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All the experts proclaim that if you are in business, in a band, if you are an author, speaker, or lead an organization, that you need a Facebook Fan Page.
Well, I have one, http://www.facebook.com/TheDreamingCafe, but if I knew what I know now I would have never started one, at least not this early in the evolution of The Dreaming Café.
There are only two reasons why you SHOULD have a Facebook Fan Page:
1. You are near, or at the max, of the 5000 friend limit on your personal profile page.
2. Your business, band, book, or organization ‘fans’ and ‘friends’ are two completely different groups and there is no crossover.
Now, personally, I know very few people who fall into either of these two categories. And, according to TechCrunch.com nearly 77% of all Facebook fan pages have less then 1000 fans.
Why did I jump on the band wagon and create a Facebook Fan Page for The Dreaming Café?
1. One of my links was reported as ‘spam’. I was not only hurt that a friend would report me as spam, but I was also worried that other people felt the same way and that soon I would be unfriended by everyone. (Over reaction, I know.)
2. I participated in several ‘Social Media’ teleseminars and all the experts said I had to have a Fan Page. My mistake was listening to them without doing my own research like I normally would. Being reported as spam caused me to react versus to think and to research why I was reported as spam and how to avoid it going forward. (Lesson learned, I hope.)
There are two big benefits of a Facebook Fan Page has over your personal profile page:
1. Fan pages are public. People do not have to join Facebook to view your posts, events, notes, etc.
2. They are searchable. This means that the major search engines like Google and Yahoo will ‘crawl’ them and index them like regular web pages so they can be included in search results.
One BIG disadvantage of Facebook Fan Pages: No posting updates.
This is it’s biggest downfall and is very disappointing to me.
You receive a notification or update when someone ‘likes’, comments on your posts or writes on your Wall on your Facebook personal profile. This does NOT happen, at least yet, when someone ‘likes’, comments on your posts or writes on your Fan Page wall.
This means that unless you are babysitting your Facebook Fan Page all day, every day, your fans can be posting, making comments and asking questions and you won’t even know it and neither will any of your other Fans.
You want to interact with your Fans and you want them to interact with each other. Without the notification process basically the whole thing turns into a one way conversation. And, you do not want one way conversations with your friends, fans and supporters.
The point of social media is that it’s social, it’s about conversations and community. Right now Facebook Fan Pages do not provide this opportunity.
These are my opinions, based on my experience.
I do believe that Facebook Fan Pages play a role in your ‘get-noticed’ strategy, I just don’t believe that they are right for everybody, all the time.
What do you think?
Every day I am on the receiving end of poor customer service. It happens in restaurants, in grocery stores, department stores and even doctor’s offices.
It drives me crazy because it is all so unnecessary.
Today is the time for businesses to be looking to convert casual customers and clients to loyal fans and supporters. The number one key for doing that is excellent, five-star customer service.
Now, I do not blame the employees for this bad service. I hold the owners and managers responsible.
As a longtime manager, and as a customer, here are a few things an owner/manager can do to improve their customer service…
- Treat your employees with respect and they will treat your customers with respect. Treat them like they don’t count and they will treat your customers the same way.
- Your attitude is mirrored by your employees. If you are miserable, angry and/or frustrated and walk around all day frowning and scowling, so will your employees. If you smile, great people like you are happy to see them (which you should be) and are pleasant to be around, then, more than likely, so will your employees.
- Hire slow and fire fast. Take your time when hiring employees. Don’t just hire ‘bodies’. And, when someone isn’t working out and you’ve worked with that person to resolve the issues, get rid of them. One bad apple can ruin the bunch.
- Don’t assume ‘experience’ means anything. How will you employees know how you operate your business and what you expect unless you tell them? Don’t just stick them behind a counter or a phone and expect them to treat your customers the way you want them to be treated. Work with your employees, train them, explain to them what their role is and how they contribute to the organization as a whole. Take the time to build a team, a community with your employees.
- Treat everyone like a customer. This means your employees, your suppliers, the delivery man, the maintenance man, etc. Everyone you come into contact with is a customer…and your employees should have this same philosophy, too.
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One more thing, when you are at work…work. It’s not a social hour, or study time. Make sure your employees understand that while they are on the clock and you are paying them that their whole focus is the job and the customer. Teach them to be present in the moment.
As an owner or a manager your customers and clients are who keep you in business. Remember that your employees are a direct extension of you and your business. Help them make the best possible impression and they will help you build long-term customer relationships and loyal fans and supporters.
It took me almost six weeks to finish my vision / dream board. I am not sure if it normally takes that long, but this was my first time creating one and I didn’t want to rush it.
My process…I collected images (pictures and words) throughout the week and then sat down one day a week to put them together. Each week I added more and more images and words until I felt it was finished.
I learned a lot and I had a lot of fun. I got lost in it every time I sat down to work on it.
The themes that run through it have been with me a long time. Some I have acknowledged, others I have not, until now.
I really like my vision board. Well, to tell you the truth, I LOVE it. It calls to me at a very fundamental level. I enjoyed the process of assembling it and I enjoy looking at it. I have never created anything so visual, and to me, beautiful.
It represents…
Challenge
Excitement
Peace
Joy
Beauty
Contentment
Self-confidence
Self-love
Passion
Freedom
Independence
Themes that run through it…
Entrepreneurship
Technology
Relationships
Education
Reading
Writing
Art
Spirituality
Well being
Nature
Luxury
Some specifics…Well, I’ll keep them to myself for now, but you may discover them if you look closely enough. (You can click on the picture below to enlarge it.)
Related posts…
My list isn’t very long, but it’s straight from my heart.
On this American Thanksgiving Day I give thanks for…
All the things I take for granted every day that mean so much to me:
The ability to see and to read; to walk and to talk; to think and to reason; to touch and to feel; to wake up every day in a home of my own; to have easy access to clean water, food and clothing; personal freedom.
A loving husband who supports me and believes in me.
My Mom who every day teaches me how to just ‘be’.
Five wonderfully bright, curious, talented nieces and nephews that I love with all my heart.
A sister I can call a best friend and a brother who forever reminds me that it’s all suppose to be fun.
Friends, who continually enrich my life; who make me question and think; who push me beyond what’s comfortable and who support me, and my goals and dreams.
Technology and all its’ possibilities.
My home office and all that it represents.
The opportunity to create everyday; to live authentically and to express myself freely.
Being born in the United States and all its’ inherent freedoms.
And, for all the readers and supporters of The Dreaming Cafe – you enrich my life in ways I could never have imagined. Thank you.
Last night I was reviewing my notes from the Compelling Storytelling workshop I attended in June 2008 in Las Vegas with Barbara Winter and Alice Barry.
As part of our ‘homework‘ we had to attend a Cirque du Soleil show and identify three things we learned from the show about using compelling storytelling in our business and our marketing.
I remembered the show easily. I also remember not wanting to go, but was then both surprised and delighted by the performance.
Reviewing my notes from the workshop, and this exercise in particular, reminded me that there is so much to be learned just by observing the experts…
Three Things I Learned From Cirque du Soleil…
1. Maintain continuity. Keep your message, your story, clear and focused throughout your business in all your marketing, promotions, products, services, etc.
2. Keep it fun. No matter what your business is, it should be a fun and enjoyable experience for you and your customer.
3. Play your aces. Surprise your customer with the unexpected and make them feel special.
For most of my life I made plans, big and small. I was great at it. Dreaming, imagining and making plans were what I was good at.
But, that’s all I did was plan, imagine and dream. I never took sustained action.
At the end of 2008 I decided that 2009 was going to be different. I decided that taking action would be my motto for the new year.
I had a vision and a heart full of long held dreams, but I didn’t have a plan or a map. I was afraid that if I spent too much time thinking and planning I’d get hung up on the all the little details and another year would pass and I’d be no closer to what I wanted or who I wanted to be.
This year I started moving forward and taking action and I never looked back, but, I never looked too far ahead either.
So what did I do?
*Took an online personal essay writing workshop.
*Started writing and never stopped.
*Started a Woman’s Creativity Circle – we met once a week for three months. It was something I wanted to do and I did it. It has since ended, but was a great learning experience.
*Joined Twitter. (great decision!!)
*Started sending short emails to friends and family sharing quotes, books I’d read and links to inspiring and interesting stories.
*Started The Dreaming Cafe blog at Wordpress.com. (free set-up)
*The short emails evolved into The Dreaming Café weekly newsletter…45 weeks straight and still going.
*I re-launched my blog/website as a self-hosted Wordpress.org site. (I pay to have this site hosted.)
*Created a Facebook account.
*Deactivated my Facebook account.
*Re-activated my Facebook account.
*Took my first art class as an adult.
*Announced my first online journaling class.
*Then had to teach my first online journaling class.
*Teaching my fourth online journaling class right now and loving it!!
*Held my first teleconference.
*Created The Dreaming Café Facebook Fan Page.
*Committed to learning, attending workshops, traveling and having fun…visited Denver-CO, Cleveland-OH, Dodge City-KS, Wildwood-NJ and Chaska-MN.
*Oh yeah, I almost forgot…I quit my day j-o-b. This did include plenty of saving and planning, but it happened sooner than I expected.
2009 was about committing to my dreams and taking action. It was, without a doubt, the best decision I ever made.
But, now I’ve swung too far to left. First, I was way over on the right, planning and planning, and now I am way over on the left, acting and acting.
Even though I skipped a few things and I have to go back and clean up a few details, I wouldn’t have any details to clean-up if I hadn’t taken action and began to move forward.
So, what didn’t I do? What details do I have to clean-up?
*Business set-up – I conveniently forgot to register my business and tie up all my legal loose ends. I am in the process now of getting all my paperwork together to file.
*Record-keeping – I failed to keep track of all my business related expenses. Now I have to backtrack for the whole year and try to organize it all. I am not going to do it all myself. I will be enlisting the help of a tax accountant who specializes in small and home based businesses.
*Website design – I choose the first, free Wordpress Theme that looked pretty, but it doesn’t meet all of my needs. Now I am in the process of having to redesign and revamp my site.
*Clear focus – People should now what to expect when they visit The Dreaming Café. For awhile I was trying on all the hats I ever wanted to and writing about anything that I wanted. But, now it’s time to focus. Focus doesn’t mean that I won’t be writing and talking about a wide range of topics, because I will. It’s who I am. But, I want people to have some idea of what to expect. (I’ll be writing more about this in the coming weeks.)
*Clarity- For me, there is no separation between my work and my life. They flow together like a river. The vision that has guided me this whole year has become too small. Since I have started moving forward and taking action my vision suddenly expanded. I am still in the process of coming to grips with all the possibilities.
*Planning – I hit the road and just took off. Now it’s time to decide where I am going and what I need to do to get there. It’s time to create a map, a super to-do list with goals and action steps for each day, each week, each month.
*People – Since I quit my job I am missing the daily interaction with others. I didn’t plan for this, so now I have to. I am looking into joining a few local business organizations and creating a woman’s entrepreneur mastermind group.
One activity that has really helped over the last six weeks is my vision/dream board. I have taken my time working on my vision board and it is offering up a lot of surprises. I’ll share it with you later this week.
From now until the end of the year I’ll be going back and cleaning up all the details I skipped and creating a vision and a plan for where I want to go, and what The Dreaming Café will become.
2010 will be about living in the middle – about planning and acting.
Where are you? Are you still in the dreaming phase? Planning or acting? Are you too far to the right or left or right where you need to be?
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