Some of us at Schipul spend a lot of time on Facebook. A LOT. But don’t judge, it’s totally part of our job. Whether we’re sprucing up a profile picture for a client, building out an iframe, checking out the latest Facebook updates (and there’s ALWAYS an update) or trolling to see who’s doing what with their audience, this social networking site commands a good deal of our attention. As such, we’ve seen it all when if comes to the best and worst of Facebook fan pages. Check out the faves from some of the Schipul staff:

Katrina’s Favorites

No surprise here. Our fashionista/Creative Services Team Account Executive, Katrina Esco, LOVES how Nordstrom uses their Facebook page to highlight their services, and they keep fans coming back with beauty how-to videos hosted by their beauty director using a Beauty Central app.

Katrina also gives Sephora’s Facebook page props for always keeping their content fresh with new promotions as demonstrated on their Exclusive Deals tab. But Katrina gives Sephora the most points for recognizing the importance of photos and fan engagement on their page by feeding in customer pics taken in photobooths installed in select retail locations. You can even browse by location and date.

Scooter’s Favorites

As for me (Katrina *Scooter* Kokoska), I get a kick out of the Skittles Facebook fan page. And to be perfectly honest, I don’t like the candy even a little, just their marketing. The Skittles page encourages fan engagement by soliciting fan photos and featuring a different “Rainbro of the Week” each week as their profile picture. Also, their posts are random, silly and make me smile (and their not self-promotional). My favorite random post from them this week: “Sometimes I sneak up on my alarm clock when it’s sleeping and yell ‘How does it feel!‘” 

I also have mad love for the (client) Tony Chachere’s page. Now this page doesn’t flaunt a lot of bells and whistles. Why? Because it doesn’t have to. Tony’s skips the games and apps and gets right down to what Facebook is all about: Community. They post content about real people doing real things in real life, and their fans love it.

Erica’s Favorites

Creative Services Team Graphic Designer, Erica Bogdan, totally digs Red Bull’s Facebook page for their fun videos and games, and loves the aesthetics of the Anthropologie page because: “It’s sooooo beautiful and makes my closet sad.” But Erica’s favorite page? Franklin the Dog of course.

Garrett’s Favorites

Creative Services Team Assistant Account Executive Garrett Thomas has some interesting favorites of his own. While he doesn’t ‘Facebook like’ the Barbie page, he thinks they do a great job of bringing together Barbie’s multiple personas in a palatable format for their target market.

And he loves the Stride Gum page because, well, who doesn’t love a Yeti with a sense of humor?

What are some of your favorite Facebook fanpages?

Ed and I had the opportunity to speak to a great group of nonprofit professionals at the 2011 Power Tools For Nonprofits conference in Houston, TX this week.

Our topic  touched on ways nonprofits can view their online marketing strategy differently by exploring their audience’s motivations and tapping into them throughout a campaign or network content activity for maximum impact.

If you haven’t read it, Ed’s article ‘3 Motivations of People: Material, Social and Ideological‘ is a great read — although with this presentation he offered up a fourth motivation:  FEAR.

It’s amazing how fear (both individually and as a population) can control our actions.  Whether it’s holding off on a big purchase, switching banks, seeking stress release opportunities and more, it truly is a driving factor in our daily decision making.

Nonprofit groups can leverage this fearful motivation by pointing out what could happen without an audience’s support (no dinner for a local family) or what is currently happening as they read / watch / Tweet (rainforest demolition) – but we’re quick to encourage using your influence for good on the Web to also help paint a more positive picture with a more balanced approach.

Talking candidly about the big scary issues is important, but don’t forget the value of connecting through social, material and ideological motivations too!

You can see all of our slides here on Slideshare and be sure to connect with us on Twitter with questions and comments:  @eschipul and @happykatie

Crowd at Social Media for Nonprofits

Judging from the packed house at the San Francisco stop on the Social Media for Nonprofits Conference tour; organizations are still looking for best practices and new ways to connect with volunteers and  donors online. And for those Bay Area nonprofits lucky enough to attend the event, they got some fantastic advice that they could put to use right away. I am always delighted to attend an event with concrete steps attendees can use, and so as to not keep all the goodies for myself, here’s three things that really stood out to me for a nonprofit trying to connect via social media.

Tip 1: Don’t Try To Be Everywhere

You’ve no doubt run in to this – with so many different social media spaces out there, which ones should your organization be on? All of them, right?! No. It’s just not practical, and it also can make it difficult for your constituents to connect with you online if they’re not entirely sure where to go. A great example of this came from Christina Samala, the online community manager for the Story of Stuff [which, by the way, has a new movie out today - The Story of Broke]. Since most of their community is on Facebook, that’s where they spend most of their social media time. It wouldn’t make sense to take away from that in order to throw time at other outlets that the community isn’t engaged in. As  Christina suggested; think of your organization as a person – how would that person talk and where would it hang out? Who would it hang out with? It sounds a little hokey, but it’s a great way to make sure your nonprofit is communicating with the right people and in the right way.

Tip 2: Volunteers are Where It’s At

I know. Sounds like a total “DUH” moment, right? But I was amazed to hear the stats behind volunteers and donations. Did you know that 2/3 of volunteers donate to the organizations they work with, and when they do they donate TEN TIMES that of a non-volunteer? Getting your volunteers engaged can have a huge impact on your organization. The three R’s for volunteer engagement, from Greg Baldwin of VolunteerMatch, are Recruit, Retain, and Recognize. A great way to do all three online is via the Johnson & Johnson &you widget. This is a neat little tool that will allow you to bring in your volunteer opportunities, events, and news and display them on Facebook or your website. (Innov8Social has a list of some other great tools to check out). And social media gives you a great way to recognize your volunteers and donors – you’ll be amazed at what a little shout-out will do for a volunteer’s spirits!

Tip 3: Close the Loop

This is a phrase Schipulites are well familiar with! It’s not just for letting someone know when you’ve completed a task – it’s also for letting your supporters know when you’ve reached a fundraising goal. Everyone wants to be part of a winning team, and when you set realistic and specific goals (like, “We want to raise $2,000 to buy a new computer for our classroom”) you’ll find that people are more likely to get involved and get you there. When you then share with the world your success, you’ll find that those who were a part of it will get hooked on that feeling – and will come back again and again. I think often nonprofits are always moving to the next goal and next event, and we sometimes forget to update on previous efforts. If you put out a call to action for donations or volunteer help, be sure to close the loop with your community and let them know a goal was reached and how it’s impacting others.

The Social Media for Nonprofits Conference may be coming to a city near you – so check it out online! And if not, don’t despair – slides from all the presentations are up online and following the hashtag #sm4np is a great way to virtually attend a future event. And we want to hear from you! If you’re working with a nonprofit – volunteer or staff – tell us, what are some of your favorite ways to connect online?

Photos courtesy of Social Media for Nonprofits / Jim Vetter Photography

Graphic Design for Social Media Webinar with Erica Bogdan from Schipul – The Web Marketing Co. on Vimeo.

Compelling graphics are essential to effective web marketing – especially in the realm of social media! Join Schipul’s Creative Services Designer, Erica Bogdan, as she demonstrates what key tips and tools you’ll need to know for creating stellar graphics for your company’s Facebook and Twitter pages.

Here are some of the cool tips this webinar covers:

• How social media is growing for businesses as a  free and effective marketing tool to create open dialogue with clients. Kick-butt graphics will make your Facebook and Twitter pages stand out from the crowd!
• Awesome resource links to find images, fonts, and free alternatives to Photoshop so you can start creating your own graphics today!
• How to incorporate branding consistency across multiple social media platforms and how to uploading your graphics onto your Facebook and Twitter once you’ve finished creating them!

If you’d also just like to view the slide presentation by itself, the slides can be found here.

Facebook makes changes to the way the network works on the daily. I do my best to stay up to speed, and I’m normally pretty polar in how I feel about an algorithm update here or an interface change there, but Facebook’s latest major announcement has me teetering.  Here’s what’s going on. . .

Facebook is introducing a “Subscribe” button. I think this is major. Here’s how it will work:

1. You can subscribe to Public status updates from people you are not Facebook friends with.
2. You can choose what kind of updates you see from your current Facebook friends. You can choose to subscribe to All Updates, Most Updates or Only Important Updates.
3. You can allow people who aren’t your friends to subscribe to your Public Facebook status updates. Don’t worry, you have to opt in for this to be available to those who stumble across your Facebook profile.

Why this is great

Follow your Faves

You can subscribe to a celebrity or famous blogger’s Public status updates. They’ll likely never make Facebook friends with you, and now you don’t have to troll their profiles to see what they are publishing publicly.

Filtered Content

You can trim your newsfeed down to the status updates that really interest you. For example, if the girl who sat behind you in Sophomore Chemistry updates her Facebook every time her cat sneezes, you can choose to see “Only Important” updates from her without feeling badly about hiding or unfriending her (but if she really updates every time her cat sneezes, you really shouldn’t feel badly about unfriending her. Just sayin).  You can also subscribe to specific types of content your friends are posting. Choices are Life Events, Status Updates, Photos and Videos, and Games.

Market Yourself

For personal marketing purposes, you can extend the number of people who read your content by allowing non-friends to subscribe to your feeds. This way, if you would like anyone in the world to easily access to knowledge you share regarding specific topics, but don’t want to be friends with the whole world, you can allow other Facebook users to subscribe to your public content.

Why this really isn’t that great

Dilutes the Power of the Fan Page

I totally get that there is a difference between a celebrity’s personal profile page and their Facebook fan page, and that there will be different content, but:

1. Being able to subscribe to their personal pages seems to dilute the purpose of the fan page.
2. Seeing as most celebrities share what they want the world to know via their public fan pages, what new content would I really be subscribing to here?

I know that this feature doesn’t just apply to major celebrities, but you get the point.  Lines are getting greyer here. Could be a good thing, but my gut reaction is to feel a tad uneasy.

I’m Just Jaded

I really appreciate getting to trim down what I see from which friends. This is cool, and by far the best part of this new feature. But honestly, Facebook, I’m not inclined to use it, because you’re just going to change it up in two weeks anyway.

Hello, Twitter, is that you?

This whole subscribing-to-people-without-having-to-be-their-friend thing reeks of Twitter. I like using Twitter and the way it works. . .  when I’m on Twitter. Basically, I feel like this update begs the question: “ISN’T THAT WHAT TWITTER IS FOR?”

Let’s look at the numbers: Facebook has 750 million active users. Twitter just announced that it reached the 100 million active users milestone. If I were to make the assumption that everyone on Twitter is also on Facebook, I could reasonably assume that 650 million of the active users on Facebook are NOT interested in Twitter. So, why are we trying to make Facebook more like Twitter?!

This Automates Trolling

Well, that about sums up my point there.

Those are my two cents on this update. I’d love to hear yours. If you’re interested, you can follow my public content on Twitter, which is where I will continue to focus on posting it until I see Facebook embrace the subscription thing for personal marketing.

THE END

So, I’ve gotten to the point where I don’t consider it a real week unless Facebook has made some sort of major interface change I have to adapt to. Don’t get me wrong; change is good, but sometimes it’s exhausting, and sometimes I don’t love the changes. Today, however, I’m happy to explain a User Interface change that I’m sure we will all agree is, well, just swell.

Inline Privacy Settings

Facebook has moved many of its privacy settings inline! Here, let me explain.

Before these changes were implemented, if you wanted to edit who in your friends lists could see what on your profile (i.e. Status Updates, About Me, Hometown, etc.), you had to comb through lists of options buried deep in your account settings. It was cumbersome to say the least. Now, these settings are visible right next to the piece of content you’re editing. Take a look:

Tag Approval

You remember that time you said you couldn’t make a your cousin’s wedding because you didn’t feel well, then your friend tagged you in a photo dancing on a table that same night, and your family was, like, SUPER mad? That’s not a thing anymore guys. You get to approve photo tags before all your friends see your indiscretions. You’ll simply see a Pending Posts link beneath the “Wall” link on your profile, where you’ll be prompted to approve the posts.

But wait!. . . There’s more! You’ll also be given the ability to approve tags that other friends try to add to your photos and posts. I feel liberated already.

That’s not all folks! You’ll also have more choices when removing a tag someone else added. Choices include: a.) Remove tag, b.) Ask friend to take photo down, c.) Block friend. It’s like choosing the flavor of mustard I want from the store; I’m paralyzed with indecision.

Impersonation

So you spent forever splitting up your 4,500 friends up into appropriate lists so that you know that you’re sharing the right content with the right people, right? But you could never be certain the settings all worked the way you wanted, especially since they change so frequently. Now you can. Introducing. . . the “View Profile as” button!!! (applause roars in the background). This lets you impersonate any of your Facebook friends, so you can see what they can see.

Status Update Modifications

Status updates just got cooler, y’all. There are a couple nice new features to note:

1.) You can tag locations from your posts. Before, you had the check into a location from your smartphone using the Places feature. Now, you can search locations right at the status update field. Apparently, Never Never Land is a place.

2.) All media uploads are consolidated under Add Photo. I think this provides a cleaner, simpler interface.

3.) The Share Link feature is gone, now all you have to do to share a link is copy/paste the URL into your status update. You’ll get the same result.

All these updates boil down to a simpler, cleaner interface, more accessible privacy controls and more intuitive status update box. I heart all of these changes. What do you guys think?

In case you missed it, we had a great time Wednesday talking all things Facebook with some of our favorite people, our clients! Check out the presentation below for a quick catch up.

Looking for help rocking out your Facebook page, or have social media consulting needs or questions? Let us know!

Don’t miss out on our upcoming webinars. Check out our training schedule.

Shonali Burke leads IABC Houston Chapter workshop at Houston Technology Center. Photo by Mark Hiebert. (www.hiebertphotography.com)

IABC Houston hosted it’s latest workshop for PR professionals: Commo at the Speed of WARP.

The workshop was led by award-winning communications consultant Shonali Burke, and PR professionals from varying disciplines in the Houston-area gathered at HTC for the training.

Community-centered public relations was the focus of the workshop along with, tools to make your Social Media time more effective, and a real-time tweetchat with Klout.

Community Centered Public Relations – Three Case Studies

Burke highlighted three case studies as examples of organizations who effectively implemented the strategy to grow their brands.

In “The Case of the OKC Jeweler”  the Samuel Gordon Jewelers team was able to increase their revenue, drop their ad spending and increase foot-traffic to their brick-and-mortar location by interacting with their audience. Samuel Gordon Jewelers doesn’t sell their product online, so being able to engage an audience online in a way that increased revenue is perhaps the most interesting part of the case study.

Pledge to End Hunger was an example of combining an online community with an actual event to highlight child hunger. The campaign was primarily goal driven: 1,000 pledges in 7 days. It was a Twitter-based campaign, so the target audience was active Twitter users. The offline event was SXSW – so timing was a significant component as well. The organization collected more than four thousand pledges with the call to action “1 click feeds 140 children.” The end result was 560,000 servings of food to foodbanks in four cities.

Finally, The Blue Key Campaign relied on a community of bloggers to drive the conversation around raising funds to help refugees and displaced people. One goal of the campaign was to get sign-ups for 1000 keys a week for six weeks. Fifty percent of the goal was met in a single event: a 24hr tweetathon. Because the campaign relied on decentralized components (bloggers in different parts of the U.S.), determining which factors to measure was essential to the success of the campaign. Tweets tagged with #bluekey were tracked, and the team used a Google Analytics campaign to measure and review traffic sources to the main website.

Tools

The common factor in the case studies were tools used to track, measure, and monitor online outreach.  Our favorites from Burke’s list include:

Google Analytics – Provides in-dept site statistics and campaign monitoring tools. Free.

WP Editorial Calendar Plugin – WordPress plug-in for planning content. Free.

WP Touch – WordPress plug-in that creates a mobile template version of your WordPress site for easy reading.

LiveFyre - Blog commenting application that connects commenters with with Facebook and Twitter.

Tungle – Scheduling tool that integrates with Outlook calendars.

Post Planner – Strictly for Facebook. Allows users to schedule post and preview exactly how the scheduled post will appear on your Facebook wall.

Major Takeaway

One major takeaway from Burke’s workshop is that when you implement community-driven PR outreach, you build trust. And that’s part of what motivates people to action.

Shonali Burke offers additional insights on blogging, PR, and social media on her site Waxing Unlyrical.

Last night, I received my coveted invite to join Google + and I immediately started playing with it while Dexter played in the background.  Like so many social media nerds, I was excited to finally get my hands dirty with what some are calling a “Facebook killer.”

So what is Google +?

Google + is Google’s new social network service and is currently in limited field trial. Unlike Google Wave and Buzz, Google + immediately seems more promising due to its slick design which users will love.

At first glance, the minimalist interface is very similar to Facebook.

However unlike the debacle with Buzz, Google + puts privacy in the forefront, making the service innovative and fun to use.  Here at Schipul, everyone has been geeking out over it and Google + is truly, as PC Mag’s Mark Hachman states, “a social network for geeks.”

The new social network service is ripped with some really cool features as well which I will discuss next.

So What about these Google + Features?

So it seems Google really thought about these features and realized that life is a little more dynamic than just the Public / Private dichotomy that Facebook and Twitter has created.  Instead Google + provides a granular and exciting way to share our lives with the people we know.

This will be a basic overview of Google + features. In the coming days we will blog more in-depth reviews of each feature but for now, let’s see what’s inside Google +.

Google Circles

Social networking is about connecting with people and sharing information. With Google Circles, it’s really easy to do this. Google Circles is basically like Facebook friends lists and groups or Twitter lists but with more control and visualization.

Here’s an example of how they look:

Basically, you can drag-and-drop people in the circles you create. For example, I created a Schipulites circle for my coworkers.  With Google +, you now have more control with who you share with at a granular level.

Google + Stream

The stream is very similar to the Facebook home feed which users will appreciate.  Here is the Facebook home feed:

Here is the stream for Google +:

This is where you will enter a status update, share photos and videos, etc.  As you can see the design is slick and sexy, typical of Google.

Google Sparks

Google Sparks is a great feature that helps you find things to share. Think of it like Google Alerts that allows you to follow topics you’re interested in.  Here’s an example of how it looks when I search for topics on SEO.

Google Sparks makes it easy to browse suggested topics or you can set your interests using keyword-based searches.  Most importantly, it’s really easy to share content.

Hangouts: Group Video Chat

This feature is pretty neat. With Hangouts, you can video chat up to 10 people at a time.  Here’s an example of how it looks from Search Engine Land.

This feature looks like it’s going to be useful especially for business meetings.  The way it works is when someone initiates a Hangout, it shows up on your feed and notifies your friends.  There is however a 10 person limit.

Huddle: Mass Texting and Group Chat

This is the feature, besides Google Circles, I’m most excited about.  Huddles is a mass texting and group chat service that turns your different conversations into one simple group chat.  Can you imagine? Bar hopping with friends will no longer be an ordeal. It will be simple and painless to get everyone on the same page or update people on where to meet for another crazy night of Red Stripes and darts.

What about the +1 Button?

Just to be clear, Google + is different from +1. Google + is Google’s social network and + 1 is Google’s share button.

Like Facebook’s “Like” button, the +1 share button makes it easy to identify content that you approve or think is cool. It’s a great way to recommend awesome content to your friends, coworkers and family.  This is how it looks in the search results when I do a search for “Houston Coffee Spots” and +1’d the result.

The content you +1 will show up on your Google Profile.  Just like in the way that anything you like on Facebook can be liked with Facebook “Like” buttons.

So, you might have also noticed Google +1 buttons starting to appear in search results and publishers adding the button to their sites.  If you want to install the Google +1 button on your site be sure to check out our “HOWTO: Install Google +1 Share Button on Your Site” blog post on our SEM blog.

Currently however, the content you +1’d does not feed into Google +.  It doesn’t really make sense but I suspect Google will fix this before the service becomes available to everyone. The only way you can see what people have +1’d is if you remember to go to a person’s Google profile.  For example:

So that is Google + in a nutshell. In the coming days, we will post more in-depth articles on how to use Google + for your business, so be sure to keep a lookout.

If you got an invite to join Google +, we would love to hear what you think about it. Let us know in the comments below. For now, I’m going to continue getting my Google + on.

Need help getting Google+ on your website?

Check out our handy how to install Google+ button help file“HOWTO: Install Google +1 Share Button on Your Site” blog post and if you’re brain is still hungry, we’ve got some great social media and online technology help files to help you take it to the next level.

Let us know how we can help!  Need a hand getting Google+1 on your website or blog?  We’re here for you!

Radames Ortiz is a SEO Analyst at Schipul – The Web Marketing Company in Houston Texas

In a world full of emerging technology choices, it can feel as though technology serves as only a distraction… something used distances us from each other… something used to market to us. At the same time, these same technologies can be used for truly amazing purposes… to empower us, encourage us and inspire us.

The closing remarks at the Alzheimer’s Association: Houston and Southeast Texas – Schlicting Professional Conference focused on these emerging technologies and their effects on dementia care services. The presentation spotlighted the many wonderful ways organizations and care providers can use technology to empower themselves, their patients and families.

It also took an honest look at the real threats unsafe and uneducated use of technology pose with the hopes that the audience would take pause and consider their own use of technology. Finally, with a quick exercise and highlight of useful monitoring tools, the audience was themselves empowered with a personal technology mission statement and the encouragement to share in the online world the gifts they are already bringing to patients offline.

For more about the “The Impact of Technology on Dementia Care Services” Closing Remarks see the presentation below.

For about the Alzheimer’s Association: Houston and Southest Texas Branch visit:

• The alz.org/texas site
• The blog.alztex.org blog
• You can also follow them on twitter @alztex and like them on facebook.com/alztex

Empowering Providers, Patients, and Families