Facebook is launching a new feature today that will allow you to reply to Facebook comments via your email. Basically when you get an email notification that someone has commented on your status, you will be able to reply to that comment without having to login to Facebook. Below are the screen shots Facebook used in their blog post about the new feature and you can read their blog post at Replying To Comments Through Email.
You may not have access to this new feature yet. If you see something like this, “noreply@facebookmail.com” in the TO field after you click reply…you do NOT have access yet. If you send your reply it will go into a black hole and never be delivered or posted on Facebook. See Billions of Outgoing Emails Lost In A Black Hole for more info on why this happens.
I hope you have found this post useful!
Your Facebook Informant,
Kimberly Yow
Become a Fan of my Fan Page on Facebook: www.facebook.com/SocialNetworking4Biz
P.S. - I am a Facebook consultant & trainer and I help businesses get found on the internet. Subscribe to this blog via RSS Feed or Email so you don't miss any free Facebook For Business Tips! @KimberlyYow
Below are the Top 10 Recurring Questions I’ve been asked about Facebook For Business and Fan Pages. You’ll notice that almost all of the answers below contain a link to a blog post I wrote previously where the question was answered. I wrote this particular blog to make it easier for you to get all the answers to the Top 10 Questions in one place.
Q: Can I unlink a Facebook Fan Page from my personal account?
A: No. See my blog post Unlink A Fan Page From Personal Account for what you can do.
Q: Can I delete my personal account without deleting my Fan Page?
A: One of our blog readers, David, tested this. See the comments for Unlink A Fan Page From Personal Account to read what David discovered.
Q: How do I automatically post my Fan Page activity to my Twitter account?
A: Read Post Fan Page Status Updates To Twitter With Facebook Application and then go to www.facebook.com/twitter to set this up.
Q: How do I obtain a Facebook vanity URL or username for my Facebook Fan Page?
A: Currently you need 25 Fans before you can obtain a vanity url for your Fan Page. Go to www.facebook.com/username to claim your username/vanity url once your Fan Page has met the minimum. Choose your Fan Page username carefully because you cannot change it once it’s set.
Q: How do I delete a Fan Page?
A: Login to Facebook, then go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/manage/. If you are an administrator for more than one Fan Page, find the name of the Fan Page that you want to delete from the list on your screen. Click the “delete page” link which appears directly underneath the name of your Fan Page.
If you only administer one Fan Page, the “delete page” link will be toward the top of your screen under the name of your Fan Page.
Q: How do I set up a Fan Box Widget?
A: Go to the Fan Page that you want to create a Fan Box Widget for. Click “edit page”. You should see a section called Promote Your Page just above the photos of the Fan Page Admins. In this section, click on Promote With a Fan Box. Create your Fan Box and then copy and paste the generated html into your website or blog. (If this is not something you can do on your own, email the html to your web/blog designer and ask them to do it.) See Facebook Fan Box Widget: You Will Love It! for additional info but follow the instructions above because Facebook has changed since I wrote my original post.
Q: How do I deactivate or delete my Facebook account?
A: See Deactivate, Reactivate or Delete Facebook Account for instructions on how to do these things and why you might want to.
Q: Can I migrate or move my fans from one Fan Page to another?
A: No. But read How To Migrate Fans From Old Facebook Fan Page To New Fan Page for what you can do to get many of your Fans to become a Fan of your new Fan Page.
Q: Can I run a contest on my Fan Page?
A: No. If you do, you run the risk of having your Facebook account or your Facebook Fan Page disabled without warning. See Warning: New Facebook Promotions Guidelines for an explanation on how you can publicize a contest on your Fan Page as long as you administer it off of Facebook!
Q: How do I promote my Fan Page outside of Facebook?
A: Here is a blog post that covers Facebook’s Guidelines For Promoting Your Fan Page and here is one that covers 5 Ways to Build Your Online Network Offline & Increase Your Conversion Rate.
I hope you have found this Top 10 recap useful. Feel free to share it with your Facebook friends that administer a Fan Page or are interested in setting up a Fan Page.
If you have questions that weren’t covered above, please post them in the comments below.
Your Facebook Informant,
Kimberly Yow
If you are going to use Facebook for Business, you need to establish some guidelines to maximize your efficiency. Answering questions like the ones below will help you establish a plan for using Facebook for business:
- What do you want to accomplish with your Facebook Fan Page?
- Will you maintain your Fan Page & Facebook Profile or will you have an assistant or freelancer handle it for you?
- How much time per day or week are you willing to devote to managing your Fan Page and building relationships through your Profile?
- What kind of things will your target market be interested in reading on your Fan Page?
What I have learned is that if you stick to the basics of building relationships and promoting your business, you can experience results on Facebook in 10-20 minutes per day.
Below is the suggested Daily Plan I give to my clients:
- Scan the Live Feed on your home page.
- Update your Status at least once a day.
- Interact with friends.
- Interact with Fans and/or post something new on your Fan Page.
- Check your Inbox, Notifications and Fan Page Updates.
- Respond to friend invites. Respond to other types of requests and ignore or block those that are not business appropriate.
- Send friend invites to any new business contacts (as appropriate).
- Invite new business contacts to become a Fan of your Fan Page.
- Check the Events section for upcoming birthdays and post birthday wishes on your friend’s profile wall.
Never fear, there will be many days that there will be nothing for you to do regarding items 5-9. If you are unable to devote time to interacting on Facebook and maintaining a Fan Page, consider outsourcing some of the tasks to a social networking freelancer or to an employee.
If you enjoy playing games on Facebook and answering quizzes, consider setting aside a separate time to do that. This will allow you to concentrate on building relationships and promoting your business during your “Facebook for Business” time slot and you will be a lot more efficient.
Your Facebook Informant,
Kimberly Yow
Facebook Fan Page: Social Networking 4 Biz
Did you know that you can use basic html in the Facebook Notes application? I accidentally stumbled onto this info in Facebook a while ago and saved it. I have absolutely no idea where I found it…LOL!
Try using some of the following html commands to format your Notes text for greater interest and impact!
Your Facebook Informant,
Kimberly Yow
Become a Fan at http://www.facebook.com/SocialNetworking4Biz
I can’t even begin to count how many Facebook friend invites I’ve gotten that are from people I don’t know. What bothers me about these invites is that 99.9% of them are not personalized! And guess what happens when I get this type of invite from a stranger? I ignore it. I actually have a “Friends Policy” posted on the info tab of my profile and it reads:
RE: FACEBOOK FRIEND REQUESTS…
Effective social networking is all about building relationships. Therefore, I only accept friend requests from people I already know or people who take the first step in developing a relationship by adding a personal message to their friend invite. It only takes a few seconds to write how you found my profile or why you want to be FB friends or how you think we could help each other.
If you are primarily interested in reading the tips I post on using social networking sites for business, you have the option of “Becoming a Fan” of my Business Fan Page at: http://facebook.com/SocialNetworking4Biz. Fans receive blog posts & status updates in their News Feed as well as “Fans Only” specials.
I checked with a few of my Facebook friends to see how they handle “non-personalized” friend invites from people they don’t know:
- One friend said she will only accept a friend invite from a stranger if they are already connected on Facebook to one of her family members.
- Another said she “ignores” this type of invite.
- Another said she “ignores” this type of invite AND that she posted a Friends Policy similar to mine after reading my Facebook For Business e-book.
The bottom-line is if you truly want to connect with someone on Facebook, you stand a much better chance of having your friend invite accepted IF you send the other person a personalized message AND have a legitimate reason for wanting to be Facebook friends.
Do you have a Friends Policy? How do you handle non-personalized invites from strangers?
Your Facebook Informant,
Kimberly Yow
How To Use Facebook Search
Below is a screen shot showing “posts by friends” for the search term Facebook Fan Box Widget. Notice that the search result shown is actually from a Fan Page (my own) that I am a Fan of. If any of my friends, or pages I am a fan of, had used this very specific term in a status update, it would’ve been shown in the results.
Facebook Search: Posts by Friends
Not sure what the big deal is about Facebook search?
Try these “8 Ways to Use Facebook Search for Business” and see if you change your opinion:
- Inspiration: Search on terms that are specific to your business or industry. Look at “posts by friends” and “posts by everyone” to see who is commenting on or asking questions about your search term. Their questions or comments may inspire you to write a blog post or a Facebook note for your Fan Page.
- Prospecting: If a Facebook user has asked a question about your search term, or expressed a need, send them an answer or a link to resource info. This “helpful” gesture could result in an inquiry or a new customer for you.
- Information Gathering & Education: Search on a term that you would like to know more about. Then look at the Pages and Groups that come up in the search results. Become a Fan of the Fan Pages that interest you or join active Groups that relate to your search term.
- Connecting & Building Your Network: Send a message or invite to Facebook users that are posting about your search term. Depending on the situation you could send them a friend invite or ask if they have a Fan Page you can become a Fan of.
- Collaboration: Search on words that pertain to your industry or an industry that complements it. Pursue possible collaboration with people posting about your search term.
- Finding Guest Bloggers: Do you have a blog? Are there topics you would like to provide info on but don’t feel qualified? Look for people on Facebook who might be interested in writing a guest post for your blog.
- Keeping An Eye On Your Competition: Search on the business name or product names of your competitors to see what they are posting or what is being said about them by others.
- Listening To What People Are Saying About You or Your Company: Search on your name and the name of your business and products to see what is being said about you. Respond to questions, comments and even complaints to build trust and goodwill.
At first glance you may think that Facebook Search isn’t a big deal. But, after reading this post I hope you will try out some of the ideas above and experience for yourself how they can help your business.
If you’ve used Facebook Search for business, feel free to share your story in the comments below.
Your Facebook Informant,
Kimberly Yow
Facebook Fan Page: Social Networking 4 Biz
There are numerous Facebook Privacy Settings that you can adjust to customize who you interact with and who sees your profile & wall posts on Facebook. Before jumping to the settings, determine how you want to use Facebook:
- Do you want to use Facebook for business or just for personal use?
- Do you want to have a Fan Page for your business?
- Do you want to connect with people you know if they send you a “friend” invite?
- Do you want to post things on your personal wall & profile?
- Do you want to interact with only family and real-life friends?
How private do you want your Facebook profile and communications to be?:
- Do you want Facebook users to be able to send you a message through Facebook?
- Do you want people to invite you to be a Facebook friend?
- Do you want Facebook friends to post on your wall?
- Do you want clients/prospects to see what your friends post on your wall?
- Do you want clients/prospects to see what YOU post on your personal wall/profile?
- Do you want only certain categories of Facebook friends (college buddies, family, work friends, etc…) to see your wall?
Once you are clear about how you want to use Facebook and how private you want to be, you can adjust your Facebook Privacy Settings so they are inline with your level of comfort. Click on Settings/Privacy Settings in the upper right hand corner of your Facebook screen and you’ll see a screen that looks like this:
Facebook Privacy Settings
Take time to look at each setting and determine what you want to adjust. You can always go back and tweak a setting if you change your mind.
Before reading this post, did you know that you could adjust your Privacy Settings? Have you had problems on Facebook trying to juggle clients, Facebook friends and real-life friends? Leave a comment below and let us know.
Your Facebook Informant,
Kimberly Yow
Facebook Fan Page: Social Networking 4 Biz
Facebook just launched another new feature. You can now log in to your account using either your Facebook username or your email address. If you haven’t set-up a username (a.k.a. vanity URL) for your personal profile, go to http://www.facebook.com/username/ to create yours.
From the Facebook website:
Usernames can only contain alphanumeric characters (A-Z, 0-9) or a period (“.”), for example — john.smith55. It is important to note that a period (“.”) does not count as a part of a username; therefore, names like johnsmith55, john.smith55, john.smith.55, etc. all constitute the same username.
Usernames also must be at least 5 characters long. Usernames are not case sensitive. Facebook also prevents certain words from being included in usernames.
Once you set-up your username, people will be able to access your personal profile by going to www.facebook.com/yourusername. Be sure to create a short username (preferably your real name) that is easy to remember so you can tell people how to find you on Facebook or use it as your login if it’s shorter than your email address.
You can also set-up a username for each Fan Page that you have. You only need 25 Fans in order to claim a Fan Page Vanity URL. Click link to learn more about this.
Kimberly Yow
Marketing That’s Easy.com
Did you know that Facebook has a new Twitter application which allows Fan Page Administrators to update Twitter directly from their Facebook Fan Pages? The application allows you to determine which type of updates you want to “automatically” post to Twitter: status updates, links, photos, notes and events or all of the them. See example set-up screen shown below:
Linking Facebook to Twitter
You’ll see from the screen shot that it shows which Twitter account your Fan Page is linked to and gives you options that say Edit Settings and Unlink From Twitter. If you have multiple Fan Pages, you can link them to the same Twitter account or link them to separate Twitter accounts.
I already have this application set-up for my Fan Pages and it makes it very easy to post additional tweets without logging into Twitter. If you are importing a blog into Facebook through the Notes application, you will NOT want to post Notes to Twitter if you are also importing your blog into Twitter. This would result in duplicate tweets.
This Facebook application can be accessed at http://www.facebook.com/twitter.
Another time saver…thank you Facebook!
Kimberly Yow
Facebook Fan Page
Marketing That’s Easy.com
The new tagging feature recently announced by Facebook looks pretty awesome! Here are a few things I learned by using it.
Does the new Facebook tagging feature work from a Fan Page or a Group?
It works from personal profiles AND fan pages. It does not appear to work from a group at this time.
How does it work?
You simply type the @ symbol in your status update and then select the item you want to tag from a drop-down menu that will appear. It’s fast & easy! You can tag friends, events, groups, fan pages, etc…
What happens if someone tags my Fan Page?:
If someone tags your fan page from their personal profile, a post will be created on your fan page wall that’s identical to what the person posted. You’ll also see a link that says “view post”. Clicking the link will take you to that person’s original post and you’ll be able to see any additional comments that were attached by other Facebook users. (The same scenario happens if someone tags your personal profile.)
How can I use this new tagging feature from a business stand-point?
A couple of ideas: 1) If you practice the “givers gain” attitude of helping others, use the tagging feature to tag your friend’s fan pages, groups or events. 2) A couple of times a month, post an invitation from your personal profile for readers to join your fan page (or group) and be sure to “tag” your fan page/group so they have easy access to it. 3) Tag your own events.
So what do you think of the new Facebook tagging feature? Let me know in the comments below. Thanks!
Kimberly Yow
E-book: How To Promote Your Business On Facebook…Without Alienating Your Friends!
