The sh*t people say meme won’t die. And that’s okay. People are saying some funny stuff.

Let’s take a look at some of the top videos about what “social media people” say. I may be guilty of saying a few of these things myself.

Sh*t Social Media Experts Say

Sh*t A Social Media Community Manager Says

Sh*t Social Media Pros Say

Different perspectives

Fans want to be heard. You want a successful Facebook Page for your brand (a successful Page really depends on your goals, but that’s another post for another time). So, what is the best way to make your fans feel heard and gather information to help make your Page successful all at the same time? Ask. Asking your fans’ perspective to see what value they are getting from your Page is priceless. The following are questions you should consider asking:

• What they think of your brand?
• What you can do better?
• What you are doing well?

After you gather and sort through the data you will most likely find that your fans have a wide variety of viewpoints. From here, you have the opportunity to test different content and adjust your voice to see what really drives community and conversation.

Your fans will take notice that you are actively listening and make them feel that they do have a voice in making your business. It’s a win-win.

Are you asking your fans their perspectives of your Facebook Page?

Related Posts:

Facebook Page Management Tip #1: Use Relevant, Evolving Content

Facebook Page Management Tip #2: Respond To Fans In A Timely Manner

Facebook Page Management Tip #3: Ask Probing Questions

Below are 5 must-reads on using Instagram for business that we wouldn’t want you to miss.

23 Brands Using Instagram And What They’re Doing Right
By Jason Keath So the question is, can brands get real business value out of a photo sharing app that is not focused on link sharing or buying products or distributing specials to fans? The jury is still out, but there are some big brands testing the platform for spreading awareness and cultivating relationships with their biggest fans.

5 Key Takeaways From Brands Rocking Instagram
By Jessica Malnik It’s pretty natural that big brands and to a lesser extent smaller businesses are starting to jump on the Instagram bandwagon. With the very recent announcement that Instagram is coming to Android devices, I suspect that number will be increasing rapidly.

25 Ideas On Using Instagram For Business
By Bernadette Jiwa Instagram provides ‘real time’ insights into how people are interacting with the world and most probably your product. This platform will enable brands to connect directly with users and customers like never before and gain ‘real-time’ insights into how consumers are interacting with their brand.

Why Instagram Matters to Marketers: Evolving SoLoMo to SoLoMoSto
By Ann Handley At its core, Instagram allows you to tell stories visually, with a simplicity and immediacy mobile users expect. At the same time, it adds another layer of elegance and artfulness. That’s what makes its stories so appealing, and (for me) why it breaks new ground.

The Marketer’s Scoop on Instagram and How to Use It
By Corey Eridon Not everyone should be on every social network. But here are some reasons that, as a marketer, you should at least keep an eye on Instagram, if not begin participating.

After mentioning Apple’s new textbook market in last week’s blog post (Read: Be Your Own Publisher In The iBooks Store,) I’ve noticed how online tools and social media have changed many aspects of education.

No, I don’t mean how much harder high school teachers need to work to keep their students off Facebook during Algebra. I mean how not only can you attend school without ever entering a building, but you can also get support from others by just sending messages.

During my time at IU, I’ve had assignments that involve blog posts, wiki articles, and students doing group projects via chatroom. In my first year, I was shocked to hear “Your assignment is to come together as a class and create an article using the school’s wiki system!” Just maybe ten years ago, teachers were still using blackboards and instructing you to handwrite a paper with eight book sources.

Beyond that, during a large snow storm last year, one of my classes has an impromptu online meeting using Adobe Connect. My teacher broadcasted by displaying her screen, along with a webcam of herself. We even broke up in to groups using special chat rooms to finish a project. Was this common even five years ago?

EdSocialMedia, a website dedicated to showing the relationships between SM and modern education, mentions that there are a number of thoughtful, scholarly blogs that students can use, though they should be wary of all the “superficial” websites that can lead to superficial papers. Other articles on the website point out that students can support each other in ways that weren’t possible before, and also find out about current events faster than ever before.

Now the biggest question is – how will these change even more ten years from now?

Calling all small business owners! Facebook Marketing Solutions, the official Facebook Marketing page, has launched a contest called Facebook Small Business Boost that will award a $10,000 prize to the 10 participating small businesses that accrue the most likes on their Facebook page by April 1, 2012.

What you need to participate:
1. A Facebook Page for your small business
2. Your business must be based in the US
3. Your page will need at least 50 likes

How it works:
1. Instantly get $50 in free ads if you have at least 50 likes on your Page
2. Get $100 more in free ads if you add 100 more likes to your Page before April 1, 2012
3. Win $10,000 more in free ads if you are one of the top 10 pages that gains the most new likes before April 1, 2012

Enter on the Small Business Boost tab on the Facebook Marketing Solutions Facebook page.

The main reason people get on Facebook is to engage with friends and family, not brands. So, it’s important to relate to your audience and spark conversation by inadvertently getting them to engage. But, how is this done?

There are a number of ways, but one of the most important is to ask lifestyle questions. Lifestyle questions are questions like, ‘what’s your favorite movie’ or ‘where’s the most exotic place you have traveled?’ Be sure not to go overboard with these kinds of questions on your page though, it could annoy your fans and that’s the last thing we want to do.

Asking these types of questions will resonate with people and prompt them to respond and converse with your brand. The fact of the matter is when someone likes your page it doesn’t mean they have any real affinity for your brand, what that like does mean, however, is that person is open to engagement, content and conversations.

Are you asking your fans probing questions? Stop back by next Tuesday for Facebook Page Management Tip #4: Ask For Different Perspectives.

Related posts:

Facebook Page Management Tip #1: Use Relevant, Evolving Content

Facebook Page Management Tip #2: Respond To Fans In A Timely Manner

Today is the 3rd annual Community Manager Appreciation Day! Below are 5 must-reads.

A Worldwide Salute to Community Managers
By Jeremiah Owyang It’s the third annual Community Manager Appreciation Day (every fourth Monday of Jan) and I’d like to salute the folks working on the front lines at companies big and small leading the charge. These folks are critical in the change as companies have moved from the static website to the dynamic human focused social business we’re seeing across every agency.

9 Ways To Celebrate Community Manager Appreciation Day
By Elana Zak Just a bit of background. CMAD was started in 2010 by Jeremiah Owyang, a California-based web strategist. It is “a way to recognize and celebrate the efforts of community managers around the world using social media to improve customer experiences.”

The 2012 Community Manager Report [INFOGRAPHIC]
By Jason Keath Last year, Social Fresh launched our first Community Manager report. And this year we have gathered even more data from twice as many community managers. We put together the below infographic to give you a taste of where the community manager role stands. And for an even deeper dive into the data keep scrolling for the white paper.

Community Manager Appreciation Day 2012
By Robyn Tippins Community managers, despite working long and varied hours, still will tell you that they have the coolest job in the world. Keep reading to hear my decidedly biased view of community managers, colored by my almost 16 years of managing communities.

Community Managers Are the Heart and Soul of Enterprise Social Media
By David B. Thomas Spend all the money you want on advertising, on customer satisfaction surveys, on focus groups—your community managers are the people making your brand every day. They create your reputation anew with every interaction. And when things turn bleak, they have the power to turn hate into love. I’ve seen it happen, and that’s something I could never say about a press release or an annual report.

Google keeps fiddling around with the Internet, and (to no one’s surprise) they’ve done it again. Their latest change – Google Search Plus Your World – could be the most disruptive ever.

To make a long story short (see end of article for some long stories), expect to see some hyper-personalized search results the next time you perform a search, IF you’re logged in to Google. Here’s their official announcement.

You might be shocked to see what shows up in your search results, if you’ve been plus-ing or sharing some things via Google+. Chances are you’ll see things you might have previously believed to be private.

Once you’ve gotten over the initial shock, rest assured that not everyone is seeing what you’re seeing (yet). Thankfully, the “do no evil” search provider has included some new, largely helpful, indicators for determining which of the items on the SERP are being affected by personalization. Those should be easy to spot. They’ve also added a more obvious option to toggle on and off the personalization affect as a whole (look near the top right corner of the page).

Privacy issues aside, this isn’t necessarily a negative thing for online marketers like ourselves – it’s simply a change to the game (get used to it). As long as Google is calling the shots (Bing who?), we have to roll with whatever it does AND look for ways to take advantage of the opportunities it presents.

The worlds of Search (SEO) and Social continue to converge. Social marketing can be done with some measure of success without a thought toward SEO, but it is usually inefficient, and wastes a lot of potential. Search marketing cannot succeed without social (not organic search, anyway).

Social media engagement data is critical. Major players like Facebook and Twitter don’t share their info with Google. This is a fundamental reason why Google needs Google+ to succeed and why I believe they’re committed to seeing it through.

Google+ activity now factors in to the search algorithms (not Facebook and Twitter). Google+ pages and profiles are favored in the search results. That’s really all the justification that’s needed for allotting resources to this opportunity. It falls in to the “cost of doing business” category. You don’t have to like it, but if you want to compete, you have to participate.

Google hasn’t made it easier for social media marketing and SEO agencies to collaborate. They have, however, created the reasons for doing so. Client success is dependent on this collaboration.

Helpful and Interesting Articles

Danny Sullivan on Google Search Plus Your World

Fast Company on Google’s changes

SEOMoz’s Rand Fishkin on Google+

Bill Bean is a big guy in the search marketing world. He parks his large frame at Deep Ripples a search marketing company located on the east side of Indianapolis. Add Bill to your Google+ circle here.

The iBooks Author app has potential to revolutionize the ebook market the same way iTunes changed the game for indie musicians and the Apple & Android app markets gave new life to indie game developers. Now anybody can create an ebook and easily submit it to be published in the iBook store, which opens the book up to a new audience of millions.

While the app is targeted toward those making interactive textbooks, it can be seemingly used for any kind of book, and more power to those who can make their book interactive. Imagine your favorite social media book, but on iPad: you can click and instantly interact with an infographic, or view a video, or be linked to an online article. There are limitless possibilities if you know Javascript or HTML 5 – or have easy access to someone that does.

We may not see all of these changes right away, but I feel it’s a start to a whole new world for ebooks.

Read up with these articles:

• Hands on: iBooks Author App
• Apple announces new iPad textbook experience
• Why the iPad won’t transform education – Yet

Businesses are rushing into social spaces – with Facebook being among their top interests. This isn’t surprising to me. Facebook is massive. And it continues to grow – size and engagement wise. According to a recent comScore study, 90% of all social media time is spent in Facebook. According eMarketer, 93% of people expect brands to have a presence on Facebook. So, the rush will continue.

Based on numerous meetings with all kinds of people and organizations – here are a few of the top reasons that some groups will have a tough time succeeding with their Facebook marketing efforts.

1. There is no ‘buy in’ from the top.
2. The company/organization is inherently not interesting.
3. They’re not social in real life.
4. They have no ability to produce content.
5. There is no ability to have conversations with their customers.
6. Their real life community can’t be extended into social spaces.
7. They have no idea what their goals are.
8. They don’t know how to measure success.
9. They’re not organized.
10. They think Facebook is for kids.
11. They can’t get past the evangelical hype.
12. They lack tactical understanding and abilities.
13. They don’t understand the platform.
14. They think of Facebook as a ‘silver bullet’ that will fix all of their marketing woes.
15. They don’t integrate Facebook into their other marketing efforts.

What else should we add to this list?