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Facebook Live

Do you want to have an organized Facebook Live event to allow potential customers / clients to connect with you and at the same time boost your brand awareness?

Bonus: If you want to observe and learn from a Facebook Live event that is following these steps, go to http://sanctuaryfunctionalmedicine.com/askdrpotter for details on their live event on June 6th at 12:00pm Noon Central. Attend, observe, and learn for your own business!

Tips for Preparing for a Facebook Live Event:

• Determine when to have this event. Time may be trial-and-error, but if you produce this on a regular basis, in theory an audience will adapt.
• Two goals are to use this to boost your brand and make this something others will share / talk of.
• Determine the format: Q&A, Product Demonstration, How-To-Session, etc.
• Determine the length: Top FB Live Streams run 15 to 20 minutes long
• Consider your hook, value, and audience prior to your Facebook Live event.
• Hook:”Connect with (insert name) in real time, connect with (insert name) live!”
• Value: It’s not just about promoting your business, in fact potential customers may pas on that, so chew on giving them something of value like, “During this week’s Facebook Live we’ll give you three techniques for (insert goal) and how you can apply the information that day!”. What value can we provide to viewers of this Facebook live? Is there an announcement that can be made?  Is there something you can teach them during the Q&A?
• Audience: Your promotion before the event (emails, videos, etc) should help someone determine quickly if your Facebook Live is right for them)

Tips for Promoting a Facebook Live:

• Sample Promo Post: “Tune in tomorrow at 12:00pm when our own (insert name) sits down with (insert name) and answers your questions during open-line Wednesday.”
• Record a series of videos leading up to the event that give potential viewers a sample every day for 1 week prior to the event. If you are doing a Q&A, take some questions and answer 1 each day for 7 days leading to the event. Post them the same general time-of-day as the event in order to maximize viewership. Use Facebook “scheduled” posts to manage this.
• Cross Promote your upcoming Facebook Live on all other social media networks as well as related Facebook groups and paghes.
• Use your internal and external email list to convey the value your FB live will give and suggest recipients forward the email on to others who may be interested.  Send out emails 1 week, two days before the event and the day-of the event.
• Leverage your employees and staff to promote the event to friends and family. Share with your business to business contacts.
• Set up a website page to help promote the event. Here is a good sample page: https://sanctuaryfunctionalmedicine.com/askdrpotter/

Before the Event:

• Presource questions :Pre-select a few questions to fill dead air or awkward silent moments. Collect the questions and names of people asking them through posts leading up to the event as well as website forms and other social media.  Have someone selected to feed you questions both pre-asked and live questions.
• Set up multiple channels to receive questions i.e. Facebook posts, website page with embedded video & ninja form, and mention to patients in the office.
• What calls to action are going to be provided? If you are collecting information consider allowing people to message you since they will already ‘be on Facebook’ as well as respond on your website.

During the Event:

• Provide context – people will come and go, so reset yourself a few times, do recaps, etc. Make it convenient content-wise whether people are there for the whole segment or just drop in and out.  Offer it constantly, “Hey, if you’re just joining us, welcome to our Facebook Live. We are currently speaking about the price of rice in china and we’ve just covered the cost of wheat in Ghana”. Someone tuning in 5 minutes before, 15 minutes into, and 5 minutes before it ends should all believe they got their in time and got value.
• Don’t focus on being perfect, focus on being authentic.

After the Event:

• Follow up on all leads submitted. Use a separate channel and data collection mechanism to measure the effectiveness of the event.
• Examine the questions asked for insights on what prospective customers are thinking
• Use the the unanswered questions for individual follow up or daily Facebook video posts to help retain  your audience. Tag the person who asked.
• Thank any audience members for attending.
• Inform your audience via follow-up of your next FB Live
• If you are bold, ask for critiques on how your event can be better next time.

See a sample page below promoting an event!

Branding Yourself with a Personal Professional Website

Ever think about starting a website for you personally? Everyone is an entrepreneur. Whether you work from home, place & service vending machines, run a fashion line, sell real estate for a big company, or run your own multimillion dollar enterprise, you are an entrepreneur.  For those who have their own company or function as a sole proprietor,  branding yourself online comes with the territory, but for those who work for commercial lenders, real estate companies, retail banks, or sales training companies, branding yourself online is vital!

Starting your own website is a very inexpensive way to demonstrate your expertise to a global audience. Your own website can show your interests as well as your expertise and serve as your showcase for both. The sky’s the limit.

If you work for a big company, chances are you have an area of expertise. What direction is that expertise flowing in? That area of expertise has value whether you are at a big company with exclusive rights to your service or a small company where the entire operation relies on you. Chances are you will not be with the same company your entire career but will attain a reputation of being a subject matter expert. It’s important to create an online presence that is representative of that so no matter where you go, you will take your expertise and contact information with you.  We’ll follow with an example.

Dave Smith is an investment advisor. Dave helps people with their 401k rollovers and other types of investments. Dave works for Klugman-Randall Finance and plans to remain there the rest of his life. One day Dave comes into work and finds out that the entire company has been shut down due to a Federal investigation into the officers’ conduct. Dave was once the 401k ‘guy’ at Klugman-Randall. Now Dave is on the street and instead of being ‘Dave, the 401k guy’, people only know him as ‘Dave, the unemployed guy’.  That’s no fun!

If Dave had branded himself online prior to the company closing, Dave could have interviewed or even started his own business as ‘Dave, the 401k guy’. When you arrive, are you recognized as a “subject matter expert” in your field, regardless of who you work for?

Have you:

Streamlined your contact information?

Built credibility as a subject matter expert in your field?

Booked speaking engagements & seminars?

Started multiple entrepreneurial enterprises based on your brand?

Promote Your Expertise

A website can help attract an audience that needs your expertise. If you have an expertise in setting up audio and video for live performances, you may have some great photos of setups for amps, monitors, and other technology. Your website can be a perfect place to showcase your work outside of social media and a place to share with colleagues or potential clients without compromising your social media privacy.

Blogging

Writing a blog can help give you the credibility of a ‘subject matter expert’ in your field. Establishing yourself as a subject matter expert not only builds up personal and commercial credibility but is the root of ‘search engine optimization’, or SEO.  Blogs can help people become familiar with your expertise as well as share your experience and expertise with others. Posting simple ‘how-to’ content such as how to change a front doorknob or how to change your car’s air filter can be a great way to show expertise if you are a handyman or a mechanic respectively. You can share tips, tricks, and techniques without undercutting your revenue. Social Media is based on short posts and updates but blogs are a way to fully demonstrate the depths of your knowledge. A blog can also help you attract and increase influencers / followers.

Social Media Cred!

A website of your own can help build your social media following. Links on your own website to your social media get clicked by readers who may then choose to follow you. You can also start a newsletter with Constant Contact or another newsletter service and gain subscribers through your website. Your website can help build your following which you can then continue to market to.

The Job Hunt

Employers and recruiters received many resumes every day. You can stand out by including a link to your personal website. In addition to your resume and a great photo, your site shows a potential employer your initiative. A website can even showcase your talent and skills if you are a photographer, writer, web designer, or many other professions. A subject-matter personal website could pay for itself in your next job!

Converting Prospects

Your personal professional website can serve as a point of connection after you meet with a prospective client. If you sell credit card processing, you could house links to your applications  & rate review forms. Your website can serve as a paper-saver and help foster conversions by allowing those who more ‘digital’ oriented to begin the process before getting frustrated or being courted by a competitor that makes closing the sale online easier than closing with you!

Getting started is easy. 

• Start your own website which will help you express your status as a content matter expert, brand yourself, and create a central point of contact no matter which company you work for or what enterprise you may be involved in.
• Create a blog where you write about things that interest you. Create sharable, compelling, and relevant content about your subject to convey your status as a ‘subject matter expert’.
• Write articles on your website on your subject that portray you as a subject matter expert. If you are a B2B or a quiet part of a bigger process, what do you do that helps smoothen a process behind the scenes?
• Secure testimonials by others especially influencers for your website as well as print materials.
• Create multimedia content such as videos, audio, podcasts, and photos that convey your subject area for your website.
• Create a single online point of contact for all your enterprises. You may be a financial advisor today but you might also start a side business or second business with a fashion line, property management,  or a catering business. You want a single point for all your enterprises.
• Build your brand as you being a subject matter expert in your field by making speaking engagement booking available on your website.
• Build a following that can transition anywhere you go.

With a few simple steps you go from ‘an employee of someone else’s company’ to a subject matter expert lending their services to a company for a fee and take a major step to making yourself invaluable & entrepreneurial.

Building Your Facebook Business Page Interest

There are several things you can do to build Facebook Business Page Interest and Stand Out from the ‘Stream of Chaos’ known as the Facebook Newsfeed:

Pre-Plan:

• Your company needs a banner with a call-to-action as it’s timeline header imag
• Your company content should be entertaining, informative and inspiring.
• Your company should ‘comment as’ and be sure to share posts with yourself on different days.
• Your company should observe posts that they and others respond to personally
• Your company should assess what content is popular to their ‘best referrers’.
• Your company should assess 3 competitors Facebook pages
• Your company should discuss with partners (realtors, homebuilders, etc) joint strategies to package services in Facebook posts, i.e. doing a short video at a homebuilders site.
• Your company should discuss fun social-media friendly activities to photograph during special events.

What Kinds of Images to Post:

• Posts with images are more likely to be shared or reposted.
• Your company will need to decide on an attention getting image or two
• Your company will need to avoid canned photos – they look uninteresting
• Your company will want to get interactions with this photo and get enough interest for someone to take the next step.
• Your company will want something that stands out in the ‘stream of chaos’ that is a newsfeed and generates attention

Giveaway:

• It takes time to build a following but giving away digital items may help.
• Most are not ready to take action right now.
• Your company will need to be patient – it doesn’t happen overnight.
• Your company can offer some info and then more information. People see the value then get the value.
  • Something of value…i.e. a video or guide
  • Something specific
  • Something flexible
  • Something Smart
• Some examples of what Your company can offer include:
  • Pdf reports
  • Pdf tips
  • Audio
  • Video
  • Live Event
  • Give away something easy.
• When you offer this, collect an email address and then make the item available so you can do some follow up with the people who download your item.

 

How to Upgrade to Windows 10

With the support for Windows 7 having ended, here is a quick tutorial on how to upgrade a Windows 7 machine to Windows 10. This generally is  a fresh install tutorial since there seems to be different instances on whether an upgrade install keeps or wipes your files. In some cases you may be able to run an upgrade installer and keep your files / settings and in other instances you can’t so this assumes you cannot but there is a step in the sequence that allows you to try.

It is best to read through these directions first and pre-download the software you need and create the disk or key ahead of time. It will save about 1/2 hour on the approx. task time.

You may need: 

• A DVD burner and blank DVD or USB Key (USB Key #2)
• A Windows based machine to work with – it can be the one being upgraded.
• A separate USB Key  (USB Key #1)
• A USB Hard Drive if you wish to do a backup of select data files
• Installation files / media for all your existing programs.

Approx. Task Time: 4 hours

Step 1: Log into the Windows 7 machine and download / run the program called “Belarc Advisor”. Download it here on the machine you are about to upgrade or download it prior and bring on a USB key & copy the installer to the desktop of the computer to be upgraded.

Step 2: Run the “Belarc Advisor” you just downloaded. It will take a few minutes but eventually you will get to a webpage with the computer’s specs. It will open in a web browser. Once it’s up hold down “ctrl” and “p” to trigger the print dialogue and print / save as a PDF.

Step 3: Print the PDF if you can, if not be sure to save it to a USB Key #1

Step 4: If you desire to back up your files follow this step. If not, skip to step 5. Copy all files from the following directories: user/desktop, user/documents, user/pictures, user/music, user/downloads, user/videos, and any other directories you are aware may have data in them.

Step 4B:  TRY THIS FIRST – at “The Verge”. 

Step 4C: if 4B works skip to Step 14 when it’s done. If 4B fails, go to step 5.

Step 5: Create Windows 10 installation media either with a CD or USB key. You will need a Windows machine to do this. You may do this on the machine you are upgrading. For CD ISO click here. For USB Media Creation Tool click here.  If you are creating a CD just download the ISO and then use a utility like CDBurnerXP to expand the image on a blank DVD. If you are installing using a USB Key, use USB Key #2 that you brought with you and follow the media creation tool directions.

Step 6: Determine how to bring up the boot device menu on the computer being upgraded. It will be different on each machine but often it’s “ESC”, “DEL”, “Backspace”, “F6”, “F12” “F10” or “F2”. Google “computer make / model + boot menu” to learn how to do this. Plug the device in the USB port of the machine being upgraded. DISCONNECT THE MACHINE FROM THE INTERNET IF IT IS HARDWIRED.

Step 7: On restart trigger the boot menu and choose the device (CD Rom / USB Key) and follow the general windows installation instructions. Choose “Custom / Advanced” installation. At some point it will ask for a key – this is where you look at the Belarc Advisor PDF / Printout and key in the Windows 7 product key listed on the printout / PDF. This should get you to the next screen. If not this is where you would choose ‘I don’t have a key’.

Step 8: Once the drive list comes up, choose the biggest drive which should be your operating system. Choose “delete”. Then when the options reactivate choose that drive, now labeled ‘unallocated space’ and install Windows to that drive. If you get an error on not being able to install windows on the target drive, go this Windows Report tutorial and try option 3’s command line option.

Step 9: Follow the general Windows Installation instructions. DO NOT CONNECT TO THE INTERNET WHEN IT ASKS TO. Choose “I don’t have Internet” if it allows. But whatever you do DO NOT choose “Connect to the Internet”.

Step 10: When it asks to set up a Microsoft Account go ahead and enter a phoney email address and password, then select ‘next /continue’. It will state it has a problem and then you can create a NON Microsoft account which is your goal.

Step 11: Let the system finish the installation.

Step 12: Let the system do the restarts it needs to do. You can now reconnect to the Internet by plugging the hardwire back in or connecting to a wireless network.

Step 13: When the system restarts, sign in and go to the control panel, “system and security”, then “View amount of RAM and processor speed” and see if Windows 10 activated under the heading “Windows Activation”. If it did you’re solid, if not this is where you have 30 days to purchase a Windows 10 key. If you didn’t key in the Windows 7 key from the Belarc printout / PDF, go ahead and key it in, if not, then you need to purchase a Windows 10 key online at Microsoft.  They are currently $139 for home and $199 for business / pro. You will need to reinstall all your old programs.

Step 14: In the bottom left search bar, type “Windows Update” and then choose “Check for Updates” to get the drivers you need for the machine. You will need to install the first round of updates, restart, then repeat this step 2-3 times to complete the operation. This is where the bulk of your 4 hours is spent. If you still need drivers, go to your machine’s manufacture site and download either their driver tool or individual drivers under their support section.

 

 

Do It Yourself Desktop Support

It’s important to maintain your computer equipment. In the event of an emergency failure, data rescue can run up to $1200 and data recovery can run $3000-$5000 and cause expensive business and revenue disruptions.

Here is a step by step do-it-yourself plan to prevent catestgrophic emergencies with your computer:

Initial Setup:

 

Download and install / run the following software:

• CCCleaner
• Malwarebytes Anti Malware
• ADWCleaner
• Antivirus of your choice. Nortons is recommended by Lemur Technology.

Run ‘Scan Disk’ and ‘Defrag’ on all drives.

Download, install and update antivirus program.

Review all installed programs for relevance and usage.

Disable any unnecessary / unknown add-ons or Extensions in Chrome, FireFox, and IE / Edge.,

Reset any browsers if necessary.

Buy a 1tb ‘pocket drive’ (USB hard drive) such as this: https://amzn.to/2NXVJeH and plug it in to a free USB port.

Set up Windows 7 Legacy image backup or a Windows 10 files backup to run weekly at 7pm Sundays.

 

Weekly Service: (you can perform this via ‘logmein’ on all your machines; some tasks may be able to be ‘scheduled’ to run automatically by the software.,)

Run CC Cleaner each week on Sunday night for a fresh Monday start.

Run Malwarebytes each Sunday night.

Run AntiVirus each Sunday night

Set Restore Point each Sunday night.

Run backup each Sunday night

Check for and run all Windows Updates.

 

Social Media Monitoring

How do companies know when their brand is being talked about on social media? Ever wonder how a large company sees your complaint about it and how it responds so quickly?

Social Media Monitoring.

Social Media monitoring is when a business or brand uses social media software to track mentions across social media, blogs, and other internet media.  Intervals could be anywhere from immediate, hourly, daily, or another interval. It’s not just Facebook or Twitter, quite often tools will include news websites, popular blogs, discussion forums, and other forms of internet media.

The data you gather from social media monitoring can be used to look at how people feel about your brand, help you address individual concerns or make companywide decisions.

One tool you can test run is at https://mention.com/en/ – you can get a 14 day trial and do a wide variety of reporting with it.

Social Media Monitoring

Do you know what people are saying about your brand on social media?

We’ll be discussing what social media monitoring is, why it’s important, and some of the tools available to perform this very important task.

With the right tools you can monitor mentions daily, field complaints and see who your influencers are.

We will expand more on this all week. Come back soon!

WordPress Website Security

Where we send people after a call to action in social is just as important as the social post itself. WordPress has a 35% marketshare of all websites on the internet according to W3Techs.

If a call to action leads to a hacked wordpress site or a hacked-and-slow / under attack website, that can affect your brand, credibility, and value. In order to stay on top of this, we suggest two plug-ins.

AntiMalware Brute Force at https://gotmls.net/
This plugin does a great deep scan of your website and can sniff out database injections, htaccess threats, exploits, and core file changes.

Wordfence which can be downloaded at the WordPress site: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wordfence/  Wordfence is a great plugin to help monitor threats, attacks, logins, as well as help you stay on top of software updates.

One social media post to a hacked site can bring down your brand. It’s best to stay on top of it with the use of these or similar plugins.

The Call to Action

Have you maximized the ‘call to action’ part of your Facebook page?

Make sure it’s sending people to the right place.

Examples:

Looking to communicate with your audience? Try “sign up” or “send message”

Are you looking for people who are ready to act now? “Book Now”, “Shop Now” are just two examples of options.