Day 19 Assignment, Bootcamp #4 - Twitter & Facebook

[iCraft Admin]

I'm having some issues with facebook, whenever I log in, any "like" buttons for me to click on located on other people's pages disapear.

Hi Silver Workshop,

Yes. it's possible because you are using FB as a page and not as a person, if that even makes sense, ha ha...   Try switching your FB identities by clicking on a small arrow pointing down in the top right corner on FB. And then click on "Use Facebook as:" options. See if that will enable "Like" button on other pages. Not sure what else to recommend other than replacementing through FB's Help pages.

[iCraft Admin]

I've also Followed & Liked everyone today on both FB & Twitter.
I have a few tips for you guys.

• On FB when you post a link to an article or a product page, wait until FB retrieves all data, so you could see article preview - photo and a bit of copy, otherwise article images show as blank or broken...
• You can change article preview image on FB by clicking through tiny arrows below the image. What happens is, FB retrieves a few images associated with the page you want to share, and chooses a wrong image as a main thumbnail. So before clicking Share button, make sure you have right thumbnail displayed there. Bibi, I see those 2 issues on your FB page https://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Rock-Designs/213914158654539
• Kat, I didn't see you mention blog posts from Bootcampers on your FB page. Do you know how to share links on FB? I want to hear more questions from you. So don't be shy!
• Retweeting and Liking others will increase the number of your own retweets and likes.
• When you are mentioning someone on Twitter (Kat), it's a good idea to mention their Twitter handle as well, like this "@iCraft", this will allow people to go and check out that user's profile on Twitter and hopefully follow them too.
• When you are mentioning article or product, don't forget to add article or product URL, otherwise you lose an opportunity for people to act on your message - follow your link and maybe buy your product.

• I'm not only automatically connected from iCraft to Twitter, but also from Twitter to Facebook. So everything I tweet goes to facebook as well. (3 birds with one stone)

  
  Marta, that's a great idea! A win-win-win situation.  
  Can you please tell others how you've connected your Twitter and your Facebook accounts?
  The only thing I am missing on those posts is a photo, but I am not sure if there is any way to fix that.
  
• When people comment on your blog posts, share your links on FB and retweet your tweets, it's a good idea to respond back and engage with your fans.
  
  It will encourage others to comment and have a conversation with you online. All social engagement positively reflects on your rankings.
  
  For example, Google looks at how often people visit your pages and how long they stay on them. If they leave your pages immidiately, that's not a good signal. If they stay and leave comments and then come back to read your response, that's a good sign of a quality content and will give you a boost in rankings.
• Make sure you mention your iCraft store and your iCraft Blog on all your social media accounts. I see that not everyone is doing that.
• Also, don't forget to promote your social media accounts on your iCraft Blog Profile page.
• I've noticed that everyone has a pretty low number of followers on Twitter. If you want, email us your Twitter login through our contact page and we'll try to build up your Twitter followers for you. If you decide to stop, just change your Tw login.

[Silver Workshop]

Thanks Bibi. If you have a business page on facebook, how to do you follow people?

Admin, I'm not interested in having a personal facebook page so I haven't done that. I'm hoping to find a way around it.

Oh, and I've followed everyone on twitter, tweeted articles and followed who I could find on Pinterest.

[iCraft Admin]

Andree, you are one step ahead of me. I am just writing instructions for Pinterest.

[Jewelry by Kat]

I had 2 facebook business pages and I just delete the one my son made,  Admin that one did not have my blogs.......Kat

[iCraft Admin]

OK, so which one is the good page?
Kat, can you please provide us with your FB URL again, so we follow the right profile?
Thanks!

[Jewelry by Kat]

www.facebook.com/jewelryandmorebykat.php   This doen't work......if you replacement its Jewelry and More by kat    small k

[iCraft Admin]

Yes, that URL doesn't work.

So is this your page? https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jewelry-and-More-by-Kat/303193426376296?fref=ts
I liked it and that's the page I was commenting on that it doesn't have links to your iCraft store or your iCraft Blog.
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jewelry-and-More-by-Kat/303193426376296?sk=info

[Fairy Cardmaker]

My rereplacement on Twitter is pretty much saying that a dead or spammy account or one that only talks about yourself is worse for your small business than an engaged account.  It all comes down to:

To get more followers, you need to follow people too and follow them back.
It's suggested to follow people that have similar interests to you.
Regular and somewhat frequent Tw & FB updates correlate with higher number of followers.
To keep things fresh and to save time, automate & schedule updates to your social media accounts, whenever possible.

However, one article (third one below) made a good point:
"There’s both a social/play and a social/communicate aspect to Twitter that makes it productive as a promotional tool for pointing to interesting things you’ve found on the web as well as a tool for building credibility and influence. On their own, such updates can be blase and uninteresting. However, followed over time, you can gain insight into people you may end up hiring, getting hired by, working for, partnering with or simply socializing with."

Several articles reference that Twitter is strongest when time is of the essence for a play-by-play scenario.  Well, I don't have any of that.  Celebrities and celebrity gossip have that.  Political debates/elections have that.  Natural disasters/weather events have that.  Not me.

After reading the article that referenced longer term trending, then I thought about all the stuff I do offline for my business that online people don't see.  I do run workshops and I post about them on my blog BUT it's not very timely.  It takes me a lot of time to post something on my blog.  Perhaps microblogging will be more timely, even though I will not have a link where someone can "read more" to put in my "tweet" at the time.  I can always tweet again when I do have it posted to the blog or vimeo.  (or... retweet, depending on what that means.  I don't know yet.)

This part hit home too: a tool for building credibility and influence.  That is exactly what my blog is for.  I chose a blog as my online presence because I like to write.  However, I suppose a microblog can also serve to build credibility and influence and establish artisan expertise.  I hang out on crafting forums to help people and get help.  I suppose I can follow similar types on Twitter.  (I was struggling with who the heck would I follow for interest and not for the sake of a popularity contest: "follow me, I'll follow you!" nonense.)  I am very anti-social.  I do not have time nor desire to follow and connect with people.  I am the type that, when I do make friends, I make strong bonds but they are few and far between.

But, I am big on learning and teaching.  I can surely use Twitter to offer a helpful hint to other crafters, get hints from other crafters, find craft shows, or rave about shows and booths I've been too.  Maybe casually hanging out in the general art community would not be as inane as I picture the personal side of Twitter to be.  (I apologise if those of you who anounce they have to go to the bathroom and will be right back are insulted.)

Here's a few articles I read (may be helpful for Twitter account holders):
http://www.ehow.com/how_4646690_use-twitter-promote-blog.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_4646690_use-twitter-promote-blog.html
http://www.toprankblog.com/2007/11/twitter-guide/

[Fairy Cardmaker]

I think this is my Twitter Account.
https://twitter.com/FairyCardmaker

[iCraft Admin]

If you have a business page on facebook, how to do you follow people?

Hi Silver Workshop,
On Facebook, you follow people by "Liking" them.
I just checked -  when you use FB as a Business User (a page) you can only "Like" other pages and not individuals.
However, both Business and individual users can "Like" your page.

Admin, I'm not interested in having a personal facebook page so I haven't done that. I'm hoping to find a way around it.

I didn't know that you can create a Business page only, without having a personal FB account.

[iCraft Admin]

My rereplacement on Twitter is pretty much saying that a dead or spammy account or one that only talks about yourself is worse for your small business than an engaged account.

Hi Fairy Cardmaker,

I am not advocating for dead or spammy accounts. Everybody finds their own way of using Twitter. I was only concerned with using it for generating traffic to your store.

Placing links to your store and to your product pages generates additional backlinks, even if those links were generated automatically. And that's what matters to replacement engines. (btw, you can also include link to your store in your Twitter Profile Description!)

Twitter from SEO & traffic generating perspective only:

• The more backlinks to your store means you have more votes for your pages.
• Twitter is a high authority site with the highest 10 out of 10 ranking. Normally, getting backlinks from high authority sites is pretty hard. Here you can do it for free and as often as you want. (even automate some of your updates - get backlinks without doing any work!).
• More followers gives you more clicks to your pages, which in Google's eyes means more views of your pages.
• If those people who clicked on your Twitter links buy something from you, it's a bonus. If they didn't, you are still getting long-term benefits by diversifying your Backlinks Profile.

Btw, thanks for doing your rereplacement and sharing your knowledge and links with us!  

[iCraft Admin]

(or... retweet, depending on what that means.  I don't know yet.)

Retweeting means re-publishing something another Twitter user has written (similar to Re-pinning on Pinterest or Sharing on FB) to spread the word among your own Twitter followers. Usually you retweet something you personally like or something you think your readers would like, or to support someone by spreading their message. Retweeting causes a ripple effect, helping more people hear about an interesting Tweet.

You can retweet any message by clicking on "Retweet" icon or link below any tweet.

[Fairy Cardmaker]

When you do that, does it give credit to the original tweeter?  Or it just uses the exact same published contents and puts it from you?

[iCraft Admin]

When you do that, does it give credit to the original tweeter?  Or it just uses the exact same published contents and puts it from you?

Yes, it does. I retweeted one of your tweets about "Christmas card workshop".
See how it shows in @iCraft stream of messages https://twitter.com/iCraft. It actually shows as your message with your avatar and a link to your Twitter profile. On your side it will show how many people retweeted or responded to your tweet https://twitter.com/FairyCardmaker. (Click "Expand" or "View Conversation" under each tweet)

So it's good to retweet and even better to be retweeted, especially by people that have a lot of followers on Tweeter.