with custom fan page apps that allow you to add your Pinterest pinboards, Twitter feed, e-commerce, forms and more.