by Deltina Hay

Social Media Monotony: It was bound to happen.

Like all good things we do for our business every day – balance the books, pay the help, return emails, follow up with clients, floss – we know that networking and marketing are necessary to our business’ success.

My mantra is: If I am not working, I am marketing. If I am marketing, I will be working. And, like it or not, social media is now a necessary part of both networking and marketing.

Lately I have noticed a change in my enthusiasm for social media, and I have a feeling I am not alone. It isn’t that I believe it is less effective or that it is losing its appeal, it is just that I have been doing it long enough to have fallen into a rut.

While trying to think of tips this week, it occurred to me that this may be the best one to offer. Following are some time-honored cliches applied to social media marketing that may help relieve the monotony.

Cure #1: You can’t keep what you have without giving it away.

That is one of my favorite anonymous quotes. I believe that the most successful bloggers write from that place – where it is not about promotion or plugging a product, rather about the sharing of knowledge and expertise – freely, without any expectations.

I know the pessimists in the crowd are thinking that there is no such thing as true altruism, that everybody gets something (if only a way to feel better about themselves) from any seemingly selfless act. And, well, so be it. I get something, the readers get something – sounds like a win-win to me!

Cure #2: Change the circles you run in.

I like to think that my LinkedIn connections, Facebook fans, and Twitter followers are different groups of people. Accordingly, I am hoping that the “circles” I run in on Google Plus also come from a different group.

My strategy is to invite people outside of my usual circles, though, with the intention of widening my network. I try to apply this strategy to all my new profiles.

Cure #3: A change of scenery.

It is amazing how something as simple as rearranging the furniture can improve one’s outlook. Try changing up how you post or where you post from as a cure for your social media rut.

Some of my favorite tools are HootSuite, Ping.fm, and Posterous. Here is a recent post about social media apps that may help, too.

Cure #4: Do something out of character.

My Facebook page posts are pretty predictable. I write about the importance of staying on topic, and try to practice what I preach. However, now and again it may not hurt to mix things up.

Today, I placed a post on my social media book Facebook page that links to a Flickr set with photos from Bastrop State Park in Texas – before the fires – just to break the predictability.

Cure #5: Try something new.

If you have the time and resources, you might consider adding another tool to your social media strategy. I recently started some HubPages and a Winksite to this end. Since I don’t have a lot of time to maintain new profiles, my goal is to recycle my existing efforts into different platforms in hopes of widening my network.

Some other tools presently on my “to do” list include:

• Tumblr
• Diaspora
• awsomize.me
• Netvibes

Hope you find a cure in this post if you are suffering. And we would love to hear what has worked for you!

Deltina Hay is the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Social Media Survival Guide, already in its second edition. She also teaches the online version of Drury University’s Social Media Certificate program. Learn more about Deltina and her availability for speaking engagements at Deltina.com. You may also enjoy listening to her video tutorial series on YouTube.

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Custom tabs can also provide ways to offer contests, sell products, promote services, and more.

The Social Media Survival Guide author, Deltina Hay, demonstrates how to create a custom facebook tab and how to use it as a landing tab:

Custom tabs can also serve as effective landing tabs and can provide ways to offer contests, sell products, promote services, and more.

Here are some examples:

• The Social Media Survival Guide Facebook Page
• RedBull’s Facebook Page
• Adobe’s Facebook Page
• GroupOn’s Facebook Page
• More Facebook custom tab examples

Since Facebook now uses iFrames for custom tabs, one can easily create a custom tab of their own by simply creating an HTML page.

Note: It is best to host your landing pages on a secure server, though. When users browse Facebook using HTTPS, they should be able to access your landing page using HTTPS as well. Hosting your page on a secure server (one that has an SSL certificate) can accomplish this – even a shared SSL certificate will work.

If you do not have a secure means for hosting your HTML page, there are some innovative sites like PLUMB Web Solutions that can host your page for a nominal fee.

And, if you have a WordPress powered Website, there is a Facebook Tab Manager plugin that can help you create and host custom tabs right on your WordPress site.

The following is a video tutorial prepared by Social Media Power founder, Deltina Hay, demonstrating how to create your own custom Facebook tab:

Deltina Hay is the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Social Media Survival Guide, already in its second edition. She also teaches the online version of Drury University’s Social Media Certificate program. Learn more about Deltina and her availability for speaking engagements at Deltina.com. You may also enjoy listening to her video tutorial series on YouTube.

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If you are unsure what I am talking about, look at the image below. When you post a link on your Facebook news feed or share a site by “liking” it, you are given several thumbnail images to choose from to represent the link as depicted. In this example, there are seven choices.

The problem is that Facebook will often grab images that are unrelated to the linked page. For example, images from sidebars or ads may appear instead of relevant images. To discover which image Facebook sees as most relevant for any page of your Website, use the Facebook URL Linter Tool.

Luckily, you do have control over which image is used as the thumbnail when you and others share content from your Website on Facebook. There are a few options available.

First, you can place a line of code in the header of your Website that will force Facebook to use the same image for all of the pages on your site. Here is the line of code I use to ensure that my logo is used as the thumbnail image when a page from Social Media Power is “liked” or shared on Facebook:

Place this line of code (once it is replaced with your own image link) in the HEAD section of the home page of your Website. If you are using WordPress to power your site, you can place this code in your header.php file. The result will be only one choice of image, as shown here:

If you want more control over which image Facebook uses for each page of your site as opposed to the same image for every page, you can use Facebook’s open graph meta tags. You also want to use this method for individual products or listings.

Finally, if your site is powered by WordPress there is an easier way to control your Facebook thumbnails. The Facebook Like Thumbnail plugin is a nice way to gain control over which images Facebook uses to represent any page or post on your site.

(Thanks go out to Stephanie Barko for suggesting this topic as a Social Media Tip of the Day. Do you have a topic to suggest?)

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About the Author:

Deltina Hay is the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Social Media Survival Guide, already in its second edition. She also teaches the online version of Drury University’s Social Media Certificate program. Learn more about Deltina and her availability for speaking engagements at Deltina.com. You may also enjoy listening to her video tutorial series on YouTube.

Subscribe to the Social Media Tip O’ the Day Feed

The latest entry in the WordPress segment of the Internet Empowerment Series of video tutorials, this video walks you through how to generate and implement a Facebook Like Box for your Website or blog:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3PEII13HpQ

The feature allows you to post a single question or a poll that your fans and friends can share with any of their friends. You can even send the question or poll to specific friends.

As seen in the screen shot below, you can “allow anyone to post options” which could give you additional insight into what your fans are seeking from you. If you have a lot of fans or friends, however, it may be risky to allow anyone to post options.

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Get the Social Media Tip O’ the Day iPhone App!

About the Author:

Deltina Hay is the author of the critically acclaimed book, The Social Media Survival Guide, already in its second edition. She also teaches the online version of Drury University’s Social Media Certificate program. Learn more about Deltina and her availability for speaking engagements at Deltina.com. You may also enjoy listening to her video tutorial series on YouTube.

Subscribe to the Social Media Tip O’ the Day Feed

The latest entry in our  Internet Empowerment Series of video tutorials, this video shows how to take advantage of Facebook’s new profile design by placing custom images along the top of your profile and page that align nicely with your profile image.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh0W3DAUxWY

From the PostRank site, describing their analytics tool:

“A social web analytics tool for publishers, enabling more effective discovery of where their audience is engaging with their content, real-time online conversation monitoring, more effective audience relationship building, and metrics tracking of trends to improve their content and audience engagement.”

One reason we like this tool so much is that it still offers a free version.
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Get the Social Media Tip O’ the Day iPhone App!

About the Author:

Deltina Hay is the author of the critically acclaimed book, A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization. The second edition of her book, renamed The Social Media Survival Guide, will be released in spring 2011. Learn more about Deltina, her books, and her availability for speaking engagements at Deltina.com. You may also enjoy listening to Deltina’s video tutorial series on YouTube: The Internet Empowerment Series.

Subscribe to the Social Media Tip O’ the Day Feed

This can get out of hand if you don’t keep track of it all. Our tip today is to create a visual map of all the accounts you have integrated, and how they are integrated.

Here is a presentation to help: http://www.slideshare.net/deltina/integrating-your-social-web-presence-two-sample-plans.

About the Author:

Deltina Hay is the author of the critically acclaimed book, A Survival Guide to Social Media and Web 2.0 Optimization. The second edition of her book, renamed The Social Media Survival Guide, will be released in spring 2011. Learn more about Deltina, her books, and her availability for speaking engagements at Deltina.com. You may also enjoy listening to Deltina’s video tutorial series on YouTube: The Internet Empowerment Series.

The Social Web has evolved into a integrated system based on RSS feeds, widgets, applications, and plugins. Learn how to take advantage of these technologies and maximize your time and resources spent in the Social Web.

This session will cover how to integrate your Social sites and tools by:

* Feeding your blog posts into other social sites
* Using applications to integrate social tools and sites
* Implementing widgets and badges
* Using plugins in WordPress and other CMSs
* Using integration tools like Ping.fm and HootSuite

Registration is limited, so sign up now!

Next Session: Tuesday, December 1, 11am to 12:30pm CST – $99

Level: Intermediate – This session assumes the user has a fair understanding of social media tools and how to use them.

Go to http://www.socialmediapower.com/webinars to register.