Category Archives: Social Media

Backup & Download Your Facebook Photos and Updates

Are you an ardent Facebook user? If so, have you ever thought about Facebook backup? You might be wondering what purpose an off-line copy of your Facebook account serves. The truth is that it may prove to be useful to download your Facebook information in certain situations.

I was concerned with backing up some of the mobile photos I’ve put on my Facebook page within the last year so I was searching for a way to backup and download my Facebook information, photos and wall/status updates. Facebook recently came out with an option to do this. Just in time Zuck!

What if you couldn’t find the information you put on Facebook anywhere else? Let’s say, for example, you took some important pictures on your phone and uploaded it to Facebook. What would you do once you lost your phone? Luckily, you can download Facebook pictures that you uploaded from your phone using the outlined method. Downloading your Facebook information is also useful because it allows you to transfer the information you have onto other platforms, if necessary.

How to Initiate a Facebook Backup

First, open your browser and log on to www.Facebook.com. In the proper fields, enter in the email address that you use to log in with and your password to access your account.
After logging in, you should see three tabs on the top right of the screen that read “home”, “profile”, and “account”. After clicking on the “account” tab, a drop-down menu should appear; select the “account settings” tab on the drop-down menu.
You should now see a page with a list of possible actions you can take, such as changing your email, username, password, etc. Find the heading that reads “Download Your Information” and click the tab that says “learn more”.
On the page that opens you will see a download button. After reading the directions on that page, click the download button.

Your Facebook information will come in the form of a zip file. Keep in mind that Facebook needs time to gather all the information it has that pertains to your account and that you’ll have to wait a little while before you begin the actual download. You will receive an email when you are ready to download your Facebook information . Also keep in mind that before the actual download, Facebook will ask you to verify your account information for security reasons.

If you’re wondering what’s included when you backup Facebook this way the answer is “just about anything you put up”. You can download profile content like your contact information, interests, and associated groups. You can download wall posts and other related content that you and your friends share on your profile. Photos and videos that are uploaded to your account are also downloadable. Friend lists, notes that you have created, sent and received messages, and even events that you have RSVP’d are also among some of the things you can download as well.

It is important to note that through this particular method of Facebook backup it is not possible to pick and choose which information you would like to download; it’s an all-or-nothing deal. If you want to download Facebook pictures , video, and information in one shot, this is probably the best way.

There is one last thing to keep in mind when backing up your Facebook account. Your downloaded file will contain sensitive information. Facebook strongly urges you to keep your data secure and take extra precautions when storing or transferring this data onto other services.

Successful Ways to Unlock Local Social Media Strategies For Your Small Business

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Using Local Social Networking for Your Smal Business

Social media presents today’s small business owner with a wealth of opportunities to find success in a major way. While many claim it’s all just too complicated, the reality is that most successful local social media strategies can be implemented at little to no out-of-pocket cost. You just need to know what works, what doesn’t and how to enter the playing field with your eyes wide open. Soon, you’ll have all of the ammunition and motivation needed to launch a wildly successful local social media campaign without breaking the bank or jeopardizing your sanity.

Quick Social Media Facts

In a moment, we’ll deal with the ammunition and strategies of successful local social media campaigns. But first, it’s time for some old fashioned motivation by way of powerful facts and statistics that should fuel your passion for social media promotion.

One in every nine people in the entire planet are on Facebook.
That same Facebook eats up 700 billion minutes of our time each and every month.
In May of 2011, 190 million Tweets were being posted every single day on Twitter.
Google+ was the fastest social media platform to break 10 million users in just 16 days after launch (it took Facebook 852 days to do it)
Foursquare boasts 1.5 billion check-ins, with millions more daily.

Obviously, there’s an audience out there. The challenge is devising a customized local social media strategy (across multiple platforms) that stakes your claim in the local market share using new, exciting ways that yield powerful customer relationships and loyalty.

When I sit outside Brew’d Awakening on Market St. I can literally watch the checkins on Facebook and FourSquare, and tweets from Twitter. There’s no question that social media is alive and active in Lowell. I’m even a Mayor at quite a few establishments myself

Unlock Local on Facebook: Status Tags

Since Facebook announces new and exciting developments every time you turn around, some fall under the radar. One that did is the Status Tag. Most of you have tagged a friend in a post or mentioned them in a Check-In status update, so you know how that works. What you may not know is that you can do this for relevant local pages and fan pages when you post. What you need to do first is search out groups and “fan clubs” that like things that you talk about, whether it’s religion, marketing, coffee or whatever your business’s specialty might be. When you find relevant groups (especially those that fall in your local market) you can tag that group or fan page in your posts, and your post will also appear on that particular Fan Page as well.

Case Study: How One Restaurant Hit Local Gold with Status Tags

In a small town in southern Georgia, there is an annual agricultural festival that brings in vendors, experts and enthusiasts from all across the planet. One local mom and pop restaurant started doing status tags about 3 weeks prior to the event, and continued throughout the week. Their offer: Bring in your stub from the Ag Expo for a free piece of pecan pie. The results? Folks were literally standing in line for a piece of that pie, and drinks and dinners, too!

Unlock Local On Twitter: Advanced Search

It’s hard to believe that a simple search tool can pay off in dividends, but when it comes to optimizing your Twitter profile for local marketing efforts, it does – every time! Using the advanced search tool, you can search all users by keyword, location, or many other data breakdowns. You can also search for hashtags to find out what people are saying about a particular subject, topic, etc. This allows you to develop a targeted strategy to grow your following and followers.

Bonus Tip: Insight into Your Local Influential Social Media Personalities

Wefollow.com is a great free tool that allows you to gain clear insight into the local Twitter users in your area. Find out what they’re talking about, who is listening and how to influence the influencers.

Unlock Local on Google+: Coming Soon – Brand Pages

As highlighted earlier, Google+ is by far the fastest growing social media site out there. While it offers a very similar end-user experience to what you would get from Facebook, there are distinct differences, especially from the marketers point of view. Fortunately, while you can do your best with complete profiles, in-depth and locally relevant status updates, etc. there is a new development in the works, Google+ Brand pages which will provide business users with significantly in-depth demographic information about relevant market segments.

Unlock Local on Foursquare: The Best Free Thing You’ll Do

Foursquare is a mobile sensation that has turned patronizing brick and mortar businesses into a game, one where you could ultimately be deemed “The Mayor” of your favorite establishment, with all the pomp and glory that may entail. If you haven’t signed up already, it couldn’t be any simpler. Just sign up at the Business page, “Claim” your establishment and create an offer and watch the site work it’s magic. Because it is integrated with Twitter and Facebook, this can translate into an explosion of traffic and interest in your offer and business.

Of course, you don’t have to be a traditional business to make it work. There is another aspect of Foursquare for Brands that work for publishers, non-profits, religious organizations, media and more. One small childcare center in Jacksonville, FL got a number of local businesses to set up as partners who would “contribute” a small amount (usually $0.05 or less) for every Check-In during a one month period and was able to bring in several hundred dollars in funding with very little trouble through the Merchant Platform.

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How Local Business Can Use Foursquare

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Companies are starting to use LBS (location-based services) as the new cutting edge marketing to attract a new crowd. The question is whether they’ll pay for the privilege. Or whether Foursquare, which has 400,000 users now voluntarily “checking in” at locations, and broadcasting that to their followers, will transcend its current “it” status among the technorati and become a lasting consumer phenomenon and a marketing tool.

Co-founder Dennis Crowley puts it this way: I think Foursquare found some kind of sweet spot between the:

intersection of social utility (Hey, I know where my friends are)
sharing/oversharing (I log everywhere I go/everything I do)
and gaming/rewards (every check-in gives you a little piece of candy).

Foursquare is designed with these game dynamics in mind, and it’s the absurd appeal of its reward that makes the service so “sticky” for us. ALSO keep in mind each time someone checks in, it exposes your business to all of their followers on Twitter and Facebook as well. That’s over 300,000,000 people.

Foursquare is available in every city (mostly in the U.S.). Right now, the service has a strictly urbanite appeal, and it could inhabit this niche quite nicely. However, if local offers are incorporated in a compelling way as its coverage area expands, it could certainly head towards the mainstream. I can also see people using it just to discover what’s around them, regardless of telling people where they are. “I’ll get sushi at Ki Sushi since Carter P. tells me it’s the best in the city,” or “I’ll hit up an ATM if I go to Trout when D.M. warns that it’s cash only.”

[pullquote]Keep in mind each time someone checks in on Foursquare, it exposes your business to all of their followers on Facebook and Twitter.[/pullquote]Advertisers, both local and national, would be smart to start thinking about their “location” strategies while there’s still a relatively open playing field. By taking advantage of mobile platforms like Foursquare, ones that engage and offer incentives to consumers within the proverbial “last 50 feet,” businesses can bring all the advantages of the social web to their front door.

Startup Foursquare is showing the early stages of what could be some very interesting things for local marketing and fun for its users.

One of the biggest things to leverage for local businesses is using Foursquare “Mayorships” (which you get when you check into a venue the most times compared to others in the city) as a way to give out special deals, like free beer, 10% off your bill every visit or even a free toy for the Mayor’s kid.

That idea continues to expand. I’ve talked with 2 local companies in the Boston area and one is a custom running shoe store that gives out a free pair of sneakers to its Mayor and another Children’s Dentist that could do a free 30-minute teeth cleaning procedure for their Mayor.

As Amit Gupta noted, a bar/performance space is doing something similar in San Francisco. But they’re also expanding on the idea. Not only does the mayor of the venue get free drinks, but everyone who checks into the venue on Foursquare and shows proof (on your iPhone or other mobile device) gets $2 off a ticket to any performance that night.

While Foursquare didn’t officially sanction this, it loves ideas like this. And it should be obvious why: It entices people not only to go to those venues, but to use Foursquare when they do. The service loves the idea so much, that it’s building support for these types of deals, or “Mayor Bonuses” as they it calls them, into the next version of the iPhone app.

Want to get your business in on this Foursquare bandwagon? Go here and register your company or venue right from its foursquare venue page. There’s even a premade Foursquare sign you can put in your business’s window.

If you need more help with this or any local social media marketing feel free to contact me.

Be a Mayor in Foursquare – Update Facebook and Twitter Automatically

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Foursquare is rapidly growing from a cool social networking app to the next big thing and everyone wants to know how they can be a Foursquare Mayor.

At first, Foursquare was only available for iPhone users. Now that there are releases for Blackberry, Android and Palm, the foursquare craze has really begun to grow. It was reported that in March the user base added 100,000 users in only 10 days.

There are already more than a million registered users happily spreading the message of this cutting edge LBS (location-based services) app across the globe. Each of the million users automatically updates their favorite social networking sites like Twitter or Facebook every time they use foursquare. This in turn spreads the messages to all of their friend’s sites. The news is spreading fast. Much like Twitter in 2007, foursquare is being touted as the next big thing. The popularity is spreading like wildfire through big cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and New York. In fact, according to a tweet from one of the developers, foursquare just had its 40th million user checking in.

So what is Foursquare?

Foursquare is a popular social networking app that people can use to broadcast their location to their friends. To make things fun, foursquare works on a point system and becomes a competitive game. You score points for going about your usual routine like going to your favorite deli for lunch. The more times you check into places, the more points you receive. Point leaders can earn the status of “Mayorship.” A Mayor gets more points, prestige and sometimes even free gifts. You can set foursquare up to work only within a small group of friends or you can brag to the world. You can also set up your foursquare account to automatically use Facebook and Twitter to announce your presence every time you check into a location or set it to quietly direct message only the friends in your inner circle.

People use foursquare to not only stay connected when going out but also to report what is going on. You can warn your friends, or anyone listening that the show is already sold out. You can announce that the new Indian restaurant only takes cash. If you are going to a baseball game, you can check out the people who are already there and read their tweets and other messages regarding the weather, food, crowds or whatever else people report.

New uses are being discovered everyday. People are starting to use foursquare as a traffic report. They can communicate if the trains or other forms of public transportation are running on time.

So what is the big deal? Why is foursquare so popular?

Foursquare is turning into a cultural phenomenon because of its addictive nature. Turning your daily routines into a game and allowing you to brag about it on a variety of social networking sites has proved to be quite fun. But the reason why foursquare is going to be big is not just because of the competition of who gets to be Mayor in you circle of friends. Business Can Use Foursquare and they are seeing the huge marketing potential.

Say a guy steps into a Mexican restaurant in downtown San Francisco. While he is checking into his foursquare account, he notices a happy hour special that includes a taco and a Corona for only five bucks. So he broadcasts this through foursquare to his friends and also to Twitter. His friends that pay attention to his whereabouts on either Foursquare, Facebook or Twitter see the happy hour special and decide to join him. His Twitter account is public so now anyone paying attention sees the happy hour special. When business owners see this app in action, they instantly realize the potential.

I often update my Foursquare account when I’m hanging out at the best brewery in Lowell. My Foursquare then updates my twitter followers and Facebook too. So 1000+ people know I’m at my favorite brewery and I might say what the special beer is tonight or what band is playing. Good information for people that know me and might want to come down and join me. I’m also acting as a marketer for the business so they should in turn reward me for checking in.

Many businesses in areas where Foursquare is popular have already seized upon this free marketing opportunity.

There are many stores that offer discounts to foursquare users. Some bars and cafes are already rewarding the users who have Mayor status with free drinks. The Mayor’s friends who found him on Foursquare get discounted drinks, the business owner gets more customers and free advertisement while Foursquare just keeps getting more popular.

This model of strategic marketing was not intended by the creators of foursquare but they sure love it. Services that reward users who rise to Mayor status with some sort of perk or freebie are now officially in the works. With business owners in mind, the next generation of the foursquare app will definitely be integrated with marketing and advertisement programs that reward loyal users.

Foursquare already has nifty signs available for download that business owners can place in their windows. You can also register your business at: http://foursquare.com/businesses/. If your business offers coupons or specials to foursquare users, then you will gain access to the company’s venue tracking system. Now you can analyze how many extra people crammed into your café hoping to become Mayor just so they could get a free coffee.

Find a Job Using Twitter, Facebook and Social Media Sites

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Job hunting is time consuming. In the past, the best way to find a job was to research the companies you want to work for, send your cover letter and resume and hope for the best. The only alternatives to this method were networking, responding to classified ads and using headhunters or recruiters. However, the latter two of these methods often result in few interviews.

The first method, networking, is still the best way to get a job. People who know your strengths are more likely to hire you. Fortunately, you can now use the latest technology to network and quickly find a job using Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites.

How to Use Twitter to Find a Job

Twitter is a microblogging social media site where you submit updates of up to 140 characters.

In addition to posting what you are actually doing, you can use the site to connect with people in your industry or who work at companies where you want to work.

Follow the steps below to start networking using Twitter:

Set up an account using your name. Make sure you write a bio. Even though you have only 140 characters to use, try to incorporate keywords pertaining to your job search.
Tweet (post updates) regularly. It does not have to be every hour, but try to do it at least once a week. Make sure you post only things that you would want your future boss to read. Be yourself.
Follow people who you would like in your network. Start with the companies where you want a job. Follow people in your industry who inspire you. Follow people who follow you and are in your industry.
Be helpful. If people in your network have questions and you have answers, reply to them. Commenting can’t hurt
Be a participant. Even if you choose not to follow everyone who follows you, say hello to those who follow you and thank them.
Find job alerts on Twitter. Several websites have applications that will help you search or subscribe to job alerts on Twitter. Examples include TweetMyJobs, TweetBeep and TwitHire.

How to use Facebook to Find a Job

Facebook is the most social of the social media sites. While the site features updates like those on Twitter, there are many other ways to share information and socialize on Facebook. From playing games to taking polls or joining groups to becoming fans of pages, there are plenty of ways to interact on Facebook. Often people can have a great fear of public speaking but they’re a social media rockstar online.

Most of the guidelines for using Twitter also apply to Facebook. Make sure you socialize with people in your industry. Remember that information on Facebook is public, like the information on Twitter. Although you can control the flow of some of this information, assume that your boss (present or future) may be reading what you write. With that said, make sure that you only socialize with people who have an understanding that you are sharing your profile with potential employers. You do not want your Facebook friends to post anything that would jeopardize your job search.

Here are some additional guidelines for using Facebook to find a job:

Use your profile to highlight your strengths. Make sure your education and career information is
accurate.
Use a professional looking profile photo. Know what photos are posted of you. Make sure there are no photos shared that show you in a way that you would not want to show a potential employer. However, show that you can have fun and you have a sense of humor. Employers often want well rounded employees.
Use the search feature to find people that you want in your network. Use the groups and fan pages for the same purpose.
Participate. For social media sites to work, you must participate. However, remember that you are conducting a job search. Make sure you prioritize networking with relevant people.

How to Find a Job using LinkedIn

Like Facebook and Twitter, LinkedIn is another popular social media site. LinkedIn focuses on business. Like the other sites, you have a profile, a place to post updates, the ability to search and the ability to join groups. However, all of these features focus on your career life. Your profile is structured like a resume. Your contacts are based on your relationships. If you cannot select a true relationship with the person, you cannot add them to your network. However, there are ways to connect with the connections of the people in your network.

LinkedIn is a great way to build your professional network. In addition to the methods mentioned for the other sites, use these methods to grow your network using LinkedIn:

Use the recommendation feature to get recommendations from members of our network. This is a great way to highlight your strengths.
Research the companies you want to work for. Look at the profiles of people who work for the companies you are researching. See where they worked before they went to that company. Likewise, use the Company Profile section to see where people tend to go after they leave the company. Check this page to find out if the company is hiring and to connect with new hires.
Use the connections to find the hiring manager. If you search for a job, pay attention to the degrees of distance from you. Stay within 2 degrees and you definitely have a connection at that company. A friend of a friend can help you find the hiring manager. Use these connections to find out more details about the job and what kind of candidate the company seeks.

For all social media sites, participation is required. The participation can be as little as an hour a week spent posting an update or searching for someone relevant to join your network. No matter which sites you use, understand that it may take time to build your network.

Start building it before you need a job, if possible. You never know who you will meet and what opportunities they will present. Building your social network will save you the time of sitting and talking to recruiters and only having interviews in their offices, instead of at the companies you desire.