Recently, we were tagged in a post by another company. There was nothing inflammatory about the post, but my company is very sensitive regarding what is posted on our wall. As of right now, the post does not show up on the Page’s wall or in the news feed of people who like the Page. Would you let me know how tagging works for Facebook Pages, as it seems to be different from personal profiles? Also, is there a way to review tags and approve them before they are posted?

Facebook Tagging Overview

Facebook Tagging - How it works for Timelines & Pages

Facebook tagging links a person, Page, or place to something you post, like a status update, photo or app activity. Tagging is a useful feature because it:

• Notifies a friend or Page when you post something that pertains to them, letting them know that they were mentioned;
• Makes the post more visible because it appears in the news feed and timeline of the friend or Page you tagged (if the person has set the post to be visible to friends or public).

When a friend or Page is notified that they have been tagged, it increases engagement because they are more likely to comment on or like the activity in which they have been tagged. Without tagging, you could post a nice comment but your friend or the Page owners may never know they were mentioned. However, since your entire post including associated comments is automatically posted onto the wall of whichever friend/Page is tagged, there is an unspoken etiquette of Facebook Tagging that you need to understand.

Facebook Tagging for Timelines

When someone tags your personal profile (timeline), you have control about how you handle tags. You can turn on Tag Review in your privacy settings to ensure you always approve a tag.

Timeline Tag Settings found in Privacy Settings

If you don’t want to restrict people, you do have many options if someone tags you unfavorably.

Facebook Tagging for Pages

Only Pages within the Brands & Products or People categories can be tagged in photos. In addition, the privacy of the photo is always respected when a Page is tagged in a photo. If a photo is published to “everyone”, then it can appear publicly on the Photos tab of the Page and the admins can see it.

Since Masterful Marketing’s Page is in the Brand or Product category, I was able to tag my page in a photo and a comment.

Facebook Page Photo Tagging

I took a screenshot as I hovered over the image and you can see that I tagged my laptop. I also received notification in the Admin Panel of these events.

Page Tagging Notification

The photo was visible on the Page under the photos area, but not on the timeline.

Photo Tagging for Pages (click to enlarge)

The layout of the photos section of your Page Timeline has your albums on top and tagged photos below.

Tagging in posts show up on your timeline. Below is a post where I tagged the MH Paint Works Page and note that the post is in the right column.

Page Tagging in Posts (click to enlarge)

Some of these settings are editable. Go to your Admin Panel, click on the down arrow next to manage and select “Edit Page”. Then select “Manage Permissions”.

Page Tagging - Managing Permissions

As a Page Admin, you can set the permissions for your Page for how you want to handle posting. To make your Page more interesting, you should allow people to post content, photos and videos to your Page.

The Post Visibility section enables you to put posts by others at the top of the right column on the timeline. That is what you see in the image above for MH Paint Works – my post in the right column.

Plus you can restrict people from tagging photos that you post.

Pages Tagging other Pages

Tagging a Page from another Page is a nice way to promote other brands in which you may have a relationship, but to do so, you need to be using Facebook as your Page. To change to your Page, click on the down arrow next to home and select your Page:

Using Facebook as a Page

Once you have done that, you can tag another Page in a post.

Facebook Page Tagging another Page

I have not found any type of Tag Review for Pages as there is for Timelines. Admins need to be aware of what is going on with tagging and monitor the activity to avoid any issues.

Have I missed any features of tagging for Timelines and Pages? Have you taken advantage of tagging to increase visibility for your Facebook Page?

©2012 Masterful Marketing. All Rights Reserved.

Facebook Tagging – How it Works for Timelines and Pages is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

What value are you providing to your clients?

Marketers like to ask clients “what’s your value proposition?” But what does that really mean to you, the small business owner? Your value proposition is a clear statement of the tangible results a customer gets from your products or services. Once you have identified your clear, compelling value, you can then optimize your website and social media properties to clearly project that value to your visitors and help you convert more visitors to customers.

But First You Need to Know Your Real Value

If you have trouble explaining to people what you do and why should I buy from you, it’s time to identify the one thing that really makes you different from your competitors (hint it’s not price!). You must be crystal clear about why you are uniquely different and communicate it with confidence. There is no magic formula for creating a value proposition, but there are some key ingredients that help you refine it.

Simply, a value proposition creates interest because it speaks to the needs of your prospects and differentiates you from your competition.

Where do I start?

Understand your ideal client needs and how their needs align with your services. Knowing your target audience intimately will help you define and communicate your solution to their problem with ultimate clarity.

• Do you know what challenges or stress them out that you can help them resolve?
• What is the biggest struggle or obstacle they encounter on a daily basis?
• What is their biggest money or time leak?
• What is the one goal that seems unattainable to them?
• What is the biggest improvement they could make in their lives or business that you can help with?
• Is there something that they would do ANYTHING and pay (relatively) ANYTHING to solve, eliminate, or achieve?

Describe how your products or services achieve results such as increased revenue, decreased costs, improved productivity, enhanced customer satisfaction, streamlined processes and procedures, or improve customer retention.

What are those differences?

Understanding what makes you different is something that evolves as your business evolves. When you know your strengths, new opportunities can surface that align with those strengths.

Identify what your clients have said about working with you that made you stand out in their minds. Most likely what made you memorable was something that to you that was really simple. And because it is simple to us, we don’t place any value on it. We are taught to believe that things of value have to be hard to do. But normally what is easy for you is hard for others. You need to become consciously aware of this value you provide and use it to your benefit.

• Are you a master at simplifying processes for your clients?
• Do you bring a new perspective to a challenge that helps your clients determine a solution they never would have thought of without you?
• Are you able to do something faster than anyone else could?
• Do you create systems that help your clients learn how to do things more effectively?

Your differentiation should be things that make you different in your field, packaged in a way that others cannot copy. Record these unique differences and keep working on them until you have one that sets you apart from others and aligns with the needs of your ideal client.

What’s your value proposition?

Delivering value requires real understanding of what your customer wants to accomplish, the challenges they face, and what is important to them. I’ve listened to many small business owners talk about lack of control of their online marketing and how they are unable to gain online visibility because the tools are out of their control (website, social media, email marketing, etc.)

My value proposition is: I help small business owners dramatically increase their online visibility and attract more clients by taking control of their marketing.

What’s yours?

©2012 Masterful Marketing. All Rights Reserved.

What’s the Real Value in Your Value Proposition? is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

• Build a WordPress website
• Implement search engine optimization (SEO)
• Set up your Google Places page and other local business listings
• Develop an AdWords campaign
• Send out an email marketing campaign
• Create a Facebook Business Page with the new iFrames landing tabs

All good stuff and important. But do these experts know marketing? Can they help you determine:

• 

  Online Marketing Strategy

  Which online marketing components are the best options for your business?

• Who your target market is and how to best reach them?
• How your customers search for your products and services?
• What strategies (see diagram) are needed and which activities will be the most practical and successful given your time and resource constraints?

Anyone who calls themselves an online marketing expert must ask (and get the answers to) these five online marketing strategy questions before providing a proposal for services.

1. Do you have a marketing plan and is online marketing included?

Every business needs a marketing plan. It should be concise, focused and easily amended as your business evolves. Online and social media marketing are simply executing marketing activities using the Internet and social media platforms as a channel of communication. If you have a marketing plan but online and social media activities are not part of it, you should update your plan to include these strategies before you execute the tactics.

2. What is the goal of your online marketing?

Understanding what you are trying to accomplish with your online marketing can guide the activities so that you achieve results. Do you want to:

• Drive quality inbound leads
• Build your mailing list
• Develop your expert reputation
• Cultivate relationships for the future
• Increase brand awareness

Without knowing the answers to this question, you can’t select the right activities to ensure you achieve your goal. Make sure the person implementing your online marketing knows the answer to this as well.

3. Who are your target customers?

Selecting the right online marketing tools is only accomplished when you know where your customers can be found online. Creating a Facebook Page for your business does you little good if your target market spends little time on Facebook. Is there some benefit of having a Facebook Page for your business? Yes, but it may not be the first thing you work on given your limited resources and time. You may be better off spending your time on creating a LinkedIn group that discusses the challenges your target market faces, creating visibility for you and a valuable forum for them. But the only way to determine the priorities of your action plan is to truly understand the needs of your ideal client.

4. What keyword phrases would these target customers use to find you?

Understanding how your target market searches online for your products or services helps you develop your top keyword phrase list for all of your marketing efforts. If you don’t have your top keyword phrase list defined, how will they provide search engine optimization across your website and your other web properties?

5. What are your resources, both time and money?

There are many things we can do to market our businesses online, but the action plan must be in line with your resources. You must know how much time you can spend personally verses what you will need to outsource in order to succeed. If you are expected to blog 3 times a week and spend an hour a day on your social media activities, make sure you can devote that time or have the budget to hire a resource to manage your online marketing. Marketing your business is a balancing act between working on your business and in your business.

Strategy before Tactics

I’m all for small business owners hiring someone to help them achieve their online visibility, but executing tactics before you understand what you want to accomplish and how may cost your small business time, money and results. Many of these online marketing experts are great at execution, but lack the skills and experience to help you develop your online strategy. So before you sign that contract, ensure you have a plan first.

What other things must you know before you engage an online marketing tactics?

©2012 Masterful Marketing. All Rights Reserved.

5 Online Marketing Strategy Questions That Must Be Answered is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

One of the things I do for my clients is simplify marketing so it eliminates confusion and enables the business owner to focus on what is important. But there is always a part of marketing that stresses many small business owners – i.e. determining their mission, goals, strategies and tactics. These concepts are important in order to develop a plan that focuses you on what is important to help you succeed.

Mission vs. Vision

Mission (purpose) = defines why you are in business and what you are doing now.

Example:
Masterful Marketing partners with small business owners as their trusted marketing advisor to help them achieve success by learning, incorporating and executing marketing strategies and programs that take their business from mediocre to marvelous.

Vision = defines what you want your business to be or be known for. It’s useful to develop a 1, 3 and 5 year vision to ensure you can progress to where you want to be through well defined measurable steps:

Example:
One year: By December 30, 2010, Masterful Marketing will be offering quality information products in addition to coaching services that make up 20% of the overall revenue for the company.

Three year: By December 30, 2013, Masterful Marketing will be recognized as one of the top three marketing brands for small businesses in the United States.

Goals

Goals are well-defined, targeted statements that give you clarity, direction and focus. It is important for the small business owner to define what you need to do to achieve your vision in measurable and realistic terms. If a marketing goal is to “increase visibility for your Website”, then you need to include by when and specific criteria with which you can measure your results. Ideally, you should have only 2 or 3 goals that you want to work towards in a 3-6 month timeframe. Any more than that, you risk taking on too much and achieving nothing.

A common approach to developing your goals is to use the formula for the five characteristics of well developed goals – S.M.A.R.T.

• Specific -  What exactly are you trying to accomplish? The more specific you can be, the more likely the goal will be accomplished.
• Measurable – How do you know if you are successful? Answer the questions “How much?”, “How Many?”, and “By When?”
• Attainable – Is this realistic based on the resources you have or can acquire to achieve them or a major obstacle to success? The best goals should encourage you to reach, but not so far as to involve unavailable resources or unrealistic expectations.
• Relevant – Will this goal help you reach your vision? Setting goals that do not align themselves with your ultimate outcome will divert your attention from those that help you get where you want to go.
• Timely – What is the deadline for this effort? Without having specific time frames associated with each goal, you most likely will not achieve them because the day to day interruptions will take over.

Example:
By December 2010, create, launch and sell via the Internet 25 copies of an information product that simplifies developing a marketing plan for small businesses.

Strategies and Tactics

Probably the most confusing concept is how to determine strategies verses tactics. Previously, I wrote about Traditional vs. New Media Channels and the five categories of marketing strategies that are available within each channel – advertising, direct marketing, events, public relations and word of mouth.

When determining how you will achieve your goals, your plan should define which strategies you will include on each channel and the activities you need to be doing regularly that will lead you toward those goals.

Example:
Implement Internet marketing activities to launch the product into the market including public relations, advertising, events and word of mouth: The tactics (activities) that will help me achieve my goal include:

• Build my email list by offering a free marketing plan template;
• Develop the pricing and packaging strategy for the new information product;
• Develop a press release to announce the product and submit to the online media outlets;
• Create a blog post describing the new program and feed it to all social media channels;
• Develop an email announcement to send to my list;
• Develop a Facebook Business Page and announce the availability to my fans;
• Offer a free one hour tele-clinic that creates value and introduces the program to your target audience

It’s useful to include your tactics on a calendar with deadlines so you get the activities underway or completed in time to achieve your goals.

Stay Focused

As small business owners, we all want to do many different things believing that more is better. In marketing, you are better off selecting one to three of your most important goals and work towards achieving them. Having too many goals will only set you up for failure and disappointment. Figure out what’s important to you to accomplish in the next 3 to 6 months and go for it. Otherwise, you will be constantly distracted and won’t accomplish anything.

How are you defining your goals, strategies and tactics? What are you trying to achieve by the end of this year?

©2012 Masterful Marketing. All Rights Reserved.

Mission, Vision, Goals, Strategies and Tactics is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

Of course, no great trip would be complete without a marketing experience blog post upon my return!

We went for dinner at the Sunset Grill at the Radisson Hotel, our usual spot for our anniversary. In response to a joke by the waiter about the dangers of the extremely large steak knife, I mentioned it was our anniversary so my husband need not worry about the size of the knife.

As usual we had a wonderful dinner, but without warning, out came the waiter with this fantastic dessert prepared just for us! Warm chocolate souffle with ice cream was heavenly, but the preparation, presentation and surprise was just the best.

Having a wonderful, romantic dinner was what we expected when we went to the Sunset Grill. This surprise by the waiter not only exceeded our expectations, it made the experience much more memorable.

Marketing Tip

Surprise your customers with something that they don’t expect to make their every experience with you pleasantly memorable. A dessert really didn’t cost a lot but the impression it made on us was quite extensive. Quality service is always appreciated although sometimes expected. But a surprise bonus, such as this totally unexpected, wonderful dessert, goes a long way towards developing or solidifying your long-term relationships with your valued customers and strengthening your brand in their eyes.

What small surprise can you give your valued customers and clients to make their experience with you memorable?

©2012 Masterful Marketing. All Rights Reserved.

Surprise – The Secret to Exceeding Expectations is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

Hm, thanks for the help.

Then you wonder why small business owners run for the hills when they hear the term “marketing plan” and never really grasp what they need to do to attract new customers and clients and grow their businesses. And although I’d love to give you a magic 5 steps to a winning marketing plan, it just doesn’t work that way.

So what is really important to know?

• Your vision for the business
• Who wants to buy your products or services
• Your competition
• Your differentiator (why should I buy from you?)
• Products and/or services and how you will price and package them
• Your message
• Your brand identity and image

I call this the foundation information – you have to have a good grasp of this for your business. But, if you have this information, you are half way there.

Now you need your goals – specific, measureable, attainable, relevant and timely (S.M.A.R.T.) - to give you a path to success. For every goal, what strategy, tactics and supporting materials do I need to achieve that goal?

The following example shows the hierarchy of the thought process you can go through.

Marketing Plan Goal Strategy Hierarchy

• Goal: Increase the number of qualified inbound opportunities per quarter to 50.
• Strategy: Create an online presence that projects my expertise and helps those searching find my web site.
• Tactics:
  • Begin blogging;
  • Write a monthly article for distribution via the blog, other sites, email newsletter;
  • Build an opt-in email list;
• Tools/activities needed:
  • Develop a WordPress site and blog incorporating my brand identity;
  • Develop a list of articles to be written and write one a month;
  • Create a free tool that your target would appreciate and give it away to encourage people to sign up for your mailing list.

Remember, each goal may have multiple strategies with several tactics that require different materials and tools. Once you’ve laid out all of your goals, strategies, tactics and materials with their associated resources and budget, you can then decide what you can do accomplish each month based on your time and budget.

Want more help? Download my complimentary marketing plan and budget spreadsheet template by signing up for my email list. You can find the signup form in the sidebar of Masterful Marketing or on my Facebook Business Page.

©2012 Masterful Marketing. All Rights Reserved.

Small Business Marketing Plan is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

Photo courtesy of viZZZual.com on Flickr

You can’t appeal to everyone, so why do business owners continually drive themselves crazy trying to work with clients they just don’t connect with? When you identify people or businesses that you just love to work with, you enjoy your work more and you can focus on providing greater value. But I realize going through this exercise is painful because you still believe that doing so will limit your ability to grow your business and you will “leave money on the table”.

Every business owner goes through this thought process (including me when I started my business) until we realize that targeting enables us to:

• Attract the audience you truly wish to work with (and know when to turn away the client from hell!).
• Develop messages that speak clearly to that specific audience.
• Make choices that help you better market your products or services when faced with limited marketing resources.

The Law of Attraction Marketing

The Law of Attraction is the belief that you attract into your life what you think about. Your dominant thoughts will find a way to become reality. Using the Law of Attraction in your marketing efforts makes you a magnet for those you want to work with and likewise who find value in working with you.

But something else happens when you focus your thoughts and efforts on attracting your ideal client — you begin to attract others that are outside of that target because they like what they hear and want to be part of your success. Knowing your market intimately results in:

• Clearer messages
• More valuable offerings
• More effective marketing
• More prospects coming to you, even those you may not consider within your target market

You may choose to not work with a particular market because you don’t have the experience or knowledge of their market, but that is a business choice. Those are decisions you can make as the opportunities arise.

Knowing your ideal client helps you focus and be explicit about what makes you attractive to that market. Don’t view this as a restriction but as a liberating exercise that will ensure you develop raving fans for your business.

Have you identified who you want to work with and keep them in the forefront of your thoughts? What’s holding you back if you have not?

©2012 Masterful Marketing. All Rights Reserved.

Law of Attraction in Marketing is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

A former client of mine that I’ve worked with for quite a while decided to update their brand. They had talked with me about it while I was there helping them out as they looked to hire a VP of Marketing. They had recently received VC funding and they were planning some much needed expansion of the marketing organization. My assumption was that they would refresh the image but keep the fundamental style, as after four years, their brand had an awareness in the computer security market.

Rapid7 - Original Logo

As you can see, the new logo is quite different from the original. Don’t get me wrong – I don’t dislike the new logo. But my first impression is that they took a distinctive logo and changed it into something that looks very similar to other high technology company images. The original logo was created to project speed and agility and among a sea of vendors on web sites and trade show signs, the logo stood out and was noticed.

Of course, I may not be too objective as I was involved with the original logo design. But you tell me if you think changing their logo will help them or not.

Rapid7 Updated Logo

And it’s ok if you like the new better than the old. I’m looking for opinion about changing your brand drastically and whether this change is for the best. There are definitely times where companies need to do so, but this company was doing well, have a great reputation and are growing rapidly – all reasons why not to change.

So let’s start this conversation. Give me your opinion on the new brand.

©2012 Masterful Marketing. All Rights Reserved.

Updating Your Brand is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

However, setting proper goals and aligning them with where you want your business to be in 3 – 5 years can help you achieve things you probably never thought you could.

Make sure your goals are S.M.A.R.T.:

• S – Specific about what you want to achieve;
• M – Measurable so you can track your progress;
• A- Achievable;
• R – Relevant to the target market you wish to influence;
• T – Time-based, usually a short period of time (no more than a year).

Keep in mind the following tips:

• Set no more than 3 goals at a time – Limit yourself to those that you truly want to achieve. We all have a lot of things to get done, but goals should make you reach to achieve, but if you set too many goals, you’ll put too much of a burden on yourself to achieve them.
• Write them down – I use a chart (download a template) to create the plan for achieving my goals. Fill in the goal, the actions and the dates you will accomplish each action to get you there. Then print it and keep it visible to you.
• Now, follow Chris Brogan’s advice on converting your goals into a keyword equivalent and keep focused on those words for the year.

Now I’ll share my goals with you via the following video clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMBV9JIL9u8

©2012 Masterful Marketing. All Rights Reserved.

Resolve to Achieve Your Goals is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.

Four Stages of the Marketing Execution Process

If you haven’t had a marketing plan in the past, we’ll start with a review of last year so we can see how you did. Can you directly attribute revenue to your marketing activities? If so, which ones gave you the highest return? Don’t know? That’s ok – we’re looking forward to the New Year, not into the past. From this point on you will plan, execute, track and measure on a regular basis so that there are no more year end surprises.

Create a simple plan for your business

Having a great marketing plan is critical to its success. You absolutely must do it before you begin marketing. It’s not difficult or time consuming to write a marketing plan – just a few hours is all you need. Register for a simple worksheet to help you get started. If you download this worksheet, I’d appreciate your feedback in the comments section.

Execute the activities consistently

A great marketing plan is done to guide you in your marketing activities. The plan helps you understand how each activity works in synergy with your other marketing activities and it ensures you give a consistent message throughout. But the real key to success in marketing is the ability to execute the plan, working each activity until you have attracted more clients than you can handle. I’ve seen many businesses put together a plan but then don’t follow through with the plan, wasting so much time and missing real opportunities to build a successful business.

Develop a system for tracking marketing effectiveness

Determine now how you will track sales against the activities. Make sure you always ask how someone find you. Put it on your web site as part of the contact form. Have your office manager ask everyone who calls. Use the online tracking mechanisms available with Google Adwords and Yahoo Search. Knowing what’s working and what’s not will help you make budget decisions when you get an opportunity and you need to “find” some money in the marketing budget.

Measure

Review at least quarterly to see how your activities are working. I wrote a more lengthy post on this subject a few weeks ago so I won’t go into great detail. However, it’s important enough to remind you to be aware of where and how you spend your marketing dollar.

Continuous Cycle

Make a resolution this year to plan, execute, track and measure on a regular basis. You’ll find that your marketing becomes more effective and you can make adjustments along the way. Being flexible with your plan helps you take advantage of opportunities without wondering how you will fit it into your budget.

©2012 Masterful Marketing. All Rights Reserved.

Marketing Execution – Plan, Execute, Track, Measure is an original post from Debra Murphy, Small Business Marketing Coach: Masterful Marketing - Marketing in the New Media World. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to follow Debra on Twitter, Facebook or Google+.