Social Media Guide For Filipino Entreps

Social Media Guide for Filipino
Entrepreneurs
by: Carlo S. Ople
Page 2

www.newmedia.com.ph

www.twitter.com/carloople

Social Media Guide
for
Filipino Entrepreneurs
by
Carlo S. Ople
www.newmedia.com.ph

About the Author

Carlo S. Ople is a Filipino Social Media

and Internet Marketing Consultant,

motivational public speaker, and all-around
nice guy. Some of his prestigious clients

include: Senator Mar Roxas, GBX, Bobson

Jeans, C2-Collezione, Fish & Co., and

Converse. Prior to this, he served as the

Digital Marketing Manager of the leading
social network in Asia, Friendster, and Marketing Head for the Casual Games

Division of the number 1 online gaming publisher in the country, Level Up.

Other than his professional consultancy work, Carlo is also part of the

managing committee of the Blas F. Ople Policy Center, a non-profit organization that

aims to uplift the standard of living of overseas filipino workers and the families that
they leave behind.

Carlo is engaged to Michelle Orosa and they’re set to get married within the

year. :)

For inquiries on consultancy and speaking engagements, please visit his

website at http://www.newmedia.com.ph or you can also send an e-mail to
info@catalyst.ph.

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Introduction

Every generation has different sets of opportunities. The environment,
landscape, and technology level differs from each decade to the next. Our

grandfathers had the advantage of being first in the market when it came to
real estate because there were so many undeveloped properties. They were

able to purchase these at prices which have increased exponentially today. A
generation after, our parents were able to build on that by putting up their

brick-and-mortar businesses. Since there were only a few competitors they
were able to grow their companies into giant corporations and multinationals.

So what's our generational advantage? To be good employees?

The thesis of this entire eBook is that technology, more specifically the

internet and social media, is the biggest wave that we can ride at this point in
time. The internet has radically changed how we communicate: from “one-to-

one” to “one-to-everyone”. It is that paradigm shift that today spells the
difference between success and failure. Note that the success that I'm talking

about is the one that you actually enjoy doing and not the sacrifice-ridden
version involved in being a daily cog in the wheel.

Allow me to quote my favorite author, Seth Godin from his book
Linchpin: "If you're not doing too well maybe the rules have changed and no

one told you."

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Change the rules and you change the way you play. If you're still

competing as if it was still the 1990's when it's already 2010, then you're in
trouble.

If you have any further questions and comments, please don’t hesitate
to send me an e-mail at carlo@catalyst.ph. I would also like to know what you

think of the eBook. Did you find it helpful? Was it all BS? Negative or positive,
I don’t care. I’d love to hear from you. :)

Thank you and I hope you learn something new in the next few pages.

Cheer s,

Carlo S. Ople
Social Media and Internet Marketing Consultant
www.newmedia.com.ph

Table of Contents

Chapter One: Why Social Media?
................................................... 7

Chapter Two: Listening
.................................................................. 18

Chapter Three: Setting Facebook Objectives
..............................26

Chapter Four: Facebook Ofﬁcial Pages
....................................... 31

Chapter Five: Facebook Advertising Guide
................................. 48

Chapter Six: Why Tweet?
............................................................... 60

Chapter Seven: Twitter Guide
....................................................... 64

Chapter Eight: Connecting Smiles with Friendster
..................... 88

Chapter Nine: Blog Marketing 101
.............................................. 100

Chapter Ten: Your Website Sucks
.............................................. 108

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Chapter One: Why Social Media?

“Internet Marketing is all a joke.”

This is a common sentiment among Filipino entrepreneurs and

businessmen. Most tend to feel like Facebook is meant merely for uploading

photos, networking with friends, and playing games. Some even go as far to

think that the internet is a waste of time, saying it doesn’t generate return-on-

investment. Who can blame them? They’ve gotten used to the success that was

brought about by traditional marketing initiatives that they’ve been doing for

years.

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But this is good news for you. This gives you the rare opportunity to

break into an untapped market and build a very cost-effective business in a very

fun way.

Imagine a grand mansion with priceless paintings and furniture inside.

The house is a business and the valuables inside are customers. Doors are

secured with high-tech locks to make sure that everything is safe, and no other

competitor can just stroll in. But within that mansion is a giant window left

open--the absence of that business in the internet. That’s your opening right

there.

It’s already 2010 and the landscape has drastically changed over the last

decade. Technology has made gigantic strides forward, providing you with new

tools and platforms that you can use to bring your business or career to the next

level. If you have a business right now and you’re still marketing it as if it was

still the 1990’s, then you have one big problem.

What are the numbers?

Your ﬁrst question would be “How big is the potential for growth?”, and

my answer is “Massive.” Various studies show that there will be around 28

million Filipino internet users by the end of 2010. That’s bigger than the entire

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population of Malaysia! The primary growth drivers here are the combination

of the aggressive marketing and sales of leading broadband providers like

PLDT, SMART, Globe, and Bayantel, combined with the proliferation of

internet cafes all over the country. Online gaming industry experts say that

there are around 10,000 internet cafes operating in the Philippines as of this

writing. And while it’s a bit expensive in Metro Manila at 20-30 pesos per hour,

some places in the provinces offer very affordable rates at 5-10 pesos per hour.

If you’re still not satisﬁed with these numbers, let’s take a closer look at

one of the more popular social networks being used by a lot of Filipinos:

Facebook. Care to venture a guess how many Filipinos are actually signed up?

Here’s a screenshot of the total number of registered Filipino users on

Facebook which you can track anytime using the Facebook Self-Advertising

Platform:

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As of 4:45PM, April 1, 2010, there are approximately 11,468, 880

registered Filipinos on Facebook. That’s enough to win you a seat in the

Philippine Senate.

According to the website Alexa, 8 out of the top 10 websites visited in

the Philippines are social networks. If you want to tap the internet to build your

business, then be where everyone is. Setting up a website and leaving it there

hanging is tantamount to putting a gigantic billboard in the middle of a farm.

Being in social media, on the other hand, is like being the giant billboard along

Guadalupe in Makati where everyone can see you.

It’s the next biggest marketing wave

According to the Cartoon Network New Generations 2009 Philippines

Study, 6 out of 10 Filipinos aged 7-14 years old are already online1. The same

study reveals that the internet is also now the second most popular activity of

the same age bracket, next only to watching television. And if you give these

kids a few more years, they will eventually be the major decision makers.

1 New Generations 2009 Philippines Cartoon Network Study by Synovate

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There’s a giant tsunami coming that will turn how we do business upside

down. It’s totally up to you if you will see this as an opportunity and ride the

wave, or end up getting crushed by it.

And it’s not just the kids. The study Digital Philippines: Internet Media

Habits Decoded by Yahoo and Nielsen shows that bulk of Filipino internet

users are actually within the 15 - 29 year old range2. These already include

young professionals--decision makers in themselves. And don’t get me started

on the purchasing power of this highly-prized age group.

What about ROI?

Now this is my favorite topic when it comes to social media. Let me start

by asking you these questions: how much does it take for you to acquire one

customer? How about social media? Does it have an effect on purchase intent?

Do internet campaigns actually convert to sales and how are they compared to

traditional media?

The average businessman will probably say it takes somewhere around

100-200 pesos to acquire a customer using traditional methods. But for social

media, consider this: 67% of people who follow brands on Twitter and 51%

2 Digital Philippines: Internet Media Habits Decoded by Yahoo and Nielsen

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who become fans of brands in Facebook are actually more likely to buy

products from you3. For the sake of argument let’s say those numbers are

overstated for the Philippines so let’s peg it at just around 30%. How much

does it cost you to get a fan on Facebook? Roughly around P10 pesos per fan

using their CPC advertising platform. Using dirty math, you’ll end up spending

P30 pesos to get one sale if we will use the 30% mark--that’s a lot cheaper than

the 100-200 pesos we assumed for traditional methods.

You see, the moment someone becomes a fan or a follower of your

product, it means that they are interested already in buying. All you have to do

is to provide them with a gentle nudge to actually get them to go to your store

and do it.

New Media is the darling of Traditional Media

Another growing trend is that traditional media is giving new media a

giant push into the mainstream. Popular media stations in print, radio, and

television have aggressively been using and integrating social media platforms

into their operations. Let’s go through some of them right now.

3 Study by Chadwick Martin Bailey and iModerate Research Technologies

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FM Station Magic 89.9 is one of the most popular stations in Metro

Manila. They’re actually one of the ﬁrst stations to aggressively push for

building a Facebook online community.

As of 5:19 PM, April 1, 2010, they’ve amassed more than 98,000 fans on

Facebook. I’m not talking about passive fans here. These guys actively

participate in the promos and discussions on the social network as well as the

radio show. The DJ’s constantly promote their Facebook accounts on-air. If you

think about it, Magic 89.9 is giving Facebook insane amounts of media

mileage. It’s time that you also jump in and take advantage of that. Note that

I’m not saying that you spam Magic 89.9’s fan proﬁle. That would be rude,

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unethical, and will backﬁre. What I am saying is that you should be in the

game. If you’re not there, you don’t exist in their world.

Another media station that’s pushing social media and the internet is

ABS-CBN. They’ve integrated Facebook and Twitter into their news programs

and special events like the recently concluded HARAPAN: Vice-Presidential

Debates. I was even interviewed by Ces Drilon for TV Patrol to discuss the

impact of social media in the 2010 campaign.

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What does this all mean? Traditional media is pushing people to create

accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and other forms of social media so that they can

connect and interact with one another. ABS-CBN and Magic 89.9 are part of

the reasons why there are now more than 11,000,000 Filipino Facebook users.

These stations have integrated social media in their broadcast which means that

they acknowledge that the number of Filipino social media users will continue

to sky rocket over the longer term.

I Google You... do you Google me?

In the past, when people needed to know about whether a product is good

or not, they would have to talk to people who’ve bought it before. They’d have

to either give those people a call via telephone or meet up with them. Today it’s

totally different. You can easily go online and type the name of the product on

Google and check out the reviews of other customers.

Let’s pause for a minute. Minimize this page, log on Google, and type

the name of your company. If nothing comes out, then you don’t exist. If bad

reviews from bloggers and forums come out, then you seriously need to get

your act together.

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The power of search is expected to grow tremendously within the next

few years, as more Filipinos get access to the internet through their mobile

phones. There was this one time I was with my friend and we were shopping

for a guitar in a mall. I initially wanted a Yamaha but I was literally blown

away by the price (around 50,000 pesos for an electric acoustic). We checked

out other brands in several stores. To help me shop, I just googled the names of

these other, lesser known brands on my BlackBerry and checked out all the

reviews. Within minutes I found a guitar which had a lot of good reviews all

over the world and priced at 13,000 pesos. I got the guitar and I’ve been

happily playing it ever since.

To get on Google, it’s not enough to make your own website. That’s just

one result in the 10 that come out on the ﬁrst page. Get into social media,

because the good thing about these social media sites is that they are properly

optimized for search engines. If you have company pages in Facebook, Twitter,

LinkedIn, etc. then there’s a good chance that these pages will pop out on the

ﬁrst page as well.

Remember that one of the strongest powers of the internet is that it

allows you to focus the eyes of potential customers to good things about your

product.

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With that in mind, the question that I’d like to throw to you is what are

you going to do about it?

Allow me to repeat my earlier statement. Times have changed. If you’re

still marketing and doing business like it was still the 90’s when it’s already

2010, then you’re jurassic. Don’t be surprised when your sales and market

share start to go down when younger and more daring entrepreneurs climb in

that giant window that you left open.

Before you proceed to the next chapter, I’d like to encourage you to

watch a video which my company prepared which pretty much sums up a lot of

local industry data that you’ll deﬁnitely ﬁnd interesting. Watch the video by

clicking here.

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Chapter Two: Listening

The internet is like a a giant marketplace ﬁlled with billions of vendors

interacting with customers. They’re all talking with each other about various

products and brands. Now, out of the billions of those conversations, you can

bet that there are probably already several about your company.

A decade ago you wouldn’t be able to get this information unless you pay

a research agency to come up with market research. Consider this input as

valuable feedback--it gives you the inside scoop about important things like

what people like or do not like about your product, and information which you

can use as leverage in your next campaign. Marketers don’t just talk, they have

to listen.

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The internet is surrounded by REAL people. What they say matters, and

the biggest factor behind this is the speed at which what they say spreads.

That’s why if you don’t know what’s being said about you, then that’s a big

problem--and you have to it ﬁx right away. That’s beside the fact that there’s so

much insight that you can get from just mining the web with data about your

product.

Finding out what’s being said about your product won’t even take much

effort. The internet has a lot of really good and free tools which allow you to

monitor your “online temperature”. Allow me to walk you through some of

them in this chapter.

Google Alerts

Google Alerts is by far one of my favorite monitoring and listening tools.

As with almost all Google’s products, it’s very simple and user-friendly. All

you have to do is type in key words, and voila, Google sends you a notice via e-

mail every time that word is mentioned online. The system isn’t fool-proof

though--there will be some mentions that slip through. But rest assured that the

mentions you do get are from websites that have good trafﬁc.

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Here’s a screenshot of the Google Alerts homepage where you can set the

parameters of the information you want to get, and when you want to receive

them.

You can set a lot of parameters, but I suggest the following: your

company name, product/brand, competitor brands, competitor companies, and

important industry information that you need to know about. Not only do these

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allow you to track what people are saying about your company and your

product, you also get to learn what they’re saying about your competitors.

That’s a more holistic view right there. If you’re very conscious about your

personal brand, then you might also want to key in your name.

Google Alerts also allows you to set how often you will get the e-mails. I

currently have it sent to me daily because I don’t want to get individual e-mails

each time there’s an alert. That will just spam my inbox.

Google Reader

Another insanely great tool at no extra cost. I’ve been using this for a

long time now because, for me, education never stops. The web is so rich with

information and insights which can help you give your career or business a

much-needed boost. Google Reader allows you to track all the blogs and

websites that have RSS feeds in one page.

You can follow virtually any site you can think of--from the blogs and

websites that you’ve read that you thought were good, to those you’ve

researched, to those recommended by your peers. Allow me shameless

plugging by asking you to add New Media Philippines to your Google Reader

(LOL). Here’s a screenshot of what Google Reader looks like:

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All the blogs and websites you follow are neatly lined up in the

Subscriptions sidebar. To read the newest articles, just click the name of the site

and the right side of the page will display the latest articles. It’s that easy.

Another cool feature is the Explore section. You can click Recommended

Items and Sources for blogs that Google thinks you might ﬁnd interesting.

Google also lists down how many other people are subscribed to those other

sites and blogs which gives you an indication of their popularity and authority.

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With Google Reader, you only take in the information that’s relevant,

interesting, and important to you.

Twitter

Most of you probably know by now that Twitter is steadily gaining a

huge following here in the Philippines. It’s actually the 10th most visited site

according to the research site Alexa. To hear about what people say about you,

your brand, your competitor, or your industry, you can go to Twitter Search and

just type the keyword there.

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The Advanced Twitter Search option opens up to a more detailed form

where you can put parameters for your search. You can filter the search via date

and location, and even based on the smileys used in the tweets (negative or

positive). You might also want to get Tweet Deck. This will allow you to

monitor tweets about a particular topic real time. I’ll give more information on

that in the chapter on Twitter.

I have a Twitter account and I’d love to hear from you there. Follow me

here (click, click!).

Search Engines

Another way of monitoring your online presence is just to key in the

name of your product, your company, your your competitor on search engines.

Don’t just limit it to Google. Note that Yahoo still has a strong following here

in the Philippines. Check out the first three pages. You should do this regularly

(once a month is good) to make sure that the first three pages about your brand

have nothing negative in them.

To get a list of websites linking to your site, just key in this phrase on

Google - link:www.YOURURL.com. The results will be the sites and blogs that

linked to you.

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There are a lot more other available tools that you might also want to use,

other than these four. The web is one giant free market research machine that

anyone can tap. It’s just a matter of investing time and effort. Believe me, the

beneﬁts outweigh the costs by miles (hey, these tools are for free!).

Lastly, let me just remind you that these tools are not just for business,

they can also be recreational. Key in the topics and activities that are personally

interesting for you so that you’re up to date on the stuff that you love doing. I

actually have two accounts with Google Reader. The ﬁrst one is just for my

hobbies and interests like gaming, anime, and movies (yes I’m a geek). The

second one is the account that follows blogs and sites about social media,

blogging, internet marketing, and technology.

“If A equals success, then the formula is A equals X plus Y and Z, with X

being work, Y play, and Z keeping your mouth shut.” - Albert Einstein

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Chapter Three: Setting Facebook

Objectives

As of this writing, there are more than 11,000,000 registered Filipino

users on Facebook. That’s a giant, potential market you can tap for your

business. As I discussed earlier, the growth won’t stop anytime soon due to the

massive support Facebook is getting from traditional media outlets. This

chapter will show you how you can build an online presence on Facebook, and

how this can actually have an impact on your business.

Let’s start with the most important part ﬁrst - the objectives. The

objective of your Facebook campaign will determine your over-all strategy and

execution. Each objective will require different tactics, resources, and

manpower to pull off. If you don’t agree at the very beginning on what you’ll

be doing on Facebook, then there’s a big chance that you’ll get blindsided with

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problems left and right later down the road. For this eBook, let’s discuss three

common objectives: awareness, customer support, and community building.

Awareness

This is probably your objective if you’re part of a start-up. You need to

get the word out to the 11,000,000 Filipino Facebook users that you exist.

There are several ways to do this. The first and more obvious one is to advertise

on Facebook. You can dot his either by directing the advertisement link straight

to your website, or to your company’s Fan Profile. The former needs less

resources than the latter.

If you want to have a Fan Profile, however, note that this will take

considerable resources and effort. A Fan Profile is meant for more than just

adding fans, it requires constant engagement between you and your customers.

They’ll want answers to their comments, and to give them that you’ll need to

get someone to manage customer relations. I’ll share a step-by-step guide on

how to create a Facebook Fan Profile later on.

Customer Support

This ties in with the Fan Profile concept. The danger with social media is

that your channels can quickly turn from promotional vehicles to customer

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support outlets. If you allow users to post comments on your Fan Profile, expect

to get a mix of good and bad feedback from them. When this happens, you

better make sure you have someone replying and coordinating with your sales

and marketing so you can resolve issues quickly. Always remember that you

should reply as fast as you can. If you don’t have a resolution yet, then just let

them know that you got their complaint and that you’re working on it. Don’t

forget to update them later on once you actually find out what went wrong.

One thing that I’d like to recommend is that you come up with rules and

regulations for posting comments on your Facebook Fan Profile. There’s

nothing wrong with moderation because there are clear and present dangers

which can go after your brand. For example, it’s so easy for individuals to

make new accounts and spam your wall with negative comments and insults.

You have to make it clear with your community that there’s a line they can’t

cross. Constructive criticism is welcome but not at the cost of disrespecting the

administrator and their fellow fans.

Remember, if you don’t have a commenting policy posted then

everything is fair game.

Building Communities

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The strongest feature of social media platforms is the ability to build,

nurture, and mobilize communities. But social media is not a one night stand.

It’s a long term relationship which grows over time. Eventually you will be able

to “graduate” several fans into brand ambassadors and that’s when the magic

happens.

The problem with some businesses is that they expect so much out of

internet marketing and social media and yet they give it the lowest budget and

least attention. These campaigns still need gas to run on. More than that, it

needs time, effort, and sincerity. We don’t buy customers here, we earn them.

This is where most of the political candidates in the Philippines have

failed miserably. Many only started their social media channels a month or two

before the actual campaign period , and turned it into a race to the most number

of fans on Facebook. I believe they missed a big point: The real power of

social media during campaign season is how you’re going to mobilize your fans

and turn them into volunteer campaign staff. It’s about empowering those

Facebook fans, and giving them the means to be part of the campaign.

Let me just sum up the major points in the objectives:

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You need to have a deliberate strategy for your social media campaign.

Start asking the difﬁcult questions before you get into this. Set objectives.

Someone has to man the ship. You can’t leave your social media

channels unmoderated. If you do, it will do more harm than good.

Social Media is long term. You earn your customers, you don’t buy them

off. However with enough prodding and patience they will become brand

ambassadors and evangelists.

It’s all about COMMUNITY.

I’d love to see you on Facebook too. CLICK HERE to add me. :)

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Chapter Four: Facebook Official Pages

Now that we’ve discussed objectives and the initial strategy, it’s time to

focus on how to actually set-up a proper Facebook Official Page / Fan Profile.

You can do a lot of things with the page of your brand. This chapter will discuss

the basics of setting up a Facebook page followed by a more advanced

approached to jazzing it up for maximum impact and interaction with your

potential customers.

Let’s start with the very basics. To set-up an official page, log on to

http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php. In the past, you only had the

choice of making a Fan Profile or a Group. Now there’s a new function called

Community Pages. Here’s a screenshot of the create a page segment:

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Note that in order to create a page, you really have to be a representative

of the person or business that you’re making a page for. If you’re authorized by

your company to do this, then ﬁll in the necessary information.

The other two options are either creating a Community or a Group.

Here’s the screenshot:

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For this eBook we will focus only on the Ofﬁcial Page. Once you ﬁll in

the initial information, you’ll land on a very boring, empty, and blank page. The

challenge now is to make this page interesting enough so that you can actually

build a community using this platform, and keep users coming back for more.

That’s something that’s very easy to do and we’ll talk about that later on.

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Let’s break this down to 5 steps.

Step 1: Create a Profile Picture

This is usually the first fatal mistake of a lot of Filipino business owners

and marketers. We have to be deliberate with every single thing that we do

with your page. The profile picture is very important because this is the face of

your company for Facebook. It’s also the first thing that they’ll see if they get

an invitation, message, or when they land on your wall. Don’t just get a random

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picture and slap it there. Get a graphic artist to come up with a decent stylized

logo or product photo.

Note that the profile picture doesn’t have to be small. Treat the page as if

it were your company website. Since the biggest image you can manipulate

here is the profile picture, then you might want to consider slapping a huge

photo which really sells the product to the potential customer. Don’t settle for a

low resolution 200x200 photo. If you can have your designer come up with a

vertical banner that will scale down the side of your profile then go ahead and

do so.

Here’s a screenshot of a fan profile that we’re currently building for

Stackers Burger Cafe.

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For the profile picture we used a gigantic sprawling

banner similar to their tarpaulin design. We did this

because we wanted to fans to immediately see and get

a feel of the product that Stackers is pushing - which

is basically awesome burgers.

The main message that I want to get across to you

now is that you shouldn’t be limited to the

conventional Facebook profile for the picture. Use an image that best suits your

objective. If you want to make an impression quick and fast, then you might

want to consider this approach.

Step 2: Edit Settings

After uploading a good profile picture, the next task is to edit the settings

for your page. The first setting tab will be country limitations. You can set what

countries can only view your page. If you don’t input any, the default is that all

countries can see your page. If your business is just based here in the

Philippines, then I strongly recommend that you just limit the viewing here so

that you won’t encounter any problems and mix-ups. At the end of the day

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there’s no point in getting international visitors especially if you have a brick-

and-mortar operations (unless you’re going to do online selling).

Next up is the Wall Settings Tab. Here’s a screenshot:

In this part you will be making a lot of big decisions for your ofﬁcial

page. Let’s go through those options one by one. The ﬁrst option is Default

View for your Wall. Your options are Posts by Page or Posts by Page and Fans.

The difference here is that when you pick Posts by Page only the posts of the

admin will appear on the wall (default). If you pick Posts by Page and Fans,

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then all comments will be viewable by the public. To keep things organized and

orderly, I usually just opt for the Posts by Page Only. Again it boils down to

having manpower to manage this or not. If someone posts a comment and it

takes you forever to answer, it will show. Note that there’s a time stamp for all

comments and responses. If you have someone to manage this, then you might

want to go with the Posts by Page and Fans. If not, then tick to Posts by Page

only.

The next option can literally make or break your Facebook campaign.

You can actually set the default landing tab for your users. Why is this

important? Put yourself in the shoes of your potential customer. Out of random

interest he clicks and finds himself on your page. What’s the first thing he sees?

A wall filled with various announcements, comments from other customers, etc.

Will that sell your product? The wall will likely be too cluttered for a strong

selling statement or call-to-action. You will need something that delivers your

marketing message quickly and effectively.

This is where Apps come in. But hold this thought for now because we’ll

talk about this in the later part of the chapter.

The next set of options is a bunch of check boxes which determines the

posting capabilities of your fans. This is again a question of resources. If you

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have someone managing the proﬁle full time, then you can afford to have the

fans upload anything. Just make sure someone cleans the mess up if a fan or a

competitor posts something really bad about your product or brand. If you don’t

have moderators, please just turn everything off except for comments.

We now move on to the Mobile Facebook tab. This service allows you to

post updates via SMS. If you feel like you need this then just select Philippines.

The only carrier allowed right now is SMART so you need to have a SMART

SIM Card to avail of this service. You’ll be asked to send a text code to a

number and you’ll get a conﬁrmation message which you then input in

Facebook. After that you can text in changes to your status stream.

Step 3: Content

We’ll go back later to settings to deal with how to set up a Facebook

Landing Page. For now let’s talk about content and what you need to put on

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your Official Page. The first thing you need to fix is the Info Tab. There will be

several information slots you’ll need to fill up with basic company information.

After that, edit the Note Box which is located under your Profile Picture. Since

this is the second most visible thing after the Profile Pic, you might want to put

the URL of your website here or something important which will help you get

your fans to your storefront.

Next we have the media that you will be uploading. Select very good

photos and videos that you can use to promote your brand. Pick only the best

and the more “viral” ones so that users can share them with their personal

networks.

Before we move on to the next step, let’s take a moment to talk about

content strategy. What do you post on your status stream? From my personal

experience, you build relationships talking about things that are relevant to your

consumers. Don’t be afraid to post links to movie trailers. Express your

excitement for things that would normally excite your target market, but keep

your core market in mind. Avoid posting links to action movie trailers when

your core market is composed of teenage girls. Remember that you’re in a

relationship here. Gain their trust by “being one of them”.

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Step 4: Add Applications

Facebook has a lot of applications that you can use to spice up your

official page. Let’s go through the default ones first. You’ll probably be tempted

to add the Discussion Boards/Forums app but I strongly recommend against

this. It will take enough effort to get your fans to talk among themselves on

your wall. Focus them on just one channel.

Instead, a good default app to add is the “Events” app. You can use this

to invite your fans for your major promos and events and actually schedule it in

their calendars so they don’t forget. The other apps are pretty straightforward:

Notes, Photos, Links, and Videos.

Add a Landing Page to your Official Page

One app that everyone should get is the Static FBML application. This

allows you to create a beautiful and effective landing page for your profile.

Why is this important? Because you can control what users will see when they

first visit your page. As we discussed earlier, the default wall doesn’t invite or

get your user to do anything, especially if it’s not moderated properly. The

Static FBML landing page capability lets you focus the eyes of your potential

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fan to one singular, strong, and quick marketing message that you control.

Here’s a complete step-by-step guide on how to make it happen.

First, get the app. Just scroll down at the bottom of your admin page and

you should see a tab there saying “More Applications”. Click Static FBML.

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You’ll be led to the Static FBML page. Click the “Add to my Page”

option just beneath their profile picture. A pop-up will appear which will list all

the profiles that you are administrator to. Just click the profiles that you want to

have the app. After adding it, go back to the admin dashboard of your profile.

The new Static FBML app tab should be there by now.

Click Application Settings. If you want to make a Splash Page activate

the tab. After doing that click edit and input the HTML code/script (embed code

works) for the Landing Page. After putting in the content, go back to the Wall

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Settings and set the default page to the new box that you just created. Each time

someone visits the ofﬁcial page your main message is now on display.

Here’s what we did for one of our clients, C2-Collezione:

Once you’ve done this, count yourself among the elite group of

businesses now maximizing their presence on Facebook. I’ll be discussing how

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to maximize the boxes in an entry in my internet marketing blog, New Media

Philippines. Watch out for that one soon.

There are many more applications that you can use for your Facebook

Official Page. I’ll be sending out more guides via the newsletter so that you’ll

be able to upgrade your pages as the days go by.

Step 5: Promote, promote, promote!

Now that you’ve built a proper Facebook Official Page for your business,

the next task is to drive traffic to it. Don’t just rely on manually inviting your

friends to be a fan, because Facebook has separated Profile Page invites from

Friend Invites. This means that it’s harder for users to go through profile page

invites. Another factor is that users get A LOT of profile page invites so it will

be difficult for you to break through that clutter. However there are a lot of

other ways to do it.

Facebook Advertising & Contests

Based on my experience, this is the guaranteed way of building a

following. However, you’ll be spending for this one. The going rate of CPC in

Facebook for the Philippines is around 3.50 pesos to 10.00 pesos. But that’s

still very affordable compared to advertising on other local websites who

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charge for CPM. You’ll also get higher conversion if you bundle this with a

promotion which is running the same time during your ad campaign. For

example, the copy in your ad could say: “Be a fan and get a chance to win a

Macbook Air!” That will definitely get their attention. For promotions, you can

even get away with getting fans without advertising (but at a much slower rate).

We were able to grow the Fish and Co. Official Profile to 3,500+ by just

coming up with promos left and right without advertising support. I’ll be

discussing more about Facebook Advertising in the next chapter.

Integrated Marketing

One of the best and most affordable ways to drive sign-ups is to use your

actual offline business to promote your Facebook Official Profile. Have

tarpaulins or those table menus printed announcing that you’re on Facebook

and that you’d like your customers to sign-up as fans. Let them know that

you’ll be running contests and promos exclusive to your Facebook community.

Give them a good reason to log-in when they get home and search for your

page so that they can sign-up.

If you have wi-fi in your branches, then you might want to have a small

kiosk with a laptop asking users to sign-up as fans. Entice them with some sort

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of freebie or discount on the spot. That small cost your paying will go a long

way in building a strong, solid, and loyal community of brand evangelists.

If your business is online, all you have to do is put banner ads on your

site. It’s even simpler if you have an e-mail or SMS database. Just send out a

broadcast announcing your Facebook Official Page and wait for them to start

trickling in.

In Summary

Your community has to be alive and kicking. Your Facebook Official

Page has to offer value to your customers because if it doesn’t, then it’s as good

as spam. If your Facebook page doesn’t have a pulse, it will do more harm than

good for your product. In fact, if you can’t assign the proper resources to doing

it, don’t bother doing it at all. Don’t underestimate Social Media. Give your

campaigns the proper attention that they deserve. :)

Regarding analytics and success metrics, I’ll be sending a separate guide

on how to analyze the statistics of your Official Page via e-mail soon. Watch

out for that one in the coming weeks.

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Chapter Five: Facebook Advertising Guide

Facebook Advertising is one of the most cost-effective platforms

available to Filipino entrepreneurs. The great thing about the Facebook Ad

Platform is that it’s very user-friendly and it gives you a lot of options so that

you get the maximum exposure possible for your target market. You also get to

pick the method of payment and there’s a tracking mechanism built-in which

will allow you to monitor the performance of your campaigns.

This chapter will give a step-by-step guide on how to use the self-service

advertising platform of Facebook. Hopefully by the end of this chapter you’ll

be able to drive more trafﬁc to your Ofﬁcial Page or your company website

through your ads.

Should you do this on your own or should you ask an agency?

Agencies and consultants offer Facebook ad placement as one of their

services. If you want to take them up on this, ask if there’s an additional service

fee on top of the actual advertising cost, or if managing this is already included

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in their consultancy fees. Here’s a tip: some may hold back on telling you the

actual price in favor of mark-ups. Know what you’re getting into.

For our clients we give detailed reports of how the campaign is going and

how much money is being spent. If the campaign ends and there is still some

tasks left over, then we return the remaining budget to the client. We just

include this service in our consultancy package.

Facebook Advertising Guide

To start working on your ad, just click the “CREATE AN AD” button

which is located on the right side of your proﬁle (just on top of the existing

ads). This will lead you to the Facebook Ad Creator Page. Here’s a screenshot

of the landing page that I’m talking about:

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To start working on your ad, just click the “Create an Ad” Button. This

will lead you to the next page.

There are several fields that you have to input to create the ad. The first

series of fields deals with the design and copy of your ad. It also asks you on

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where you want the ad brings a user once he or she clicks it. You have the

option of either having the ad link to an external site or you can have it linked

to your Facebook Official Page.

The “Title” is one of the most important parts of your ad. Give this a lot

of thought. If the goal of your ad is to get a user to be a fan or visit your Official

Page, you have to make it compelling for the prospect. I’d recommend that you

have a strong call-to-action--something like “Win a Trip to Hong Kong”--then

follow through with the details in the body text.

Another obvious important element is the actual picture. There are

studies that say that the creative image is even more important than ad

placement and copy. You have to use strong images that your target market can

easily relate to. The worst mistake you can make is to slap on just the company

logo or product picture on the image. Again, let me remind you - be deliberate

and strategic with everything you do with Social Media. A good image has to

be able to grab the attention of your prospect.

A nice example here would be the “Win a Dream Wedding” campaign of

one of one catering company. They targeted the ad for people listed as

“Engaged” in their profiles. The picture was a happy bride and groom, the copy

simple and direct to the point: Win a Dream Wedding. Who wouldn’t want that?

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However, note that Facebook Ads limit the size of images. Right now

they will only allow you to put 110x80, which is very small. This makes it even

more challenging to come up with a strong image complimented by a

compelling copy for the subject and body of the ad.

The next section is about targeting. This is one of the strongest features

of Facebook Advertising and you really do have to take advantage of this if you

want to get your money’s worth. You start with setting the countries that will

see your ad. If your business is based here in the Philippines, then just leave it

at that. There’s no point in having people who won’t buy from you see the ad,

unless you have a product that you plan to send globally.

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After setting the country, we move on to the demographics. You can

manipulate the age bracket so that your ad only appears to the age group that

your product appeals to. Bulk of Facebook Filipino users are actually in the

18-30 year old segment, which is one of the most prized segments in Philippine

marketing.

After the age, you can also set the “Gender” and “Social Status”. Your

ad can appear for single, in-a-relationship, engaged, or married people. This is

one of the reasons why I think a lot of wedding based companies should invest

heavily on Facebook. Every single peso you spend here will literally only be

seen by engaged Filipinos... and for what? 5 pesos per click?

The “Language” ﬁeld is limited to those set by Facebook. It would be a

cool feature if it would allow us to pick languages local to the Philippines like

Cebuano, Ilonggo, etc. but that’s not the case. Just pick Filipino and English for

this one and you’re good.

The “Likes and Interests” ﬁeld is a powerful targeting tool if used

properly. This actually gives you the ability to focus your ads on the fans of

competitors. For example, Candidate X could set his ads to appear to the fans

of rival Candidate Y. Here’s a screenshot of something closer to home:

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Play around with this tool and check out how many people are fans of

your competitors. You might also want to ﬁgure out what bands, books, and

other products your target market might be interested in so that you can narrow

down the advertising even further. The goal here is to make sure that every peso

you spend is on people that have the highest possibility of actually buying from

you.

I spent a few minutes checking out some popular Filipino brands here

and some registered pretty good numbers. Let’s just say that if I were a telco or

a broadcast station I’d be pouring a lot of advertising money on Facebook. :)

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The next fields are “Education & Work” followed by “Connections”. For

the first set just click the button on what kind of people you’re after. If your

product will appeal only to college graduates, then you might want to click on

that. Otherwise you can just leave this to “All”.

The “Workplaces” tab looks insignificant but it can actually be a

powerful advertising filter. Here’s an example. There’s a mad rush these days to

tap the call center workforce because of their disposable income. Most of the

time companies do events, activations, and insanely expensive sponsorships to

get this done. To reach the call center workforce, just key-in all the big BPOs in

the country in this field and advertise to them. Makes perfect sense right? :)

“Facebook Connections” is another ordinary looking filter but it’s

actually a gold mine. With this you can make sure that your ad appears only to

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people who are not yet fans of your Official Page. This can save you a lot of

money since we don’t want to pay twice or even thrice just for one person.

If you want your ad to be more personal and viral, then you might want

to check out the last option “Friends of Connections”. This allows you to reach

the networks of the people who are already fans of your product. These are the

ads that you see which say “Your friend ____ is a fan of ____ or Your friend

_____ likes this”. It can quickly grab the attention of users because the ad

jumps out of the screen because it has the names of familiar people.

Finally we have the pricing, scheduling, and budget options for your

campaign. To load a fresh set of options, click “Create a new campaign”. This

will prompt you to a menu of fields that you have to fill up. Input the Campaign

name and put the daily budget. Note that the default is set to US dollars. Don’t

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put 100 if you really just want 100 pesos, or you’ll have meant 100 USD or

roughly 4,700 pesos a day.

The next tab is the “Schedule”. The default option is to run the ad

continuously starting Day One. This can be expensive, so make sure you

change it to your preferred schedule--with a start and end date.

The next option is for you to pick either Cost per Impressions (CPM) or

Cost per Click (CPC).

CPM vs CPC in Facebook Advertising

Cost per Click means you pay only each time someone CLICKS your

advertisement. Cost per Impression means you pay each time your ad reaches

1,000 impressions. There’s been a debate on what model you should follow but

ultimately it depends on your objective, if you want to take a risk, and on your

creative material. If you believe your material can easily guarantee you clicks

left and right, then CPM is the way to go. You get more bang for your buck this

way. However if you want to play it safe, go with CPC.

But keep in mind: Facebook Advertising provides only a small space to

play around with. This limits the potential of the CPM model and makes CPC

much more attractive and risk-free.

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Lastly we go to your maximum bid. There’s no set price to Facebook

advertising. The more people who want to advertise to the target market you’re

after, the higher the price will be. The maximum bid amount is the highest price

that you will pay for CPC or CPM. The minimum will be listed on the menu

and there will also be a suggested range.

If you want to be sure that your ad gets shown, then you might want to

place your maximum bid at the suggested range. I usually play around with this

though to see if I can get away with just the minimum bid. Again, note that

these prices are in US dollars not Philippine pesos. I cannot stress that

enough. I don’t want to get e-mails from readers saying that their credit card

limit exploded because they thought the amount was in pesos.

After setting the price, you can review the ad once more time before

sending it to Facebook for approval. Not all ads get approved by Facebook.

To make sure that your ad gets approved quickly so that you won’t have to

revise it, please read this FAQ online which talks about common ad mistakes

and reasons for rejection. If your ad gets approved, it should start running in 24

hours time. It might take longer but usually it takes mine around 12-24 hours

before it starts running.

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After your ad gets approved just monitor the performance. You’ll be able

to track how many clicks are made on a daily basis. I’ll write another piece on

my blog about how to read the analytics.

In Summary

Facebook Advertising is not as simple as it looks like. You really have to

put even more effort in coming up with phenomenal creative because you have

such a small space for both the image and your copy. You’re also contending

with two other ads as well as the social stream on the wall of your prospects.

But Facebook Advertising can bring your business to a whole new level if you

leverage on the built-in targeting features of the platform.

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Chapter Six: Why Tweet?

If you watch television or listen to FM radio stations, you’ve probably

heard the hosts talk about Twitter. Twitter is a 140-character micro-blogging

platform. You type in at the most 140 characters and it gets broadcasted to your

followers. On the surface Twitter sounds and looks so plain. However it’s one

of the most powerful communication, networking, and brand building tools to

ever come out of the internet.

I’ve yet to fully maximize my Twitter account but a lot of opportunities

have already been opened in just a few weeks of me Tweeting. Using Twitter

I’ve built relationships with key inﬂuential people. I even get the latest news

and updates that are helpful to my line of work. All of that in just a couple of

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weeks. My only regret? It took me this long to realize how effective Twitter can

be. Argh.

Why Twitter? Remember what I discussed earlier: communication has

radically changed from one-to-one to one-to-many-to-many. Information can

now travel and spread much faster than it ever has in the history of humanity.

Twitter adds something new to that as well, giving you a direct line to people

that you want to start conversations with. It’s opportunities like these which

form the foundation of multinationals and business empires. It really boils

down to relationships and networking, both of which are the core functions of

Twitter and social media.

Twitter for Brand Building

Think of Twitter as direct mail to your customers, minus paying for

stamps and walking to the post ofﬁce. The ability to let everyone know what

you’re doing, what you’re reading, and what you’re all about is key to building

a strong personal brand. You can leverage the principle of association with your

content strategy (which I’ll discuss in a separate section). In the past, you had to

physically show people over time how you work or talk with them over the

phone. Now it’s just one click away! It’s also a great way to let your customers

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know that you have new products, promotions, or if you’re a blogger, new

entries.

Twitter for Networking

A lot of influential personalities are in Twitter, making it fully possible to

connect with those who were once too far to connect with. Because of Twitter

you can say hello to your favorite celebrities, and can even provide leads to

reporters. I’ve talked with many reporters on Twitter and it’s amazing that you

can start building a relationship with people like them through virtual

communication lines.

Twitter for Education

Another underrated function of Twitter is that it allows you to get advice

and tips from people that you consider mentors and experts. A lot of subject

matter experts all over the world have Twitter accounts and they regularly

update it with links to their posts and other interesting articles which can help

you in your respective career. The trick here is to find out who to follow and

figure out if following them will offer any value to you.

Twitter for Fun

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Lastly, Twitter has allowed me to build deeper relationships with my

friends and acquaintances. It’s a easy, free, and cool way to communicate and I

always ﬁnd myself having conversations about random topics, sometimes even

with people that I haven’t met before.

There are more pros than cons when it comes to Twitter. If you’re a ﬁrm

believer in the idea that communication and information is power, then you

shouldn’t be hesitant to take advantage of the immense potential of Twitter for

your career and your business. Why Twitter? Why not?

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Chapter Seven: Twitter Guide

This chapter will be divided into two parts. The first segment will be a

comprehensive step-by-step guide on how to set-up your Twitter Profile. It’s

actually fairly easy to make an account but there are things you can do to

optimize your profile so that it can actually lead to conversions (sales, sign-ups,

etc.) Just like Facebook, we have to give Twitter the proper diligence and

respect so that we don’t overlook any marketing/sales opportunity. At the end

of the day Twitter for your business will be useless if it doesn’t have an effect

(direct or indirect) on your bottom line.

The second part will be how to effectively use Twitter to grow your

follower base. There are two schools of thought when it comes to building a

follower base and we will tackle both so that you can figure out which approach

you’ll take. In this section we will also talk about etiquette and your content

strategy.

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Setting up your account

Twitter’s sign-up page is one of the easiest to navigate ever, but give a

lot of thought for your username. That will be the handle that people will see,

and it represents your brand. The safe choice, of course, is to put the name of

your brand as your username. Another option would be to put a value or

product beneﬁt as your username (just in case someone else has your brand

name already).

After selecting your username, ﬁll in all other necessary information and

you’ll be thrown to the next page called Twitter Sources.

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In this part of the sign-up you’re asked to pick a topic and Twitter will

recommend people you might want to follow. These suggestions are pre-

selected subject matter experts or companies that you might ﬁnd interesting.

Try to follow the ones that you think are credible and offer value. If they end up

spamming your stream you can easily unfollow them later on.

Remember, the only content that you want popping up on your stream

are the ones that can actually help, educate, or entertain you. Go through the

tabs that you can relate to, follow a few, and then click the Next Step button at

the lower right. The next page will now allow you to automatically follow your

contacts in GMAIL, AOL, and YAHOO if they have Twitter accounts.

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Since you know these people the chances of them following you are

actually a bit high. Don’t worry by the way if all of your contacts aren’t on

GMAIL (maybe they’re in Outlook?). All you have to do is to export your

contact list from Outlook and then import them into to GMAIL. After you

import your contacts to GMAIL you can then have Twitter scan the database so

that you can automatically follow the ones that have Twitter accounts. This is a

great way to jump start your account so I highly recommend you guys do this.

Here’s a screenshot of the option on GMAIL that you should be able to

ﬁnd under the CONTACTS menu:

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After scanning all of your contacts and following them, click the NEXT

button at the lower right to proceed to the last step. The third and ﬁnal source

ﬁnding activity allows you to search for contacts that you want to follow.

If you’re short on time, you can skip this step because you can easily

look for people later on by clicking the FIND PEOPLE link at the top of your

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Twitter page. Click the finish button and your Twitter page. By the way, at this

point you might want to go check your e-mail and click the confirmation link

on the e-mail that Twitter sent you to unlock all the features. If you don’t, you’ll

only have limited access to your account.

I recommend that before you start Tweeting we spice up the page first

especially if this is for your brand or business. We have to always make a good

first impression and this shouldn’t be an exemption. Click the SETTINGS

option on the upper right hand corner of the page.

You’ll have several tabs that you can go through once you click settings.

In the first tab, Account, you can change your e-mail, username, and time zone.

Note that there is an option at the bottom which says “Protect my Tweets”. If

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this account is for marketing purposes, then leave it blank. If you’re satisﬁed

with everything here, click the NOTICES link at the navigation bar.

Now this is a judgement call for you. If you feel like you can handle the

inﬂux of e-mails saying that you have followers, then go ahead and leave the

New Follower Emails checked. If not, then take it out. Same goes for the Direct

Text E-mails. I suggest you click the Email Newsletter though so that you’re in

the loop when Twitter makes changes like new features that you can take

advantage of. After this, click SAVE and then head on over to PROFILE.

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This is one of the more important pages that we have to give some more

attention to. First, upload a proﬁle picture. Again use something that can best

represent your brand/company. This isn’t just a proﬁle photo, it’s a marketing

lever.

After the photo, add your location and website URL. If your company

doesn’t have a website yet then better make sure you get one done ASAP. I’ll

explain more on that in the last chapter of this eBook.

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Last, but not the least, is the Bio. This is one of your primary

communication channels in your page so as much as possible get straight to the

product beneﬁt of your brand. If the business is a restaurant, you might want to

put “Incredibly delicious steaks” or “Try our awesome Burgers!”. What’s

important is that you put a bold statement here that tells a story and builds your

brand’s identity.

If this is your personal account then you might want to put direct words

on who you are and what you do. This is what I put on mine:

Note that this box is located at one of the best spots in your proﬁle page,

the upper right section. This means that users and potential followers will give

this spot a look. Better make sure that you properly introduce yourself and what

you’re all about. I have a habit of putting something light and personal on all

my bio’s so I also said in my bio that I’m getting married August this year

(thank you, thank you, thank you!).

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After filling up all the fields, click “Save” and let’s move on to one of the

most important changes that you’ll make to your Twitter profile: the

background image.

Let’s put ourselves in our potential follower’s shoes. He or she clicks a

link that leads to your Twitter Profile. She sees a wall of text in the middle, your

picture, and your bio. Nothing really impressive. There’s no call-to-action for

her to follow you, much less buy from your store.

The solution? Let’s change the default blue background into your biggest

marketing channel for Twitter. This is a good tip which I read from Joel

Comm’s Twitter Power book.

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Here’s a screenshot of my personal Twitter account which is what I also

use to market my consultancy and speaking services.

There are three primary marketing spaces that you can use. First is the

left sidebar, then the top space (in between the Twitter logo and the navigation

bar), and the right sidebar. I’m currently only utilizing the sidebars but I’m

planning on putting something at the top soon.

For the left sidebar, I put a good photo of myself giving a talk followed

by a call-to-action for people to follow me. I’m also using this space to let them

know what I’ll be tweeting about so they have an idea on what to expect if they

follow me. Below the call-to-action are the URL’s of my other websites, social

media channels, and my e-mail address just in case they want to get in touch

and have a longer conversation (beyond Twitter’s 140 characters). Here’s a

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zoomed in picture just in case you’re having trouble with the zoomed out

picture above.

Come to think of it, that picture wasn’t taken when I was giving a talk.

That was actually a shot taken just a few moments before I proposed to my

ﬁancee in our church (just some trivia to lighten the mood, haha!). If you want

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to watch the entire proposal, head on over to this link. It’s uploaded on

Youtube. It’s 8 minutes of kilig moments so get ready for intense mushiness.

Back to the topic. If this is for your brand or company, then you can say

something like this on the copy below the photo

“Exclusive promos and prizes for our Twitter followers! Follow now!”

Make it really compelling for them to follow you. They’re already this

far and establishing a relationship with them is only one click away. Pull out all

the stops with your copy and design so that they have no choice but to follow

you after they see your profile page.

After you set-up your background image and you’ve completed all the

information fields, you can start Tweeting, getting followers, and following

more people that you want to hear from.

Two Guaranteed Ways to have THOUSANDS of followers

So... do you want to have thousands of followers fast? There are two

guaranteed ways to do that. The first is to literally follow everyone that you find

on Twitter. There’s a chance that they’ll follow you back. After following

maybe 30,000 people, around 10,000 will follow you back. In fact, there are

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automated scripts available on the internet which will let you do this, hassle

free.

The second way is be a celebrity! The top Filipinos with the most

number of followers are celebrities. Most of the other people in the list are the

type that I talked about earlier. It’s pretty easy to spot. Check how many are

following them and ratio it to the people they are following. Take a look as well

as what they’re posting on Twitter. There’s a big chance that they’re just

spamming links to their sites.

I disagree with both methods. Ask yourself ﬁrst: Why are you amassing

the numbers? Could it be because you want to send as much links to your site

as possible? That’s called spamming, and you get what you give in social

media. Either users will un-follow you or you’ll also just get spammed. Once

you follow too many people that you don’t know, your Twitter stream will be

ﬁlled with impersonal, irrelevant updates from all over the world.

Jacking up the number of their followers just because misses the entire

point of a good Twitter experience. Twitter, like other forms of social media, is

not a one-night stand. It’s a long term engagement which is built on the

foundation of trust. So get only the people that matter to follow you: your

customers, partners, the media, etc. Focus on quality, not quantity.

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Building a REAL Follower Base

There’s no substitute for hard work. We will have to earn those followers

one person at a time. Here are some of my recommendations on how to do it.

First, similar to building a Facebook Official Page, do integrated

marketing. If you have brick-and-mortar stores put collaterals on your branches

that say you’re on Twitter. Put in a call to action so that they will find following

you so compelling that they’ll even do it on their mobile phones. This can be in

the form of raffles, discounts, and other small prizes that you can give them.

Secondly, you can use your other social media platforms to promote that

you have Twitter. There are widgets available on Twitter which will

automatically push your Twitter updates to the widgets or on your social media

accounts. For example, click this link to go to the Twitter Facebook page which

will allow you to import your Tweets. There are also Facebook apps which will

allow you to import Tweets to your Official Page.

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There are also ofﬁcial Twitter pages that you can use to embed on your

company blogs or website. To check out the widgets that

you can use, just head over to http://twitter.com/badges.

You can either pick from plain HTML static or ﬂash-

based badges for your widget. The widget creator will

also allow you to set the size of the widget so you can

tailor it based on the open space that you have on your

company blog or website.

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Third way to get followers is to encourage other people to re-tweet you.

When someone re-tweets you, your username is posted on the stream of that

person and everyone in his network finds out about you can there’s chance that

they might visit your page and eventually follow you.

However, it’s not easy to get re-tweeted. This is all about the content that

you post on your stream. Users will re-tweet things that they find funny,

inspiring, educational, or valuable. A good strategy that you can do to get

followers quickly and at the same time drive product sales is to have time

bound sales exclusive to your Twitter followers. For example, tweet that your

branch in this venue will have a 10% discount just for the next 5 hours to all

people who go there and say “tweet!”. Your followers will definitely find this

interesting.

Remember, it’s all about adding value to your followers. Always keep

that in mind before sending out a tweet.

Other than getting re-tweeted, you also get exposure and followers when

someone replies to your tweets. Your username is published in his reply and is

broadcasted to the network of that user. This means that you really need to

engage your followers in conversations so that they will reply back to you and

give you the necessary exposure on their own networks.

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Obviously, the larger the follower base of the person re-tweeting you or

replying to you, the better. But these people won’t follow you back instantly the

moment you follow them. You have to build a relationship with them. Start by

re-tweeting their updates that offer value. Every now and then react to their

comments by sharing your thoughts on what they just posted. You might also

want to recommend to them readings or articles that are useful for them.

It’s literally like a courting process. There are no guarantees of a follow

from that person but at least you’ve made a new connection. You never know

when that tweet can lead to a cup of coffee then eventually a beautiful

friendship.

Lastly, another way to build a real following is to check out trending

topics that interest you and get into the conversations. Twitter has a lot of add-

on applications which will allow you to monitor various topics and even

manage multiple Twitter accounts. My favorite right now is Tweet Deck. It’s

very easy to use and I honestly won’t be enjoying Twitter as much as I do now

if it wasn’t for this program. Here’s a screenshot:

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You can add columns that track topics that you’re interested in. Just click

the add column button, key in the topic, and Tweet Deck will automatically

deliver people tweeting about it. Start replying and building relationships with

other people who share the same interests as you. This is also applicable for

your brand or business. Just pick topics associated with your brand and start

engaging your potential customers.

Twitter Content Strategy

Now let’s talk about what you’re supposed to put on your updates. If

you’re representing your company you will need to get clearance from your

boss on what kind of content you can put up. I’d recommend though that you

don’t use Twitter as some sort of press release channel. Use it as a way to build

your brand’s personality and image. What’s your brand all about? If your brand

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was a celebrity, who would he or she be? What kind of hobbies would your

brand be interested in? What kind of videos would your brand watch?

Answer those questions and you have what kind of content you should be

posting on Twitter. Don’t hesitate to reply to other Tweets and answer questions

from your followers even if the topic isn’t totally related to your product. As

long as you think it matches your brand personality, then go ahead and reply.

Value and Trust Capital

Like what we discussed earlier, people will only re-tweet you if there is

value in your update. Let’s add one more element to that: the chances of them

re-tweeting you increases exponentially when you have their trust. Trust builds

loyalty which is the foundation of a good brand ambassador program. Let’s call

this your brand’s Value and Trust Captial. To increase your capital “points” with

your followers, just make sure to actively engage, interact, and talk with them

on your social media platforms like Twitter. If something negative pops up,

resolve it immediately so your followers won’t get the impression that you

don’t value their input.

When you have a good follower base and you have good trust capital, it

will be much easier to launch a viral campaign. If you have thousands of loyal

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followers and you post a link to a viral video that your company produced then

there’s a big chance that your followers will re-tweet, especially if the video is

both funny and it offers value (maybe you can bundle it with a promotion?).

What about Plurk?

Before we move on to the next chapter, let me just take a page or two to

discuss another micro-blogging platform that’s famous in the Philippines -

Plurk. The main difference with Plurk With Twitter is that is allows threaded

conversations, and the updates are plotted in a horizontal timeline. Here’s a

screenshot of a Plurk Timeline for your perusal:

Each time you post an update, people can comment on your update by

just clicking that entry. This opens up a thread where everyone can see what

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everyone else said. In a way, Plurk is more interactive than Twitter. Here’s a

screenshot of what an open thread looks like:

As you can see the interaction level here is much more intense, personal,

and organized.

So can we use Plurk for business or for a brand? Deﬁnitely. Should we

use it? If you have the man power to do so, then go ahead.

If you have limited resources, you might want to stick with only one:

either Twitter or Plurk. Note that here in the Philippines, it the platform more

commonly used is Twitter, because Twitter gets so much attention from

traditional media.

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If you’re just starting out your social media marketing, a good suggestion

is to just focus on one or two channels ﬁrst and when you get the hang of things

you can go on and expand to other platforms.

Summary

ADD VALUE. That’s the single most powerful tip I can give to you

before you start doing social media, especially Twitter. The more value you

give, the more value you add to yourself and your company. Social Media is not

about buying, it’s about earning via giving.

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Secondly, Twitter is not just about talking - it’s also about listening and

learning. There’s so much information and insights that you can get via

Twitter’s search mechanisms that will have a profound impact on your business

and career. If you’re not using Twitter to learn from others then you’re missing

out half of what Twitter can do for you.

If you’re really interested in Twitter and you want to read more about it,

I’d like to recommend (again) that you read Twitter Power written by Joel

Comm. That book was a huge inspiration for me in writing this chapter.

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Chapter Eight: Connecting Smiles with

Friendster

People say Friendster is already “yesterday” but the fact of the matter is

that a lot of Filipinos are still using the pioneer social networking website. The

trafﬁc they’re getting is still high enough to get anyone’s attention, especially

companies who want to tap Filipino netizens - more speciﬁcally young

Filipinos.

Based on the pitch of the sales force of Friendster, bulk of Friendster

users are in the 12-20 y/o range. The Cartoon Network New Generations4 study

4 New Generations Philippines 2009 by Cartoon Network and Synovate

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also said that Friendster was still the no.1 visited social network of Filipino kids

aged 7-14 y/o. If your product is for the Filipino youth, then you need to

consider setting up shop on Friendster. You might be missing out on potential

leads and customers.

Friendster has a lot of good tools that you can use to build brand

communities and we’ll go through two of them this chapter. First we will be

discussing their Fan Profiles. It’s actually an effective marketing tool when used

properly. After that we will spend some time discussing Friendster’s self-

advertising service called DIY (Do it Yourself ads).

Building your Friendster Fan Profile

Unlike Facebook, you can’t automatically create a Friendster Fan Profile.

To start, you need to create a regular account for your brand or company. Head

on over to www.friendster.com and sign-up for an account. Friendster recently

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redesigned and rebranded the entire site. Here’s a screenshot of their new logo

and look:

After signing-up

for an account, fill it up

with all the necessary

information and content.

Don’t forget to include

really good photos (you might want to make several albums) and you can also

upload a video via the Friendster Media Box. Once you’re done with

completing the information on your profile, the next step is to create your own

background image. But since there’s already so much information on your

Friendster profile, I don’t recommend overdoing the background. This is really

more of a branding exercise so give a little more freedom for your creative team

on this one.

Social Media Guide For Filipino Entreps

Social Media Guide For Filipino Entreps

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