I hope you had a blast fine-tuning your blog with testimonials last week. It’s really encouraging to hear that some are trying out the methods, can’t wait to receive more feedbacks on that! In the mean time, I will be sharing few more practical ways to display testimonials (and portfolio) on your LinkedIn and Facebook Page! Now there are definitely limitations comparing to working on a self-hosted blog because application is the main key. Not the best of plans but hopefully you can be inspired by this post  and work out creative ways to promote your brand:

Testimonials (Portfolio) on LinkedIn

1.  LinkedIn Recommendations

LinkedIn is well known for its business-oriented social network  among the professionals and experts. Due to that, ‘LinkedIn recommendations’ plays a major role in strengthening your business network by allowing others to know your unique skills and talents when collaborating with a client. There are two things you should know about LinkedIn Recommendations:

a)      How to request a recommendation?

Go to Profile -> Recommendations -> Request Recommendations

I would suggest you to only send recommendation requests to people you know that could give an in depth commentary about your working ethics. Don’t send it to 500+ contacts on your list but be selective to whom you chose. If need to, communicate with the person before you send the request. This is NOT a popularity contest with the most recommendations wins. Remember ‘Quality over Quantity‘.

b)      How to backup your recommendations periodically?

One of the best features I love about LinkedIn is the backup facility. Users can backup profile details along with their client recommendations in .pdf format (with presentable layout). You can send this file to your potential clients, especially those who yet to own a LinkedIn account or unable to access your full professional data. Simply thoughtful!

2.  Creative Portfolio Display – LinkedIn Application

Creative Portfolio Display is an application that allows creative professionals (graphic designers, photographers etc) to showcase their art work on LinkedIn. With just a click your contacts can view your complete portfolio and even rate it! This application is powered by Behance and I had been using it to showcase my facebook page customization work. Go ahead and see how the full Behance portfolio looks like. Maybe you can rate it too since you’re there?

3.  Add Video Testimonial or Portfolio – LinkedIn Profile

Slideshare makes it possible to publish video on Linkedin Profile. It supports .flv, .avi, .wmv and more formats can be found here. You can make it so to display your monthly client video testimonial (refer to point #6 in this post) or a compilation of the work you’ve done with dynamic content that is memorable and shareable.

The procedure is not complicated at all. Just upload your video to SlideShare or do so from your LinkedIn SlideShare application. Once your video is uploaded, fill up your video details and wait for the conversion to finish. When it’s done, go to ‘Your Slidespace’ -> ‘Your Presentations’ to check on your video status. Here is a video example I made for my facebook customization work:

Testimonials on Facebook Page

1.  Reviews – Facebook Application

You can request your fans/clients to review your service or company products via Reviews tab. Clients can update their reviews anytime, re-rate the service or delete their comments. They can even comment on other people’s feedback. As an admin, you can neither edit nor delete the content. It is an irony between getting fair reviews from all parties and the headaches when dealing with spammer/troller.

2.  Custom Testimonial tab with Static FBML

If you prefer to have control over what have been said about your company service or website, why not personalize a Testimonial tab with Static FBML (iframe – coming soon)? You can customize and design the layout as you pleased with texts or images (non-editable), just as how I did for a client of mine:

If you are not familiar with HTML, try a subtab instead from these ready-made facebook applications for custom tabs.

To Collect Testimonials on a Facebook Fan Page

There are many ways you can acquire testimonials from clients or fans in a facebook page. Besides on your wall comments, why not setup a Testimonial form from one of these contact forms? Here is one I set up using Jotform:

3.  Facebook Comments for a Custom Tab – Social Plugins

Facebook comments can be inserted in a custom tab to encourage responses about your service. For example, set a portfolio tab then embed the facebook comments to generate discussions and fans feedback. Best of all, you can have control over the comments by eliminating spammers with ‘Delete’or ‘Report’. That’s a plus comparing to Reviews tab.

4.  Other Feedback Applications – Under Observations (as Reference)

I was actually quite impressed with ‘Feedback Application’ but unfortunately it had ceased to operate since 1st December, 2010. Comparing to Reviews app, Feedback app gives admin extra advantage in feedback management, where bad ratings or hate comments can be hidden from page view. I was using it for a few weeks so worth a mention here.

I was looking for a replacement, that’s when I found User Voice. As you can see on Hootsuite’s facebook page it is performing rather well for fans to post suggestions, vote and comment on them. But still, it is more of an idea-collector tool instead of a rating app. I had been waiting for their beta invite for facebook tab embed since few weeks ago but no replies thus far. Not much to comment for now.

5.  Import Twitter Testimonials to your Facebook Page

If you are collecting Twitter Testimonials, you may import it to your Facebook page wall via selective tweets, TwitterFeed or Hootsuite. That way you fans can be updated as soon as your twitter followers had endorsed your work. Refer to this post on how to get it done.

Now Is Your Turn…

Have you been using any of the methods above to promote your brand? Or do you have a secret ‘testimonial’ recipe of your own? Enlighten us in the comments, love to hear from you!

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The commenters rocked the house in previous post discussion about automated status updates!  It’s a controversial subject but I’m pleased with the constructive opinions given by all individuals. Whether to love or hate the service, it has much to do with the user’s networking ethics. Regardless which side you’re on, I’m grateful for your participation in making this post quite a hit last week! So here’s to:

This week’s Twitter #MustFollow list: Bloggers who treat comments seriously & provided insightful feedback:

@ConnieFoggles @marketmetweets @Jan_ Geronimo @KiwiGordie @aks2008 @esther96 @Happymaker @TwtrCoach @PetLvr @virtuosoblogger @FreemanLegacy @FamousBloggers @AussieSire @Elmot @SoftwareCritics @Anklebuster @InfozBlog @arafat21 @Anneonline @IntrovertZone @JimiJones @Zeenatsyal @Mitch_M @GrowMap @Janniefunster @jenaisle @HereWeAre_wLuci

(Hullbert, kindly provide me your Twitter acc)

** Starting this week, I’ll be acknowledging commenters for their valuable feedbacks on written posts. More about this soon so do keep the quality comments coming.**

Two weeks ago, a reader brought up this question in his comment for 3 easy ways to share selective tweets on Facebook Page:

I emailed George personally suggesting some tools that may fit his needs. After seeing how ugly mass-scheduling can get, I figured there’s a need to keep a clear conscience with 6 Points to Ponder before using Automatic Status Updates. I was deeply encouraged for most commenters are into building genuine networks, but thanks to Cindy’s Tweetplan to grow a quality Twitter following, it shows us another perspective of how social media strategists can incorporate status scheduling as part of their out-reaching plan. With proper moderation and control, it can still be accepted to some extent as one of the communication methods.

But what suggestions can we provide George here in deciding which tool to use?

6 Status Updates Scheduler for Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn

In order to find out, I had been experimenting status updates (STRICTLY NO auto-DMs) from a few web applications available. All reviews are written based on personal experiences. If the results vary from yours kindly point out in the comments for further discussions. Most of these web applications are designed to integrate with multi-social media sites but here we will be concentrating on 3 that are most widely discussed – Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

1.

Twitter: YES

Facebook: YES

LinkedIn: YES

Hootsuite is a powerful Twitter web client. I was absolutely blown away with the ease to setup and its efficiency to avoid clutter with customizable interface: Multiple columns with naming feature, integrations with multiple social media sites…  More on the features will be covered in future topics but first, we’ll be focusing on its capability to schedule status updates.

Why is Hootsuite Powerful?

Not only it stands alone as a perfect scheduler but as a free Twitter web client, it is capable of delivering updates to various social networking sites. Thanks to its integration with Ping.fm., you can gain access to all the social networks covered by Ping.fm here.

Hootsuite supports multiple Twitter accounts; enables status updates to be sent to Facebook personal account and Facebook page respectively. It even shows you all the pending status and ability to edit them however, whenever required.

i) Click ‘Add Social Network’ to include your desired social media profile,

ii) After authorizing access to these networks, you can schedule status updates at will (synchronize or separately):

Pending Status Updates for Facebook Page:

New Status Published on Facebook Page as Scheduled:

Suggested Read: HootSuite Integrates Lists, Facebook and LinkedIn

2.

Twitter: YES

Facebook: YES

LinkedIn: YES

Sendible is a management tool. It’s not a Twitter client, neither will it flood your streams with live feeds nor real-time tweets. It’s all in your hands to plan and manage your contacts via all sorts of planner, scheduling and task reminder features available. Since no live streaming involved, you can minus distractions and PC memory consumptions during social media profile setups.

However, Sendible has one tiny downside for free account holders: all your tweets will end with ‘via Sendible’ or ‘#Sendible’ for all status updates. In order to eliminate that, you need to pay to upgrade your Sendible account.

Extra: Interesting find: when my tweet exceeded 140 characters it splitted into multiple tweets. What amazed me was the tag for ‘#sendible’ did not show at all!

Since I’m all about keeping tweets succinct within 140 characters and avoiding ‘#Sendible’ at all costs, I’ll keep this application at the back seat for the moment.

Suggested Read: Sendible Relaunches; Now a Powerful Social Media Marketing Tool

3.

Twitter: YES

Facebook: YES (only available after paid to upgrade)

LinkedIn: YES (only if collaborated with Ping.fm which is only available after paid to upgrade)

For SocialOomph (used to be known as Tweetlater), it’s all about boosting productivity online. Unfortunately, in order to integrate Facebook and Ping.fm (for Linkedin) you will need to pay for the upgrading. As for free account holders, you can have all the access you need to schedule tweets/feeds, monitor @mentions, RTs and manage follower list – it’s all Twitter-friendly here in SocialOomph. Even so, you are given the option to choose free trial of 168 hours with Professional account.

Suggested Read: Opt Out of Auto-DMs Using Social Oomph (good news for SocialOomph users: if you hated Auto-DMs)

4.

Twitter: YES

Facebook: YES

LinkedIn: NO

A simple, web application that’s still in Beta version, offering status-updating solely for Twitter and Facebook. Status updates consisted with links will be published alongside with bit.ly as the default URL-shortener service. After several trials, I found the scheduling worked out fine but might be slightly delayed from the actual timer. For those who have tried this service your feedback is very much welcomed for a more accurate comparisons.

5.

Twitter: YES

Facebook: YES  (only if integrated with Ping.fm)

LinkedIn: YES (only if integrated with Ping.fm)

A web interface for Twitter. More towards business support-customer interaction purposes, one general CoTweet account for multiple Twitter users. One impressive feature that beats out existing desktop/web clients is the ability to schedule tweets. View your pending updates and edit them if needed. If you’re a Tweet-scheduling maniac, here’s a bunch of Twitter applications to choose from.

6.

Manual Configurations for Status Updates

Why manual? Because even auto cars can put you in trouble if the battery is dead.

Automatic scheduler may have its limitations, try not to be overdependent on a particular application. For precautions sake, better equip ourselves with manual configuration back up plan (just in case). I’m going to keep this brief but I’m sure you’ll get the idea:

i) Combination of Hootsuite with Ping.fm (Preset the following features in Ping.fm before setup the Hootsuite scheduler)

ii) Combination of Hootsuite / SocialOomph with Selective Twitter Status

Now It’s Your Turn…

Which status updates scheduler do you like best and how does it fulfill your needs in social networking?

If you’re not into scheduling, kindly share how do you make up for the time lost in social networking during absence or offline hours?

How important is networking to your blogging career?

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