If you are looking to dip into the Social Medial world the first place to start is with Facebook. You can create a personal profile and then also a Fan Page to promote your business. The Fan Pages on Facebook have really developed into something that every business should consider adding to their marketing strategy.

Here is a link to a recent article by Mari Smith about how cool Fan Pages can really be.

Here are just a few of the companies Fanpages that I find appealing

Macys

Skittles

Mari Smith

Social Media Examiner

If you are looking for more information about Facebook and why you and your company should be on it then check out this recent article “5 New Studies Show Facebook a Marketing Powerhouse” by Amy Porterfield on Social Media Examiner.

If you are looking for help getting started on Facebook or creating a Fan Page then I can help.  Send me an email at dawn@SunriseVirtualServices.com.

You can adjust the settings for your the photo albums you post on Facebook, and even for the photos that your friends tag you in.  To adjust the settings you will need to do the following.

1. Create separate lists of your contacts.  These lists can be as simple as “friends”, “family” or “co-workers” etc.
2. Go to Settings > Privacy Settings > Profile Information > Photo Albums
3. Next locate Photo Albums from the list and click on the Edit Settings Button

All of your photo albums will now appear and from the drop down lists you can select who can see your photos, but you can take that a step further by actually selecting specific lists from not seeing your photo albums.

As you can see in my Mobile Uploads I have blocked my Networking & Co-workers list from seeing these photos.  When they go to my photos, that particular album will not appear in my Photo tab.

To block a list of people from seeing a photo album select “customize” from the drop down list type in the name of the list.

To block specific lists of people from seeing photos and videos that you have been tagged in you will pretty much do the same thing.

Go to Settings > Privacy Settings > Profile Information > Photos and Videos of Me

Select the edit button and adjust your settings as necessary. If you want to block a specific list of people you can just type in the name of the list in the “Hide this from” section.

I have been using Ping.fm to post Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace & Plaxo updates for my clients.  What I have always wanted was a (free) way to schedule these updates.  Similar to what SocialOomph does for your Tweets.  With SocialOomph (previously known as TweetLater) you can schedule your Tweets far in advance which makes for promoting my clients events much easier.

Finally, HootSuite has come to the rescue and now are providing a new service where you can schedule your status updates on many social networking sites.  This has really made my job a lot easier as I don’t have to ‘remember’ to post a specific status update daily.  The great news is that you can even schedule updates to your Facebook Fanpages as well, yippie.

Do you want to adjust how your Facebook activity appears on your friends News Feed?

Under the Settings section (top right) go to Settings>Privacy Settings> News Feed and Wall

Now check or un-check items you don’t want to have appear on other people’s news feeds.

Bonus tip !

Click the Social Ads tab so you can adjust your Social Ads privacy settings.  You may opt out of appearing in your friends’ Social Ads by seleting No One from the drop down list.

[tags]Facebook, Sunrise Virtual Services, Dawn Cullo[/tags]

Are you afraid of posting pictures of your family on Facebook?  Some people feel that it is not a good idea to post pictures of their family on Facebook because they don’t want their business associates to see their ‘family life’.   However, did you know that you can hide pictures from some of your contacts?   In fact you can even set up your account so that some people only see specific parts of your profile.  This is all possible by using the privacy settings and friends lists.

Here is how to do it!

Go to your Friends List and Make a New Lists. This will allow you to categorize your friends and family members into separate lists. You can use any titles you wish such as Networking, Family, etc.

Next, go through your Friends list and categorize them into the appropriate lists.

This can be done by either clicking on each list and adding your Friends by typing their names in the Add to List: box

Or by clicking on each Friend and add them to a specific list, you can even add them to more than one list.

Now for the fun part!  Hiding specific parts of your Facebook Profile from people.

Under the Settings section (top right) go to Settings>Privacy Settings> Profile

Drill down under each drop down to locate and select Customize.

In the Except These People section type in the name of the list that you do not want to see this portion of your profile.  This process can be repeated for all aspects of your profile including specific photo albums.

If you want to see how a person will see your profile you can type their name into the box at the top of the page.

These privacy settings also work for applications.

Go back to the Settings>Privacy Settings> at the top of the page and this time select Applications. Your list of Applications will appear and select Edit Settings>Profile>Privacy for each application and adjust the privacy’s settings as needed.

BONUS TIP: Do you want your business contacts to NOT see those embarrassing photos from High School or that crazy College Party your friends posted of you?  Make sure you change the privacy setting for the Photos Tagged Of You in the Photo Album section and be sure to exclude your business contacts.

[tags]Facebook, Sunrise Virtual Services, Dawn Cullo[/tags]

The good folks over at Facebook have decided to change up the fan pages.  The Fan Pages look more like profile pages with a wall that will display a comment stream as well as the fan page activity stream.  Here is the link to a PDF document that Facebook has made available about the updates.

Ok, so ”Whoop de doo” you say and  ”What is a Fan Page?” you might be asking and “Why do I need one?’.  Well a fan page is a special type of page that anyone can set up in addition to their profile page.  The main purpose of a profile page is where you connect with your friends and family members.  A fan page is where you can promote your business, a band, a celebrity, well just about anything or anyone can have a fan page.  A fan page also lets you basically have an additional profile where you can connect with people about your business.  Also, there is a 5,000 connection limit on friends an a fan page does not have a cap on the amount of connections made.  I am sure that you have joined at least one fan page while you have been living in Facebookland.  I don’t know about you but I enjoy receiving the updates about comedian Greg Behrendt or from TV Show 30 Rock.

Here’s how to get started with creating a fan page for your business or your dear dog muffy.

• Go To the bottom of any Facebook page and locate the link Advertising, it is on the bottom right
• Select the Pages link on the top of the page
• Select the green ‘Create A Page’ button on the right.
• Select which type of category for your page and type in the Name of Your business
• That’s it!  Seriously.  Now you just need to upload a photo for your page and tell your fan club about your new exciting page.

Check out the Fan Page for Sunrise Virtual Services.

[tags]Facebook, Sunrise Virtual Services, Dawn Cullo[/tags]