Five Facebook Tips 12

Posted on May 10, 2013 by Fred van Schie

Here we go again. Five more Facebook tips for you and yours on this Friday.

So social media is NOT about ME (=you/your brand) or being the media (all the time), the focus is on being social. Having a conversation with someone (online or offline) creates a relationship. And since “people do business with people they know, like, and trust”, building a relationship with your past/current/future consumers is key. Otherwise each sale is just “buy”, or “goodbye”. Selling a product once to one consumer is nice, but wouldn’t it be much better if that consumer stays with you for a long(er) time?

1. Keep your Post By Others wall as open as possible
Seeing big (and small) brands turning the “Post By Others” wall off is something I can not comprehend. Ignoring your past/present/future customer, in public, isn’t good marketing in my eyes.
So open up the “Post By Others” wall and then open it up all the way (see screen shot below). You want your fans to be able to tag their friends in your photos, so your content gets spread whenever possible. Having your current fans telling their friends about you is super valuable. We all trust our friends more then anything, and social media is word of mouth on steroids. Why would you try to stop that?

2. Add other Facebook Pages to your Page (that you’d recommend)
As a Facebook Page you can “like” other Facebook Pages, which displays in the right colum on the top of your Page. This is basicly a list of other Pages that you think your fans should “like” as well. So you would add brands, retailers, and athletes on this list that you want to align yourself with. So don’t try to make this list endless. Less is more. I think anywhere from 5 to 50 could be a decent size list.
To add another Facebook Page to your list just go to the Facebook Page you want to add, and click on the “wheel” below the cover photo (on the right) and click “Like As Your Page”. If you handle multiple Facebook Pages you get the option to pick the Page you want to add it to.

3. Display 5 other Pages for people to Like (Featured Likes)
So now that you have a list of Pages added to your “Recommend Likes”, the “Likes” box will display up to 5 Pages that your Page likes. This list will change with every refresh, so each one on the list gets displayed at random. If you “like” more then 5 Pages you don’t control which Pages get shown. But you can set certain “Featured Likes”, so those will show up every time. I don’t recommend locking in all of the 5 spots, as then the others Pages will never show up. So maybe lock in the first 2-3 spots makes the most sense.
To set the Featured Likes go to “Edit Page” and “Edit Settings”. On the left click on “Featured” and then click on the box “Add Featured Likes”. Now the list pops up of all the Pages that you like with your page. Select the ones you want to lock in.

4. Who to make an admin of your Facebook page
For a while now there a 5 different degrees of admin roles. Only the “Manager” can add and delete others. Best is to have 2 people be an manager, in case something happens to one of the profiles from the admin. (Hacked, banned, etc) If someone has a fake (personal) profile you want to be extra carefull, as Facebook can at any time delete that profile. And if that’s the only admin of the Facebook Page you’re screwed. As far as adding any others admin, once again, less is more. If you add more people to your Facebook Page, to post (in specific territories) make sure they now how to post, respond, and tag right.

*Please note that any manager can hijack the page and kick everyone else out. It all comes down to trust, and maybe adding something in the contract of your social media employees.

5. Check the comments after you do a Facebook post
I see a lot of people just post stuff, and not interact. They turn their “Post By Others” wall off and just do one-way traffic. Being anti-social on social media, wtf!
When some people constantly question the ROI of social media, it blows my mind that most of them don’t interact. So when you post something, check back after a few minutes, a few hours, and the next day(s). See if people have questions about the product or anything else. And delete spam comments and approve the comments that were flagged as spam (incorrectly).
More then 60% of the time people check Facebook from a mobile device and most people having notifications turned on, they can and will respond quickly. Keep the momentum going and talk back to them, and more importantly, have a conversation with them. In the first 30-60 minutes you can really help increase the reach of your post by doing this. And you might be able to sell some extra product while being at it.
Are you ready for 1-on-1 marketing yet?

Hope this is once again helpfull.

Check out Facebook tips part 11 from last week for more tips and tricks. Questions or comments? Drop ‘em below! You can of course post them on my Facebook Page or shoot me an email at [email protected]

Twitter is a conversation not a dictation

Posted on May 9, 2013 by Fred van Schie

I often hear people say “I don’t like Twitter”, or “I don’t really get Twitter”. And I understand that. It’s not as easy to use as Instagram or Facebook, and it takes a little bit more time to understand how it works. It’s my favorite social media platform lately, but it does takes some work. And if you don’t want to use it, personally, that’s totally fine. No one is forcing you to be there.
But as a brand, a retailer, or a celebrity (big name or up-and-coming) this is a little different. People are already on Twitter talking about you, so why not jump into the conversation with them? See what they have to say about you. Cause it might now all be as amazing as you think. And if it is, the least you can do is high five them!
If you don’t have an active presence on Twitter (yet), someone else will do it for you, whether that’s a fan that creates a fake account under your name or one of your retailers/reps/distributors. This might sound like a solution, but this also means someone else controls your message.
Ow, and your competitors are most likely on Twitter, just in case you needed more any more reasons. So you don’t like Twitter? Too bad for you, as the audience is already there. Meaning your past/present/future consumer.

Twitter has 500 million users and 200 million of them tweet at least once a month. On average they sent out 400 million tweets a day and have, and they have on average 208 followers.

So you have a Twitter account, or want to create one. How do you go about it? Do you know those people that love to talk about themselves. All the time. And don’t give you a chance to talk or don’t listen to you when you talk? Do you like those people? Or are they just straight up annoying? I’m sure we can all agree that those type of people aren’t really the ones you want to spent time with, right?

Making Twitter a conversation is very important for it’s success. This means that 50-75% of your tweets should be an “@ reply”. So 2-3 out of every 4 tweets should be an @ reply. Still with me here? This still make sense right? You want to talk with people, not constantly talk at them. Right?

And I get it that you can’t be everywhere at once. When people ask me what they should focus on if they had to pick I always tell them Facebook and Instagram, and of course YouTube. But that doesn’t mean you past/present/future consumers aren’t on Twitter. And if most brands don’t really pay attention, that means there is a lot of room there to jump in and make a difference.

I thought I would do some research in the world of skateboarding (shoes), as that’s the world I’m in and and I’m always interested in how brands in skateboarding use social media. A little while back I found out about Twitonomy, based out of Australia. Anyone can go to their site, login with a Twitter account, and look up stats from any Twitter account out there. And not just a few stats, but a whole breakdown.
So I looked at the various skateboard shoe companies to see how they are doing on Twitter. Again, I focussed on the reply %, I do know that they are some more stats to look at to see how an account is doing things…. (but I do think the @ reply % is the most important one)

@ replies % on May 1st 2013 + total followers:
Vans – 38% (178k followers)
Osiris – 22% (16k followers)
Dekline – 19% (700 followers)
Lakai – 16% (35k followers)
Fallen – 15% (7k followers)
HUF – 15% (48k followers)
DC Shoes – 11% (206k followers)
DVS – 8% (36k followers)
C1RCA – 8% (9k followers)
etnies – 8% (37k followers)
DC skateboarding – 7% (55k followers)
Emerica – 5% (43k followers)
Nike SB – 5% (117k followers)
Globe – 3% (15k followers)
Supra – 2% (97k followers)
Vox – 2% (2k followers)

Adidas or Converse do NOT have a Twitter account for the skate line. Their regular accounts both had 29% (@adidas & @converse).

Twitonomy provides analytics on up to 3,200 tweets and 800 mentions. It depends on how active an account is.

*Please note that quite a few of the brands above feed their Instagram photos into Twitter. When they start an Instagram post with “@username” and feed that into Twitter it looks like an @ reply to Twitonomy. So for most brands the actual reply % is lower. Another reason to take 1 minute extra and post individually on each platform. Another thing I noticed is that some brands retweet a few tweets every now and then, but only the ones that talk positive about them. So no one complains? Or you just want to brag???

Here’s a screen shot of the Vans Twitter stats (via Twitonomy)

So Vans is doing a decent job on Twitter, with 39% of their tweet being @ replies. After doing this research I started looking at some other brands too. I was shocked when I got to the Nike Twitter account. Not the SB one, but the regular (runner) one. 93% of their tweets are @ replies! Damn, talking about having a conversation! So out of every 10 tweets they do, they talk TO people in 9.3 tweets. That’s an insane number!

And then I also looked at what Nike was tweeting. Again I was impressed. Most of their @ replies to people are super motivational and inspirational. You think people get stoked to see those responses?

The thing I like so much about social media is that it’s public. You can ignore phone calls and not respond to your email to a certain degree. You would suck at customer service but you might be able to get away with it if your product/brand is hot.
All this social media information is out in the open. Anyone can go to a Twitter account on a computer or mobile device and see what people are posting, and if they reply to people. I stopped following brands that just feed Twitter from Facebook or Instagram. Or if I find a Twitter account and I just see one-way traffic I don’t even follow them. What’s the point? Let’s have a conversation! Once we start to talk we create a relationship, and that will benefit you (and me) in the long run.

How I am doing on Twitter? After seeing Scott Stratten speak at a LInked OC event in mid November I changed up my Twitter game. I started having more conversations with people, not just tweeting a bunch of crap. In less then 6 months I went from 200 followers to over 500. Was it a lot of work? Yes. Was it fun? Yes, it was. And it still is. And if I can do this, you can for sure. My @ replies are still just below 50%, but that’s because I didn’t really do @ replies before November last year. So my @ reply % is slowly going up.
As you can see below I started tweeting way more in mid November, but I was doing a lof of @ replies, which only show up to the people I reply to, and the people that follow both me and that account.

REMEMBER: When you start a tweet with @username, your tweet only shows up for the people that follow both you and the “username” you mentioned (tagged). This also includes if you start an Instagram post with with “@username”, and then feed it into Twitter….

Hope this gives some good insight on how to use Twitter (better). I strongly recommend reading the 2 books from Scott Stratten, Unmarketing and The Business book of Awesome. And if you have some time watch this Vimeo video from Scott.

Have a question? Feedback? Drop a comment here or tag me (@fredvanschie) onInstagram or Twitter. Or shoot me an email at [email protected]

For more Twitter tips see part 5 from last week.
Thank you!

(FYI: I currently work with DVS Shoes, C1RCA, and Globe.)

Five Instagram Tips Part 10

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Fred van Schie

Let’s try to keep this going (talking to myself). Weekly Instagram tips are back on the top of my list, so hope these ones are once again helpful/useful for you.

Instagram has gained a lot of traction in the past year. And even though I’m still a big fan of the platform, I also notice how hard it is to interact with your audience on Instagram. And even though that might be just what some are looking for, being social on social media is key to it’s success for most. Or ROI as you will, as most companies have to make sure they see a Return On Investment (of time/manpower). While people most of the time people hardly question the use of the telephone or email, they do with social media, as most of it see it as another marketing tool. But how priceless is it really to interact with your fans and followers? Here’s a tool that let’s you interact with your past/present/future consumers, isn’t that good for your business/brand in the long run? And a picture tells a 1000 words, so let the photo do the initial talking, and then jump in later for the interaction.

1. Promote your name/brand hashtag & the other “branded” hashtag

Assuming people will find you and know what hashtag(s) you want them to use is not easy in a day and age where so much is going on. You can blame that on the smartphone and social media for most of it, but you can use this in your own advantage. Adapt or die right?

So promote your brand name as as hashtag in all your other marketing efforts (print ads, back of a sticker, on a sign during events, via your sponsored athletes, your employees, retailers, etc) and of course in your Instagram (and Twitter) profile. This is the gateway to your brand/name for most people. So at the first point of contact you have a change to explain who you are, and what you want your audience to use when the post something about you.

Since you can only see the last 50 likes/tags on Instagram, it’s hard to keep track of the people that tag you. So here is where the hashtags come in handy. I totally get that you want to promote #yourbrand, but most people might now want to use that all the time. This is where your slogan or campain tagline comes into play. Make sure the 2nd hashtag does NOT contain your brand name. It looks tacky and it shows that you are trying to hard. When people really start to use this it will become synonymous with your brand name.
Best example, in skateboarding, is the Nike SB hashtag #skateeverydamnday. Other good examples are #theyturnandstuff (from Krux trucks) and #skatemore (from DVS Skateboarding).
As I’m writing this (May 2013) the hashtag #skateeverydamnday has been used more than 300,000 times on Instagram. It’s used by a lot of skateboarders around the world, even by some who are sponsored by other shoe brands. That’s when you known it’s a real success. Which die hard skateboarder wouldn’t want to tell the world he/she is skating “every damn day”?

2. Interact with your 2 main hashtags
So now that you have people using your #notthebrandname hashtag, as well as the #brandname hashtag, you have a chance to reach out and interact with these people. And I know this might get full-time job (hint?), but people will go crazy if their favorite brand/famous person will “like” their photo. Or even better, will leave a comment on the photo. Chances are they will take a screenshot of your like or comment, so all their followers see that you actually talk back. How rad would it be if the brand of the product you just bought, and posted a photo about on Instagram, comes back to you and says thank you for buying the product? Think that will have an impact on the brand perception? Think the chances just increased that you will buy that brand again? I think so too.

3. Don’t abuse the hashtags
One of the problems with hashtags that become popular is that people start using them to get more followers, and adding them to photos that have nothing to do with the subject. This is where the term “MySpace photo” pops back up. Lots of selfies and other bullshit now comes up in the feed when you look up certain hashtag. Best is obviously to not do anything with these photos. I guess if you have lots of time on your hand you can start to comment on them and saying the need to chill out, but you’re never gonna win that battle…. Just stay away from it yourself. 13 years olds grow up eventually and they will get it someday. But don’t bet on that.

4. Stay away from the most used hashtags
Yeah, I know, we all want to get more followers right. Justin Bieber has 8.3 million Instagram followers (May 2013) and it’s totally reasonable for you to get at least half of that. Within the next month. Yeah right. And the trick to your followers explosion is more hashtags. Especially the ones that everyone uses.
How many friends can you really have if you’re not famous? Best trick on getting more followers? Post great photos. Good content always wins. And of course make sure other people, preferably those with a lot of followers, tag you (more then once).

The no go hashtag list for me contains of #followme #swag #lol #instagdaily #popularpage #like #picstitch #10likes #20likes #30likes…. yeah you get it…. Embarrassing.
Huffington Post made a top 100 of most used Instagram hashtags, and I’m glad to say I’ve never used most of them….. #tbt and #friends might be the only 2.

5. Tag others when you can (as they most likely will do the same)
Tagging others in an Instagram post is a way of letting your followers know who else they should follow. It’s a stamp of approval more or less. And once they see that you tag them they will most likely do the same in the future. It’s all about supporting those who support you right?

Have a question? Feedback? Drop a comment here or tag me (@fredvanschie) on Instagram or Twitter. Or shoot me an email at [email protected]

For more Instagram tips see part 9 from a while back. Until next time! Quite possibly next week….

Five Facebook Tips 11

Posted on May 3, 2013 by Fred van Schie

Here are some more Facebook tips and tricks that could help your Facebook Page grow and also reach more people. On average 8% of your fans see your updates, but there are some easy ways to increase this number. And with that reach more past/present/future consumers.

1. Your “Talking About This” number is more important then your “Likes”
So you have all these likes/fans on your Facebook page, but what are these users doing with your posts? And how are you interacting with them? Being social is key in social media!
The goal I’ve set (for my clients) is to get the “Talking About This” number up to 10-15% of your total amount of likes/fans, as this has a big impact on how many fans see your posts (Post Reach). And this is not easy. It also requires work. And time. And patience. This is a marathon, not a spring, and I know you can do it.
The “Talking About This” number measures the amount of people that have interact with your posts in the last 7 days. So it changes daily. And if people don’t like, comment, or share your post, the chance that they will see a future post goes down too. Facebook thinks that if fans not interact with a post now, they must not like the stuff you are posting. So why would they want to see you’re next post if your current one doesn’t interest them?

2. Turn-off your messages
There is no need for your social media person to start messaging/emailing back with single fans on a daily basis. Turn off your messages and make sure your “Post By Others” wall is turned on. Now your fans can post questions/comments/complaints on there, and you have a chance to respond to them in public. So there’s less chance you get asked the same things on a daily basis, cause you already posted the answer on a similar question earlier. You will have to reply to the same questions over and over again, but less then if you leave your messages on. People also won’t go back and forth with you in public (on the “Post By Other” wall) then in a private (Facebook) message.

3. Keep your “Post By Others” wall on
This is a big one for me. Giving people a chance to talk to you (and about you) gives you a chance to interact with them. And built a relationship, so it’s not just a one-off type of thing.
And yes, not all the stuff people say about you is pretty. The “Post By Others” wall will show the good, the bad, and the ugly. So be ready, but don’t be afraid.
“Do I delete complaints?” some of you might ask? Hell no! Man the fuck up! For everyone to see! What are you trying to hide otherwise?
The only things you want to delete of the “Post By Others” wall is spam and discriminating stuff of any kind. For any type of reasonable complaint, just man up, apologize, and offer a solution. If needed you can give them an email address to take it offline. Saying sorry and showing that you care means a lot to people.
People know things go wrong, whether it’s shipping or product failing. Showing, in public, that you are taking care off these issues will only improve your brand image.
Turning off your “Post By Others” wall will force people to go somewhere else (forums/websites/Yelp/etc…) where you might not be able to contact them as good as on Facebook. And what does tell about your brand anyway? “We don’t like to interact with our past/present/future consumers.” Who would want to send out that message?

4. Respond to all the things people post on the “Post By Others” wall
It’s not really about what you post, it’s how you interact. Having the option to interact with your past/present/future consumers is what makes social media such a valuable tool. Again, it gives you a chance to built a relationship, and you can turn a one-time buyer into a lifetime consumer, and, even better, a brand advocate.
So reply to all the things people post. Whether they posted a photo showing they just bought your product, or if they’re asking for stickers/advice, or if they shared a video with you. Keep it short and simple. Saying “thank you (for the support)” goes a looooong way!
And your “Post By Others” wall also shows who has tagged you on Facebook, from another Page and from a personal profile. See you know who’s sending their fans your way, and who you have to email/call to make sure they tag you next time!

5. Post interactive posts
In order to increase your Post Reach, and your “Talking About This”, you need people to like, comment, and share your posts. If they do that the chance that they will see your future posts will increase as well. So ask them a question, show 2 different products, ask them for feedback, etc. And with your current fans interacting with your post, their friends will notice that too, and then they’ll come over to check out your page, and possibly become a fan.
Our friends are always are best filter for thing, especially in a time where we get overwhelmed with content, ads, emails, text messages, billboards, etc. So have your current fans tell their friends about you, and you’re golden. Word of mouth still is the best form of advertising. And social media puts word of mouth on steriods. The average Facebook fan has 229 friends, so think about how many people you can reach through your current fans.
And of course you want to make sure your posts are a mix of things. Don’t just posts questions, don’t just post photos, and don’t just post links to your blog.

Good luck and have fun being social. It really should be fun to run a Facebook page. If not you should have someone else do it for you, cause your fans love to interact with you!

Hope this is once again helpfull.

Check out Facebook tips part 10 for more (Timeline) tips and tricks. Questions or comments? Drop ‘em below! Or post them on my Facebook Page at Facebook.com/FredvanSchie. Or shoot me an email at [email protected]

Five Twitter Tips Part 5

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Fred van Schie

It’s been too long since I’ve posted some Twitter tips, but I’m trying to get back into a weekly, or bi-weekly, post. Hope some of these are useful for you.

1. Link up your Instagram and Twitter
I don’t think you should feed your Instagram updates to Twitter every single time. 1-2 out of every 5 Instagram photos can go to your Twitter, if the text is short enough (max. 120 characters) and the tagged accounts have the same username on both platforms.
Even if you don’t feed Instagram to Twitter, which would the best option, other might do so. And if they do you want to make sure that if they tag you on Instagram, that the tag translates to Twitter. So if their friends so the tweet they can click on your username and look you up, and possibly follow you.
To link your Instagram account to Twitter open the Instagram app on your phone, click on the “wheel” in the upper right corner, and then click “Share Settings”. If you already are logged into the Twitter app on your phone, you can select the Twitter account. Otherwise you’d have to log in to Twitter and approve the setup.

(*If you have more then 9 Twitter accounts on your phone it only shows the last 9 accounts you have added to your phone. If the account you want to link is above the first 9 delete that account of the Twitter app and add it again.)

Ps. Even if you don’t have the same username on Twitter and Instagram you can link the accounts. If people then tag you on Instagram, it will automatically translate into the Twitter username once it gets posted on Twitter. I’m all about having the same username on ALL platforms, especially on Twitter and Instagram. It looks way better, it’s easier for people to find you (and know it’s you), and in the end it’s a huge part of your branding in 2013!

2. Don’t end a tweet with a URL if you also include an image.
When you add an image to a tweet (including an Instagram post), Twitter turns it into a URL at the end of the tweet. If you want to also include a(nother) URL in your tweet, it’s best to not end the tweet with that URL, as it would display 2 URLs in a row. Looks confusing for people, and they might only click on one of the URLs. If you really want/need to include a URL in the tweet, it’s best to put the URL earlier in the tweet. If needed you can always put 1 or more hashtags after the URL. That way both URLs aren’t right next to each other.

Or, especially if you’re trying to promote an event/product with a flyer, or post a YouTube/Vimeo video, focus on that and aim to have people interact and share that, rather then trying to have them do multiple things. You only have a few seconds of someone’s attention most of the time, so make the most of it. Realize what the goal of the tweet is….

3. Fill in your profile
A lot of times when I look up a person or brand on Twitter, they don’t really display any info. I understand in some cases you want to stay low-key, but then you might be in the wrong place anyway….
You have 160 characters for your bio, and make sure you put in a website URL where people can found out more information. If people take the time to look you up, make it worth their time. If your profile has no info, what does that say about you?

4. Upload a header
As most people look at Twitter from a mobile device (60%), I’m not to worried about the background image. It’s also hard to size it correctly since everyone has a different size screen.
The Twitter header, which was introduced in the fall of 2012, can be seen on both mobile and desktop, and you should upload one.
To upload a header just log in to your Twitter account on a computer. Once you are logged in hoover your mouse over your profile picture (you have that right?) and then click “EDIT”. The original image size for the Twitter header cannot exceed 1252×626 pixels (with a max file size of 5MB). Twitter does not specify a minimum size, but anything smaller than 640 pixels-wide will appear poor quality.

On mobile the header is shown separate. Swipe the profile picture to the left and you can see the header with the profile information.(On a desktop it’s all displayed at once)

5. Don’t link Twitter to Facebook
Different platforms, different languages. Twitter has a max of 140 characters (or 120 + an image), hashtags don’t work on Facebook (yet), and each platform has a different audience. And if you tag someone on Twitter, that tag won’t translate to Facebook. And tagging others is the best way to get seen by more people.
Go to facebook.com/Twitter to unlink your Twitter to Facebook feed. Spent 1 extra minute to update Twitter and Facebook (and Instagram) separate and increase the reach of each post. Unless you don’t want as many people as possible to see, and share, your updates….
I see a lot of brands post on Instagram and then feed that to their Twitter and Facebook page. Not only do all 3 platforms display the same content (boring), but most of the time they also display a broken message. And don’t tell me you don’t have 1-2 extra minutes to tell the world about your amazing content….

Hope these tips are useful. Let me know if you have any questions. Email me at [email protected] or hit me up on Twitter or Instagram @fredvanschie.
Hope to be back next week!

How to link Instagram to a Facebook Page

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Fred van Schie

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The question I get asked the most is how to make sure your (brand’s) Instagram account can feed into your (brand’s) Facebook Page. While it’s pretty simply to have an Instagram account feed into a personal Facebook profile, it’s a little more complicated to have Instagram go to a Facebook Page. Just a little bit though….

A while back I made a tutorial email that I’ve been sending out a bunch, so I figured I put it up on here so everyone can see it. And save myself a couple emails, ha!

One more thing before I show the step-by-step tutorial, I do NOT recommend feeding your Instagram photos to a Facebook page. The main reason is that the Facebook edgerank (=algorithm) sees any link from outside of Facebook as a way to get people away from Facebook, and therefore it gets ranked lower. The result is that way less people will see an Instagram photo on a Facebook Page (in compare to a photo directly uploaded to a Facebook Page). And less views on a post means the Talking About This** number is going down, which will result in a lower post reach in the (near) future.
Another reason to not feed Instagram to a Facebook Page (or profile) is that the tagged accounts won’t translate into Facebook. And tagging others (on any social media platform) is the best way to grow your fan base and increase the reach of a post.

(**Talking About This number should be 10-15% of your total Facebook fans/likes)

Please make sure you are logged in to the Facebook and Facebook Pages (orange flag) apps before you start!

Step 1: Log in in to the Instagram app on your phone with the account you want to share on the Facebook Page. Then log into your personal Facebook profile on your smart phone. (And make sure you are an admin of the Facebook Page)

Step 2: Open the Instagram Instagram and click on the lower right tab (on the bottom). From there click on the wheel in the upper right corner.

Step 3: Click on the “Share Settings” button.

Step 4a: Click on the “Facebook” button. It will now ask you to sign in to your personal Facebook profile. Follow the steps. It might open up Facebook for a second and come back to Instagram. It might even do this twice. Don’t touch anything, just let it pull it up and wait for it to be completely done.

Step 4b: Click “No” so you’re not sharing your Instagram likes to your personal Facebook profile. Unless you want to display the sketchy stuff you like on Instagram to your Facebook friends. (You’re Instagram followers already can see that, so you’re already getting it out there, don’t worry)
Step 4c: You don’t really have to do anything, just making sure the “Facebook” button is now displaying the name of your personal Facebook profile.

Step 5: Click on the “Facebook” button and it should now show “Wall (Default)”

Step 6: Click on “Wall (Default)” and now you see a list of all the Facebook pages you are an admin off. Select the one you want and you’ll see the check mark behind the Facebook Page you’ve selected.

Step 7: Now go to the upper left corner and click on “Facebook”, “Sharing”, “Options”, and “Profile” and you’re back to your Instagram profile tab/page. Now it’s time to test it out!
If this doesn’t work sign out of the Instagram and Facebook app on your phone, uninstall both app and then re-install both apps. After you’ve re-installed both apps turn off your phone and turn it back on. Then log in to Instagram and Facebook again and repeat the steps.

Step 8: Please don’t be lazy and feed every single Instagram photo to you Facebook page. It’s boring when both platforms (and Twitter) show exactly the same content! Besides the fact that it decreases your Facebook Page (and Post) reach, as well as making your Facebook posts look like a mess with a bunch of “@” and “#” signs…. You’re better then that!
I’d suggest to feed 1-2 out of 10 Instagram photos to your Facebook Page.

Hope this helps. Feel free to leave a comment below or email me at [email protected] if you still have issues or questions. Or let me know on Instagram or Twitter if this worked (or not) for you. I’m @fredvanschie.

How The Thank You Economy Changed My Life

Posted on November 22, 2012 by Fred van Schie

In mid November 2011, right around the same time that Brent Koops told me about Amy Jo Martin (see my previous blog post), I was emailing back and forth with Jim Thiebaud, the vice president at Deluxe Distribution. Before moving out to California in December 2007 I was a sales rep for Deluxe for about 5 years in The Netherlands (yup, that’s Holland), so I’d known Jim for a while. If you know him, you know. If you don’t, he is the Henry Rollins of the skateboard industry. Down for the cause, 100% work horse, and always supporting good people.

On Saturday November 19th, if I’m correct, while he was driving to a hospital in Las Vegas to visit JT Aultz, who just had a serious accident, we had a 45 minutes phone call. After seeing what Amy Jo Martin (thanks Brent!) was doing with Shaq and The Rock (and some other teams and brands in the NBA/NHL) my brain was in overdrive. Could I be a social media consultant in the skateboard industry?

Jim told me I should read this book, The Thank You Economy by Gary Vaynerchuk, as it had made a big impact on his way of looking at social media and branding. Reading a book? Me? Fuck, I don’t recall the last time I read a book, for fun. It must have been at least 10 years? But, as many, I have the utmost respect for Jim, so I couldn’t say something like “yeah, I don’t really read books”. Besides that, I knew my job at Sole Tech was anything but secure, so educating myself made total sense.

Not really sure if I could get myself to read the whole book (and yes, that’s sounds pretty stupid as I’m typing this) I went to the library and got a copy. On Wednesday November 23rd, the day before Thanksgiving, my wife and I went on a belated honeymoon to Maui. I started reading the book as soon as we took of from LAX, and right before we touched down in Maui, about 5 hours later, I finished the book. Besides being an easy to ready book, it was the style of writing (straight up, no difficult words), that really got me.

Having done the social media at Sole Tech for about 18 months (for Emerica, Altamont, and a bit of eS), and constantly having to try to convince people how powerful social media had become, it was amazing to read what a true social media expert was saying about all this. And I thought, at the time, that I was pushing the envelope and focusing on the possibilities of social media, pffff, not even close!

In the week on Maui I would read some parts of the book again, and as soon as I get back to California, I started watching various keynote speeches from Gary, and it blew my fucking mind. Everything he was saying made so much sense. One of the things that stuck with me early was his, “no tweet left behind” quote meaning people should be replying to every person on Twitter, when they ask a question, tag your account, or talking about your brand/company/name (by using certain hashtags). Until then I was told I shouldn’t be doing that. While I saw how stoked people would get if I would reply (on behalf of one of the brands), and I felt that was worth a lot, the people above me didn’t see the value in that.

On December 1st I was laid off from Sole Tech, and ever since Gary has been my main mentor when it comes to social media strategy, and at least once a week I’ll watch some of his speeches. I’ve reached out to him on Twitter various times (he has close to 1 million followers!), and he has always replied to me. (And yes, he is in the social media business, but he also runs 2 companies.)

The Thank You Economy is the reason I started this website too. I would always “hide behind the brand” and I don’t think a lot of Emerica/Altamont social media followers knew Fred was running the accounts (it also doesn’t matter who is doing it). I’ve exchanged emails with a handfull of core fans that I’m still in touch with. All amazing people. (Marlone, Matthew, Joshua, James, Zach, you guys rule!)
I’m drifting sorry. So Gary talks about starting a blog of YouTube channel and start sharing your knowledge with people. Having a stutter doesn’t make me the best person for videos, but I’ve been writing blog posts for almost 10 years, so I figured that would be the one for me.
It’s still weird to me that I’m branding my own name, but at the same time I’m seeing that it’s working. I remember people asking me why I was giving free tips out, while at the same time I’m trying to get people to hire me. That this business model worked for me is very simple; I had to give something first, before I could take. I’ve helped a bunch of people out for free, and I still do, because I’m in it for the long run. “It’s a marathon not a sprint”, to quote Gary again. “Everybody in social media (marketing) today acts like a 19 year-old dude and tries to close on the first deal. No wonder it doesn’t work”.

To rap it up, do yourself a favor and read The Thank You Economy. If you work in social media, marketing, branding, but really this book is for everyone. Social media has changed things dramatically, so get with it, or stay on the sidelines and get ready to die….

* And for the record, FvS media Inc is in full effect. We work with about 30 different clients and help them with their social media. Crazy how it all worked out this way. And if I can do it, you can do what you think you can/want to do.

Here’s the conclusion of the book:

Here are 2 videos from Gary that I can watch on repeat any day.

This one is a 7 minute video from SXSW 2010 (yeah, that was in March 2010). He talks about Summize, which is now the search on Twitter, and Zappos, which is famous for the longest customer service phone call of 8 hours (without selling anything).

The last video is a 61 minute video of Gary at Keynote speech at the Inc 500. The is the 1st video I ever saw of Gary, and it’s still one of the best ones. Take an hour for yourself, put on your headphones, and listen.

Thanks again Jim Thiebaud for giving me the kick in the ass that I needed!

Renegades Write The Rules Review

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Fred van Schie

Sometime in November 2011 my good friend Brent Koops, one of the international sales managers at Sole Technology at the time, called me into his office and showed me an article (blog post) about Amy Jo Martin. I was doing the social media for Altamont (and kinda sorta eS and Emerica) at the time, as well as the marketing and PR.
The article (maybe this one?) told about how Amy was helping Shaquille O’Neal with his social media, and how much success their teamwork had.

The 15 minutes I spent in Brent’s office have been super influential of where I am today, and what I’m doing. I remember very clearly Brent telling me “this is what YOU should be doing”, and I also remember telling him I wasn’t sure if I could and should be doing my own thing yet. (Justin Casady witnessed it, not sure if he remembers this)

We’re all scared of change right? Besides that, all I wanted for the longest time was to live in Southern California and work for Sole Technology (doing what I was doing). But shit was getting weird, and I felt I my opinion/expertise was not taken serious (anymore). The éS brand put on hold a few months earlier, a lot of people were laid off, and everyone knew more layoffs were around the corner. In early December my job was canned, and it was time to move on.

The 24-48 hours after Brent showed me the Amy Jo Martin article, I researched her and found tons of interesting articles and videos about what she was doing on the social media front with Shaquille O’Neal, Nike, Chicago White Sox, UFC and Dana White, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Los Angeles Kings, and more.

Fast forward to almost a year later, and here I am running FvS media, my own social media agency, where I work with brand, retailers and pros (= professional athletes), mostly in skateboarding. I looked what Amy Jo Martin was doing with her company, Digital Royalty, and I’m not afraid to say I mirrored my company after Digital Royalty.

At Sole Tech I helped a lot of the teamriders (Andrew Reynolds, Ed Templeton, Braydon Szafranski, Garrett Hill, Kenny Hoyle, Bobby Worrest, Mike Anderson) get started with their social media, so when I was let go I figured I should try and make that my business. I figured I would mimimize the risk of losing my job if I worked for a few different people, instead of one. In the last few months I was able to built up a solid client base, and it still feels surreal.

Over the summer Amy posted (on her Twitter) that she was working on her own book. In late August she announced the book would come out on October 2nd. Through her website I signed up for the Blogger Program, and I was one of the lucky ones to receive an early copy of the book in early September. It took me a few weeks to finish the book and, to no surprise, the book is nothing short of amazing. (It’s an easy read, I was just lagging)

I’m a big fan of her “color outside the lines without crossing the lines” theory, as it’s something I’ve experienced that first hand when I was at Sole Tech.
In the intro of her book she mentions how “Facebook and Twitter alone often help you innovate better, or more effective products, processes, technology,services and ideas” more effectively than any traditional poll, survey, or creative meeting”.
I always questioned how brands would gather feedback from (potential) consumers, but now that there’s all these options to get this feedback for free, most people get all weird.

I highly recommend reading the book, and I want to walk you through the chapters (rules) so you know why you should get it. (*I have the early version, so some stuff might be changed in the final version)

Rule 1: Be the media
When you have a lot of (real) followers on your various social media platforms, and engage with them, they will help you spread the message(s) for/with you. Amy worked with Shaq on his retirement video, a 16 second YouTube video in which Shaq announced he was retiring from professional basketball and thanked his fans for their support. Within 5 minutes it was a trending topic on Twitter, and within 15 minutes a major media outlet picked it up. How the news broke so quick? Shaq and Amy both had a lot of followers on Twitter (and Facebook).

Rule 2: Show some skin
Be authentic. “You have to earn the right to sell something in the same way you earn the right to ask a friend for a favor.” I really like her execution of the fan phone, were some of her clients answer phone calls from fans.

Rule 3: Unmask you motives
In this chapter Amy points out how Tiger Woods never got back to the level after his sex scandal and Bill Clinton did after the Monica Lewinsky affair. Why? Because “we still don’t know what makes Tiger Woods thick. He has given us no other reason to like him than for his performance.”
She also brings up the Toms shoes example, and how their whole business model is based around given a pair of shoes to under privileged children with every pair they sell. Toms became successful because people “believed in the brands intent to help children in need.”

Rule 4: Get comfortable being uncomfortable
“Often it’s that first leap toward a new protocol, or culture shift, that gets them hung up. They just can’t see themselves sharing their lives with thousands of people, let along millions. So get comfortable with being uncomfortable Own it. With more than a billion people using these communication channels, you can’t afford not to have an active role in the conversation.”

Rule 5. Ask for forgiveness rather than permission
“Mistakes are ok if you’re engaging with an audience and they’ve come to know who you are. The faults of a friend are far more forgivable and far easily forgotten. Just bring the results with you when someone asked you about it.

Rule 6: Consensus is true authority
“Brand ownership is not very deep when it’s based only on surface traits like quality, aesthetics, and practicality Social communication channels allow you to take your audience deeper so that their loyalty to your brand is rooted in human qualities that strengthen any relationship.”

Rule 7: There’s a new ROI in town.
ROI should be about the Return On Influence (not Investment). This chapter introduces the RevPAF formula; the revenue per available fan and follower.

You really have to read this for yourself to understand this new way of getting data (from social media).

Rule 8: The act of good can be scaled
“Social media is not only the future of business; it is this moment of business as well. And the more moments you miss, the more irrelevant you will become. To opt out of social media is an irresponsible business decision. It’s quickly becoming a fatal business decision.”

You can read the PDF version of chapter 0, on the Renegade Write The Rules website.

Final quote: “Take risks, experiment, and fail early. When everyone else hops on the bandwagon, their failing process begins as you begin to win. Then share your lessons with other.”

Being a skateboarder first and foremost, I have no desire to be part of a team (sports), but after reading this book I want to be a part of Team Renegades. Not because I want to brag about being rebel or being part of a team, but simply because Amy Jo Martin is leading the way in communication.

Thank you Amy, the Digital Royalty team, and Brent Koops for opening my eyes!

You can order Renegades Write The Rules on Amazon, Books A Million, and Barnes & Noble.

Be sure to also check out the Digital Royalty University website, the latest project of Amy Jo Martin and the Digital Royalty crew. The Digitial Royalty University is hosting online classes for social media. The 1st 30 minute class is free. Check it out.

Five Facebook Tips 10

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Fred van Schie

Ok, here we are again. Due to major website issues (Lunar Pages sucks!) and a lot of work (which I’m so thankful for) it’s been a bit too long since I’ve done an update. It’s not that I ran out of tips, but this idea I had a year ago has become a reality quicker than I thought.

Anyway, with the news of Facebook hitting 1 billion users, I figured it was about damn time I did another update. So here’s 5 more tips and tricks.

1. Talking About This should be 10-15%
You can have all the fans/likes in the world, but if they don’t do anything it’s not worth shit. The “talking about this” number indicates the last 7 days that your fans have interacted with your page in some way. So people liking, commenting, sharing, tagging, etc. One of the main influencers of this number is by responding to everyone that posts on your way (“Post By Others”). Social media is all about being SOCIAL (interacting), not about being the MEDIA (spamming). So listen and respond to your fans, they are more than worth it.
If you need an example go to Corey Duffel’s Facebook page. The Duffman is all about interacting with his fans, in real life and with social media. Now if only brands would start taking their fans as serious as Corey, a lot more people would be stoked on your brand.

2. Use the new Facebook for Pages for app
Facebook is still not perfect on a mobile device, but they are slowly getting there. They still have too much options to squeeze in one app, but some of the main things are in this new app. I’m not a fan of adding another app to my home screen, but if it serves a purpose, I’m all about it. One of the things you still can’t do, and annoys the hell out of me, is taggin other fan pages.

Ps. Recently Facebook updated the regular Facebook app, and now you can’t post on a fan page from the app anymore. Get it!

3. Make sure your tabs work on a mobile device (otherwise don’t bother)
Yeah, those tabs (or apps/applications)…. They are not the magic you are looking for, and if you suck at social media they won’t help you suck less. But if you using Facebook right, they can be a big help. But people check Facebook 50% of the time from a mobile device (65% by the end of 2012?), and Timeline for Pages does not (yet) work on the mobile app, so if you post a link on your wall make sure the tab is mobile friendly. A frustrated fan, that can’t see what you want him to see, is not your goal.

This is what you see on a smart phone (iPhone) if you tab is not mobile friendly. And I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, if it doesn’t work on mobile, don’t waste your time!

4. Tag others when you can, every time you can.
There’s not trick of getting a ton of new fans quickly. And if you think you know a trick, it’s has to be fake. Growing Facebook fans takes time, hard work, and patience, just like growing a business. The best way to grow is by tagging other fan pages when you have a chance. Since your page is growing fans every day (right?) you have to make sure you inform the newbies. So don’t just think people know where your brand is sold, who is on your team, and what other brands and retailers you align with. And leave out the hella in-crowd cool talk. Once in a while won’t hurt, but you want to make sure the newbies feel at home, not estranged. So they can be a consumer for years to come.

To tag another page it helps to have the admin be a fan (like) the page you plan to tag. Adding the page your page’s favorites will help too. Type the “@” symbol and start typing the page name of the page you want to tag. (Yes, that;s why you need a good page name too)

*Please note that the tagging won’t always work (99% of the time it will) and you can’t tag personal profiles. So you won’t spam personal profiles, cause I know you want to.

5. Call to action, don’t just post an update
People see your stuff in their feed. Whether their on a mobile device or computer, people don’t really came to your Facebook page. So you have to make sure that if you do an update, it’s stands out one way or another. Not every time of course, mix shit up! But when you scroll through your newsfeed, most of the things you see are just whatever. So when you ask them a question, it will get people talking. Remember people are on social media to interact with their friends. And the best way to get to know new people is to start interaction with them. Asking questions sparks interaction. And it’s direct feedback from your consumers!

Below an example of a post on the Facebook page of David Gonzalez (that I did) regarding his 3 signature Ricta wheels. A Facebook post gets seen by an average of 10-16% of your fans, this post was seen by more then 50% of David’s fans. And it got a lot of likes, comments and share. Ow, and Ricta gained twice as much fans as on any other day. (cause it was tagged)

Five Instagram Tips Part 9

Posted on May 28, 2012 by Fred van Schie

The weekly tips are turning into monthly tips huh? Some people might think I’m running out of tips and tricks, which could be true to a certain degree, but with the evolution of social media almost daily there is always new stuff coming up.

Here’s another batch of 5 tips that could be helpful for your personal and business use of Instagram.

1. Promote your (social media) existence on Instagram
This is something that applies for all social media. I often get asked what I can do to help grow the followers/fans of the various platforms. My question in return is always what they currently do to promote their social media platforms. Almost every time the answer is (close to) nothing.
It blows my mind that people still don’t see the value of building a following on any/all the platforms. We are all so used to putting the website URL on all forms of advertising/promotions but with the smart phones taking over it’s the worst thing to promote. How often do you surf the web on a smart phone? And how often do you check Instagram (or Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc) on a smart phone? Exactly!
Not only that, but what is a (first time) website visit really worth? What is the chance that person is coming back tomorrow, next week, next month, next year?
Once someone starts to follow your brand on Instagram (or Twitter, Facebook, etc.) he/she will get an update about your brand “every single day for the rest of his/her life”. Plus they get to see way more different things in a week on social media than they can on your site in 5 minutes. And who spends 5 minutes on a (non-social network) website these days? Even on a computer….

LRG (skate) does it right in their new ads. Show the logo and spell out the username (or URL). And have the same username on Twitter and Instagram!

2. Make a hashtag for your project, not a separate account.
Been seeing this one more and more lately, both in skateboarding and outside of it. I get it, your new project is the main focus for the next few weeks/months, but what’s gonna happen when the project is done? I think it’s way better to make a hashtag for your project, and promote that on your regular account. This way your regular account is growing and once the project is done you’ll keep the followers. Make it easy on yourself!
Besides that Instagram still won’t allow you to run multiple accounts (like Twitter), so you will have to log out of one account and log in to the other one….

3. A good username does not have the word INSTA in it!
This might not apply to personal accounts as much as it does for brands, but I laugh every time I see a username with the word “insta” in it. Instadude, instachick, really? Or even worse, “brandinsta”. I’m sure you can think of a few more….
It reminds me of brands using the word “video” in their YouTube URL/username. Like YouTube can be used for anything else besides videos? Social media has become the front of every business, so having the right branding, across all social media platforms, is very important. And your username/URL is a big part of that!

Corey Duffel is all synched up, with his real name. Winning!

4. Your followers can see what photos you like and comment on
Most social media is out in the open, so what you do on there is public too. On Instagram your followers can see what photos you like or leave a comment on. So if you follow a bunch of questionable accounts and you talk back and forth with them after the sun sets just be aware. Instagram might showcase the part of you that you want to keep private….

5. You can’t follow everyone (that follows you)
Currently I follow close to 350 people/brands on Instagram and if I don’t check Instagram a few times during the day it’s hard to catch up on everyone’s photos. It’s partly because I’m that anal that I want to make sure I catch up, and partly because too many people/brands still post way too much stuff. The number one reason people unfollow you/your brand is still because you’re clogging the feed.
Lately I’ve been trying to post one photo a day, instead of 3-5. Some days are an exemption but if the photos are good/rad I think I can get away with it. This “less is more” tactic is working for more, and I’m sure it will work for everyone else. I get more likes/comments now on the photos I do post.
For Twitter I always advice brands to only follow 10% of the amount of followers. This might be a little higher on Instagram in certain cases, but I think you should follow the people that are close to you. Some of your employees, your teamriders, some media and some good friends. That amount can’t really be more than a 100 I think….

*How many people do you follow on Instagram? And is that too many?
Curios to hear your opinion. Drop a comment here or tag me (@fredvanschie) on Instagram (or Twitter). Or shoot me an email at [email protected] Also if you have any questions for me.

For more Instagram tips see part 8 from a few weeks ago.
Thank you and till next time!