“Welcome! Come on in. Sit down, stay a while.” -Social Media

Do you remember your first experience with the email? No? Most of us don’t but
we can go on forever about how it has changed our lives. Before email, there
were long distance calls, facsimiles, and “snail mail.” Just think, now most every
business professional has a smart phone on which he or she runs their life. No
exaggeration there. You know it’s true. Thinking about how lost we’d be without
email, let alone our phones, invokes great anxiety.

Once upon a time, businesses didn’t quite grasp the capacity, benefits, and
potential of email and were skeptical of its newness. In the 1990s, they began
to wise up and slowly round the corner of Possibility Parkway and Advancement
Avenue. Email has come a long way from the beginning but now exists as an
essential piece of basic function in daily business. What’s next, you ask? Good
question… Moving forward. Always moving forward. Ponder the phrase “social
media” for just a sec…. Ok, now we can continue.

Three words. Innovation. Adoption. Authenticity. These seem to be a reoccurring
theme in today’s society. New technologies and platforms have been developed,
hundreds of millions of users have integrated such developments into their daily
lives, and businesses have shown a more genuine and human side by playing
follow the leader.

No matter the size, purpose, or location of a business, those that embrace the
warm and homey feel of social media find their number of clients increasing and
the awareness of their companies and organizations magnified. Sounds like a
pretty sweet deal, doesn’t it? We think so too. Unfortunately, many businesses
understand that social media can be extremely beneficial but have yet to behold
the power it possesses.

Behold the power. More importantly, the strategy, “real-time” communication, and
intricate details of social media are difficult for some to wrap their minds around.
Lucky for them, that’s where Yepser come into play!

Yepser knows the ins and outs of social media. We base our business on the
ever-changing technologies and the capacity for growth when used correctly.
Do you find yourself thinking, “Hmm… I thought social media was for those
crazy kids with gee-whiz Star Wars contraptions?” If your thoughts are anything
along those lines, take a gander at our website, http://yepser.com, and imagine
handing over the stress of some new-fangled form of communication.

Don’t be afraid, remember those businesses that adopted email? Dive in to the
wonderful world of social media (with Yepser, of course), and you just might find
yourself at the intersection of Success Circle and Prosperity Place. Never fear,
it’s a sunny spot with trees and a cool breeze.

Do business with us and you’ll need to get one of those Staples buttons. Let’s do
this together, Depress button and say in positive tone of voice, “That was easy!”

5 Tips for Parents to Keep their Kids Safe on Facebook

Today, children are spending 3x the amount of time on Facebook than they were just two years ago. With so many teens signing up for Facebook every day, parents need to be aware of ways to keep their children safe. Here are some general suggestions for parents with children who are becoming ‘of age’ to start using Facebook.

1. Parents need to determine for themselves when they feel their children are mature and responsible enough to participate on Facebook.

• Just because all of your child’s friends are a using Facebook, that is not an automatic default that your child is ready.
• Just because Facebook will allow a 13-year-old permission to sign up for an account, the parent is the one who decides the appropriate age.
• To use Facebook properly, a teenager needs to be taught proper Facebook conduct. It can be risky if a parent depends on other teens to teach their child how to use Facebook. A parent needs to educate their children, SO YES, as a parent you need to understand Facebook so you can teach your children.

2. Parents need to be the person who actually sets up the account for their child.

• When this is done, parents have a tremendous advantage to make sure their child is not abusing or misusing Facebook AND that he/she stays safe.
• This gives a parent the administrative rights to monitor the account, PLUS the controls to reduce or eliminate their child’s Facebook activity.
• This way, all Facebook activity is seen by the parent (through the settings on Facebook).
• Don’t give the password to the child. This is the parent’s leverage as you monitor your child’s account.
• This also allows the parent to see Messages sent to their child (versus only wall posts).

3. Parents need set up a monitoring process of their child’s Facebook accounts.

• If  you, the parent, are the one who set up the account, you are able to approve or deny friend requests.
• Teach you children not to accept friend requests of people they just met, older children or adults who are not appropriate. For example, if you child just met someone at the mall or a high school football game, they don’t necessarily need to be ‘friends’ on Facebook.
• Good rule of thumb: Don’t allow your child to be friends with someone on Facebook unless both the child and the parent know this person on a first name basis.
• Unfortunately, there are ‘unfriendly’ people who will ask young children to become their friends on Facebook. We have all heard the horror stories. If a parent owns the account information, this inappropriate activity can be caught, and there is an opportunity for the parent to educate their children on why this is inappropriate.

4. Facebook is a privilege, not a right. Parents need to give their children the privilege to use Facebook (as they would a car or watching TV).

• If a child abuses their Facebook account (for any reason), a parent can simply change the password (if they set up the account).
• If a child violates a household rule, the Facebook account is a privilege that can be revoked for a time period. Trust me, if you take away a teenager’s Facebook account, there is hardly any worse punishment!

5. Parents need to understand that there are unfriendly people on Facebook (just like at the mall).

• If a parent has children who are approaching their teenage years and have not yet set up and/or use Facebook, please do so. You as a parent have to have a better understanding than your teen on how the account works, what dangers exist, and how to use the account.
• Ignoring your child’s activity on Facebook is like dropping your teen off to spend the night at a college fraternity/sorority house. While the majority of the activity may seem harmless, dangers do exist.

These are just a few suggested guidelines for parents to consider. If you have experienced some other creative ways to keep your family safe, please share below by commenting on this post. Our thanks to Kevin and Taylor in the Morning from 104.7 The Fish for sharing these tips with their listeners.

Who is Yepser?

Yepser is a full-service New Media Marketing company located in Alpharetta, GA. Yepser provides website development and social media management for more than 125 companies in the Atlanta market. To learn more, visit www.yepser.com.

White Pages to Google to Facebook

Remember 15 years ago when people would search the white or yellow pages to find information about people or businesses? My how times have changed!

In recent years, people have been using search engines, like Google, when looking for places to order flowers, where to purchase the latest books, or even looking for addresses or phone numbers. They have remained steady, but are they slowly losing their edge due to Facebook and other social media sites?

Search engines will remain steady when people are looking for commodities, but when people are looking for information on a service, product, or topic, they will likely gain knowledge through social media. These sites allow people to post opinions, experiences and top picks with a click of a button and makes this information available instantly. No more having to physically search through a book or scroll through unwanted websites. Plus, people are more likely to trust the opinions of their friends. Think about it.  If you are looking for a great restaurant to go to in Atlanta, would you most likely ask Google, or ask a friend in the area?

Facebook has lots of users, approaching 700 million users, with an overwhelming majority updating their statuses at least once per day. Businesses and products have their own pages where people can find out information and read reviews. Users can press the “Like” button and will be displayed on their profile for all their friends to see. Facebook also offers a search bar, just type in Yepser, and it will take you to our business page! This makes searching easy and it can all be done in one place.

Social media sites can make recommendations for products or services based on information you put on your profile; this makes these sites more specific to customers. Google doesn’t have the information to do that.

The world is changing every day and although people are going to continue to use Yahoo, Bing, or Google, social media sites are finding new ways to compete with these major search engines. Facebook has now launched a new real-time search engine and even bought FriendFeed. And Facebook isn’t the only social media outlet where people can get information. People are also using Twitter, blogs, and even smartphone apps to gain knowledge and resources. As social media continues to grow and improve with new engineering additions, it will change the way people look at search engines. Watch out Google!

From college student to Billionaire!

What do Bill Gates, Barack Obama, Ted Turner, The American Solider, and Mark Zuckerberg have in common? They were all named TIME’s “Person of the Year.”

The most common title holder, Mark Zuckerberg, is known for making waves in social media since he was a student at Harvard University. He was born in Dobbs Ferry, New York and began using computers and writing software in middle school.  He even created a computer network just for his family and wrote computer games.  The boy who had a Star Wars themed bar mitzvah is now a billionaire six times over, and he is only 26!

Mark is an American computer scientist who has created one of the top social networking site, Facebook.  He is responsible for connecting over 550 million people all across the world, and he did this at the age of nineteen from his college dorm room. It is said that 1 out of every dozen people on the planet has a Facebook account and membership is growing at a rate of about 700,000 people a day. This has changed the way people communicate and even how companies do business.  As social media continues to grow, businesses are discovering they can no longer avoid jumping on the Facebook bandwagon.

Lil Wayne or Stephen Colbert?

Do you think you are up-to-date on who tweeted what in 2010? See if you can figure out who posted the five top tweets!

#5 “Just noticed Twitter keeps prompting me to ‘Add location to your tweets.’ Not falling for that one.”

#4 “Te quiero mucho mi amor.”

#3 “Aaaaaaahhhhhhmmmmm baaaaakkkkkkkkkk!”

#2 “We always ignore the ones who adore us, and adore the ones who ignore us.”

#1 “In honor of oil-soaked birds, ‘tweets’ are now ‘gurgles’.”

The #5 tweet was posted by a fake Al-Qaeda account on September 14, 2010. Justin Bieber was talked about all over Twitter this year, but his love tweet ranked number four. When Lil Wayne got out prison and announced he was back, fans retweeted everywhere, making it number #3. Can you guess who posted the number 2 post? It was Drizzy Drake. The number one spot is held by Stephen Colbert whose post was made after the devastating Gulf oil spill, with more than 37,000 people retweeting it.

Twitter also analyzed the top trends discussed on Twitter last year and the list looks like this:

1. Gulf Oil Spill
2. FIFA World Cup
3. Inception
4. Haiti Earthquake
5. Vuvuzela
6. Apple iPad
7. Google Android
8. Justin Bieber
9. Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows
10. Pulpo Paul

This is an encouraging list that shows people have a variety of interests, not only involving pop-culture or celebrities.  Twitter is a tool that allows people to discuss all kinds of issues as well as stay connected to the world.

What’s your favorite tweet or topic?

From Grand to Glam!

No More Grandmother! It’s Glam-Mother!

While Nellie Myers recently bucked the system and retired from corporate America in her mid 50s, she is far from retired. This energetic and charismatic woman has a vision that she wants to share. She says, “There is a new breed of grandmothers that society has failed to recognize. This change is about attitude not age.”  Nellie defines these women as “chic, sophisticated, stylish, fearless and, most importantly, they all sparkle and exhibit great beauty and charm, both inside and out.” They are all Glam-Mothers.

A Brief Introduction

Nellie Myers, AKA Glam-Mother, first heard of Yepser when discussing her business plans with her attorney. Shortly after that the Yepser name popped up again when talking to Heather Demis at Anchor Marketing. At this point Nellie felt she needed to learn more about Yepser, so she attended a social media seminar that was being lead by us. She was amazed to learn that the fastest growing segment on Facebook was women 55 + or, in other words, Glam-Mothers talking to their grandchildren. And as they say… “The rest is history!”

The Problem

Our Glam-Mother had about 90 days before her product line and e-commerce website would be ready to launch. She wanted a way to build her brand awareness so that from Day One of her product launch, she would have thousands of potential customers ready to buy.

The Solution

Okay, let’s be honest here. This is a dream scenario for social media! With nothing to sell for 90 days, this means we can be totally social with the pre-launch of Glam-Mother.  The #1 reason most social media fails for business is because people don’t know when to introduce the sales message into the conversation. We can’t say this enough, “You have to stop thinking campaign and start thinking conversation.”

That said, let’s get to the blueprint of the Glam-Mother social media program. After meeting with Nellie our writers and strategist realized this wasn’t a roll-out of a product line… it was more than that, it was a movement. A real effort to change the way individuals think about grandmothers.

Step 1… was to get both Facebook and Twitter up and running and introduce the concept of Glam-Mother. As we started making posts we quickly realized that the grandmothers we were talking with loved and embraced the idea of Glam-Mother. Please visit Facebook and Twitter to see for yourself.

Step 2… was to introduce the product-line into the conversation with our growing list of Glam-Followers now that the products were available and the website was ready to launch. This was done through teasers on Facebook and Twitter, and finally by posting some of the apparel on the new Glam-Mother blog. Visit the Blog to see the original blog post.

The Results

A Glam-Mother in Action!

From early June to mid August, when the Glam-Mother website launched, Yepser built a Facebook following of close to 1,500 fans. On Twitter over 4,250 people were following Glam-Mother. To date, Glam-Mother’s Facebook boasts over 3,200 fans and Twitter has almost 5,000 followers.

Summary

Yepser took an idea and, in matter of a few months, turned that idea into a movement for our Glam-Mother, Nellie Myers. In Nellie’s own words, “It has be fabulous working with Yepser, I feel like we are partners.”

What is this “New Twitter” all about?

Over the last couple weeks, Twitter has been rolling out the NEW Twitter.com. The process is not yet complete, as all Twitter users still don’t have the “preview” version, and those who do can still switch back and forth. Eventually, though, the new version will be the only one (much like Facebook did with its redesign not too long ago).

So what does this mean for your business Twitter account?

Well, for those who only use Twitter via 3rd party applications (HootSuite, TweetDeck, iPhone, etc.), there is no change.

However, if you visit twitter.com, that’s when you’ll see the difference. From your Twitter home screen, you can see your streamlined timeline, @mentions, retweets, searches and lists. This makes navigation much more user-friendly.

On the right side of the screen you’ll see what is our favorite new feature — the ability to see photos and watch videos without leaving the page!

One thing you’ll notice right away with New Twitter is the change in personalized background space. While it’s still important for businesses to have professional Twitter backgrounds, now there is less space to get your image across. Just like Twitter to limit our space!

But it is still possible — this is why it’s so important to have a trained branding strategist create a concise design in order to make the most of this space. Take a look at our revisions to accommodate New Twitter:

Overall, we think the new Twitter interface is a step in the right direction for this platform, which tells us one thing for certain: Twitter is serious about its survival in the social media world and is here to stay.

To discuss how Twitter can best be leveraged for your individual business, give us a call at 770.655.8182 or send an e-mail to info@yepser.com.

Twitter for Business: A new way to build relationships

Social Media here in Atlanta is growing in popularity at a rapid pace. So we decided to hit the streets and discover just how savvy business professionals are when it comes to Twitter.

Find out how Atlanta answered some of the following basic questions…

• How many characters can a tweet be?
• What is a DM on Twitter?
• And more!

Click Play to check out the quick video below to see just how much (or little) Atlanta knows about Twitter.

The Whole Burrito

Since June, weve been handling all social media for Willy’s Mexicana. With 19 locations and counting spread throughout Atlanta and Athens, our first task was to set up Willy’s Facebook page, Twitter and Foursquare accounts so we could promote Willy’s 15th Anniversary.

We had less than a month to plan, produce and then kick-off Willy’s social media campaign. Here, we share with you: the plan, execution, results and a little thing called Foursquare.

The Plan

Because we didn’t have much time and we wanted the customers and fans to have fun as they learned about Willy’s 15th Anniversary on Facebook and Twitter, we developed the idea of a treasure hunt — with the goal to find Willy at eight of the Atlanta area locations and receive a FREE burrito. The times and locations would be kept secret until the last minute and would only be announced on Facebook and Twitter. We also set up Willy’s with a Foursquare account, more on that later.

The Execution

Our custom design for Willy’s Facebook included a welcome page, menu page, info page and custom wall page with a Willy’s side banner.

For Willy’s Twitter page, we designed a custom background, with additional information to help tell the Willy’s story. (Our graphics department also designed additional elements like the treasure map above.)

Then we started making posts like these…
Did you know… Willy’s has a birthday coming up!! 15 Years and Still Rolling! We’ll celebrate on Tues. July 13 with $4.00 burritos all day plus all sorts of other fun stuff! Stay tuned for more Willy’s anniversary promotions!

In addition to our awesome $4.00 burrito special, we’re throwing ourselves a birthday party… and YOU’RE invited!

Want to know where Willy will be all day today? Follow us on Twitter! We will be tweeting his location so you can find Willy and grab your FREE burrito!

Reminder! Our “Where’s Willy” tab will be up for only the next 90 minutes! Make sure you print it off so you can find Willy tomorrow and get your FREE burrito! Don’t forget to share it with your friends, they will love you for it!

The Results

Within just a few weeks we built Willy’s following on Facebook to over 500 fans in time for their 15th Anniversary. A week later they had over 700 fans.

On Twitter, Willy’s had over 600 followers in time for their Anniversary celebrations and currently they have over 1,600 followers.

Video & Photos

Video of folks waiting for Willy to receiving their free burrito coupon. Video (click here)

Foursquare results

Many of you may not be as familiar with Foursquare as you are with Facebook and Twitter, but Foursquare is a great tool for retailers. In brief, Foursquare is a GPS tracker that allows the fan to check in at a retail location. In return the retailer can give those individuals a reward. What a fun way to create repeat business and brand loyalty at the same time! (We also blogged about this recently.)

Through the use of Twitter and Facebook, we were able to more than triple the number of check-ins on Foursquare during Willy’s anniversary celebration.

We’re honored that Willy’s Mexicana is allowing us to handle all of their social media marketing.

If you would like to learn more about how social media can improve business for you or your clients, please email (info[at]yepser[dot]com) or call us (770-655-8182) today.

How Fit Is Your Twitter?

We love to share success stories of our accounts! In our most recent newsletter, we featured Fitness Together.

At Fitness Together they produce real results from one simple formula: one client, one trainer and one goal. With their customized fitness and nutrition programs and with the help of your own certified personal trainer, you’ll be taking the right steps to reaching your fitness goals.

Fitness Together’s message is simple and perfect for Twitter. We’ve been sending out their message several times a day with the proper mix of quotes, questions, facts and general information. Our goal is to make sure we are providing tweets that their followers find informative, entertaining, and helpful. But most of all, we present FT as the expert when it comes to personal training. Now that’s branding! Tweeting is so simple…just 140 characters per message, but it is also so simple to get wrong. That’s why we use journalists to write blog articles, Facebook comments and, yes, tweets. We average 4.3 tweets per day, that’s over 130 tweets a month. In the past six months we have sent out over 800 tweets for FT. Now that’s frequency.

Russ Yeager, owner/personal trainer of three Fitness Together centers (Dunwoody, Johns Creek, Norcross) emailed us in August to let us know he had just signed up their largest Twitter referral since working with us. Russ reported that his new client had just signed-up for 150 sessions and when asked where she found out about FT, she reported she had been following them on Twitter.

Kelly Huggins the owner/personal trainer of the North Buckhead FT had a similar story. When asking a new client were she heard about FT she said, “I enjoyed getting your tweets and like the information contained in them.”

In social media, not all the messages have to be about the business. Stop thinking advertising campaign and start thinking conversation. You can follow FT on Twitter here.

Learn how to take the first steps toward getting your Twitter fit! Check out our website or send an e-mail to info@yepser.com.