Social Media for Hotels Infographic

Does having a social media presence make any significant difference in hotel bookings?  Check out this Infographic to find out.

Business owners, you may have noticed that your personal profile switched over to a new format called “Timeline” recently. It’s graphically a more attractive format with a large cover photo and a sequencing of posts and activity on Facebook by date. Facebook is now requiring that all business, or brand, pages switch to Timeline by the end of March.

Here’s a quick overview of what you need to know to get your page switched to timeline and begin to maximize the new format:

Photos

New Profile Picture – 851 by 315 pixels
This is a large wide photo that cannot include any calls to action. You can embed some badges or accolades atop the photo if you wish. We suggest something very eye catching for this photo that will set the tone for your page.

Inset photo - 180×180
There is an inset photo on the new profile picture; we generally recommend your logo for this.
Milestones
You can now “backdate” important dates in your business’ history on the Timeline. Include any milestones on the page, such as founding dates, opening new offices, new services, awards won, etc. Review what Facebook defaults for you in the Timeline and see if there’s anything you want to delete.

Messaging
Individuals can now send messages to a brand page and a brand page can respond. This feature can be disabled but we don’t recommend it. This now gives a more private venue for any negative issues that come up and gives people a chance to interact with brands in a more personal way. We like it! In fact, we already got a resume submitted that way .

“Friend Page” Goes Away
The page that people land on when they are directed to your page will now be the main Timeline wall. However, you are still able to redirect people to specific friends-only tabs for contests and other promotions. Don’t let someone tell you this is a big deal; because it’s not. We’re already seeing scams where people are sounding the alarm saying, “Hurry, you won’t be able to get any more friends after this changes! Let us build your friends for you for INSERT RIDICULOUS COST.”

Tabs/Application Boxes
You are now limited to featuring four tabs, which you can order however you’d like. Be sure to review which tabs are most important to your business (look in Facebook Insights to see which get the most visits) and reorder to feature those.

Featured Posts by Fans/Friends
This will now be listed at the top right and will feature posts from your fans. This is optional but we recommend leaving it so long as you manage your page daily and have a good level of engagement (which we know all of our clients have ).

Feature Page Posts at the Top
This will allow you to feature content that you want to have the maximum exposure. We can choose to “pin” a post at the top for up to 7 days. Posts that are good candidates would be those promoting a contest or a call to action.

Please let us know if you have any questions or concerns about Timeline and we’ll be happy to address. Thanks and good luck!

Flash mobs first came onto the scene in the early 2000s as a means to draw attention to a certain brand or charitable organization. Using social media, large groups of people were able to connect, organize themselves, and choreograph these public performances that, for the most part, brought joy and inspiration to the unsuspecting crowds. However, flash mobs in the hands of unscrupulous people were eventually organized for destructive reasons, and it wasn’t long before the whole phenomenon got a bad rap.

Sometimes a little “flash” is a good thing

Many flash mobs have been organized in an effort to “do good,” like the ones orchestrated in response to the disasters in Haiti and Japan. These mobs were used to raise awareness as well as money. Other flash mobs have been able to draw attention to local charitable organizations. One such organization was started by 13-year-old Claire Wineland, who was born with cystic fibrosis. In May, her charity “Claire’s Place Foundation” organized a flash mob in Santa Monica, and they danced to Lady Gaga’s “Born This Way.” The flash mob got the attention of major celebrities who joined the cause and pledged to help find a cure for this disease. All over the country other flash mobs have been able to draw attention to worthwhile charities and causes. Check out this full list of noteworthy organizations “doing good” via flash mob media.

Pay It Forward

It wasn’t long until marketers realized that flash mobs were an incredibly effective way to drive targeted engagement and encourage viral marketing. In traditional marketing campaigns, commercials and print ads didn’t allow for brand enthusiast participation. With flash mobs, a brand can invite an enthusiast in to be part of the interactive message. These brand events not only engage current enthusiasts, they also have the ability to reach fragmented audiences, cultivate peer endorsements and influence behavior change. Utilizing flash mobs to promote a positive message can actually make a difference and have a “pay it forward” effect. The students who combined their efforts to create this anti-bullying video may not have single-handedly ended bullying, but they certainly took a stand against violence as a group.

Beware the Dark Side

Social media can be a powerful tool for communication and positive change. Unfortunately, in recent years we have seen more frequent examples of mistreatment. In the case of flash mobs, there have been those whose purpose held a darker intent. These flash mobs are orchestrated to bring a massive group of people together for destructive reasons, such as looting and robbing. In an effort to­ protect its citizens from these nefarious mobs, some cities have instituted curfews, especially for teens that tend to be involved.

A little Game of Cops and Mobbers

There’s a new sheriff in town and this one’s beat is on the digital street.  Authorities have begun to monitor social media sites in an effort to snuff out bad flash mobs before they have a chance to form. The challenge for these law enforcement officers is being able to accurately weed out the “bad seeds” from the “good ones”. Additionally, the question of how much policing of the internet should really be allowed has made its way into the mainstream awareness, due to the recent debates over SOPA and PIPA. Authorities may find it exceedingly difficult to monitor social media in the future, and it is something that we will all be affected by in one way or another.

Don’t Bash the Flash

Whether used with positive or negative intentions, flash mobs truly emphasize the power of social media and the ability we now have to connect on a grand scale. It will be interesting to see how social media plays a part in our offline world in the future. It’s unfortunate that criminals and hooligans have ruined the image of flash mobs because it is amazing what an impact can be made with a group of people, a video camer and one unified vision, such is the example with this final touching video – biggest flash mob ever.

This article was submitted by Kaity Nakagoshi, on behalf of the University of Notre Dame’s online program.  They offer a variety of executive certificates and online business courses. Kaity also works with the University of San Francisco’s online program, which offers a master certificate in internet marketing and a specialized certificate in advanced social media. Twitter: @Kaity_FL

This morning I presented to a group of merchants in Zionsville, IN on how they could use Pinterest as a tool to generate web traffic and sales. I wanted to share the presentation on our site to help you as you begin to navigate this fun — and immensely — popular tool. The best part about Pinterest for business: it works!

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) – The power of social media prevailed once again.

When restaurant group owner Sal Parco posted on his Facebook page that he would participate in Wednesday’s Tricounty Family Ministries “Feed the Need” event, he never expected the response that he got.

Several of his customers replied, saying, they wanted to help out, too. So Parco arrived at the event, armed with food for hundreds of homeless, as well as a posy of employees and customers who also wanted to give back to the community.

“People have had rough times.. and probably had more rough times than the rest of us. So, I think it’s really important and a nice thing to help out here,” Parco said.

He added that he hopes to participate again next year.

The Tricounty Family Ministries holds the “Feed the Need” program once a month.

CHARLESTON, S.C.—The City of Charleston has designated Step Ahead Inc., a social media and public relations company owned by Lyn Mettler, as a part of their Minority and Women Business Enterprise Program.

The Minority and Women Business Enterprise Program focuses on developing the presence of minority and women-owned businesses in the many aspects and opportunities available in the City of Charleston.

Step Ahead Inc., which works with many clients in the Charleston and surrounding area, has staff in both Charleston and in Indianapolis, Ind. By participating in the program, Step Ahead will become part of a preferred group of women-owned businesses for City of Charleston-related assignments.

“We are proud to be a woman-owned business who employs several Charleston-area women, as well,” says Mettler, owner and president of the company. “We are excited that now we will be given preferred consideration in Charleston by companies looking to work with women-owned businesses in the field of social media and public relations.”

About Step Ahead Inc.
Step Ahead, Inc. combines the best of traditional public relations with results-oriented social media campaigns to help maximize visibility for clients both online and off. The company’s clients include Palmetto Dunes Oceanfront Resort, the Lowcountry Housing Trust, Greenwood Communities & Resorts, the Dine With Sal restaurant group, SpiritLine Cruises and others. The company has been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur magazine and on MSNBC.com and SmartMoney.com. Visit www.stepaheadinc.com or call 843-606-0226 for more information.

Heard all the buzz about Pinterest? Whether or not it’s just a fad, it seems to be a fact that Pinterest is good for business — at least for now. Mashable reports that web traffic from Pinterest at several top apparel retailers has cracked their top 5 traffic referrers and the amount of traffic referred has jumped 398% from July to December.

For the clients we’ve recently added to Pinterest, they too are seeing a traffic boost if the page is regularly maintained. Here’s more interesting reading on Pinterest for Business to get you started:

• Pinterest Becomes Top Traffic Driver for Retailers - Mashable
• 3 Ways to Use Pinterest for Business Right Now
• 9 Tips to Boost Your Business With Pinterest – Inc.com
• A PR Practioner’s Guide to Pinterest for Business – Step Ahead
• Pinterest for Business: Yes! – About.com Women in Business

By Lyn Mettler

Tired of hearing about Google Plus and how it’s the latest and greatest place to be on social media? Well, we’ve got a new one for ya: Pinterest. It’s a good bet that by now you’ve received an email inviting you to this popular new invitation-only social network, but if you’ve never heard of it, it’s time to sit up and take note.

Last month, Pinterest cracked the top 10 most visited social networks at No. 9, besting the latest social media darling Google Plus at No. 10. Time magazine also declared it one of the top five social networks for 2011.

So what is this Pinterest? At its most basic, Pinterest allows you to create virtual “pinboards” with images you come across on the web. Your “pinboards” center around a specific subject matter or topic, say Arts & Crafts homes you’ve come across, purses you love, places you’d like to visit, birthday party ideas, decor for your baby’s nursery, you get the idea…

But it’s a whole lot more than that and the real reason I’m telling you about it is because of its potential to generate results for your business. Pinterest is a social network, of course, so for starters, you can follow others and their boards and vice versa.

Typically, the way a person uses Pinterest is they log on view pins (images) from those they follow, check out Pinterest’s recommended pins and search within the site for images specific to what they’re looking for. There is also a “pin” for your browser’s toolbar that you can click when you come across something on the web you’d like to “pin” to one of your boards.

When you pin an image, you can attach a web address to it and even a price. So if you’re a retailer who sells shoes, you might want to load up boards of your different styles of shoes and maybe even outfits that would go great with your shoes. Attach prices and websites to your products, and when Pinterest users come across your images, they just might go to your website and even better, purchase the product. On top of that, they may “repin” your image to one of their boards, thus sharing it with all of their followers.

We had a retail-based client who recently set up a Pinterest profile, and within days they saw a big bump in traffic from the site and even a boost in sales, better than they see from either Facebook or Twitter. We had another client with a women’s product who saw nearly 100 hits on their site from one pin someone posted of their product.

To get properly introduced to Pinterest, get on the site and play around. If you need an invite, shout and I’ll invite you from my profile. Feel free to take a look at Step Ahead’s Pinterest page at Pinterest.com/StepAheadInc/ to get a feel for what a company can do. It’s not a great fit for every business, but certainly those who offer something visually appealing should definitely poke around Pinterest. Have fun!

Lyn Mettler is the owner of Step Ahead Inc, an Indianapolis and Charleston, SC-based company specializing in social media management for business. Email her atlmettler@stepaheadinc.com for your Pinterest invite!

A guest post from Cyndi Laurenti

Most people are familiar with social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, but many likely believe such services are simply used on an individual basis. In the beginning, these sites were primarily a way for individuals to keep in regular contact with friends and family, but things have changed.

Many higher education institutions from conventional colleges to online PhD programs are now also creating accounts to promote themselves. There are several things colleges can learn from businesses successful with their social media marketing campaigns.

What can colleges learn from businesses about social media promotion?

When colleges look at a business that operates a successful social media campaign, they’ll notice there are a few techniques nearly all businesses use. First, businesses give people some sort of incentive to “like” or follow them. Some businesses will give everyone some type of discount or credit for subscribing, and other businesses will have some type of sweepstakes that the 100th visitor, for example, will win. Colleges could offer similar incentives (textbook discounts, free school merchandise, etc.) to current or prospective students who connect and keep up with the schools’ social media presence.

Another thing colleges can learn from businesses about social media promotion is how to construct the social media page itself. Colleges should take note of how clearly businesses tell customers their mission statements and what products they offer. Colleges will also notice businesses (hopefully) all do an excellent job of making their contact information extremely easy to find.

What do colleges need to do differently in promoting themselves via social media?

It’s a great thing that more colleges are using social media to promote themselves, but they may not be doing it in the most effective manner. Many colleges appear to have just created a page to say they’re on Facebook or Twitter, but the information on the page isn’t all that useful or doesn’t encourage people to visit frequently.

Colleges need to get excited about venturing into the social media world and make it more than a weak gesture. This means they should post fresh content at least daily. Regular, interesting updates will get more interested visitors, lead to more subscriptions and keep visitors coming back.

What do colleges stand to gain by better using social media to promote themselves and connect with students?

When colleges use social media to promote themselves and connect with students, they’ll reap several benefits. One likely possibility is a substantial increase in enrollment. It’ll also be easier for current students to know exactly what is going on at the college on a regular basis, even as prospective applicants get a better sense of the school from the same source.

Any college that uses social media for promotion will definitely notice some gain in business, but the colleges that really take off with social media are the ones that actually put some effort into doing it right. When a college makes its social media pages actually interesting to read, people will want to check back on a regular basis. When people continue to visit a page, they’ll be a lot better able to form a clear picture of the school, and a lot more likely to choose that college.

As a company who helps businesses maintain their Facebook pages, my team quickly did an in depth review of all the new features. Here’s a quick guide to the changes and how they will impact your company’s Facebook presence. Overall, it encourages more sharing and interaction, which should help elevate your page’s visibility, so long as you’re giving people content worth sharing. It’s no longer going to be enough to get customers to click “like” on your page; you’re going to have to keep them interested and active.

Newsfeed 

The newsfeed, the running list of friend activity that you see upon opening Facebook, got an overhaul with Top Stories now at the top. These stories are what Facebook thinks are of most interest to you and that have a lot of comments and “likes”. The downside is that you’ll now have to fight to get your way into Top Stories by giving your friends or “likers” something worth making a comment about. Additionally, as users, you can tweak what’s in the Top Stories by clicking on the top right of any post to hide the story or hide all posts from that page. You don’t want your friends to hide your posts because getting them to like your page will have become pointless. So keep your content interesting!

The Ticker

The ticker now runs at the top right of your screen and is a real time flow of all your friends’ actions. I like this because Facebook has taken all the inane stuff from the newsfeed, like accepting a friend request, “liking” links or making changes to your profile, and stuck it here. This helps the newsfeed be less cluttered with uninteresting junk (Farmville, anyone?). The ticker is also beneficial to business pages, because even if you don’t make it into the newsfeed you still have a chance to be here.

Smart Lists

In a direct swipe at Google +, Facebook has added the most popular feature from Google’s latest foray into social networking that it calls Smart Lists (Circles in Google+). Facebook has automatically created lists, such as Close Friends, Family, Business Colleagues, Indianapolis residents, etc. based on the information it has about you and who you interact with most. You can tweak who’s in these lists and choose to share content only with select groups.

Subscriptions

Very much like Twitter, on Facebook you can now “subscribe” to people without becoming their “friend.” This means you don’t have to mutually agree to connect, but rather you can follow someone’s Facebook content without them following you back. However, you don’t have to allow subscribers, but if you do (a great idea for journalists, public figures, politicians, musicians, etc.), go to your profile page, click Subscribers and opt in. Now anything that you post and choose the sharing option for Public will be shared with your subscribers. This can be a great tool for following top people in your industry, for PR people who want follow journalists, etc.

Gestures

In addition to “liking” something on Facebook, soon you will be able to say you are “listening” to a song on the music service Spotify, “watching” a movie on Netflix or Hulu or “reading” an article from the Washington Post. This new use of verbs will likely encourage more sharing of activity, again a good thing for business pages. The more you can get people to comment and share your activity the better likelihood you’ll show up in the newsfeed and get maximum views.

Timeline

Finally, Facebook is unrolling an entirely new profile page called Timeline, which Mark Zuckerberg says will serve as a scrapbook of your life. You can go back to the day you were born, note key moments with content, photos or video, and divide all this good stuff by year. Facebook will even pull out what it sees as major moments in your life since you joined Facebook. So far, it’s getting good reviews. Anything that gets more people to go on Facebook and to stay there longer is good for Facebook … and good for your business page.

Although many people are complaining about all the changes, I promise we’ll all get used to it. These are positive changes for Facebook and ultimately will make it a better tool for people and businesses.

http://www.insideindianabusiness.com/contributors.asp?id=2074