Saturday, June 25, 2011

How to be Fricking Awesome (on Twitter)

Picture credit: http://liveyourtalk.com/2010/10/so-much-awesome-the-growsmartbiz-conference-nov-5th/


I recently came across a really great article via @DanOnofrio called "7 Ways You Can Be Fricking Awesome On Twitter" written by @SkinnyJeans. While I find myself rocking my awesomeness during everyday life, I couldn't help but notice that my Twitter game needed to be stepped up. Stephanie (@SkinnyJeans) really hit home on the ways and the reasons being awesome kicks up your Twitter presence. As marketers, these are valuable things to learn for our company/client/self:

"Awesome is a state of being, not an act"
Such a statement could not be truer. Yes, doing something can be considered awesome. But people who live their day-to-day lives BEING awesome demonstrate so much more liveliness into their world - including their social media world! Stephanie states that true awesomeness comes from within and to mimic someone else's awesome habits would be like buying "faux awesome." Save your money. Find your inner awesome.

"Give a damn!"
What are you passionate about? What are you good at? How much pride do you have working for your company/client? Share it! People who show off (modestly, of course) their pride and joy radiate awesomeness. It shows how much you care about your cause and that can become very inspiring for people. "The caring is the fuel for awesomeness."

"Add dimensions to your tweets"
One common problem that social media gets a bad rap for is how it's become so....casual. People start to tweet about every little thing going on in their life. "I just did my laundry." "Cooking is fun!" "This sandwich is tasty." That's all fine and dandy, but wouldn't a tweet about cooking be more entertaining if it read like this: "@LaurenVassallo: Testing out a recipe from @runnersworld Magazine: whole wheat penne primavera in a homemade pomodoro sauce. YUM! http://tinyurl.com/62nc54d" And then you included a picture of the ingredients or the final dish? I don't know about you, but I'm getting hungry just reading it...

And for the record, it is a GREAT dish. One of my favorites. :)

"Would you rather follow Winnie the Pooh or Eeyore?"
We're all guilty of it. Sometimes we start to feel sorry for ourselves and feel the need to express that sorrow to the rest of our social media friends. Go through your Twitter feed and tell me how many apathetic tweets you read. Now tell me, after reading all of those tweets how do you feel? In most cases you're feeling pretty down in the dumps. "People gravitate more to sunshine than to the clouds...and retweets are like sun rays extending the warmth of your shine."

"Don't be afraid to wear your heart on your tweets"
Now I know I said reading apathetic tweets suck and tend to get people down. That's not to say you shouldn't show ANY vulnerability. We're all human. People tend to be vulnerable. And other people enjoy trying to cheer someone up when their down. It also shows that you are human and that sometimes life just gets the best of you. What I like to do if I find myself posting a vulnerable tweet is resolve the problem and then tweet about the strength I found to overcome it.

"Party!"
Party on Wayne! Party on Garth! Despite the fact that many or all of your Twitter followers are people you do not personally know there are SO MANY EVENTS that occur through Twitter. For example: when I was training for the Marine Corps Marathon last year I would tweet often about my runs. Many races have hash tags for people to use so at the end of every marathon training tweet I would type #mcm or #mcm10. There were so many people that we all decided to form a tweetup. When all the runners ended up in Washington D.C. they went to a bar and met their fellow tweeting training buddies. It was a great way to meet new people and to put a face to a name. @SkinnyJeans' article has some great websites to check out if you're interested in attending a Twitter Party. Maybe I'll see you at one?

"Pay attention to your numbers but don't live by them"
Ugh. I have a confession. I HATE numbers. I hate math. And to be honest, I hate analytics. They are so important and yet I despise them. So when I read this rule I had to come to terms with my number problem. But I was excited to read that I shouldn't have to let analytics consume my life. Stephanie writes that quantity doesn't always have to reflect quality. So as much as you may be down about the number of your Twitter followers, don't let it slow you down. Keep being awesome and true to yourself. Your time will come.

So there you have it. You may be awesome in the real world (it's tough work. I know it) but are you showing that same level of awesome on Twitter? Better get started!

-LV
@LaurenVassallo

Friday, June 24, 2011

Sup Ya'll?!


Hey everyone! It's great to be a part of the Talking Finger Blog. Let me tell you a little about myself since this is my first post here. My name is Chris and I am 21 years old. I graduated from Platt Technical Highschool for Electromechanical Technologies. I am the Graphic Designer/Coder for Talking Finger. I also Graphic Design for Gateway Community College. I am working on getting my Associates in Graphic Design. I play drums in two bands called Angleworm, and Wolves At Bay. I will be away on an entire East Coast Tour from July 14th - August 1st with my band Wolves At Bay and I am very excited.

Me being in a band I know the importance of Social Media. Without Social Media today in the music scene it would be a lot more difficult for bands to get exposure. With Facebook fans, youtube views, tweets and much more it makes our musical presence more well known and opens you up to offers such as Tours, and Record Deals. So we pretty much rely on Social Media just as much as any business who is trying to get their name or product out there.

Well it's about that time to go hit my drums so I am now signing off. This won't be the last of me on this blog mwahahahahaha. Expect to see more about Social Media and it's importance. Take care all!



-Chris

It's business not Personal.

It's business...not Personal
Talking Finger creators Erik Granato & Bill Derosa see this mistake made every day…a personal page was created for a business. The difference between a Facebook business page and a personal Facebook account…there are MANY differences and reason why you need to follow the rules.

There has been a lot of talk recently about personal profiles versus public or business profiles. We have noticed a lot discussions popping up about converting personal profiles that people set up for a business to a business page. The buzz was presumably started by the fact that Facebook has been going through and shutting down personal profiles that are being used for business. Some of you are undoubtedly wondering why Facebook is shutting down accounts. Well, guess what, using a personal profile for a business is against the Facebook Statement of Rights and Responsibilities. Since profiles are for meant individual people, they aren’t suited to meet your business needs. Pages offer more robust features for organizations, businesses, brands, and public figures. If you don’t convert your profile to a Page, you risk permanently losing access to the profile and all of your content.”

Facebook does have the right to enforce them and they are making some noise about it too.

Below is a critical point, number 4 under section 4, the most important.

4. Registration and Account Security

4. You will not use your personal profile for your own commercial gain. (In other words a business using a personal page to promote themselves is in risk of being deleted.)

So how do I know if I have a Business or Personal page?

Does your Facebook page say “Add as Friend” or “Like”?

Likes = Business, Add as friend = personal

Here are a few reasons why you need to switch or create from the start a business page.
A personal profile page is designed for individuals. This page allows you to engage and connect with family, friends, and coworkers as you choose. You can add as much personal information as you wish. Personal profile pages also have many privacy setting options, allowing you to control who has access to see certain things on your personal profile page. Someone who knows how to use Facebook and sees that a business page is really a personal page may not “add you as a friend” because it subjects them to a security breach. We all know about Facebook security, when a TRUE business page is LIKED, the page admin cannot see your personal information. If you FRIEND a page that is acting as a business you just gave them ALL your personal info that you have listed in your profile, ALL OF IT, Email address, Phone, HOME ADDRESS, if it is in your profile, you just gave them access to it.

AND… Personal profiles are capped at 5,000 friends!

What business only wants 5000 people to know about it!


Having a personal page to do business limits your abilities to enhance your page. You cannot add apps that will help market your business. You cannot add custom coded features such as a Landing Page, Multipage layouts etc. These custom pages are found not only on our Facebook page but on the pages of many Fortune 500 and well built Facebook pages. Remember it’s your business that you are marketing. You don’t have a poorly built and constructed website, why would you have an illegally designed Facebook page? And anyone who wants to be found in search engine results will be if you have a business page, personal pages are not, it’s called SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Here is another reason to go convert or make it right the first time. Once someone “Likes” your page, their Facebook friends will be notified, creating additional interest that may result in others Liking your page (I termed this Collateral Exposure). Each time your business updates the page, your fans are notified and the information shows up on their news feed. Why is that important? Average Facebook user has 130 friends…do the math.

Need help converting your company’s page we can do it? Contact us for a quote. For more info visit us on our Facebook Business Page

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Brands: Facebook Me!



Well, that guy didn't translate the title of this blog post correctly...hopefully most of YOU will understand it!

Being the social media marketing guy I am, I look for trends within the world of marketing that include new media. In particular, how companies and brands are using their Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, blogs, YouTube channels and the dozen or so other viable platforms available.

Although we don't watch a lot of TV in our house, the times we would watch Survivor, or The Office or some of the other couple of shows we tune into I noticed a trend during commercials that was hard for me NOT to notice: The use of Facebook or YouTube channels in place of other contact information in the TV spots. Instead of how things were typically done, such as RedBull.com, the brand decided to go with their Facebook page: Facebook.com/RedBull.

Why? It's simple...they can engage there. They can form relationships with customers and prospects in a way never before possible. They can send out messages at any time and know the fans of their page will get them, and even share them with their friends! They can do it right now, at 11:48 at night or tomorrow at noon. Brands are realizing that when I go to their website at 1 a.m. in the morning, no one but me knows about it, but if I go to their Fanpage at 1 a.m. and like what they have to say...BAM! 390 of my friends see that I commented or clicked on their fanpage.

So where do you stand in the world of new media? How does YOUR Facebook page stack up to the brands? Do you have a landing page welcoming people in? Customizations to make it more "fun" and engaging? Are you adding content every few days? Engaging in comments?

Here is the list of commercials on TV that I have been putting together for thirty days or so. Each of these brands did not put up a website, phone number or any other contact information other than a Facebook page. Pay attention to what THEY have done with their pages. Just like 20+ years ago, these same brands were the leaders and forefront of what websites could be, now they are the leaders in using Facebook as their platform.

Facebook.com/Gerber
Facebook.com/Starburst
Facebook.com/Visa
Facebook.com/AdvanceAutoParts
Facebook.com/DialForMen
Facebook.com/Carnival
Facebook.com/Reebok
Facebook.com/SimplyOrangeJuice
Facebook.com/FritoLay
Facebook.com/Subway
Facebook.com/DoveChocolate
Facebook.com/Arbys
Facebook.com/Wendys
Facebook.com/Excedrin
Facebook.com/Heineken
Facebook.com/VirginMobileLive
Facebook.com/Applebees
Facebook.com/TJmaxx
Facebook.com/Sears
Facebook.com/MMS
Facebook.com/Guinness
Facebook.com/Rayovac
Facebook.com/RedBull
Facebook.com/Sony
Facebook.com/DunkinDonuts
Facebook.com/ChevyCamaro
Facebook.com/BuffaloWildWings
Facebook.com/Disney
Facebook.com/iTunes
Facebook.com/GMC
Facebook.com/DrPepper
Facebook.com/Walmart
Facebook.com/PepsiMax
Facebook.com/Hanes
Facebook.com/Oreo


-Bill DeRosa

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

Introduction to LV


Greetings all! Resident marathoner Lauren Vassallo here and I am very excited to be a part of the blogging team at Talking Finger. I wanted to give a brief introduction to myself so all of you could "put a face to a name."

-A 24-year-old graduate from Emerson College
-Received my B.S. in Print and Multimedia Journalism
-Played college basketball for four years
-Went to the Division III NCAA Tournament my freshman year at Colby-Sawyer College
-Ran my first marathon, the Marine Corps Marathon, October 2010
-I follow the Yankees, Jets and Celtics (weird combination, I know)
-Very active in personal social media: Twitter @LaurenVassallo
-Hate being cold so I love the summer
-I play kickball in two adult leagues, New Haven and Hartford

What do you want to know about me? Leave a question and I'll answer it!

Monday, June 13, 2011

Talking Finger Opens it's Blog to Employees

We will be starting a whole new way we blog...introducing Lauren Vassallo and Chris Durso, our two favorite employees. They will have free reign to post here their daily thoughts and activities...should be interesting! We'll add our usual stuff as well for informational purposes...but stick with us and find out more!


Chris Durso is our Facebook coder and graphic designer and all around awesome drummer.



Lauren Vassallo, aka "Twitta Gurl" is our all around social media specialist and marketer, as well as graphic designer and resident marathoner.