Our friend, Dale Boozer, writes a blog covering gadgets and tech recommendations. I recommend that you check it out!

I write a Blog, it covers tech items and miscellaneous things that interest me. If you would like to read some of the posts the address is. bestideastoday.blogspot.com

That’s “best ideas today” all run together into one word. I have done 54 posts this year. I can’t believe how many I have done. It is fun for me.

Lesson 15: Facebook Fan Page Interaction

Intro:

So many people are trying to increase the “likes” for their Facebook Business Page. By default they are just not as active as our personal profiles, so if you are trying to make yours more popular, you might want to take note of Brighton Ford’s Facebook Page.

Lesson:

Brighton Ford is a car dealership located in Brighton, MI. True to form, they are not using Facebook for selling anything, they are using it for creating relationships with people. The page managers put up a Cutest Baby Contest and the results are pretty awesome. They had approximately 1558 Likers of their fan page one week and increased to 2773 the next.

The dealership owners  expanded the contest, and added more award levels due to the popularity of this contest.

So the contest has nothing to do with cars, they are not selling anything, and it is one of the best ideas they’ve had for page promotion this far.

What could you do taking your cue from this successful company using social media?

Other successful fan page contests have included a company taking a photograph of a tower of cupcakes, and the first person to tag the cupcake (and by default posting the photo on the business fan page to their personal profile) got to stop into the business to pick up their cupcake.

Other offices have had people upload scariest pet photos at Halloween and favorite holiday traditions as well.

Action Items:

What is your best idea for a fan page contest? Let’s get them engaged!

Feedback:

If you have questions on these videos or any other social media topic email us at info@insights-group.com.com or you can search for answers on our website, InSights-Group.com or InSightsForDentists.com.

Lesson 14: Twitter Monitoring

Intro:

It’s time to monitor Twitter!

Lesson:

There are many ways to monitor your presence on Twitter. Here are the steps to set up a monitoring service you can use:

Action Items:
A vitally important part of achieving success with social media is responding when someone does reach out to you. When you’re just starting with social media, this may seem like a pipe dream, but if you’re not watching for responses, you may miss them when they happen. As your social media presence grows, it’s equally crucial to monitor for mentions and responses so they do not become lost. I use HootSuite as my main Twitter application, which not only has monitoring, but also stats and scheduling.  Here’s how to setup HootSuite to monitor Twitter for mentions, responses and keywords…

1. Choose the Twitter profile and click the “+ Add Stream” button.

Select the tab for the Twitter profile you want to setup for monitoring (this assumes you already have HootSuite set up with your Twitter profile) and then click the “+Add Stream” button in the upper left.

2. Select the Twitter profile & Select the Type of Stream from the drop-down menu.

Choose the “Mentions” stream and click the “Create Stream” button at the bottom of the window.

3. Check for the Mentions stream under your profile.

Now you’ll be able to monitor when someone mentions your twitter name (uses the @yourname) –you may have to scroll the window horizontally to see the stream.

4. Repeat step 1, now choose the Search tab under Twitter.

Enter in your twitter name into the search query box and click the “Create Stream” button at the bottom of the window.

5. Check for the search stream under your profile.

Now you’ll be able to see anytime someone includes your twitter name in their tweet. I use both the mention stream and the search stream because they seem to pick up different tweets.

6. Repeat step 4, but enter your company name in the search query

Repeat and add search streams for your company name, product names, your actual name (i.e, Sarah Worsham), and keywords that are important for your product or company.

The Results

Now you can keep track of what’s being said on Twitter without having to read every single Tweet.  Monitor for keywords, searches and mentions so you don’t miss anything important. Since you’re not reading every single tweet, you should have more time to respond and converse, which is the whole point of social networking.

Feedback:

If you have questions on these videos or any other social media topic email us at info@insights-group.com.com or you can search for answers on our website, InSights-Group.com or InSightsForDentists.com.

Lesson 13: The Blog: What-to, How-to and why-WordPress

Intro:

Have you started your blogging yet? 9 weeks ago we talked about it and now we’re back to give you the low down on the program that works best with your website (WordPress) why and how you should use it. Since you know why to blog, this lesson will focus on the how to blog via WordPress.

Lesson:

Action Items:

This week’s action items come in several places. Here are your assignments:

1. Read about Where to Host WordPress Here
2. Learn How many tags to use on a post?
3. Bookmark this post for when you perform maintenance to your plug-ins on wordpress.
4. Watch this wordpress training for scheduling, widgets and plugins.

Feedback:

If you have questions on these videos or any other social media topic email us at info@insights-group.com.com or you can search for answers on our website, InSights-Group.com or InSightsForDentists.com.

Lesson 12: Advertising on Facebook

Intro:

This is so exciting! So many ways to use Facebook Ads, we’re going to give you the scoop…

Lesson:

Ever wonder why you see certain ads on Facebook? This video explains how our ad system works to show you relevant ads without sharing any of your personal information with advertisers.

Here’s a link, in case you need to get to the video in a browser.

Action Items:

Do a quick seach in Ads and Pages to target some of the demographic you are looking for. Find out how many men/women in a certain age range are within 10 miles of your location. What might you want them to see in their sidebar when they interface with Facebook.

Can we help you write or start an ad?

Resources

Guide to Facebook Ads Facebook Ads Help Center Facebook Ads Facebook Connect Facebook Marketing Solutions Facebook Pages / Public Profiles

Feedback:

If you have questions on these videos or any other social media topic email us at info@insights-group.com.com or you can search for answers on our website, InSights-Group.com or InSightsForDentists.com.

We’ve been researching photo galleries for one of our clients, and came across this post, with some of the best resources for WordPress photo galleries around.

Thought we’d share, 20 WordPress Photo Gallery Resources

Lesson 11: Hello Facebook! Again

Intro:

Why hello! It’s good to see you again this week, are you ready for your next facebook lesson? Let’s check in to see how our Facebook Account is actually doing.

Lesson:

Here’s a comprehensive post about what we can measure with our Facebook interaction. Read through, and then we’ll go check your Facebook InSights.
Link to Read The Article Here

Action Items:

Send us a report (via email to info@insights-group.com) answering the following questions:
1. How many “likes” does your page have as of today?
2. What has been the most commented on post in the last two weeks?
3. Have you looked at your Google Analytics lately? What are the top 5 referring sites to your website?
4. What is your target audience? Are they represented by the “likers” of your page?
5. What do you think you can do to improve the shares of your Facebook Page for Business, and what type of content should you share more of?

Feedback:

If you have questions on these videos or any other social media topic email us at info@insights-group.com.com or you can search for answers on our website, InSights-Group.com or InSightsForDentists.com.

Lesson 10: Hello Facebook!

Intro:

With Facebook’s ever-changing layout, and the fact that other social sites are encroaching on its real-time update strangle-hold, it’s easy to forget that there are some pretty nifty tricks you can pull using your humble Facebook status.

Lesson:

The great folks at Mashable pulled together 9 great how-to tips that will help you get the most out of your status update, from official features to apps, Easter eggs, jokes and more.

Perfect for newer Facebook users, or anyone who is looking for a refresher, read on and let us know the ones you like in the comments below.

1. HOW TO: Add a Dislike Option to Your Status Update

“Like” buttons are everywhere on Facebook, and they’re everywhere on the web. But what if you want to update your status or share something that your friends can “dislike?” We know, your friends can choose to “comment” on your post, but where’s the fun in that?

The clever Status Magic Facebook app can add a dislike button to any status updates posted via the app. And if you wanted to really mix it up you can actually customize the second emotion to anything, such as “love,” “hate,” “disagree” or even “LOLs.”

2. HOW TO: Hide Status Updates From Certain People

You can select specific friend lists to see your status (relevant for work, special interest groups, etc.) or even individual people by name, which is useful for anyone organizing a surprise party.

To take advantage of these options, click the padlock icon just below your “what’s on your mind” box on your wall and a drop down menu should appear. Selecting “customize” will bring up more options such as “make this visible to” and “hide from” with the option to make your selection a default.

3. HOW TO: Pre-Schedule Status Updates

Just sign in with Facebook Connect, select your time zone, type in what it is you’d like to say, set the calendar and clock to when you’d like to say it, and presto!

4. HOW TO: Tag People in Your Status Updates

To mention someone in a status update just type “@” (a la Twitter) in the status bar and start typing their name as it appears on Facebook. An auto-generated list will then come up with people in your social circle whose name starts with the letters you’ve typed. The feature also works with pages, brands, events and companies.

Hit the name you want, complete the update, click share and the name will become a hyperlink (you won’t see the @ symbol) and will appear in blue text.

5. HOW TO: Add Symbols to Your Facebook Status

While this won’t bother many Facebook users, others more used to punctuating their missives can copy and paste web-happy, universal symbols into the box, as you can see in the screengrab above.

PC users can also access some symbols by hitting “alt” + various number combinations (on a numerical keypad). So, while smileys are yet to hit Facebook statuses, you can annoy or amuse your buddies with symbols right now.

6. HOW TO: Turn Your Status Updates Into a Word Cloud

You can share the results with others on the social networking site by posting it to your friends’ walls or by adding it to your profile.

7. HOW TO: Have Fun With Facebook’s Humorous Language Options

You can chose to have Facebook display upside down English, or, for anyone feeling a little salty, in “pirate.” Pirate essentially turns your status into your “plank,” your attachments into “loot” and instead of “share” it offers the option to “blabber t’ yer mates.”

Sadly, anything you type in the status bar won’t be upside down, or pirate-y. But with the use of some external sites you can achieve the same effect.

TypeUpsideDown.com and UpsideDownText.com are just two examples of sites that can flip your text, while the Talk Like a Pirate Day site can help you with your pirate translations.

8. HOW TO: See Status Updates From Around the World

Created by three San Fran web developers with a serious privacy message in mind, the site aggregates the status updates of everyone whose privacy levels are set to “everyone.”

You can narrow your searchable results down by gender and keywords to find out what people are saying about a certain topic. Or you can just browse the recent searches.

9. HOW TO: See Your Status Update Stats

The app analyzes your updates and gives you a tidy list of how many you’ve written, the average word count and how many times a day you post. In addition, it generates a graph that shows you what time of day or what days of the week you normally update.

Old statuses are also searchable via the app, so you can find that witty retort you made back in November 2009 without having to scroll back through your history.

Action Items:

Choose your favorite item from the list above, and try it!

Then do a status update to @sandimaki or @allancurtis and shout out about your business page @yourbusiness name so we can share it with all our friends. We’ll know that you accomplished this when we get the Facebook notification. Way to go!

Feedback:

If you have questions on these videos or any other social media topic email us at info@insights-group.com.com or you can search for answers on our website, InSights-Group.com or InSightsForDentists.com.

Lesson 9: Manage your Facebook

Intro: Facebook Lists

So everyone you know is on Facebook. Maybe, like me, you want a way to keep track of different groups. Some of your connections may be business, others may be personal. How can you use one platform, keep everyone organized and follow what is going on? Friend lists are your answer.

Lesson:

The Friend list feature on Facebook is one of the best tools you can utilize to organize your “peeps”. They allow you to categorize your friends for organization, and to make managing access and messaging easier. The best place to start is to group your contacts into different categories. *Hint, once you do this, you can limit certain people’s access to specific sections of your Facebook profile. This can be of great value if you are in the business vs. personal dilemma.

You might be thinking that you can achieve the same separation of your messages by creating two different FaceBook profiles. This isn’t recommended. For one, it’s against Facebook’s stated rules, and if you create duplicate accounts, you could be disabled. The second reason is that it takes enough time, effort and energy to keep up with one profile, let alone two…so where will you find the time? My advice is to use one platform, and one account. Just figure out how to make it work for you.

So, even if you could create multiple profiles, you will still have to come to some type of organizational plan. Let’s just stick to one account, and set up a friends list so you can be more efficient. By doing this, you can allow certain people to see your newsfeed status, and limit the people who see that you are available in Facebook chat.

Here’s how to set up lists:
1. Click on the “Account” item on the top right of the main FaceBook page.
2. Click on the “Edit Friends” option.
3. Select the “Create A List” option.
4. Assign a name to your list. (No one other than you will see the name of this list)
5. Add friends to the list.

You can create as many lists as you’d like. You can organize friends according to geography, region or location. You can also set up a list for clients, customers, suppliers and more.

To utilize the lists you should head to your Facebook Home page, and use the filter up at the top by clicking the arrow next to the “Most Recent” tab, and choose which feeds from which lists you would like to look at. You can also identify which list gets to see your status updates.

To identify who can see the status updates, Click on the blue arrow beside the “Share” button and click the “customize” option, and you will be able to block certain lists from seeing your updates. Finally, you will also be able to perform the same filtering functions in FaceBook chat.

Part of facebook is gathering as many friends is allowed, but that last one, was that a client you found through Twitter, no that was a person was referred to you by another client, or was it? Sometimes we have so many people connected to us in facebook that we forget where we met, them or through which event.

Problem solved. There is a nifty tool over facebook that allows you to categorize your friends, yes you can get all melancholy over them, and put them into lists. If you met a few people at a dental show, put ‘em in a list called “Dental Show”. Have they been found over twitter? Make a list for that too. Maybe they’re you’re staff! Make a list for them so if you need to see their statuses all in one place, without the clutter of others you can.

At your home page, on your left you will see, in the column, the word ‘friends’. Click it, then in the upper right of the page, just above your first friend, you will see the button “make new list”. With that, you have to power to identify who your people are, and, when you confirm a new friend, add them immediately to one of the lists.

With these lists you can use to check the feeds of only the participants of the list to really hone in on what that certain area of your practice is up to. Meeting and organizing people have never been easier.

Action Items:

Create your Facebook Lists for business, clients, personal and any other categories you see fit. Try to get everyone into a list, even a catch all. It will help you down the road.

Be strategic as you create lists. You can use them for event invitations, bulk future messaging etc. and a person can be in more than one list. Try not to get too specific, you’ll want a good handful of lists you can navigate easily. Start with 5-8 and see what happens.

As a part of your check in today, send us a list of your lists – and a count of how many friends you have as of today so we can add that to your record.

Feedback:

If you have questions on these videos or any other social media topic email us at info@insights-group.com.com or you can search for answers on our website, InSights-Group.com or InSightsForDentists.com.

Lesson 8: Automation, A Blogging Robot

Intro: 

Congratulations! You have made it this far! Hopefully you’ve begun to see a bit of the basics of all this social media matrix and can understand it. In today’s lesson we tie it all together and help you save your time, while still spreading your message to as many people as possible. The key to this, automation. With automation, you can write a blog or do something cool, and be able to mass share it. With one click, you can program your message to be sent out to your blog, Twitter, Facebook, Linked In, Myspace, Tumblr, or whatever you use. The more places your thoughts are in, the more people that can see them and act, or pass them on. Think of it like forwarding your email… And away you go!

Lesson:

1. The first thing you need is your blog url.
2. Next, head over to Twitterfeed.com – you can sign in with your google open id if you have one.
3. Create a new account, then start to create a new feed.
4. You can send your blog posts over to Twitter, Facebook (both your profile and pages), and to several other spots.
5. Follow the directions and you are good to go!

Bonus: Another favorite way to get your blog into Facebook is by using Networked Blogs. Here’s the link to the application. Click the button that says REGISTER A BLOG to get started. It will take you through some steps. We recommend the verification by installing the widget on  your site, it’s quick and easy, though it does take some technical knowledge. This will also import into your Facebook pages or profiles. It also pulls in a cool thumbnail of the front of your blog when you forget to add a photo. Added bonus!

Action Items: 

Try it! If you have something cool to show, use that, or if you’d just like to sample this process, go for it. Then check out all the sites you sent it to. Is it there? If yes, then voila! You now have a new tool to work with. If not then message us on Facebook or @reply us on Twitter or email us and we’ll help you through.

Feedback:

If you have questions on these videos or any other social media topic email us at info@insights-group.com or you can search for answers on our websites, InSights Group or InSightsForDentists.com.