It’s that time of year again where I ruminate for a while on which one word I would like to choose as my overarching guide for the entire following year. I find this practice to be very powerful, yet simple to implement. While having a vision, mission, “SMART” goals, plan, milestones, and accountability are all components of preparing for success, I’ve found that by also selecting just one word as a theme for my whole year, all manner of new opportunities and experiences show up. The Universe responds to your decision.

I’ve been implementing this one-word theme practice for the past several years, and it feels as though each year’s word builds on the last one. My one-word themes so far have been:

2008 – FOCUS (I laser focused on strategically positioning myself as a top Facebook marketing expert).

2009 – INFLUENCE  (I chose to make a personal transition and shift my environment, which caused the floodgates to open in my business).

2010 – TEAM (I switched from a virtual assistant support model to hiring local assistants and built a much more robust team).

2011 – COMMITMENT (This was a tricky one! See below for more – but, basically, this one-word theme precipitated my commitment to getting all the right support in place now for an incredible 2012!)

And now, 2012 is GROWTH.

As I reflect back over these years with their respective themes, each time many significant shifts have occurred for me in my personal and professional lives.

2011 – The Impact of Commitment

I will admit, ironically, selecting Commitment as my theme this year was extremely difficult! As a society, we have so much charge around this word. As I reviewed the various commitments I set for myself when I wrote this post, I have managed to keep many of the commitments I outlined. The one I struggled to keep was publishing two blog posts a week. I realize I need better systems to manage my time and the time I spend on creating content. I’m already implementing systems now that will radically change this in 2012.

When selecting your one-word theme, it’s important to not beat yourself up if you didn’t adhere to the word verbatim throughout the year. Adopt the approach of “correct and continue.” Do your best to use the word as a mantra, an internal guide. Then let go of any attachment to how the outside world is supposed to show up for you.

What is interesting, though, is the fact that in the 11th month of this year, I just made a massive commitment to invest in very high-level support to grow my business in 2012 and beyond. So, it feels like the perfectly natural fit to select Growth as my theme for 2012!

2012 – Growth, bring it on!

For me, Growth this coming year will be on many levels. My primary focus of growth will be in the area of business; stay tuned for developments as I’m able to announce them. Meantime, I can share that my plans are to continue offering social media, Facebook marketing, and relationship marketing speaking services and training for entrepreneurs and small businesses, as well as training for fellow social media professionals. Plus, I am building out a separate division of my business specifically to service the corporate sector, and offering social media consulting, training, strategizing, and management services.

And on a personal, emotional, and spiritual basis, I will continue my path in these arenas through my study with various masters, including my spiritual teacher Esperanza Universal. Over the past few years, I have found that the more internal healing, growth, and transformation I’m able to do, the more my outer world changed and improved as a reflection of my inner world.

Mari Smith and Esperanza Universal

I’ve even had colleagues call me up in the past to ask for the name of my marketing coach, PR firm, or publicist — to which I respond by smiling and simply explaining that my business and financial growth primarily came about as a result of healing my inner world and living into my deepest truth. Of course, I am proactive too — with masterminds to which I belong, and attending/speaking at select events.

Speaking of which, I’m actually writing this post on a short break while attending a special retreat at the incredible Canyon Ranch in Tucson, AZ. I’m here with a small group of forty leaders, teaching leaders about leadership! Our host is Stedman Graham (Oprah’s beau) – leadership expert and author of many books, including You Can Make It Happen. Growth has been a recurring theme here at our retreat.

Mari Smith and Stedman Graham at Canyon Ranch

Stedman talked about Growth as a vital component to success in his presentation on Identity Leadership. And, fellow attendee Sam Silverstein gave a short presentation where he talked about the importance of creating a VACUUM in order to grow. Sam used a wonderful example of clearing out his coat closet in order to house the beautiful big down jacket his daughters bought for him! I’m a huge believer in clearing out the old to make way for the new, in the physical world and mental world. Eliminating what no longer serves you is a huge invitation and opportunity for growth to come forth.

So, I’m VERY excited about what’s in store for 2012. It’s going to be a symbolic and significant year for the entire planet – all of us will be impacted by growth, in fact. Not to get too woo-woo on you (well, depending on your own belief systems!), but many prophets have been predicting for a very long time that a huge shift will happen in 2012.  Apparently it’s the “end of the Mayan calendar” (I think they ran out of stone?! Kidding!)

But, the world is not going to end, it’s nothing catastrophic to worry about. What I do believe will happen is a BIG leap in consciousness. Collectively, we are being called to higher levels of caring, compassion, and kindness towards our fellow humans, to all living creatures, and to the entire planet. The massive prevalence of online social networking is tremendous evidence of our evolution, too. The world isn’t getting smaller, per se. It’s getting more connected. (A recent Facebook study showed that the six degrees of separation have been reduced to four, because of the connectedness of Facebook friendships. Amazing.)

Now, it’s your turn – what one-word theme jumps out at you to guide the coming year in your business and personal life? If you’d like to select two or three words, that’s okay! Let me know in the comments below.

[UPDATE 12/17/11: I recently came across this exceptional article on Harvard Business Review by Dorie Clark: Five Things You Should Stop Doing in 2012. Eliminating these five things that Dorie mentions - especially #1 (stop responding to email immediately it comes in) - feels like lifting a massive weight off my shoulders. In fact, my new business coach is helping my team and me to radically restructure our work days; to implement set times to respond to categories of emails, and to adhere to our scheduled work days even as "boring and predictable" as that might feel. What we end up creating is a much more solid foundation and freedom. Yes, that's right - a predictable, structured schedule actually gives you freedom!

P.S. I first wrote this post on December 10th and meant to save it to drafts during my Canyon Ranch retreat... but ended up inadvertently publishing it before I was quite ready. Oops! I just took time (12/17) to flesh out a bit more of the sections that I wanted to. ]

Facebook recently changed the way users interact with content on fan pages: any user, including non-fans, can now post on fan page walls and like/comment/share fan page content. In other words, a Facebook user does not have to first like your fan page before they can interact with your content. This is a good thing!

Since this change, the emphasis has shifted slightly from gaining more likes (fans) to increasing the number of shares on each piece of content. When you craft your fan page updates in a manner that naturally inspires fans and their friends and visitors to your page to share with their networks, you set in motion ripples of viral visibility. Basically, free additional exposure.

Over the past several weeks, I’ve been observing which posts from fan pages and from personal profiles (with Subscribe enabled) garner the largest amount of shares. I also recently asked my Facebook fans and friends for examples of great posts with large numbers of shares. Following are seven tips I’ve compiled for you that seem to help create the most shares:

1. Use an eye-catching image.

Your photo should make people laugh, cry, or go “awww!”

Photos on Facebook have always gotten a slightly higher EdgeRank score, which means better visibility in the News Feed. But, don’t necessarily use an image on every single post; keep it interesting by mixing in links, videos, questions (app), and text only updates.

A fun example is this “social network flowchart” by Breaking Copy – shared on Facebook by “Caribbean King” on October 20th that garnered a whopping 14,642 shares – see screenshot below. (Hat tip to Susie Daniels for the link to the post).

Example Facebook post with over 14,000 shares

The only narrative with the image was a smiley face “:D” – but, given the humor and relevance of the chart to pretty much anyone who saw it, the image gathered huge momentum. Currently, though the Caribbean King has just 673 fans (likes), his “People talking about this” number is 5,002. For most fan pages, to have a “talking about this” number over 7x greater than the number of likes is unusual. (I’ll save the in-depth discussion about the new public-facing “people talking about this” stat for a separate post. My quick advice, though, is do not waste too much time obsessing over this number. Instead, focus on posting quality, relevant posts that people naturally want to share.)

I came across Breaking Copy’s social network flowchart on November 1st when a friend shared it on my Facebook personal profile wall. I found the creator so I could give proper credit (Daryl Lang), and shared the image on my Google+ profile, where it ended up with over 1,480 shares. (And, an edited version by Carmelyne Thompson got 1,105 shares). Though Google+ is gaining in users and momentum, clearly Facebook’s vast userbase makes for significantly more shares. 10x in this one example if we just compare Caribbean King’s Facebook post to my own Google+ post.

When you do share photos, make sure they look great and are eye-catching in a smaller version, given most people will see a reduced size in their News Feed and/or mobile app.

Other photo examples with large numbers of shares include:

• NFL Quarterback Tim Tebow‘s photo from a friend in Afghanistan with over 2,800 shares. (Thanks to Amy Thomas Polk for the link).
• A humorous map of Australia with funny Q&A from the Australian Tourism website, posted by Sam Bush, with 19,600+ shares! (Hat tip Mehdi Benaniba for the link).
• Warren Buffet’s “How To Fix Congress” posted by Gene Vallee with 156,600+ shares. (Props to the Direct Marketing fan page for the link).
• Disney‘s “Life is all about perspective” – cute photo of Bambi and possums with 8,200+ shares. (Thank you Hana Zima for the Disney tip). Note this post has a very short narrative (tip #2) and is written in a way anyone can share (tip #3).

2. Keep the narrative short.

A study by Buddy Media showed that posts 80 characters or less in length receive 27% higher engagement rates. Considering how much content flies by fast in the new moving Ticker at the top right of your Facebook home page, and also in the News Feed, it makes sense that a shorter post will catch Facebook users’ attention quicker.

A fun example is this post by my friend Melonie Dodaro with a cute puppy and teddy bear, which got over 1,700 shares. Melonie shared this on her personal profile – with 4,816 friends and 718 subscribers. Note the narrative Melonie included: “How adorable is this?! Go ahead and share it.” This one example, in fact, makes use of the first four out of my seven tips here: it’s a (cute) photo, the narrative is short, it’s not written in first person, and there’s a call to action to share it.

Example Facebook post with over 1,700 shares

3. Keep first person to a minimum.

Even though I’m a big fan of writing in first person whenever possible, as it creates more warmth and connection with your audience, in order to increase your shares on Facebook, you might want to experiment with keeping the wording more generic. Write in a way that could sound like it was coming from others. As with Melonie’s example above “How adorable is this?!” could be said by anyone.

You can always use first person in your comments when responding to bring in the more personal touch.

Here’s a cute image I created using Snagit to illustrate one of my favorite Steve Jobs’ quotes: “You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.” The upbeat narrative I included was, “A special thought for the day!! A good reminder to just GO for it. (Probably still a good idea to wear clothes though, hehee!).” 105 shares from my personal profile.

Follow your heart - Steve Jobs quote shared on Facebook

4. Include a call to action.

Invite your friends, subscribers, fans and their friends along with visitors to your page to share your posts with their friends, subscribers and fans. Simple calls to action such as “Click like if you agree” often work well, so long as the preceding statement/question is relevant. Asking people to add their comments is good too. But, it’s the Share that will likely create the greatest exposure for your page/profile.

This image of 3-D sidewalk art posted by Gallery 2166 simply says, “Dare you not to share this. It’s too amazing.” Yep – 11,449 Facebook users have shared the image so far! (Thanks Jamie Burnett for the link to the image).

Sidewalk art - Facebook post with over 11,000 shares

5. Write about timely topics with helpful tips and resources.

Given the rapid changes on Facebook and the constantly moving social media landscape in general, there’s often plenty fodder to share up-to-the-minute tips, new strategies, and useful resources on your Facebook page and/or profile. These types of posts can be any length and might include links and/or photos or videos. The point is your Facebook network and extended community will find extreme value in reading and sharing the post.

This example from my own fan page is a post with seven tips for staying safe on Facebook – which received 247 shares. I wrote the udpate on the back of Mashable’s blog post about Facebook stating that a staggering 600,000 log-ins per day get compromised. Note the use of the simple, eye-catching image.

Example timely post - 7 Tips To Stay Safe on Facebook

Here’s another example from my fan page where I dispelled a couple of erroneous memes flying around Facebook: one asking users to unsubscribe from their friends’ comments and likes, and another talking about Facebook’s plans to charge for membership (both are not accurate!). The post received 516 shares.

If you’re in an industry that changes rapidly, keep your finger on the pulse and see what timely topics you can write about. Then, with the Facebook posts that do well, repurpose by turning them into posts on your blog.

6. Experiment with longer content.

Despite tip #2 above, now that Facebook increased the maximum update size from 420 characters to 5,000 characters, try writing a “mini-blog post!” Per my tip #5 above, so long as the content is timely, relevant and helpful, you stand a greater chance of getting lots of shares.

7. Share a great cause.

Surf Dog Ricochet posted this precious dog photo with a call to action: pet supplies company Iams had agreed to donate 50 bowls of pet food for shelter animals for every comment on the photo, up to one million bowls. The photo broke the record in just over 24 hours. Though the one million bowls of pet food goal has been attained, the image is still gaining comments and shares. So far: 21,439 comments and 4,180 shares! (Hat tip to Kristi Robertson for the link to this post).

Example great cause with over 4,000 shares

By the way, keep in mind that Facebook has strict rules around promotions; the #1 rule to know is you need to use a third party app if you’re going to conduct any kind of drawing, sweepstakes, contest, or competition. Your own content in an iFrame app qualifies so long as you include the correctly worded disclaimers. See this post for more information.

Share more videos

And a bonus tip, from Ryan Cohn of What’s Next Marketing:

Among large audience clients (celebrities and brands), we typically see the most shares coming from unique/interesting videos. Usually these are behind-the-scenes peaks, though we’ve seen great sharability from loved-but-forgotten YouTube videos too.

You may find that these tips are equally effective for increasing your number of shares on Google+ too.

…and, one more tip for you on the subject of shares: Whenever possible, take time to click through and thank those who share your content. On Facebook, this is really easy to do as the Shares show in a popup window and you can easily click like and add a quick comment. People love to be acknowledged.

What have you found that’s working well on your own profile and/or fan page? What catches your eye on other profiles/pages and compels you to want to share with your own networks? Please do share below and feel free to include permalinks to examples so others may benefit. Thank you!

Relationship marketing refers to everything you do to make your prospective and current customers aware of your products and services, position your business in their minds as the obvious choice, and help you to build lifelong, profitable relationships with them.

Whereas the traditional marketing approach is transactional, relationship marketing is relational. Old-style marketing mostly focuses on sales transactions. The new relationship marketing focuses on working hand-in-hand with your prospects and customers to co-create a more meaningful, personalized, and lasting experience.

With the vast range of social media tools at our disposal today, it’s easier now more than ever to shift your focus from transactional marketing to relational marketing. Your customers and prospects want to know that you’re listening, that they are important to you, and that you are striving to improve your brand, products and services as a result of their feedback. You can’t afford to be a one-way broadcast channel. You need to embrace the conversation and, as my friend Brian Solis says, Engage or die. By that, he means it’s those companies who engage with their community that will thrive in the long run.

Relationship marketing best practices

There are certain hallmarks of companies that have successfully integrated relationship marketing. Listed below are 12 best practices, formed as a quick self-assessment. Answer yes or no to all 12 questions; the more yes’s you have, the better!

My company:

1. …conducts regular polls and surveys of our customer database to ensure we understand the currents challenges and needs of our market.
2. …strives to integrate customer feedback as much as possible in order to improve our products and services.
3. …understands the power of social media and has active profiles set up on all the popular social sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Google+.
4. …has effective listening and monitoring systems in place.
5. …has a corporate social media policy in place that lets staff know what can and cannot be said, what actions can and cannot be taken, and how to handle any negative situation.
6. …generates warm leads from all online and offline marketing efforts on a regular basis.
7. …utilizes a reliable customer relationship management strategy.
8. …conducts regular training sessions for all members of staff on proper customer relations and social media best practices.
9. …stays on the cutting edge by evolving, adapting and integrating new technologies.
10. …embraces high-tech but always maintains high-touch by reaching out to our customers, prospects, vendors and partners.
11. …has a very high customer satisfaction rate.
12. …consistently goes out of our way to let our customers know how much we value them.

By studying and integrating each of these 12 best practices, you’ll go a long way towards improving your success through relationship marketing. Your customers will not only like you, but they’ll love you!

Companies that do really well with their relationship marketing efforts include Zappos, Starbucks, Virgin America, SouthWest Airlines, and Ford. And, great real-life examples of relationship marketing include Alaska Air (their San Diego manager brought me an iPhone charger during a lengthy flight delay!), as I shared in my recent interview with Mike Stelzner.

Also, check out Morton’s Steakhouse as Peter Shankman shared on The Greatest Customer Service Story Ever Told, Starring Morton’s Steakhouse.

Free 4-part relationship marketing webinar series

This article is a brief excerpt from my latest book, The New Relationship Marketing: How To Build A Large, Loyal, Profitable Network Using the Social Web. For a free 4-part webinar series that comes with the book (on the honor system, no need to send proof of purchase!), check out this page. I’ll be teaching many of the principles in the book, along with proven tactics and strategies for making the most of Facebook and other social marketing. You can also download a free chapter of my book here.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments below — do you agree with the 12 tenets? What’s missing? What else would you add? Did you learn something just by taking the self-assessment?

This post serves as an update of all I’ve been working on over the past couple of months — I ended up taking an unintentional hiatus from publishing my own blog posts since August. Phew! Not for lack of activity, that’s for sure. I’ve been keeping all my social channels engaged and current, including activating the Subscribe feature on my Facebook personal profile (now at over 22,000 subscribers – by far the fastest growing social channel I’ve seen), and am keeping my fan page active as well. And, I continue to love Google+ too!

I’m delighted to share that my blogging will get back on track — I have a huge collection of posts to share with you, covering all the latest Facebook changes, Facebook marketing, Google+ how to’s and for business, social media, relationship marketing and more!

And now, the mega updates…

The New Relationship Marketing – New Book!

First, I’m super excited about the launch of my latest book – one I’ve been working on since last December. But, in fact, one that I’ve been contemplating for probably the past ten years. See, long before Facebook even existed or social media was such a buzzword (and now an integral part of business today), I called myself a relationship marketing specialist. To me, it’s all about relationships. It’s P2P – People to People. Regardless of which online or offline medium through which you market your business, it’s the degree of authentic engagement and genuine caring that will help you win more sales.

Effective marketing today contains the right mix of “hard skills” and “soft skills.” Hard skills include the plethora of technology, knowing what buttons to push, and how all the platforms function. Soft skills are the people skills which include empathy, compassion, listening, caring, and giving with no agenda. By finding the magic blend that works for you, you can really accelerate all your marketing initiatives.

In my new book, I lay out the basics of relationship marketing in Part I, then walk you through a proven nine-step system for building a large, loyal, and profitable network using the social web. My wonderful friend Guy Kawasaki wrote the foreword!

Mari Smith and Guy Kawasaki

The OFFICIAL launch date is Tuesday, October 25th – I will be hosting an all day “virtual book launch party!” Most likely via my Livestream channel. Stay tuned and watch any of my social channels for the location as I’ll be promoting the virtual party heavily. Start time is slated for 9:30am Pacific / 12:30pm Eastern. The celebration will include prizes, autographed books, turquoise and bling giveaways, tips, readings from the book, surprise guests and more!

Find out more about my brand new book on the book minisite here where you can:

• Download a free chapter.
• Read testimonials and connect with each person’s social profiles — including Harvey Mackay, Keith Ferrazzi, Brian Tracy, Beth Kanter, Ali Brown, Larry Benet, Brian Solis and a whole host of others! Check out the cool display of peeps, just click each avatar for details.
• Watch the book trailer where I share my very personal journey to becoming a relationship marketing specialist.
• Order the book from Amazon.com and BN.com (also available in Kindle and Nook versions).
• Leave a Facebook comment.
• Share with your friends on Twitter.
• Share with your friends and fans on Facebook.

Four New Social Media Magazines

As if writing and publishing a book wasn’t enough for the summer, I’m part of a leadership team that just launched four brand new social media magazines in a variety of formats including print, online multimedia, and a number of mobile apps! The starting monthly distribution is 13.8 million due to partnerships with Office Depot and EFactor.

NEW Social Media Magazines

Check out the magazines at these links:

Facebook – fb & Business: http://fbandbusiness.com – I’m delighted to be the executive editor for the Facebook magazine! 
Google – The Big G & Business: http://thebiggandbusiness.com
LinkedIn – LI & Business: http://liandbusiness.com
Twitter – Tweeting & Business: http://tweetingandbusiness.com

The content in each magazine is original and informative. Be sure to sign up for your free subscriptions to each of the magazines. Plus, if you like to write and have great expertise to share, there’s an opportunity to be a guest writer for any of the magazines; see the Contribute button on each site.

This is just the beginning!

Social Media Inner Circle

Due to popular demand, I recently re-opened my monthly social media support program - I’ve been leading this program for over three years now, and had it closed to new members for a while so I could switch webinar platforms. We meet on the first Wednesday of each month at 11am PT / 2pm ET for a dynamic and information-packed social media training + Q&A LIVE webinar. Sessions are always recorded and archived. This program is one of the most affordable ways to stay current with your social media marketing integration and mastery!

PLUS, when you join the Inner Circle, you’ll be invited into our fabulous new Secret Facebook Group - members actively network, share, collaborate and support one another. It’s incredible value. All this for just $27 per month. Register in the month of October and your rate is grandfathered in at just $27 even when the fees increase! Just go to InnerCircleWithMari.com to secure your place.

Mentor With Mari

Since June, I’ve been leading my six-month social media professionals training program with a regular and VIP level. The groups are just fantastic, and I am blessed to be on this journey with such fellow heart-centered entrepreneurs. We meet several times a month by webinar and cover a vast range of social media topics, as well as sessions on running a successful speaking and training businesses, and personal growth topics. It’s a holistic approach to business.

Mentor With Mari - VIP Retreat San Diego

In August, I hosted a 2.5-day special retreat at my home in San Diego for my VIPs and we had an amazing time, including dinner at a local winery; guest experts Mike Stelzner (founder Social Media Examiner), Esperanza Universal (founder the S.O.U.L. Institute), and Ashley Mahaffey (Fitness Strategist); a stretch limo ride to dinner at The Beach House, and a professional photoshoot for everyone!  This blog post by Lani Voivod and this post by Lauren McMullen really sum up the life-changing experience for attendees.

Our current members can be found on this Twitter list. There are also over 60 graduates of this social media training program over the past couple of years. Stay tuned for details of the 2012 program, along with an exciting new development with alums to be revealed shortly!

Other events…

Other projects I’ve been focused on lately include writing version 2 of Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day with my coauthor, Chris Treadaway – scheduled for release in spring 2012! (Phew, could someone please ask Mark Zuckerberg to slow down with all the changes so Chris and I can finish the manuscript?! J/k.)

Plus, the Facebook Success Summit 2011 has been running the month of October where I lead a couple of sessions and helped to promote with my good friend, Mike Stelzner. You can still catch all the replays… and/or tune in to the #FBSS11 tweets! See also the latest Social Media Examiner TV episodes with yours truly as the host here.

Another exciting event included getting to hang out with one of my favorite spiritual leaders, Don Miguel Ruiz last month – he was a guest speaker at the Association of Transformational Leaders Southern California chapter, of which I’m a founding member. Don Miguel’s most widely known book is The Four Agreements. Highly recommended!

Don Miguel Ruiz Sr and Mari Smith

And, I’m just back from ten days on the road speaking at my friend Jeff Walker’s Product Launch Formula event in Scottsdale, AZ followed by a week’s working vacation in Hawaii! I was honored to speak at the Hawaii Social Media Summit and also for the Hawaii Social Media Club. (Believe it or not, I actually took the entire summer off from traveling and speaking so I could focus on completing my relationship marketing book and leading my mentorship program! Many folks think I travel non-stop. I like to pace myself!)

Next up – Blog World Expo Los Angeles on November 3rd to 5th!! I hope to see you there, it’s going to be amazing as always. I’m leading a session with my signature talk on The New Relationship Marketing. I’m also speaking at my friend Maria Simone’s Enlightened Entrepreneur Summit in Irvine that same weekend.

In the past couple months, I also had a new photoshoot done, had my website redesigned, and switched to a new dedicated server as my hosting plan was bursting at the seams!

That’s it for now… that’s all I’ve been up to over the past couple months! Lol.

NOW, it’s time to get my blogging back up to speed and publish the follow up posts I promised on using Google+, along with a bunch of new ones on Facebook and all the myriad changes! But first — let’s celebrate book launch time!!!

Please do leave your questions and comments below – I’d love to hear from you!!

A social media superstar is a person who has reached a certain level of industry leadership and success, in the eyes of his/her fans, followers and peers. And, these leaders naturally possess the ten qualities detailed in this post. Most of these characteristics transcend industries, and many of them transcend those who have or are striving to attain “superstar” status. But, those individuals who have all ten of these qualities are most likely people who are out there doing an amazing job of truly making a big difference in the world of social media and beyond.

Last week, I lead a free webinar discussing these qualities and featuring the 32 leaders I chose to spotlight. The webinar was attended by over 800 live participants; the replay has been viewed more than 1,000 times, and the slides have over 5,000 views on SlideShare. A popular topic for sure! You can gain instant access to the replay of the webinar here, and view the slides below. Plus, keep reading further for details of the ten qualities, featuring 32 social media leaders!

In each of the ten qualities below, I’ve highlighted some of my favorite social media superstars – every one of which I personally know, and feel that they embody all ten of the qualities, not just the section(s) in which I feature them. I could easily add many more wonderful leaders here; this list is by no means exhaustive. Feel free to recommend your own favorite superstars for any one or more of the qualities in the comments section!

#1 – Humility

Leaders who are clearly very humble are the most attractive and the most engaging. By attractive, I mean people feel naturally *drawn* to them. We feel more relaxed and open around humble people. These individuals love to shine the spotlight on others but tend to shy away from having the light shining on them personally too much.

Check in on your own humility. I recommend before sharing anything on any platform, ask yourself, “What is my deepest intent?“ Sometimes it’s important to sit with that question for a bit to make sure you’re coming from the right place.

My social media picks for those who exemplify humility are:

Erik Qualman - talented author of Socialnomics and producer of brilliant viral videos, Erik is always gracious and has time for everyone.

Follow @equalman

Scott Monty – one of Ford’s best assets, Scott is admired by many. He’s super kind and super savvy.

Follow @scottmonty

Shashi Bellamkonda – I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Networked Solutions’ “social media swami” for many years. Along with his expertise, he’s extremely helpful. (He once went totally out of his way to help me track down a lost camera at Las Vegas airport!)

Follow @shashib

These individuals are so humble, they may even balk at being called “superstars!” Plus, if you’ve ever met Tony Hsieh — CEO of Zappos and author of Delivering Happiness — and heard him give a presentation, he really epitomizes humility in a leader. I’ve been blessed to share the stage with Tony five times now over the years! My friend Jim Kwik has a very similar disposition to Tony; Jim is currently working on his book called The Art of Warmth.

#2 – PASSION!

Regardless of your career, in an ideal world, you want to get paid for what you’re really, truly passionate about!! The one name that always comes to mind when thinking of unbridled passion in the social media world is my friend:

Gary Vaynerchuk – Gary has monetized social media with his exuberant personality and genuine love of people! I’m honored to call him a friend.

Follow @garyvee

It’s important to share your passion in your own way!! It’s not about trying to be like Gary; rather, making sure your life – and hopefully your business too – is a vibrant expression of your passion!

#3 – An INCLUSIVE attitude

To be a good leader, especially in the social media industry, having a non-competitive, inclusive approach works very well. A social media superstar with an inclusive approach will happily recommend and endorse his/her peers. You will often see them retweeting and promoting other social media professionals – who could easily be seen as their competition by others. These leaders treat everyone as equals. They don’t put others on pedestals and don’t like to be put on a pedestal themselves.

Those leaders who have this type of non-competitive, inclusive attitude are:

Jay Baer – a super-savvy and real down-to-earth guy, Jay is very welcoming and kind to everyone.

Follow @jaybaer

Brian Solis – if you’ve ever met Brian, you know he has a wonderful disposition. He’s also one of the most talented thought leaders and futurists in the social media world and beyond.

Follow @briansolis

Jeremiah Owyang - I first met Jeremiah in 2007 and he’s always been very sweet and personable. Along with Brian Solis, Jeremiah is one of the brilliant minds in the social media industry. It was an honor to have him lead the opening keynote for the Social Media Success Summit 2011.

Follow @jowyang

There are many more, too. Who would you add? Make your suggestions in the comments section below!

You may have heard sayings like, “Be yourself because everybody is already taken,” and one of my favorites from Dr. Seuss, “There’s nobody youer than You!” There are nearly seven billion people on the planet (close to one billion of us are on Facebook!), and we are all uniquely different. Yes, you need to differentiate yourself. At the end of the day, people do business with people they know, like and trust. Even if you offer an identical product or service as other businesses, the right clients will be drawn to you because of who you are.

#4 – Engaging

As Brian Solis talks about in his latest book, Engage, business have to “engage or die.” In other words, it’s crucial to your success to be responsive to your community. Audiences don’t want to be talked “at” and get bombarded with marketing messages. True leaders in the social media world care deeply about others and it shows by their daily interactions with as many people as possible. My choices for those who engage well are:

Guy Kawasaki - yes, I know Guy is a “firehose” of content, but he’s also very engaging on both Twitter and his Facebook fan page for Enchantment. He’s also a very caring person and certainly walks the talk of being enchanting!

Follow @guykawasaki

Ekaterina Walter - a talented social media strategist for Intel, Ekaterina is a terrific content producer and curator as well as being a great engager.

Follow @ekaterina

Pam Moore – Pam and her husband run a busy social media agency; she writes her own posts and is a popular guest blogger and is also a great engager.

Follow @pammktgnut

Who would you add — who do you love to engage with on Twitter and Facebook?

#5 – Deep NICHE knowledge

This is where the true differentiation starts to come in. A vast number of people may possess superstar qualities #1 through #4. But, having deep technical knowledge and experience within a specific niche really sets these superstars apart. They are specialists, not generalists. In addition to deep niche knowledge, these leaders also have a great breadth of industry knowledge. And they willingly share their knowledge and happily answer questions for their friends, fans and followers.

Superstars who have carved out a powerful and clear niche include:

Viveka von Rosen – one of my favorite go-to LinkedIn experts.

Follow @linkedinexpert

Beth Kanter – hands-down the top expert for social media for non profits.

Follow @kaneter

Sarah Evans – a PR genius and a super engager.

Follow @prsarahevans

Steve Garfield – the author of Get Seen and is a talented video marketing expert.

Follow @stevegarfield

John Haydon – like Beth, John is a master in the area of social media – specifically Facebook – for non profits. He’s my go-to guy in this area!

Follow @johnhaydon

What I love about niche experts is they are always at the top of my mind whenever I have an opportunity come across my desk – I can confidently pass along opportunities  and leads to these industry specialists.

Who else would you add here? Who comes to mind when someone is seeking a true expert in ______? Fill in the blank!

#6 – A prolific CONTENT producer

Another differentiator: social media leaders create and publish vast volumes of excellent, quality content. The root word of “authority” is “author.” If you want to be an authority in any field, author more – write more! Publish more blog posts, articles, and guest blog posts. Create more information products. Lead more teleseminars, webinars. Speak more. Get your expertise out there in the written and spoken word and you will become known as a prolific, quality content producer!

These leaders also freely share “OPC” – other people’s content. They feature other experts on their blogs, they regularly share other experts’ content on Facebook, Twitter and more.

Some of my favorite quality content creators are:

Ann Handley – and the MarketingProfs team are phenomenal at writing some of the best marketing content. Their studies and in-depth reports are extremely valuable. Ann should be under #1 above too; I’ve had the pleasure of meeting her in person and she’s extremely humble.

Follow @marketingprofs

Kristi Hines – is just a delight; do check out her blog and her consistently terrific blog posts.

Follow @kikolani

Simply Zesty – my favorite Irish team, Lauren Fisher and Niall Harbison are the brains behind SimplyZesty. Their talented writing often appears on other big blogs like TheNextWeb.

Follow @simplyzesty

Krishna De – another Irish gem, Krishna’s blog is packed with valuable social media and Facebook marketing tips.

Follow @krishnade

Who are your favorite sources of quality social media content? Let me know in the comments!

#7 – Always add VALUE

Along with creating and curating terrific content, these social media leaders add value with everything they do. They are discerning in what they say; they lift others up, are encouraging and are great listeners. You may often hear people talk about how important it is to “add value.” Adding value comes in many forms – when you’re a source of great knowledge, expertise, resources and support for your community, you’ll have a reputation for someone who adds value.

Some of my top choices for this quality are:

Mark Schaefer – his blog is exceptional, thought-provoking, helpful. Always something new and fresh. And Mark is a super nice guy; he’s always a great source of support.

Follow @markwschaefer

Cindy Ratzlaff – a longtime friend of mine, Cindy is a savvy branding and book marketing expert along with running her own social media agency. Her breadth and depth of experience always adds value.

Follow @brandyou

Nancy Myrland - Nancy is one of the nicest peeps online; she always has a cheery and helpful word for everyone and publishes great content on her blog too.

Follow @nancymyrland

Lori Taylor – another bright light in the online world, Lori shares an abundance of helpful social media tips and resources and always has something positive to say.

Follow @lorirtaylor

On the subject of discernment, here’s a great nugget from one of my favorite comedians, fellow Scot, Craig Ferguson:

There’s this idea that people are meaner than they used to be because of the Internet. People are not meaner; they’ve always been mean. It’s just the technology is just *faster!* People have a crazy, angry thought — BOOM!! It’s out. They don’t take time to slow down, self-edit and ask themselves these three questions: 1) Does this need to be said? 2) Does this need to be said by ME? and 3) Does this need to be said by me NOW?

~Craig Ferguson, from his “Does This Need To Be Said” show.

Who do you know that is always adding value by sharing great content as well as being supportive, kind and helpful?

#8 – 100% consistent.

Consistency has three main components in this context: 1) You have a seamless branding image and presence across all platforms. There is a consistent, uniform message that speaks quality. 2) You produce and share content regularly,  ideally daily, through your various social channels. 3) You engage with your network, ideally daily. Over time, you become known as someone who is reliable; you’re trustworthy and can be counted on to always show up.

Three consistently branded, generous leaders are:

Guy Kawasaki - I’m honored to call Guy a friend also; he’s the same everywhere – online, offline. I know Guy is also under quality #4, Engaging. I’ve put him in twice.

Follow @guykawasaki

Danny Brown - a fun, fellow Scottish-Canadian, Danny has a great look and feel to his brand and is a prolific content creator and engager. 

Follow @dannybrown

Ann Handley – Ann deserves to be featured twice too; she can be relied upon daily for excellent content + regular connecting.

Follow @marketingprofs

Who would you add here that exemplifies the quality of consistency?

#9 – A true LEADER

True leaders build people up and encourage them to reach their full potential, no holds barred. The thing is, many people in leadership positions actually hold themselves back from really championing other people, out of a fear that others might leapfrog ahead and surpass them. How sad. In his book, Greater Than Yourself, author Steve Farber talks about how true leaders really build people up.

These leaders are some of my favorites who are highly skilled at building real communities:

Laura Fitton (Founder @oneforty) – Laura is credited with being the person who got Guy Kawasaki on Twitter. Imagine Twitter without Guy! Along with being a published author, Laura created a great platform and community at oneforty.com.

Follow @pistachio

Charlene Li (Founder @altimetergroup) – I’ve always admired Charlene’s talents and leadership style.

Follow @charleneli

Liz Strauss (Founder @sobcon) – a fellow 6′ blonde, Liz is just a delight. She is cofounder of SOBcon (Successful Online Business Conference), a thriving annual event.

Follow @lizstrauss

Michael Stelzner (Founder @smexaminer) – Mike does a fabulous job of really fostering community among his entire audience and all his guest bloggers on SocialMediaExaminer.com and its Facebook fan page. I first met Mike in 2008 and over the years we have enjoyed a very rewarding business alliance, specifically with the largescale online Summits.

Follow @mike_stelzner

Wendy Piersall (A leader of mom-bloggers) – Wendy is another delightful leader. She has built successful blogs and businesses and her book Mom Blogging for Dummies is coming out next month.

Follow @emom

What other leaders do you admire?

#10 – A PROVEN track record

And finally, social media superstars did not just wake up one morning, hang out a shingle and call themselves and expert. Unfortunately, there is a lot of this in the social media industry which can reflect badly on those who have truly earned their stripes. However, I am of the opinion that you never, ever build yourself up by beating others down. Period. One of my favorite quotes is:

The best gift you can give others is the example of your own life working. ~Orin

True leaders – in any industry – have really “earned the right” to be a Superstar. They have put in the long hours of study and practice. They have client case studies and can point to their tangible results spanning many years. Several studies, including by Harvard, show that it takes ten years or 10,000 hours to be a real expert. Malcolm Gladwell, talks about this in his book, Outliers.

Experts have special knowledge of a subject beyond that of the average person. Experts have a prolonged or intense experience through practice and education in a particular field. ~Wikipedia

There is a vast number of experienced professionals in the social media industry with many years’ of experience working with clients and brands of all sizes, writing books and speaking at large conferences. Three of my choices for this quality are:

Brian Solis – a true leader with vast experience and expertise. Take a look at Brian’s popular blog on any given day and also pick up a copy of his book Engage, and you’ll immediately see why Brian is one of the top names in social media. I’ve included Brian twice too!

Follow @briansolis

Chris Brogan – has definitely earned his stripes as one of the leaders in the social media world. He and I were recently speaking at a major event in Oslo, Norway and got to spend a fair bit of quality social time together – a first for us in almost four years. It was a joy to get to know Chris better on a personal level.

Follow @chrisbrogan

Jason Falls – a sharp and experienced professional, and all-round fun guy.

Follow @jasonfalls

This list is not intended to be the “definitive” guide for ten qualities or characteristics of social media leaders. These are the ten that I have identified from working in the world of social media as a speaker, trainer and consultant since 2007 and, before that, as an internet and relationship marketing specialist since 1999.

Of course, I have refrained from listing myself anywhere in this post. During and since the webinar I lead last week, many people sent me encouraging and kind messages. I am truly honored. It is my life’s mission to shine the light brightly on you, to bring out the best in you, to support you in being all you can be. If you’re interested in checking out my mentorship program, do take a look here. We begin on June 16 and have a few spaces left. I’d love to work with you if it’s a fit.

You may have other social media superstar qualities that you would add or replace. Please share in the comments below your own perspective on leadership and superstar qualities in the social media industry or otherwise. I’d love to hear from you!

I recently had the great pleasure of speaking at the prestigious Gulltaggen (“Golden Tag”) event in Oslo, Norway. Gulltaggen is the Nordic premiere digital marketing conference. Among the speaker lineup were two fellow prominent social media personalities: my friends Gary Vaynerchuk and Chris Brogan.

Chris Brogan, Mari Smith, Gary Vaynerchuk

I loved being able to spend a fair bit of time with Chris Brogan – we had several great conversations over a few different meals. It’s the most time we’ve spent in person. (We both intentionally booked extra time for the Norway trip to enjoy connecting with the attendees and do a bit of sightseeing too). I got to catch up with Gary in just a few minutes, as is usual for us!

I’ve known both Chris and Gary since 2007; none of us spend a whole lot of in-person time together despite the fact we’re often at similar events. But, there is a distinct closeness among us – continually cemented with online connecting – which Gary mentioned from the stage during his keynote.

Building personality-based businesses

If you run your own business, scaling your social media management can prove more and more difficult as your online networks grow. Especially if you are what I call a “personality-based business.” That is, your name is the business. Your identity is wrapped up with the business so it makes it impossible to delegate (unless you’re okay using a ghostwriter, which most people I know are not!)

Personality-based businesses have become increasingly popular over the last few years with the boom of online social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. We talk of “web-celebs” who are springing up in all kinds of industries, not just social media. Celebrity status, if you will, is no longer reserved for actors and entertainers.

But, from what I’ve experienced and observed, those personalities creating greater successes are the ones who can remain humble, genuine, caring, inclusive. They treat everyone as equals and don’t let people put them on pedestals. They scale their caring as Gary says. I do my best to fall into this category and I know for sure both Gary and Chris do.

Scaling social media

Gary gave a rousing opening keynote (as always!) at Gulltaggen, and I wanted to share some of his key points below that really got me thinking more about this whole issue of scalability. Yes, it can be difficult to scale if you’re the one running all your own social media accounts – but Gary is adamant that you can scale caring and I completely agree.

If you’re familiar at all with Gary and his philosophies, he talks about the importance of the “hustle.” You need to go the extra mile, be everywhere, push yourself that bit further, consistently engage with your online networks, personally answer emails and calls, and provide exceptional customer care.

Bigger businesses with the resources absolutely must scale. BestBuy, for example, do a great job of scaling – they have some 2,500 employees dedicated to customer service via online social networks. And likes of Starbucks and Audi lead the way in engagement.

But, those of us who run personality-based businesses have to make a conscious decision to really ramp up the connection time whilst still running the business. (Of course, the online engagement is a massive part of running the business!) In future posts, I’ll outline some of my own strategies for scaling.

Golden nuggets from @GaryVee

Here are my favorite soundbites from Gary’s talk at Gulltaggen:

• “There is absolutely NO reason why big brands can’t scale their social media engagement.”
• “Social media campaigns are like a one night stand. You have to MARRY your customer.”
• “We are now in a cocktail party and the people who know how to work the room will win. You can’t give a presentation at a cocktail party.”
• “For the first time EVER, businesses will NOT be able to catch up with just money… because they don’t have the emotional investment. It takes time to build up relationships.”
• “YES, you CAN scale caring!! Just look at myself, Chris Brogan and Mari Smith.”
• “How interesting that three of the personalities who are most engaged with their audiences are here speaking at this conference.”
• “Online social connecting is bringing us closer together. I’ve spent all of nine minutes total with Mari Smith in person over the years but I feel very close to her.”
• “Content is King. Marketing is Queen, and she runs the household. But, more important than content is context.“
• “Even in 140 characters, INTENT is grossly underrated. People try to just go for the sale. Is your intent pure?”
• “Want to know the ROI of Social Media? People are making point-of-purchase buying decisions based on their social graph!“
• “You MUST put your Facebook and Twitter URL in ads/print media/packaging, not just the Facebook and Twitter LOGO!!” [Gary is on a mission to ensure we don't make the prospects work too hard to find our social profiles; even if it seems obvious to the company, still put your actual links next to the social logos.]

[UPDATE: I believe the video of Gary's Gulltaggen presentation is not yet online but you may find it here at some point: http://norwaytv.com/. Meantime, check out this great video of Gary on SUCCESS Magazine's site.]

Slides from Gulltaggen speakers

Chris Brogan’s presentation was equally as awesome as Gary’s, for different reasons. Like Gary, Chris has his own unique style of “edutainment” with a terrific sense of humor and timing. The Norwegians are first to admit they tend to be somewhat reserved and it can be challenging for presenters to gel with audiences in Norway. However, Chris’ humorous, relaxed style was well-received; I loved seeing the audience laugh along with Chris as he playfully poked fun at their teeny viking museum, for example! See Chris’ slides from Gulltaggen here.

Two other excellent, authoritative speakers at Gulltaggen were web analytics guru, Avinash Kaushik and online marketing expert, Bryan Eisenberg, who gave a terrific presentation on the future of shopping!

You can view the slides from my own Gulltaggen Facebook Marketing session and access the resources page set up for attendees here.

By the way, a word of encouragement for all female professional speakers out there – we need to see you on stage more! I’m frequently the only female speaker in an all-male lineup, such as I was at Gulltaggen. I’m not a big ‘gender-issue’ type of person, but it certainly would be a good thing to see a tad more balance. Just sayin.

Also, click here to see my favorite selection of photos and short video clips I took while in Oslo, Norway. If ever you have a chance to go, I highly recommend the Opera House, Vigelandsparken Sculpture Park (with 216 stunning nude statues!), and the Ekebergrestauranten where the hospitality and food are exquisite.

Please do share with me in the comments below your own thoughts on scaling social media and building personality-based businesses. How are you managing at your company?

The recent Facebook Page upgrades unveiled some of the most complex features we’ve seen on the platform yet. Navigating Facebook as your Page OR Profile; posting and commenting on other Pages as your Page; notifications of Page activity; News Feed just for Pages you’ve liked; weighted system for displaying the most popular posts on your Page wall; and, replacement of FBML with iFrames.

I will be publishing a series of posts diving deeper into specific Facebook features, along with an in-depth review of all the changes and their impact on marketers. This post covers two features I’m very excited about, as they have a distinct marketing advantage: the five-photo strip at the top of Pages (similar to Profiles) and the new Photo Viewer lightbox.

First, I strongly recommend that if you have not yet upgraded your Page, you need to dive in and do so right now! All Pages will automatically be upgraded next month anyway. Go here to view all your Pages, check out the new layout with the Preview button first, then Upgrade.

New five-photo strip at the top of Pages

This new feature is identical to the new Profile design. Your five most recently uploaded Page photos are displayed at the top and will change any time you load new photos. Photos loaded by your fans and other Pages will not appear in this display. To remove a photo from the display, mouseover and click the “x”. Hidden photos will still be accessible.

What’s really cool is, just like your personal profile, you can get creative and use this valuable real estate for branding, special offers, tips, etc.

HyperArts Facebook Page Photo Strip

However, the photos do not stay in the same order (unlike Profiles). With each visit/refresh, the photos randomize. In the example above, Tim Ware at HyperArts Web Design mentions in the main Page image that they know the order is random. I refreshed Tim’s Page umpteen times and still couldn’t get the images to spell HyperArts. lol!

So, creating a sequential five-photo banner won’t quite work. (I’m not entirely sure why Facebook included the randomize feature. Perhaps so we can’t quite fully add a custom banner. Hm.)

Continue reading for my magical marketing tip, though!

New Photo Viewer Lightbox

We saw a sneak peek of this lovely feature back in December. Each photo throughout the entire Facebook platform can now easily be viewed in a popup lightbox so you can see enlarged pictures, scroll back and forth, like/comment and never lose your place on Facebook. This is an extremely handy feature when viewing photos in the News Feed, on anyone’s Profile or Page, etc.

Facebook Photo Viewer - Lightbox pops up, background grays out

Magical marketing tip: put CTAs on your images to make them ads!

Now, here’s the magical marketing tip: create a series of photos with special offers and calls to action (CTAs) right on the images and you basically have your own five free Facebook ads!! “Click here for details,” is an obvious CTA. Then, include a short narrative with a hyperlink to that offer in the photo description. When your fans click the image, up it pops in the nifty new lightbox where they then see the description and link.

Any images of links (URLs) will, of course, not actually click through to the web page. BUT, when anyone clicks on the five images at the top of your Page (or anytime you share an image on your wall, load to an album, etc), they see the image pop up in the lightbox where you then have your compelling offer.

Fan Page Factory - Facebook Page

The ideal dimensions to make sure the thumbnail size shows properly is:  970px by 680px. Facebook then makes the entire image the thumbnail size, which is 97px by 68px. In the Fan Page Factory screenshot above, my buddy Nathan doesn’t have CTAs on each image, but he does have a compelling offer under each photo. Props to Nathan for the tip on the dimensions-to-thumbnail ratio! Quote:

If the ratio is not (1.426=97/68) Facebook will NOT render the entire photo as the thumbnail and will rather recenter the thumbnail and only show “out” until the ratio is met.

I recommend that you create at least five images like this, each with special offers and clear, “CLICK HERE” type of CTAs. Periodically change the images and offers. Each time you post a photo (photos tend to get the highest EdgeRank in the News Feed), your post goes out into the feed of fans and other pages that have liked you.

You might also check out the photo template made by ShortStack Labs.

550 new subscribers in less than 24 hours!

I tried the image-with-CTA experiment last Friday and uploaded a real simple 97px by 68px image (size of the thumbnail – I didn’t know at the time to make it 10x!). Within 24 hours, I had over 550 new opt-ins for my 15 Social Media Power Tips! I saw many fans shared the same photo on their page/profiles. Which, of course, creates a viral effect for the offer!

15 Social Media Power Tips - Facebook popup offer

Though the image looks teeny in the Photo Viewer, it’s the proper size for the photo strip at the top of my Page. But, clearly, size didn’t matter!

Initially, I put the CTA in the narrative first followed by an explanation of my experiment. But, I edited the narrative so my usual, bubbly style showed first. I didn’t want it to suddenly come across as pushy/salesy in the News Feed of my fans. It’s important to remember whatever narrative you add to the photo will be what shows up in the News Feed of your fans.

Photo description for 15 Social Media Power Tips image

Here’s the next offer I’m sharing via Facebook Photos:

Would you like to spend 2.5 days with me – either LIVE in person in sunny San Diego, or VIRTUALLY via streaming video access – and begin to master Facebook marketing? April 1-2, optional Beginners Bootamp on March 31. Check out my fab new page for this event, just unveiled today! http://weekendwithmari.com. If you’d like to attend live, save $500 on the 1 or 2 ticket price! Just enter ’500discount’ on the check out page.

Social Media Mastery Immersion - Join Mari Smith!

So, what do you think? Will you use your five-photo strip strategically for images with offers and calls-to-action? I’d love to see some creative examples – feel free to share in the comments below and include a link back to your Facebook Page!

Tagging your Facebook friends in photos is one of the most ingenious and popular features on the site. Tagging friends in Notes is another use of tags, though used less often than photos. In September 2009, Facebook broadened this tagging feature by allowing users to tag friends, pages, groups, events and apps in status updates and posts. This type of tagging is referred to as an “@ tag.”

Facebook intended for these tags to allow users to expand and enrich the way they share on Facebook:

We hope that tagging your status updates and others posts from the Publisher will enable you to share in a more meaningful and engaging way, and connect with even more people.

@ tagging has two primary components: 1) your original post has hyperlinks to the profiles/pages that you tagged as shown in the screenshot below, and 2) your post in its entirety also automatically posts onto the wall of whichever friend/page that you tagged. This latter feature has significant etiquette ramifications which I’ll discuss further in this blog post.

I annotated numbers in red simply to show the count

Also, when you @ tag friends, they receive a notification of the tag and will receive further notifications anytime someone comments on that post. (Actual email notifications can be turned off under notifications. Go to Account > Account Settings > Notifications.)

How to make an @ tag:

To make a tag, in the status update field (publisher), type the “@” symbol then begin typing the name of the person/page etc. that you wish to tag. You’ll see a selection of choices in a dropdown menu (see image below) – click on the person/page that you want to tag. The person/page instantly pops into your post, highlighted in gray. Once you publish the post, the name of the person/page turns into a hyperlink.

Facebook @ tag demo

(In the screenshot above, three of the choices in the dropdown menu are fan pages and the other two are friends of mine. I like to blur out last names/photos to protect privacy, just in case their privacy settings are such that only friends know they’re on Facebook).

What you can @ tag:

• Friends
• Fan Pages (that you’ve liked)
• Community Pages (that you’ve liked)
• Place Pages (that you’ve liked)
• App Pages (that you’ve liked)
• Events for which you’ve RSVP’d
• Old style Groups you’ve created/joined – open, closed, secret*
• New style Groups you’ve created/joined – open, closed, secret*

*In the case of @ tagging secret Facebook Groups, only members of the Group will see the tag as hyperlinked. All other Facebook users see the post with the name of the Group, but it’s not clickable. [I'm not entirely sure why you'd want to @ tag a secret Group, but I tested this out and confirmed with my friends that the Group name isn't hyperlinked for non-members.]

I’m focusing only on friends and fan page @ tags in this blog post. I’ll cover Facebook photo and video tagging in a future post as it’s an equally complex topic!

Where you can @ tag:

You can have up to six @ tags in a status update — or when posting a photo, link or video — anywhere the publisher appears on Facebook. The publisher is the box where you write a status update or select a photo/link/video). For example, you can make a post on your own wall, friends’ walls, event walls, group walls, and the wall of any fan page, app page or place page you’ve liked.

Why use @ tags?

There are many great uses for @ tags. For example, one of the best uses of an @ tag is when you find a piece of content that you’d like to share with your friends/fans - you can copy and paste that content to your own wall and add an @ tag for the originator by way of attribution. This is essentially the Facebook equivalent of a “retweet” on Twitter.

Facebook does have the “Share” option below all posts that have a link, photo or video (but not a straight status update). When you use the Share button, it does have a link back to the originator. But the person/page wouldn’t necessarily know you shared their content; letting the originator know you shared their content is part of the relationship-building process.

My own intent with @ tags is almost always to give kudos, credit, attribution or promotion to others. The example below shows three fan page @ tags for friends of mine. I’m sharing a link to a book website; it’s not an affiliate link. My only agenda is to share terrific resources with my fans. Of course, sharing affiliate links is perfectly okay too.

Can you prevent being @ tagged?

You cannot prevent your profile or page from being tagged. You can remove profile tags, however, which I highly recommend you do any time you feel you have been inappropriately tagged. When your personal profile is @ tagged in a post, there is a little “Remove tag” link below the post. If you remove your tag, your name remains intact, it just won’t be clickable.

The screenshot below is actually a great example of a positive @ tag message with a nice thank you (the tag is my personal profile; there is no “Remove Tag” option on fan page @ tags):

@ tagging etiquette

I believe it’s very important – from a strategic relationship-building standpoint – to always give careful consideration as to a) how your post will come across on someone else’s profile or page wall, and b) whether the post might get a lot of activity, thus creating a logjam of notifications for the friend(s) you tagged. (Note that fan pages do not receive notifications). Here are my general guidelines on do’s and dont’s:

Do use @ tagging:

• To acknowledge and give credit.
• To provide attribution for content you share.
• To show appreciation.
• To help promote other fan pages.
• To cross-reference other fan pages, assuming there is no conflict of interests.
• To @ tag your own page strategically (e.g. by way of a signature when making wall posts).

Do not use @ tagging:

• As a way to “poach” fans from other pages that offer the same/similar service as you do to the same/similar target audience.
• As a way to post your own affiliate link on the wall of the affiliate program owner’s fan page.
• As a way to get someone’s attention for self-serving reasons.
• As a way to “imply endorsement” by that person/page.

When your post shows up on the tagged person/page’s wall, the only option is to “View Post.” Nobody can like or comment on the post. They have to come back to your original post – whether you made it on your personal profile or fan page.

With your personal profile, depending on your privacy settings, nobody can comment/like unless they’re friends with you.

Equally, when you @ tag from your fan page, users are “forced” to come visit your fan page if they wish to comment/like the post, but first they have to  join (like) your page. Of course, used effectively in a win:win way, this can be a very good thing and it’s how most people use @ tags: as a way to create visibility for yourself on other fan page walls.

I will say one of my own frustrations is not being able to comment on a tagged post when the person/page is asking me a question. I would love to see Facebook change this so at least the page being tagged could provide a response. Often, I like to just say thanks! If someone asks me a question by way of an @ tag from their fan page, I will carefully consider whether to join their page to answer the question or not. A workaround is to copy and paste the question with your answer into a Note or as your own status update.

There really is a fine art to the practice of tagging other pages from your page. As a great starting point, always ask yourself, “What is my deepest intent?” If you’re truly adding value and helping lift up the other person’s business and fan page, people will feel that positive intent.

@ tag then remove from their wall

Often, I like to use an @ tag as a way to provide a link to a page of a business I support. But I don’t necessarily need/want to have my post show up on their wall. A way around this is to go ahead and publish the post with the @ tag, then go and remove the post from the other person/page’s wall.

In the screenshot below, I wanted to let my friends know about my friend, Gary Ryan Blair’s extraordinary program, the 100 Day Challenge. I promoted the program using my own affiliate link; but I also wanted people to know that Gary has a Facebook fan page for the program too. Immediately after I made this post, I went to the 100 Day Challenge page and deleted my own post. This may not be necessary if a page has their wall set to be posts by page only (fan posts show under a separate filter).

Include An @ Tag, Then Remove From Their Wall

Examples of @ tags working

I polled my Facebook community for their input on this complex topic of @ tags – see the informative thread here. Following are a couple of good examples of how businesses are using @ tags successfully. World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. (WWE) has a Facebook Fan page with close to four million fans! As Corey explains below, the WWE use @ tagging regularly for cross-referencing:

WWE Facebook Tagging Example

And, in this example, Courtney explains how strategic use of @ tags on one of her pages caused a spike of 100 new Likes vs. their average of 20 a week:

What not to do

In this example, Alana talks about a strategy many Facebook users adopt where they just run amok with @ tags and don’t stop to think how they are impacting their relationships:

Facebook Tagging Etiquette - What Not To Do

I find this practice Alana’s talking about rather inappropriate too. I dislike being tagged when someone has a question for me and in order to answer that question, I have to go to their wall.

How have you found success with @ tags? Do you use them much at all – for personal? Or for business? When do you think it’s inappropriate to use @ tags? What is your pet peeve with @ taggers? Did I miss anything important here? Please share freely in the comments below, and remember I’ll publish a whole separate post on the fine art of photo and video tagging on Facebook!

Related articles

• Quick Guide To The New Facebook Profile Layout [IMAGE]
• 5 Ways To Market Your Business On Facebook To Both Friends And Fans
• Should You Merge Your Facebook Place Page and Business Page?

I’m super excited to be working on my next book, which will be my first as a solo author! And, I’d LOVE your help in choosing a title that pops and represents the subject matter really well. The topic is Relationship Marketing – a subject very close to my heart for over a decade, long before social media became so prevalent.

My background, spanning a variety of careers, has always included elements of people + technology + support. When I discovered social media marketing in 2007, it was such a natural blend of everything I’d done up to that point. (I joke about being an “overnight success, ten years in the making! Maybe you can relate?!)

Last year, Chris Treadaway and I co-authored Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day, published in May 2010. Our book is published by Sybex, the technical book division of John Wiley & Sons. (We’re starting to work on v2 now – stay tuned!)

Around the same time that the Facebook Marketing book was coming out, Wiley approached me about doing a book on relationship marketing… I held out for awhile as I needed to find the right timing for me.

The New Relationship Marketing

Now, it’s all systems GO with the Relationship Marketing book contract signed last month! My manuscript is due March 15, 2011 for a publication date in August. 60,000+ words – woohoo!!

Here’s the challenge though: I’m not 100% locked in on the title. The working title Wiley and I came up with is:

The New Relationship Marketing: How to Build a Powerful, Profitable Network Online

I’m looking for a title with more POP, PIZZAZZ, sparkle, wow, memorable, jump-off-the-shelf!! You know, to really reflect my bubbly personality and brand! Ha, maybe I’m being overly ambitious here. Wiley particularly want “Relationship Marketing” in the title, though it could be in the subtitle and of course I’m fine with that.

The essence of my book is the new fundamentals of growing a successful business based on connecting, blended with timeless principles.  Here’s the book synopsis:

Relationship marketing has existed for some time – people have always done business with people they know, like and trust. And, “social networking” has been around since the dawning of man, when we would sit around the campfire connecting over stories and shared experiences.

What has changed in recent years, though, is the immense popularity of online social networking. We need to hone a whole new set of skills to really master the art of relationship marketing through these social channels. It’s crucial that businesses understand the unspoken rules of etiquette, fresh new protocols, and the unique culture of each popular online platform – otherwise the wrong approach can cause more harm than good.

This book aims to help busy professionals, executives and business owners understand the vital importance of masterful relationship building and relationship management in the new media world. By fostering high quality relationships with customers and their community at large, businesses can easily begin to see an increase in measurable results, including profits.

Plus, those individuals, companies and politicians with the largest “social footprint” get the biggest successes, the big bucks, the big wins. It’s not what you know, it’s who you know – but, more importantly, who knows you and what they know about you. This book provides the reader with an entire game plan for how to build a sizeable, loyal network comprised of quality relationships that results in a continuous stream of leads, happy customers, publicity, deals, opportunities, sales and more.

Single word title?

I really love single word book titles, such as Engage by Brian Solis, or Seth Godin’s books – Tribes and Linchpin. And Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink. Guy Kawasaki‘s new book is Enchantment. (All exceptional books, btw!)

Title ideas so far…

Here are some of the title choices I submitted in my proposal:

• LIKE! How To Build Powerful, Profitable Relationships In the New Media Age
• The Influence Principle: Why Relationships Are The New Currency
• Profitable Relationships: How To Build A Loyal Network of Friends, Fans and Followers and Become The Most Trusted Go-To Expert In Your Industry
• Affinity: The Complete Guide To Building A Sizeable, Loyal and Profitable Network Using The New Web
• The New Relationship Marketing: How To Build A Sizeable Platform, Become A Significant Center of Influence and Prosper In The New Media Age
• Relationships First: How To Build A Loyal Network of Friends, Fans and Followers That Generates Consistent New Business

Recognition if your title is the winner!

Now, it’s your turn! Please feel free to submit any and all ideas in the comments below. If you prefer to contact me privately, send an email to mari at marismith.com. Or DM on Twitter is fine too! I’m excited to hear from you! We’re about to start working on the book cover design so do submit your title ideas ASAP!

If I end up choosing the title you submit, I’ll include your name in the book acknowledgments, send you an autographed copy along with other goodies, and give you big props on my Facebook Page, blog and Twitter!!

P.S. Isn’t the magical sparkle blue book image above awesome? I just had to have it – a whopping 10 credits ($15) on iStockPhoto.com. Though I use Zemanta, iStock always has such a super range.

I often poll my Facebook community to see what issues they’re facing regards their use of Facebook, particularly marketing on Facebook. Following are a couple of related questions along with several suggested solutions:

Hilary asks, “I have a personal Facebook page and a ‘Fan’ page, which I prefer to call an author page. Not all of my ‘Fans’ are friends. Not all of my friends are ‘fans.’ Some are both. But there are some things I want everyone to know, which means my friends/fans get a double dose of me. How to get around this? I don’t want to be inundating people with my stuff, but I do want to get the message across.”

Sally asks, “I have the same question as Hilary. I have three Facebook pages, one personal and two for different books I have written. Each of the books has a different demographic, but some people are friends on all three. Love your thoughts on options.”

Since Facebook “Fan” Pages have significantly grown in popularity over the past couple of years, small business owners and personal brands face the dilemma of how to share content on multiple places without duplication. In other words, as Hilary and Sally indicate above, if a Facebook user is friends with you on your personal profile and also joins your business page (or even multiple business pages if you have more than one), any time you post the same update, around the same time, on both your profile and page(s) you may be creating a double entry in that person’s News Feed. What can then happen is your friends/fans start to hide your updates in their News Feed:

When you mouseoever any post in your News Feed, there is a little “X” in the top right corner of that post. For friends, the options are Hide this post and Hide all by [Name] and Mark as spam. For fan pages, however, there is also the option to Unlike Page, which is a relatively new addition to the options. This is not good news for fan page Admins!

So, ideally, you want to create a good balance of business content – with some personal content – that is spaced out and relevant to both your friends and fans so they’re more likely to engage. Getting your friends/fans to comment and like is the name of the game – the more your friends/fans interact with your content, the more EdgeRank (News Feed optimization) you’ll get. It’s a Catch 22: the more popular your posts are, they more popular they become.

5 solutions to avoid duplication, hides, and unlikes in the News Feed

1. Space out the timing of your content across multiple social profiles

My top suggestion is: never post the exact same content at the exact same time on multiple social profiles. Rather, you can get maximum mileage out of the same content by spacing out the timing across multiple locations. Guy Kawasaki is a master at this – he has no qualms about repeating the same content at various times throughout the day, week, month.

Many marketers have been taught to fully automate their content dissemination and set up pre-scheduled updates using tools such as HootSuite. Whilst I’m a mega fan and daily user of HootSuite and pre-scheduling, the danger lies in over-automation.

For instance, some business owners may schedule identical content to post onto their Facebook personal profile + one or more Facebook fan pages + one or more Twitter accounts + their LinkedIn profile, etc. Or, they sync their Twitter account to every other social profile and just auto-stream the same content. Granted, the likelihood of anyone in your network seeing every update across every social profile is rather slim. However, when it comes to Facebook alone, the chances of your audience seeing multiple updates are much higher because of the way the News Feed works.

Making this one shift to spacing out the timing of your updates could make all the difference. Any of your Facebook friends – who are also connected to your Facebook business page – are far less likely to hide your content (or unlike your page).

2. Focus on your fan page for business content, profile for personal content

Another suggestion is to begin to reduce the amount of business/marketing/promotional content that you share on your personal profile. Instead, try sharing more personal updates that you’re comfortable with. Hobbies, travel, and family are three of the big topics people love to bond over! Plus, try posting inspirational quotes, more photos and videos, your opinion on certain matters, etc. You’ll find that you don’t need to update your personal profile as often. One or two thoughtful updates per day can create great mileage and keep you top of mind among your Facebook friends.

Plus, one of the primary uses of a personal profile is to GIVE to others. It’s your personal profile that allows you to navigate around the whole of Facebook, browse your News Feed, and surf the web at large clicking the Like button, adding comments, giving support, being someone who’s helpful and supportive with no agenda.

You’ll also want to mention your Facebook fan page from time to time on your personal profile – in a status update, or post the link, or @ tag your page. This will let your friends know that you have a separate business community on Facebook. You could also share the direct link to a post to spark engagement. Every post on Facebook has a unique URL: it’s the timestamp just like on Twitter.

With your fan page, given that pages can have unlimited fans, they get indexed on Google, and they’ll increasingly get more EdgeRank in the News Feeds as your fan base grows and engages, it just makes more sense to “start the way you mean to go on.” Imagine a year from now your fan page has 100,000 fans or even a million fans with high engagement?! Will it matter that your same business-related content also gets seen by a few friends who are not connected to your fan page? (As and when your page becomes that popular, more of your friends will likely want to participate on your fan page anyway.)

Be sure to include personal updates from time to time on your business page too. Let people in, show you’re human! On his fan page for his new book, Enchantment, Guy Kawasaki does a wonderful job of sharing quality business content along with sharing nuggets and photos from his travels and ventures. He also repeatedly replies to his fans’ comments which is absolutely key!

Check out this post with five examples of personal brand fan pages – quite the lineup with Mark Zuckerberg himself, Lady GaGa. and yours truly!

3. Make use of Friend Lists for publishing content

Regardless of how many Facebook friends you have, you may significantly enhance your experience and that of your friends by making full use of Friend Lists. For a tutorial on how to create Friend Lists, see this post (Step 2). By segmenting your friends, you can then determine which friends see what content, post by post! You can set your default publishing, then adapt per post by clicking the little padlock that appears just under the publisher (place where you post your content).

Here’s what Mike Stelzner had to say about Friend Lists in this post:

I wanted to use Facebook for business and my personal friends wanted nothing to do with my business. Facebook was fun for personal reasons, but I struggled with the business side of things…

…My turning point came when Mari Smith introduced me to two little features that rocked my world: friend lists and privacy settings.

Facebook allows you to set up an unlimited number of lists.  But it gets better.  You can decide precisely what people in lists can and cannot see with a few privacy settings.

You may find that this solution provides you with the best flexibility and allows you to continue building your network of friends up to the 5,000 limit if you wish.

4. Downsize your personal profile for true friends/family only

If you’re one of the very small percent of Facebook users who has chosen to “max out” their friends and you have close to 5,000 – or at least several thousand – you may want to revisit how you’re using your personal profile. Several buddies of mine chose the downsize route and unfriended all but family members and personal friends they actually know in favor of focusing on their fan page for business.

How many “friends” can we really keep up with? The average Facebook user actually has a mere 130 friends. So, the Dunbar 150 still prevails:

Dunbar’s number is a theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. These are relationships in which an individual knows who each person is, and how each person relates to every other person. Source: Wikipedia.

If you do choose to restrict your personal profile for only true friends and family, you’ll want to also adjust your privacy settings significantly to make yourself almost invisible to anyone that doesn’t know you already. Go to Account > Privacy Settings > under Connecting on Facebook at the top, click View Settings then adjust each one to “Friends Only,” or click Customize and you may even want some set to “Only Me:”

You may find that your Facebook experience dramatically improves by choosing to downsize your personal profile and utilize it the way Facebook actually intended for us to use it – to stay connected to the people we know.

5. What works for me – my “Golden Rolodex”

Though I briefly entertain the idea of downsizing my own personal profile from time to time, the approach that’s worked best for me is #1 and #2 above: spacing out duplicate posts and focusing primarily on my fan page for business.

I intentionally grew my network of friends close to the 5,000 limit a couple years ago and continue to monitor and adjust as needed. I like to keep a “buffer” for adding new friends I meet at events and such like. I also watch my News Feed for any content and/or style that simply doesn’t resonate with me, shared by people I don’t really know, and I quietly unfriend them.

Over time, my network of friends represents what I like to call my “Golden Rolodex” – that is, these are people I genuinely wish to continue nurturing my relationship with – and they may or may not be actual clients or prospective customers at any given time. They are a mix of industry experts; people I admire; people whose blogs and ezines I read; my peers – seminar leaders, authors, speakers; people I’d like to get to know; colleagues and business partners; personal friends and family members. I used to control who sees what with Friend Lists, but now prefer to just publish everything to everyone. I never share anything that private anyway!

At the end of the day, I honestly think there are as many ways to use Facebook as there are members on the site. It’s up to you – find what works for you by experimenting over time and observing styles that resonate with you.

I trust you found this post valuable and gained some perspective and ideas on how to manage a personal profile and one or more fan pages on Facebook. Let me know what you implement in the comments below. Do you have a different strategy not mentioned here? What works well for you? Share below, I’d love to hear from you!

Recommended reading:

• Facebook 101 for Business: Your Complete Guide [socialmediaexaminer.com]
• Facebook Marketing: How To Balance Personal and Professional [marismith.com]
• The Mystery of The Facebook News Feed: How to Optimize The Hidden Jewel of Facebook [likeable.com]
• Facebook News Feed Settings: Random Or Not, Biggest Secrets Revealed [thedailybeast.com]
• Facebook EdgeRank and News Feed Optimization? [dcincome.com]
• Anatomy of a Facebook Post: Vitrue’s Data Behind Effective Social Media Marketing [vitrue.com]
• Facebook Marketing: An Hour A Day [amazon.com]