We here at Hall use the ‘what if you were hit by a bus’ analogy all the time. The less morbid point we are trying to make is ensuring that anything you start, anything you touch and any project you are working on should be able to be picked up if for some reason you cannot be there (like if you got hit by a bus).

This work principle made it very unnerving for me when Google+ rolled out business pages and there could only be one administrator – yikes! What if I got hit by a bus?!? Who would pick up the task of managing our Google+ profile?!

Recently Google+ fixed this and now you can have page Owners and page Managers – phew! Each page can now only have one owner but it can have up to 50 managers (you can only invite 20 managers per day). Page owners and page managers have all of the same admin rights except page managers can NOT delete the page or transfer the ownership of the page.

To add a new manager to your Google+ page:

• Log in to Google+ and your business Google+ page
• Click on Settings (upper right hand side)
• Click on Managers (left hand side)
• Invite someone to be a manger of your page by adding their email address

You do not need to invite them with their Google+ email address. The invited party can accept with the email address you sent it to and then sign up to be a page manager with a different email address. When the person invited accepts to manage the page, the owner of the page will be notified via email.

Now, under the Managers section of your page, you will see the owner and any managers or invited managers. If an invitation is not accepted or if you want to cancel the invitation you can click on the X next to their email address. All managers can see the list of managers

To remove a manager, you can click the X by their name. When they are removed as a manager the page owner and the removed manager will receive an email.

We always recommend having more than one administrator to any business social network presence – you know, in case you get hit by a bus.

Photo credit: PoloGoomba

We know… it happens. Facebook is confusing. You probably set it up in a a hurry. Then you started using it, you got some friends and some traction and realized your Facebook page is actually set up as a personal/profile/timeline and not as a business page, like it is supposed to be.

You don’t want to discredit the followers you have gotten and you don’t want to have to say all that time you put into it was a waste… so what is a busy marketer or business to do?

Now you can convert your personal profile into a business profile. All your ‘friends’ will carry over to it you but they will turn into ‘likes’. For more information about converting your profile, read these FAQs from Facebook.

The only other thing that will transfer along with your friends will be your Profile Pictures album.

You can (and should) backup your information so you have it and can repopulate your page after it has been transferred. Below is info from Facebook on backing up your timeline information.

To avoid losing important content, we recommend taking these steps before you convert your profile (timeline):

1. Download your profile (timeline) information. You can download a file that contains all of your sent and received messages and all of the photos and videos you’ve uploaded to Facebook.
2. Appoint a new group admin or a new Facebook Page admin to any groups or pages that you manage. The account you’re converting will lose these admin rights during the conversion process.

To actually convert your personal page to a business page you need to go here.

Facebook takes you through some very simple steps to make the change. Follow along and when you are done, your personal page will flip to a business page.

Some things I have seen and heard that may freak you out:

• Your Friends who convert to Likes will not show up instantly. I have flipped a few pages and it took a matter of minutes but I have heard of it taking longer… even days.
• You no longer have a personal page. I know that is what you just got rid of but it freaks people out. You will need to create a new personal page.
• The ‘Use Facebook as Page’ link goes missing. That is because, as stated above, you no longer have a personal page. You currently have only the business page.
• Your search bar goes away… it comes back though.

Some things I would do before converting my profile

• If you are the admin of any other pages, make someone else an admin, your profile is going to go away… so then you won’t be able to be an admin. You can set up a new profile and add your new and improved personal profile as an admin.
• Have a stiff drink, a cup of herbal tea, a stress ball or a yoga mat nearby. There is definitely a ‘push a button and hope’ feeling that freaks me out when you do this but if you backed up your information, you should have less to worry about.

I know a change like this is stressful but if your page is set up incorrectly you will want to do it. If you carry on with your personal page as your company page, you will never be able to reach more than 5,000 ‘friends’ plus there is different functionality to a business page over a personal page.

Good luck and I hope that helps! Have any of you flipped your page? Do you have anything you want to add to these notes? Any changes that really freaked you out?

This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

Are you using Twitter to market your business? Are you looking for new people to follow that will hopefully become future customers? Do you think people tweeting near you may, at some point, be your customers?

Why is finding local Tweets beneficial?

• Target nearby Twitter users to encourage them to come to your store
• Build Twitter followers and fans of your brand by connecting with them
• Keep up on local events and promotions that you should/could participate in
• Pay it forward by helping out a neighbor that is looking for advice, a product or just a good place to eat around town
• Connect with people who share your interests locally

There are a few ways to look for Twitter users that are near your geographic area.

Here are three:

1. Try using Bing’s fancy mapto see who is tweeting in your area.
2. Try doing an Advanced Twitter searchfor people tweeting about particular things within a given area.
3. Use Tweets by City to see who is Tweeting from your city or about your city.

Happy local Tweeting!

Read more from our Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series!

This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

Welcoming people has been a sign of respect and politeness for a long time. Businesses can do the same and welcome users who arrive at their Facebook page. Your wall is a great place for your visitors to hang out and interact with your company, but it isn’t necessarily the first thing that you want to show your new visitors.

Having a great Facebook landing page can help to engage new users from the very first interaction. Landing pages let you display engaging content, calls-to-action, incentives, interactivity, and so on. You can also detect whether the user is already a fan of the page or not, allowing you to create custom pages for fans and non-fans. This allows you to give your non-fans exclusive offers for liking your page.

When it comes to designing your company landing page it is much like designing for any website page, but there are some important factors you should keep in mind.

• Design your page with width restrictions in mind. Facebook pages must fit within a width of 520px. There are no constraints on the height of the page but you must keep in mind that people are most interactive above the fold. You don’t want to make the user have to scroll down the page to see the most important aspects of your page.
• Use your fan page profile picture to include more than just your logo. The profile picture has to stay within the dimensions of 180px wide and can be up to 600px high! It depends on your design and logo, but use the height to display important information about your business. Your profile picture is displayed on every tab, so it should be engaging, clearly display your business name and logo, include contact information, and be sure to include your web address- since Facebook should drive traffic to your website.
• Keep the design simple and engaging. You don’t want to have a design that is too busy or your main call to action will be lost. The headline should catch the visitor’s attention and let them know they are not a fan yet, and show them reasons why they should become one. This is a great way to display exclusive offers that only fans will receive, and that by becoming a fan you will continue to get important information and offers.
• Make use of the liked parameter. Include a secondary welcome page that only fans see, this is a great way to show exclusivity of becoming a fan. A great example of this is for ecommerce businesses. By displaying on your non-fan welcome page an offer, ex.) “Like us and receive a coupon for 15% off on your next order” Your secondary welcome page can be displayed right after the visitor has liked your page- displaying the coupon code for the 15% off their next purchase. This kind of immediate gratification will show the visitor right off that liking your page has benefits.

  

  BMW’s Facebook page is a great example of this. Most features are hidden to non-fans, which encourages visitors to like the page to see more.

A great fan page will not only encourage people to like your page – it will also effectively promote your brand and connect with readers on a regular basis. This is another opportunity to advertise your business to millions of FB users, so why not take advantage of it?

Read more from our Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series!

This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

You many have noticed something kind of cool on Monica’s post yesterday. When Monica referenced Elisabeth Osmeloski’s tweet about Google+ effecting search results, instead of being a hyperlink to the tweet on Twitter, we could actually embed the tweet right into the post!

In the past few weeks Twitter has done a lot of design changes to it’s mobile applications and website. One of these changes was making it possible to take a single tweet and embed it onto a website. All you need to do is copy and paste the line of code and you can have the tweet right on your website. If you have a WordPress blog, all you need to do is copy the link and paste it. Now from your site people can reply, retweet, favorite and follow the person who wrote the tweet.

Pretty cool right?

Read more from our Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series.

This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

I am going to bypass the first 17 tips on why Google+ is important to get us straight to this one. This is an important fact, and I’m sure many haven’t seen it .

Did you know that you can see how Google connects you socially with your contacts? Google combines your Google contacts, contacts via connected accounts (for example, if you have your Twitter account linked to your Google profile), and secondary connections, and uses this network of Google contacts who have a profile in order to deliver more relevant search results.

Anyone can see their own list if you’re logged into Google, just go here, you’ll see something similar to what you see below. This is my own personal social data, so you can see how socially active my friends are. At least my friends that begin with the letter “A”.

Drilling down a little deeper, I can see how Amanda has been sharing content, as well as how her Google profile is linked to other profiles.

Seeing expanded views of social sharing like this demonstrates a bit how Google+ Circles and Ripples work. As more and more people start using Google+ these connections are going to expand dramatically, providing insightful social value to search results. And ads – don’t forget the ads.

One moment, you say you are still on the fence on how Google+ may influence your search results?

To translate what Lauren from google just said – yes, +1 & Google+ pages for brands will become a significant ranking factor #mpsis

— elisabeth osmeloski (@elisabethos) December 10, 2011

(Lauren Kelley, Social Media Lead for Google+, Mediapost Search Insider Summit, 12/10/11)

That should clear thing up enough to get you started.

You can learn more about Google’s social search here:

Read more from our Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series!

This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

Yesterday I completed my 2011 New Year’s Resolution!

Did you have a resolution this year? Did you complete it? Are you thinking about a new resolution for next year?

Last year, right around this time, I resolved that in 2011 I would start running again. I had gotten out of my normal work out routine and I knew I needed to do something that would be more of a long-term solution, so I committed to completing one 5k each month for the entire year.

I was nervous about this resolution because it was a year-long commitment; it felt big. But I started sharing my resolution with my friends and my family and most everyone seemed supportive. There were a few people who thought I was crazy and I am sure thought I would do it for a couple of months and then just stop. But it was also those people who gave me a little extra fire, like I had something to prove.

I quickly signed up for my first 5k in January so I couldn’t change my mind. I showed up and I finished. I felt good about that because I knew that I had already started reaching my goal. My time wasn’t the best and I walked a lot of it, but I had completed a 5k!

It’s like starting anything, whether you want to start using social media or start a blog, sometimes you just have to start. Then once you’ve started you can assess what you need to do to get better.

If you’re going to set some goals next year here are some things I that I learned that might be helpful:

• You need support. You need to have other people know what your goals are and believe in you. It’s hard to do it alone. If it weren’t for the familiar faces at the finish line or my running buddies I may not have pushed myself as hard. If you are setting goals for you and your team; make sure everyone is all on the same page.
• You need milestones. This particular resolution made it a bit easier to have milestones; I counted each month as a milestone. You can’t set a general goal, it needs to be specific and you need to understand when you’ll check in to assess where you are in accordance to the finish line. So if your goal is to have more revenue in 2012, decide how much more money you want to make and what dates you will check in to review whether you are on your mark or not.
• It’s a mental game. Just like most goals, it does require work to get there, but what I realized is that your head can sometimes be your biggest downfall. Maybe you’re not getting where you want fast enough or have had a fallback and then your brain does this, “Well, you’re failing or have already failed, so what’s the point with carrying on?” Most of the time this is when our New Year’s Resolutions fizzle out. But this is when you need to fight back and remember why you made that goal in the first place. Just like the end of a year marks a fresh start, remember that so does the end of a day. Sometimes I would get down on myself for not having the time to run between each monthly race and even during races sometimes I just wanted to stop and walk. But I remembered that I made this goal for a reason and that I had people that believed in me and it pushed me to carry on.
• Be proud of each step. Yesterday wasn’t the first time this year that I allowed myself to be proud of what I accomplished. I allowed myself to be proud every time I finished a race and completed a milestone. I was proud of myself the first time I ran the entire race without walking or when I beat my best time. It’s the small victories that led me to finishing my last race yesterday. Don’t wait until you have “succeeded” to be proud of yourself; be proud each time you make better decisions that will help you get closer to reaching your goal.
• You have to believe. There’s no point in making a goal for something that you don’t believe will be accomplished. You have to believe in yourself or, if you’re setting goals for your team, you have to believe in them. At the end of the day, I didn’t make the resolution for anyone else but myself, I needed to be my biggest supporter and I needed to believe that I could do it.

Are you thinking about your new year’s resolutions? What goals do you want to accomplish next year? Whatever they are, whether they are in business or personal goals, take into account the tips I noted above; stay committed and determined and be assured that you will complete your resolution. Good luck!

Enjoy more from our Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series!

This is an entry in our daily Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series. Each day your favorite marketing elves will focus on a new topic to get your internet marketing in order before the start of the new year.

During a pretty brutal return home from SMX Social Media in scenic Scottsdale this week, I started reviewing notes of easy takeaways that I could start implementing right away. One presentation that resonated was by Courtney Seiter from Raven Tools.

We use Raven Tools along with many others here at Hall, and having used Raven for a number of years now, I happen to be a big fan. One tool she shared is the very cool – and very free – platform, Storify. Of course she already used Storify to sum up the social trends shared this week (great minds think alike).

So I thought I’d use Storify to aggregate the tweets about social tools and tracking resources discussed at SMX this week:

View other posts from our Internet Marketing Advent Calendar series!