Open Source Content Management

Hi Shelley

Just read your write up on the 5 best downloads to use - its great to read that I am heading down the right track.

My question is ........ I work with 2 business in completely different fields.

1. Pilates Instructor (most of my time) - only me.

2. Industrial Property Broker (trying to get all the web stuff in order, mail drops, leads through web enquiries, documents in the cloud, etc.) - me and 5 other people. Hopefully when I have everything operating I can hand the data capturing etc; over to an assistant.

Do I keep one Google, Facebook, Twitter Profile i.e: Sally Ferrington or do I create seperate ones?

Thanks in advance.
Sally

Hi Sally,

I'm so glad to hear that post was helpful and please let me know if you come across any other applications/sites that you think would be good to tell our fellow entrepreneurs about.

Regarding setting up your social networking profiles, I would definitely recommend that you create BRANDED profiles for each of the businesses and maybe a personal profile for yourself. I know this sounds like quite a lot to keep on top of, but there are a few tips I can share with you to make it easier. But first let me explain why I suggest the above:

The golden rule for posting content to your social networking profiles (for business) is the 80/20 rule i.e. 80% of content should be about topics relating to your business and 20% of content should be about the business itself. Otherwise you'll end up sounding like that friend of yours who goes on and on and on and ... about himself all. The. Time. Nobody likes that.

So on your Pilates page/profile you would probably post articles about the health benefits of Pilates sourced from other websites (you don't have to write the articles yourself), you could post photos of different pilates positions and explain what areas they target/benefits they have, ect. Any information you think would be interesting to someone who is interested in Pilates. Encourage people to engage with you by asking them questions and encouraging them to share their experiences with you.

Ever so often you would post a status about how great your class today was, share a testimonial from a client, ect.

Now based on the above - can you imagine trying to combine the topics of Pilates and Property on one social networking profile without confusing the HECK out of your followers!

I keep my personal and business online identities separate - no one really cares what I do for fun on weekends (and I avoid any potentially embarrassing photo tagging incidents.) I RARELY become Facebook "friends" with anyone I do business with.

Now to you might think all that networking is going to take a BIG chunk out of your day, but here are a few tips to make it easier :

1. Stick to one or two social networking sites to start with
Learn as much as you can about how it works, the type of people who use it, the etiquette (because it does differ from network to network), and how to gain maximum impact from your updates/posts.

I suggest starting with Facebook and/or LinkedIn and then slowly starting to integrate Twitter and Google +.

2. Create a store of great content.

Spend a few minutes on a Sunday evening browsing the internet for interesting articles/pictures/videos on topics related to your business/area of interest. When you come across something good, paste the link to a separate word document with a comment. Try to have at least two "posts" for each day of the week.

The biggest problem with businesses not keeping up with their social networking profiles is that they often can't find the time during the day to source engaging content so they post really boring updates or don't post at all.

I use a great site called www.stumbleupon.com which allows you to specify your areas of interest and the site will suggest pages/articles/videos that it thinks you might enjoy.

3. Schedule your posts using online software

You can do this on a Sunday afternoon too or I usually do it FIRST THING in the morning. I use Hootsuite.com but Buffer is another great app.

Scheduling your posts using a third party app really does take the pressure off you having to post during a busy work day. But don't use it ALL the time - a nice well timed and spontaneous post/tweet is always well received.

How often do you post? About 20 "tweets" a day is average for most Twitterers, but you'd NEVER post to Facebook that many times a day - yikes! I'd say stick to about 2 Facebook posts a day, maybe one in the morning and one just after lunch.

I hope that helps you out a bit more Sally, but please feel free to ask away if you need any further info.

Have a great day and good luck!

Shelley

Hi Shelley,

I came across your post below and must say that I found it very very helpful! Thank You!

Sometimes also get a bit overwhelmed with all the social media...so these few guidelines are really great!

Anke

Absolute pleasure Anke - so glad to hear it was helpful

You're welcome to pop around to our Facebook page - www.facebook.com/In.Design.Marketing - I often post tips and articles about social media for small businesses. Good luck with your efforts!

Maybe you can have a single Facebook/Google+ accounts so you can establish your name well. However, that can stir confusion among your clients. For Twitter, I'd say separate; so your updates will be specific to your fields. I mean, those interested in Pilates may not necessarily be interested in the other. Good luck!

Thanks Shelley great info! Most people know they need to integrate the social networking platforms but don't know how or what to say. Since on the topic is the following true:

LinkedIn: Business to Business/Professionals Networking

Twitter: Mainly for Business to Customer/Consumer. Micro Blog that best serves if tweets point to blogs and articles. To gain value potential customers the content must be properly targeted to the market you in.

Facebook Fan Pages: mainly for business to customers but can be used for business to business. Great for interacting with your customers and getting call for action content and marketing.

Facebook Personal Profile: Need one to create Facebook Fan Page but not recommended to use as business profile. Most major search engines index these as social and not business.

So is what I learned but Knowledge is often not very practical.

Hi Shelley
Thank you for your article. I am looking to setting up a face book page in the name of my small business and is it better to set it up completely separate to personal page with different email address and obviously in the name of the business? I am also looking to set up a web page.
Thanks
Jill

Hi Jill,

I wouldn't suggest using two e-mail addresses to set up different accounts - you'll find it a pain logging in and out all the time. Here's a short YouYube video I made on how to switch between your personal and business pages on Facebook.

For security reasons, Facebook won't allow anyone to create a business page without linking it to a personal profile anyway.

Hope that's helpful!

Jill Fisher wrote:
I'm wondering if you were referring to setting up a regular profile page for your business. I have seen so many people doing this and it's really not the way it's supposed to be done. That's the only time that you would be using two different email accounts.

Dylan Phelan wrote:
That's true. You need to setup a Facebook FANPAGE. Search Engines index/record your FANPAGES under the category you select when creating your FANPAGE, business/organisation etc. this help people find your business in search engines or facebook. Personal profiles go under social and not business. Your FANPAGE is linked to your personal profile and you can share your post on your business fanpage with your personal profile if you wish. You can also add admins to your fanpage to help you with. You can add tabs with webpages or php that interact with your customers facebook profiles or even add in interactive games, adverts etc. It's a very powerful tool! unfortunately due to the new profile look, landing pages were remove in favour of the timeline approach. Landing pages allowed visitors to land on a certain tab when the enter your FANPAGE. So it's recommended to go with Fan Pages not profiles.