Monthly Archives: February 2012

Timeline For Facebook Pages

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Always nice waking up to some shocking news. We all knew it was coming sooner or later, as Facebook introduced the timeline for the personal profiles a few months ago, but as of today the timeline is also available for Facebook (fan) pages. Without a warning in the last few days.

You don’t have to change it right away, as it won’t be final until March 30th 2012. So that gives you 4 weeks to get you shit together. I think you should do it today or tomorrow, as you want to show your fans that you lead the way, not follow like a sheep.

How does it work?
If you’re admin just go the fan page that you have access too. You will see this message on the top of the page.

If you have played around with the timeline on your personal profile, and you know how easy it is to upgrade, I suggest clicking “preview” right away.

You then get to this page.


Example: Epidemic skateshop Facebook page

Your fans won’t see your new timeline unless you click “publish”. Your profile picture is already set, but if you want you can change that. Just hoover your mouse over the photo and click “edit”. The specs for the profile image are 180px by 180px. The profile picture will also be the thumbnail that people will see of you in their newsfeed. (image will then be 32px by 32px).

The most important (and best) thing about the timeline is the cover photo. Click on “add a cover” on the right to upload a photo or image, or pick an image you already uploaded. If you pick an existing image make sure it’s big enough! The cover photo should be AT LEAST 851px by 315px. Bigger is not too much of a problem, since you can move the image around. But to prevent things from being cut out of the frame it’s best to size you cover photo correctly before uploading it.

Facebook has guidelines for the cover photo, make sure you read them first before uploading an image. Here are the key points you can’t have in the cover image:
– Price or purchase information, such as “40% off” or “Download it at our website”
– Contact information, such as web address, email, mailing address or other information intended for your page’s about section
– References to user interface elements, such as “Like” or “Share”, or any other Facebook site features
– Calls to action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends”

Once you have uploaded your timeline image click on “publish now” and your page will now show up to everyone. Yes, your cover photo is public, so anyone visiting your page will be able to see the image you choose.


Example: Garrett Hill Facebook page

Since you can now also “star” (and pin) certain photos and videos make sure the images are at least 851px wide, otherwise they could be blurry.

Specs Timeline:
Cover image: 851px by 315px
Profile image: 180px by 180px
Thumbnail of profile image: 32px by 32px

More on the timeline for pages this coming Friday.
Questions or comments? Drop ‘em below!
Or shoot me an email at [email protected].

Also check out “Five Facebook Tips #7” from last week.

You can educate yourself right now by watching some interactive tutorial videos on the Facebook About Pages site. Very useful!

Five Instagram Tips Part 6

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We’re at the end of another good week. My personal highlight this week was my first social media article on Transworld Business that went live early Thursday morning.

My good friend Floris Gierman called me up 2 weeks and said that after checking out this website I should hit up some trade/B2B magazines. The next day I emailed a handful of action sport focused magazine, and Mike Lewis, editor of Transworld Business, said he would be down to get something started right away.

The article that went live on Thursday is about Instagram, and gives you 5 basic tips for using Instagram. Most of them I’ve already mentioned here in the past few weeks. My ugly smug even got a prime spot on the homepage. Scary but cool. So far the article got over 9,000 views in the first 3 days. Thanks again Mike!

OK, back to the Sunday Instagram tips on this blog. Just like every Sunday I’ll be giving you 5 more Instagram tips today.

1. How to change your Instagram password
You can’t change your Instagram password from your iPhone, so get behind a computer and go to Instagr.am or Instagram.com and click on “Edit Account” at the bottom of the page. Log in if needed and once again scroll down the page and click on “Click here to change your password”.  This will take you to the page where you can create a new password.
Once you’ve changed the password on your computer grab your iPhone and log in with you new password.

2. How to delete an Instagram comment
If you want to delete a comment, either your own or from someone else, go to the photo and click on “comment”. Click on the wheel in the top right corner and now every comment on your photo will get a red circle on the left of it. Tap on red circle and confirm your action by tapping “delete” on the right side.
I don’t really delete people’s comments on my own photos. If they are drunk or trying to be funny, let them be. Only if it gets offensive or just plain stupid I delete their comment. I do use it every now and then when I just uploaded the photo and I either made a typo in the caption/text, or I forgot something.

*Please note that if delete the first caption/text and you shared your photo to Twitter, Facebook or something else, that the text there won’t change. Maybe another good reason to not feed (every) Instagram photo(s) to your other social media platforms….

3. Have a plan for your hashtag for events
Going on a trip or tour? Decide before the thing kicks off what hashtag you want people to use, and inform everyone that is a part of this. Teamriders, filmers, photographers, TMs, shops you’re visiting on the trip and the media. Maybe even tell your followers to use it in some way and do a giveaway with it so people want to get involved. Who doesn’t want to win free shit?
When your hashtag gets used a lot by various people, you get more eyes on your brand. And besides that it’s a good way to look back on a trip after a few/weeks or months. Just search for the hashtag and bring back the memories.

4. How to handle multiple Instagram accounts with one app
Unlike Twitter the official Instagram account won’t let you handle multiple accounts. You have to log out of one and log back in to the other. Quite annoying and pretty time consuming.
Currently Instagram does not offer anything to handle multiple accounts. When I created an account for Altamont and Emerica in early April 2011, this was one of the first requests I emailed Instagram. I for sure thought they would add that feature quickly, but they haven’t yet.

I did find another app a few months ago called Fotogramme that will let you handle multiple accounts. Only downside with this app is that you can’t upload any photos to any of the accounts from the app. And that is of course the main feature we would like! With the Fotogramme app you can get profile information, view/like and comment on photos, follow/block users and search hashtag and users.

5. Give someone a shout out
In the last few weeks I’ve gained a lot of Instagram followers thanks to shout outs from Metro skateshop and Epidemic skateshop. And about a week ago Lowcard re-posted a photo I shot of my niece Cassidy rocking the world famous Lowcard longshoreman beanie.

You know that if you hit the “Sleep” and “Home” button at the same time you take a screen shot with you iPhone right?
Anyway, you think I was stoked and thankful that I got a shout out from Metro, Epidemic and Lowcard? Fuck yeah! Did I gain some legit followers? Yes. Is it most likely that I will (hash)tag them in the future? So true!
Support those who support you. U-N-I-T-Y! (Op. Ivy reference)

Questions or comments? Drop ‘em below!
Or shoot me an email at [email protected].

For more Instagram tips see part 5 from last week.

Five Facebook Tips 7

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It’s late this Friday. Had a lot going on this past week, both personal and social media wise.
On the social media front, the main thing by far was the building of some custom tabs. Major thanks to my Dutch friend Jamy Vodegel for telling me about WP4FB, and helping me guide me through the whole process. Check out his website wooster.nl. It’s in Dutch so you might have to get some Rosetta Stones CDs before….
(More on the WP4FB Facebook tabs/apps in future blog posts)

Here are some more tips for your Facebook strategy. Read up and help yourself, and your brand!

1. Facebook still overrules any other social media platform
Right now Facebook has 845 million monthly active users, so it’s by far the biggest social media platform out there. YouTube is the only one that is coming close to this massive number, but it’s a different kind of interaction.
I firmly believe your brand should be active on Twitter, Instagram, and soon on Pinterest and Google Plus, but none of those are even coming close to the reach you can have on Facebook.
Your main marketing focus right now should be on Facebook! So be present on there more than anywhere else. I love Instagram, Twitter is rad, Google Plus is growing, Pinterest is gaining a lot of momentum recently, but you want to be where (the most) people are at. It’s that simple.

2. Leak future product
Want to get real feedback from (your) real fans and consumers? Want to tease them with what’s coming soon? Want to see what people are into? No better way to do this on social media, and Facebook in particular. Post a photo on Facebook and asked the fans what they like.
Want to take it a step further? Make your fans pick the color of a future product. Show them 2 shoes, one blue and one red, and have the fans pick which one you should produce. Once this shoe drops and a fan see this shoe at his local skateshop, you think he/she is gonna be stoked? You bet. He/she’ll even be more stoked if it is the colorway he/she voted for. Interaction that is driving sales!

3. Post with reasonable time intervals
There are a lot of different theories for how often you should (or can) post on Facebook. Bottom line, their are no set rules for this.
In early 2011 I read an article (can’t find anymore, sorry) that a Facebook post is valid for about 80 minutes. That’s 1 hour and 20 minutes.  People have an average of 200-300 friends on their Facebook, so your post will move down the newsfeed pretty damn quick.
When I was handling the Altamont Facebook page (June 2010 – Dec 2011) I would post on average 3-6 times per 24 hours. And never more than once every 1-2 hours, with some exceptions (e.g. Wild in the Streets, Maloof Cup, Shakejunt premiere)
Per 24 hours, not just between 9am and 5pm. Some of the posts with the most interaction where early in the morning or late at night. Cause 6am in California is 9am in New York and 3pm in Amsterdam. Think global!

4. Convert your friends profile into a fan page
You’re a real business? You take your business serious? You want your brand to grow in the future? Then don’t open a friends profile but start a fan page.
Besides the fact that it goes against the Facebook Terms (4.4), and they can take down a friends profile at any time if you use it for your business or brand, you want to think bigger, and long term.
I know, you can befriend others with a friends profile, which gives you a quick(er) start, but if you’re good enough you will get there. It’s might take some time but most businesses take time to grow.
A friends profile can also have a max of 5,000 friends. And yes, you are bigger than that. And if not, that’s fine. Some smaller brands, or shops, or distributors can run more then fine with “just” a few thousand fans. If those are your consumers, and you interact with them, you’re good. And you will grow.
I can give a handful more of reasons, but I’ll mention one more. You can chat on a friends profile, but you have time to chat to 5,000 people? One on one chat sessions are way too private anyway. Have them post a comment or question or your wall so everyone can see your answer, and even join the conversation if they want!

PS. If you have a friends profile for your business, check the Facebook help section on how to convert it to a fan page.
Michiel Gaasterland has some great info too on his blog.

5. Use YouTube to promote your Facebook
Facebook is the biggest social media platform, YouTube is the 2nd largest one. So if you’re smart you use both of these.
I always put the Facebook, Twitter and website URL in the video description (as the only text). Make sure to post “http://facebook.com/xxx” and not just “facebook.com/xxx”. The “http” will make it a click-able link.
When you post the YouTube video on Facebook the description shows up. Forget writing a ton of info in the description. Less is more remember, and if people really want to find out more about your brand they will click the facebook (or twitter or website) URL.

FYI: The only reason I would add the website URL is because some people are afraid Facebook (or Twitter) might die soon, so people know what the website URL is.
Someone that will click the Facebook link will most likely become a fan so you can inform him “every day” for the rest of his/her life. And why do you think a (one-time) website visit might be better?

Most people see a YouTube video (fuck your own video player!) on Facebook so this is a good way to you grow your fanbase. They are only 2 clicks away from being a Facebook fan. And with other brands and people posting your YouTube video on their Facebook this can add a good amount of valuable fans pretty quickly.

Here’s is an example of how this will look on Facebook:

It works pretty much the same with Vimeo:

Vimeo is the only video player besides YouTube that you should/could use in my opinion. I like it better than YouTube. You can choose your own thumbnail and even make a custom URL for the video.
But YouTube is the Google for videos. How many times do you search a video on YouTube? How many times do you go to Vimeo to do that? Again, you want to be where the people are at!

Questions or comments? Drop ‘em below!
Or shoot me an email at [email protected].

Also check out “Five Facebook Tips #6” from last week.

Monday Funday

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I had a couple of things in my had today, but when I found out through some friends’ social media platforms that today is Kurt Cobain’s birthday, there was only one thing to post.

This song was released In September 1991, right as I started high school. It couldn’t have been better timing. I was living in a small town in Holland at the time, and even though starting high school was a pretty big deal to me at the time, music became my escape thanks to Nirvana.
A breath of fresh air in the always so bad music that dominates the mainstream radio stations (in Holland). My family hated the music, chicks didn’t like it, and that made it even better. Nevermind was the ultimate fuck you for the rebellious teenager that I was becoming. Back when Mtv was still cool. Thank you Kurt, for showing me that being different wasn’t that bad.

Thanks to Nirvana and Oor (Dutch Music Magazine) I got introduced to Dutch photographer Anton Corbijn, in my eyes the coolest Dutch guy to ever live. I had a few photos in my room, and the one of Kurt Cobain hung next to the Henry Rollins one. It all started with Nirvana and it only got better from there.

The skateboard industry could use some more teen spirit these days. Less boring and more action. Just like Nirvana.

Five Instagram Tips Part 5

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After the guest tips from Steve Clare last week, we’re back to another batch of tips from me.

1. Makes sure your hashtag works
You can’t use any punctuation marks in a hashtag. So the hashtag #iwon’t will be archived as #iwon. The hashtag ends wherever you put the punctuation mark in.  ( , . ; ‘ ? ! – + etc.). Also make sure to leave a space before, and after the hashtag to have it show up correctly.
I mostly try to use 3 or less hashtags per photo. An overdose of hashtags makes each hashtags less valuable.

2. Double tap to like
This is one of the basic ones but it wasn’t included in the first versions of the app. If you want to like a photo you can do so by simply double tapping on the photo. Of course you can also tap on the “like” button (once) below the photo.
The only downside with the double tap is that I keep seeing people go though their feed and like every photo…. Since it’s so easy to like a photo it’s also way less valuable.
So if you really want to show someone you like their photo, leave a comment.

3. Go to the top of the feed with one tap
This is something that works for every iPhone app. Tap the status bar, at the top of your screen (where the time is displayed), once and you’ll go to the top of the page.
I use this a lot with my email and phone list too.

4. How to change your username if needed
Both with Instagram and Twitter is super easy to change your username, if the username you want is still available. I understand that you have this super weird nickname that you like to use, but again, think long term and think big. Because of social media everyone is their own brand, so beware. Do you know any brand that uses a different name on social media?
Not saying you must use your real name, but it will help. If you don’t have your real name as your username, at least have your real name in your profile.
Tap the right button on the bottom and go to “edit profile” to change your info. The first 2 lines are for your regular name (first and last), the 3rd line is your username.

5. Do a giveaway and get other users involved
People love free shit, and skateboard kids are no exception. The most interactive instragammer in my feed is by far Metro skateshop from Pleasant Hill, CA (Bay Area). Every other week they do a giveaway with a product the sell in their shop. A few weeks ago they did a Thunder/Chris Cole giveaway.

Besides posting this flyer on their own Instagram it was also posted on the Thunder facebook page and the DLX website. Numerous DLX employees, as well as friends of the shop, posted it on their personal Instagram account.
Think that gained Metro some more followers? Think those followers are mostly skateboarders? Think it gained Chris Cole some more followers?
And besides all that, it also brought some extra attention to Metro, Thunder and Chris Cole. Plus someone won a free pair of trucks. So all this great promotion for all parties involved, for one set of trucks.
We asked Joel Jutagir, owner of Metro skateshop, about the impact of this giveaway: “We has been playing with different ways to garner attention to what we do at the shop. Our latest efforts have been focused on Instagram where there’s tons of interaction due to the platforms simplicity and the way you can tell a story visually. It’s right up our alley!
We did a giveaway for Chris Cole’s new Thunder Truck, what we saw was some large accounts, 5000+ came on board and posted for us. That helped spread the word to everybody in their feed. Even small accounts that posted helped us out a ton. More importantly it opened up lines of communication and exposed them to the fact that were a bunch of goofs, that like to ride skateboards, have fun and on occasion sell something. We are also involved in their feeds now, dropping likes and comments and staying in touch.
Instagram a great way to stay in touch and share what makes you tick!”

*Make sure whatever giveaway you do on Instagram complies with the Instagram terms.

Interaction on social media is not only a must, it’s also super easy. Do believe the hype.

Questions or comments? Drop ‘em below!
Or shoot me an email at [email protected].

For more Instagram tips see part 4 from last week.

Five Facebook Tips 6

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Another work week is at it’s end. After yet another tradeshow (Magic in Las Vegas) and the Transworld Skateboarding awards in LA last Thursday night it’s time to get back on the “regular” grind on Tuesday (Monday is President’s Day). Here are some more Facebook tips that hopefully help you in the social media stratosphere.

1. Promotions guidelines
Want to do a giveaway on your Facebook page? A sweepstake? Better have a look at the promotional guidelines of Facebook. Their rules and regulations regarding promotional activities on your page are pretty crazy.
You need to run any kind of promotion or giveaway on a special created tab. And those (additional) tabs aren’t visible from a mobile device FYI. (Nice fail Facebook!)
People also can’t enter a giveaway by simply “liking your page”. And you can’t notify winners through a Facebook message or chat.
These are just a few examples. So do yourself a favor and read the promotional guidelines before your page gets (temporarily) shut down.

2. Install Facebook comments on your website
With less and less people surfing the web (on their phones) and more and more people getting their news through social media, the comments on your website become less meaningful.

I was stoked to see that Thrasher Magazine switched to Facebook only comments on their website in mid 2011. Even though the number of comments per post went down, the comments that were posted were real ones. No random hate rants and way less cuss words. Why? Because now it shows who the person behind the comment is.
Tony Vitello of Thrasher told me: “We wanted accountability with our commenting and their system makes the most sense right now. It’s not perfect, but it’s simple and relatively low maintenance.”
I’m not of a web nerd myself but ask your webguy or Google it, it won’t be difficult to install the Facebook comments on your website.

Because of the Facebook comment system the Thrasher website content gets around very quickly too. For example, if I leave a comment on, or like, a post the Thrasher website, all my personal Facebook friends see that in their newsfeed. And not that I’m such a huge influencer among my friends, but if my friends comment on something (or like it), there is a big chance that I’m interested in that content too.
This works already for comments within Facebook, but I think it’s good to get your website involved too.

3. Geo-tag if needed (fan page only)
I rarely use this but if you want you can specify which fans see your update. As a brand I think you should show your fans that you are represented all around the world.
But if you want to promote something for a specific country, in a language that you normally don’t use on your Facebook page (French, Spanish, etc), they geo-tagging might be a great tool to use. If you do this just be prepared for questions in this language. Vous parlez Francais?
People travel as well, so I could be in LA today and in Amsterdam tomorrow, so I might just be able to attend this party your distributor is throwing on the other side of the world.
How to geo-tag? Below the status box, and left of the “share” button, click on the arrow. Click on location/language and fill in who you want to reach. You can get really specific, see the screen shot below.

Note: if you’re an admin for the fan page you will always see any update (even if another admin posted it)

4. Create an event page for all your events
Whether you are throwing a house party, going on tour with your band, or have a video premiere, always create an event for it on Facebook. People are moving away from the computer and spending more time on their smartphone (iPhone) and tablet (iPad).
Once you’ve create an event all your fans can decide to “join”, “maybe” or “decline” the invite to the event. If you hit “join” or “maybe”, the event gets put in your calender of upcoming events.
Say its the night of the event, and you ended up in the area of the event. You pull out your phone, open up the Facebook app and go to the events tab. Now select the event you want to go to.

You can see all the details of the party. Click on “Get Directions” and Maps app will open (on your iPhone) with the directions to the event.
Great way to get to last minute people that weren’t sure to come out. Or even the people that were already on the way and needed last minute directions.

5. Use different wording when posting on multiple pages
More than a few brands (in skateboarding) belong to the same owner/distribution. But every brand has a different image and voice. That’s why the other brand(s) were created right? To do something different and attract a different consumer.
I understand if one person handles the social media for multiple brands, but I think it’s very important to make sure to have a different voice for each brand. You do have different logos, ads, colors and products for each brands, so why not extend that to the social media.
If you post the exact same text, photo, video, etc on various brand pages, than why did you create another brand after all? Even though a lot of people know that some brands are connected with each other, every brands has it’s own fans and consumers. So post different stuff, at different times, with different words. If you have more than one person for your social media it will be good to give each person one, or multiple, fan page(s).
I also strongly recommend to not share the posts of other brands, but rather tag the other brand (page) in your post.

Questions or comments? Drop ‘em below!
Or shoot me an email at [email protected].

Also check out “Five Facebook Tips #5” from last week.

Five Twitter Tips Part 4

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Five more Twitter tips on this Valentine Tuesday. Hope they help you!

1. Don’t tag yourself
No need to tag yourself in a tweet. People already know your twitter name if they see the tweet.

2. Delete all your tweets at once if you want a fresh start
Stepping up your twitter game? Starting to use it for your business and don’t want the whole world to see your drunken rants? Delete all your tweets at once by using something like TwitWipe. TwitWipe is free and doesn’t always work perfect, but have some patience and you’ll be ready for a new start.

3. Handle Twitter on it’s own
I’ve mentioned before that I strongly suggest to not feed other social media platforms into Twitter. But the more brands and shops I see on Twitter, the more auto feeds I see. I also see a lot of people linking to Facebook or other social media platforms….
The success of your Twitter is strongly dependent on how serious you take it. You need to tag others, use hashtags and type your message in no more then 160 tokens (140 with link or photo). And actively participate in the Twitter world! If you don’t want to do this then just delete your account and focus on the other social media platforms.

4. Have a clear avatar (profile picture)
Your avatar is pretty crucial. Show a clear photo of yourself, or a logo if you are a brand or shop. You want to make sure people know it’s you.
The specs of the avatar are 128 x 128 (scaled down to 48 x 48 in stream). Make sure the image is at least 48k, and max 700k.

5. Spent limited time on your background
Most people will follow you on their smart phone or computer, and if your tweet shows up in their feed only your avatar will show. Only if they go to your Twitter page (twitter.com/you) they will see your background image and colors. Go to profile -> settings -> design. The get some info on the background specs check out this post on Banyan Branch.com.
So I do suggest to customize that so it’s branded, but don’t spent too much time on it, since most people don’t come there too often.

Thanks for checking out the tips for this week!
Check part 3 of the Twitter tips if you haven’t already.

Questions or comments? Drop a comment below!
Or hit me up on Twitter, @fredvanschie.

Monday Funday

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This time I’m not posting a video part (in a skateboard video) or a song, but a rad video from Thunder trucks with Bryan Herman and Erik Ellington. Some/most of you might have seen it as it went live last week.

I did saw a tweet about it on Friday morning, and I emailed that to myself (part of my morning iPhone routine),  but I didn’t watch the video it till this afternoon.

Besides the fact that the video is edited well and both guys talk about their own trucks (as in cars), it’s really the simplicity of skateboarding that makes it so cool. Both Herman and Ellington have had numerous great video parts, but seeing them play a game of skate on flatground is so sick. The basics of skateboarding. If you don’t skate you’ll probably don’t understand that, and that’s fine.

At the end of the video there is a Facebook link, facebook.thundertrucks.com, where you can go to win the pro trucks from both riders. The link forwards you to the Thunder Trucks facebook page. Once you’re on the wall you can read that all you have to do to enter is upload a photo of your Thunder trucks to your own Facebook and tag Thunder in it. Only bummer is that it’s for US residents only. I was born and raised in Holland and lived there for 30 years. I always felt left out with the US only contests/giveaways, but it’s understandable if you know how expensive it can get for international shipping and taxes….

These days I’m living in sunny SoCal so I’m able to enter. I’m not trying to win, the good people at DLX have always taken care of me, but I wanted to show you how it would work.

How to tag (Thunder Trucks) on Facebook?
To tag Thunder Trucks on your personal profile make sure you like the fan page. If you are a fan page add the Thunder fan page to your page’s favorites. When typing the status update type “@thun” and you’ll see Thunder Trucks pop up. Click on it and the text (Thunder Trucks) will become blue, as seen in the screen shot above. Now your photo will show up on the Thunder Truck wall. Please note that Facebook has errors every once in a while so this doesn’t work every time unfortunately.

Thunder also changed the Facebook profile picture to this Herman and Ellington truck theme, and also made a landing tab for it. Yes, you can decide where new fans will land when they visit your page for the first time (wall, info, photos, custom, etc).

Because of the Facebook URL at the end of the video Thunder will get a bunch of new fans that will be getting to know the brand better in the next few days/weeks. The (new) fans even have a chance to win some new trucks so they’ll be paying close attention to the page in the near future.

In the long run this type of interaction will pay off. Not just in number of fans, but in actual skateboarders buying Thunder Trucks. Interacting with your fans (=consumers) is showing them that you care. Who would return to at a shop where the employees don’t give a fuck about you? I won’t, and I know you will go somewhere else too. If brands start to care about their consumers, on social media, they will win in the long run. Thunder is winning. And who wouldn’t want to ride the same trucks as Bryan Herman and Erik Ellington?

Five Instagram Tips Part 4

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The person that told me I should sign up for Instagram was Steve Clare. Best thing about it was that he pretty much demanded me to join, which I’m very thankful for. Normally my favorite Dutch tech nerd Appleman gives me a heads up on what to look out for in the digital world, but the Insta fever is all thanks to Steve.

Steve is pretty damn serious about it too, and has no problem admitting he is addicted to the Insta. Like pretty much everyone I know that has the app, ha!

He is also serious about things people shouldn’t post on Instagram. So after another fun motorcycle/skateboarding/camping tip to Borrego Springs, CA, I thought I just have Steve Clare give you some tips on what not to post.

Good to know what the die hards don’t want to see right? Short and sweet, each one of them speak for itself.

1. Don’t post 3 (or more) photos in a row.

2. No out of the window airplane bullshit

3. Don’t post food pictures every day

4. No solo self portraits like sluts on Facebook

5. Enough of your stupid dog, we get it

Questions or comments? Drop ‘em below!
Or shoot me an email at [email protected].

For more Instagram tips see part 3 from last week.

Five Facebook Tips 5

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Thank god it’s Friday right? Here are 5 more free tips and tricks to maximize your Facebook presence. Hope they help you!

1. The link tab is back (for fan pages)
Just like any website, you want to tuck away the URLs of your links. Make it look nice and clean. With the return of the link tab it’s super easy (again).
Above the status box, the link button is in between the photo and the video button. Click on the link button, paste your link into the box that appears, and hit attach. Now Facebook gives you the option to choose one of the photos that are in your blog post. If you only have one photo, then that’s the photo that will show up with your update. Another good reason to add at least one photo in your blog post!

2. Do you know your audience?
You know who you want to have as your customer, but thanks to Facebook Insights you can get some detailed information on your fans, who are most likely some of your consumers. On the left, below the profile picture, and below the Wall and Info tab, click on Insights and find out all about your fans. Where they are from, what language they speak, male or female, age and lots more. You can also see which posts got the most interaction.
Always good to know who you are talking to and what posts work with them.

3. Don’t link to another site that links to another site
Want to keep the attention of your audience? Then try to post whatever you want them to see on Facebook, if possible. If you can’t do that then link them to the place where you want them to go.
Don’t send them to your blog, and then have them click on something else, etc. Keep it simple. People don’t link to be re-directed (less is more). Adjust to that.

4. No personal profile for your business
Whether you’re a brand, a skateshop or a professional skateboarder, you want to have a fan page. Besides that it’s one of the rules of Facebook (they can kick you off at anytime), a friends profile can only have 5,000 friends. A fan page can have unlimited “likes” (fans). Besides that a fan page doesn’t have to approve any friends. People just find you and like your page. And a fan page does not have a chat option. Want to try and chat with 5,000 friends?
And if you feel your page isn’t growing, then I’m curious to see what you are doing to promote your Facebook (or any social media) URLs.
Add it he URL to all your advertising, your videos, etc. For a shop I highly recommend having a sign with the URL by the register. And maybe a “bonus” when people check in (when they buy something)? 10% discount and all you have to do is check in on Facebook? I’m down for that! Plus all the friends of the people that are checking in get to see you on Facebook too!

5. Respond to every comment, photo, video that people post
I keep repeating myself, but responding back to every single person that leaves something on your wall is a must. It’s customer service in 2012, and if you don’t you show the rest of the world you don’t care about your consumer.
See the blog post that I did yesterday for some examples. I can talk about it for days but the examples will speak for themselves.

Questions or comments? Drop ‘em below!
Or shoot me an email at [email protected].

Also check out “Five Facebook Tips #4” from last week.