Preparing your 60 seconds once, using it 4 times #BNI #my60
I am a proud member of my local BNI group – Herne Bay & Whitstable - it generates lots of work for us. Yes, even more than our website and social media presence*. But the two are not mutually exclusive.
A couple of weeks ago, Jim (our Canterbury Electrician), gave a talk in his “Education Slot” about the importance of preparing your 60 seconds. Each week, each member has 60 seconds to remind the other members, and visitors, of what they do and what kind of work they are looking for. Obviously, they get other opportunities, but that 60 seconds is an important part of it.
Now, some people will come up with the same 60 seconds week in, week out, and the trouble with this is people will naturally switch off. Including the person saying it. The other approach is thinking of the 60 seconds on the way there in their car or, even worse, during the previous member’s slot. And you know what? If you make something up that quick, everyone can tell!
It’s important to put aside just a few minutes each week to think about your 60 and what you are going to ask for. Which made me think of my 10 minute presentation the week before…
I had spent 10 minutes giving all the members in the room some tips on using Facebook to promote their business. I then hogged at least another 5-10 minutes of the meeting answering lots of questions. A few members asked “how do you think of things to post?”
So it occurred to me, if you are putting a few minutes aside for your 60 seconds, rather than just use it at the next BNI meeting, why not post it on Facebook, Twitter and even LinkedIn too? Then you have at least one fresh thing to post each week.
Plus, if you tag your post – for example, on Twitter I’m going to tag mine #BNI #my60 – your followers may ask you what this BNI thing is. When you explain, you can invite them to visit, and the lifeblood of any BNI group is visitors.
* social media presence: horrible buzzwords used by “social media gurus” but I couldn’t think of a better term, any ideas?
The Yellow WHAT?
At about 930pm on Tuesday night, the peace and quiet of HDG Towers was shattered by the flap of the letterbox and a thud as a yellow book arrived.
Pages tip – Use Facebook as
If you’re using Facebook pages (why not?) then here’s my little tip of the day…
In the top, right-hand corner of your Facebook screen there is a drop-down arrow.
When you click it, you are given a list of page(s) that you can “Use Facebook as:”
Select the page of your choice and, once it has loaded, click the Home link (top, right-hand corner again).
Now you are seeing your news feed as if your page was a normal person. All the news stories from the pages that your page likes will be listed.
Ok, that will probably make more sense when you see it for yourself!
This is a great way to find things to interact with – Like or Comment on other pages using your page’s identity and get your name seen by more people.
Just click that magic arrow again to find your way back to using Facebook as yourself.
Remember though – don’t spam those pages!
Tagging pages in Facebook photos – why are things never easy?
Page tagging - it's real life product placement!
Back in May, Facebook added a great feature to “Pages” – the ability to tag a page in a photo. This is great for business – imagine this scenario…
- You are a hairdresser with a Facebook Page for your business.
- When clients have a new hair style you can encourage them to post a picture on their Facebook so their friends can see.
- You also ask them to tag your Page in that photo – if they do you’ll give them a special offer next time they visit.
Doesn’t really cost you anything but, as well as encouraging loyalty, every client who tags is marketing your salon to all their friends – and on average, each Facebook user has 130 friends.
So, how brilliant is that? Except for one snag.
At the moment, this feature is only available for Pages in the category “Brands & Products” or “People”…
We’re looking to expand this functionality to more Page categories over time.
…of course, no indication of how long “over time” is. Considering non-SSL pages were supposed to be blocked last October, and the new Timeline rolled out before the end of 2011, I won’t hold my breath!
In the meantime, if you want to change your Page category to encourage tagging, from http://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=222732947737668 :
To change the category of your Page:
- Go to the Page you admin.
- Click the Edit Page button in the upper-right corner.
- Select Basic Information from the left sidebar.
- Select the Page grouping and the appropriate category for your Page. There is no limit to the number of times you can change the category of your Page.
- Click Save Changes.
Enjoy!