S-T-R-E-T-C-H

Today I completed “Ring 2″ of my newest program, The 2012 Marketing Olympics. This ring is all about your social media profiles, and a webinar platform was perfect for this discussion. This project has been a lot of fun to put together, and there are so many great ideas with this theme. I’ve got to give a special shout out to my Mastermind buddies, my VA, and a local marketing friend. Without their not-so-gentle prodding, it wouldn’t have gone from conception to fruition in under a month…….Ta-Da!

So, today I want to talk about stretching yourself. (I believe I need to let the hem out of my pants now, I’ve grown that much.) Of course, it’s been a lot of long hours, and a lot of feedback in phone calls and emails, but I can say that this one is in the bag now.

One of my reasons for creating this program (besides just wanting to get all of this information out to my peeps) was to try out some new marketing tools this year, and this has been a combination of a LOT of them, with more to follow.  I did some advertising for the Marketing Olympics that I had never done before,  and also crafted and held a 2-part mini series leading up to the event. All very fun, but I must admit, I’m glad to have a few days until the next session; there are two more weeks of the main event, and my brain still spins long after I close my eyes at night.

A couple of years ago I did a monthly series of conference calls and had great response. I even used a webinar platform that was in Beta at the time, called Linqto. It runs with Facebook, and was a really cool tool. This go-round, I am trying out GoToWebinar, and so far, it has worked fine. In fact, I can see how I might want to use this a lot more for training sessions and consulting. My focus going forward is on a lot more training, so guess I need to have a tool like this in my back pocket.

Over the next couple of months I’m doing some other new things, and right now, some of those ideas haven’t even come together yet. I’ll be surprising myself, apparently. The timing is so right for me to stretch myself. If you read my last post about structure, you know that sometimes I need to have dates on the calendar and commit myself to doing things. The Marketing Olympics has been my structure the past month, and I’m loving it.

For me, creating this program has been a Gold Medal effort. What do you have brewing for the Gold?

I Don’t Like Structure

There. I said it. I’ve got this love-hate relationship going on with structure. I know it’s good for me, but I consistently find myself fighting it. At the same time that I encourage others to set up structure through systems and processes and documenting everything in their business, I occasionally find myself staring at the wall almost aimlessly! And I’ve got systems in place…what’s up with that? (I assume some of this is the control freak in me wrestling with the free-spirit in me.)

Now that I’ve admitted that, let me add that when I look at where I have built structure in my life, things are wonderful! For instance, I know I can count on my early morning spin class (6am early!) for some cardio every Monday and Wednesday. It’s just a new habit. But I’d like to have some other workouts scheduled during the week, and those seem to fall either anywhere, or more recently, nowhere! See, there’s that lack of structure.

One place I really needed to add structure was client appointment times. I am on contract with my local Small Business Development Center one day each week, and it was making me crazy until I finally gave the staff only certain start times for appointments and asked them to offer the clients a specific time, not ask them when they wanted to come in. Simple solution, but it solved a lot of problems. As for the rest of my work days, it’s been helpful to use this same system when scheduling the rest of my client meetings. Certain days and start times only. Then I know when I always have open to be working on all of the other things that need to be done – each and every week.

The monthly newsletter I write has been an exercise in structure, and I love knowing that my VA will come after me if I haven’t turned in my content on time. My blogs aren’t done as often as I like, so some structure needs to be added there. I have it on my calendar for each Monday, but I may need to move that to another more likely-to-happen day!

An assistant suggested I mark off 2 hours each Monday and Friday to do certain activities. Ooh, still trying to get into that habit, but things go smoother when I do! Billing, proposals, filing, writing…if I focus the same time each week and do a little each week, it all gets done.

Help a girl out: what are you doing to add structure in your business? Do you keep to a set schedule for everything?

How to Change the Order of Your Apps on Your Facebook Timeline

As promised in last week’s post which covered changing the icon on your custom apps, today’s post will teach you the steps for changing the order of your apps. The apps I am talking about are on your Facebook page, right under your cover photo.

On your Facebook page, you can have up to 12 custom apps available for visitors. Only 4 of them show up in the top row, so you want to use that space wisely. If you haven’t enabled some of the canned Facebook apps like Notes or Videos, you may only have a couple of apps showing. The Facebook Photos app will always be the left-most app, and you can’t change it’s position. The other apps can all change positions. Here’s how:

1. If you have more than 4 apps, there will be a small number in the drop-down box to the right side of the app area.
2. Click on this drop-down. It will open up all of the available apps.
3. Hover over the app that you want to move. A pencil appears.
4. Click on the pencil. In the window that pops open it says: “Swap position with”
5. Click on the name of the app you want to change positions with.
6. Presto, Change-o. The switch occurs.
7. Repeat for each app that you want to move.

Remember that you can’t hover and see the pencil until you click on the down arrow to the right side of the apps. There may not be a number in that box if you don’t have more than 4 apps yet. Not to worry…next time I’ll tell you how to get the Facebook canned apps to show up!

How to change the icon on your Facebook custom apps

One of the new options on your Facebook Timeline is the app/view/tab area that displays below your cover photo. There are 4 icons that show at any given time, although up to 12 will display in the drop down area.

The left-most icon will always be your Photos. Facebook doesn’t allow that to change positions. The photo on top of the icon is always the last one you uploaded. Some companies have a special icon or photo that they want to show at all times. If that is the case, you must re-upload that custom graphic or photo each time you add a different photo in a post.

Many businesses used to have custom landing tabs. After the rollover to Timeline, those are no longer landing tabs, but exist as custom tabs and are found in the same custom app area along with Photos, Notes, Videos, or any of the other 12 available spots. You will most likely want to create a custom icon/graphic for any custom app. Here’s what you need to know:

• Size 111 x 74 px
• Can use a photo or graphic
• You may want to match your branding
• Could include a call to action (remember that the cover photo can not)

Once you have created a custom graphic, here is how to add it

• Click on the down arrow to the right of the custom app area. It may have a number beside it, (in my case, “4″) which indicates how many additional apps are “hidden” beneath the ones that are showing. (up to 4 show)
• Hover over the app where you want to change the icon
• Click on the pencil that displays
• Select “Edit Settings” from the menu
• On the “Edit XXX Page Settings” window that pops up click on “Change” beside “Custom Tab Image.”
• Now you are on a screen entitled “Upload a Custom Image”
• Click on the blue “Change” and browse to find the custom image you want to use
• Once it has loaded, then you can close this window and go back to your Facebook page window. Click on “Okay“, and you will see your new custom image in place

And that is how you change the icon for your custom app! Next post: how to change the order of your custom apps.

Got the Facebook Timeline Blues?

Facebook Timeline has made my life very busy! It took me a couple of weeks to digest all of the changes and start loving it, but I am there! Well, loving MOST of it! I’ve been sending out emails and working one-on-one with clients, all intended to make sure they were aware of, and understood, the changes. Last week I taught two separate classes at CoHab to about 35 folks who were very interested in learning all of the details. There were lots of questions and, maybe like you, many of them are trying to comprehend the why’s and wherefore’s of Facebook’s grand design.

During one of my Facebook training sessions last week, we were discussing the new capability of back dating a post. One of my class participants suggested that this would be a great tool for those times when you want to add a lot of posts or pictures from an event, but you aren’t adding them “live.” So, let’s say you go to the event one week. On the following week you finally get around to entering the pictures and comments. You could change the date to reflect when the event actually occurred. Nice.

Another cool thing I did last week was to host my first live Facebook Chat.  It was a fast-paced hour of responding to a lot of marketing questions, and of course some about the new Timeline! Some of the questions were coming in live, and some of them had been posted earlier in the day. It was a lot of fun. However, that goofy Timeline made it a little harder to keep up with things. Thank goodness for the very prominent Page Notifications (live it!) and Posts By Others box. Normally, the Post By Others box is not something I appreciate, but in this case, I didn’t have to go marching all over to see who was posting what. I could go to one place and see them all!

While trolling around looking at Page after Page, I’ve seen some really cool branding, and picked up some good ideas. And, one thing that jumped out is how much Timeline is optimized for photos. Take a look at a Page that posts a lot of pictures. I see it on quite a few restaurant pages. They tend to take snaps of whatever the daily special is and post them about 10:30am…just about that time when everyone is starting to think about where they are going for lunch! Here’s a good example: (https://www.facebook.com/ralphandkacoosbossier)  Scroll down and see how great their page looks with all of the nice photos! Makes you want to run out and upload some more photos of your own!

On another note, I’m still waiting to hear a good reason from Facebook why they are putting an old, random post at the top of my Timeline. It just seems to serve no marketing purpose and is taking up valuable real estate.

Big Facebook Changes for Businesses

Oh, Facebook! Stop with the changes for a bit. Honest to Pete. The number of Facebook posts, blog posts, and articles I have read this week about all of the recent changes just have my head spinning. And I was already at information overload, if you remember. So goes the life of this Social Media Evangelist! For those of you who haven’t been sucked into the Facebook vortex recently, then you may want to read on and get a few of the updates.

Timeline is coming to Facebook Pages, and it’s available now for those who want to go ahead and switch over. The rest of the world will see the switch on March 30th when Facebook moves all Pages to the Timeline view. Many of you may already have Timeline on your personal profile. If you do, then you understand what your Page is going to look like. For the last couple of years I have done a lot of training on how to use all of the Facebook Page custom graphic space to market your business. With these announcements, some of that is over.

• 

  Timeline View

  Your profile picture is now a small square displaying at 125 x 125px. Prior to Timeline your profile picture could be 180 x 540px. Many businesses used the large size to include contact information, as well as a call to action. No more.

• Your new “cover photo” is a nice 851 x 315px and is solely used for branding. Again, no contact information, pricing, or calls to action. Facebook puts it this way:
  • No price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download at our website”
  • No contact information such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your About section
  • No references to user interface elements such as “Like”, “Share” or any other Facebook features
  • No call to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”
• There are no more landing pages in Timeline. All first time visitors and fans will come to your Cover Photo when visiting your page. Before, you could direct visitors to another tab, such as a Welcome page. One advantage to that was the ability to like-gate that landing page, thereby offering non-fans something in return for Liking your page. That “something” was not available to non-fans. This like-gating feature is supposed to still work on your custom pages still, but you won’t be able to have visitors land on them.
• There are 4 app (application) graphic buttons showing right below your cover photo. These can all have custom graphics (111 x 74px), and these CAN include a call to action!
• Here’s a cool one! You can now Pin a post to the top of your news feed for a week, thereby driving more engagement and views of a particular post. You might want to have a weekly tip, question, or video there, or announce an upcoming event or product.
• Links to your website or other contact information is prominently displayed in your About section found right below your new profile picture.
• Fans can send your page a direct private message. This functionality was previously available between 2 friends. What a cool way to build a relationship.
• Offers – this cool, free tool allows you to share discounts with your customers by posting an offer on your Facebook page. Offers are like coupons and don’t cost anything to create. When someone claims an offer, they’ll receive an email that they then show at the Page’s physical location to get the discount.
• Premium ads: so it’s no secret that Facebook doesn’t serve up your posts to all of your fans. It uses an algorithm called “edgerank” to determine who gets to see your posts. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that they have announced a new ad for business Pages. The state objective is to maximize your reach to 75% of your fans and double engagement. In fact, you get to choose what kind of goal criteria to optimize the ad with. There are 4 places Premium ads can appear.
  • At Facebook log out screen
  • In mobile News Feeds
  • On the right hand of the Home page
  • In desktop News Feeds

Over time there may be some tweaking of all of this, and certainly more changes, big and small as time marches on. Facebook is here for a while, and most of us are going to go along for that while! Overall, I like the changes that have come with Timeline. What is YOUR opinion of the changes? Please leave a comment below and let me know what you like or don’t like. Thanks!

Missouri Men are Nice

Today my Dad and I encountered 3 different young men in about 2 hours time that were so incredibly kind and helpful. It struck me that maybe ALL men in Missouri are nice. Maybe not, but I thought I would tell you about the few we ran into.

1. For lunch we ate at Einstein Bagels, a restaurant neither of us had ever been to. Although a short line was building behind us, the young man taking our order was patient, kind, and a little bit funny as he stepped us through the whole menu and guided us through building our lunch orders. He kept asking us questions, trying to determine what would be the best match for our meal. And then when he rang up our bill, he let Dad carefully count out each penny and search for the right change in his pocket. I thought that was all superstar service.
2. While we were eating, Dad stood up to get something and knocked his water all over the table and floor. Another young man about 3 tables away immediately jumped up, said he was going to get napkins, and did it all before I could barely respond. He helped me wipe the table and floor, and made sure that Dad wasn’t soaked. Then he took all the wet napkins out of my hand and threw them in the trash. Wow! Nice guy, number 2.
3. Finally, we were getting on an elevator about an hour later. There was a young man already on the elevator with his girlfriend. He spoke to us when the doors opened, and then asked if we were going to stop on a different floor other than the first floor. He didn’t have to do that. But he was friendly and kind. Nice guy number 3.

It’s so lovely to have had these experiences today. Any one of them would have made an impression on me, but all three? Fabulous!

Information Overload!

This week I’ve been reading a lot of business books and listening to a lot of business mp3′s. My, how the information piles up! And of course, in almost every mp3 someone recommends another book or two. Stop! Let me off of this train! Luckily, I have a Kindle and am downloading the first chapters of those recommendations and will have to sort through them to decide which ones get my $$$ and attention.

On top of what was already on my list to consume, this morning I had a call with my accountability partner. (Shout out to Jennifer from Thibodaux. Crazy cool cajun accent.) She didn’t recommended a book or two, she recommended “anything from these two authors.” Prolific authors, I might add. Many books. Guess my Amazon account is going to be burning up. I can’t wait to read more about training techniques from these two; it just means I’ll have to read even more. Like I’ve got more time to do this.

So, it will likely surprise you that this afternoon I took a trip to The Friendly Bookstore in the town I am visiting! It’s a used book store I always go to when I’m here, and I decided to check in their business book section and see what was there. (Are you shaking your head yet?  “Don’t do it, Amy!”) I picked up four more books (surprise) which were on half price, at least. I spent $4 total and who knows if they are any good. Now, what sometimes happens is I read about two chapters of a book and then get bored and put it back on the shelf.  My reason for getting a Kindle was to keep from having a bunch of unread books around, but so far, it’s not working…darn.

You can tell that I am in serious information overload. Gotta love learning, though.  If it’s not in books, it’s listening to “experts” or coaches or anyone talking about anything I don’t know about. Maybe I’m addicted to it.  When am I going to get to all of this reading? I resist schedules, but may have to get myself off of the TV train and curl up with a book instead of my laptop at night.

Won’t you share your ideas on conquering the mountain of business books and audios to listen to? Much appreciated.

Golden Nuggets, Part Deux

Lisa was a cracker jack to listen to!

If you just found this post and haven’t already seen Part One of the Golden Nuggets report, then click here to get the background. In short, these are some things that I wrote down during presentations at the recent National Speakers Association conference. The picture is of Lisa Sasevich (and me!), who had a two hour pre-conference session, plus a half day session later in the weekend.

So, on with the list…

1. “Learn to be uncomfortable.” This was one of the first things Lisa Sasevich said to us. If we want to grow we have to be willing to stretch and move way outside of our comfort zone.
2. “Mobile changes everything.” Randy Gage is right. Over half of the visitors to your website or to social media are getting there through their mobile device. If you’re website isn’t mobile ready, make plans to do that soon.
3. “Social media – if you don’t do it, you will be irrelevant.” Wow. A strong and powerful statement from Randy.
4. “If you’re the smartest person in the room, you’re in the wrong room.” This quote was retold by Randy Gage and reminds me to surround myself with rock stars.
5. “Remember, your clients are buying the destination, not the plane.” When creating your marketing materials you need to be talking about the benefits, not the features. Lisa is 100% correct.
6. “I’d rather collect a lead than BE a lead.” Now, this may or may not be true, but Lisa said she had just gotten business cards about 6 months ago and used this phrase as part of her explanation.
7. “A step in the wrong direction is better than staying in one spot all your life. Once you’re moving forward you can correct your course as you go. Your automatic guidance system cannot guide you when you’re standing still.” Maxwell Maltz. This was just a quote on a handout, and it’s really wonderful.
8. “In social media, it’s not who is talking TO you, it’s who is talking ABOUT you.” Science author Steve Spangler was sharing his failures in social media and this was one big thing he learned on the way to success.

I hope you found some of these inspiring or helpful. It’s always good to have something new to chew on, don’t you think? Just like last time, if you have a favorite, shoot me a comment below. Your thoughts are much appreciated! Hello? I’m listening…

#NSA12 Winter Conference Golden Nuggets

I recently joined the National Speakers Association (NSA), and their 2012 Winter Conference was this past weekend in Dallas. Over the course of three days I wrote plenty of notes, but wanted to share those golden nuggets that some of the high powered speakers said. In this funny picture with Brian Tracy I was actually having a conversation with him, and he was smart enough to answer me while looking at the camera! That’s why he is a go-zillionaire and I’m not.

There were so many fabulous tidbits that I decided to split the list in half. Look for the other half in my next post! Here are the first 8…

What did you say, Brian?

1. “It’s funny how flowers grow out of the dirt sometimes.” Lisa Sasevich was talking about how sometimes we feel we have a lot of nothing, but keep working away, until suddenly, success appears.
2. “Don’t change your act. Change your audience.” Again, a quote from Lisa when she was talking about her dad, Eddie Garson, who is a professional ventriloquist. This was something he used to tell her when she was tempted to change directions in her business.
3. “If you don’t board in the next 18 months, you do not reach the New World!” Love this quote from Brendon Burchard, author of The Millionaire Messenger. He was talking about how the next 18 months are critical to the development of our individual web presence and the ability to proliferate our message. We each need to own our topic online now or someone will take that spot instead.
4. “I don’t think competition. I think choice.” Brendon B, again. Many people feel the same way about others who are in the same business and space as we are. Let’s not view them as competitors. They really aren’t. We are our own unique business. Plus, we’re busy. We buy what’s in front of us. So capture that spot first!
5. “Does this really move the needle for the reader?” (Yes, BB) Is what you are talking about in your blog, ezine, social media posts really making a difference to your reader? If not, then course correct. Don’t just serve out “stuff.” And, continually ask if your work moves your OWN needle, too!
6. Here’s the one that probably impacted me the most. “We need to focus. The average American watches 4 hours of TV per day. Over your lifetime that equates to 13 years, people! The cost to you is over $2 Million in lost wages. And if that money were invested, a way greater sum.” Brendon Burchard was talking about productivity and discipline. (He was moving so fast, all my pictures of him are fuzzy! This is one high energy dude.) I am vowing to not waste time anymore during the day. Get up and get going.
7. “You’re not marketing to a grandstand. You’re marketing to a moving parade.” This pearl of wisdom is from superstar Alex Mandossian. Like Lisa’s Dad, he is saying to keep on with what you are doing; get better and better at it. New prospects and clients are always in the pipeline who haven’t experienced you before. Stay with your message.
8. “What gets measured gets treasured.” This was repeated by Valerie Cade and is pretty simple. If you want to achieve something, set some goals around it, look at your performance, and measure your performance towards getting there.

Well, you should have nodded and smiled at least a couple of times while reading these little gems. Feel free to print them out and post above your desk. I know I will.

Would you do me a favor and let me know which one was your favorite?  Thanks for sharing!