DEMA News: Rachelle Morris

Showing posts with label Rachelle Morris. Show all posts

Monday, February 11, 2013

What the Internet Says About You & Your Business

Guest Blogger: Rachelle Morris, DEMA Membership Marketing & Communications Coordinator

Have you ever Googled your name before? I have...

Result #1: My personal Facebook page
Result #2: Someone else’s Facebook page
Result #3: Image results for “Rachelle Morris” (The first few which actually are me. Sadly, I cannot claim the one of the skinny bikini-clad model…sigh)
Result #4: Article of someone named Rachelle Morris, who is about the same age as me and shot her ex-husband in front of their children in 2008. For the record, THIS Rachelle Morris is not me. I am happily engaged (to a living breathing man) and the closest thing I have to a child is my 7 year old Pomeranian, Peanut.

Lesson learned? Well, from a professional standpoint, it’s important to know what the Internet might have to “say” about both you and your business. And there are a number of ways you can keep tabs on this. Here are a few that I suggest:

Google your name and business name
If the pages and articles you would prefer to be listed first in the search results do not appear there, then work on some SEO techniques that might improve chances of your preferred pages making it in the top results. Comb through the Google results for anything pertaining to your business as you never know when your business could be the target of malicious and incorrect information. I also suggest looking through the complete image results to ensure there aren’t any photos online that you wouldn’t want the world to see.

Set up Google Alerts
Here you can set up alerts that email you directly when any relevant and new content based on your assigned keywords hits the web. Examples of terms to consider:

Your name
Your company’s name and acronym
Your products/services
The names of your CEO and other key team members
Industry keywords
Important industry figures
Events your company hosts
The names of your competitors

These alerts can help you stay current with what is being published about you, your company and the industry at large.

Use a social media search tool
SocialMention* is such a tool which allows you to conduct a search in the social networking world to see what is being said about you and your business across a number of social platforms. You can conduct a search as you like, or even set up alerts (much like Google Alerts) that will email you directly with new content that is based on your keywords.

Change your social networking profile privacy settings
Social networking sites sometimes have privacy filters that will allow you to customize who can and cannot see your information, posts, photos, etc.

Let me paint a picture for you to demonstrate why this might be of some importance:
Let’s say you have a Facebook page and your privacy settings currently allow for ANYONE to see your photos from last month’s bachelor party in Vegas, a funny-yet-naughty meme you shared with your friends, or perhaps some political rant you posted at 1am after one-too-many glasses of wine. Now let’s just say an important customer, investor, colleague or even your grandma stumbled upon this sensitive material because you haven’t set up your privacy settings to shield them from this sort of content. This sort of content might sway their opinion of you and your level of professionalism and ultimately might not have the best outcome for you or your business.

Check out your social networking sites to see if they offer filters and customizable privacy settings. Or, to ensure sensitive material doesn’t become a problem in a sensitive relationship, it is probably just best practice not to post it. But, if you must, at least set up your privacy settings so you save yourself from a world of hurt if it ever falls into the wrong hands.

These are just a few of the ways you can keep a watch over your professional brand on the Internet. The most important lesson is to be mindful that, whether you like it or not, the Internet creates an identity for you and your business. Arm yourself with the knowledge as to what identity it has created on you and your business’ behalf and do what you can to mold it into an identity that is professionally appropriate.

Monday, December 17, 2012

How I (Accidentally) Accessed a Former Employer’s Twitter Account Without Their Password

Guest Blogger: Rachelle Morris, DEMA Membership Marketing & Communications Coordinator

I wanted to share a recent experience with you all in hopes that it might shed some light on the importance of managing your accounts and protecting your social media identity.

I don’t know about you, but between my personal and work logins, I have far too many username/password combinations in my head to keep them all straight. I was recently trying to log into my personal Twitter account, but since I haven’t been logged in for quite some time, I was having a difficult time remembering the correct login combination. So I proceeded with the “forgot username and password” process.

What happened next literally left my mouth dropped. I had the option to enter in my phone number as a way of gaining access to the account that was associated with that phone number. Immediately thereafter, I received a text that included a code to help me log back in. At this point I had just assumed this was my personal Twitter that it was helping me log into – but I was never asked to verify any of the account information….Before I realized it, I found myself staring at a Twitter account dashboard that wasn’t mine. In fact, it was worse: I had inadvertently logged into a former employer’s Twitter account – all without ever entering the current username and password!!!

– JAW DROP – How is that possible?! Here’s how:

It looks like the new social media manager at the former employer had gone in and updated the account with all her new information and I would assume she changed the password as well.

HOWEVER, what she failed to do was check out the MOBILE tab under the Settings tab. If she had, she would have seen my phone number was still listed as the phone that could access the account and Tweet on behalf of the account.

Lucky for them, I am not a disgruntled ex-employee out for revenge. Had I been, I could have done some SERIOUS damage to their online reputation and relationships. Instead, I quickly deleted my information from the account and signed out.

Please, please, please – make sure you are keeping a close eye on all of your accounts. I would suggest it as good practice to change passwords whenever someone leaves the company and had access to ANY account. And be sure to go through ALL the account settings to be absolutely sure they have been completely removed.

Monday, December 10, 2012

DS12 – What a Show!

Guest Blogger: Rachelle Morris, DEMA Membership Marketing & Communications Coordinator

The past month has been a complete whirlwind. Having attended my very first DEMA Show, I am even more impressed with the professionalism of the Diving Industry! What a fun, intelligent, passionate and welcoming group of people! I met so many incredible individuals and can’t wait to see you all again in Florida for DEMA Show 2013!

Being this was my first Show, I quite honestly didn’t know what to expect. One of the Show features I was most excited about was the opportunity to attend educational seminars and learn from experts of their field. Being the social media fiend that I am, I was eager to attend Evolving Social Media Realities: What You Need to Know with Jason Heller, CEO, Agiliti. He was such an engaging speaker and had so many great ideas; I couldn’t help but take feverish notes so I could share some of them with all of you!

Facebook & Exposure
Did you know that only 15% of your followers ever actually see the content your business or brand page posts? Much of this is due to a complicated algorithm that determines who sees what. The whole thing is -quite honestly- beyond my understanding, but there are apps and programs that can help make it easy for those of us that “don’t do numbers.” Jason spoke about EdgeRank Checker, which is described on their website as “an algorithm that ranks objects in the Facebook News Feed. Pages with high EdgeRank Scores will be more likely to show up in the news feed, than Pages with low EdgeRank Scores.”

With EdgeRank Checker’s free plan, you have access to information like your EdgeRank score, the best average day of the week, worst average day of the week and more. And of course the paid PRO plan has even more insightful data for you to refer to like post grading, industry report, best day + best time + best keyword, and more.

With this sort of information you can leverage your content and maximize your Facebook exposure by ensuring you are posting during the ideal time, on the best days of the week, and using content and keywords that are most likely to drive engagement.

Be sure to check out EdgeRank Checker to see how the free or PRO plans can help you maximize your Facebook efforts!

Track Your Brand

Curious to know what people are saying about you, your business, or brand online? Socialmention* is a great, FREE tool that can help you do just that! You can even use it to see what people are saying about your competition. ;)

How Are My Tweets Doing?

I love Jason’s suggestion for a program that can help track your Twitter analytics: Crowdbooster provides you information on your retweets, impressions, replies, follower growth, influential followers, top retweeters, mentions, and more. What I appreciate is that you can switch between displaying information in table or graph form. Being a visual learner, I love the information being provided in a graph so I can quickly see how our Tweets are doing.

After setting up my account, Crowdbooster sent me an email informing me of the 3 best times to schedule tweets for today. LOVE IT!

Give some of these programs a peak and see if they would be a good fit for you and your social media efforts. The added work can certainly pay off as you start to see increased engagement.

And if you know of any other good resources, please share them here!

Friday, November 9, 2012

Instagram, Hashtags and First DEMA Show…OH MY!

Guest Blogger: Rachelle Morris, DEMA Membership Marketing & Communications Coordinator

The DEMA Show countdown clock at the DEMA Association office is finally in the single digits. DEMA Show is upon us! I am so excited to see what all the buzz is about, finally put faces to the voices on the phone, and meet the many Members I have worked with over the past seven months.

Since the moment I first started working for DEMA, the passion of Industry professionals has been so evident. Diving professionals LOVE their sport, love the underwater world, and love sharing it with others. Your passion is contagious and your drive to not only be successful, but keep the sport and Industry alive is awe-inspiring. I couldn’t be more excited to be part of it all and experience where it all comes together: DEMA Show.

As a DEMA Show newbie, I will be busy documenting every new experience with my handy-dandy smartphone. Which means for all you Instagram lovers, I will be sharing insider photos from the Show, Awards party, seminars, and shenanigans happening all around Vegas. Follow “DEMAShow” on Instagram to see it all go down. Follow “DEMAOrg” on Instagram for other Industry and Association news!

Wait – did that link just direct me to DEMA’s Instagram profile ON THE WEB??

Why, yes it most certainly did and it’s because on Monday, November 5th, Instagram officially launched online profiles. For businesses and brands this means that followers don’t need a smartphone anymore to access and follow your photo stream. Learn more about your online profile here.

If YOU are on Instagram, we invite you to share your experience with everyone by including #DEMAShow in your DEMA Show photo descriptions. When someone searches “DEMAShow” they will be able to see what you are up to thanks to this hashtag! (But please, out of respect for the marvelous innovators, do not take and share photos of the new product showcase and technical product showcase.)

So, at this point I will have to bid you adieu. Happy travels and I will see you in Vegas!!

Monday, November 5, 2012

Well Isn’t That Pinteresting….

Guest Blogger: Rachelle Morris, DEMA Membership Marketing & Communications Coordinator

I must confess, I am OBSESSED with Pinterest. My fiancé has experienced a sudden improvement in my cooking, my winter wardrobe wish list has grown exponentially and my new apartment has been cleverly decorated; all a result of countless Pinterest-inspired ideas.

But Pinterest isn’t just for the individual – it can also be a powerful marketing and revenue-producing tool for a brand or business. Earlier this year, Shareaholic conducted a study that found Pinterest to drive more referral traffic than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined. Let me give you a “real life” example that I recently experienced:

With my June wedding getting closer by the day, I have spent countless hours searching for bridesmaid dresses that would meet my specific criteria (color, style and price point). Upon moving my search to Pinterest, I quickly found the ideal dress. Clicking through the pin took me to the dress’s Etsy shop that is run by an upcoming dress designer. This dress designer, thanks to Pinterest, will now have 6 additional sales under their belt (my bridal party) and has been exposed to countless other potential customers as a result of this one pin. That’s a pretty good return on investment considering Pinterest is FREE and pinning content requires minimal effort. Just image what it might be able to do for YOUR brand or business!

Here at DEMA, our Pinterest boards are aimed at encouraging and supporting the Diving lifestyle as well as sharing Industry news. In an attempt to track how successful our efforts are, I have come across Pinpuff, a free web app that measures your virality and influence on Pinterest.

DEMA is using this as a tool to gauge our influence by tracking and watching our Reach Score, Activity Score, Virality Score and overall Pinfluence Score. Perhaps it will be a handy tool for you as well.

What I appreciate about Pinpuff is that:

Your score is generated instantly.
It gives you helpful suggestions to boost your reach.
It lists the number of likes and repins each of your boards has received (up to 20 boards) which can help you see what sort of content is most likely to be shared.
It tells you here what is considered a good, average or poor score so you can easily gauge how well you are doing!

By monitoring your Pinterest content, you can track how successful your efforts are, where they might need some additional attention, or, if you are running a campaign/game/contest you can get an idea of how much participation it’s getting. (Doing a quick search online will give you countless ideas for contests, strategies, games and other creative ideas that you can use to drive your Pinterest influence.)

If you aren’t already on Pinterest, take a moment to check it out and think about how you might be able to use it to the benefit of your business or brand. And be sure to connect with DEMA on Pinterest and don’t forget to click follow!

If you have discovered any other useful tools for keeping tabs on your Pinterest influence, or a strategy that you MUST share, please do so here!

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Tweet, Tweet…Anybody there?

Guest Blogger: Rachelle Morris, DEMA Membership Marketing & Communications Coordinator

Developing a strategy for your Twitter marketing efforts is one thing, but how can you tell if all your time and planning is paying off? Well, like most things related to marketing and social media, there isn’t a simple answer (I am beginning to sound like a broken record). There are all kinds of ways you can track your Twitter insights, however, allow me to share with you how DEMA is tracking the success of our Twitter efforts and perhaps you will find some of these methods useful.

DEMA finds the following insights are beneficial in determining how well our Twitter efforts are paying off and areas that may need more attention:

Followers
We track these numbers to make sure we are 1) increasing our following, which would indicate that our content is valuable and 2) not losing followers which would raise a red flag that we are doing something wrong.

Following
We track the number we are following to make sure we are making a continuous effort to find and follow new people who are able to provide us with valuable information that we can then pass on to our Followers.

Weekly Retweeted
Having someone retweet your Tweet (in other words, share your content with their followers) is one of the highest levels of engagement on Twitter. It means that your content is not only valuable, but valuable enough that someone else found the content worthy of being passed along to their followers. Think of that saying, “Imitation is the highest form of flattery…” yeah, it’s kinda like that.

Weekly Clicks
Having someone click on a link provided in your tweet is another high level of engagement. Clever writing and high quality content are just a few ways to experience a high click-through rate.

Weekly Mentions
When someone uses “@[yourTwitternamehere]” they are engaging you in their conversation. It can also be a way to tag you in a Tweet so you can find who is talking about you.

To keep track of these insights, we use 3 different applications:

1 ) Twitter

Used to track: Followers & Following
Information Available Via: Twitter profile page

2) Hootsuite

Used to track: Weekly Clicks
Information Available Via: Hootsuite’s custom reports
Methodology: We make sure all DEMA Twitter postings are posted via Hootsuite and that all links are shortened using the Owl. ly shortening tool. This way, Hootsuite is able to track how many clicks each of our links receives on a weekly basis and reports this statistic for us via our custom-made click report.

3) Twitonomy

Used to track: Weekly Retweets & Weekly Mentions
Information Available Via: Mentions & Retweets panel
Methodology: On a weekly basis, we count up how many times @DEMAorg is mentioned in the Tweets of others and also how many times someone has retweeted our content each week.

Follow DEMA on Twitter to connect with the Dive Industry and stay in-the-loop with everything happening WHEN it’s happening at DEMA Show 2012!

Are you looking to learn more about Twitter and how to set up your business or brand’s Twitter presence? Consider reviewing this Twitter Guide Book that I’ve found to be a good overall resource to get you started!

Friday, October 26, 2012

Twitter Me This…

Guest Blogger: Rachelle Morris, DEMA Membership Marketing & Communications Coordinator

I must confess, I haven’t always been a fan of Twitter. Initially, I took it to be for the ego-maniac; who could possibly think anyone cares what they have to say in 140 characters every 5 minutes? Obviously, that was before I had A CLUE about Twitter and how powerful it can really be.

In my personal life, I have come to realize that Twitter is a source where I often discover “breaking news.” This realization has, in my eyes, made Twitter synonymous with the dissemination of information, and for businesses there is endless potential. Not only does it provide you with a platform where you can tweet all day long with less potential of annoying your followers as compared to say, Facebook, (Twitter followers expect to hear from you throughout the day) but this license to chat away keeps you top-of-mind and relevant.

Much like my Facebook findings, there is a wealth of information on ways to make the most of your Twitter campaign and marketing. Here are of a few tips that I have found to be valuable in DEMA’s Twitter efforts:

The 80/20 Rule: Just like I discussed in my previous post about Facebook post content, the 80/20 rule applies to Twitter as well. Remember, the rule suggests that 80% of your posts should be providing valuable content that supports the lifestyle/interests/concerns of your followers while 20% should be promotional. I have even read that on Twitter specifically, your self promotional content should be as low as 5%-10%.

What DEMA is doing: Much like our Facebook page, we try and live by the 80/20 rule by posting valuable business tips, dive news and other information that would be beneficial to our Members and followers while incorporating a bit of Association-specific news to keep everyone updated. Much like our Facebook page, we try and live by the 80/20 rule by posting valuable business tips, dive news and other information that would be beneficial to our Members and followers while incorporating a bit of Association-specific news to keep everyone updated.

Be Active! Twitter is very different from Facebook for many reasons, but one of my favorites is because it gives you a license to talk…a lot! Twitter followers expect and probably want to hear from you throughout the day, which means that you have less chance of being that annoying friend I referred to in a previous post. And remember, as soon as you tweet something, there are 5 other tweets that have just pushed yours down the queue. Don’t think that tweeting once a day is going to give you maximum exposure. If you aren’t tweeting multiple times a day, it’s quite possible that your tweets are getting lost.

What DEMA is doing: We aim to post 4-5 times per day. Sometimes we don’t have enough quality information to share and sometimes we have extra. What we find to be important is that we are providing our followers with news and information that is valuable to their business, careers, diving interests, and so on. We aim for a certain number of tweets, but the quality and relativity of the information is just as important to us. We aim to post 4-5 times per day. Sometimes we don’t have enough quality information to share and sometimes we have extra. What we find to be important is that we are providing our followers with news and information that is valuable to their business, careers, diving interests, and so on. We aim for a certain number of tweets, but the quality and relativity of the information is just as important to us.

Images, Images, Images: I was surprised to learn from a recent study that images posted on Twitter outperform text messages by 91%. Ninety-one percent! This article also states that image tweets only make up 2.3% of all tweets. It would seem that tweeting images is a hidden gem and posting such could really make you stand out from the rest while providing some pretty engaging content!

What DEMA WILL BE doing: Given this newly discovered information, DEMA will certainly be incorporating additional images into our Twitter line-up. We are already sharing images and visually communicating on other platforms like Given this newly discovered information, DEMA will certainly be incorporating additional images into our Twitter line-up. We are already sharing images and visually communicating on other platforms like Facebook, Google+, Pinterest, and Instagram but we will begin to share similar content with our Twitter followers as well.

Are you looking to learn more about Twitter and how to set up your business or brand’s page? Consider reviewing this Twitter Guide Book that I’ve found to be a good overall resource to get you started!

Monday, October 8, 2012

How to Gauge the Success of your Facebook Page

Guest Blogger: Rachelle Morris, DEMA Membership Marketing & Communications Coordinator

Last week, I shared some of my favorite strategies for creating a successful Facebook business page and I am sure you probably have plenty of good ideas as well. Once you have your ideas and plan in place, how do you go about tracking the success of your social media efforts? Again, there is no universal answer, but I can certainly share with you what DEMA has decided to do to track and gauge the success of our efforts.

DEMA has decided to focus on the engagement rate of our Facebook Fans. That is, calculating the Engaged Fans of DEMA’s Facebook page will tell us how many fans are engaged with the page content and essentially how well we are doing with providing our Facebook fans with content that is relevant and valuable.

We track this number on a weekly basis by taking the number of weekly engaged users (you can find this information under your FB business page insights “Talking About This” tab), less any new “Likes,” and then dividing it by the number of total fans as of that week. Ta-da! Weekly engagement rate!

What is a good engagement rate you ask? Prepare to be surprised. Well, at least I certainly was…

According to a study done in 2011 by Ehrenberg-BassInstitute, only 1.3% of Facebook users engage with brand pages. Only 1.3%!?! Wait…there is more… If page “Likes” are removed as a contributing factor of engagement, the actual average of engaged CURRENT fans is only 0.45%. Also noted is that even a sample of “Passion Brands” which were expected to see a higher level of engagement only saw an average of 0.64% of their page fans engaging with content. I don’t know about you, but I was both shocked by this number (I was expecting something a little bit higher) but also relieved as it meant that DEMA is doing pretty well! One interesting tidbit to note is that engagement rates tend to drop as fan size increases (probably because of an increased number of lurkers rather than truly engaged fans). And according to another resource, Social Examiner, healthy pages have an average of 1-5%.

“Rachelle, why can’t you give me a straight answer?” It’s frustrating, I know. I was searching for a concrete answer like, “Your engagement rate should always be X%.” However, like most things related to social media and marketing for that matter, there doesn’t seem to be a finite answer. I would suggest that anyone trying to set an engagement rate goal consider these factors:

Do you have 20 followers or thousands? If you are on the higher end, you may find that your pages have quite a number of lurkers (it’s ok!) which may bring your engagement rate down a tad.
Keep in mind the availability of the staff. If you don’t have the manpower to dedicate countless hours, just do the best you can do without sacrificing other areas of your business.
Calculate your current engagement rate. Is it on the lower end of the scale which leaves room for improvement? Maybe some of my suggestions from my previous post can help get your rate where you would like it to be.

· Ultimately, what are the goals of your Facebook page? To entertain? To makes sales? To share information? You might have a great engagement rate, but if your underlining goals aren’t being met, perhaps incorporating a different strategy will help you reach your goals.

While we really focus on our weekly engagement rate, DEMA also tracks things like our audience demographics, page visits, number of likes, reach, tab views, referrers and so on. There is a wealth of information available to you under your Facebook page’s insights. If you haven’t already, take a peak and see what you can learn about your followers.

What do you track?
Have your insights revealed any surprising information about your followers?
Does your engagement rate blow the 0.45%-5% scale out of the water? If so, please tell us what you are doing!

Have a great week!

Rachelle

Monday, October 1, 2012

Searching for a Perfect Social Media Plan

Guest Blogger: Rachelle Morris, DEMA Membership Marketing & Communications Coordinator

As DEMA’s Membership Marketing and Communications Coordinator, one of my responsibilities is to maintain our social media pages. Sound like a Millennial’s dream-come-true? As it turns out, giving social media followers what they want is a HUGE responsibility and requires much more thought and strategic planning than simply reposting the latest “Cute Kitten Meme.”

With social media trends ever-changing, I have spent countless hours trying to find THE answer to making our social media sites the best they can be. And after much research, I finally found the answer: There is no answer. No 10-Step Process. No “one-size-fits-all.” No magical equation. Pretty anti-climactic, huh?

There are plenty of great tips out there, but no one has the universal answer for guaranteed success. You can bet that in all my research I NEVER found a guaranteed step-by-step process for how a non-profit trade organization can best engage the professional Diving Industry.

However, my research did uncover a number of themes that seem to push most social media campaigns in the direction of success. In an effort to spare you from hours of grueling research, I’d like to share some of my discoveries with you over the next few weeks. I am not saying that these are the answers to your social media woes, but instead may they serve as food-for-thought. It is my hope that something you read here may be of some help in your social media efforts.

Let me start off by discussing the heavy hitter which may very well have replaced the timeless tradition of the High School Reunion: Facebook. While my research suggests there are many things that can help keep your followers happy and engaged, here are my five favorites:

1. The 80/20 Rule: Did you ever (or maybe you still do) have that annoying friend that ONLY ever wants to talk about themselves? Don’t allow your Facebook page to be that friend. Nobody wants to follow a Facebook page that is going to entirely self-promote, so don’t or you may find your page getting dropped like a bad habit. The 80/20 rule suggests that 80% of your posts should be providing valuable content that supports the lifestyle/interests/concerns of your followers while 20% should be promotional.

What DEMA is doing: DEMA’s Facebook page “80%” contains stories that we believe diving professionals will find interesting. Whether it is news on the 1900’s ship wreckage discovered by divers or a great business tip – we want to pass it on to you to enjoy. Our “20%” is providing our followers with Association-specific news, Member benefits, important reminders and other DEMA tid-bits.

2. Don’t post too much: On my personal Facebook page I have one friend in particular who – and I am not even exaggerating – on any given day will LITERALLY have 15-20 posts IN A ROW in my news feed. As much as I want to connect with them on social media, constant updates like these put them at risk for being “de-friended.” My point is this: if people are following your page, that means they are interested in what you have to say but that doesn’t give you a license to be annoying. My research suggests that your business page may see higher engagement rates if you post 1-2 times per day and that you may (remember this is not an exact science) get the best results during the hours of 1:00pm and 4:00pm. My takeaway from this: Moderation is key; post regularly enough to stay top-of-mind, but not so often that you turn people away from your brand. Know your audience and be mindful of how often they want to see you in their newsfeed. Combining this pattern with quality content should keep your followers intrigued and loyal.

What DEMA is doing: We try really hard to follow the 1-2 times per day rule. Sometimes it’s more, sometimes it’s less. But more often than not, you are probably only going to hear from DEMA on Facebook a couple of times a day.

3. Visuals are KEY: Timeline was designed with visual stimulation in mind. Some love it, some hate it. Either way, take advantage of this trend! Post photos. Share photos. If you can, turn your content into visuals. If you can create a viral image…then gold star for you!

What DEMA is doing: We update our cover story weekly to visually communicate news released that week. We have even experienced these images being shared as our followers spread the news to their friends. We’ve also created a special “Industry News” photo album that essentially acts as a news archive including links to the full articles. If we see a fun, diving-related viral image – we share that with our followers. And we have developed a little game we like to call, “Mystery Pic of the Week.” We have other fun visual ideas coming down the pipe, but I don’t want to spoil all the fun quite yet. :)

4. Tell people what you want them to do: Do you want someone to “Like” or share something? Tell them! Telling your followers what course of action you want them to take is sometimes the only little nudge they need to engage with your content.

What DEMA is doing: We’ve used this little golden nugget in a number of our posts. Over the past few months, the post to experience the most engagement ASKED for follower participation: "LIKE" this status if we will see you in 79 days at DEMA Show!” How’s that for delivering results?! ;)

5. Talk to your followers: Ask people questions. Ask for their feedback. Create a poll using Facebook’s fancy little poll feature! RESPOND to post, questions, direct messages and comments. After all, social media is all about COMMUNICATION – make sure you are communicating with your followers and show them that you care about what they have to say.

What DEMA is doing: Here at DEMA we check our Facebook throughout the day and respond to comments, questions and direct messages as soon as we see them. Sometimes we will post questions or polls on our Timeline to prompt conversation. Posts that are left by followers might even receive a “LIKE” or comment from us as well.

So there you have it! If you aren’t already, think about how some of these ideas might work in your social media plan. Next week, I will share ideas for how to track and determine the success of these efforts (and how DEMA is doing it ourselves).

So, until next Monday and in the spirit of today’s post, I’d like to know:

What do you hope to get from DEMA’s Facebook page?
What is it missing? What do you like?
Do you have any strategies and creative ideas that have been successful for your company/organization?