Posts
Facebook is one of the most popular social networking mediums, and their membership numbers are increasing quickly. It is a great tool for networking; but like many tools available for networking on the web, promotional or marketing activities are frowned upon.
So be careful when using Facebook and do your online marketing activities under the radar, or you might miss out on a powerful tool to boost your business.
In this article, I’ll give you some vital pointers to maximize the power of Facebook.
1) Just like any other social site, be careful what you put in your profile.
You don’t want to be seen as a link spammer. And you don’t want to give away too much personal information either (unless you don't care that thousands of people may see your profile).
Just be careful with any personal details you put out there for others to see, such as where you live and pictures of your children. You do not want to pick up a stalker, especially when you are networking with strangers.
2) Don’t make the mistake of using your business name as your profile name, as this is against Facebook’s terms of service.
You are allowed to create other Facebook pages to brand your company, products or websites.
3) Respond to any friend requests and carefully send your own invitations. Make them personal and interesting.
Developing a great network is your long-term goal to generate a slow, but steady traffic stream to your websites. Use this tool to your advantage without being pushy or overbearing. Facebooks members hate spamming (who doesn’t?) and will carefully watch out for anything that violates their Terms of Service (TOS).
If you want to see profiles of those from another network, add them as your friends using the "Add to Friends" button. Follow the steps in the Edit tool to fill out any information you want others in your network, or others you accept as friends, to view.
4) Use various applications of Facebook.
Facebook has many applications which would make your networking experience easier or more enjoyable. Examples are applications for adding footage or photograph albums to your profile for others to see.
I’ll discuss two other powerful Facebook applications in a moment.
5) Use Facebook’s “My Questions” application to find out what people are exactly looking for concerning your niche
This is where posters answer certain questions about themselves and what they are looking for on Facebook. They will also list their interests. Use this in your networking activities.
Unless they have expressed an interest in your field, do not invite them to join your friends list. Of course, you can still ask them if you genuinely want to be their friend.
But if you are there to network for your website business, then choose your friends wisely. This is how you are building your list and getting traffic to your website. So you have to manage your time well and eliminate non-productive activities.
Again, be very careful about Facebook’s TOS. Do not go against it because breaking the rules will get you banned.
6) Use “Facebook Discuss.”
It is Facebook's answer to instant messaging. Chatting, or IM'ing, on Facebook is truly quite easy when you use Facebook Discuss .
Just go to your Facebook page and you can start using Facebook Discuss immediately. At the base of each Facebook page, you may see your Facebook Discuss tools.
The first of the 3 Facebook Discuss tools is the online friends tool. This simply tells you which of your Facebook buddies is online at this time. The next Facebook Discuss tool is notifications that may let you know if you have any new Facebook notifications right from the tool. The 3rd tool in Facebook Discuss is the real discuss tool.
7) Create and join Facebook groups.
Just as they have subscribed to your blog, they're going to join your Facebook group. So people looking on Facebook for related groups would feel welcome to join.
Facebook groups are viral selling mechanisms. Search Facebook for groups on your topic and related ones. In each of these groups, you can post a message on the group Wall or debate board, or you may use the Post a Link feature to inform the group's members of your group and your blog.
By promoting your Facebook group at first, rather than promoting your blog, you decrease the chance the group director will remove your message. Any Facebook member can make a group and invite users on their pals list to join.
A form prompts you to give the group a name, passing outline and class. At the following stage, you can customize your group's available applications, upload a profile photograph and set privacy levels.
A secret group is fascinating for work-related activity, but it will not show up in search results. Choosing a closed group might be the best idea for you to protect your privacy. You will be inspired to choose members from your friends list to join the group.
When you start a group on Facebook, you can invite members to join the group and share their thoughts, viewpoints and consultations about your product, idea or start-up. Invitations to join a Facebook group can be through your Facebook buddies, your Yahoo contacts, etc.
8) Integrate your application into specific areas of the Facebook profile
A Facebook application can take on a lot of forms; but in order to entirely implement the selection of integration points and deliver a full user experience, it is advised that you integrate your application into specific areas of the Facebook profile.
This permits millions of viewers to see your business everywhere on Facebook and attract potential patrons, who would naturally visit your start-up Internet site.
Remember to follow all Facebooks rules; otherwise, you’ll risk getting banned and your account deleted. This is not what you are looking for. Instead you want to use the group feature to promote your website within Facebooks rules. Do not overstep by thinking you can get around the rules. Use Facebook features to your advantage and you will see an increase in your website traffic.
About the Author:
Jeremy Gislason
Want to know proven ways to tremendously increase membership sales? Want to take membership marketing to a whole new level of overflowing profits? Build high-earning membership sites like a pro by going to http://www.membershipmillionaire.com
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Monday, July 13, 2009
The Latest Internet Marketing Tool - New Facebook Marketplace
Facebook first introduced the Marketplace application in mid 2007 as a way for people to post classified listings on the site. Now Facebook has launched its new, updated Marketplace. This time the Marketplace is powered by a company with a funny name, Oodle. Despite the name they are a big online classifieds company founded by former Excite and eBay executives. Oodle has built a completely new version of the Marketplace focused on giving people a place to buy, sell or give things away to the people they know.
This Facebook Marketplace Guide is a practical Step-By-Step Guide for all of you who want to learn how to sell your items effectively on the new Facebook Marketplace.
Using the Facebook Marketplace you can sell, give away, buy, ask or search for anything you want. You can also use the Marketplace to support your favourite charities by selling your unwanted goods for a good cause. Additionally, you can see what your friends are buying and/or selling. Facebook users can post their Marketplace listings free of charge. Your listings will be viewable to millions of Facebook Marketplace users worldwide. If you have previously used the old Facebook Marketplace, you should see it bookmarked in the lower left hand corner of your monitor. And, if you had active listings in the old Marketplace, you should be given the option to transfer them to the new Facebook Marketplace. If you have not used the Facebook Marketplace application before, you can find it here: facebook.com/marketplace.
Ok, let's get down to business. As I mentioned, this is a
Step-By-Step Guide how to sell in the Facebook Marketplace effectively
So, here we go:
Step 1 - Take a Photo
Grab your digital camera and take a nice close-up picture of the item that you wish to sell. It is best to shoot against a light, solid background. Transfer your photo to your computer as a JPG-file. If your item is something that can't be presented with a photo, don't worry, you can still get it listed.
Step 2 - Log On
Log on to your Facebook account and fire up the Marketplace application. Just click the Applications menu in the lower left hand corner of your screen and choose Marketplace. You are greeted with the Marketplace welcome screen.
You have four main options at your disposal:
Sell It
Sell for a Cause
Give It Away and
Ask for It
In this guide we are concentrating on the Selling-for-Money side of things, so you may leave the screen as it is and write a short description of your item in the box where it says "Sell something to make extra cash." When you click the box it will change into "Yourname" is selling..?. Write your main headline for the listing here. After writing your headline description, click the blue Post-button.
Step 3 - Write Your Advertisement
After you have written your headline for the listing you are presented with a new screen with more options related to your listing. Write a punch line type of a description in the box "Why are you selling it"?. You could write "I need money to buy more stuff." but, even though it might be the case, I don't think it would get your listing noticed. Consider this space as your sub headline for the ad. Write this description like you were working in an advertising company. Or, if you feel more conservative, just describe your item as funky as possible. You have two lines to hit the point.
Next, state your asking price in the Price-box. You know what its worth.
Write your location. This is a must. Just write in your city.
Choose a category for your item. At the time of writing this book, there are only the following 13 categories available:
Baby & Kid Stuff
Books & Magazines
Cars & Vehicles
Clothes & Accessories
Collectibles
Computers & Accessories
Electronics
Furniture
Home and Garden
Musical Instruments
Sporting Goods, Bicycles & Equipment
Tickets
Everything Else
If you can't find a suitable category for your item, you can always choose Everything Else, however it is not a very good category to be listed under.
In the next box you can provide a wider description of your item. Here you have more room than just two lines. Describe your item with as much detail as you can. You know, size, colour, condition,.. those sort of things. But, don't stress yourself too much with this; you can always change it later. Once you have created the best advertising text ever, hit the Browse-button to locate your photo from your computer, USB stick or where ever you think you saved it in Step 1. Yes, I know, ... I can never find my images either. Don't panic though, you have time to locate it; the screen isn't going anywhere.
You found it? Good! Actually, you can upload two photos if you wish. For instance if you are selling a book, it is a good idea to upload both front and back covers. You can upload even more images later on, but for the sake of this exercise, one is enough.
Tick the Terms of Use-box and click the Submit-button.
Step 4 - Rather Unnecessary Step
The next screen has your details on it and your only option is to click the Continue-button. I really don't know why this screen exists, but since it does all we can do is click the button.
Step 5 - Publishing
Next you will get a screen asking if you want to publish this listing in your own Facebook profile. This is a good idea. You will get a choice for a Full, Short or a One Line description. I would recommend you'd choose the Short-option. You may tick the Always do this for Marketplace-box if you wish to use this same option every time you list something. So, if you wish to publish this listing on your profile, click the Publish-button, but if you only want it to appear in the Facebook Marketplace, choose the No, Thanks-button.
Step 6 - Promotion
This step is your first chance to advertise your new listing. This is also a good idea. You can Recruit Friends to Promote your Listing in their News Feed. You can add up to 5 of your friends by clicking on their pictures. You can also choose them by writing their names in the Find Friends-box. Once you have chosen your friends who might be interested in promoting your listing, click the Send Request-button; or if you don't want to bother your friends this time, choose Skip.
Step 7 - Personal Marketing Message
You will be presented a confirmation screen with your details. You can add a personal message to this post by clicking the blue Add Personal Message-hotlink. If you don't want to add your personal message, just click the Send-button. You also can cancel this message altogether by clicking Cancel.
Step 8 - Done!
Congratulations! You have listed your first item on the Facebook Marketplace. Listings take approximately 30 minutes to be included in the search index.
You will be presented with the screen titled "Manage My Listing: Active". Here you can review your listing and, if you wish to make any changes click the Edit Details-hotlink in the light green bar. You can also delete your listing as well as promote your listing with a Facebook Ad. I will not get into details how to produce Facebook Ads in this book. That topic, among many other good ones, will be fully covered in my Facebook Advertising Guide.
That's it, you've done it! Good work! Thank you for reading so far.
Additional, good to know stuff:
Editing Your Listing
You can easily edit your listings after you have published them. Just click the Edit Details-hotlink on the screen mentioned in the Manage My Listing -page, and you will get pretty much the same screen as when you were writing the listing in the first place. You can change every detail of your listing here as well as upload more images if you wish. It is a good idea to show as many images as you can.
After you have made your changes in this panel click the Submit-button to get your listing updated. You will again be presented with a useless confirmation screen as seen. Just ignore it, and click the Continue-button.
Next, you will be asked if you wish to publish this updated listing on your Facebook profile as in Step 6. You may choose to publish again, or you may just click the No, Thanks-button.
Finally, you will see your updated listing on the "Manage My Listing"- screen.
Managing Your Facebook Marketplace Listings
You can easily manage all of your Facebook Marketplace listings in one convenient location. If you click the My Listings-hotlink in the Marketplace menu, you will see your current listings. This is your place to manage all your listings. You can add more listings, edit them and after you have sold your items you can delete them.
As I mentioned earlier, you can also sell your items for a cause or you can give them away for free (don't know why, but you can). You can also find something you need for yourself. These functions are not covered in this book, but I'm sure you'll manage them with the principles covered here.
Ok, I hope you enjoyed this Facebook Marketplace Guide. I wish you luck in selling your stuff through Facebook. I sold my first item, an awesome Jimi Hendrix Wah-Wah guitar pedal in just 3 days.
Best regards,
Kris Olin, MscBa, marketing
This Facebook Marketplace Guide is also available as a fully illustrated PDF-version.
You can download it FREE: www.facebook-advertising-marketing.com
About the Author:
Kris Olin is a Web Designer from Brisbane, Australia specialised in Web 2.0, SEO, Digital Publishing, Social Media Marketing, Internet Promotion Strategies, Blogs, WordPress, Google AdWords and Web Graphics. Kris also does company consultations, training and provides website hosting solutions. Website: http://www.krisolin.com
This Facebook Marketplace Guide is a practical Step-By-Step Guide for all of you who want to learn how to sell your items effectively on the new Facebook Marketplace.
Using the Facebook Marketplace you can sell, give away, buy, ask or search for anything you want. You can also use the Marketplace to support your favourite charities by selling your unwanted goods for a good cause. Additionally, you can see what your friends are buying and/or selling. Facebook users can post their Marketplace listings free of charge. Your listings will be viewable to millions of Facebook Marketplace users worldwide. If you have previously used the old Facebook Marketplace, you should see it bookmarked in the lower left hand corner of your monitor. And, if you had active listings in the old Marketplace, you should be given the option to transfer them to the new Facebook Marketplace. If you have not used the Facebook Marketplace application before, you can find it here: facebook.com/marketplace.
Ok, let's get down to business. As I mentioned, this is a
Step-By-Step Guide how to sell in the Facebook Marketplace effectively
So, here we go:
Step 1 - Take a Photo
Grab your digital camera and take a nice close-up picture of the item that you wish to sell. It is best to shoot against a light, solid background. Transfer your photo to your computer as a JPG-file. If your item is something that can't be presented with a photo, don't worry, you can still get it listed.
Step 2 - Log On
Log on to your Facebook account and fire up the Marketplace application. Just click the Applications menu in the lower left hand corner of your screen and choose Marketplace. You are greeted with the Marketplace welcome screen.
You have four main options at your disposal:
Sell It
Sell for a Cause
Give It Away and
Ask for It
In this guide we are concentrating on the Selling-for-Money side of things, so you may leave the screen as it is and write a short description of your item in the box where it says "Sell something to make extra cash." When you click the box it will change into "Yourname" is selling..?. Write your main headline for the listing here. After writing your headline description, click the blue Post-button.
Step 3 - Write Your Advertisement
After you have written your headline for the listing you are presented with a new screen with more options related to your listing. Write a punch line type of a description in the box "Why are you selling it"?. You could write "I need money to buy more stuff." but, even though it might be the case, I don't think it would get your listing noticed. Consider this space as your sub headline for the ad. Write this description like you were working in an advertising company. Or, if you feel more conservative, just describe your item as funky as possible. You have two lines to hit the point.
Next, state your asking price in the Price-box. You know what its worth.
Write your location. This is a must. Just write in your city.
Choose a category for your item. At the time of writing this book, there are only the following 13 categories available:
Baby & Kid Stuff
Books & Magazines
Cars & Vehicles
Clothes & Accessories
Collectibles
Computers & Accessories
Electronics
Furniture
Home and Garden
Musical Instruments
Sporting Goods, Bicycles & Equipment
Tickets
Everything Else
If you can't find a suitable category for your item, you can always choose Everything Else, however it is not a very good category to be listed under.
In the next box you can provide a wider description of your item. Here you have more room than just two lines. Describe your item with as much detail as you can. You know, size, colour, condition,.. those sort of things. But, don't stress yourself too much with this; you can always change it later. Once you have created the best advertising text ever, hit the Browse-button to locate your photo from your computer, USB stick or where ever you think you saved it in Step 1. Yes, I know, ... I can never find my images either. Don't panic though, you have time to locate it; the screen isn't going anywhere.
You found it? Good! Actually, you can upload two photos if you wish. For instance if you are selling a book, it is a good idea to upload both front and back covers. You can upload even more images later on, but for the sake of this exercise, one is enough.
Tick the Terms of Use-box and click the Submit-button.
Step 4 - Rather Unnecessary Step
The next screen has your details on it and your only option is to click the Continue-button. I really don't know why this screen exists, but since it does all we can do is click the button.
Step 5 - Publishing
Next you will get a screen asking if you want to publish this listing in your own Facebook profile. This is a good idea. You will get a choice for a Full, Short or a One Line description. I would recommend you'd choose the Short-option. You may tick the Always do this for Marketplace-box if you wish to use this same option every time you list something. So, if you wish to publish this listing on your profile, click the Publish-button, but if you only want it to appear in the Facebook Marketplace, choose the No, Thanks-button.
Step 6 - Promotion
This step is your first chance to advertise your new listing. This is also a good idea. You can Recruit Friends to Promote your Listing in their News Feed. You can add up to 5 of your friends by clicking on their pictures. You can also choose them by writing their names in the Find Friends-box. Once you have chosen your friends who might be interested in promoting your listing, click the Send Request-button; or if you don't want to bother your friends this time, choose Skip.
Step 7 - Personal Marketing Message
You will be presented a confirmation screen with your details. You can add a personal message to this post by clicking the blue Add Personal Message-hotlink. If you don't want to add your personal message, just click the Send-button. You also can cancel this message altogether by clicking Cancel.
Step 8 - Done!
Congratulations! You have listed your first item on the Facebook Marketplace. Listings take approximately 30 minutes to be included in the search index.
You will be presented with the screen titled "Manage My Listing: Active". Here you can review your listing and, if you wish to make any changes click the Edit Details-hotlink in the light green bar. You can also delete your listing as well as promote your listing with a Facebook Ad. I will not get into details how to produce Facebook Ads in this book. That topic, among many other good ones, will be fully covered in my Facebook Advertising Guide.
That's it, you've done it! Good work! Thank you for reading so far.
Additional, good to know stuff:
Editing Your Listing
You can easily edit your listings after you have published them. Just click the Edit Details-hotlink on the screen mentioned in the Manage My Listing -page, and you will get pretty much the same screen as when you were writing the listing in the first place. You can change every detail of your listing here as well as upload more images if you wish. It is a good idea to show as many images as you can.
After you have made your changes in this panel click the Submit-button to get your listing updated. You will again be presented with a useless confirmation screen as seen. Just ignore it, and click the Continue-button.
Next, you will be asked if you wish to publish this updated listing on your Facebook profile as in Step 6. You may choose to publish again, or you may just click the No, Thanks-button.
Finally, you will see your updated listing on the "Manage My Listing"- screen.
Managing Your Facebook Marketplace Listings
You can easily manage all of your Facebook Marketplace listings in one convenient location. If you click the My Listings-hotlink in the Marketplace menu, you will see your current listings. This is your place to manage all your listings. You can add more listings, edit them and after you have sold your items you can delete them.
As I mentioned earlier, you can also sell your items for a cause or you can give them away for free (don't know why, but you can). You can also find something you need for yourself. These functions are not covered in this book, but I'm sure you'll manage them with the principles covered here.
Ok, I hope you enjoyed this Facebook Marketplace Guide. I wish you luck in selling your stuff through Facebook. I sold my first item, an awesome Jimi Hendrix Wah-Wah guitar pedal in just 3 days.
Best regards,
Kris Olin, MscBa, marketing
This Facebook Marketplace Guide is also available as a fully illustrated PDF-version.
You can download it FREE: www.facebook-advertising-marketing.com
About the Author:
Kris Olin is a Web Designer from Brisbane, Australia specialised in Web 2.0, SEO, Digital Publishing, Social Media Marketing, Internet Promotion Strategies, Blogs, WordPress, Google AdWords and Web Graphics. Kris also does company consultations, training and provides website hosting solutions. Website: http://www.krisolin.com
Friday, July 10, 2009
Facebook Business Applications and Marketing Tools - Even Create Your Own
The idea behind using a social networking site as Facebook as a venue for doing business is building a user base in the form of a community who respond to you as a person or to your product. If you just turn your page into one big advertisement, you are not going to get much in the way of a response. You need to educate people about the product without coming across as a hard sell.
You want to create the impression that you are here for socializing, not business. People will come to trust you and be more likely to buy your product or service if you can do this.
Facebook has built in tools which can be used to build your business. These include:
- Social Ads
- Pages
- Beacon
- Insights
- Platform
- Polls
These tools can help you to build awareness of your brand through this social networking site and bring in potential clients. Needless to say, you are going to have to learn to use them effectively. Read on to find out how to harness these tools to build your business using social networking sites.
You can learn how to take further advantage of these features by visiting the facebook website business section.
SOCIAL ADS
Social ads have a lot of promise for building your business since they can go directly to the news feeds of your Facebook friends. Anyone who is on your friends list will be able to get the word about your business right on their profile page.
This is also a very easy way of target marketing. You can control exactly who sees your ads - and target marketing is the way to get sales.
FACEBOOK PAGES
You can make a Face book page for a business, just as you would for yourself. This allows people to interact with and even become friends with your business. It is a great way to make a lot of people aware of your product and your brand who would not otherwise.
You know when someone becomes friends with your business on Facebook that you have a potential client; at the very least, they have shown some interest. People can interact with your business as they would with any of their other social networking site friends - they can leave comments and generally enhance the experience of a visit to your page.
You can use this social networking site to your best advantage by adding features that will appeal to your target market and fit in with the brand image you are aiming to create. Quizzes, games, a Facebook group and so on.
FACEBOOK BEACON
Like social ads, Facebook Beacon gives you the ability to build your business by promoting yourself via your Facebook friends news feeds. You can set Beacon to notify all of your Facebook friends whenever you have a new product available, or any other sort of news or information you would like to disseminate amongst your Facebook friends. All you need to do is to add a little code to your Facebook page (this can be done by copy and paste, so no need to panic).
This encourages more interaction with your page, the website of your business and your company in general. This also helps get the word out about your businesses product or service.
Do not fret that you will be mercilessly spamming your Facebook friends and invading their privacy - they can opt out of these updates at any time they choose. You of course have the same ability for Facebook Beacon updates from others.
FACEBOOK INSIGHTS
If you are using facebook as a method of promoting your business you will of course want to know just who is checking out your Facebook page, clicking on your ads and joining your friends list. Facebook Insights is a tool which can give you a lot more detail on these sorts of statistics, which can help you to evaluate the efficacy of your campaign.
Armed with this information you can make the call as to whether viral marketing is working in your favor. Word of mouth is one of the best means of advertising and Facebook can facilitate it on a large scale. Facebook Insights lets you figure out what parts of your campaign are working and which are not as well as giving you valuable demographic information which will help you refine your campaign further.
FACEBOOK PLATFORM
Facebook Platform is an exciting tool for business indeed. Programmers can use this tool to build programs which will work with Facebook and add to the usefulness and fun of your Facebook page. If people like what you have on your page, they will spread the word and this build your client base.
You can add all manner of different applications to your site using this platform. Many opt for games, quizzes and other interactive features. You can have a look at the Applications page on the Facebook site to get an idea what sort of things others are using the platform for. These kinds of features can really help you build your brand image; take advantage of them.
FACEBOOK POLLS
Facebook polls can be a great way to gather demographic information from people using the site. Since you can make the poll interactive and fun to use, you'll have no trouble gathering data. Best of all, you can target your polling.
You can make sure your polls are targeted just where you want them to be since you already have access to some data such as marital status and age of your Facebook friends. This helps you keep your polling relevant.
Do not forget about these valuable tools - they can really help out your business.
Anyone who is willing to put in just a little bit of effort can make their own applications for Facebook. You just need to learn Facebook Markup Language - there are plenty of tutorials online which can help you learn the ropes of this quickly.
Remember to have a look through what is already out there in terms of Facebook applications before you develop your own. If everyone is already using a very similar application, not too many of your fellow facebook users will be enticed by it. Do something a little different if you want to grab the attentionof people.
CREATING APPLICATIONS FOR BUSINESS
With just a little bit of programming know how, anybody can make and distribute their own applications. You'll be doing this to build your business and it can make a big difference. Applications can really draw in people and keep them on your site. Games are especially popular and can build your brand while keeping users engaged and entertained.
You would be unwise to neglect the use of these applications available to you through Facebook. They can help get the word out about your business - and that is why you made a Facebook page for your business in the first place, no?
You will also be building a sense of community amongst all of these potential customers which will help you get sales.
Here are a few tips for getting the best results from your applications:
1) Make it relevant
In marketing, relevancy is everything. If your potential customers can not get into it, or if it is unclear how the application ties into your product or service, rethink your application.
2) Privacy policy
Even if they are on facebook to socialize, people still want their privacy to be respected. This is why there are friend lists and groups, to which one must be invited. Privacy is a natural human desire and Facebook facilitates this while still allowing for socialization. Remember to respect the privacy of users and retain that trust you have worked so hard to build with them.
3) Free distribution
Once your application is finished and ready to go, you will distribute it. You can do this by listing it on the site along with all of the other Facebook applications and then invite others to install it. If your facebook friends like your application, they will spread the word.
About the Author:
Leon Edward at his internet home business website helps people to start, build, market and promote internet based home businesses. Leon also helps provides public speaking tips, self confidence techniques at his personal development training website at www.awesomesuccess.org
You want to create the impression that you are here for socializing, not business. People will come to trust you and be more likely to buy your product or service if you can do this.
Facebook has built in tools which can be used to build your business. These include:
- Social Ads
- Pages
- Beacon
- Insights
- Platform
- Polls
These tools can help you to build awareness of your brand through this social networking site and bring in potential clients. Needless to say, you are going to have to learn to use them effectively. Read on to find out how to harness these tools to build your business using social networking sites.
You can learn how to take further advantage of these features by visiting the facebook website business section.
SOCIAL ADS
Social ads have a lot of promise for building your business since they can go directly to the news feeds of your Facebook friends. Anyone who is on your friends list will be able to get the word about your business right on their profile page.
This is also a very easy way of target marketing. You can control exactly who sees your ads - and target marketing is the way to get sales.
FACEBOOK PAGES
You can make a Face book page for a business, just as you would for yourself. This allows people to interact with and even become friends with your business. It is a great way to make a lot of people aware of your product and your brand who would not otherwise.
You know when someone becomes friends with your business on Facebook that you have a potential client; at the very least, they have shown some interest. People can interact with your business as they would with any of their other social networking site friends - they can leave comments and generally enhance the experience of a visit to your page.
You can use this social networking site to your best advantage by adding features that will appeal to your target market and fit in with the brand image you are aiming to create. Quizzes, games, a Facebook group and so on.
FACEBOOK BEACON
Like social ads, Facebook Beacon gives you the ability to build your business by promoting yourself via your Facebook friends news feeds. You can set Beacon to notify all of your Facebook friends whenever you have a new product available, or any other sort of news or information you would like to disseminate amongst your Facebook friends. All you need to do is to add a little code to your Facebook page (this can be done by copy and paste, so no need to panic).
This encourages more interaction with your page, the website of your business and your company in general. This also helps get the word out about your businesses product or service.
Do not fret that you will be mercilessly spamming your Facebook friends and invading their privacy - they can opt out of these updates at any time they choose. You of course have the same ability for Facebook Beacon updates from others.
FACEBOOK INSIGHTS
If you are using facebook as a method of promoting your business you will of course want to know just who is checking out your Facebook page, clicking on your ads and joining your friends list. Facebook Insights is a tool which can give you a lot more detail on these sorts of statistics, which can help you to evaluate the efficacy of your campaign.
Armed with this information you can make the call as to whether viral marketing is working in your favor. Word of mouth is one of the best means of advertising and Facebook can facilitate it on a large scale. Facebook Insights lets you figure out what parts of your campaign are working and which are not as well as giving you valuable demographic information which will help you refine your campaign further.
FACEBOOK PLATFORM
Facebook Platform is an exciting tool for business indeed. Programmers can use this tool to build programs which will work with Facebook and add to the usefulness and fun of your Facebook page. If people like what you have on your page, they will spread the word and this build your client base.
You can add all manner of different applications to your site using this platform. Many opt for games, quizzes and other interactive features. You can have a look at the Applications page on the Facebook site to get an idea what sort of things others are using the platform for. These kinds of features can really help you build your brand image; take advantage of them.
FACEBOOK POLLS
Facebook polls can be a great way to gather demographic information from people using the site. Since you can make the poll interactive and fun to use, you'll have no trouble gathering data. Best of all, you can target your polling.
You can make sure your polls are targeted just where you want them to be since you already have access to some data such as marital status and age of your Facebook friends. This helps you keep your polling relevant.
Do not forget about these valuable tools - they can really help out your business.
Anyone who is willing to put in just a little bit of effort can make their own applications for Facebook. You just need to learn Facebook Markup Language - there are plenty of tutorials online which can help you learn the ropes of this quickly.
Remember to have a look through what is already out there in terms of Facebook applications before you develop your own. If everyone is already using a very similar application, not too many of your fellow facebook users will be enticed by it. Do something a little different if you want to grab the attentionof people.
CREATING APPLICATIONS FOR BUSINESS
With just a little bit of programming know how, anybody can make and distribute their own applications. You'll be doing this to build your business and it can make a big difference. Applications can really draw in people and keep them on your site. Games are especially popular and can build your brand while keeping users engaged and entertained.
You would be unwise to neglect the use of these applications available to you through Facebook. They can help get the word out about your business - and that is why you made a Facebook page for your business in the first place, no?
You will also be building a sense of community amongst all of these potential customers which will help you get sales.
Here are a few tips for getting the best results from your applications:
1) Make it relevant
In marketing, relevancy is everything. If your potential customers can not get into it, or if it is unclear how the application ties into your product or service, rethink your application.
2) Privacy policy
Even if they are on facebook to socialize, people still want their privacy to be respected. This is why there are friend lists and groups, to which one must be invited. Privacy is a natural human desire and Facebook facilitates this while still allowing for socialization. Remember to respect the privacy of users and retain that trust you have worked so hard to build with them.
3) Free distribution
Once your application is finished and ready to go, you will distribute it. You can do this by listing it on the site along with all of the other Facebook applications and then invite others to install it. If your facebook friends like your application, they will spread the word.
About the Author:
Leon Edward at his internet home business website helps people to start, build, market and promote internet based home businesses. Leon also helps provides public speaking tips, self confidence techniques at his personal development training website at www.awesomesuccess.org
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
How to Use Facebook in Internet Marketing
Social networks have proven themselves to be an important part of any internet marketing campaign for entrepreneurs looking to make money. One well known social networking site is making headway in being a “place to be” for local businesses that want to reach out to potential customers.
It is impossible to be a business that people are going to take seriously if you don’t have a website. Your website is your storefront to the world. It doesn’t really matter what your niche is or if you are providing products or services. That doesn’t mean that a website guarantees your success, you have to know how to promote it. The best and most effective time honored way is through internet marketing, specifically SEO. Today, that SEO needs to be done through the social networking sites like Facebook.
There are few “gurus” on the net that will tell you the best way to use Facebook is to tap into your local market, meaning that you are reaching out to your friends, and their friends and other people that live in the same general area as your business. Brick and mortar businesses are fine, but there are more and more virtual businesses out there that aren’t limited to a local environment.
The first thing you need to do is create a business page on Facebook. There are a number of businesses that have even gone as far as creating “Facebook Pages” that are basically simple templates that you can use to promote your business. Once your page is created you want to network with other businesses but you also want to network with people. The best part of this is that Google is indexing these pages now which are driving more traffic to Facebook, which means that there will be more target traffic to your site.
The first thing you are going to need to do to get Facebook to work for is set up a blog on your website. Once you have created that blog you want to go to your business facebook page and click on “Edit Page” and then click on “More Applications” and look for the RSS feed application. Once you find it you want to add that application to your Facebook page but you want to use the url for your blog from your website. This will allow your blog to show up on your Facebook page and they will not have a “no follow” tag associated with the feed. This is important because it will allow you to pass page rank from Facebook to your website.
Now optimizing your blog is essential. Make sure that the posts to your blog are regular, relevant and targeted. Do the research to make sure you are using the keywords that people are searching for. Then you can start networking your Business Facebook page with gusto. The more profile pages that you can link to your page the more your page will get crawled and the better your page rank will be.
To get fans to your page takes a little time to invite people to be friends, and you want to create a fan page to have people you know become fans of your page. Once they do that, your fans can opt to send out an invitation to all of their friends. The plus of social networking sites is that they can really work for you without you having to do much more then your existing online marketing tactics.
About the Author:
For more information about For more information about Sunshine Coast Internet Marketing visit www.suncoastinternet.com.au/internet-marketing.htm
It is impossible to be a business that people are going to take seriously if you don’t have a website. Your website is your storefront to the world. It doesn’t really matter what your niche is or if you are providing products or services. That doesn’t mean that a website guarantees your success, you have to know how to promote it. The best and most effective time honored way is through internet marketing, specifically SEO. Today, that SEO needs to be done through the social networking sites like Facebook.
There are few “gurus” on the net that will tell you the best way to use Facebook is to tap into your local market, meaning that you are reaching out to your friends, and their friends and other people that live in the same general area as your business. Brick and mortar businesses are fine, but there are more and more virtual businesses out there that aren’t limited to a local environment.
The first thing you need to do is create a business page on Facebook. There are a number of businesses that have even gone as far as creating “Facebook Pages” that are basically simple templates that you can use to promote your business. Once your page is created you want to network with other businesses but you also want to network with people. The best part of this is that Google is indexing these pages now which are driving more traffic to Facebook, which means that there will be more target traffic to your site.
The first thing you are going to need to do to get Facebook to work for is set up a blog on your website. Once you have created that blog you want to go to your business facebook page and click on “Edit Page” and then click on “More Applications” and look for the RSS feed application. Once you find it you want to add that application to your Facebook page but you want to use the url for your blog from your website. This will allow your blog to show up on your Facebook page and they will not have a “no follow” tag associated with the feed. This is important because it will allow you to pass page rank from Facebook to your website.
Now optimizing your blog is essential. Make sure that the posts to your blog are regular, relevant and targeted. Do the research to make sure you are using the keywords that people are searching for. Then you can start networking your Business Facebook page with gusto. The more profile pages that you can link to your page the more your page will get crawled and the better your page rank will be.
To get fans to your page takes a little time to invite people to be friends, and you want to create a fan page to have people you know become fans of your page. Once they do that, your fans can opt to send out an invitation to all of their friends. The plus of social networking sites is that they can really work for you without you having to do much more then your existing online marketing tactics.
About the Author:
For more information about For more information about Sunshine Coast Internet Marketing visit www.suncoastinternet.com.au/internet-marketing.htm
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Social Media Marketing- The 10 Social Media Laws of Facebook
Where have YOU been?
Unless you have lived in a cave the last 4 years, you have probably heard of this. It is a rocking hot social networking site that seems to be almost everywhere today. It is on the news. It is on the radio. It is on the minds of millions of folks a day.
It is called "Facebook" and over 175 million people are active on this site.
Ok- I know that you may be asking," A LAW about facebook?" Yes, 10 of them for marketing and business success in what you do. I am a marketer and have been for 20 years. I built a training and consulting business that does business in over 20 countries, because of social media and the internet. And there are marketing laws that all marketers and business professionals must follow if they are going to have Success in the marketplace online.
It is the same for Facebook.
Lets cover them briefly:
1) The Law of Visibility on Facebook.
You MUST be visible on facebook of you are going to get your message out. You must spend time on facebook and get to know people. You must put yourself together a "facebook blueprint" and work it. How many hours a week are you going to be seen on FB? How many times are you going to befriend someone this week? How many times are you going to upload photos this week? All of these things put you in the 'Visibility Zone" on facebook, and on the radar as far as people on facebook. Be SEEN and be THERE on a daily basis.
2) The Law of the Powerful Facebook Profile.
Why would people want to get to know you? One of the first things they check out is your facebook profile. What does it say- but better yet- what does it DO? Does it make people curious and want to get to know you? Does it make them think? Does it make them smile? Does it make them see that you have Value for their life and can help change it?
Powerful facebook profiles are NOT based on what is said in your profile- but what it DOES.
Does it direct them to DO something? Does it tell them you are person they MUST know? Or someone that has a nice picture and a nice profile- with no magnetism? Put yourself OUT THERE and tell the world WHY they need you as a friend, and get them to take action towards YOU.
3) The Law of the Facebook WALL.
You MUST use your Wall to market or message. many folks regard their Wall as a communication utility like email. It is not that. You already have a facebook email. The Wall is for you to BUILD- BRICK BY BRICK- MESSAGE BY MESSAGE- NOTE BY NOTE- VIDEO BY VIDEO- your Brand on Facebook. Every time something happens with you- it goes on your Wall. Don't stare at the wall- CLIMB THE SUCKER and make your message the PEAK of the page- and keep yourself out there with the Wall. And answer the messages on your Wall. Thank people for sharing with you their visit or message. This will show up on THEIR wall. This will set you apart from most on facebook. The Wall is simply a BILLBOARD of what you are doing and your friends are doing on Facebook. Use it often and wisely.
4) The Law of Your Facebook Network.
You are part of a local facebook network and you have access to that network to befriend them. I live in Birmingham Michigan, and the network i am a part of is the Detroit network. There are 640,926 people in my network that I could potentially MEET LIVE in a local place and get to know them and connect with them. You have local folks as well. Where do you find your network?
Click on "settings" and then click on "network." You will find it there. This is a GOLD MINE of people in your local area to CONNECT and Construct new trust bridges that may lead to business down the road.
5) The Law of the Facebook Notifications.
This is an overlooked and rarely talked about utility. Notifications are part of your "facebook email system." Go to "email" at the top of your Facebook profile page, and then click on "notifications."This is list of who is thinking about you, talking about you, including you in tags, and generally is pointing to you. This is a GOLD MINE of people that have PROVEN they are behind you and willing to make you a part of their Facebook experience. Pay attention to the facebook notifications. Thank them for their thoughts of you on their Wall and let them know you appreciate it. Include them as well on your tags and other activity on facebook. The notifications are GOLD and is a prospecting Vault of Leads. And make sure you stay CONNECTED to them.
6) The Law of Facebook Link Love.
The Link application on Facebook is a HOT commodity. It allows you to post a link that you like and then sends it out on the news feed that is on your home page. It picks up the image that you want on the link page, and allows it to be a LIVE link. Send out other people's LINK and givem some LOVE. Do NOT just send out your own links. Let others do that. Find interesting links of others and send them out.
WHY? EXPOSURE for you. You will be given credit for the link. People LOVE link love. If you send out a LOT of other people's links on facebook, they will start sending out YOUR links. Been there done that.
7) The Law of Facebook Groups.
Join groups. Join a LOT of Groups. Start your OWN groups. The join MORE groups. Why? Here are a few reasons: EXPOSURE. CONNECTION to other Group members. AUTHORITY. Start your own and be a Leader. INCREASE YOUR REACH.Groups extend your reach into Facebook. MULTIPLIED PROSPECTS. There are more people in a group — then on a profile page.
Duh. Build a list in your own group and then you can become an admin and email messages to them. Make them messages of VALUE and interest.
8) The Law of Facebook Events.
Attend events. Attend more Events. And then attend many MORE events. Why? It allows you to leave a message on the events page wall, and create exposure. I attend at least 2 facebook events every week- to learn- and to network. Events can be found on the new Facebook page in the upper right under "Upcoming"-these are the events that are upcoming. There is one unique twist: You have birthdays under the "upcoming" tag- and you can send presents to folks. THIS will get their attention as it shows up on their wall and the news feed as well. Attend as many events as you can. make them worth your while- learn and grow from them. BUT'always leave a RSVP message about attending or not- with an encouraging message. This will show your professionalism, and caring.
Event UP! This will do you well on facebook. Put the term "events" in the search box, and it will find every event that is going on in your network of friends. It is a GOLD MINE of new possibilties of business. Become a master of events!
9) The Law of Facebook Multimedia- Videos and Photos.
People LOVE photos and videos. They are the most looked at and watched pages on facebook. Make some videos and upload them. Upload some photographs. Not only will the be seen on your wall and the facebook news feed, but also will allow you to "tag" others on these. This means that you can pick out people you have befriended and let them know you are thinking of them. And when you tag someone- it shows up on THEIR wall. Not isn't THAT cool? It is called EXPOSURE!
10) The Law of the Facebook NEWS FEED.
This is the big kahuna of Exposure on facebook. This gets you out to ALL of your friends and creates a massive exposure vehicle that can keep your brand in front and recognized. You also will be many times on the "featured" part of the new news feed on the right. This gives you HUGE exposure. Whatever you do, like change your status, upload a video, write and publish a note, or just comment on another person's message on the facebook news feed- it SHOWS UP in the news Feed. Be seen- and be seen often if you are trying to brand yourself on facebook.
Yes, you need to establish relationships, and build community. But if you are going to MARKET on facebook-then you need to at least get a guideline of what and how to do it. The 10 Social Media Laws of Facebook hopefully gave you some idea in your social media marketing.
blessings...doug firebaugh
About the Author:
Doug Firebaugh is one of theTop Social Media strategists, MLM, Network Marketing Home Business Trainers, Speakers and Authors in the world. A Million people a month read his training letter.He has helped over 10,000 people worldwide earn in excess of 50,000 a year. He wants to help you do the same. You can subscribe to his FR-ee training letter -which includes 3 FR-ee gifts just for subscribing at http://www.passionfire.com
Unless you have lived in a cave the last 4 years, you have probably heard of this. It is a rocking hot social networking site that seems to be almost everywhere today. It is on the news. It is on the radio. It is on the minds of millions of folks a day.
It is called "Facebook" and over 175 million people are active on this site.
Ok- I know that you may be asking," A LAW about facebook?" Yes, 10 of them for marketing and business success in what you do. I am a marketer and have been for 20 years. I built a training and consulting business that does business in over 20 countries, because of social media and the internet. And there are marketing laws that all marketers and business professionals must follow if they are going to have Success in the marketplace online.
It is the same for Facebook.
Lets cover them briefly:
1) The Law of Visibility on Facebook.
You MUST be visible on facebook of you are going to get your message out. You must spend time on facebook and get to know people. You must put yourself together a "facebook blueprint" and work it. How many hours a week are you going to be seen on FB? How many times are you going to befriend someone this week? How many times are you going to upload photos this week? All of these things put you in the 'Visibility Zone" on facebook, and on the radar as far as people on facebook. Be SEEN and be THERE on a daily basis.
2) The Law of the Powerful Facebook Profile.
Why would people want to get to know you? One of the first things they check out is your facebook profile. What does it say- but better yet- what does it DO? Does it make people curious and want to get to know you? Does it make them think? Does it make them smile? Does it make them see that you have Value for their life and can help change it?
Powerful facebook profiles are NOT based on what is said in your profile- but what it DOES.
Does it direct them to DO something? Does it tell them you are person they MUST know? Or someone that has a nice picture and a nice profile- with no magnetism? Put yourself OUT THERE and tell the world WHY they need you as a friend, and get them to take action towards YOU.
3) The Law of the Facebook WALL.
You MUST use your Wall to market or message. many folks regard their Wall as a communication utility like email. It is not that. You already have a facebook email. The Wall is for you to BUILD- BRICK BY BRICK- MESSAGE BY MESSAGE- NOTE BY NOTE- VIDEO BY VIDEO- your Brand on Facebook. Every time something happens with you- it goes on your Wall. Don't stare at the wall- CLIMB THE SUCKER and make your message the PEAK of the page- and keep yourself out there with the Wall. And answer the messages on your Wall. Thank people for sharing with you their visit or message. This will show up on THEIR wall. This will set you apart from most on facebook. The Wall is simply a BILLBOARD of what you are doing and your friends are doing on Facebook. Use it often and wisely.
4) The Law of Your Facebook Network.
You are part of a local facebook network and you have access to that network to befriend them. I live in Birmingham Michigan, and the network i am a part of is the Detroit network. There are 640,926 people in my network that I could potentially MEET LIVE in a local place and get to know them and connect with them. You have local folks as well. Where do you find your network?
Click on "settings" and then click on "network." You will find it there. This is a GOLD MINE of people in your local area to CONNECT and Construct new trust bridges that may lead to business down the road.
5) The Law of the Facebook Notifications.
This is an overlooked and rarely talked about utility. Notifications are part of your "facebook email system." Go to "email" at the top of your Facebook profile page, and then click on "notifications."This is list of who is thinking about you, talking about you, including you in tags, and generally is pointing to you. This is a GOLD MINE of people that have PROVEN they are behind you and willing to make you a part of their Facebook experience. Pay attention to the facebook notifications. Thank them for their thoughts of you on their Wall and let them know you appreciate it. Include them as well on your tags and other activity on facebook. The notifications are GOLD and is a prospecting Vault of Leads. And make sure you stay CONNECTED to them.
6) The Law of Facebook Link Love.
The Link application on Facebook is a HOT commodity. It allows you to post a link that you like and then sends it out on the news feed that is on your home page. It picks up the image that you want on the link page, and allows it to be a LIVE link. Send out other people's LINK and givem some LOVE. Do NOT just send out your own links. Let others do that. Find interesting links of others and send them out.
WHY? EXPOSURE for you. You will be given credit for the link. People LOVE link love. If you send out a LOT of other people's links on facebook, they will start sending out YOUR links. Been there done that.
7) The Law of Facebook Groups.
Join groups. Join a LOT of Groups. Start your OWN groups. The join MORE groups. Why? Here are a few reasons: EXPOSURE. CONNECTION to other Group members. AUTHORITY. Start your own and be a Leader. INCREASE YOUR REACH.Groups extend your reach into Facebook. MULTIPLIED PROSPECTS. There are more people in a group — then on a profile page.
Duh. Build a list in your own group and then you can become an admin and email messages to them. Make them messages of VALUE and interest.
8) The Law of Facebook Events.
Attend events. Attend more Events. And then attend many MORE events. Why? It allows you to leave a message on the events page wall, and create exposure. I attend at least 2 facebook events every week- to learn- and to network. Events can be found on the new Facebook page in the upper right under "Upcoming"-these are the events that are upcoming. There is one unique twist: You have birthdays under the "upcoming" tag- and you can send presents to folks. THIS will get their attention as it shows up on their wall and the news feed as well. Attend as many events as you can. make them worth your while- learn and grow from them. BUT'always leave a RSVP message about attending or not- with an encouraging message. This will show your professionalism, and caring.
Event UP! This will do you well on facebook. Put the term "events" in the search box, and it will find every event that is going on in your network of friends. It is a GOLD MINE of new possibilties of business. Become a master of events!
9) The Law of Facebook Multimedia- Videos and Photos.
People LOVE photos and videos. They are the most looked at and watched pages on facebook. Make some videos and upload them. Upload some photographs. Not only will the be seen on your wall and the facebook news feed, but also will allow you to "tag" others on these. This means that you can pick out people you have befriended and let them know you are thinking of them. And when you tag someone- it shows up on THEIR wall. Not isn't THAT cool? It is called EXPOSURE!
10) The Law of the Facebook NEWS FEED.
This is the big kahuna of Exposure on facebook. This gets you out to ALL of your friends and creates a massive exposure vehicle that can keep your brand in front and recognized. You also will be many times on the "featured" part of the new news feed on the right. This gives you HUGE exposure. Whatever you do, like change your status, upload a video, write and publish a note, or just comment on another person's message on the facebook news feed- it SHOWS UP in the news Feed. Be seen- and be seen often if you are trying to brand yourself on facebook.
Yes, you need to establish relationships, and build community. But if you are going to MARKET on facebook-then you need to at least get a guideline of what and how to do it. The 10 Social Media Laws of Facebook hopefully gave you some idea in your social media marketing.
blessings...doug firebaugh
About the Author:
Doug Firebaugh is one of theTop Social Media strategists, MLM, Network Marketing Home Business Trainers, Speakers and Authors in the world. A Million people a month read his training letter.He has helped over 10,000 people worldwide earn in excess of 50,000 a year. He wants to help you do the same. You can subscribe to his FR-ee training letter -which includes 3 FR-ee gifts just for subscribing at http://www.passionfire.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)