Lisa Peyton: Adjunct Professor Portland State University and Executive Editor of TMMPDX.COM Portland, Oregon «

3 Successful Google+ Pages and Why They Work

January 31st, 2012 · Google+, Social Media Examiner

by Lisa Peyton, Originally published on SocialMediaExaminer.com

Have you created a Google+ page for your business? In this article I’ll show you what three top pages are doing.

Still in its infancy, Google+ has become a very hot topic.

Amid concern that this “new kid on the block” couldn’t compete in a social media landscape owned by Facebook, some have opted to dismiss the platform entirely.

While Google+ and Google+ business pages are still in the early stages, there is growing evidence that they’re here to stay. Read More>>

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8 Facebook Competitive Analysis Tools, An Epic Guide

December 14th, 2011 · Facebook, Lisa Peyton, Social Media Marketing

A Facebook business page has become an essential component for most digital marketing campaigns.

But what do you know about your competitors on Facebook?

Perhaps you have scanned their page, taken notice of how many fans they have or even ‘liked’ their page so you could be updated on their status.

The information available on your competitors is astounding and the following tools can help make that information actionable.These platforms will save hours in producing competitive analysis reports.

Getting Started

These tools DO NOT require you to be the admin of the page but DO however assume you KNOW who your competitors are on Facebook.

If you want help discovering the top performing Facebook pages in your industry, scroll down to #8 for my ‘Honorable Mention’ where I discuss the Momentus Community Health Score. Their free tool will show how your page ranks among other competitors in your category or industry.

There’s a chance I’ve overlooked a tool or two, so please be sure to comment and let me know.

Facebook Page Competitive Analysis ‘Cheat Sheet’

Top Facebook Page Competitive Analysis Tools [Read more →]

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‘Launch’ Author Michael Stelzner Teaches Businesses to Grow by Being Generous

November 9th, 2011 · Content Strategy, Lisa Peyton, Social Media Marketing

In his latest book, ‘Launch: How to Quickly Propel Your Business Beyond the Competition’, Michael Stelzner dismisses traditional marketing messages and triumphs giving the gift of great content. He believes people and prospects want valuable insight, access to great people and recognition before they want products and services. Therefore, building trust with your potential customer is more important than your products and services.

Read on to discover Michael’s prescription for growing and marketing your business without employing traditional marketing tactics. He walks the reader through the step-by-step process of growing a business through generosity and cultivation of great content. [Read more →]

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Portland Non-Profit Event: Dave’s Killer Bread Featured at Friday’s Living Yoga Gala & Auction

October 19th, 2011 · Lisa Peyton

Living Yoga is throwing a party and you’ll want to be there! There are still tickets available for the gala and auction that’s happening this Friday October 21st, 6pm at the Leftbank Annex – 101 North Weidler, Portland, OR 97227. All proceeds benefit Living Yoga, a home-grown, non-profit providing spiritual transformation to less fortunate populations all over the state. [Read more →]

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Facebook Goes ‘Back to School’: Top Facebook Pages for Education Industry

September 29th, 2011 · Facebook, Lisa Peyton, Social Media Marketing

The education industry is engaging in an interesting debate between those who champion social media as a tool for students to take learning to a new level and those who attempt to keep it out of the classroom altogether. Many feel there’s no place for Facebook and Twitter in the classroom and the industry has been reticent to fully embrace the medium.

Facebook has made serious efforts to try and ensure they reach out to parents and the education community, addressing concerns regarding the use of the platform by children and teens. They have created a resource for teachers that answers some common questions such as what to do if you suspect abusive behavior on Facebook, how to hide your personal Facebook profile from your students and how to report underage users. Facebook requires all users be at least 13 years old.

All of this drama within the education field has made some industry leaders slow to adopt social media campaigns. The sad truth is that taking Facebook out of the equation ISN’T an option. Teachers, your students are on Facebook and you can either see that as an obstacle or embrace the platform as a new way to reach your students.

There ARE some big players making quite a splash on Facebook, so let’s take a look at what we can learn from the top Facebook pages in education. These pages aren’t directly dealing with the complex issues outlined above, but they are targeting and engaging parents and students quite successfully. I would ask any teachers out there that have good examples of how Facebook is being used to connect with students, PLEASE comment and share with readers below. [Read more →]

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Facebook Analytics: Watchout Facebook Insights, Pagelever Packs a Punch

August 12th, 2011 · Facebook, Lisa Peyton, Social Media Marketing

They’ve got a great selling point: Facebook insights doesn’t do the job for gaining actionable data. But can Pagelever deliver the goods? We’re about to find out.

Getting Started

I was really excited to check-out this new tool and eagerly signed-up for my free trial. Unfortunately, I was denied immediate gratification as I was notified that they needed to create my dashboard and would get back to me. After waiting a few days, I contacted customer support and was notified that I had neglected to select the pages that I wanted to be active. After completing this step, I was up and running. You can find the ‘Manage Facebook Pages’ tab under ‘Settings’. Once contacted, their support staff was very responsive and gave me the help I needed.

Fan Growth On Steroids

The Pagelever interface is segmented into easy to maneuver categories including Growth, Visibility, Engagement, Posts and Reports. Let’s start with the one that has been the go-to social media metric since day one, fan growth. [Read more →]

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Students help local startups ZuluTime and LogicBox through Portland State’s Digital Marketing Strategies Certificate program

July 5th, 2011 · Lisa Peyton, Portland Search Engine Marketing, Social Media Marketing

Portland State University’s Market Square building was abuzz with excitement and hushed whispers during the final class. The Digital Marketing Strategies Certificate students were waiting for their “clients,” ZuluTime and LogicBox Software, to arrive for their final presentations.

Intel’s Bryan Rhoads was concluding the course, Integrating Digital Media – Best Practices, the final leg of PSU’s 5-course Digital Marketing Strategies Certificate offered through the Professional Development Center. Bryan’s challenging 3-week journey walks each student through a marketing project brief towards a final team presentation to the business owners outlining an integrated digital marketing strategy. Armed with the knowledge from the previous courses, the two teams of students were wearing their best duds to impress their new “clients.” [Read more →]

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Top 10 Reasons You Should GOwalla and Forget Foursquare

June 7th, 2011 · Lisa Peyton, Location-Based Services, Social Media Marketing

I LOVE Gowalla! But I wasn’t born that way. I started off using Foursquare, gobbling up all my mayorships before that platform had hit critical mass. Just as my quick love affair with the square hit a plateau, I was forced to sign-up with Gowalla as research for my article on LBS deals. I was skeptical and resentful that I had to spend time on yet another platform. On top of that, Gowalla had the smallest user base (just under 500K) – so from a marketers perspective, my thoughts were ‘why bother?’ Well, that initial research was almost 6 months ago and I have been avidly using Gowalla ever since.

Questions to Consider Before You Commit

There are some great reasons to try Gowalla for yourself and I have them outlined below. But before I dive into why Gowalla works for me, I’d like to review what to consider before committing to a check-in platform. The idea for this post actually originated from a discussion at a recent May 5th shindig. A digital marketing student asked me which check-in platform she should be using. She wanted to make sure to choose the “right one,” in order to prevent managing multiple check-in accounts. A lively discussion ensued with most participants falling into 2 camps: Gowalla and Foursquare.

My take-away from that encounter is that each platform meets different needs. Understanding what you want to get out of the tool and the reasons you want to engage are key to determining the right tool for you. Some questions to ask yourself before making the commitment:

Are you only looking for discounts, deals and promotions?
Which platform are your close friends using?
Are you interested in discovering new locations?
Do you want to be actively marketed to while using the application? [Read more →]

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Facebook Page ‘May Day’: What Unions Can Learn From Top Politicians on Facebook

May 11th, 2011 · Facebook, Lisa Peyton

This post started out as a tribute to May Day – searching for creative ways labor unions and anti-union supporters were using Facebook. I had recently read an article about how Facebook could potentially REPLACE labor unions and excitedly went to work looking for well-organized, active pages. What I found instead was a handful of pages that seemed to have little in the way of followers and even less interaction. So, I changed the topic of this post to covering politicians and political groups that DO have a following on Facebook. Below I have outlined the top US politicians on Facebook and what we can learn from their pages.

Union Woes Continue on Facebook

If there ARE active labor union themed pages out there, they are hidden deep within Facebook’s inept search function. I was able to find this page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Union-Labor-Works – one of the few union pages I could find with more than 10 fans. The page had only one wall post and 233 ‘likers.’ There were no custom tabs and I could find very little information about the organization. No photos, no videos, nada. There WERE active groups and events surrounding union topics and perhaps these Facebook tools work better to provide an on-line rallying cry. [Read more →]

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The Facebook 520: Are you being played for a Facebook fool?

April 6th, 2011 · Facebook, Lisa Peyton, Social Media Marketing

Find any great April Fool’s pranks on Facebook last week? I had some difficulties spotting them. I was hoping to report on brands playfully posting outrageous updates, wacky profile pics and basically playing their community for fools.

One of my clients did have some success with this April Fools prank: The Mauve Power Ranger! (Image below) The community LOVED it and engaged with the Facebook update throughout the day.

Pranks aside, what I did find on Facebook last week was an array of businesses attempting to engage. Looking for the most creative uses of the coveted 520 pixels on a tab, I started with allfacebook.com’s most ‘Explosive Facebook Pages’ of the week. I figured that Facebook pages quickly recruiting ‘likers’ must be offering up great content. This assumption was proven to be incorrect with just a few exceptions.

[Read more →]

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← Previous Entries

Portland Non-Profit Event: Dave’s Killer Bread Featured at Friday’s Living Yoga Gala & Auction

October 19th, 2011 · Lisa Peyton

Facebook Page ‘May Day’: What Unions Can Learn From Top Politicians on Facebook

May 11th, 2011 · Facebook, Lisa Peyton

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