Dear LPNeurs,
What do you do when your competitor likes your page or asks you to like their page? Once you are 'out there' you must not only offer content, engage and have a clear branding strategy but you must also be polite. Social media is there to make connections and so you must, even with your competitors and specially if they ask first.
You just concentrate on what you do while keeping an eye on what your colleagues (rather than competitors) are doing on your area of expertise. Some ideas will come out of them first and on other occasions you will be pioneer. There is just a limited number of options for certain activities and 'Hey!' going to school is a bit like paying to copy someone else's ideas so mimicking is part of the learning process. How many times do you see articles on 'how to create the best CV or internet profile'. Aren't we just using third parties' ideas? It doesn't mean that we won't be original and we'll become copycats, we must find the right balance.
Do not get upset when someone does what you're doing. Occasionally you'll have to follow some sort of structure too and you'll be 'copying' someone else. It takes practice but it's good to know that it happens. A very interesting view on the death of intellectual property is found in this inspirational TED video that lasts 17 minutes when you can spare some time. http://www.ted.com/talks/don_tapscott_four_principles_for_the_open_world_1.html?source=facebook#.UDMkUebgRFB.facebook
You wouldn't promote a competitor on your timeline as a Featured like but you must offer some connections on your area of expertise to your fans, so it could be pages that inspire you or products that you use to manufacture your own. If you don't want to 'add' a like on a competitor's page, you can 'like' it from your business page instead of from your personal account and it doesn't 'count'. It is only added to their fan base numerically if it's a like from a personal Facebook profile. On my Facebook Page design's page I have featured another 6 social media pages with more experience than myself for my fans to find some value beyond what I can offer. Below is how the window looks on my page's timeline. There are always 5 pages at any time and, if you don't set your featured likes and you have liked your competitors', they might pop up inviting your fans to like their pages.
On Facebook profiles, the latest news indicate that the company is going to delete over 80 million 'fake' accounts, the most obvious being those people make for their pets but also those with a name of a company or business. Only pages are allowed for pets or businesses, not personal profiles. So if you haven't created your page yet, do so now.
A bit more on Facebook etiquette that is mentioned by many social networkers I follow is the question of adding people to groups without their permission. In general don't do it. It is better to send a message to your friends that might be interested in a group and suggest they like it or talk about it face to face if the administrator of the group requires you to add more members in order to advertise in their group. I prefer to use groups that are inclusive and without conditions for me to post on them. Networking is not only about numbers, at some point you must start selecting the people you want to engage with and promote your page in ways that you feel comfortable with. You can always create your own group and invite your friends, just like LPN has done to promote their webpage/blog.
Finally for today, I'd like to mention whether you should post as the page or as yourself and how much personal content you should share with your fans. It is very easy to switch from posting as the page to posting as yourself using the voice bar that appears at the top of the page. When you engage with other pages, it is better to interact as the page and not as the person. Sometimes your fans appreciate the person talking rather that the brand, so do it sparingly and when appropriate. Facebook fans love it when you share something about your private life, not meaning that you must publish photos of your children or home, but a place you visited with you in the photo works wonders. After all, in a healthy state of mind, we should all enjoy our fellow humans' success. The less we fear jealousy and the more we are willing to share, to be transparent and to work for the common good, the more successful we will become.
More on how to convert all this into profit on our next article. Stay tuned and thanks for reading,
Veronica
