Schedule For Integrating Facebook And Twitter

Many businesses and schools are afraid of social media use. While they are often times open to the idea of social media use, they are fearful about moving too quickly and making mistakes along the way.

To combat this problem I’ve come up with a schedule, which you can use, to slowly ease yourself into social media use. You’ll soon realize that social media is not only a good idea, but something that will help to greatly improve your small business or school over time.

The following is an example of the schedule of events you might take when attempting to introduce Facebook and Twitter to both your clients or school administrators and the community at large.

• Immediately set up an official Facebook Page for your business or school.

• Assign someone who is well aware of the business or school happenings to be in charge of posting to the Facebook account 1-3 times per week.

• Run the Facebook Page for 2 weeks without telling anyone about it. During this time you will train the assigned worker on how to post, what to post, when to post, etc.

• After two weeks you will add links to the Facebook Page on your official website and send out an official press release to the local media.

• You will then run the Facebook Page for 3 months, after which time you will assess whether or not to continue social media communication/promotion with the use of Twitter.

If after the 3-month trial of Facebook you determine that you are indeed headed in the right direction and your community is appreciating the information you are sending out on Facebook, you will continue your social media campaign with the launch of an official Twitter account for your school or business.

• You will create and customize a Twitter account for your business or school.

• You will once again train and supervise a responsible school worker on how to post, what to post, and when to post to Twitter.

• You will run the Twitter account for 2 weeks without telling anyone about it.

• After two weeks you will link from the official website to the Twitter account and send out a press release about your continued use of social media as a communication platform.

• You will continue to supervise the responsible person as you post to both Twitter and Facebook on a regular basis (Twitter at least once a day. Facebook at least 1-3 times per week.)

• Once again, you will run the Twitter account for approximately 3 months, after which time you will assess what can be done to improve your overall social media/Internet presence.

If you can take steps such as these to slowly introduce your clients, school officials and community members to social media use, then I don’t see how you could fail.

Click here to open the Facebook Module Task Sheet.

This is the end of Module 1! Take a minute to click here to ask a question or leave any comments you may think are helpful!

Click here to Continue to Module 2. What Kind Of Content Should You Post?

Templates For Writing A Great Social Media Headline

When it comes to social media, headlines are important. Very important! And with sites like Facebook and Twitter (where the messages you send to your community are both short and sweet) headlines become ever more vital.

The customers, parents, teachers, and students in your community don’t have a lot of time to spare these days, so they take extra precautions when deciding what they spend their time reading and absorbing. That’s why having a headline that grabs their attention is so incredibly important.

The better your headline, the better your chances of…

• Driving your readers back to your website.
• Having others in your community spread the word about you and your business/school.
• Attracting new customers/students.

If you need help writing great headlines, then I’ve got a special gift for you today. My friend Chris Garrett recently released a report containing 102 killer headlines for use in social media…. and you can get it now (for free) to use as you please.

Writing headlines is one of the parts about social media many people struggle with. So, to help you with the dreaded “blank screen of doom” here are 102 tried and tested social media headline templates to download.

102 Headline Formats

Just download this document and fill in the blanks to get a killer headline in seconds.

Click here to open the Facebook Module Task Sheet.

Click here to Continue to Module 3. Letting People Know You’re Using Social Media

Setting Up Your Facebook Profile

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In this article, we are going to set up your Facebook Profile. If you’ve already set up a Facebook Profile for yourself, you can go ahead and skip this tutorial. This may be a good time to review what’s already in your own Profile.

Whomever is going to be managing your business’/school’s Facebook Pages and/or Groups need to set up a Profile. This means that if you are going to be the one managing your school’s Pages/Groups, you must first set up a Facebook Profile.

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Creating A Facebook Page

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In the video above I walk you through the process of creating a Facebook Page.

In order to create a Facebook Page, you first have to create a Facebook Profile. If you have not yet created a Profile for yourself, please go back and do that now. You will not be able to create a Facebook Page without first creating a Facebook Profile.

To create a Page for your business or school, go to: www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

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The Difference Between Facebook Profiles, Pages And Groups

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Before you can set up your Facebook account(s), it is important to understand the difference between Facebook Profiles, Pages and Groups.

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Video Walkthrough: How I Manage My Social Media Accounts

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Click here to go to the next Facebook Module.

Send all questions to contact@socialmediaschools.com and we will respond within 24 hours!

My 15 Minute Roadmap For Social Media Success

The following is my 15-minute road map for social media success.

Morning

Each morning, the first thing you should do when you sit down at your computer is:

1. Check to make sure your website is up and running (1 minute)
2. Check your email for important tasks/comments that need to be handled right away (2 minutes deligate if necessary)
3. Go to Twitter.com and check to see if you have any incoming Tweets or direct messages. Reply if necessary (2 minutes)
4. Go to http://search.twitter.com and see what people are saying about you and your school. Reply if necessary (2 minutes)
5. Let your community know what you are doing today on Twitter (1 minute)
6. Go to Facebook.com and check your Facebook Page. Respond to any comments or questions if necessary. (1 minute)
7. Post any important news or info on your Facebook Page (1 minute)

Evening

Before you go home for the day, you might want to repeat this process. When you first start using social media, posting twice per day may not be necessary. But as your social media use increases and the number of friends, fans and followers increases as well, the time and frequency that you check in on your various profiles will also increase.

The trick to keeping your social media use to less than 15 minutes per day is to 1) schedule it on your daily calendar and 2) don’t become obsessed with checking for incoming messages.

If you can schedule 15 minutes in your daily calendar so that each morning when you come into the office you can run through the following tasks, complete them, and then move on with your day, you won’t be temped or feel the need to check your Twitter and/or Facebook profiles every 30 minutes.

So that’s my big advice here…SCHEDULE YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA TIME IN ADVANCE… and if you want to keep your social media use to less than 15 minutes, never schedule any more time for it than that.

Click here to open the Facebook Module Task Sheet.

Click here to Continue to Module 5. Decreasing Your Workload By Putting Facebook On Autopilot

Send all questions to contact@socialmediaschools.com and we will respond within 24 hours!

How Much Content Should You Post Per Day?

One of the big fears many people have about social media use is that it is going to become a totally encompassing activity that steals time and energy away from other activities that should be getting done. This module is intended to show you that this is not the case.

I know that you are extremely busy and have more important things to do than be constantly updating your social media profiles, so the goal this week is to cut down your social media use to less than 15 minutes per day.

To answer the question, “How much content should you post per day?”… here are my thoughts:

I think you should be posting 1 to 4 messages per day to Twitter and at least 1 post per week to your school’s Facebook page.

Here’s my reasoning behind this:

Twitter is considered a “micro-blogging” service. The messages are short and sweet and they can be as frequent as you please. However, if you post too few messages, you’ll get lost amongst the others that your community members are following. And if you post too many messages, your community will unfollow you because they won’t like seeing your messages taking up their entire Twitter feed.

Based on my experiences… I think 1 to 4 tweets per day is a good number to aim for. If you can’t think of even a single thing to Tweet about on a daily basis, then you aren’t doing enough to make your school or business an amazing place. Use these tips to help you decide what to Tweet about.

As far as Facebook goes, you don’t need to post there quite as often as you do to Twitter. 1-4 posts per week on Facebook is ideal. Again, you don’t want to post too often… and you don’t want to post too occasionally. Let your Facebook fans know that your Facebook page is up to date by posting regularly, but don’t overwhelm them with insignificant nothings they won’t care about. Your Facebook postings should be important school events, information, and news that your community will REALLY care about.

Click here to go to the next Facebook Module.

Send all questions to contact@socialmediaschools.com and we will respond within 24 hours!

Do Press Releases Still Work?

Sending a press release to your city’s local media outlet(s) is a great way to get the word out about your business/school’s social media use.

In many towns and cities, this is just the kind of story they are looking for. The media will be interested in hearing what kind of content you plan on producing, what sort of information your followers can expect to receive, and how heavily you intend to use these new online tools. In some cities, however, where social media use has quickly become the norm, this may not be a story the media feels worth sharing, so don’t be surprised if they pass it over.

It’s unfortunate, but traditional press releases are becoming less and less effective. It’s an old medium that is no longer working in today’s modern world. Press releases do still work, but they don’t work nearly as well as they once did.

That said, press releases to your local media is still a good idea. At the very least, it’s worth a try. Social media use (especially in the schools) is still new enough that it might be something the local media feels worth devoting some time and energy to. So give it a try and let me know how it works out!

Here’s my tip: While I encourage you to send a press release to your local newspaper, TV and radio stations, I think you stand a much better chance of enticing the local media to cover your social media story if you simply send them an email or give them a call. Hopefully you’ve built a relationship with the local media already, so you should know who to contact.

Click here to go to the next Facebook Module.

Send all questions to contact@socialmediaschools.com and we will respond within 24 hours!

Traditional Marketing And Social Media

Because people in your community may be new to social media, one of the best ways to let them know you are using these new social networking technologies is to approach them offline.

Using traditional marketing techniques is a great way to get new people to follow you on the Internet. The following is a list of ways you might wish to spread the word in regards to your organization’s social media use.

In each of these places, simply adding a line that says something like this:

Follow Social Media Schools on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/smschools

Traditional Marketing Techniques You Can Use To Let People Know About Your School’s Social Media Use

• Business cards
• Posters
• Brochures
• Giveaways
• TV
• Pamphlets
• Holiday Cards
• Calendars
• Newspaper Advertisements
• Magazine Advertisements
• School Marquees
• Birthday Cards
• Email Newsletters
• You Email Signature
• T-Shirts
• Chamber Of Commerce Meetings
• School District Meetings
• Billboards
• Door Hangers
• Newspaper Articles
• Newsletters
• Direct Mail

If the person reading your message is on Twitter or Facebook, they will know what to do. If the person isn’t on Twitter or Facebook, they’ll either ignore the message or they will visit the website, find out what Twitter/Facebook is, and then decide for themselves if it is something they want to sign up for.

Again, it’s simply your job just to let your community know that you are using these new communication tools. These traditional marketing techniques, while some of them will cost money, can be a great way to increase your online follower counts.

Click here to go to the next Facebook Module.

Send all questions to contact@socialmediaschools.com and we will respond within 24 hours!