Where Personal Potential & Reality Meet » Social Media

Hyperlocal Blogging Tips: How To Manage Your Facebook Fan Page

Steve — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 17:52:47 +0000

If you are a hyperlocal blogger you absolutely should have a Facebook Fan page. The benefits to having one are many as you can imagine. Today, however, I want to discuss with you one aspect that I think is important in managing your Facebook Fan Page associated with your hyperlocal blog. There are a lot of things you should do, but let’s focus on one small aspect today.

I want you to consider the Fan Page as your personal internet piece of real estate and treat it such. Yes, it’s called a Fan Page but it is an extension of you. What happens on the page and what you allow is a direct reflection of you. Protecting your fan page is like protecting your reputation in your community. If it’s full of negative, you will be perceived as being negative. If your page is lively and fun, you also will be considered in the same way. Get that into your mindset and you will be well on your way to creating a successful Facebook Fan Page.

Facebook Fan Page Tip

I’m going to share what I do on my page. You may disagree and that’s ok, but this works for me. Do not allow anyone or any business to promote themselves or their business in such a way that it doesn’t benefit your community as a whole.

If you allow your page to become a community billboard for self promotion, you can kiss it goodbye. It will become a place for spammers and you will be taken advantage of.

Businesses will be on it everyday promoting their own special interests without regard to you or the other members. Who wants to see the “Buy 3 Tires, Get One Free” ad every other day? What is the benefit of the community by allowing these type posts on your Fan Page? Zero.

I have my guidelines clearly posted but every now and then someone breaks my rule. I immediately delete the post and then I send a nice direct message explaining why I did what I did and I always offer alternatives.

Here is the note I have placed in the sidebar.
Please, read this! We support community events and local business. If you would like to post an event or promote a business, we ask that you first contact us and inquire about a promotion using the Fan Page. Please read “notes” tab at top of page.

Now, when they read my guidelines, here is what I have written.
Due to the large amount of Facebook members on the Monroe Scoop Fan Page, we feel it is necessary to post some guidelines on appropriate use of the Fan pages.

We ask that if you would like to post an event that your event benefits the community as a whole, and not an individual or an individual business. If your posting does not follow this rule, it will be deleted.

To ask for an exception, please email me at steve@monroescoop.com and give me the details.

Please refrain from religious postings.

We are actually happy to promote your business and we have some great ideas. Just contact me and I’ll tell you how we can do it without appearing “spammy’ to our members. There is a cost associated but you will be excited at the possibilities and affordability.

If you are not already a Fan, please become one. This is a great Fan Page because of our members.

I rarely have anyone break the guidelines I have set. Our Facebook page is a vibrant page with a lot of interaction and no spam. As a result we are growing in numbers every week. I personally believe this policy I have put in place is one of the main reasons for the growth of our Fan Pages. I run 4 hyperlocal websites and each has it’s own individual Fan Page. When you total the Fans from each site, it is believed that my network has the largest Fan following in my county.

I wish you success on your community Fan Page. This is the absolute first thing I would do when starting a hyperlocal Facebook Fan Page.

I’ll be bringing you more practical tips in the weeks ahead. I’ll soon be focusing on how video can make a real difference. Make sure you subscribe, you do not want to miss any of these tips.

Building My Resume In Social Media

Steve — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 15:45:56 +0000

The news partnership is described a little better at this page, Networked Journalism Project. My hyperlocal sites are one of 5 local sites selected by the Charlotte Observer to participate in this year long experiment. To say I was honored, would be an understatement. There are 5 newspapers across the country participating and funded for this joint venture between newspapers and hyperlocal bloggers.

The Charlotte Observer held a Social Media conference this weekend to a sold out audience and I was on the panel speaking about building community websites. It was a lot of fun and the questions from the audience were fast and furious. There is a lot of interest and the audience was quite diversified.

Of course I carried my iPod Nano 5th Generation and shot a clip of our closing session. One of the interesting things I noticed about the event was that I saw several local media celebrities attending and they were even a part of discussions in my workshop. The interest in Social Media at all levels is extremely high. I certainly have my own issues with the way so many people use Social Media and have written about it much to the chagrin of others. Since I have now officially spoken at a Social Media Conference, can I claim that I am a Social Media Guru now? Don’t laugh out loud Allyn & Josh & Griz.

2010 Bloggerlens.com

The Truth About Social Media Traffic And The Hype Surrounding it

Steve — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 18:31:38 +0000

My Final Traffic Update

This article and video were written and produced based on my opinion of what I call Social Media Hype. You may have a totally different opinion. I base mine on actual events that happened to me and my blog. Please join in the discussion whatever your viewpoint may be.

I thought I would announce the final results of my recent surge in Social Media traffic and non-Social Media traffic. Guess which one won?

Anyone who is familiar with this site knows that I was recently posted over at Chris Brogan.

I made a spoof video about all the hype and hoopla that was being made over the release of Chris’s “Trust Agent” book.

To my surprise and delight, Chris posted the video. What a cool thing for Chris to do for me.

The Truth About Social Media Traffic

At the same time, Allyn Hane at BloggerIllustrated.net, Internet Marketing Video Blog made several spoof videos of A-list bloggers also. Allyn was mentioned on Grizzly Brears blog, Make Money Online For Beginners. I also have been receiving some traffic from another up and coming internet marketer, Lis Sowerbutts, Passive Income Online. She made mention of our video spoofs and I have received traffic from her. BTW, if you haven’t read Lis, I would go and check out her blog. I dig chicks with attitude.

Allyn received a huge surge in traffic from a non-Social Media blogger (Griz). I appreciated the fact that Chris posted my video, but my Social Media traffic results were disappointing to say the least when you consider the huge amount of so called social media subscribers Chris has. As someone new to internet marketing, I feel lucky to received such a quick and helpful education that I hope I will carry with me as I continue to work on internet marketing in various forms. After I was mentioned on Griz’s blog, my traffic also surged and has been steady ever since.

There is a huge lesson to be learned here in Social Media marketing. However, I’m not the teacher, only a student. I made a video presentation of my Social Media surge and I hope that you will enjoy it and I also hope that the stats will open your eyes and help you on your journey in internet marketing. Your Social Media strategy may deserve a second look if you are serious about traffic to your blog.

For those who may be interested in the technical aspect of the video, here is how I made the video. Everything is Apple Mac based. I first made the presentation using the Apple Keynote program. All of the slides, transitions and typewriter text was made in Keynote. Keynote is how Apple kicked PowerPoint’s rear end.

To embed the video clips in Keynote, I used a screen capture program for Mac’s called IShowU.

Once I finished the presentation, I exported the presentation as a QuickTime movie. This is a very cool feature of Keynote. You can turn a presentation into a movie.

Once I made the presentation into a QuickTime movie, I imported it into my Mac video editing software, Final Cut Express. In FCE, I tweaked the video and added my music etc. I made this particular video in 4:3 aspect instead of the usual 16:9. The process is not a quick process but it’s very flexible. If you can think it in your mind, there is a good chance you can reproduce it in video form with these applications I mentioned. It’s not hard, it just takes practice like everything else in life we do.

Music by the O’Jays.

2009 BloggerLens.com

The Dark Side Of Social Media, Miami Vice Style.

Steve — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 20:41:46 +0000

The following video is the unfortunate result of too many beers and a silly idea.

I should have been a good little soldier and sat at my computer re-tweeting the A-listers.

I should have been on Facebook engaging my network. I should have been increasing the number of people I follow on Twitter. Yea right. A lot of good that will do you.

Instead, I sat drinking at my computer with my video editing software begging me to do something useless, trivial and of no value to the human race.

Here is the resulting video. I completely understand if anyone asks if I ever rode the short school bus wearing a helmet.

I imagined what it would have been like in the 80′s if we had Social Media back then.

Don Johnson & Griz would have been the King of Social Media.

The Dark Side of Social Media. Miami Vice Style