Traditional media vs. Social Media
Traditional media is not going away. Social media is not going away. Here’s a visual: traditional media is like the older brother who has to get used to his new, loud and intrusive brother. However, as with most siblings, they learn pretty quick how to work together to get what they want from their parents/audience.
Not sure how to integrate the two for your business? Here are 3 ideas to get you started on the right path:
Use traditional media to promote your social media presence. It takes 7 “touches” before a typical audience receives the message you’re trying to get out. Some ideas:
~QR code in a print ad directing them to one of your social media platform pages (FB fan page, Google + page). This is great if you’re having a contest.
~Put your Facebook page URL on your billboard/print ad.
~Don’t forget to add all your social media accounts to your invoices, service agreements, etc.
Test out a new product on your social media followers to get feedback before advertising through traditional media outlets. This lets your social media audience feel like they have a special voice in your company.
Promote changes you’re making in your product/service/company due to social media conversations with customers. This tells your customers that their opinions matter and you use social media to build relationship.
As with any kind of marketing strategies, you have to follow through. If you are going to tell your customers that “we’re listening to you!”, then you better go above and beyond that.
I hope these ideas start generating thoughts that are specific to your business culture. I’d love to hear how you are using both medias to reach your audience!
Backup your Facebook Account
Ah, Facebook. Whether you use Facebook for business or pleasure, it takes a lot of work. It also holds so much of your memories, trials, successes and photos. I know, personally, I would cry like a baby if it up and… *POOF*…disappeared. As with anything else on your computer: backup, backup, backup!
Downloading all your information from Facebook is actually very easy:
1. While at Home (your update stream is showing), scroll all the way down to the bottom until you see a bottom menu bar. Click on Privacy.
2. On this page, one of the options is Interactive Tools. Click on this link.
3. Download all your information. A window will pop up that says they will be emailing you when the download is ready. It took about an hour for me to get that email.
4. Click on the link in your email. It will ask for your password for security reasons. Then download to your computer (facebook-username.zip)
It downloads anything you have ever put on Facebook. I’ve never had any issues with Facebook losing my information, but I know of other’s that have had to battle this with Facebook…and we all know the great customer service that Facebook extends. (!)
Cheers!
Finding Images for Blog Posts
Whether you fear the crack down of the FTC or you just have sound ethics, you have to be very careful where you find your images and how you give credit where credit is due. There are actually quite a number of ways you can go with this and I suggest you dig around. I have used and like the following 2 options and want to share them with you.
Zemanta: I use WordPress for all my blogs and I really like the Zemanta plugin. This will bring up a sidebar in your post development page. You can type in a keyword to search for that right image or just start typing and it will pick up keywords and start showing images. If you choose one, it will automatically be added to your post with credit linking back to the right site. I know…very cool. Of course Zemanta is so much more than just this function. I suggest playing around with it.
Compfight: I’ve heard a mixed reaction to this one, but it works for me. Compfight is a site that will go out and pull Flickr images that fit your keyword search. So why not just go to Flickr for your search anyway? Compfight uses the Flickr API to pull it down in a more visually stimulating way. I can mouse over the images and it gives me the size and if I click on the image I want, it takes me directly to that Flickr account so I can credit them properly (Be sure to use the Creative Commons filter in the left sidebar).
It depends on your needs as to which one is more useful for you but please remember to always credit (link to) the person who placed the image online. It’s not only good etiquette, but it’s the law.