Facebook: The Real Power Of “People See – People Do”
January 24, 2012 by Lisa Santos · Leave a Comment
In case you haven’t noticed, just about everyone is online these days doing a thousand different things. From paying bills, to arranging travel, to shopping for a new home, people spend a LOT of time online.
People are even using the Internet more than ever to keep in touch with family, friends, and co-workers.
Not only do they keep in touch with each other, but they recommend products and services that they like. For instance, when one person “likes” a product or service, they let other people know about it and they, in turn, “like” the product or service too.
On Facebook, businesses build followers by getting them to “Like” their Facebook Fan pages. Imagine someone being in love with your product or service… so they tell everyone they know.
Then, they come to your Fan page and “Like” you and now they get all of your promotions and become loyal customers.
The process becomes viral and continues to go on and on…
Business owners are becoming aware that they also need to be online in a major way to capitalize on social network usage amongst consumers.
It is a fact that your business success strongly relies on a solid, reputable online existence.
If you do not have a customized landing page you are actually losing out on business. Your gross income is probably sagging if you are a small business owner without an online fan base or ability to capture leads.
Imagine how much traffic you can send to your website if you provide surveys for your customers about that new product you want to launch?
Not only will you get real-time data for market analysis, but your customers will be delighted and relieved to know they can find you, their friend, online 24/7.
If you really want to effectively allocate your marketing and advertising dollars wisely, get a Fan page setup and start a viral explosion amongst your satisfied customers.
Being Connected to Facebook Fans Means MORE Money
December 27, 2011 by Lisa Santos · Leave a Comment
So you are starting your new marketing journey and want to be sure to hit the internet with a bang. One of the easiest and most effective ways to accomplish this is by using customized, professional Facebook Fan pages.
Most business owners had one goal in mind when they decided to have a website built: To drive a flood of potential customers to the company website and experience a massive surge in sales.
However, it doesn’t happen like that for most businesses because they don’t know how to properly use the Internet to drive traffic to their websites and create a meaningful online presence.
To accomplish this, you will have to be strategic in the ways you establish an online presence. This involves putting yourself right in front of your prospects and customers. Most of them are hanging out online – namely Facebook.
So any business who needs more new customers and wants to build customer loyalty should seriously establish a presence on Facebook.
But it doesn’t stop there… you have to build relationships by being proactive and engaging with your audience.
Being connected to clients and prospects through the use of custom Fan pages will propel your product or service into the market with staying power.
If you need fresh business leads, repeat business, the ability to conduct surveys, or the ability to promote offers, custom Fan pages should be one of your initial online focal points.
As you’ve probably noticed, the most profitable businesses today have a dynamic charisma on the web. Studies have shown that social networking strategies are proven create long-term customers and ultimately boost profits.
Therefore, utilizing the power of Facebook Fan pages is really not an option – it’s a necessity today. Start socializing and soon you will experience an income surge as a result of smart planning and proper use of 21st century tools.
What Are the Different Uses for Facebook Fan Pages?
December 7, 2011 by Lisa Santos · Leave a Comment
Websites, blogs and social networking are driving your marketing and advertising dollars. What could be more innovative and in line with your customers than using a customized Fan page built to capture leads?
Probably nothing.
Build your Fan pages in a way that gives potential clients something in exchange for their “like” or email address –such as an exclusive industry report or other incentive that emotionally compels them into wanting more from your business or service.
If you are a business owner or entrepreneur you should have a central focus to capturing leads – namely using social networking.
Custom Fan pages that are designed to capture leads can provide a LOT of value and flexibility when it comes to marketing your business online. You can run polls, surveys, provide giveaways, provide valuable content and at the same time you can advertise.
Not only that, but you get free market research when you try out business-to-customer brand testing where people vote on your products or services.
Most importantly, as a proactive, customer-oriented business you can respond directly to customers and create an environment of engagement, which will multiply your Fan base one hundred fold.
It all boils down to the fact that social networking is a “must” for just about any business today. People are socializing and they love businesses that socialize with them. If you don’t take the measures to establish a strong social presence, you are leaving a lot of money on the table.
Creating and managing your Facebook Fan page could be the vehicle you’ve been looking for to drive your sales into the figures you’ve only imagined.
Facebook Business Basics (Lesson 3): How You Can Use Facebook to Advertise Your Business Without Spamming
November 18, 2011 by Lisa Santos · Leave a Comment
It’s time for your third lesson in the Facebook Business Basics Crash Course. Today let’s talk about how you can use Facebook to advertise your business without spamming.
Using Facebook as the means for free advertising is probably one of the wisest moves any business person can make in this competitive marketing age. As we have been discussing Facebook offers plenty of opportunities for the business owners to launch develop and grow through its influential social network.
Through Facebook, you can actually choose who to target just as easily as a paid system such as Google Ads does. Through Facebook, you can choose the location, interests, relationship status, gender, age and location of your target market. What a convenient way to start your marketing strategy online!
The best part is that it can actually be free if you want it to be. Facebook gives you the option of running free or paid promotions. The paid aspect is through Facebook’s formal ads.
Now, how do you run free promotions?
Why, through your personal network, of course, or through your fan page. If you’re launching a product, service or brand, it is recommended to have a formal fan page. Nevertheless, personal connections such as friends, friends of friends, acquaintances and relatives will help greatly in building your business social network.
Wall updates, photos, notes, group discussions and basically any other posts will help the product or service stay top-of-mind. As I mentioned in your last lesson, prospective customers want companies to have enthusiastic and informative updates.
Tip: Don’t make the mistake of barraging your customers or potential customers with too many Facebook updates at one time, or worse, continuously flood their Facebook walls with the same message placed several times. Spamming is annoying no matter who does it, so take care that you avoid doing that to your friends and fans.
The best way to avoid spamming others, however intentional or unintentional, is to choose your target market well. Nobody wants to receive a wall post that is a generic message of a product they’re not even interested in.
You can control who sees your message by researching the person’s likes or dislikes which may be apparent in their profile page or you may also ask from a personal contact. You can even check out organizations or groups that they are affiliated with online which are related to your business or industry.
Another way to place a wall post in that isn’t tantamount to spamming is to place it like a personal message. The less generic the message is, the better. You may start with something like, ‘Hi. I just saw from your profile that you like Ice Cream and I though you may be interested in a free sample of our Homemade Ice Cream.’
If this strategy is a bit too forward for you, then work on making Facebook applications that can insert advertisements into them or better yet, try Social Ads. Demographically speaking, these two are more effective and less time consuming than having to analyze your customers one by one.
That’s it for today’s lesson. In your next lesson we will talk about using Facebook and Twitter together for your business.
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Facebook Business Basics (Lesson 1): Facebook Status Updates and How They Work So That You Can Better Understand How to Use Them to Your Advantage
October 19, 2011 by Lisa Santos · Leave a Comment
In this first lesson let’s talk a little about Facebook status updates and how they work so that you can better understand how to use Facebook to your advantage.
Because there are so many social network terms out there, let’s start this lesson by distinguishing early on what a Facebook status actually is. A Facebook status is a post that appears for your contacts to read. Whereas before, Facebook statuses were immediately broadcast for everyone, now there are plenty of privacy settings to protect the person by letting them choose who can actually read their messages.
You can also interact through your Facebook status. Friends and other contacts are allowed to comment on the Facebook status or simply Like the status. Recently, Facebook has added a tagging feature to Facebook statuses. Put @ in the beginning and you are allowed to tag as many as 6 people in a post. Friends and contacts that are tagged will be notified in the same way that they are also notified when somebody else or the status owner has replied a status he commented on.
How are Facebook statuses important for professionals, you may ask?
Well, Facebook statuses are what many consider as the very essence of Facebook. Here, customers, potential customers and other interested parties can interact on a particular piece of information in a casual manner that is way more convenient and conversational than email or even Twitter actually will.
With Facebook statuses also, almost everyone can join in the conversation (that is if you want them to) which makes for a casual promotion of your product, service or company. The Facebook status is a powerful part of using Facebook for your business. The number of Likes and comments for every Facebook status will help your page climb up in its search engine position.
Facebook statuses can also help you with branding efforts. For your Facebook marketing to be successful it is important that you monitor your page carefully, that you keep your status posts enthusiastic and professional at the same time.
While it’s tempting to place something instantly catching, hilarious or even shocking, you need to ask yourself first whether this will help the business reputation in the long run or will it just server as temporary entertainment?
It is important to optimize Facebook statuses in order to make them more searchable for potential customers. A good feature to use is Facebook status tagging. What makes this so advantageous for business owners is that when you tag affiliated companies in the post, it will also appear on their page. Therefore exposing your company to customers who may be looking at a related site. You can also do this with community pages. When you tag a community page, you will gain access to millions of potential customers who may have the same interests as your business.
While it’s important to organize your Facebook status updates, it isn’t recommended that you leave all the work to organizing sites like Hootsuite. Checking through a Profile or Fan Page that are dominated by RSS Feeds is a turnoff for most potential customers. Clients want to feel like they’re interacting with a real person in the company, so be mindful of interaction.
We have a lot to go over in the next few days if you want to learn how to use Facebook for your business, so make sure you look for your next lesson soon. We will be talking about how you can use Facebook to attract new customers.
Filed under Facebook, Facebook Business Basics Lessons, Facebook Marketing · Tagged with @replies, facebook comments, facebook for business, facebook lessons, facebook likes, facebook marketing, facebook status updates, hootsuite, hootsuites, interacting with people on facebook, rss feeds