Help! My Facebook Page Has Friends, Not Fans!
Many businesses I have met through consulting or at social media training courses are using a personal profile on Facebook as a business page, which is against the rules of Facebook and may be deleted.
Facebook allows (irreversible) conversion of a personal profile to a business page, with friends converted into fans.
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How to Convert a Facebook Profile to a Business Page
Many businesses have inadvertently been set up on Facebook as a personal profile instead of a business page, which is against the rules of Facebook, who reserve the right to delete any profile they find being used as a business page.
Arguments for and against converting a profile to a page for business
However, there is a simple process to convert a personal profile to a business page, carrying over your current ‘friends’ as fans (likes).
Where is the RSS Feed for Twitter Search?
I previously recommended using the RSS Feed for Twitter searches to monitor your business, competitors or other terms of interest. As this could be used without having a Twitter account, it was a handy way to see updates on your browser bookmarks or via email.
This option has now disappeared, but here’s a workaround (thanks to Valerie Forrestal), for as long as Twitter continues to support RSS:
Keyword search: http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=Your+keywords
Mention search: http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q=%40UserName (more…)
Auto-Translation Tips – Multilingual Marketing
Fortunately for Irish tourism and other service businesses, English is the lingua franca of international business and travel.
Regular travellers for business and leisure will often find themselves speaking English with people for whom it is a second, third or fourth language. 
However, native English speakers account for only 27% of global Internet users, and research shows that people are six times more likely to purchase online in their native language.
As a multilingual xenophile, I am the first to say it is best to learn your customers’ language and understand their culture, but this is clearly not realistic in a world where over 6,800 languages are spoken.
Professional localisation and translation is obviously the best option, but this is expensive for many small businesses who, even if they made this investment, would still face the challenge of processing and servicing the resulting multilingual business.
Which brings us to auto-translation tools. These can be very useful and a few simple tips and caveats will help you make the most of auto translators, while avoiding pitfalls: (more…)
5 Minute Marketing: Domain Names
Domain names are now part of our everyday lives. Technically, a domain name is a simpler alias for the IP address for a web server, but to most of us it is just our website address, and a fundamental part of our business image, off- and online.
Here are a few pitfalls to avoid and tips in your domain name management.
April Fool’s Day 2011 Marketing
OK, so it may be niche and somewhat shortlived, but April Fool’s Day can be an opportunity to get some attention for your business, especially in the fickle online world.
At a minimum you show you’ve got a sense of humour, and with a bit of creativity, you may get some viral love.
On April Fool’s Day 2011, LinkedIn suggested I might know the Wizard of In, activist/fundraiser Robin Hood and others.
Google advertised for an “Autocompleter” (requirements include typing at 32,000 wpm).
In a more esoteric move, Google also displayed the results of searches for “Helvetica” – the beloved, elegant typeface that even has its own movie – in Comic Sans – the lowest common denominator of typefaces (Just Say No Kids!).
BMW advertised a commemorative Royal Wedding Edition of the M3, complete with “Will” logo (enquiries to pauline.yourlegg@bmw.co.uk).
Given the publisher of this notice, it could actually be true, and I confess I would be a keen customer of this service: Ryanair announce child free flights.
Inspired? You’ve got 364 days to plan for next year’s killer April Fool’s Day marketing viral – good luck!
5 Minute Marketing: Usability
How often have you been frustrated by the layout or content of a website? It can be pretty annoying.
What if your potential or actual customers were experiencing the same difficulty finding information, making a purchase or downloading a resource from your website?
We are generally so familiar with our own websites that we may be unaware if this is the case.
Usability Testing is a huge area that employs an impressive range of technologies and science to identify and correct obstacles to using websites, software and products in general.
How usable is your website? Find out in five minutes – give or take… 
#2: Usability Testing
