An Easier Way to Connect With Your Customers on Foursquare

In just the past few weeks, Foursquare released it's Foursquare for Business app (if you don't know what Foursquare is, read Jeff's post from 2010).  The app allows business owners to share information with their customers and view analytics right from their smartphone.

This new app seems to be a nice and quick way to connect with your customers across multiple platforms.  From the app, the business owner/manager can create a Foursquare update and also cross-post it to Facebook and Twitter.  

Another useful feature of the Foursquare for Business app is the ability to view check-ins.  In the past, you could only view check-ins from the past 3 hours, but now you can see check-ins from the entire day. You can also easily view who your top customers are.

Also, the app will allow the manager to drive traffic to their store by posting Foursquare specials.  For example, a coffee shop manager could quickly post a picture of a latte with a caption "the next ten customers who check-in on Foursquare will get a free latte with the purchase of a muffin."  

As an ag business owner, have you used Foursquare?  If yes, how have customers responded to your Foursquare presence?  Do you think this new app will allow you to manage your Foursquare presence more effectively?

LinkedIn, Part II: Customize your profile page

This blog continues with last week's discussion about LinkedIn.  To learn about highlighting your skills, expertise, and your accomplishments - click here: LinkedIn Part I.

When I first signed up for my LinkedIn account I did not realize that I would be assigned a rather long and difficult to remember profile URL that was a mix of my full name and random numbers and letters.  LinkedIn gives users the opportunity to customize their public profile URL (I changed mine to www.linkedin.com/in/kathymkelley, which I think is much more professional than the automatic URL I was assigned when I opened my account …./in/kathleenmariekelley93dnc9el3).  

I suggest that users customize their URL as soon as possible, because first come/first served - if the URL is available now it may not be in the future.  My name is fairly common so I had to go through several combinations to get a URL that was short and made sense.  Customizing becomes even more critical when a business owner develops a company page (discussed in my next blog) and wants a LinkedIn URL that closely matches their website or Facebook URL.  Grab it while you can!

Not only have I customized my LinkedIn URL, but I have done something similar for the three websites (the maximum I can add) I've added to my profile:

• My Penn State Profile (http://plantscience.psu.edu/directory/kmk17),
• our Farm Business Management website (http://extension.psu.edu/farm-business),
• and link to this blog (http://farmbusiness.blogspot.com)

LinkedIn gives users a couple of labeling options when they add URLs to their profile page.   In the edit contact info option I have two choices for describing/labeling the webpage associated with the URL:

• I have the option of choosing one of the general/generic names produced (personal website, company website, blog, RSS feed, or blog) or
• I can develop a more specific label of my choosing, though I am limited to 30 characters or less.

I like the option to customizing and think it is more enticing to see a website labeled: PSU Farm Business blog rather than the standard LinkedIn “blog” label.  If an ag. business uses the generic “blog” title someone looking at the profile may have no clue as to the type of blog that they will find after clicking on the URL.   Better to provide a bit of information, even if the description is rather brief. 

Entering customized link descriptions and how they look on my LinkedIn profile.

As you can see, some of what I've described about LinkedIn is similar to what you might have had to provide when you built your website or even when you set up Twitter or Facebook accounts.  LinkedIn does have an extensive help menu and FAQ section – and LinkedIn personnel are responsive when users ask questions via their “Contact Us” form.  This is just the start of our LinkedIn conversation.  Do check back next week when I describe a bit about networking and company pages. 

Are you LinkedIn? Part I: Highlight your skills, expertise, and your accomplishments

I have been a LinkedIn member for a few years and have made some good connections with other users; however, I wanted to learn how to use this social media tool to help ag. businesses build connections, learn from other industry members, and how to potentially increase business. So, I decide to brush up on my LinkedIn skills and learn about some of the changes that took place at the end of last year – some of which I like very much.

Creating a LinkedIn account is fairly straight forward, much like any other social media account or online account you might have created in the past.  A step-by-step process will prompt you to add contact information, your picture, past and current positions, as well as areas of expertise and your skills, etc. 

Adding more than just basic information

You may be tempted to just add the minimum to your LinkedIn profile – but image how much more professional you will appear if you do provide more detailed information about you, your business, and skills and expertise you possess.

Adding skills or expertise is just a matter of adding keywords, or allowing other LinkedIn users to “endorse” you by adding keywords they feel describe what you have to offer.  For example, my skills and expertise are broad, since I have many responsibilities at Penn State, and include: teaching, public speaking, social media, statistics, horticulture, and similar.  A few of LinkedIn users I am linked to endorsed me for horticulture and blogging.  These short words/phrases really do stick out among all the other information I've chosen to add to my profile page – a real contrast to the paragraphs of information that describe current and past positions, etc. 

A listing of keywords describing skills and expertise. 

Think about keywords you could add to describe your specialties: consulting, public speaking, management, landscape, floral design, event planning, or specific computer software skills.  The possibilities are endless. 

The skills and expertise section is just one of the features that users can use to highlight accomplishments or achievements.  More recently, LinkedIn added a feature that allows users to emphasize projects they have completed, courses they have offered, organizations they belong to, and even volunteer activities and causes they support.  Users also have the option to associate each of these with specific jobs or positions they have held. Some examples as to how ag. businesses can use these descriptors include: 

• Have you written an article about a topic that would be of interest to those you've connected with on LinkedIn?  If so, enter the title, brief description, as well as the URL that they can click on for easy access. 
• You can do the same for projects.  Perhaps you/your business provided plant material or landscaped a property that had significant meaning for the community.
• For honors and awards, maybe your wine was award the overall gold medal winner in a wine competition. Why not let other LinkedIn users learn about this achievement? 

For some of these, such as publications and project, you will be able to “add” other LinkedIn members to the description.  For me, I feel that this blog provides stakeholders with such useful and timely information that I added it as a project, associated it with my current position at Penn State, and added names of other major blog contributors (Sarah, Jeff, and Dana) to give credit where credit is due.  

Information I've added to create a project on my LinkedIn profile. Notice how Jeff and Dana are listed under the "Team Member(s) heading.

After I saved the information to LinkedIn profile, each of them received an email from LinkedIn asking if they would like the description of the project added to their profile page.  If they approved, the description was added.  Now, their linkages can learn a little bit more about the blog and choose to read it and receive updates when we next post.

This is how projects will appear on LinkedIn profile pages. 

As with all of your information on your profile page, you can arrange the order so that if you would like projects, etc., to appear above other information, such as the summary of your background, education, groups you belong to, you can choose to do so.  LinkedIn is truly a tool that you can customize in many different ways.  Next time I'll describe other features that you can customize on your LinkedIn profile.

Don't Get Left in the Cold. Use Social Media to Connect with Your Customers!

With sixty-five percent (65%) of internet users using social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and others (Pew Internet, 2011), social media can justifiably be considered a legitimate marketing tool by businesses large and small.  In fact, in a survey by Chief Marketer, 92% of respondents indicated that they either were using or planned to use social media for marketing of their brands.

Farmers and small ag business owners shouldn't overlook the power that social media tools provide in connecting with consumers.  Surveys conducted by two of my colleagues, Kathy Kelley and Jeff Hyde, in May 2010 with consumers who used social media, found that over 30% of respondents expected farmers' market/on-farm markets and U-Pick operations to have Facebook presence.  Consumers' expected use of Twitter and blogs by these types of ag businesses hovered around 20%.  I would expect that surveyed again two and a half years later, we would see these results, or expectations, to be higher yet.

Consumers' Expected Internet Presence by Type of Food Business

But having a social media presence, or profile, on any of these tools isn't enough.  You need to provide consumers with a reason to "like" or follow your business.  When questioned on why they connect with businesses on social media, approximately 60% of the individuals responding to Kelley and Hyde's survey indicated that they did so to learn about new products/direction of the business, while almost half wanted to learn about sales before the general public.

Expectations by Consumers who Follow Businesses on Social Networks

We see that the evidence exists that consumers expect ag and food businesses to exist on social networks, as well as to provide them with things that they value in return for following them.  You probably also have your own reasons, or objectives, for committing to developing and sustaining a social media presence for your business.  By developing a social media strategy, you can ensure that you, and your followers, get what you need from a social media relationship.

If you own, or are involved with, a farm or small ag business in Pennsylvania, and want to jump into the world of social media with a guiding hand, Penn State Extension can help.  Come to one of three scheduled Social Media Boot Camps for Ag Businesses.  These two-day workshops will give you a hands-on opportunity to develop Facebook, Twitter, and foursquare/Yelp profiles, as well as mapping out your personal social media marketing objectives and strategy. 

Not Being Retweeted?

It's not enough to create social media accounts - be it Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or any of the others that exist.  You've also got to post and share content that your followers find valuable in some fashion.  On Twitter, value is often measured in retweets. If your followers find value in what you have tweeted, they will retweet it - sharing your message with their followers.

I recently came across the aptly titled article, "10 Reason I Don't Retweet You & Your Content."  I've picked out a few of the author's reasons (in bold italics) that I think hold water and added my own thoughts about each.

• Your blog stinks. Whether it's a blog or a website for your business, the site and it's content need to have a certain level of professionalism.  Make sure you're providing the information that you advertise is there (product info, contact info, helpful resources, etc), and in a visually appealing and easily navigated fashion.  Most people won't waste time going back to a site if they were unable to find what they were looking for the first time.  Make sure that content is readable (i.e. proper spelling and grammar) and appropriate for your target market.
• Your content stinks. What are you sharing?  Quotes? A running updates of your daily activities?  Some of this is fine, and even valuable from the perspective that it gives your followers some insight to your personality.  However, you need to tweet content that resonates with your followers.  If you run a garden center, think about tweeting answers to commonly asked questions, pictures of newly available plants, links to relevant Extension publications, etc. Get engaged in Twitter conversations that are in your area of expertise.
• The only time you talk is when you want me to share your content.  If your content is good and has value (see previous point), then when the time comes that you want to (explicitly) ask your followers to share a particular tweet they will be more likely to do so. 
• You make it hard to share your tweet. The Twitter limit of 140 characters can be challenging at times, but if you want people to retweet you need to make it easy to do so.  Aim for your tweets to only use around 120 characters.  This should leave plenty of space for the "RT" and retweeter's handle.  The last thing you want is for someone to a) not retweet because it would take too much effort on their part to re-craft your message or b) retweet after altering the post so that it no longer reflects your view or purpose.
• You tweet the same stuff everyday.  Contrary to the popular saying, you can have too much of a good thing.  People like variety.  So, first make sure your content is good and then vary it.  Perhaps a link or two to an educational article mixed with a notice of an event that you're hosting.  You want people to be happy that they're seeing you're tweets (or at least not unhappy enough that they hide or unfollow you).

 If you're using Twitter for your farm or food business and have been thinking about how to gain more traction with your tweets, I hope this has been helpful.

Dashboard apps for your tablet and smartphone

If you are on the go, or just have a schedule that keeps you away from your desk, you might find social media dashboard apps for your table or smartphone to be quite useful.  Just like desktop dashboards, apps allow the user to:

                                                                                                    Figure 1. 

• monitor several social media accounts, 
• create streams with lists and hashtabs (Figure 1), 
• schedule when tweets should post
• easily attach photos to tweets, 
• shrink links, 
• and add locations (latitude and longitude) pertaining to the message. 

To help you understand what dashboard apps (for example, TweetDeck, HootSuite, or Yoono) look like I have included screenshots of various social media networks as they appear on my iPhone.  These apps will have a similar appearance and functionality on Android phones. 

Facebook

I have included a few screenshots of my Facebook news feed, as it appear in the TweetDeck app, to demonstrate that is it possible to access quite a bit of posted information.  Not only can I scroll through the stories, posts, and announcements of the day (Figure 2), but I can also to “like,” “comment,” and/or see images that Denise Gardner, Penn State Extension Enologist, has posted on her Facebook page (Figure 3).  Figure 4 shows the detail of an image associated with Denise’s post.  

Figure 2.                                                                   Figure 3.

Figure 4.

       Figure 5.

How many Facebook accounts can I access?

                                                                                                              

Even on my iPhone I like to have access to both my personal Facebook page and the Ag. Entrepreneurship Extension Team’s Facebook Page (https://www.facebook.com/FarmBusiness).  If you have more than one Facebook account that you would like to monitor on your mobile device your choice will be limited; however, HootSuite will allow you to do this.  For comparison, I've included an image of this Facebook Page as it appears in the HootSuite app (Figure 5).  

What if you like to monitor your LinkedIn account?

Figure 6. 

Networking with those in your LinkedIn community is as accessible on your mobile device as it is on a desktop dashboard.  Using Yoono, one of the dashboards that provides a mobile connection to your LinkedIn account, you'll be able to read what others have posted, publish posts, and learn about notifications (for example, who you have recently "connected" with on LinkedIn) (Figure 6).  

Concluding thoughts

These are just a few features of social media dashboard apps.  Each app has certain benefits as well as limitations.  If you use FourSquare - you will want to consider the HootSuite app.  Do you use Flickr?  Then you will want to select Yoono.

I have found that the dashboard I use on my desktop is not the same dashboard that I prefer to use on my smartphone – so you may find that you will not use TweetDeck or HootSuite exclusively.   What you need to consider when selecting an app is which one do you find the easiest to read (each app has a different background/font color combination) and which app provides access to the social networks you use most often.

Social media dashboards: Useful features

In my last post I introduced the idea of using dashboards to monitor more than one social media account and adding streams for lists  and hashtags.  To read more: http://t.co/B4GE3vdA. Today I would like to introduce a couple of features that you may find helpful when posting to one or more of your accounts.

Posting a message to more than one account

Have you ever posted on Twitter and thought that the message would be equally valuable for your Facebook Page?  I so, then you will find dashboards useful for this task.  As you can see below, with a dashboard I am able to type the message (the number of characters is limited to 140) and then select which account I want the message to post (designated by the green check marks).

Scheduling your tweets       

Or, perhaps you had a goal of posting to your accounts at least once a day during the week but travel would prevent you from doing so “live.”  Dashboards allow users to program tweets to post on a scheduled basis.  I have the option of typing my message and then selecting the day and time that I would like the message to post.  Just another reason why you might find dashboards to be beneficial.  

Once word of caution.  If you are scheduling tweets that may be associated with good weather, or another factor that could impact the usefulness of the tweet, do make sure that you can cancel the intended tweet if needed – just so your followers are not confused by the perplexing message. 

Analytics

As of today's posting, HootSuite is one of the few dashboards that provides  analytics.  By accessing the analytics panel (left-hand side of the dashboard interface) I have access to free Twitter statistics (Ow.ly Click Summary).  Or, if I purchased the HootSuite Pro plan I can spend "credits" I earn on this plan to develop more extensive reports, for example Google Analytics.  For more information about reports visit: http://goo.gl/pHCs2.  An example of a free Ow.ly Click Summary for my Twitter account (@kmk17psu) is below. 

I can customize the summary report by selecting the date or date range for which statistics are presented.  For this example, I selected a date range of March 26 through the 31.  A section of the report shows a visual of the number of people who clicked on a link I posted in a Tweet on each of these days.  A short video that describes what additional information provided in the free summary is available: http://goo.gl/yU3IE

Not only can I access reports on demand but I can also have them sent to my and others' email, daily or as infrequently as the first day of each month.  

Again, there are several dashboard options available.  Your preference and style should ultimately dictate which one you choose.  In my next blog posting I will describe the usefulness of using dashboard apps on your smarthphone and/or tablet.  

Why you should consider desktop social media dashboards

Novice and experienced social media users, alike, may find it difficult to keep track of who retweets their tweets, which customers or followers “like” or place comments on their Facebook Page, or the number of LinkedIn invitations they receive.  This is especially true for business owners who travel often or those who serve customers away from their computer.  This blog posting, and the next few to follow, is not meant to describe the various brands of dashboards inexistence, rather to highlight some of the usefulness that dashboards provide. 

It is possible to check all these accounts on a desktop by accessing each individual website or downloading separate Twitter, Facebook, FourSquare, etc. apps, but users may find that being able to manage multiple accounts by accessing just one program can provide convenience, allow for posting to multiple accounts, and save time by reducing the number of logins necessary to read all postings and updates.

Using dashboards to monitor more than one account

There are several different dashboards that are available, each with different advantages and disadvantages, but one that is mentioned frequently and used to demonstrate features in this posting is HootSuite (see example below).  In the screenshot that I have provided, you will see five tabs – each associated with a different social network (within the red rectangle, from left to right: three twitter accounts, a personal Facebook account, and the Ag. Entrepreneurship Extension Team Facebook Page). 

Adding lists you create and hashtags that you follow

Not only does a dashboard allow me to check these accounts simultaneously, but I can add streams to each account.   For example, while the home feed column (leftmost column in the screenshot below) allows me to read all the tweets posted by those I follow on Twitter, I can also see:

·       tweets that mention my Twitter handle (@kmk17psu) grouped together (second column from the left),

·       tweets I have posted (third column), and

·       a list I created (A list is simply a way of grouping those I follow on twitter by criteria I choose.  For example, topic they tweet about or type of business they operate.  For more Twitter lingo definitions consult: http://goo.gl/sgW1E).  The example list you see below (in the rightmost column) aggregates Tweets posted by select Penn State Extension personnel (@kmk17psu/psu).   

Alternatively, I can add streams that show results for tweets which contain a particular hashtag (for a definition, visit: http://goo.gl/sgW1E). In the screenshot, to the left, you will see a series of tweets each containing a hashtag I follow: #winechat.  

#Winechat is an event hosted on Twitter each Wednesday night.  Wine professionals and those who just like to drink wine discuss a topic and each person who posts a tweet related to the discussion includes #winechat so that the tweets are grouped together and easier to search for on Twitter.

You may find that you do not want as many streams, or that you would like more to be visible.  What is nice about most dashboards is that you do have the ability to customize certain aspects, such as the number of accounts and streams that are visible.  In fact, this might be one of your criteria for selecting a dashboard to use. 

Sure, I can check all these streams by going directly to Twitter.com but I like the ease of clicking on another tab and viewing other accounts, such as the Ag. Entrepreneurship Extension Team Facebook Page (final screenshot).  Like the streams I set up in the Twitter tab, I can have multiple streams on a Facebbook tab (e.g. wall post stream and event stream). 

This information should get you at least thinking about using dashboards.  In my next blog posting I will describe some more dashboard features that you may helpful when posting.