Worcester County Businesses

Recently I have seen more and more websites utilizing the facebook social plugin.  Let’s look at why this is a HUGE mistake.

First, what is the Facebook Social Plugin? It’s a simple tool that you include on your website, showing fans of your business page.  It is a display box which shows postings from your Facebook Page, a sampling of pictures of people who “Like” it, and it also includes the ability to “Like” your Facebook page directly from your website, via the integrated box.

Example of the plugin on a website is this Video Editing Software Review: http://www.clicknewz.com/3439/best-video-editing-software-reviews/

Why are people using the Facebook Social Plugin? Because, in a really straight forward way, it shows your business Facebook page, it allows for a quick “Like” and, in a way, it shows how popular you are.  It can be effective at driving “Likes” to your Facebook page.

Why you should NEVER use the Facebook Social Plugin! Because you don’t have any control over who “Likes” your page!  Yes you can ban people, but you cannot keep people from liking your page.  Why is this a problem???  Because unscrupulous folks are on Facebook.  We have all seen them.  Beyond that, there are REAL friends of yours that will change their profile photo to something inappropriate for business because they are not using their facebook for business, but YOU ARE!  Because you cannot control what fans profile pics show via the Social Plugin, you are creating the opportunity for disaster.

So how can the Facebook Social Plugin ruin your business? Think of this extreme example. I concede that this example is extreme, but you should understand that it could happen nonetheless. You post a cool product link on Facebook with a coupon code or information to drive fans to your website. The fans click it and are delivered directly to your site, exactly what you wanted… Success!  Then they see the site and they see the Facebook Social Plugin which loads 10 Facebook Fan Profile photos.  However, recently, you were not aware that you got hit by a Facebook Spam bot and received 50 new likes from fake profiles that promote Online Drug Sales, or worse yet,  Adult Related Content.  Your user sees the profiles on the plugin, and out of 10, 3 are inappropriate.  Even though you had no control over those profiles being seen on the plugin, your prospect or client immediately connects that action to you the business owner.  It’s not your fault, but it is your responsibility.  Furthermore, what do you believe the action of your prospect would be?  I believe the greater percentage of prospects will choose to never return to your website because they were offended by the spam-generated profile picture, and they will likely “Unlike” your Facebook page and unsubscribe from your email newsletter.  Finally, you have done irreparable harm to your company because of the inclusion of the Facebook Social Plugin.

The Solution So, if you cannot include the Facebook Social Plugin on your website due to potential harm, what should you do to drive prospects to your Facebook business page and notify them that you have a Facebook page?

Answer:  Use the Social buttons that identify Facebook and other Social Networks that most people use.  Try, if at all possible, to get these buttons “Above the Fold”.  ”Above the Fold” means that you won’t have to scroll to see the buttons from your landing page, which may also be your home page.  Make sure you are not looking at your website with a resolution set to 800×600, as very few people use that setting any more.

Let’s face it . . .there are rules and protocols for just about everything.
It doesn’t mean that you have to play along!
When I first showed up with my blog in November of 2008, I caught a lot of criticism about how I went about presenting my methodology.
I was told it wasn’t sophisticated enough
I was told [...]

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Paul Castain is the Vice President of Sales Development for Consolidated Graphics where he oversees the training and development of 700 sales Jedis.

Over the last 27 years, Paul has trained and mentored over 3,000 sales professionals, written sales training content for several Fortune 500 companies and is the author of Castain’s Sales Playbook (which just won a Sales Pop award for best sales website).

© Paul Castain for Reliable Linking, 2012. |
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Boy am I sick of people completely giving up on any degree of sales activity because its summer! So I came fully prepared to offer a few alternatives such as:
5 ways you can actually take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves this time of year.
Things like . . .
The mindset behind “why” you need [...]

Go to Sales Playbook
Paul Castain is the Vice President of Sales Development for Consolidated Graphics where he oversees the training and development of 700 sales Jedis.

Over the last 27 years, Paul has trained and mentored over 3,000 sales professionals, written sales training content for several Fortune 500 companies and is the author of Castain’s Sales Playbook (which just won a Sales Pop award for best sales website).

© Paul Castain for Reliable Linking, 2012. |
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I believe it was the great Hannibal Smith who said “I love it when a plan comes together” but what do you do when the original plan has to be scrapped?
Its way too easy for us to respond with a confident “Well you adapt!” but that’s easy to say now . . . How about [...]

Go to Sales Playbook
Paul Castain is the Vice President of Sales Development for Consolidated Graphics where he oversees the training and development of 700 sales Jedis.

Over the last 27 years, Paul has trained and mentored over 3,000 sales professionals, written sales training content for several Fortune 500 companies and is the author of Castain’s Sales Playbook (which just won a Sales Pop award for best sales website).

© Paul Castain for Reliable Linking, 2012. |
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One of the biggest questions I’m asked on a weekly basis is “Paul, how can I bring in more business?”
The unfortunate thing is that many people are of the mindset that you simply make more calls when the bigger issue might be that they need a better overall game plan consisting of . . .
Where [...]

Go to Sales Playbook
Paul Castain is the Vice President of Sales Development for Consolidated Graphics where he oversees the training and development of 700 sales Jedis.

Over the last 27 years, Paul has trained and mentored over 3,000 sales professionals, written sales training content for several Fortune 500 companies and is the author of Castain’s Sales Playbook (which just won a Sales Pop award for best sales website).

© Paul Castain for Reliable Linking, 2012. |
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In today’s highly digitized world, photography has become more of a mainstream hobby. You don’t need fancy expensive equipment to get started. In fact, nearly everyone carries a camera of some kind around with them today due to the popularity of smartphones. Even older phones that don’t quite qualify as “smart” (it’s okay, flip phone, I still love you better than all the other phones, don’t listen to them) still typically come equipped with a camera at bare minimum. Yet there is a certain “je-ne-sais-quoi” element of beauty that is captured in some images, while others are sadly just a bunch of pixels that just happened to get lumped together in the same file.

I originally became interested in taking my own photos while I was a student in college. I had a basic point-and-shoot camera that I bought for myself, and I went to my friends’ rugby matches and took pictures for them. As the season passed and I found myself attending more and more games, I realized that my sense of timing was improving as I learned more about the game. If I knew what to expect on the field, I would have a better chance of snapping the shot at the right time. I never took any photography courses and instead just focused on teaching myself the skill set I wanted to have.

After a couple years, I upgraded to a digital SLR (a Canon Rebel XSi for anyone who is interested) and was seriously intimidated by its vast array of settings. However, these machines come with an automatic setting for a reason. Don’t be afraid to use the automatic settings just because you think it means you’re not a “real” photographer. Real photographers have to learn sometime too!

My favorite approach to teaching myself is totally hands-on. If there’s a shot I want to perfect, I’ll use the automatic settings for my first shot, then look at the photo on the camera screen. Not only does my camera tell me all the settings used for the shutter speed, the ISO setting and the F-stop, but there is a lot of other information to take advantage of. Then I’ll adjust one of the settings and take another version of the same shot. This is a great way to show yourself visually what each different function does.

If you’re interested in improving your photography skills, my advice is to get a camera of some kind (nearly any kind will do) and start by taking photos of something you love. Your affection and expertise of your subject will shine through your photos even without the top quality camera or perfect composition. The internet has plenty of tutorials and explanations so you can educate yourself. After all, photography is a creative art and creativity comes from within!

Today, I rarely go anywhere without my camera. I bring it with me to work in case anything exciting happens during the day. Sometimes while driving, I’ll see a scene so pretty I just have to stop and snap a shot of it. My favorite thing about photography is that you never know when you are going to get your best shots. I also provide photography services for my friends and family in times when they can’t get behind the camera themselves – weddings, band performances, skateboards in the skate park, and more. It’s more than a hobby for me, it’s a lifestyle! If you’d like to see more of my photography work, just check out my Facebook page!

© Lisa March for Reliable Linking, 2012. |
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About a year ago, I read a blog post from a “consultant” where he complained about the lousy elevator speeches he observed in a training session that day.
It was all done in a somewhat professional manner as a means of educating his readers but . . .
While he didn’t name the company, I couldn’t help [...]

Go to Sales Playbook
Paul Castain is the Vice President of Sales Development for Consolidated Graphics where he oversees the training and development of 700 sales Jedis.

Over the last 27 years, Paul has trained and mentored over 3,000 sales professionals, written sales training content for several Fortune 500 companies and is the author of Castain’s Sales Playbook (which just won a Sales Pop award for best sales website).

© Paul Castain for Reliable Linking, 2012. |
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Like so many of the posts I write here  . . . this one is really personal to me!
For the longest time I was absolutely miserable!
On the outside I appeared happy and content but on the inside I had what I called “an urgency”. In other words, a feeling that I was supposed to be [...]

Go to Sales Playbook
Paul Castain is the Vice President of Sales Development for Consolidated Graphics where he oversees the training and development of 700 sales Jedis.

Over the last 27 years, Paul has trained and mentored over 3,000 sales professionals, written sales training content for several Fortune 500 companies and is the author of Castain’s Sales Playbook (which just won a Sales Pop award for best sales website).

© Paul Castain for Reliable Linking, 2012. |
Permalink |
No comment |
Add to
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Post tags:

In today’s highly digitized world, photography has become more of a mainstream hobby. You don’t need fancy expensive equipment to get started. In fact, nearly everyone carries a camera of some kind around with them today due to the popularity of smartphones. Even older phones that don’t quite qualify as “smart” (it’s okay, flip phone, I still love you better than all the other phones, don’t listen to them) still typically come equipped with a camera at bare minimum. Yet there is a certain “je-ne-sais-quoi” element of beauty that is captured in some images, while others are sadly just a bunch of pixels that just happened to get lumped together in the same file.

I originally became interested in taking my own photos while I was a student in college. I had a basic point-and-shoot camera that I bought for myself, and I went to my friends’ rugby matches and took pictures for them. As the season passed and I found myself attending more and more games, I realized that my sense of timing was improving as I learned more about the game. If I knew what to expect on the field, I would have a better chance of snapping the shot at the right time. I never took any photography courses and instead just focused on teaching myself the skill set I wanted to have.

After a couple years, I upgraded to a digital SLR (a Canon Rebel XSi for anyone who is interested) and was seriously intimidated by its vast array of settings. However, these machines come with an automatic setting for a reason. Don’t be afraid to use the automatic settings just because you think it means you’re not a “real” photographer. Real photographers have to learn sometime too!

My favorite approach to teaching myself is totally hands-on. If there’s a shot I want to perfect, I’ll use the automatic settings for my first shot, then look at the photo on the camera screen. Not only does my camera tell me all the settings used for the shutter speed, the ISO setting and the F-stop, but there is a lot of other information to take advantage of. Then I’ll adjust one of the settings and take another version of the same shot. This is a great way to show yourself visually what each different function does.

If you’re interested in improving your photography skills, my advice is to get a camera of some kind (nearly any kind will do) and start by taking photos of something you love. Your affection and expertise of your subject will shine through your photos even without the top quality camera or perfect composition. The internet has plenty of tutorials and explanations so you can educate yourself. After all, photography is a creative art and creativity comes from within!

Today, I rarely go anywhere without my camera. I bring it with me to work in case anything exciting happens during the day. Sometimes while driving, I’ll see a scene so pretty I just have to stop and snap a shot of it. My favorite thing about photography is that you never know when you are going to get your best shots. I also provide photography services for my friends and family in times when they can’t get behind the camera themselves – weddings, band performances, skateboards in the skate park, and more. It’s more than a hobby for me, it’s a lifestyle! If you’d like to see more of my photography work, just check out my Facebook page!

I’ve seen it way too many times when I’ve been brought in to help sales teams.
I’ve been asked how to handle it from distraught sales professionals and I even had someone mention it on a discussion in our Sales Playbook book group on Linkedin.
I’m talking about the Sales Manager who wants to ride along with [...]

Go to Sales Playbook
Paul Castain is the Vice President of Sales Development for Consolidated Graphics where he oversees the training and development of 700 sales Jedis.

Over the last 27 years, Paul has trained and mentored over 3,000 sales professionals, written sales training content for several Fortune 500 companies and is the author of Castain’s Sales Playbook (which just won a Sales Pop award for best sales website).

© Paul Castain for Reliable Linking, 2012. |
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