3 types of questions to ask your Facebook fans

Know your Facebook fansPop quiz: Who are your top fans on your Facebook Page? For most Facebook Page owners, you probably don’t know this valuable information…but you should.

The bread and butter of any company who is using social media to build engagement with fans and potential customers isn’t the number of fans you have, nor is it the amount of cash you make off it. Rather, it is the relationships you build with your customers.

Why is this important?

Without fans who are engaged, it’s like trying to swim against the current. You’ll eventually get to your destination, but it will take you twice as long (if not longer). One other thing to remember, simply asking a question is not the key to finding out who your top fans are. What it will do is help stir interest.As a Facebook Page owner, you’ll want to pay attention to who responds and make a mental note on people you see responding on a recurring basis – these are the fans you want to  focus in on and learn about, because they seem the most likely engaged fans because they’re responding often.

Below are three types of questions you can ask your fans starting today to help you learn more about them and to help you better engage with them.

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5 retina display apps for the new Apple iPad

5 retina display apps for the new iPad
The new Apple iPad is out! So who’s excited? New and improved camera (5 megapixels), faster processor (A5x), and voice dictation. But what about the apps? In addition to much improved internals, the best new feature is the retina display, which now displays items at a rate of 2048×1536 – compared to just 1024×768 on the Apple iPad 2 and original Apple iPad. So what does this mean? More pixels, meaning sharper images, apps and movies – and text will look more crisp.

So how can you put this to use on your new Apple iPad?  By downloading apps. To help you out, I’ve put together a list of 5 must-have retina display apps for the new Apple iPad to show off your new Apple iPad’s remarkable screen.

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5 things to avoid doing on LinkedIn

5 things to avoid doing on LinkedInWhile Facebook is a social network primarily centered around connecting with friends and family to share your personal social life, LinkedIn is considered THE standard for business professionals.  What this means is that it’s not about posting personal rants, sharing photos of you on vacation or even photos of your pets.  Instead, it is about connecting with employers, fellow employees, and friends with the professional purpose of finding jobs, people or even business opportunities.

Below are 5 things to avoid doing on LinkedIn that can not only help you avoid an embarrassing situation, but also help you make better connections with other business professionals.
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How to use Twitter advanced search to get more leads

Twitter advanced searchEver wanted to know how to use Twitter.com to get more leads for your business? A lot of people often dismiss Twitter, saying they don’t understand it or that it’s too complicated. In a nutshell, Twitter is pretty easy to use — in fact, it has a lot of great benefits.

One thing I especially like is that it’s a social network that actually let’s you listen in on conversations from anyone on Twitter without having to send a friend request or be connected to that person.  Additionally, you can search through Twitter conversations and learn more about the people, businesses, celebrities and brands on Twitter BEFORE you attempt to make a connection.

Why is this important? Think about it. If I were to go up to a complete stranger and start a sales pitch, not only would they look at me as being weird, but if they’re like most people, they have already made up their mind because of the awkward approach that I took.

The typical Twitter user would go to search.twitter.com; unfortunately, you’ll probably end up spending more time sifting through results that may not be relevant to what you’re looking for.  That’s where Twitter’s ‘advanced search’ feature comes into play.

For anyone who owns a business, where advanced search will help you is that you can target the tweets you’re looking for. For example, if I am looking for real estate agents, instead of looking for the broad topic of ‘real estate,’ I can specify to show tweets with the keyword of real estate within a 50 mile radius of California. This will help me not only narrow down the tweets I am looking for about a particular subject, but also show me just people in the area I have specified.

To start using Twitter’s advanced search, follow the instructions below.
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Facebook Dimensions for Facebook Pages [Infographic]

Facebook dimensions - 2012

In 2012, Facebook introduced Timeline – a revamped look for Facebook profiles and Facebook pages. With the introduction of Facebook Timeline, Facebook dimensions changed.  In addition, this gave page owners a lot of new sizing options like Facebook milestones, Facebook highlighted posts, and the Facebook timeline cover photo.

What this means is that in addition to having to learn new Facebook dimensions, you now have a number of different types of dimensions to choose from when deciding how you want to post your Facebook content.

To help you out, I put together this Facebook dimensions infographic for Facebook Pages. This infographic contains all of the sizes and dimensions that you need for your Facebook Pages to present your content to fans.

Facebook dimensions

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5 FREE Facebook landing page creation tools

With the new Facebook Pages launching in just a few weeks, is your Facebook Page ready? For those of you who need a quick rundown on the new features, be sure to check out my YouTube playlist where I have put together detailed videos covering each new Facebook Page feature. One feature that I’m sure a number of you are going to be interested in are custom landing pages.  Although Facebook has done away with the ability to set a dedicated landing page for non-fans to land on, Facebook Page users will be happy to know that landing pages have increased in size. Previously, landing pages were just 510 px. Now, they have increased significantly to 810 px. This means lots more real estate to engage with fans!

For those of you who don’t want to spend time learning how to write HTML code or designing graphics, here are 5 FREE Facebook landing page creation tools to help you build better landing pages to connect with current fans and to engage with new ones.

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Why Facebook Milestones are the next big thing for Facebook Pages

Facebook Milestones for Facebook Timeline

Yesterday, Facebook released an update to Facebook Pages. This new update adds in the hotly debated Timeline to Facebook Pages.  While some Facebook users dislike the new Timeline feature, I actually like it – and here’s why.

In addition to being able to share photos, videos, status updates and links to content on their Facebook Timeline, Facebook Page owners now have the ability to add in milestones as well. Facebook Milestones are essentially historical moments in the history of a business, a brand, a product, even a band.  With Facebook Milestones, Facebook Pages takes on a much needed level of depth.

For example, Tiffany’s now has a Facebook Page complete with milestones about the company’s rich history. New organizations such as the NY Times have also done an incredible job of not only showcasing current news, but also of providing a very detailed and thorough listing of the NY Times throughout its lustrous history.

What this means is that in addition to sharing current content, Facebook Page owners can now show off the present as well as their storied past by adding milestones to their Facebook Page Timeline.  This means you can now let fans share in the history of your product – think of it like Wikipedia.  What I like most about Facebook Pages’ new feature, it now let’s page owners tell their past to help bring fans up to speed about the page – where it came from, where it’s at, and where it’s going.

Obviously, your Facebook Page won’t write its own milestones – it will be up to Facebook Page owners to do this. For those page owners who take the time to complete a detailed view of their past, they can expect to see a nice boost from this though because it will help to make your Facebook Page more sticky.

By adding in lots of great content to keep fans on your page (or at least looking for your content), you can expect to see higher levels of interaction, the more you share!

To learn how to add Facebook Milestones to your Facebook Pages, watch this brief video tutorial on Facebook Milestones.

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Social Media Hex Color Codes

Social Media Color Hex Codes

Knowing the right social media color when working in Adobe Photoshop Elements or your favorite graphics program can help save you valuable time when you need to create a social media icon or match your design to your favorite social network.

Here’s a list of the the hex codes for your favorite social media sites. Be sure to bookmark this page this way you have the right social media colors when you need them.

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How to add photos to Facebook Maps

Location, location, location

Adding photos to your Facebook map is a great way to chart where you’ve been and what you’ve achieved in your life. In addition, uploading photos and adding a location also gives you the ability to share your favorite photos along with the places that you’ve been with your friends and family.  Today we’re going to show you to add photos to your Facebook map.

To add photos to your Facebook map, follow these instructions:

How to add photos to your Facebook Map

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How to create a Google Plus badge in 4 easy steps

While Facebook has been the dominant social network for the past couple of years, a challenger has entered the ring by way of Google+. While most sites have dared to go toe-to-toe with the behemoth that is Facebook, Google+ hasn’t shied away. In fact, in Google’s recent earnings call, they cited 90 million subscribers – a substantial number, considering they haven’t been around but for just a few months, Google has also been really good at listening to their subscribers for new features.

Today we’re going to show you how you can capitalize on Google+’s growth by adding a Google Plus badge to your website in 4 easy steps.

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