Facebook Quick Tips for Community Managers

March 25, 2013

By flightpath

Community Managers handling social media accounts for clients sometimes want to find the best and fastest way to zip across all channels. We figured, why not increase your Facebook fitness and share some of the tips and tricks we’ve learned along the way to ‘pump you up!’

Image via Tumblr.com

1. Spelling Fail – How to Edit Post after It’s Out There

Keep in mind; this only applies to posts that have images attached to them. Nonetheless, good to know when you’re in a pinch and already established high engagement.

Let’s just say you found a tiny little mistake (oops!), well this is how you can fix it after it’s been put out there for the world to see. The best part is… this also applies for the scheduled posts in your Activity Log.

Here’s how:

a) Click on the time stamp of the post you want to edit

b) Click on “Edit”

c) Then make the necessary edits in the text box and then hit “Done Editing”

Huzzah! All fixed.

2. Keyboard Shortcuts for Facebook

Thanks to Mashable we can now do our daily Facebook routine sans mouse. It’s sort of like playing a game on our keyboard.

Shortcuts are based on your browser so you need to memorize the sequence:

For the action shortcuts visit Mashable.

3. Organize Your Inbox

Want to move messages that you know you’re done with? Then you can move them out of your inbox and into the “Other” folder. This way you can control how many messages are in your inbox.

Here’s how:

Image via Facebook.com

Tag you’re it! What other quick tips do you have to share with fellow social media ninjas? Sound off in our comments below.

Can’t get enough of Facebook tidbits and news from Flightpath? Have no fear just click here.

Countdown- Top 7 Reasons Why Brand Obama Won

November 9, 2012

By flightpath

How did Obama’s brand help him win the presidency? Here are 7 reasons why Brand Obama is a force to be reckoned with: Incumbents have the undeniable advantage of Air Force One, the Presidential Motorcade, The White House and that really cool Presidential logo/ seal. Most Americans, me included, love symbolism and nothing comes with […]

How did Obama’s brand help him win the presidency? Here are 7 reasons why Brand Obama is a force to be reckoned with:

Incumbents have the undeniable advantage of Air Force One, the Presidential Motorcade, The White House and that really cool Presidential logo/ seal. Most Americans, me included, love symbolism and nothing comes with more than Office of the Presidency aka Commander and Chief!
Mr. Obama acted extraordinarily presidential when it mattered most- be it during Hurricane Sandy, going after Bin Laden and saving the American Auto industry. People, especially those in Ohio, never forget defining moments.
The President, by hiring Hillary and relying on Bill, unequivocally showed Americans that he can bury the bad; while, embracing differences to his and the country’s advantage. A rare ability, as Doris Kerns Goodwin pointed out in her book “Team of Rivals” that served to reinforce it was the republicans who didn’t want to compromise.
Youth was never wasted on the young for the President and nor were never ending tweets, facebook posts, email shout outs and much much more of youthful social media. As has been widely reported more young people turned out this time for Obama than last.
Like all great brands, Mr. Obama fixed what was broken before it became damning and defining. After the first debate, he brought his desire and fight to the nation and his competitor. And, he stopped letting Mr. Romney look like he was the Presidential brand steward. Again, how Obama handled “Sandy” or calling out Romney on “exporting auto jobs” to China won undecided people and Ohio.
Vice President Joe Biden while at times a “messaging liability” was still a way better brand asset than Congressman Ryan was to Romney. At the end of the day, when competing for very limited “market share” conversion opportunities where every point is huge- engaging VS alienating- almost always wins.
American’s buy into dreamers- George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Bobby Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Steve Jobs, the 1980 Olympic Hockey Team and the list goes on and on. While many expected Mr. Obama’s 2008 vision of HOPE and his dream of a united, thriving nation to have already happened, people cut dreamers slack just as they cut non dreamers at the knees!

Ad Week Wrap Up Report – The Digital Influence

October 9, 2012

By flightpath

Truth is conversations is a by-product of the digital/social age. The two way thing is of course key, but so is the long form nature of YouTube and the flow/frequency of blogging especially the likes of Twitter and Tumblr. What was also cool was the realization that every agency I heard or ran into talked digital.

Advertising Week just concluded and it was cool, if not “epic.” My favorite panel featured the creative leadership from great agencies including Butler, Shine, Stern and Partners, Leo Burnett, Anomaly, Mekanism. I believe reason the week (and panel) was great comes down to the idea of “conversations”… a term used by the CCO of Leo Burnett to describe meaningful consumer engagement VS doing ads of any particular kind in any medium.

Truth is conversations is a by-product of the digital/social age. The two way thing is of course key, but so is the long form nature of YouTube and the flow/frequency of blogging especially the likes of Twitter and Tumblr. What was also cool was the realization that every agency I heard or ran into talked digital. But then again, every agency is a digital shop or at the least, an “immerging hybrid”- by virtue that digital is the defining cultural gatekeeper- so if you don’t get digital, it’s hard to imagine (like impossible) that you are connecting with any teen let alone adult based on lifestyle or media consumption behavior.

This made me think of the several things we think about and practice that make digital agencies unique to now and the future:

It’s Never Over- campaign content is a constantly evolving reality…a site, ad networks, 3^rd party, social ads are “A/B” tested and tweaked throughout its life based on empirical reads, emotional wear out or because we can/should.
Speed to Market- the ability to commercialize creativity/points of difference “ideas” in hyper time is now a competitive hammer that marketers swing freely and hard.
It’s ONE World- digital is totally integrated and linked (it is a web after all!) unlike TV, radio, print, retail where getting it synced up is tough for turf reasons and/or logistical ones.
Technology Lives for Change- where as media like 30 sec TV units have been the standard for decades, digital platforms (and ad units change all the time) like “Parallax” reinvents how engagement plays out- vertical fluidity VS horizontal randomness.

As I said, I loved Advertising Week- it made last week rock. It got a lot of people thinking and rocking.

Photo Journal: LuckyFABB

September 10, 2012

By flightpath

This week it’s not just about New York Fashion Week, it’s about the bloggers. We here at Flightpath are taking you behind-the-scenes of the beauty and fashion conferences this week. Last but not least Lucky Magazine’s LuckyFABB Conference.

Lucky Magazine is one of the most popular magazines when it comes to shopping. Using their know-how and expertise they have developed a conference for bloggers that offers insights not only from industry experts but from their editorial team. They offered unique panels for all levels of blogging in their Lucky Fashion and Beauty Bloggers (LuckyFABB) Conference.

This conference is one we would recommend. It was a great place to network and all the panels were informative and offered great resources for those trying to stand out in the blogging community.

Check out the all star panels that spoke at LuckyFABB:

Rachel Zoe stopped by to share how she makes it work being a mom, designer and stylist to the celebrities. Zoe shares that everyday is a challenge but you’ll always find a way to make it work if you love what you do.

Lauren Conrad may be known from MTV’s The Hills, but she has become a true entrepreneur. She shared the struggles of starting two successful clothing lines and running websites that offers great resources in beauty, fashion and decor.

This panel of experts included Steven Kolb, CEO of the CFDA, Mitch Grossbach, Head of Fashion and Beauty Division at Creative Artists Agency, Federico Marchetti, Founder and CEO of YOOX and Shana Fisher, Managing Partner of High Line Venture Partners. They were discussing the emerging trends of designers and social media and how they can go hand-in-hand.

These women are a true inspiration in the fashion industry and have started some of the trends that brands are doing right now in social media. This panel included Susan Lyne, Chairman of Gilt Groupe, Lauren Bush Lauren, Chief FEEDer and Co-Founder of FEED Projects, Aliza Licht, Senior Vice President of Global Communications for DKNY International and Erica Domesek Founder of P.S. I made this…

You couldn’t ask for a better pair to discuss fashion. Simon Doonan, Brand Ambassador for Barney’s New York and Fashion Designer Anna Sui discuss design inspiration and how to stand apart from other brands. The key, is to focus on your brand. Anna Sui confessed how she doesn’t follow any other designer and draws inspiration from her yearly exotic trips with her nephews and neices.

The gift bag with up to $1,500 worth of products that was given to all the guests. This was a great way to get products in the hands of bloggers, you should see how many of them tweeted photos. They even included a note that stated if bloggers decided to write about any of the products to follow the Federal trade Commission’s Endorsement Guides to disclose they have received them for free.

If you’re looking to get re-inspired and how to grow not only as a blogger but as a brand to interact with bloggers this is the one to go to.

Photo Journal: Day 2 at #IFBCon

September 7, 2012

By flightpath

This week it’s not just about New York Fashion Week, it’s about the bloggers. We here at Flightpath are taking you behind-the-scenes of the beauty and fashion conferences this week. We sent our Social Media Intern to check out day two of the IFB conference.

As promised, our Social Media intern Beck will share her thoughts on the IFB conference. Take it away Beck!

Each year IFB holds a conference that brings together some of the most successful people in the fashion industry and the bloggers who write about fashion. It’s a two day event and as the lucky Flightpath intern I had the pleasure of attending the second day of the event!

This panel focused on turning your blog into a business. Some of the key points were:

Be ok with risk
Surround yourself with people who are passionate about the same thing you are
Challenge yourself daily

Conferences can be fun too with everyday tips. Samantha Brown from Style to Hire showed us which pieces of clothing are essential to a complete closet!

Bloggers and writers tackled the topic of Bringing Bravery Back to Blogging. A few things they highlighted were:

Blog like no one is watching
Be aware that once you put yourself out there, there will be negative feedback and that’s okay
Find fuel in the hate comments, don’t let them bring you down

I had the pleasure of meeting Iman! She is not only a gorgeous model
but a successful entrepreneur. Such an inspiration.

That concludes our adventures at the bigger, better and bolder IFB conferences. Next up is Lucky Magazine‘s LuckyFABB.

BlogHer 2012: Photo Journal

August 7, 2012

By flightpath

As you may remember from last week, we were counting down the days to BlogHer 2012 and it finally arrived! We here at Flightpath thought that we should share the highlights in a photo journal. Enjoy!

As you may remember from last week, we were counting down the days to BlogHer 2012 and it finally arrived! We here at Flightpath thought that we should share the highlights through photos of our experience this past weekend. Enjoy!

A warm (digital) welcome by President Barack Obama to start off the conference.

Samsung was one of the many brands that participated as a sponsor with a showroom to display the new and soon-to-launch products for work and play.

There were floors filled with a variety of brands in technology, fashion, home, cooking and more that offered incentives such as sweepstakes, giveaways and contests. It was the platform for brands to share their elevator pitch and get products into the hands of bloggers, not only for media consideration but as potential new customers.

Me striking a pose as I’m making way through the the crowded floor, but I can’t beat Betsy’s modeling skills…

We think Betsy nailed it with her signature pose and should win America’s Top Social Media Model. Tyra would be so proud. Just an example of how brands had some fun with guests using props for impromptu photo shoots.

One of the many sessions we attended. This one discussed best practices for both bloggers and brands on how to work together for opportunities. As you can see, it was a packed house.

Oh yeah, did we mention how we met Martha Stewart? Brands like Staples and Avery upped the ante by bringing along celebrities to the conference to interact face-to-face with bloggers.

Don’t worry if you didn’t get a chance to attend this year in New York City. They’ve announced that BlogHer 2013 will be in Chicago and we can’t wait to see what’s in store then.

Countdown to BlogHer ’12

July 26, 2012

By flightpath

Countdown to BlogHer ’12. The Flightpath team will be joining bloggers and brands at this year’s BlogHer in New York City. Find out how you and your brand can leverage conferences such as this one to network and interact with bloggers.

In one week, the Flightpath team will attend one of the biggest conferences that will be taking place this year in New York City – BlogHer. Thousands of bloggers from all over the country travel to be a part of this major event.

It’s amazing to think that over the years how the blogging community has grown and shown great support of each other. Women supporting other women, not only in the business of blogging but as marketing professionals as well. BlogHer sets the stage where brands can interact vis-à-vis with bloggers and receive real-time insight to their products and build a strong professional relationships. Every year brands, celebrities and influencers offer their expertise during scheduled panels and this year it includes major players such as Martha Stewart, Katie Couric, Christy Turlington Burns and more.

Another growth factor for BlogHer to note is the amount of brands that partake in this conference. With sponsors like Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Hillshire Farm, Dannon, Verizon Wireless and so much more.

If you’re a marketer or a brand that has not participated in BlogHer in the past, our best advice for you is to get your team a pass to attend as a guest and observe. This will allow you to interact with guests and see what’s in store at the conference to better prepare not only for yourself but for the needs of your client. It will give you an advantage to plan ahead and see what works and doesn’t work to create a successful strategic plan. Be sure to check out BlogHer for additional information.

Follow us on Twitter and Instagram where we’ll be reporting from BlogHer ’12 conference using hashtag #BlogHer12.

Image Source for Header: BlogHer.com

Pinterest Analytics Tools Comparison – PinReach vs Pinerly

June 29, 2012

By flightpath

We took a look at 2 of the most popular Pinterest analytics tools available, Pinerly and PinReach and put them head to head to find out which offered the best Pinterest account analytics tools for brands.

We took a look at 2 of the most popular Pinterest analytics tools available, Pinerly and PinReach and put them head to head to find out which offered the best Pinterest account analytics tools for brands. So you can know if your content is reaching an audience and also gather the stats you need to report back about your Pinterest campaign to your client.

Pinerly

Pinerly is a complete Pinterest account management platform. In our opinion, this is the best Pinterest analytics tool for marketers. It offers lots of great stats (or Pinalytics) on your Pinterest account including number of repins and likes on individual pins.

On the downside, in order for pins to be tracked by Pinerly each pin must each be created through Pinerly. This means that pins show the URL of origin as Pinerly.com, instead of your brand’s URL. The good news is that any clicks of your pins are still directed to the URL of your choice.

Perhaps once Pinerly is out of beta, there will be a white label option as part of a premium package for brands (not anything we saw on Pinerly just guessing they are going to have a monetization strategy unlike Pinterest). It would also be great if brands could promote pins by paying to be featured in Pinerly’s suggested pins. However, there are currently no opportunities for brands to pay to promote content to other Pinerly users.

What we like:

Scheduling coming soon- a huge bonus for marketers since Pinterest activity peeks during off hours.
Analytics good enough to report back to a client with
Looking for feedback from users

What we don’t like:

Pinerly.com shown as pin URL
No brand promotion opportunities
No comment tracker
Still in beta- though you can request an invite here

PinReach

Billed as a tool for understanding and measuring the impact of your Pinterest account, PinReach is a lot like Klout for Pinterest. Users are assigned PinReach scores based upon the amount of engagement (repins, likes and comments) their Pinterest content receives.

Scores range from 0-90+. According to PinReach, most accounts fall into the 30-39 score range, and there are no PinReach users who have scored above an 89 (Etsy must not have checked their score yet). Certain types of interactions have more influence on a PinReach score. While you get points for filling your boards with pins, you get more when others repin, like or comment on your content.

One stat that PinReach provides that Pinerly does not is the amount of comments received. While the metrics available through PinReach are mostly identical to those available through Pinerly, that’s ok because PinReach has a different goal- it was designed to be less of a dashboard and more of a high level look at the influencers and top images on Pinterest.

What we like:

PinReach is very straight forward and user friendly.
Looking at trending pins can be great inspiration for creating your own.
Much like a Klout score, a PinReach score is a fun way to gamify Pinterest. If you are aiming to brag at BlogHer, having a high PinReach score is just the ticket.

What we don’t like:

No brand promotion opportunities
From a social media marketer’s point of view, the PinReach score, is not necessary. (You know what we mean if you have ever watched a client’s eyes glaze over while explaining a Klout score).
Not the in-depth analytics you need for reporting purposes.

What Pinterest analytics tools are you using? Leave a comment and let us know.

Email Marketing: Building Your Email List

March 23, 2012

By flightpath

All email campaigns start with a subscriber list. With email marketing so popular, most of us are on at least a few of theses lists. You may even be wondering how to build one of your own. Of course, there are plenty of ways, both bad and good, to do this.

This is part of a series of blog posts aimed at raising awareness of email marketing, its advantages, and its best practices — from designing your first eblast to deploying your newsletter to millions of customer inboxes, and beyond.

All email campaigns start with a subscriber list. With email marketing so popular, most of us are on at least a few of theses lists. You may even be wondering how to build one of your own. Of course, there are plenty of ways, both bad and good, to do this. As I mentioned in my last post (“Email Marketing: More Relevant Than Ever”), federal law requires the informed consent of all your email recipients.

So, if you can’t just buy a list from marketers, what are you supposed to do? You make one from scratch. With the right tools and tricks at your disposal, you won’t just have a simple subscriber list, you’ll have a fully engaged email legion of fans for your brand.

Mailing Lists Callouts

Got a popular website? Build a mailing list component. Make it highly visible. Going “above the fold” increases the chances people will happen upon it. Also, make it easy to use. Place as few fields in the component as possible. In the snapshot below, Groupon has a large, intuitive, and simple mailing list callout. The user has to only designate an email address and a city and they’re in. No difficult questions, no invasive requests, no intimidating forms that send their users running for the hills.

By contrast, the Steve Madden mailing list below feels like you’re filling out a tax form.

Social Media and Email

There’s been a lot of talk of social media competing with email as the dominant form of digital communication. In reality, the two are better complements than rivals. If you have a Facebook fan page or Twitter feed with a lot of followers, use it as a platform to encourage them to sign up for your eblasts and enewsletters.

You can even use emails to drive your mailing lists. Include “forward to a friend” links in your enewsletters. Give calls to action to sign up for your list in your company’s email signatures.

Offline Methods

Get in the habit of bringing up your mailing list in 1-on-1 conversations and phone calls with business contacts, but be tactful. In your pitch, make it clear what special offers or value they’re going to get out of your emails. It couldn’t hurt to incentivize them with a free gift upon signing up. For networking events, put a link on your business card to your company’s email signup page.

Welcome Emails

Once you win over email recipients, make them feel valued. Send them a welcome email, thanking them for signing up. Use it as an opportunity to better acquaint your clients and future customers with the goods and services you offer. And of course, let them know what’s in store for them in terms of email content.

And Once You Get Your List…

Email represents another channel to keep the conversation going with customers and/or clients, but once you have them, don’t take your recipients for granted. It only takes one click of the “Spam” button in their email client to end the conversation for good. If you want to keep your subscribers on your list, it is also important to have meaningful, engaging, relevant content for them. Catch my next blog post for best practices on email campaign content.

New Facebook Insights Helps Marketers Understand Potential Targets

October 14, 2011

By flightpath

As many are aware by now, Facebook recently released an update to its Insights product. This was the first update to this section and was, according to the release issued by Facebook, a response to requests from brand marketers for a deeper understanding of the community they were building. The update was filled with a […]

As many are aware by now, Facebook recently released an update to its Insights product. This was the first update to this section and was, according to the release issued by Facebook, a response to requests from brand marketers for a deeper understanding of the community they were building.

The update was filled with a number of new features, including the new “Talking about this page” metric, which shows first time users the level of engagement each community has, along with its size. However, a little more digging into these updates and one now finds demographic data for the group that Facebook defines as the “reach.”

Reach is made up of consumers who are in some way connected to the page but may not directly be a fan…yet! They may have seen a post in their friend’s feed, or they may have been exposed to an ad produced by the brand’s page. Up to this point, most community managers could easily describe the demographic of their community, but only a handful could define the connections of their community members. This group is what my current supervisor likes to call “the low hanging fruit” of our potential audience – in other words, these are people who we should be able to easily convert to actual fans.

Now I know the whole point is to increase engagement and not the number of fans, so using it for this purpose is contradictory to why the update was released in the first place. But let’s be honest; for now, my clients are still going to look at fan growth as a significant metric of success, so any thing I can use to help me achieve that growth is helpful. Once I have them on the page then I need the second part of the strategy – which is to engage them and get them talking.

So how do we use this demographic information? We can use it in a number of ways, from growing the community to product development. If, for instance, you have a new product idea, you can match it up with this potential audience to see if it would fit in that demographic. If your potential demographic is mostly made up of young woman from 20-35, and you primarily produce product for older children, maybe it would make sense to expand to some products geared towards younger children as well. One way Facebook could increase the usefulness of this potential even more is by displaying top likes of your reach as well and associated interests. This would give us a better idea of their activity and who they are, as opposed to just the demo data.

As the network continues to stress ties with brands and make the platform more useful for marketers, it will be interesting to see what other data they make available that could help us in our campaign planning.

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Mailing Lists Callouts

Social Media and Email

Offline Methods

Welcome Emails

And Once You Get Your List…