I admit it. I’m still learning how to use Facebook Pages for B2B and still feel somewhat uncomfortable doing so.

I think part of the reason is because I’m over the line that divides people who feel really comfortable posting their entire lives online and the rest of us (of a certain age) who grew up keeping our personal lives private.

Plus, part of me still thinks, “Do people *really* care to know about the music I like or which restaurants I visit?”

However! This doesn’t mean I’m not up for learning new things, especially since, as one of my clients pointed out, the Facebook “Like” button has changed the world as we know it. And it just so happened that my personal life and learning new things came together two weeks ago when I realized that the Cap’n Crunch brand had become active on Facebook.

Before social media, you would have never known that I adore Cap’n Crunch cereal and have since I was a kid. When I moved out on my own, I used to it eat for dinner. (Why? No one could tell me not to.) After I had my son, I’d eat it as a mid-morning and late afternoon snack because I needed the sugar buzz.

I like Cap’n Crunch because it stays crunchy in milk. Yes, it does cut the roof of your mouth wicked bad, but it’s still so good. And you can’t just stop at one bowl, either.

I found the Cap’n Crunch Facebook page a few months ago and “Liked” it — but at the time the brand was pretty quiet.

That all changed a few weeks ago when somebody at Quaker Oats got a clue and gave the good Cap’n a voice. All of a sudden, amusing status updates from the brand began appearing in my feed – and surprisingly, the person behind the persona actually knows what he/she is doing. I tweeted on March 18 that I was amused that Cap’n Crunch was engaging fans on Facebook via March Madness and the Cap’n, who is obviously very smart, responded:

@diannahuff Thank you! I’m back ashore after years at sea and ready to take on Facebook and Twitter! Any tips for a newcomer?

Well, Cap’n, it is you who has actually taught me a few things about how B2B brands can use Facebook more effectively.

1. Develop a back story for why you’re now active.

Previous to March 14, the brand didn’t respond to people posting on the Facebook Page. This changed when an online rumor started that the cereal was to be discontinued. You can read the backstory at the CarltonJordon.com blog. Suffice to say, a spokesperson for Quaker told Ad Age:

Reports of Cap’n Crunch’s demise are greatly exaggerated. In fact, we just launched an official Facebook page for Cap’n Crunch. Now that our Cap’n Crunch brand is in the social-media space, our adult consumers can stay up to date on all things Cap’n Crunch.

Instead of simply appearing on Facebook, the good Cap’n explained that after being years at sea he had now returned. I liked this reasoning as it allowed the Cap’n to get his bearings now that he was back on land.

2. Ask people what they want from your Page.

ExactTarget has published eight fabulous reports on what people want from your brand via social media (Facebook and Twitter). The number one thing? Discounts and coupons! So imagine my delight when I saw this March 23 Facebook post from Cap’n Crunch and the 204 comments from Fans (plus 313 Likes) — many of whom want (you guessed it) coupons, discounts and free cereal.

I love seeing ExactTarget’s research in action, a brand asking peeps what they want, and a still wobbly-legged Cap’n looking for direction. Cute! Now Quaker Oats has to follow through.

3. Have some fun!

Because Facebook is a social networking platform for people and their family and friends, it’s a really great place to show your company or brand personality and have some fun — which is how you build community and engagement. You can also run contests that might not otherwise work on your blog, Website, or e-newsletter.

Given that Quaker started its social media campaign for Cap’n Crunch about two and half weeks ago, I’m really impressed that they came up with this contest: Fans can vote for their favorite Cap’n Crunch T-shirt design.

Fans will be able to find the shirts this summer on specially marked boxes of the cereal.

Quaker Oats has done a great job letting the person behind the Cap’n Crunch persona develop a personality and interact with Fans. I also like how the brand is responding to people on Twitter. Good job, Cap’n! May you always have a fair wind at your back and smooth sailing.

Is your company website not doing its job — i.e. generating leads and sales? I asked some of the best minds in the business for their tips on what you can do RIGHT NOW to improve your website. Below you’ll find their tips and as well as mine.

Design

1. Check to see if your site is easy to see via the iPhone or iPad. If it’s designed in Flash, your customers can’t view it using these devices.

2. If you’re using social media, add social media icons to each page of your site to make it easy for people to follow you.

3. If you’ve been quoted in the media, add media logos to your home page to boost your brand and image.

4. Check your site speed. Enter your URL here and on the results page, scroll down to the “Download times” section. Check that the time to load your site isn’t too big! If it is, the rest of the page gives tips as to why. A common problem is that images haven’t been optimized properly.

5. Add your phone number on all of your web pages, in text, not an image. This way people can click it using a smartphone and can easily call you. Images aren’t clickable.

6. Add your phone number to the top of your home page so that people don’t have to search for it when using a smart phone or e-tablet device.

7. Add an email link to the top of each of your pages so that people can easily email you.

8. Get rid of stock images and use photos of real people — preferably from your company.

9. Include “breadcrumbs” in your navigation so visitors can easily determine where they are on your site.

Navigation

10. Too few pages and too much information crammed on those pages — but your budget won’t allow for a complete redesign? Consider having your web designer create new navigation for you that includes drop down menus — making it easier to find information.

11. Ensure your site has a “main” or universal navigation structure and use it on all pages of your site to make it easier to navigate your site.

12. Make your logo a clickable link to your home page.

13. If your site has drop down menus, ensure people can use them via smart phone or e-tablet.

SEO

14. Register and verify your site with Google Webmaster Central.

15. Get your local listing(s) verified in Google Places (Maps) — do this even if you do business nationally.

16. Use ONE URL and drive all traffic to it. Directing people to more than one URL lowers your link juice, plus it’s just plain confusing.

17. Go open your website. Look at the top of the browser bar. If it says, “Welcome to ‘company name,’” your site probably isn’t optimized (what you’re seeing is your Title tag). Ditto for internal pages that have Title tags that read, “Products” or “Services.” Fix this, pronto.

18. Know who your target audience is and figure out the keyword phrases they might be using to find the types of products or services you offer on your website, through keyword research tools.

19. Take a pad of paper and create a list of keywords, as well as two and three and four-word keyword phrases, that you believe are related to your business, products and services. Don’t forget geographic keywords!

20. Rank each keyword/phase in order of importance: A, B, or C (A being keywords you absolutely MUST show up for on a Google search engine results page, B are keywords/phrases you should show up for, C would be nice to show up for and generally less competitive and have fewer searches (sometimes called the “long tail”).

21. After you create your list, go to the Google Keyword Tool to find anything you might have missed or other search phrases you probably didn’t even think of. Do this after your initial brainstorming!

22. Optimize your site for keywords people actually use in their searches — meaning, those keywords that have traffic volume according to the keyword tool.

23. Target the content and tags of each product/service page of your site to a specific set of related keyword phrases–pay special attention to Title tags as Google and Bing/Yahoo display the Title tags in the search engine results pages.

24. Use Google Adwords combined with Google Analytics to see which keyword phrases convert into leads or sales and feature them and other related ones more prominently within the content of your website.

25. Don’t put your company name first in the Title tag of the home page — put your number one keyword phrase here instead. This tells the search engines it’s important.

26. Use your list of search phrases as a guide when creating new web pages, blog posts, and even social media posts.

27. Instead of grouping all of your Services or Products on one page, create a page for each of your services or products — and then optimize each page.

28. Start commenting productively on industry related blogs and make sure to include the hyperlink to your website in the comment fields.

29. Start using a web reporting tool (i.e. Google Analytics).

30. Review your Web analytics each month. Go beyond the “top 10″ keywords or pages viewed and really dig deep into what people are doing when they get to your site.

31. Tweak your site content or add new content based on what types of information people are looking for (hint: view the long-tail keywords on your Google Analytics keyword report).

32. See how search engines see your website by looking at it in text format. Does the order of the content reflect the importance you intended things to have? What text content is missing that you should have? You can use Yellowpipe or Google’s “Cached” tool: Enter your business name in the Google search box, and when your listing appears, click “Cached” and then “Text only version.”

33. Make it a habit to check the number of links back to your site each month. One good tool is Yahoo’s Site Explorer. Note how many sites are linking to yours and make it a goal to increase this number each month.

34. If you have a blog, use a plugin, such as the All in One SEO Pack, to optimize your blog posts and the blog home page.

35. Fire your SEO firm if you have no clue what they’re doing for you or if your website isn’t generating leads via search.

36. Fire your web design firm if they have no clue what SEO is or they’re trying to sell you a Flash website.

37. Don’t hire any SEO firm that promises you “#1 rankings for hundreds of keywords.” You get what you pay for — if an SEO promise sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Content

38. Focus your site copy on how you can help your prospects and customers — not on how wonderful you are (no one cares).

39. Highlight informative content, such as eBooks, guides, and tip sheets, on your home page and throughout your site where relevant.

40. Include calls to action on all pages.

41. Make a list of three pieces of content you can create in the next 90 days — then get them done.

42. When you create a piece of content, write a press release about it and submit to one of the online wire services, such as PRWeb.

43. Do a search for all the content, articles, blog mentions, etc. about your company. Create a Press Room page and add this information to it. Keep it updated.

44. Create a Client List page if you don’t already have one. If you do have one, make sure it’s up-to-date.

45. Create a Testimonials page if you don’t already have one. if you do have one, update it with Testimonials from current happy customers.

46. Ask three customers if they’re willing to be the subject of case studies. Hire an outside writer to conduct interviews and write the case studies; add them to your site.

47. Publicize your content via Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook (and YouTube, if video). Ask your friends to help publicize it, too.

48. If you have a professionally done video about your company, add it to your home page.

49. Create a landing page for each of your white papers. Create content that *sells* each white paper rather than leaving people to wonder why they should hand over their contact info.

50. Add webinar transcripts, downloadable slides, and Q&A from your webinars on the page where you offer your on-demand webinars.

51. Consider adding a blog to spur discussions and give site visitors a reason to frequent your site.

52. If you have a blog on a separate URL, consider moving it to your domain — i.e. www.companyname.com/blog. This way you have all that nice blog traffic coming to one domain versus two.

53. Include a link to your blog in your main navigation.

54. Add your newsletter subscription form to every page of your site — not just the home page or buried deep on some other page.

55. Add an end user sitemap page.

56. Use contact forms for tracking lead information.

57. Add FAQ pages to help answer people’s questions.

Contributors

Thank you to the following Web design, SEO and content marketing experts for sharing their expertise.

Rachel Cunliffe, President, Cre8d Designs — Rachel and her team provide WordPress and Drupal sites to companies around the world. Follow her on Twitter at @Cre8d.

Derek Edmond, KoMarketing Associates — The managing partner, Derek and his team provide B2B companies with SEO, PPC and social media services. Follow him on Twitter at @derekedmond.

Chris Jaeger, Chris Jaeger Consulting — Chris helps his clients generate more leads through Website design and SEO. Follow him on Twitter at @imchrisjaeger.

Stephanie Tilton, TenTon Marketing — Stephanie helps B2B companies advance prospects through the buying cycle with white papers, case studies, and e-books. Follow her on Twitter at @StephanieTilton.

Jill Whalen, High Rankings — The founder of High Rankings and SEMNE, Jill is one of top SEO experts in the world and is a frequent speaker at SEO conferences. Follow her on Twitter at @jillwhalen.

I wrote a tip check out this morning to the woman who delivers my Wall Street Journal. Although I’m billed directly for my subscription, she often includes an empty envelope with my paper — the message being, “You owe me a tip, honey.” I hate these empty envelopes and the implied directive.

I don’t get a thank you note with the envelope — something along the lines of “Thank you for being my customer.” Nor do I get exceptional customer service as she drops the newspaper at the edge of my driveway and the road. If I don’t get out there early enough to retrieve it, it gets stolen.

So I write these checks for tips with a lot of resentment, but I do it because I know delivering newspapers before the crack of dawn, rain or snow, is not an easy job.

Writing the tip check this morning made me realize that I’ve learned a great deal about excellent customer service over the years, starting with my first job at age 11, which was delivering newspapers. And it’s this service — or perhaps outlook is a better word — that has allowed me to grow my business and work with some really cool clients.

1. Always aim for excellence

Right around the time Title IX went through, the local newspaper in my hometown began “allowing” girls to deliver the daily rag. You had to be 11 years old to snag a gig. I signed up right after I turned 11 and began delivering 76 newspapers six days a week. I’d get up at 4:30 AM, fold and bag my papers and deliver them before the deadline of 7:00 AM. Yes, I did this via bike — and I did it rain or shine.

I learned a great deal about customer service delivering the newspaper. The first month I collected the fee for delivering the paper from my customers, I learned that people would give me $.25, $.50 or even a $1.00 tip for getting their newspaper on the porch. Wow! I made sure that *everyone’s* newspaper made it on the porch — every single morning — whether or not they gave me a tip. (Got pretty good at aiming / throwing, too.)

2. Remain calm while under duress

My first “real” job was at a flower shop, which I started right after I got my work permit at age 16. When you deal with people — both customers and your boss — crap sometimes happens. The woman who owned the flower shop had real mental problems (which took me a bit to figure out).

On Valentine’s Day she decided to go home and left me in charge. The only problem was, she hadn’t purchased enough stock. By 4:30 that afternoon, we had sold out of roses.

By 5:30 PM, I had a line of angry men that went out the door. They wanted their flowers and here I was, by myself, trying to wrap suitable but not really suitable flowers plus ring up sales. I remember smiling at each and every man and thanking him for his business, even though some were really rude.

The next day one of the men came back and asked me to come work for him at his business. He said anyone who could handle that much pressure without cracking had to be good. I’ve never forgotten that and have used that lesson in all of my jobs.

3. Answer your phone

These days, you can find lots of advice from time management gurus and others who say you shouldn’t answer your phone as phone calls from people are seen as interruptions to your “real” work.

I don’t follow this advice — although I’d probably save lots of time if I did. That’s because I actually like getting calls from my clients and from people who may want to use my services.

I learned how to give “good phone” while working at a small manufacturing company. For seven years I ran the front office and spent my days managing four phone lines. The owner of the company, and my boss, used to read lots of books about customer service and actually recorded me answering the phone and talking to customers so that I could do it better!

Answering my own phone — and letting myself be interrupted — has paid in spades. My client, Dr. Helaine Smith, called me in 2005. When she tells this story to audiences she says, “Dianna was the only person of the three I called who answered her phone on a Friday afternoon.”

4. Do things without being asked

One of my son’s chores is to bring in the trash barrels. Last week he didn’t do this chore — despite the fact that it was school vacation week and he really had nothing else to do.

When I came home and asked why he hadn’t brought them in, he replied, “You didn’t tell me to do it.” I hit the roof! My reply was, “If you want to succeed in life, buster, you need to do things without being asked.”

It’s this philosophy that drives me to give my clients exceptional customer service. As one of my clients recently said to me, “I like working with you because you’re accessible. You’re always happy to hear from me. It’s obvious you’re tracking my industry because you refer to news articles and help keep me informed. You always say ‘yes,’ and you do what you say you’re going to do. You treat me with respect. All of this makes me feel heard, cared about and important.”

No one told me I had to do these things. I’m not even sure I read about them in a book. But when I put my newspaper carrier’s tip check in the envelope this morning, I realized that customer service has been the heart and soul of my business. I care about my clients and their success. It’s important to me that they know that. So I do things without being asked — even if it means it costs me in time or money.

Many thanks to Jason Fried, CEO of 37Signals, for inspiring this post. It’s based on his article, “How to Make Money in Six Easy Steps” in the current issue of Inc. magazine.