Archive for the ‘Build-A-Fan-Base’ Category

One of the best ways to tell your blog visitors about your Facebook presence is by using a Facebook Fan Badge. This allows users to click a button and join your Fan page and to click through to your Facebook account.

Quick note, are you looking for information on the Facebook Fan Widget? If so, click here.

To add the Facebook Fan Badge Widget:

1. Go to the Facebook Fan Badge Widget page. You will need to be logged into Facebook to access this page.

2. The “Select a Page” drop down box will show all of the fan pages you have joined. By default, the Fan Badge Preview section on the right will show the first fan page in your fan page list. Select your fan page and the Fan Badge Preview will update.

3. When you select your fan page, the “Copy the code below and paste it on your website” textbox will update with the correct code. Copy the code. Pro-tip: I like to keep a text file open (like Notepad) so I can paste in and label code. I do this in case I totally forget what I just copied and end up copying something else into my clipboard. It saves time and my sanity. ;)

4. Log into your blog, and add a text widget to your blog, paste in the code, and save your changes. This part of the process will be different depending on your blogging system.

For WordPress.com and WordPress.org (custom install) users
1. Log into WordPress.com
2. From your blog’s dashboard, go to the Appearance> Widgets page
3. Assuming you have at least one sidebar, click + drag a Text widget to your sidebar
4. Set a title. I used “Join My Facebook Fan Page” as the title
5. Paste in the code that we copied from the Facebook Fan Badge page. If it is no longer in your clipboard, you can copy it from your temporary text file mentioned in the Pro-tip above.
6. Save then Close and you’re set.

This is a screenshot of adding the badge to WordPress.com (click to enlarge):

Adding the widget to WordPress.com and WordPress installs is fairly easy but to add them to Tumblr and Posterous take more work and you have to muck around in the HTML. I’ll show you exactly how to do that.

For Tumblr users:
1. Log into your Tumblr account
2. Click on the Customize link button (upper right part of the page with the wrench icon)
3. Click on the “Theme” tab at the top of the page. We’re assuming you have Advanced HTML turned ON for your theme.
4. Navigate to the part of the theme where you want the badge to show up. I put mine right below a FormSpring widget which shows up under the Archive/RSS segment.
5. Click on the Update Preview button to see your changes.
6. After adding the exact code the box was slightly our of whack so you may have to tweak the colors a bit. Once you’ve done that, click on the Save & Close button and you’re set.

This is where I added in the Facebook code (click to enlarge):

For Posterous users (requires Advance Theme view to be turned on):
1. Log into your Posterous account
2. Go to the Settings page by mousing over the upper right section of he page and clicking on “Settings” button
3. Click on the big “Theme and Customize My Site” button
4. Click on the Advanced tab in the upper left hand side of the page
5. Once again, you’ll need to have Custom Theming turned on to proceed. If you do, you’ll see HTML template code in the top window. Expand the window by clicking on the “Expand” link
6. Navigate to where you would like to add your badgeand paste it in. I added my badge right below the “Subscribe via RSS” link

This is what the RSS link template code look like. Paste your badge code right after this section (it ended up being 90% down towards the end of the template page on my theme). Click to enlarge:

So we just learned how to add a Facebook Fan Badge to your blog site. If you desprately need help with doing this with one of the other blogging platforms, leave a comment below and I’ll update this blog post with those instructions. M’Kay?

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Whoa there big feller, how to I display the fan pictures and my Facebook feed like on some other sites?

Facebook has several types of goodies for sites and one of them is a Facebook Fan Widget (not the same thing as the badge). The Fan Widget uses JavaScript code so some blogging systems do not allow them. WordPress.org blogs do allow them since they are installed on one’s own server but WordPress.com does not allow them because of the JavaScript.

Bank robber Willie Sutton was once asked, “Why do you rob banks?” His reply, “Because that’s where the money is.” The AP is taking the same approach and sending some of it’s Twitter links to Facebook, because that’s where millions of people are.

I think this will be a short term marketing strategy. And even today they started sending people back to the AP site. Using Facebook as an additional outpost is a good idea, but not as a center point.

If you have a domain, use it. That’s where the true riches are.

Related Posts:
* The AP Is Using Twitter To Send People To Facebook. Wait. What? – TechCrunch
* AP is Visionary: They See a “Siteless Web” – Steve Rubel Lifestream

I love promoting awesome people, great causes, events, and organizations/businesses that are doing interesting things. My favorite tech tool to help me do this is the Apple iPhone 3Gs.

There’s a reason the iPhone 3Gs is such a hot seller, it is a mobile promotion machine. I use it to check email on the road or at home when away from my laptop. I use it to take pictures that I post to my Twitter and Facebook status feeds and to various blogs. The built in video allows me to post to my YouTube Channel, post via email to my Posterous account, send short videos via 12seconds.tv, and to live stream using Qik.com and UStream. With this single tool, I can immediately share what’s going on with my life or at an event.

Here’s an example of how I used my iPhone for shameless self-promotion. A couple of months back, I noticed Nancy Rodriguez’s Twitter update where she mentioned that she and the crew from Q1047, the local Hip-Hop and R&B station, where going to be live broadcasting from a nearby McDonald’s. It was around 7am so I grabbed a fast shower then zoomed over to McDees. I had chatted with Nancy before via Twitter so it was great meeting her and the rest of the Rico and Mambo show. I took a couple of photos of them in action, posted the pictures to Twitpic and Twitter, spoke to Nancy, then headed back to go home.

Now, I’ve been listening to Q1047 since I moved to Ventura County and it’s my favorite station. So I was glad to post pictures and tweet about them on Twitter. But as I headed back to the car I realized that I could have plugged my new online blogging course. So I decided to grow a sack and went back to ask Nancy to send a shoutout to my BuildYourFanBase.com readers and she kindly did so.

Fifteen minutes after I left the live broadcast, I had uploaded the video shoutout to YouTube and had already tweeted out a link to my blog post on the event. Minutes later Nancy retweeted the link and gave my blog and new blog class an on-air shoutout.

Now that’s promotion at the speed of light!

Do you have any other mobile promotion tech tools that you swear by?

Gretchen Rubin presented her book “The Happiness Project” at Vromans Bookstore in Pasadena, CA yesterday.

What started off as a personal chronicle of one person’s shift towards happiness, has led to many Happiness Projects – a movement. I went to support my wife and friend who are starting their own Happiness group and to hear Gretchen’s story.

I streamed the event live to Ustream and here is the majority of the video. You may have to turn up the audio since I was filming from afar using my iPhone.

You can find Gretchen on Twitter at: @GretchenRubin.

Twitter has changed it’s Suggested User section list by creating 20 user categories.

This change was made to introduce new Twitter users to a broader base and group them by interest/categories.

Josh Elman from Twitter explains in the Official Twitter Blog:

Today we’re making the first of many changes here to help people ease into the twitterverse by finding and following accounts that interest them.

A Golden Ticket?

If you’ve ever followed anyone who was suddenly added to the previous Suggested Users list, their follower count skyrocketed hours after the new designation. Since there are more categories, the follower count increase might not be as steep but they will still take off like wildfire.

What are some possible effects of this change?

Just looking at the Politics category, being listed could have a make or break effect on politicians. Twitter follower numbers matter big time as Twitter is now one of the largest political organizing tools.

To see the possible impact, look at Carly Fiorina’s account. As of right now, she has 231,655 followers and is campaigning for the US Senate race in California. Fiorina is currently listed in the Politics Suggested User list. Although she has first has to compete for the Republican nomination, Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer only has 18,432 followers and is not on the Politics list. This could be a huge factor, but we don’t know how frequently the lists will change.

The other high impact Suggested User category is the Staff Pics for Haiti category. It’s now easier than ever to find top tweeting sources on the ground in Haiti to help support the crisis after last week’s massive earthquake.

How do the lists work

We know a little bit about how the lists work and the way they are formed from the Twitter blog post:

These lists will be refreshed frequently as the algorithms identify new users who should be suggested in these lists and some that are not as engaging to new users will be removed.

These are the new categories with links to the actual lists:

* Art & Design
* Books
* Business
* Charity
* Entertainment
* Family
* Fashion
* Food & Drink
* Funny
* Health
* Music
* News
* Politics
* Science
* Sports
* Staff Picks
* Staff Picks for Haiti
* Technology
* Travel
* Twitter

What are your thoughts on the Suggested User change? Is this a good direction?

Related Post:

• Review: “open” Listorious vs. “closed” new Twitter suggestion list by Robert Scoble (@scobleizer)

Bill Gates joins Twitter.

The activity screenshot below is from Twitscoop after 4 hours of Bill Gates being on Twitter at @BillGates.

At 4:27 PM PST he has 37,861 followers, a super fast pace. Gates is following 40 people at this time.

Will you follow Bill?