Facebook – Posting from Your Page to Another Page

I Want to Post as My Page on Someone Else’s Page, but the Posts Show They Are from Me

I get this comment or the question as to how one Page can post on another all the time. Obviously the ability to promote your page on someone else’s Fan Page would be great. What an opportunity that would present for going viral.

Posting from My Page to Another Page

After some serious thought and testing on the issue I came up with a way to do it. It is not 100% fool proof by any stretch, but it can work.

What you need to do is use ShoutOuts! You may wonder what’s a shoutout. It’s the practice of posting something on your Page that includes the name of the Page where you want your post to display and prefacing it with the @ sign. For instance if you post includes @upproach; it will show up on my Page.

Here are the caveats.

1. You must be a Fan of the Page where you want to post.
2. The Page where you want to post must allow Posts by others.
3. You can find out if this is enabled by going to the Page and clicking on the Options button on the upper right corner of the Wall.
4. If you see Posts by Page, Posts by Page and Others, or Just Posts by Others; things are looking good and the @ option will work.
5. If the Page defaults to Posts by Page and Others all the better; your message will get more visibility.
6. Even though the Page allows these Posts; administrators do have the ability to delete your Posts.
7. You cannot reply to a Post on the Page. Your post will be a new post.

So there it is. I have tested between my own Pages and found this to work.

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Tom Staskiewicz is a Social Media/Social Networking Coach helping businesses, organizations, and individuals to establish and manage their Social Media presence. Your Social Media presence doesn’t just happen and will not take care of itself. Tom helps you with those processes so your Social Media efforts will work for you.

Social Media.. What Site or Sites Are Best for My Business?

Few Companies Take the Time to Select the Social Media Sites that Will Be Best for Them

I don’t know how many times I have read purported experts telling organizations that they should have a presence on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Plaxo, Friendster, MySpace, etc. I have heard them specify up to 10 sites that they state are critical to your business. Do they really know? What is their proof?

If you go looking for sites on your own you will see that Wikipedia lists over 190 different Social Media sites. On top of selecting your Social Media sites; businesses are told they must be blogging and oh, by the way, you should do podcasts in your spare time.

The reality is that there are way too many options and no business, regardless of how well staffed they are, can effectively participate in all these sites or even 10 sites. To make it worse many so-called Social Media consultants or experts spend little or no time understanding your business or helping you develop a strategy. My experience is that their interest is to get you involved in Social Media Sites far more than helping you achieve Social Media success.

What Do You Hope to Accomplish with Social Media and Why?

Before you jump into any site you must first understand or determine what you are attempting to accomplish. You must be able to answer these questions:

• Who do you want to talk to?
• Where do members of your audience spend their time?
• What Social Media sites serve your audience?
• What is interests your audience?
• What information can you contribute to meet their interests?
• How often do you want to talk?
• What of quality or value do you have to say?
• What action do you want your audience to take?

I am sure you can come up with other questions that will help to narrow your focus and evolve your strategy.

When you can answer these questions you are then prepared to start evaluating which Social Media sites will best serve your purposes. Certain sites lend themselves better to one objective or another and none are a one-size fits all solution.

The mistake that you do not want to make is to spend time in places where you will not find your customers and prospects or where you have nothing to add to the conversation. My friend, Neal Shaffer, wrote the blog post 5 Reasons Why Your Social Media Strategy Isn’t Really a Social Media Strategy.

Your Social Media Strategy Must Be Evolving

Your Social Media strategy must be evolving. Social Media sites will come and go, customers will redefine their interests, and/or you will change your strategies. You must be prepared to adapt and change as your needs change.

The reality is that businesses must pick and choose their Social Media sites with care. Just like you take care in selecting your product or service lines you must be using the same care in selecting your Social Media sites.

Social Media Has Much to Offer Businesses, but They Must Do Their Homework First

If you take the time to do your homework; your chances of success will increase geometrically.

Why Businesses Must Blog

If You Are Not Blogging You Are Missing One of Your Best Marketing Tools

I frequently hear people say that they do not have the time or inclination to Blog. That is a mistake! Blogging can be one of your most effective marketing tools you have in your arsenal. It is your opportunity to get you message out to a lot of people.

If You Think You Don’t Have Time You Are Missing the Point of Blogging

Many business people say the do not like to or do not have time to write Blog articles. While I can understand where they are coming from; the reality is that they are missing the point; they do not understand the power that is at their fingertips. Blogging is your opportunity to get your information out to as large an audience as possible. Blogging is the lead in to syndication and syndication is when you really get the viral nature of things rolling.

The Power of Blogging Lies in Syndication

Whether you like Larry King, Rush Limbaugh, Bill Handel, Ellen DeGeneres, Oprah, or anyone else you have to admit the power of their message is in the size of the listening audience and the quality of their message. Without a large audience they would still be a relative unknown. How did these individuals build their audiences? I can assure you it was not by knocking on doors or calling their friends to tell them to watch or listen. Although some of that most likely happened at first, it is not the way that they became as popular as they are.

They have succeeded through the power of “word of mouth”; Friend telling Friend telling Friend. When you start getting the word out things slowly start to roll. It doesn’t happen overnight normally, but it can. The speed depends on who you start with and what you have to say.

Using Celebrities

Businesses use celebrities to speak on behalf of their companies and products; there is no reason you cannot do the same thing with your Blog. Using a celebrity can be a jump start to your viral efforts.

What if you were able to get a Larry King or a Michael Jordan to comment on your Blog? It would be incredible because these individuals are followed by millions and where the celebrity goes; so go their minions. Now take that a step further. When you advertise on television or radio your viewer or listener may be impressed by the celebrity, but they must take action at some later point in time. If you advertise on the Internet with a powerful message, endorsed by a celebrity, all the viewer must do is click a link to get to your site or product. How much more simple can it get.

Don’t miss the opportunities; get with the program and get BLOGGING!

Facebook “Like” and Comment

Interpreting the Use of the Facebook “Like” Button and Comment Features Is Not Intuitive

Do you pay attention to “Likes” and Comments to the posts on your profile or Fan Page? If the Viral Nature of Social Networking is important to you; understanding these features is critical.

My interest in how things happen causes me to focus on what I am seeing and as I pay more attention; more things come to light.

What I Have Seen

What I have noticed is when I see a post that originated with someone that is not a Friend or Fan; it does not always show up the same. Sometimes the comments have a familiar name attached, other times one or more Friend’s name are said to “Like” the post, and other times I will see names I recognize with both the “Like” and the comment. Does that sound familiar or ring a bell with you?

You May Say So What; If So, Read On

Before I go further I will remind you that “Like”, Comment, and Share are critical to going viral. If you are going to be successful with your Social Networking you must be going viral; which means your Friends and Fans must be “Liking” and Commenting!

Why the Differences in What We See

Facebook is all about the Viral effect and that is the reason for the differences in what you see. If you have a friend or friends that comment; you will see the post plus those comments. If your friend or friends only click “Like” then you will see the post and only that those Friends “Like” the post. If you see both, then you have Friends that are both “Liking” and Commenting. If you do not see the post, then that means your Friends did not feel it was worth “Liking” or making a comment.

Facebook is not going to bother you with information from people that you do not know. That is called spam and Facebook does not want to be a party to spam or claims of spam. The same goes for your posts; if your Friends and Fans do not feel your post deserves an action; it dies with them!

Is There Anything Else That Needs To Be Understood About Likes and Comments?

For you to see any post; it must originate, be “liked”, commented on, or shared by a connection of yours. This connection can be either a Fan Page or a Friend or be a paid advertisement where you meet the target market criteria. If one or more of these criteria is not met, you will not see the post.

I Have a Facebook Fan Page; You Mean I Need Facebook Friends Too?

I Have Fans; Do I Need Facebook Friends Too?

The answer is a resounding YES!

But I Already Have a Fan Page, So Don’t I Just Need to Get More Fans?

The answer to this question is a resounding NO! It is true that you need to be getting more Fans, but that is not enough.

Before going any further let’s get a definition of Facebook Friends versus Facebook Fans. It is important that you have a good understanding of this difference because it is incredibly important to the “going viral” process.

Friends

A Friend is someone that either you invited to join you on Facebook, someone that invited you to join them on Facebook, or a third party that recommended that the two of you become Friends.

What this means is that there was an overt act on the part of someone to extend the invite or recommendation. There was also an overt act to accept the invitation or react to the recommendation. You can only be a Friend of another individual if they accept the offer of friendship.

Fans

A Fan is someone connected to your Facebook Fan (business) Page. They may have had your Page suggested by a Friend of theirs or maybe even you as that Friend. In the latter instance the Friend may become a Fan out of loyalty to you or even loyalty to the person that made the suggestion.

However, as easily as they became a Fan they can stop being a Fan. It only takes a click of the mouse to “Unlike” a page and Fans can disappear and leave no trace. Unless you have a very small Fan base, it is difficult to know who has joined or left your Fan base.

In addition to being suggested as a prospective Fan; a potential fan may join because they have seen something about your Fan Page that created an interest on their part. In either case the Fan has taken an overt action to a Page suggestion or a Page ad, or an overt response to something they have seen or found in a search on Facebook or even the Internet to become a Fan.

Fans can only become a Fan by clicking the “Like” button for a Fan Page. That “Like” button can be one on your Fan Page or one that has been placed on one or more pages of your or other’s websites. Friends can suggest that you become a Fan, but no one can force you to become a Fan.

So, there we have it. Friends belong to people and Fans belong to Pages.

Getting Back to Why I Need Friends

There are two reasons why you must have many Friends on Facebook. First, so you can suggest your Page to those that you believe will be interested in your Fan Page and second, even though they may not be Fans, your friends may still be interested in your message or know people that are interested and be willing to propagate your message through their Friend Base.

Although we like to think that our message has broad reader appeal, that is seldom the case. From my observations although your message may resonate with many Fans and Friends; only a few will be motivated to act on your message. Obviously the more Friends and Fans that you have; the greater more chances that you have for people to repeat your message.

Repeating your message over and over is critical to your going viral; Fans and Friends are critical to getting the repetition. You cannot afford to not be increasing your Fans and Friends at every opportunity. Successful people have large networks; that means lots of Fans, Friends, Followers, Connections, etc. Do not let your efforts of creating messages go to waste by not having and continually building an audience!

Do Your Blog and Fan Page Posts Attract Attention?

Are You Interesting Enough to Gain a Following?

Whether it is your blog, Facebook, or LinkedIn; does what you say make you as popular as Tom Cruise or Julia Roberts? If you are like me, I am not and you are not Tom Cruise or Julia Roberts. Therefore, your popularity must come in the form of interesting content. Something that will get them reading even if you are neither of those celebrities.

I just received a newsletter from Jimmy D. Brown talking about content and boy do his comments hit home. If we are writing for more than self-satisfaction; the first question we must ask is what do our readers or any readers for that matter want? What is going to start and keep them reading what we write?

Sometimes I feel that I have written tremendous material and I feel so great and then… NOTHING! Do you know that feeling? I end up thinking: why did I even bother?

I Digress

I am not a particularly gregarious person; I am working to change that however. Many years ago, I was told that I was not gregarious, not in those particular words, but I was told. It was suggested to me that I take the Dale Carnegie Course; “How to Win Friends and Influence People”. Being the not so gregarious person that I was I took that to heart and I went right out and bought the book.

Did I learn the lesson that I was expected to learn;

NO!

I missed the point by (I want to say 360 degrees, but that is full-circle), so I guess I missed it by 180 degrees. Anyway it was the exact opposite of what was intended. A few years later I finally understood and joined a Toastmasters group. It took me a long time to finally learn that lesson.

The point is that even if we get nothing there is a lesson to be learned and the more quickly we recognize that regardless of the outcome, there is a lesson the faster we will learn.

What Do You Do When You Get Nothing?

The only saving grace that I have found is that what I am experiencing has been experienced by all the successful bloggers, posters, and whatever else you want to call them. It can take time to reach the point that people care about what you have to say.

The difference between those that are successful in reaching that point and those that are not is… The successful keep trying until they get it right.

Entertaining and Educational Save the Day

Many of you will not remember the old cartoon Mighty Mouse, but he had a slogan…

Think about it, think about it, now YELL it out.

If you said: “Here he comes to save the day; Mighty Mouse is on his way”. You would be correct. In our case you will save the day, your day, with content that is entertaining and educational!

So what are the magic secrets to content. According to Jimmy your material must be both entertaining and educational or informative. As I read into Jimmy’s comments what I am hearing is that people want the education to be subtle; that does not mean that it is so subtle that it remains hidden, but subtle enough that it is not in your face blatant. They do not want to feel like you are calling them a fool or stupid, but they do want to learn.

The next thing they want is for that information to come to them in an entertaining manner. You cannot be boring and just “pour” out the facts or you will get “poor” results. It reminds me of the adage that facts tell, but stories sell. Stories are entertaining, they keep the reader involved.

Read your articles and posts with a critical eye. Are they meeting both criteria? Are they entertaining and educational? If you think so, but your response does not reflect that, have someone else or multiple people, those that you know will be totally honest, read them and provide you their opinion.

The Power of Facebook – Part II – Content Is King

Tapping the Power of Facebook

Just as important as those that “Like” your Fan Page are your Friends.

1. Build your fan base.
2. Build your friends list.
3. Create great content.
4. Get your fans to click that they “Like” your content.
5. Get your fans to comment on your posts.
6. Investigate and adopt new Facebook functionality as appropriate for your goals.

In my previous post on this topic I discussed items 1 and 2. In this post I will talk about items 3 through 5.

Facebook Success Requires Great Content

Great content is key to getting your message to spread or get legs of its own. When people see great comment they are more likely to comment and spread the word. If they do not like what you said it will die with them.

Content is not a given, it is something your must work on; if you are to perfect the process. Be persistent and when you get your formula working stick with it. There is nothing worse than getting a following started and then punking out on it.

One thing is that if you write something and it does not get legs of its own; you do not, necessarily, have to give up on the topic; maybe it was the format or the way it was said. The great thing is that because the topic did not grow legs, you can come back to it six months, three months, a month, or even a week later and try it again with a little different spin.

If You Friends and Fans Do Not “Like” Your Content; Your Content Will Die With Them

Anything that you write should be written with the idea that it will elicit responses. Responses are key to the accelerated spread of your identity and brand. Your goal is to expand your sphere of influence and the comments of your connections will cause that to happen.

Ergo, the more connections you have the greater the chance that your message will have a life of its own. If your content is not eliciting a response, then you MUST change your content. This is a trial and error process as you attempt to get it right. You must write and write and write; then you must monitor and monitor and monitor. Find out what works and what does not work. Build on what works and assess what does not work to see if it can be changed.

If Your fans Comment, Their Friends Will Care About What THEY Said

Social Networking is about spreading your sphere of influence. As such there is a lot of talk about getting a following, a bunch of fans, or lots of connections. While these are all important; it is even more important to get people talking.

You need to have the recipients of your initial message make comments to you or to others. Regardless of the direction of the content all of their Fans will receive the entire discussion thread, but if you pay attention to the thread only the most recent four or five comments are displayed. Have you ever wondered about that?

Here is the reason; the most recent comment will be from someone that you know; because that is YOUR primary point of interest. If you like what they said you may look at the original post and even look at other posts. The important thing is to know that the Social Networks want you to see things from your connections in the hope that you will comment on your connection’s comment and keep the thread alive.

I Am Shocked When Business Owners Ignore Social Media

I Am Amazed

I am amazed; I am shocked every time someone tells me that they want their business to be on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or any other Social Media and then end with the comment saying they do not want to have that presence tied to them. All I can say is: What?

How can you be in Social Media where it is all about conversations, not dialogue, and not expect to be involved? Web 2.0 applications, which is what Social Networking or Social Media applications are, is all about conversations. That is why these applications were developed.

Anyone Making This Statement Does Not Realize That Social Networking Is About Conversations

Social Media is about conversations with your friends, customers, prospects, and others. If it is not you conversing with them; then who do you want doing the talking? Have you designated someone to talk on your behalf? Are you prepared to entrust these communications to someone else?

If this is a large organization, where the operations are no longer tied to an individual, it may make sense. But if you are a small or medium sized business, a professional, a consultant, or an entrepreneur; you probably do not have someone that you have trained and entrusted to talk for you.

Social Networking Is About the Conversations

The purpose of these communications is to build credibility, reliability, and trust; how can you do that and simultaneously remain anonymous? Are you afraid that a customer or prospect will say something you do not like? If that is the case you need to wake up, because they are saying those things regardless. At least with Social Media you have a chance to hear what is being said and respond.

Business Owners and Managers Cannot Ignore Social Media

Today’s world does not allow you to hide! Your business can be and actually is a target and thinking that by not being involved in Social Media will somehow protect or shield you is a mistake. Things are being said with or without your participation. Social Media has become the outlet for favorable and unfavorable discussions.

It used to be that the dissatisfied customer would tell six friends; today that number increases geometrically. The average person on Facebook has 130 friends. If they post something about you, favorable or unfavorable, on average 130 people will see or hear the message.

There is a YouTube video out about United Airlines breaking this guys guitar. Over 3 Million, yes that is an “M” people have seen this video. Last I knew it was even becoming a record.

You are now a member of the viral world so stop being an ostrich and get your head out of the sand. You need to be participating!

Are You Going Viral

Are You Trying to Go Viral?

If you have your business on the Internet you objective should be to go viral. But, what exactly does going viral mean?

There are many that believe going viral is simply the process of getting on the Internet but that could not be further from the truth. An Internet presence is positioning yourself to go viral, but the complete process takes work and sometimes a lot of work.

Your Internet Presence Is Not Enough

In addition to your Internet presence you must have people that care about what you have to say; and they must care enough to want to tell other people. If you cannot get people talking about you, your business, and/or your products you have not gone viral.

Individuals, professionals, and businesses that are successful on the Internet have several things in common, but most important is the fact that they can attract a following. They have people that are interested in what they have to say and are willing to tell others.

If you are familiar with Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point” those that attract a following have connectors, salespeople, and mavens to carry them forward. These are people that desire to promote their activities. Gladwell explains all of this and if you have not read this book; it is a must read for anyone that is serious about going viral. I was at my local Borders just last night and convinced two people that it was a book they must have.

How to Go Viral

So how do you go viral? If you want to be successful, you must first realize that for the majority of people it does not happen automatically or instantly. For most of us, it will take commitment and work. You cannot get frustrated or let it beat you. Here are some key steps.

• Content is king.
• Identify your connectors.
• Be consistent.
• Encourage followers.

Content Is King

The next step is to have good, if not great, content. You need to get your readers’ attention, keep their attention, and keep them coming back. Good or even great content does not necessarily mean that it is perfect, it does not meant that you have excellent grammar, it does not mean that you are mistake free; it truly means that you have material that your readers want to read and, ideally, share with their friends, family, and acquaintances.

Identify Your Connectors

The next step is to find the connectors that are interested in your message. Connectors, as explained by Gladwell, are those people that you know that can connect your message to their other connections that would be interested in what you are saying.

Be Consistent

Establish a posting pattern and stick to it. Once per week, twice per week, on Thursdays, every other week, etc. Patterns are important to your readers.

Encourage Followers

Build a following by encouraging your readers to sign up for your Blog, “Like” your fan page, get the RSS feed from your website, subscribe to your YouTube channel, etc. Before you can go viral you must be reaching your immediate connections so they can promote you to their connections.