Everyone agrees that one way to draw attention to your business is by leveraging the power of Social Networking.  Sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are very popular sites and could be harboring a large sum of potential customers for your business.

In fact, social networking activities calculate to about about 15% of all internet use daily – this is HUGE.

We all know about Facebook.  Whether you have your own account or you know of someone else who does, you are well aware that this is the most popular online social networking sites today.

Facebook has more than 750 Million users – imagine how many of your local customers you could reach just by using Facebook!

So when it comes to building and maintaining your company’s reputation, this is one place to start.

Studies show that Facebook users spend quite a bit of time logged in each day socializing, sharing information, and responding to messages.

So let’s say you have an unhappy customer who posts negative information about your business on your Facebook Fan page. You can respond to any negativity that comes your way immediately if you manage your Fan page properly.

It’s a known fact that people do business with those they like and trust. So if you can tap into those zones, you can eventually build a solid reputation that can’t be touched.

To do so, your main goal should be to share valuable information with your followers on a consistent basis as well as provide special discount offers from time to time.

Maintaining your online reputation also involves heavily monitoring what is being said about your business online.  If you don’t know that something negative has been said, you have no chance of responding to it or correcting it.

How detrimental could that be for your business?

If you are a local business owner, you may not want to hear this…

But it is time to get on board and ignite your business with a customized Facebook Fan page.

Doing so will bring you a lot more potential customers and provide an easy, simple way for you to engage with them and convert them into long-term loyal customers.

What better way to roar back to life than by using social media when dividing your marketing and advertising dollars?

I’m sure you’ve heard that social media usage is on the rise and is expected to grow at even higher levels within the coming months and years.

This means that business owners all over the world have to prepare themselves to move with this new wave form of marketing.

However, setting up a powerful lead funnel using social media is no easy task. It takes time to build the type of presence that will create long term income for your business.

But a custom-designed, lead capture Facebook Fan page can propel your company into bigger profits pretty quickly; so this is an ideal place to start.

Motivated consumers do not want to be overwhelmed with too much erroneous information. So bring your prospect to your Fan page and when they “like” you as a fan they are moved to a reveal page.

Here, you can reward them with an exclusive report and literally have a customer for life.

Providing your online followers with massive value along with a few promotions here and there is a great recipe for business success.

Social networking means big business and big income if you do it right.  It can provide you with more leads, customers, sales, and profits beyond your imagination.

Don’t miss out on the enormous opportunity to take your business to a whole new level through Facebook Fan pages.

Even though social media sites are a tremendous way for small business owners to promote themselves on a shoestring budget, most small business owners don’t utilize these powerful platforms effectively. They vacillate between feeling completely overwhelmed and feeling that the sites are a huge waste of time.

Social Media is one of my favorite ways of generating interest around my own small business.  But, there are some basic principles to keep in mind in order to make your marketing more effective and efficient.

Here are five important tips that will enhance your overall social media marketing experiences:

1) Create a landing page.

A landing page is a one-page website that offers your visitors a quick peek at you and your small business before they are “overwhelmed” by your business website. In addition, successful landing pages offer visitors a valuable free offer in exchange for their name and email address. Landing pages are crucial to business success because they allow prospects to connect with you on a more personal level, quickly highlight the benefits of doing business with you and give your prospects a small taste of what your small business is all about.

2) Set up complete profiles on your social networks.

If you want your marketing efforts to work, make sure that your social media profiles are complete. If prospects land on your profile page and it doesn’t have a picture and contains sparse information, they aren’t likely to feel any connection with you. You should provide as much information about yourself as possible. Remember, people want to get to know you, so give them what they’re looking for.

3) Participate; don’t push.

When marketing on social media platforms, always keep in mind the 80/20 rule. You should spend 80% of your time sharing, answering questions and interacting with others and only 20% of your time promoting your small business. If you stick to this rule, you’ll be viewed as a true participant as opposed to a pushy sales-person.

4) Be consistent.

Social media marketing is all about consistency. It’s extremely important that prospective clients see you on a regular basis. Exposure is the key to gaining your client’s trust and eventual business. So, get on those sites and interact on a daily basis.

5) Create a daily schedule.

If you don’t have a schedule, it won’t take long before you’re sucked into the “social media black hole.” Determine how much time you have to devote to your social media marketing and stick to it. If you only have 30-minutes each day, then only utilize three social networking sites and generate a strong presence on them. I like to use a timer (honestly!) to keep myself on track; when it beeps, I’m off to the next site.

Social Media marketing is extremely effective as long as you understand how to tap into its power. If you implement these five tips into your marketing efforts, you should quickly generate impressive results for your small business.

About the Author: Jessica Swanson has helped thousands of small business owners, all over the world, implement low-cost, high-impact DIY marketing campaigns. Armed with years of teaching and a M.S. in Written Communications, Jessica takes complicated marketing concepts, turns them upside-down, and makes them incredibly simple and outrageously straightforward.

Known for her energy, passion and “get-it-done” attitude, Jessica shares her savvy marketing tips through her weekly ezine, blog, podcasts and videos. To download your FREE Shoestring Marketing Kit, visit: www.ShoestringMarketingKit.com.

Jessica recently joined the Manta team of industry experts.

Owners of businesses large and small know the worth of social media marketing plus the recent explosion of Facebook fan pages attests to its proven success.

Making a fan page certainly is the first step in making the best of social media, but maximizing this online networking tool puts social media marketing to work in powerful ways.

Once the demands of managing a business need the most of your time, attention and finances, social media networking may fall into the bottom of the “to-do” list. Perhaps you have realized the need for a Facebook fan page in addition to your business website, but neglect its maintenance and simply check in occasionally to read fan posts and monitor page activity. If that seems like your thought of social media, you are not alone, but it is the perfect time to realize the marketing powerhouse Facebook has become and claim your bit of social media success.

Putting social marketing to function for you is among the best investments of the time. Dollar for dollar and hour for hour, time and money invested into your Facebook fan page will make so much more than simply establish your business – online presence; social media marketing can increase sales and introduce your product or service towards the many individuals throughout the world who connect to the internet daily to social media sites.

Increasing your commitment to social media marketing can yield measurable results:

• Watch your group of followers grow as friends tell friends about your company as well as the great things happening to your fan page.
• Increase profits by implementing shopping features on Facebook that enable customers to conduct transactions right on your page.
• Enjoy all the advantages of an established website directly on Facebook by turning your fan page to a shopping gallery where customers can view and read all about your entire services or products.

Make social media marketing work for you with simple, low-cost tips:

• Starting a particular fan page is one thing; maintaining it is yet another! Commit time each week to social media marketing networking by replying to fan page posts and engaging with your fans. Doing so lets them recognize how much you value their loyalty and referrals to friends.
• Link your website towards your fan page, and vice versa. Make simple to use for individuals to navigate between the two.
• Create a customized landing page for new visitors to your Facebook fan page. Requiring all of them to click the “Like” button before these people can access your whole page is actually a powerful marketing strategy that doesn’t cost you a dime!
• Keep your fan page fresh with quick posts and status updates from time to time that make your page seem timely and current. Your posts will appear in your fans- newsfeeds, that will get your business name out there and generate brand name recognition.

Starting a social marketing campaign is merely half the battle. Keeping that campaign alive and exciting for one’s online fans is what will help make or break your ultimate goal of putting social media to get results for you. Thankfully, once your initial social media campaign is launched and established, it is virtually cost-free to enhance and pump life into it. A little time committed to maintaining social media will pay off in big ways!

Considering the newest innovations in online marketing, business owners trust the social media professionals for creative and affordable social marketing solutions that will get results. Contact us at (757)204-5782 or fill out our contact form to learn the way to put Facebook marketing to work for you today.

You may be amazed at the rise of web2.0 (otherwise known as social networking) sites over the past few years, wondering how in the world did such casual sites which operate like de-stressing tools become such big business?

Well, the key element to doing business in today’s modern world is strategic networking. One of the fastest and most interactive methods is social marketing advertising.

In fact, a whole lot of companies create their own customized profiles on social media sites, and then add prospects and business contacts as friends. The key to social marketing networking is simply making friends and connecting with a targeted demographic audience.

No matter what your target demographic is, you’ll find various kinds of people from all backgrounds and cultures who eagerly log on to sites such as Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Squidoo regularly.

Many online businesses, some of which could be your rivals, are already taking advantage of social marketing advertising. You need to jump on the bandwagon as well to leverage on this amazing wave of social marketing.

Creating a profile or channel can be done in a matter of seconds. However, you will have to maintain your own page regularly. Try logging in on alternate days to add new friends, respond to requests, share comments, answer questions etc.

Remember, you have to be patient yet interactive so as to win the trust of others.

Would you like more social media tips like this? Check out Social Marketing Superstar.

When you join a social networking site for the first time, there are a couple of unwritten ( or maybe written in some places) rules that you need to take into consideration.

Now these rules or tips may not make you a Millionaire overnight, but what they do is help build credibility and your good reputation online as someone people can trust and who knows his/her area of expertise well.

And here they are:

1. Don’t try to be funny

Some people will start to think business and start promoting their businesses or products on the spot. Wrong move. The purpose of sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc. is to socialize, and you should just stick to that. This means no hard selling, no direct sales pitch, nada, zilch. It’s an environment where work and play has must go hand in hand.

2. Go where the traffic is

Sounds like common sense? You’d be surprised how many people actually over look this. If you see a huge community of people on Facebook talking about dog training for example, there’s your obvious pot of gold.

3. Give as much as possible

Yea, it is better to give than to receive. When offering people tips, advice, videos, files and other freebies, you are actually adding value to whatever you offer them in future and building up a credible reputation. Although it seems you might be on the losing end now, in the near future, you will reap untold profits from this once little action.

Of course there’s more to leveraging on the power of social media but right now, apply these tips and see your stock rise online!

Would you like more social media tips like this? Check out Social Marketing Superstar.