-Steven Neville

The content and conversation curation tool, hashtags, have made their way to Facebook. For those familiar with Twitter, the transition into utilizing hashtags on Facebook for personal and business use will be rather easy. But with only 1/5th the numbers of active Twitter users compared to Facebook’s users, and with a much younger demographic on Twitter, many business owners may be wondering what, exactly, is the deal with hashtags on Facebook?

For those of you in the latter category, I present to you a quick and relatively easy guide to what are, and how to use, hashtags on Facebook:

What are hashtags:

Hashtags are a way for people and businesses to start, and join in on, conversations around a particular topic. By attaching the symbol “#” to a word or phrase, the word or phrase now becomes “live,” or organized and searchable on social media. For instance, if I want to talk about social media, I can use the hashtag #SocialMedia in my post. Once I attach the # to social media (note: don’t use spaces in a phrase or it separates the search into two individual words) the phrase will turn a blue color, indicating that it has now been coded, added to the conversation list along with other posts tagged with #SocialMedia, and one can now “click” on the phrase to view the conversations tagged with #SocialMedia.

On Facebook, when you click the now live and active word or phrase (through attaching #), you’re taken to a list of posts and updates also hashtagged with the similar word or phrase. For a business, or a highly sociable person, this can increase your post’s chances of being seen by people interested in social media; as your post is no longer limited to your friends or followers, but is opened up to all of Facebook’s users searching for social media.

Set your posts to “public” if you want to get in on the conversation:

If you are a business professional reading this for tips on your Facebook business page, disregard this one. Your page is public, so your posts are too. That’s not to say don’t use hashtags, just means that you don’t have to go through this step to get your hashtags seen by the public. But if you are an individual user on Facebook, and you want to get in on the conversation, you’re going to have to set your posts to public. You can do this in your status updates by clicking on the “post privacy settings” (next to the post button) and changing the settings to “public.” Facebook’s hashtag settings currently act in accordance with your privacy settings, so if your posts are set to “friends only,” then even if you hashtag your post, only your friends will be able to see it and search the hashtag.

Use the search engine to find conversations: 

If no one you know is talking about what you’re interested in, use the regular search engine to get in on the hashtag conversation. In the same “search area” at the top of the page where you can find friends or businesses, you can also enter #(then the word or phrase you want to look for) into the search engine, press enter, and be taken to results of people talking about that word or phrase. For instance, if you want to talk sports, enter #sports into the search engine and there you can find people talking about sports-related news and views. Pretty cool, right?

If this is your first time using hashtags, have a good time, and allow them to help you get even more social on social media. Use them to find interesting people and topics, and learn how they can help benefit your business.

If you want to get on the secrets to using them now, contact us, we do consultations.

Lastly, be patient with hashtags on Facebook. While they have been around forever on Twitter, this is Facebook’s first experience in testing them out. They aren’t, as of today, June 18, even live on mobile phones yet, and not everyone has had the feature made available to them yet. And, I am sure the searches aren’t perfect either, and add or omit people’s content sporadically. That’s normal with technology that’s just being introduced on a platform. Give it time. Facebook will get there, and slowly and surely people will adapt to them. When this happens, the benefits to has tags will really show.

-Steven Neville

It takes awhile to learn how to write professionally. You can be a good writer, but not know how to write professionally. That point may sound contradictory, but it really is not. There is a “sweet spot” in writing to an audience, and finding that spot, no matter what your writing level may be, takes time.

If you have never checked out the Flesch-Kincaid readability index, I encourage you to do so. You may think this index of “readability,” that measures your score based on syllables and words in a sentence, is a bunch of bullshit, but I assure you it is not. When looking at the top-rated magazines and blogs on the web, most fall into the sweet spot of “50-70″ on this readability index.

And it’s not a coincidence. Magazines, like Time and Reader’s Digest (both popular and scoring in the 50-60 range) know exactly what they’re doing. 

Some writing snobs consider tailoring your message to this “sweet spot” a process of dumbing down your writing. But is it really? What’s the point of writing on a blog or magazine if no one reads it? There is an art to crafting your message to fit an audience in the “read and move on” world of the Internet. People want the point nowadays, they want it quickly as possible, and delivering your message in a simplistic fashion is agreeable to readers of all education levels.

But if you’re like me, sometimes the desire to craft a memorable sentence gets in the way of the purpose of delivering a message that appeals to the biggest audience. Which is exactly why I use these three powerful WordPress tools to help me “keep in line.”:

Yoast SEO:

Yoast is not only a great tool for SEO (Search Engine Optimization), but it also has a ton of added benefits. Most importantly, for this blog, it measures your writing on the F-K readability index. Now, I would like to brag that after every post I am in the 50 range, but most of the time my articles are somewhere near 100, and I am forced to rewrite and edit.

But the simple fact of knowing my writing will be “judged” when it is published helps me to work on keeping it simple. It’s like the psychosomatic benefits attributed to pedometers; knowing it’s on you and counting your every step often has the power to get you moving. Same phenomenon applies here.

FD Word Statistics Plugin:

If you’re really serious about bettering your writing, check this one out. It not only uses THREE indexes to analyze your score, but it does so in real time. Whereas, Yoast, judges your score only after it is published or updated. It’s like you’re own personal Apollo Creed running with you on the beach.

Better Writing:  

The title of this plugin is a perfect example of this blog’s message. It’s short, simple, and to the point. BW allows you to choose from five different readability indexes, and like FDW, allows you to see your results in real time. Not only that, but BW lets you set a target score you want to achieve for readability, and provides suggestions to make your piece more readable.

While these tools won’t fix bad writing, they will help good writers become better. If you are writing a blog with the purpose of gathering an audience, think about writing FOR your audience, not for yourself. Stop asking yourself if you “get the point,” but imagine an average reader, doing three things at once and skimming over your blog, and ask yourself if they would get it…

Simplifying is often seem as dumbing down, but it isn’t, it’s a rather meticulous work of “trimming the fat.” And it doesn’t mean you have to write like a child, it just means you have to write more efficiently.

-Steven Neville

Social media, much like Dunkin’ Donuts, is open 24/7. Social media is also “open,” meaning to anyone who wants join in on the conversation with any opinion they so choose. As a result, big brands now face the added “responsibility” of being connected to their customers, in-store and out, all the time. Most of the time, this is a good thing, as instant communication between large groups of people forces big brands to step up in the roles of customer service and representing the brand in a positive light. Not doing so, as a big brand, can often trigger organically incited attacks on social media that can result in a loss of credibility to your social media campaign, and worse, your brand. We, in the business of social media, call these “social media crusades.”

And often, when an organically driven ”social media crusade” is launched against a big brand, it is for the right reasons.  Other times…it’s not.

For instance, with this lady at Dunkin’ Donuts (see video below), and the unfortunate workers at the establishment that had to put up with this disillusioned social media crusader. See, on one hand, she thinks she is standing up for us “little guys” by forcing Dunkin’ Donuts to fess up to their mistake of not giving her a receipt and come through on the promise of a free meal. She also believes she is doing us a service by posting about her “trials” on Facebook and sparing us the “horrible” experience of visiting this particular Dunkin’ Donuts.

On the other hand, we have no word to go on other than her, borderline, hysterical and profanity-laced rant. Plus, the video just makes her seem like an asshole. Word of advice before your start your crusade, don’t cuss every three seconds while sprinkling in ridiculously racist remarks. It doesn’t do a whole lot for your credibility.

Watch the video here, courtesy of “NewsMaster11″ on YouTube, and judge for yourself:

In social media, the allure of going “viral” can often overtake our judgement, and inspire us to act outside our normal selves for the purpose of becoming famous. Sometimes, we discover that we are more personable or charismatic, possibly even more clever or brave, than we ever imagined. Other times, as I am sure will be the case with this lady, we are forced to watch ourselves, like looking in a mirror, act like a lunatic.

I applaud social media heroes. I am for standing up to what is wrong, and I appreciate that social media affords us the opportunity to come together, like never before, and take a stand. But I also understand that social media gives every one of us a soap box and a megaphone, and it is up to us to handle ourselves responsibly.

One piece of advice, before you start your crusade, take a step back, breath, sleep on it a couple nights and let your emotions run their course. Then, if you still feel like you need to take action, do so calmly and logically.

Otherwise, well, you saw what happens…

Also, if you feel the need for a receipt for a donut, listen to Mitch Hedberg:

Knowing the rules of running a Facebook contest is essential to keeping your brand safe.

-Steven Neville

Contests on Facebook are great short-term solutions to gaining followers quickly and building your brand on social media. However, on Facebook, they also come with a strict set of guidelines you need to follow. Failing to follow these guidelines has serious consequences, like having your page deleted and blocked.

And don’t think your page is too small to get away with it. While Facebook’s automated detection robots are more likely to detect bigger pages running illegal contests, all it takes is one “spam” report or message from a user to Facebook staff to put your company on their radar. That being said, you can still run a fun and effective contest on Facebook…legally. It takes some time to do it right, but playing by the rules assures your company stays on the right side of the Facebook “law.”

Below are three MUST know rules before starting a contest on Facebook:

1. Don’t use any mechanisms as entry into a Facebook contest.

This is, by far, is the most broken rule by companies running Facebook contests. And, the biggest killer of brand’s pages. By “mechanisms,” Facebook means “actions,” like liking a post, commenting on a post, or sharing it. While on the surface this is the easiest, and most effective, way for companies to get their posts into other’s timelines quickly, it’s also the easiest way to get your business reported. Running the risk of your page’s post hitting the eyes of people who don’t like your page leaves your company vulnerable to reports of spam and TOS violations.

2. You must use a third-party Facebook contest application. 

Facebook requires your company to run contests through third-party contest applications approved by Facebook. One, to assure your company is playing by the rules of contests. Two, because these app’s data collection and operating systems assure that someone entering a contest knows they are joining a contest ran independently by your company, not Facebook. AND, that your company abides by the notification guidelines set by Facebook. Wherein, it is illegal to notify the winner of a contest only by a Facebook post. Meaning, the contest winner must be notified via phone call or outside email, FIRST, before you can announce the winner on Facebook.

But don’t be too frightened of the term “third-party” application. There are TONS of free, or low-cost applications already made and on Facebook. So you won’t have to break the bank, or build your own Facebook app, to keep it legal.

3. You must release Facebook of any involvement. 

Facebook mentions this guideline a few times in their official rules, so I would assume they put a high precedent on your company voiding Facebook of any involvement in your contest. And, out of all three rules, this one is the easiest to do. Somewhere on your contest application tab, or post about the upcoming contest, MAKE SURE to add something like this:

“This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook. You are providing your information to [Company Name] and not to Facebook.” Disclaimer provided by insiderfacebook.com

If you are still in need of help on how to run a legal, and proper Facebook contest, feel free to use this form below to contact Steve. We here, at Intelligent Designs Media, are here to help brands prosper on social media, and we have the knowledge to help you run a legit and successful Facebook contest.

-Steven Neville

When disaster strikes, like the tornadoes in Oklahoma or the Boston bombings, how do people reach out to find out if a friend or loved one is OK? If you’re new to social media, you may be surprised to learn just how organized, and how often social media is used during these times. As a social media marketer, I constantly monitor social media during times of disasters. First, to make sure people are OK. Next, because it’s a fascinating study in emergency management and communication.

I am always amazed at the power of social media during times of tragedy. Whether it’s the use of hashtags on Twitter to organize and streamline communications, like #IndyBoom during the Southside Indianapolis explosion, or professionals like the Red Cross sharing updates and ways to help in real time; social media has become one of the greatest resources to learn and communicate during times of need.

But even in my fascination, I was still astonished to check out this infographic from thesocialmediahat.com today that shows just how large and powerful the use of social media is during these times.

Quick highlights include (from survey results documented in graphic):

-76% of those asked in the survey used social media to check on a loved one.

-24% used social media to inform others they were safe.

-37% used social media for info on buying supplies and donating.

In addition to those statistics, another interesting one was that 80% of those surveyed expected emergency response teams to communicate with others via social media. Highlighting that social media use during disasters is no longer a benefit, but has now become a requirement for emergency response teams.