Optimizing Your Social Media Presence
By
Frank Bernardo
If you are a realtor, small business, or a medium-to-large business, the number one thing you need to do immediately is secure a fan page with your custom URL (example: facebook.com/SocialSavvyBusiness). How horrible would it be if you owned Main Street Hot Dogs and, because you had taken your sweet time creating a Facebook page, you found out that someone in Croatia had already secured the Facebook username mainstreethotdogs? Lack of action = loss of an opportunity to manage your brand.
The world has gone global. Social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter allow for real time interaction and instant communication. In recognizing the potential power of these tools, many have tried to integrate the use of social media into their business. The problem is that they are doing it wrong. For example, a lot of people are doing business from their personal profile and not a fan page. This is a huge no-no when using Facebook. You are actually violating their terms of service and putting yourself in jeopardy of losing your page. Most importantly, you aren’t optimizing your social media presence.
Through the creation of a Facebook fan page, you are able to present a professional, cohesive image when clients, or potential clients, are looking for you on the Internet. Regardless of the size of your business, you need to have a customized fan page. What is the difference in a fan page versus profile page? The big difference is the amount of fans versus the amount of friends. We are only allowed five thousand friends on Facebook, whereas your fan page is unlimited. One of the best things you can do is get more fans than your competitors. This immediately establishes you as the preferential choice in whatever industry you are in because more people “like” you.
Typically in business, when more people who know you, like you and trust you, you will do more business. So, having a high fan count is extremely important. Probably just as important are the insights that you get from having a fan page. The page allows you to see how many people actually saw your post and what your reach is as well as your potential reach, meaning friends of your fans. Your personal profile page does not have these capabilities. With the ability to see insights and posts, you can adapt your page’s content to your fans’ amusement in order to increase fan engagement. There is a direct relationship between the level of fans interacting with your page’s content to page visibility. The higher the fan engagement, the higher your EdgeRank.
EdgeRank is the specific algorithm created by Facebook to help users increase the relevancy and credibility of site postings. You can take each individual post and examine its effectiveness. You can then use that information to improve your postings. In the end, after creating your fan page, what it really comes down to is engagement. If you are not on your fan page on a daily basis talking to your fans, you are missing out on an opportunity to gain potential customers and, as a result, losing business. So, create a fan page, share it with others and be there for your clients.
Frank Bernardo is the founder of Social Savvy Business and has been a keynote speaker on social media as well as social media for real estate for the past seven years. Social Savvy Business is a social branding and consulting company that helps small and large businesses develop successful online marketing strategies. His creative and effective ideas have earned him “Best Social Media Consultant” by Daily News 2011. Frank can be found at facebook.com/SocialSavvyBusiness as well as facebook.com/FrankBernardo.
