• 67% of those surveyed agree with the statement “A mobile-friendly site makes me more likely to buy a product or use a service.”
• 61% of those surveyed agree with the statement “If I don’t see what I am looking for right away on a mobile site, I’ll quickly move on to another site.”

Google commissioned a study and surveyed just over 1,000 US adult smartphone internet users in July of 2012.  Details can be found here.

At Encompass Marketing we believe in an integrated approach to marketing and outreach. How your brand appears in print, TV, social media, and web needs to be consistent. Failure to properly convey your message in one medium can have a negative impact on your entire company. In the Google survey 52% of users said that a bad mobile experience made them less likely to engage with a company. One negative experience means you may have lost this customer.

Going mobile, having your current website recognize the device a visitor is using while looking at your website doesn’t have to be a daunting task. Would you pay for a print ad and have the images askew, columns and text not lined up? Of course not, so don’t let the same thing happen on the web.

More than likely you already have everything you need for your mobile site. It might be a simple matter of shifting around priorities. As we like to say here at Encompass Marketing, prioritizing the website real estate.

Think about what is most important to the mobile visitor, concentrate on 3-4 pieces of information. Is it directions to your office? Contact information or a phone number? Priorities for the on the go mobile user are likely different than the visitor looking at your website from a desk-top computer or laptop.

We’d be happy to discuss mobile opportunities for your business or organization.  We would love to get to know you and share ideas, contact us at any time at will@encompassmarketing.com or (207) 344-3191.

In short an owner of a massage therapy center worked with both Living Social and Groupon.  900 vouchers, 4,000 massages gone, the owner’s take she received the value of a quarter of the normal massage price.  The incoming cash was nice, but didn’t cover her expenses, to make ends meet the owner borrowed money from banks, friends and family.

The same NPR story highlighted a (somewhat) positive Daily Deal experience.  The upfront cash from selling 16,000 Groupons helped the owner of a pizza restaurant with a remodel project.  The bad, Groupon patrons rated his store lower on Yelp than regular customers.

Be it Groupon, Living Social, Deal Chicken or a radio station half price outlet, Daily Deals aren’t a deal for everyone and are not appropriate for every small business or entrepreneur.

Consider the following:

•  What is the profit margin on the product/service you are offering the deal on?  Can you sell it for 25% of the asking price (which is the net result of most Daily Deal programs)

• If you are a restaurant and your staff relies on tips, will your Daily Deal be un-popular with staff?  If the $100 meal is now $50 and patrons tip based on the $50, this can hurt income of wait and support staff.

• Customer loyalty-people who buy daily deals generally fall into one of two categories.  First, those who are already a customer and really like your product and like a good deal.  Second, those who have no loyalty to you, but like a good deal.  Only a small portion of the second group will convert and become regular customers.  Research and provide incentives to make sure a percentage of the second group become regular customers.

• Daily Deals should be considered a piece of your marketing plan.  The exposure opportunities, getting your brand and name in front of new eyes and ears is important.  Daily Deals won’t likely result in a larger net profit.

At Encompass Marketing we believe Daily Deals and similar programs have their place.  Realizing their role in your overall marketing strategy is an important first step to having a successful experience with them.  For more information or to discuss how Daily Deals may or may not help you, feel free to email will@encompassmarketing.com or call (207) 755-9445 ext. 101.

Far too often social media is viewed as a one way street (how ironic).  Post something, someone will respond or share and hopefully that person will share again…and so on.  Between Hootsuite, social media plugins, and other apps, a business, non-profit or individual can spend their social media life posting, and never actually visit their Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Pinterest page.   With the addition of the Facebook plugin on WP, it is now even easier than ever to never visit your social pages. Update your blog or website and it automatically goes to your social networks.

At Encompass Marketing when we develop social media plans for clients, it always includes (mandates) interaction (sharing, commenting, re-tweeting, liking…) not just posting.  These are the basics, the basis of a social media campaign.

Embrace technology and innovation, but don’t stray too far the strengths of social media, that is of course, actually being social and engaging with others.

While those in the healthcare field have unique concerns and laws to follow, every company-organization-non-profit or entity should have a workplace social media policy.  With that in mind, some thoughts on what every HR social media policy should contain.

• Describe/outline the reach of the policy:   clearly define how the policy relates to employee time at work (not related to job duties), employee time at work who might engage in social media as part of job duties, and use of social off work time.  Something very important to consider, who may/may not “represent” the company/organization while engaging in social media.
• Social Media Philosophy:  how does the company/organization view social media-what are its goals/objectives.  Providing an outline for how the employer uses social media will help explain why some employees may/may not use it to represent the organization.
• Privacy:  Employees/volunteers should be reminded what they post online is public.  Never assume it is private
• Company Devices vs Personal Devices:  do you have or need to have a separate social media policy for phone/computers issues to employees or volunteers?
• Social Media Policy as part of broader HR policies: how is the social media policy related to other HR policies?  Employees/volunteers should be reminded other policies carry over to social media use (HIPPA for healthcare, sexual harassment, confidentiality….)

These are just some general topics to include/consider in an HR social media policy.  More often than not, many employee complaints don’t come from the actual policy, but more so due to a misunderstanding as to the need for the policy and how it was communicated.

Having a plan for communicating, including employee feedback and input are important to successfully implementing a workplace social media policy.

Interested to hear more on our views regarding workplace social media policy?  Happy to chat further, call Will at (207) 755-9445 ext. 101  or email will@encompassmarketing.com.

• You (or perhaps your business) can help decide how you appear to Facebook friends when they use Bing
• Because this is connected to Facebook (more on this) your Facebook “friends” can get a better understanding of you
• Link search results pages about you, your business, work you have done

Here is how it works:

• Visit http://www.bing.com/linkedpages and hit the “get started button”
• You will be directed to a Facebook App (follow the instructions)
• Click “Link to Me” as/where you feel appropriate
• When you “Link” to a web page, the page is also posted on your Facebook timeline

If a Facebook “Friend” does a search within “Bing” for my name, they will now see pages, websites, and Links that I have linked to (recommended to Bing).

There are likely to be lots of changes/updates to this.  Please keep in mind, there is room for some privacy issues here.  Your Facebook privacy preferences might not carry over to Bing.  If your “Facebook” friends start using this, some of your links could be shared with others via Bing that wold have otherwise been restricted based on your Facebook privacy settings.

This product has some real potential, especially for those of us who are active on the web and through social media.  I contribute to blogs and websites not at all related to my work, I also keep my work social media presence separate from my personal social media life.  Bing affords us the opportunity to help separate those worlds by showing of work and web presence based on the person who is searching for me.

Should a a Facebook “friend” from my Will Fessenden Encompass page use this product, they will see very different things than one of my “friends” from my personal page.  At Encompass Marketing we use social media and a vibrant web presence to help market ourselves (and work with Maine businesses and non profits to to the same).  For those who take the same approach,  Bing is providing an opportunity to reinforce those efforts.  This won’t work for everyone, but is a tool for some to consider.

Care2: is a social networking site for those who are into living green. If a target or niche audience of yours has anything to do with green products, living green or healthy living, this is the place for you to be. From product sales, to green job openings, to blog sharing and discussions around living and going green, Care2 is a strong site.

Ning: O.K., it isn’t free, but don’t let that scare you away. From $2.95 per month to $59.95 per month (depending on your needs), Ning allows the user to create their own social website. From non-profits to businesses, to musicians, Ning makes it easy to custom build a social media presence. Combined with your other social media presence (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and so on), Ning brings it all together. One advantage to Ning is the opportunity to raise revenue, you can charge members for access, collect donations, even target ads in Ning to raise revenue for your business/organization.

Storenvy: Imagine a free, customized storefront to to sell your products. Storenvy community members browse the site and buy what they like. The are able to share their experience and comment on the products they have purchased. It is a more social friendly and interactive version of eBay. When you have your storefront, through an App., you can connect to your Facebook page and sell from your FB page.

Meetup: take your Facebook “events” to heights you never imagined. Does your business host or sponsor a lot of events or business meetings? Are you engaged in a number of webinars, open houses or bring people together for any reason at all? Consider Meetup, it makes organizing a meeting or gathering easy, again the strength comes in your ability to link it with your other social media networks.

Quora: Is great for the know it all or entrepreneur who has a business built around what you know. Quora is a collection of questions and      answers created, edited and organized by everyone who uses it. Unlike LinkedIn where questions and answers largely appear in chronological o order, here other users rate the quality of the answers provided. For those who want to follow a “topic” or “interest”, or share your knowledge of a particular topic, Quora will be a nice addition to your social media world.

Is there a way to make my news feed more specific? Like top 20 people in my life who I associate with will always be at the top? Or something like that? Since all of the changes I can’t seem to figure it out…

This person happens to be both a real “friend” as well as being a “Facebook friend”.  Several people jumped in gave their thoughts, many people had some good ideas/thoughts.

Being that we work with dozens of individuals, non-profit groups and businesses on their social media strategy and how to maximize their time/resources, this type of question is not all that uncommon. Each member of the Encompass Marketing team has been asked a similar question. Not to take anything away from the folks who posted their opinion on my friends wall,  here is a bit of advice we give folks.

This will be the first part of a two part approach, we’ll first look at the “Subscribe” function of Facebook, we’ll then look at how to set up your Facebook Groups and Lists.

On a Friends page (or when they come up on your feed), check out the  “Subscribe” button.  That “Subscribe” button has a drop down menu to allow you to decide what type of information you would like to see from that Friend.

As you can see from the image/screen-shot you can decide to see all updates from your friends, or perhaps you on wish to see “photos” or “comments.”

The “How Many Updates?” piece can get tricky.  Even though it is implied you picking “how many” updates you see from each friend, you are really picking the level of importance.  “All Updates” clearly means you’ll see everything from your FB friend.  “Most Updates” and “Only Important” are based on how often you interact with that person and how many & how often other people “comment”, “like” and interact with that same friend.  This might take a little trial and error.

(Editorial Comment:  lets face it, if you are “Facebook Friends” with someone and you don’t want to see/hear anything they have to say, consider not being their friend on Facebook.  Or you can always remain their Facebook Friend but “un-subscribe” to their updates.  This will allow you to interact with them, on your terms, not theirs.)

Selecting what you want to see from your Facebook Friends should make your Facebook time more productive and help you gather the information you want from the people you really want to hear from.

Next time, we’ll look at setting up and using Facebook Groups & Lists to filter the information from your friends.

After sifting through a huge amount of data, it turns out that Wednesday is the peak day and 9:30 is the top time to share with others.   This data is derived from looking at all sharing platforms, social media, even looking at copy/pasting URLs into emails.  Of interest, most users click 2 minutes after content is shared and 75% of clicks occur in the first day of a share.

As you plan and look at your social media strategy, do you know what the best time(s) & day(s) are  to share information is?  If you send out electronic newsletters there are undoubtedly certain times of the day that will yield better results.  Do you know what they are?

Constant Contact has tools to help you keep track of how successful your email campaign is.  Facebook’s “Insights” is an important tool to help determine what is and isn’t working for you.

The point of all of this is that Wednesday might not work for your followers.  9:30 AM, might now be the best time for your followers or supporters to share information with others.  However, it is important for you to know the best times, best days, and what type of content yields you the best return on your investment (be if financial or in terms of time).

It might take some experimenting, and analysis,  but the tools are there for you to find out what works best for you and your supporters.  The effort will be well worth your time.

In just about every episode of “The A-Team”, Hannibal would utter the words, “I love it when a plan comes together.”

While a bit scatter brained, the strategy “The A-Team” used, generally worked.  While not a life or death situation and not a prime-time drama, your business or non-profit needs  a Facebook plan.  If you are starting a Facebook page for the first time, or revising your Facebook presence, a good Facebook Plan should include the following:

Plan your Content - what do you have to share with others which reinforces your brand or message?  Posts should be a combination of photos, videos, ask questions, links of interest.  Remember, each post should be designed to elicit a response, hopefully resulting in a “Like”, or “Share”.

Plan your page Design - consider porting over the look, colors, design and logos from your website.  Take advantage of applications.  Your brand should be represented in your Facebook pages’ design too.

Plan your Goals & Measurement - who/what are your target audiences?  What is the best time to reach them and get them to  “like” your page, comment on posts and share with others.   A smaller group of of passionate customers or advocates who “like” your page is more important that a large number of people who “like” your page but don’t interact.  Quality counts.

Remember Facebook Insights can be a great tool for measuring and looking at the demographics of your “likes”.  Insights will tell you the who/what/how often people are interacting with you.  Are these the people you want/need to make your page successful?

Conversion Plan - once they “like” you, what are you going to do with these people, what do you have to offer?  Do you need them to buy your product, advocate for your cause, sign up for a newsletter?  Build these goals into your “Design” and “Content” plans.

Have fun with Facebook, but as Mr. T would say, be smart about it.  Make a plan.  “Don’t be a fool.”