The Top 5 Ways to Leverage Facebook Fan Pages for More Buzz, Visibility and Sales!
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This powerful business article is a guest post written by Christine Gallagher, MLS, MSIS, founder of CommunicateValue.com on “The Top 5 Ways to Leverage Facebook Fan Pages for More Buzz, Visibility and Sales!”
Many small business owners are already on Facebook but are either still not sure that it is a good use of their time, or they see its potential but are just confused about how exactly it can work for them.
Starting a Fan Page for your business may be your answer. But how can you use a Fan Page to achieve fantastic results?
1) The first way to leverage Fan Pages is to set up your Page for success.
One of the first things you need to do when you set up a new Page is to give it a title. A tip with this is to think about using keywords related to your business that you would like to be found for.
You also want to choose a good, clear photo for your Page. Another thing to note is to make sure you have filled out the Info tab on your Page thoroughly with all the relevant information about your business.
2) The second way to leverage Fan Pages is to build your Fan base.
You have to be a little proactive about getting Fans, especially when your Page is new. An easy way to invite people is to use the “Suggest to Friends” link underneath the picture on your Fan Page. Facebook will then pull up a list of your Facebook friends and you would just click on the ones you want to send invitations to.
You’ll want to consider people like former and current clients, people you’ve partnered with in your business, vendors you work with, people who you know have purchased from you before, etc.
3) The third way to leverage Fan Pages is to interact and engage with your Fans.
Once you have some supporters of your Page, you want to encourage more dialogue and interaction between yourself and them and even among each other. The biggest impact comes from simply having conversations with people.
One thing that I do on my Page is to just ask open-ended questions. Asking people to share experiences is another great way to get a dialogue going.
4) The fourth way to leverage Fan Pages is to provide good content.
Offering regular content will naturally encourage interaction because you are giving people something to respond to. You don’t need to come up with all the content yourself, either. You might just link to an interesting article or blog post you have found on the web related to your business or industry.
What content like this does is attract comments from your Fans, which is activity that in turn goes out into the News Feed. The more activity on your Page then, the more attention to your Page you have a chance of attracting.
5) The 5th way to leverage Fan Pages is to use them to drive traffic to and from your blog or website.
To do this, you definitely want to list your website in the Info section, and you also want to share links in your updates to your own site.
You can also use an application like Notes to enter your blog feed so that it pulls your posts into your Page. You also want to add your URL to your email signature, and use the free badges and widgets Facebook provides that you can add to your website.
You can check out http://www.facebook.com/facebook-widgets for those. Once you have something like this on your site, visitors can just click on it and they will land on your Page where they can become a fan.
So, if you don’t have a Page yet, head over to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php and start one now. If you do have one set up, use these tips to help make your Page stand out, get noticed, and become a helpful destination for all of your raving Fans.
About the Author: Christine Gallagher, MLS, MSIS, founder of CommunicateValue.com, teaches small business owners and professionals how to conquer the overwhelming aspects of online and social media marketing to increase business and maximize profits. For free tips on how to build profitable relationships, leverage technology and create your own successful online business, visit http://CommunicateValue.com.
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Are You Using Search Engine Optimization on Your Site?
Many readers to my blog have asked me what is “Search Engine Optimization.”
Well, in a nutshell Search Engine Optimization also known as SEO is the use of various techniques to improve a web site’s ranking in search engines in the hopes of attracting more visitors.
If you own a website/blog, it is imperative that you not only learn these techniques but also implement them on your sites. You want to design and optimize your sites to rank and get better results in the search engines. Keywords, quality content, Internal links/external links (without spamming), page titles, meta tags all play an important role in Search Engine Optimization.
Begin with improving your website and promote key relevant quality content to be ranked high in search engines and gain visitors. Without good Search Engine Optimization your site may never be found by the search engines.
If you apply the techniques mentioned above, you will be well on your way to getting crawled and ranked high by the search engines.
Best of luck with your business endeavors!
How to Market Your Business with Social Media — Our Top 6 Tips!
This interesting powerful business guest article is courtesy of the “Internet Marketing Center”. I hope you’ll enjoy.
If you want to have a successful online business, you can no longer afford to ignore social media.
Whether you’re talking about sites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, or the millions of blogs, forums, and groups that exist online, social media continues to dominate the Internet landscape.
If you want to be a part of the conversation then you need to know how to use these sites effectively to engage with your audience and build authentic relationships with them.
In this article, you’ll learn our top six tips on how to do just that… But first, let’s talk about why a social media presence is so important to your business.
What You Need to Know about Social Media
According to Nielsen Research, social networking has become the fourth most popular online activity — surpassing even email!
In fact, an incredible two-thirds of all Internet users regularly visit social media sites.
Check out these stats:
* Social networking sites and blogs are the #1 most visited category of websites
* As of February 2010, Facebook had over 400 million registered users
* Twitter users send over 50 million tweets a day to each other.
* In December 2009, global users spent five and half hours on sites such as Facebook and Twitter — an 82% increase from the same time last year.
* In the U.S. alone, 142.1 million unique visitors went to a blog or social networking site in December 2009
Because of their growing popularity, social media sites have become an especially attractive marketing tool for both online and offline businesses.
By engaging with customers through a blog or Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube, businesses can spread the word about their business to their target audience, manage their online reputation — and cultivate a deeper relationship with their established customer base.
And the most amazing thing? Most social media users welcome a closer relationship with the businesses they enjoy.
According to Cone Research and Insights, 85% of social media users want their favorite businesses to actively engage with them through social media.
But here’s where it gets tricky.
There is a right way to engage with people on social media sites — and there is a wrong way.
The right way will help you cultivate a meaningful relationship with your audience, and convert interested visitors into lifelong loyal buyers. The wrong way will inevitably drive people away… and could even provoke them to badmouth your business to others.
Yikes!
To help you avoid that fate, here are our top six “rules of engagement” on how to use social media the right way…
Rule 1: Do Your Research
Before you dive into the world of social media, do some research to discover which sites are most popular with your audience. Are they spending time on Facebook or on Twitter? Are there any popular forums or blogs they tend to visit and comment on?
All the major social media websites have search tools that allow you to search on your keywords to find users and groups talking about the things you’re interested in.
To find forums and discussion boards, enter your keywords into Google with “discussion” or “forum” tacked at the end. Google will point you to groups where your market might be hanging out.
Then plug your keywords into Google BlogSearch to find blogs with content relevant to your business. Once you discover some good ones, remember to check their blogrolls — the list of other blogs they link to in their sidebar, or on a separate page on their site — for more great spots to check out.
Make a list of the places where you find the greatest representation of your target market — and then you’re ready to get started.
We recommend you spend some time checking out the discussions already in progress, joining relevant groups, following and “friending” interesting folks you meet, and building up your identity as a trusted participant by providing solid ideas and information (without a pitch!)
And don’t worry about joining every single group you discover — start with three or four to help you get your feet wet, and then expand your presence from there.
If you try to become involved in too many communities at once you might find yourself overwhelmed before you even discover the potential of social media for your business!
Rule 2: Create an interesting, memorable profile
Now let’s talk about how to set up an engaging presence that builds trust in your potential customers right away.
In your profile on each social media site, be sure to include:
* a friendly picture of yourself (or your company logo)
* a pitch-free description of your business
* your website URL
* …along with some non-salesy information about your interests and passions to confirm to potential new connections that you’re a real person worth getting to know!
In fact, we recommend you use the same information and photo or logo for all your profiles — that way, people who meet you at one site will be able to easily connect with you at another!
As you start to engage with people on a social media site, make it your goal to maintain a warm, helpful, professional stance. By offering friendly advice and tips, and pointing them to places they can find more useful or interesting information, you will gather a loyal community of people who value your input and trust your recommendations.
Rule 3: Listen before you talk
When you sign up for a social media site, blog, or forum, take some time to listen first.
If you jump into the conversation with a sales pitch, and start blasting people with messages about how great your product is, they’re going to react in exactly the same way that people would if you started handing out business cards and trying to score new customers at a friend’s casual dinner party.
Spend some time reading posts, messages and tweets — and while you do, ask yourself the following questions:
* What are people most excited about?
* What topics come up again and again — and why?
* What are the most common problems people are facing?
* What problems aren’t being solved by existing products?
* What are your market’s biggest frustrations?
* What products are they talking about — for better or for worse?
By listening first, you’ll get a feel for the tone of the conversations already in progress, which will help you strike the right note when it comes time to join in.
You’ll also send the message that you value the information and opinions people are sharing with one another… and that you’re not just there to do a “drive by” sales pitch. .
Now, if you find people speaking directly about YOUR product or service, it will undoubtedly be tempting to jump in right away and respond to them.
If their comments are positive, feel free to offer a quick “thank you!” or note of appreciation.
If their comments are negative, however, respond politely and briefly to let your customer know you want to provide them with a positive experience — and then take the time to write an email or send a private note offering assistance or support.
Disputing their account publicly or engaging in a war of words will only make you and your business look bad — which is exactly the opposite of what you’re trying to do.
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