1. Brand Awareness

Social Media is a powerful tool to create awareness for your business. With over 1 billion members on Facebook, your business has a chance to potentially reach a very large target market. Although the potential reach is very large, it doesn’t necessarily mean you will be able to reach everyone over night. Business owners may get discouraged, especially ones that are well established offline, because the process of building a good brand awareness strategy on Facebook takes time. Starting a “Page” on Facebook is like starting your brand awareness strategy from scratch. Think of it in terms of the early stages of your business, you will need to build up a community of brand advocates over time with a long-term strategy.

Thousands or even millions of people may be aware of your business offline, but these same people won’t necessarily know that you exist on Facebook. In order to be effective on Facebook you must merge traditional efforts with efforts on Facebook. Let your customers who come into your business know that you are on Facebook. Incentivize them to go and “like” your page. Social media is an important distribution network that needs to be completely integrated into every other form of your marketing strategy. Most importantly, do not be discouraged if your page doesn’t get 1000 “likes” overnight; or even in the first month. Posting consistent content, interacting with customers, and providing value outside of trying to sell will organically establish a community of brand advocates for your business over time.

2. Extraordinary Real-Time Customer Service

Channel Customer Relationship Management(CRM) is perhaps the most important part of running a business. Your customers are the heart and soul of the company because in reality they are the ones buying your products/services and paying the bills. Simply having an awesome product isn’t going to cut it. You need a way to provide customer service in a timely and effective manner. Customers are going to have questions and problems that they are looking to solve immediately.

Facebook is a perfect tool for businesses to answer the questions and solve certain problems their customers may have in real time. When a customer has a problem with your product or service they usually will turn to social media to vent their problems on your wall and to their friends. If these questions or problems are left unanswered you are potentially losing that customer and all of their friends. Facebook allows you as the business owner to guide the conversation by responding to these questions and problems in a timely manner. Facebook is about building and managing relationships with customers through an environment driven by two-way dialogue. Actively engaging your customers on Facebook can transform a bad customer experience into a positive brand advocate for your company.

3. PR Channel

Facebook is a great channel to spread news and content about your business and industry to the public and the press. It is also a great hub to manage public relations in a crisis control situation. Public relations and Facebook go well together because Facebook is a public platform and the core of PR is the management of communications between an organization and the public. Billions of conversations occur on Facebook every single week. Specifically, both positive and negative conversations about businesses occur everyday; whether or not that business even has an actual “Page.”

The only way to spread positive press and manage negative press on Facebook is to actually have a presence online. This is especially important in the instance where negative press goes “viral.” Negative press is always the first to go viral and it can become viral almost instantly on Facebook and other forms of social media. If a certain business doesn’t have a presence on Facebook to respond to the news they will have no way to control the outcome of the situation. Managing PR on Facebook is all about a timely response. Business owners are often afraid to create a presence on Facebook because they are afraid of negative press, posts, or comments. What they should be afraid of is not being able to control the conversations about their business on Facebook because they don’t even have a Facebook “Page.”

4. Converting Paid Media to Earned Media

The difference between paid media and earned media is quite simple. Paid media is any form of advertising that you as the business owner pay for. Earned media is any form of advertising that happens organically. A business’s Facebook “Page” can use both paid and earned media to market themselves. In order to be effective with Facebook, a business must use a combination of both paid and earned media in order to reap the highest potential out of the platform.

Facebook uses an algorithm known as EdgeRank. EdgeRank is the deciding factor as to where your content goes, and to whom it reaches. It was developed by Facebook to limit the amount of spam found in its user’s newsfeeds. It also allows Facebook to utilize its advertising (paid media) platform and be profitable. Facebook has forms of advertising called “Promoted Posts” & “Sponsored Stories” where you as the business owner can choose to promote content to reach a greater target audience. Essentially the more money you pay, the greater the amount of people that will see your content. So why is it worth it to pay all this money for a platform that is free to sign up? That answer is simple. Conversions. When you as the business owner pay to play Facebook’s game, you gain more traction online because your content is reaching more people’s eyes.

Through Facebook’s advertising(paid media) your content is reaching more of your current audience and also new potential customers who may not currently “like” your page. This is extremely important because over 80% of posts are seen through the newsfeed alone. Most of your current fans won’t even return to your actual “Page” to see your posts, so you must rely on that content being seen in the actual newsfeed. The only fans that will return to your actual Facebook “Page” will be your brand advocates. These brand advocates along with fans who organically view your content are the true “earned media” on Facebook. Brand advocates are the earned media of Facebook because they seek out your specific content and are likely to share it among their friends. The most effective way of creating brand advocates is converting the audience that you are paying to reach organic viewers of your content. If the audience you reach finds value in your content they will actively seek you out for more.

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As an entrepreneur I often find myself getting wrapped in a never-ending cycle of what most people would call “work.” My friends and family constantly tell me that I “work too much” or that I need to “get more sleep.” Starting your own business forces you to quickly learn that “balance” is truly an art form that takes years to master. If you don’t learn this early on, the problem you are trying to solve for the world can ironically become a newly created problem in your personal life. 

Many entrepreneurs get so consumed by the problem they are trying to solve that they let their passion for their business outweigh their passion for life. Finding proper balance requires both discipline and introspection. Every entrepreneur has a unique set of priorities in their life that make up their day-to-day activities, so it’s difficult to pinpoint a specific roadmap to the balanced life. The following eight life tips have helped me personally create a roadmap for balance in my life.

1. Make time for loved ones.
Although this tip is arguably common sense, family is often the first thing entrepreneurs neglect when their schedules become chaotic. We sometimes take our loved ones for granted and make the assumption that they will always be there for us when we need them. The truth is it’s really easy to become consumed in your work and let your family life dwindle away. If you’re going to live a balanced life you need to learn to make time for the most important people in your life. Take an interest in their life and appreciate them for their love and support.

2. Make time for yourself.
As the center of your company you’re going to be taking punches from all angles on a daily basis. Leading a company full time weighs on you both mentally and physically; so it’s important to make time for yourself to unwind. For me this “me time” is essential to my problem solving ability. I find that when I meditate and focus in complete silence I clear my mind and discover great ideas. Make time for yourself or you’ll quickly burn out.


                                        Fun times at a Techcrunch Philly. 

3. Make time for your employees.
Your employees are your company’s most valuable asset. They believe in you and your business. They’ve stood by your side during the worst of times and have had the tenacity to encourage you to move forward when times are down. They are the future of the company so it’s essential that you never take them for granted. Focus on building rapport and real longterm relationships with the people who are the lifeblood of your business. Talk about things other than business, make time outside of the office to have fun, and learn more about who they are and what they stand for. Making time for your employees is the key to building longterm loyalty, trust, and stability in your company.  

4. Make time for fun.
When I’m making sales calls, meeting with clients, brainstorming, designing, marketing, and everything in between; I’m having the time of my life. Everyday is a new adventure and a learning experience that leads to new results. Sometimes those results are great, sometimes things don’t work out the way you planned; but at the end of the day you need to train yourself to “clock out.” There are plenty of fun things to do outside of changing the world with your grand idea. One thing I’ve discovered is that having fun outside of work is another key component to problem solving and idea generation. Some of my best ideas have come from connecting with people outside of the workplace and having a good time.


                   No lie this butterfly landed right on my jeans. How cool is that!

5. Make time for nature.
When everything else in your life seems to be moving at the speed of light, make time to enjoy the simplicity of nature. Slow down, smell the roses and breathe in the fresh air. Listen to the the sounds of a bird chirp or a watch river flow. Find the beauty in a rainbow or sunset. Capture these moments in your mind or on film.  Explore. Learn new things, unrelated to work. Allow your mind to wander.

6. Make time to write.
Ten years from now the rush and excitement of building a new company will all seem like a blur. You won’t remember specifics from day to day. You’ll find yourself wondering how you executed certain ideas and why you didn’t execute on others. Keep track, whether you blog or keep a hand written journal; these are the days you’ll want to remember.

7. Make time for your spirituality.
Whatever you believe in and however you observe it, make time to do so. Don’t let work keep you from building your faith. As you grow older you’ll find that your faith keeps you going in times of distress and uncertainty. It can be your most powerful tool while also helping to keep you humble and grounded. 

8. Make time to exercise.
Step away from your daily grind and clear your head. As an avid weight lifter I love going to the gym to relieve stress and get my creative energy flowing. Exercise has been proven to reduce stress and improve your focus along with boosting your energy and improving your mood. Exercise also allows you to leave your phone and computer behind for an hour or so and just focus on yourself.

Among all of these points there is a common theme: time. It’s not easy; but finding the right time balance is the key to being successful in business and happy in life. You have to find the time balance that works for you, so learn prioritize based on your personal needs. There is no master plan for perfecting this art-form, but with pigheaded discipline you can learn to improve your life balance one day at a time. 

Tagged in entrepreneur entrepreneurship startups tech technology internet lol awesome advice tips balance.

One of the biggest problems I have been seeing over the years with the Facebook News Feed is the mass marketing tactic of tagging hundreds of “friends” on a photo of some sort of product or marketing material. This usually happens when one of your friends loses control of their account to a spammer. If you happen to be the person doing this, it can easily be fixed by simply changing your Facebook password. If you happen to be the user being tagged and you want it stopped, you can easily change your privacy settings in four easy steps. 




Step 1: Under the drop-down menu click “Privacy Settings.” 



Step 2: Click “Edit Settings” under “Timeline and Tagging.” 

 

Step 3: Click “Review posts friends tag you in before they appear on your timeline.”

 

Step 4: Enable Timeline review of posts. 


By enabling the Timeline Review you become empowered as a user to control what content is posted to your Timeline. If a friend tags you in a status update, photo, or location you will need to approve the tag before it becomes visible on your Timeline. You can review pending tag approvals at anytime by clicking the “Activity Log” on your Facebook Timeline. 


 

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This lesson was built to help viewers understand the basic functionality and features of the Twitter platform. This lesson is taught by Kuhcoon’s CEO Andrew Torba. Feel free to contact him if you have any other questions or if something is unclear.

Twitter- @Torbahax
Email- Andrew@Kuhcoon.com

Tagged in education how to internet keepfightinggary tech technology twitter.

In effort to support the #KeepFightingGary campaign for a local high school senior battling cancer, we are releasing a series of tutorial videos for those who are new to Twitter. This first set will help you create a Twitter account and walk you through the process. 

 Part 1

Part 2

 

Part 3

Tagged in tutorial twitter how to keepfightinggary internet education.