Deciding to rely on the positives of how the new Facebook changes could potentially lift business profiles, can help small business owners and employees learn to make the best of the situation and continue to grow their audience via Facebook.

Screenshot from http://www.facebook.com/about/timeline

More Attention Paid To Small Businesses From Facebook

Facebook launched their campaign to give over 200,000 small business owners $50 in ad credit starting next year. In addition to the free ad credit, Facebook is also seeking to educate business owners and advertisers on their ad platform, their sponsored stories option (which is discussed in more detail below), and other attributes of Facebook Marketing that is available for business owners.

Facebook says that in some cases, businesses only need a small ad budget to generate high returns, especially if they have a smaller or local demographic. This means that Facebook recognizes the importance of small businesses on Facebook and is seeking to create better relationships with them.

Faster Snapshot Of Potential Customers & Employees

The Facebook Timeline layout mainly focuses on what is important in a user’s life. This can help give businesses an important view into each user they are looking into, either as a potential customer or employee.

For instance, if a non-profit organization is hiring a Volunteer Coordinator, seeing a candidate’s timeline that is filled with pictures of them volunteering for Habitat for Humanity or their recent volunteer trip to Haiti may let them know that volunteering and giving back is important to the candidate and they may be a good fit for the position.

Possibly Upgraded Pages

Mashable had a good article recently about the way some business profiles could use the new layout, if the opportunity is eventually rolled out to business pages. This could help businesses be more creative and to further customize their business pages in relation to specific marketing campaigns, their brand, or new products.

While some users may be apprehensive about the timeline layout for their own profiles, for businesses, this is a key opportunity to utilize their creativity in order to further drive traffic and grow their customer base.

Promoted Status Updates

Facebook now allows businesses to promote certain posts or feedback concerning their company called “Sponsored Stories”. According to Facebook, “Sponsored Stories are regular News Feed stories that have been promoted to the right column of Facebook, where you may be more likely to discover new things that your friends are interested in.

These stories only show up for friends, so you can learn about places to go, apps to use, games to play and organizations your friends like.” Facebook claims that sponsored stories are a good way to generate conversation naturally by promoting your existing customer base’s interaction with your brand. This may give users exposure to the business that they may have not received before.

However Facebook Timeline is received, Facebook will continue to be used daily by millions of people, continuing to make it an important aspect to an overall marketing campaign for almost all businesses, large and small.

The following are some reasons why relying on social media along won’t guarantee marketing success.

News Sharing

Sharing company and product news and information solely via information will limit the people who may see it. In additional to sharing news, new products, and other developments, other marketing outlets that should be utilized include:

• Press Releases
• News Section on the Website or Blog
• Radio and TV
• Mailing List

Campaigns & Coupons

Marketing and promotional campaigns are great to grow a social media audience (including Twitter followers and Facebook likes), via giveaways, contests, and awareness promotions. However, any marketing efforts should be spread evenly among all marketing channels.

For instance, if a business is trying to grow their social media presence and is going to give away a laptop computer to a random Facebook fan.

Besides promoting the giveaway on their Facebook page, they should also mention the giveaway on their website, in their store, on their products, in employee email signatures, and anywhere else current and perspective customers may see it. This helps drive traffic and engagement by moving customers from one marketing medium to another.

Not Considering Demographics

When it comes down to it, social media is going to reach a certain demographic — people who use social media. For some companies, this may be ideal. But for a company that markets to all age groups or even a specific age group, this may not be the best way to market a business.

Even though some of the fastest growing age and gender demographics aren’t tech-savvy people in their 20s and 30s, this doesn’t mean that everyone is using social media, and businesses should marketing their brand and products accordingly.

Implementing social media as a piece of the entire marketing pie (with the “pie” being the budget or time and effort) is the only way to not only reach the demographic that uses Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites, but to also potentially reach customers who don’t even know what Twitter is.

Cross-Promotion With Other Mediums

As mentioned above, cross-promoting social media with other marketing mediums can help make it an effective piece of the pie.

Besides promoting social media giveaways via other marketing mediums, implementing an overall brand strategy that doesn’t make social media stand out, but rather makes it fit in, is what works.

Bravo TV

A good example of this is the way that Bravo (the TV channel) shows custom Twitter hashtags at the bottom of each of their main shows or events.

For instance, The Real Housewives of New Jersey may have the hashtag of #RHONJ.

The hashtag runs alongside other promotions of upcoming shows that run at the bottom of the screen, seamlessly adding it to Bravo’s total marketing of their television shows.

Bravo isn’t making a big deal about how they have a presence on Twitter.

They are recognizing that using Twitter to discuss what is on TV is now part of their viewership’s lives, and they are making it easy for fans to connect and discuss the show, together.

This is what integrating social media in other types of marketing and media is all about.

Whether a company is coming up with a marketing plan for a TV show or a new line of body wash, the underlying efforts of seamlessly integrating social media instead of focusing on it as the only way a company can have a marketing presence is what is important.

Yes, social media has changed the way we communicate; however we are all still speaking the same language (with occasional # symbols thrown in).

When marketing on social media, whether it is Twitter, Facebook, or another site, it’s important to “go back to the source” and remember the reason why social media became so popular in the first place — to create personal connections. One of the best ways to do this is to help people online rejoice in not only their everyday lives, but also the major milestones they and their family go through.

Recognizing these milestones as celebrations and marketing opportunities can help businesses make a lasting impression on their customers while also exposing their kind actions to their other customers or connections on social networking sites.

Graduation

Graduations are a major life event that happens every spring. Whether it is high school, college, or beyond, graduations are usually celebrated in a big way by families.

Take advantage of graduation season by running a Facebook Ads campaign that advertises to users who put their graduating year as the current year in their education section.

Also, creating a custom Twitter hashtag campaign that offers ‘new grad’ prize entries for Twitter users than tweet what they are excited for most about college or the ‘real world’. Prizes could be things they’ll need in the next stage of life—resume editing, a new laptop, or a gift card to Ikea for apartment or dorm furnishings.

Weddings

Weddings are usually a once-in-a-lifetime celebration that can be a good marketing opportunity for marketers who offer products that can be used in weddings, receptions, and showers.

Taking the digital aspect out of social media when it comes to weddings can be a successful approach.

Attend bridal fairs and showcase online invitation RSVPs and registries, the ability to share a registry on Facebook or Twitter; and online giveaways, such as a free wedding for the most “social media savvy couple”.

Couples could earn votes for each of their friends and family members who like the business’ page on Facebook or Follows them on Twitter and mentions it in a tweet. Brides and grooms aren’t afraid to get their feet wet when it comes to getting the wedding of their dreams.

New House

A new house is another major milestone that most people reach in their 20′s or 30′s. Because this age range is usually very technology savvy since they grew up learning to embrace technology, social media is a great way to engage new homeowners.

Businesses could use search.twitter.com to look for tweets mentioning new house terms, such as “just got the keys” or “closed on our house” and then offering those Twitter users a coupon code or unique link that gets them a free product to congratulate them on their new big purchase.

If a coupon code won’t work, tweeting a personalized tip or product mention can also be effective: “That’s great @wonderwall7! For a fun housewarming party, check out our custom invites!”

Pregnancy

Pregnancy is a huge marketing opportunity for those who make baby or children’s products, but thinking outside the box on this one can also help businesses in other industries.

For instance, asking Facebook fans what cleaning product has helped them clean up kids’ messes or mentioning that a hospital network uses a certain brand’s satin sheets in their maternity wards can also bring up unique ways to reach out to customers.

In addition, a clothing manufacturer or fitness apparel website could also market their maternity wear to expecting mothers who mention their pregnancy on message boards/forums or Twitter.

The marketing opportunities to connect with people who are experiencing life-changing milestones can be great. Focusing on the positive and choosing to celebrate with the audience can be the best approach. Try not to make connections cheesy, but genuine. I’m sure customers will appreciate the gesture.

Images, used under license:  Graduation (via Shutterstock.com), Wedding by Flickr user @2sistersphotopro & Pregnancy by @meemal, under Creative Commons.

Photo Courtesy of PRSarahEvans.com

Besides TV shows, news, or sports stories, harnessing the power of hashtags can lead to serious exposure and gains for a business or individual.

For example, Sarah Evans of PR Sarah Evans hosts #journchat, a weekly twitter chat using that hashtag for journalists, PR professionals, and bloggers to discuss topics and questions related to the industry.

This weekly “tweet-up” has helped Sarah Evans become a recognized and respected social media and public relations consultant, named as one of Forbes’ 14 Power Women to Follow on Twitter.

Utilizing Evans’ ability to provide a place for journalists, PRs, and bloggers to talk about topics they are passionate about can help businesses create a community for enlightening conversation in the company’s industry.

Larger companies can host tweet-ups with a custom hashtags to answer customer questions. Hashtags not only allow for an easy way for others and those involved to keep track of the conversation, but they also allow more exposure for the hashtag itself—by being included in a user’s tweet, his or her followers will see the hashtag and this may cause them to start participating in the conversation.

Graphic Courtesy of http://www.recruitingreach.com

If the hashtag includes the company’s name, this provides name exposure and recognition.

Additionally, if a user RTs a company’s tweet that includes the hashtag as well, the company is not only getting an @ mention, but their hashtag remains visible.

Clearly, making weekly hashtag tweet-ups part of a company’s overall Twitter strategy can help build community and increase social media brand exposure.

Another way to utilize hashtags is in social media campaigns is when running a promotion or contest. Give Twitter users an entry for every tweet they send that includes the hashtag.

Running a non-profit campaign is also a successful way to raise money for causes the company believes in while also gaining @ mentions:

Whether it is hosting a tweet-up, answering customer questions, running a giveaway, or raising money for a good cause, utilizing hashtags can help businesses keep track of conversations, raise brand awareness, and garner ideas from other Twitter members for new products or ideas.

Photos Courtesy of: PRSarahEvans.com, Recruiting Reach and @Wonderwall7 (me on Twitter!)

However, these types of experiences are meant to be social events, not electronic milestones that are captured solely by profile updates and number of likes.

So how can businesses find the “fine line” between embracing those who share their live entirely online while also still enrapturing them into a physical, in-person experience?

The answer lies in the intertwining of digital sharing with a person’s electronic network and making sure that a customer has the best in-person experience they possibly can.

1. Require More Action. For instance, many Houlihan’s (a midwest American restaurant chain that began in Kansas City) offers customers a free plate of frites for every check-in on FourSquare. How can Houlihan’s set themselves apart from other restaurants offering deals for check ins? Up the ante. Give mayors 25% off their entire order. Have customers show their server a tweeted picture on TweetPic of their table posing with Houlhan’s menus. Allow for brand saturation in instant memories– that is a photo of a happy hour with friends that might not have been recorded had Houlihan’s not offered the deal.
2. Inspire Conversation. Use online media to get people talking in situations where it may be awkward at first. At an industry conference, give away t-shirts where users write in their Twitter username or website URL with a sharpie. Have trivia questions at the beginning of group employee orientations that require users to use their smartphones or to share a fact about their online self (eg. “How many Twitter followers do you have?”)
3. Don’t Make Everything About Social Media. Find creative ways to tie-in a company’s social media presence, without making it the main message. Business cards are a great example of this. An employee’s name, phone, and email should still be the crucial information here, necessarily the company’s URL or the reminder to “Follow us on Facebook!”. Should a banner at a company-client mixer simply say, “We are on FourSquare!”? Or would a better use of banner resources be something like, “We offer 10% off all color letterpress invitations we offer for every FourSquare check-in”. Give customers a reason to connect on social media. Simply telling them to do so doesn’t give as much initiative as the answer to WHY does.
4. Stay as Up-To-Date As Your Industry Is. An Internet marketing business may have more clients who know about Scvngr than a company that sells semi-truck tires. Many semi-truck tire customers may not even know about Twitter. Hence, focusing resources on an up-to-date Twitter account may not be the best use of resources. Be up-to-date with customer’s interests and what they use most of instead of trying to stay up-to-date with technology as a whole, which changes by leaps and bounds every year.

The possibilities to intertwine social media and other marketing efforts (and in-person experiences) without making it overwhelming are endless.

Focusing on core customer demographics and what they are actually using has a lot more benefit than diving headfirst into all social media networks out there and hoping one or two of them get the company more new and returning customers who enjoy interacting online.

What are some other ways companies can use social media without letting it run their entire marketing and customer interaction strategy?

Images Courtesy of: Tribute Media and Scvngr.

GetGlue makes it easy to share their sports related check-ins via Foursquare and Twitter and more check-ins will lead to sports-related stickers, Fan and SuperFan status, and even Guru designation.

More Sports Partnerships

Besides Foursquare integration, GetGlue announced partnerships with the NHL, Showtime Sports, FOX Sports, the NFL Network, Speed, Fuel TV, Speed, the San Antonio Spurs, and Turner Sports, who handles the NCAA tournaments.

This partnership and major overall update allows users to integrate their Foursquare and GetGlue check-ins, so users can now post updates that include what they are doing, where they are doing it.

This goes beyond sports events, especially because GetGlue allows users to check into not only televised events, but also movies, books, and music.

Examples include:

• “I am watching “The King’s Speech” (GetGlue) @ AMC Theatre (FourSquare)”
• “I am reading “The Hunger Games” @ “New York Public Library”

More Initiatives & Rewards

The GetGlue iPhone and website update also showcases several new features that promote user activity.

According to GetGlue, the update includes:

• Check-ins: New check-in flow including Recent Check-ins, Featured Stickers and Fan Club.
• Rewards: Tiered rewards and specials for all GetGlue fans of shows, teams, movies, etc.
• Suggestions: New Suggestions screen featuring fresh weekly picks based on user’s tastes.
• Trends: Trending shows, movies, music, books, etc. refreshed every 10 minutes based on activity on GetGlue.

Impacting The Social Web

As I mentioned in my previous column, Engaging in Entertainment Social Networks, which was about the growth of these types of check-in services, GetGlue’s integration with Foursquare gives them a major leap forward when it comes to combining all social networks.

Their “Trending” feature is similar to Twitter’s Trending Topics, and ‘Suggestions’ is reminiscent to Facebook’s Suggested Friends feature.

Badges and Rewards provide the initiative that has made FourSquare and Gowalla so successful.

GetGlue’s interpretation of what works for other social networks and making it work for the entertainment social network vertical allows them to enjoy all the collaboration tools of Twitter or Facebook while remaining a valuable and popular social networking tool.

There are many places on Twitter that may be the last thing to think about when it comes to starting a Twitter account. However, because Bing and Google now count tweets, Facebook posts, and other social media activity in their search results, search engine optimization is more important than ever.

The SEO’d Twitter Profile

The profile is the starting point to any successful profile. Incorporate as many keywords as possible, because when a Twitter profile shows up in search results, Google will sometimes use the bio portion of the profile for the description. Utilize the best keywords available by creating a list of specialties or services.

As you can see from Mayor Bloomberg’s bio, he lists his main interests and job responsibilities and makes himself easy to find. And even though his most important and obvious title, Mayor of New York City, is what most people know him as, listing his other interests will make his bio show up in other bio search results by users who most likely weren’t searching for him Mayor Bloomberg specifically.

SEO Your Hashtags

Hashtags are an easy way to implement keywords. Marketing campaigns now create customized keywords for events and many people add keywords at the end of their tweet. This is useful when the blog title or content you are sharing doesn’t list any relevant topic keywords.

Including hashtags that are broader and name the industry may make tweets easier to find. Additionally, naming specifics as hashtags in generic titles can also help. A good example would be an article titled, “Search Engine Traffic Metrics for 2011 http://URL.com #google #bing #ask”

Additionally, utilizing the important words that are already in a tweeted blog title or message can save character space.

Try to choose hashtags that are the most important keywords in the tweet and overall content that is being promoted. Hashtags make it easy to search by topic and will increase search result frequency and relevancy to the target audience.

Vanity Links

When it comes to SEO, sometimes simply tweeting the pre-defined blog post and URL may not be enough to get the clicks, traffic, and re-tweets that it deserves. Using custom vanity links from services such as Bit.Ly Pro and Cli.gs that allow for custom endings can help incorporate keywords into shortened URLs, which may hold SEO value.

While there is no concrete proof that these shortened links can lead to being shown in search results, doesn’t http://cli.gs/10-top-seo-blogs look a lot better than http://cli.gs/b453jfwhy?

Twitter Lists

Lists are also another area where it doesn’t hurt to incorporate SEO. When creating lists of Twitter users, use keyword rich list titles, especially since these appear on your profile. Be sure to put dashes between words:

My lists use dashes and are quick to the point. Lists with run-on words, such as “ignitesocialmedia”, are harder to read. Also, avoid slang and shortened words such as “junkies” and “tech”— these words aren’t searched for often.

Bios, hashtags, lists and customized links are all easy ways to incorporate SEO techniques into Twitter. While some have been proven to work, such as keyword-rich bios and keywords in tweets, these other areas could stand to get more attention SEO-wise from Google and Bing and will continue to rise in importance.

Image Courtesy of Miso

Think of it as if the Facebook status post and Foursquare had a baby, and it was a lazy couch potato who wanted to check in to TV shows like Lost and movies like The Green Mile when it shows for the thousandth time on AMC.

This couch potato wants to see who else is watching what they are watching, and maybe they want to talk about it online. Or just maybe, they see that their friend is watching the Lakers game too, so they text them and tell them to come over so they can watch it together.

Users Check In, Advertisers Cash In On Entertainment Events

Couch potato or not, entertainment social networks have created a community of TV, sports, and movie watchers who love “checking in” to what they are watching.

Just like with FourSquare and Gowalla, sites like Miso and GetGlue offer badges and rewards for checking into certain TV shows or ‘events’, like the Super Bowl.

These fast-growing communities have some great opportunities for advertisers and sponsors of televised events.

Tie-In Products & Branding

When it comes to tying in products with TV shows and movies, the options are endless. How about Tostitos offering a coupon to each person for checking into Monday Night Football? Or ESPN offering a discount subscription to users who check into SportsCenter or one of their other programs more than 5 times?

Besides product offers, companies and TV channels are sponsoring badges that users can post on their profile. HBO had badges for users who check into their hit shows like Entourage last summer, and Miso recently offered a hot tub badge for users that checked into the movie Hot Tub Time Machine.

For many companies that offer products with pair nicely with TV shows or events, making the leap from print advertising to sponsoring special discounts on entertainment social networking sites seems to be an easy leap, especially if the user has the chance to promote their rewards on their own profile and out to Twitter and Facebook. A user with a large connection group has the ability to make a free bag of tortilla chips go a long way.

Dealing With Dishonesty In Social Rewards

Even though there is some concern between marketers about users creating ‘fake check-ins’ on sites like FourSquare and Miso, but one of the greatest rules of marketing is that you need to trust your customer.

If a user has enough dedication to check into SportsCenter 5 times, don’t you think they deserve a 2 year subscription to ESPN magazine for the price of one year? After all, they were thinking about ESPN at least once a day for several days in a row. If that isn’t top of mind, I don’t know what is!

While several companies are holding out on regularly spending advertising budgets on social networking sites, it is worth to note that they only continue to grow while also providing a strong proof of conversion.

Billboard and commercial advertising don’t have the same type of digital trails that online advertising and sponsorship does, especially when it comes to tracking referring sites on a company’s traffic analytics.

Going Beyond TV

While GetGlue has gone beyond TV and allows their users to post music they are listening to and books they are reading, it is the TV entertainment sector of these websites that make them stand out. There are already several social book sites (like GoodReads) and being able to ‘check-in’ to newspapers or magazines is sliding into the realm of the Facebook Like button that is already on several online news articles and blog posts.

GetGlue and Miso will continue to find success in the community engagement around TV shows and movies, as these are offline social experiences that make people want to talk about them.

Watching TV and movies with family and friends is an American tradition and a social norm that has existed since its invention.

Being able to share what a user is experiencing with his or her social network initiates conversation and allows for companies to take advantage of the products that are regularly used while watching TV or movies.

Offering incentives like coupons and badges make it worthwhile for the user while providing possible increases in sales and valuable demographic data on their customer base.

Other Entertaining Social Sites To Check Out

Besides GetGlue and Miso, if you are interested in entertainment-based social networking sites, I would also recommend TunerFish and Philo as well. If you know of any others, feel free to post them in the comments below.

The Apple iPad and other tablets like the HP Slate and the Amazon Kindle are finally providing affordable mobile connectivity to the internet for those who may have not seen a need for an internet-capable phone. With a bigger screen, touchscreen QWERTY keyboard (and the ability to attach a full-size apple keyboard) and iLife capability, tablet devices are making it easy for older consumers and businessmen and women to justify purchasing an iPad instead of an iPhone, Blackberry, or Palm Pre. While the price point is above some netbook computers (especially the Acer brand), the iPad exemplifies the pent-up demand to meet a simple need: constant online connection.

The iPad is just another mechanism for people to communicate from anywhere—the airport, coffee shops, long car rides—wherever. Because it already supports iPhone applications like Facebook Mobile and TweetDeck, it will be easy for social media users to integrate the iPad into their everyday online social media activities. However, even though this is a mobile device, it may not be as logical to bring an iPad out of a bag or purse while in a business where texting and using a cell phone is more acceptable, like while standing in line in the grocery store or waiting at a stop light while in traffic. However, the iPad’s size may be just right for those looking for a mobile device that can allow them to do (and see) more on a bigger screen and with an attached keyboard.

Social media greatly hyped up the announcement of the iPad, and it could certainly help it become successful once it launches in the Spring of 2010. Tweets, posts on Facebook, and emails may have the tag “sent from my iPad” furthering the conversation between iPad owners and their online contacts. Furthermore, making the option to share documents, images and text from iLife to contacts on LinkedIn, Facebook, and other social media sites may help the iPad bridge the gap between desktop publishing and online communication. There are many opportunities to harness the power of mobile web and reach out to the users who are now using it for hours a day.

How to prepare for the coming wave of tablets

Tablets are going to be the next big thing, but they will not replace computers, netbooks, or cell phones (including smart phones). That said, social media activity on the iPad will be different than that on a cell phone, as mentioned above. Social media on the iPad and other tablets will be mainly about sharing information and files—things like e-books, links, documents, etc., instead of details about our lives—status updates about what you’re eating, tweets about what the dog is doing and other chatter that clutters up the social media space. Social media use on the iPad will most likely be more professional—happening when users are sitting down and have time to concentrate. In addition, the iPad will most likely initially be purchased by adults and working professionals because of its bigger screen and simplistic navigation, making it more popular with the crowd that uses social media services like LinkedIn and Facebook to network instead of share information about their personal lives with friends.