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May 19, 2012

How to take advantage of facebook groups as an excellent networking tool

Facebook groups provide you with a great way to grow your network marketing. With this valuable tool, you can connect with like-minded individuals, and also create a massive warm market.

One of the outstanding features of Facebook Groups is that you can send message to the entire members of your group the same way you would do when email marketing list is involved – but you have to be the admin to do this. If you master and use the tactics that work, you can use Facebook Groups features to establish yourself as an authority and create warm market endlessly.

People pay more and frequent attention to social media Facebook Group messages when compared to regular email messages. Provided your message will add value, be sure that people will check them always and respond accordingly. You can send message in mass to your entire group members to always provide them value and keep them updated the same way an email marketing list would enable you to send mass messages.

This is how it works:

Choose Group Email Addresses When Creating Facebook Group

When creating your business Facebook Group, you are provided with option to assign the group to a unique email address. Locate the ‘Edit Group’ icon and select ‘Group Email Address’. This feature is so interesting – it enables you interact with your friends at Facebook via your email client itself, and there would not be any need to log on to Facebook to do so. Consequently, when someone posts a message or image on the Facebook Group, you will be notified via email and you can comment on the post by just replying the message.

Additional Benefits of Facebook Group

Chat with Many People at a Time.

Unlike the regular Facebook chat that is one person to one person (1:1), chat using Facebook Groups can be achieved among all the group members at the same time. This means you will get to chat with those that are not your friends, but belong to the same group. It is an excellent opportunity to reach out to so many other people beside your followers. This can mean so much to your online business.

Indeed, Facebook Groups is a valuable networking tool for marketing your online business.

Tips on Increasing Your Facebook Likes

Facebook ‘likes’ is already the rage of this new year – having had a massive media coverage on the the air towards the end of 2010. With the look of things, Facebook Likes have come to stay. It is important to work towards raising your Facebook Likes in this new year.

Facebook “Likes” is increasingly becoming important in businesses. What is Facebook “likes”? This is just a score which people can view and share among themselves, making it possible for viral marketing of a particular service or product to take place.

Also, Facebook “Likes” have become officially very essential to search engine results. It is also being rumored that “likes” are becoming recognized as a kind of backlink, and may have a drastic effect on the search engine ranking of a business.

Here are tips on how to increase your Facebook Likes;

  • Send out invitations: this is about the number one effective method of getting more people to ‘like’ your page. It is free to use this method. One way you can invite people is to include details regarding your Facebook fan page in your email signature. You can also use your mailing list to invite people to like your page.
  • Leverage online opportunities; connect your blog or website to your Facebook “like” page. Visitors to your blog or website can also view your fan page feed using Facebook plug-in.  Ensure that you make it easy for people to locate your page.

Comprehensive tips on how to get more people to “Like” your page is available in video form.

Tips on Best Facebook Usage for Your Small-Business Prospects

You can take advantage of Facebook to increase traffic to your site, generate leads and attain an enviable position on search engine result pages. However, it requires more than coming on board once every week – posting several captivating info, and retiring to your other jobs hoping that leads would start pouring in automatically. Using Facebook judiciously, you can create a ‘buzz’ regarding your small business initiatives and extend invitation for new friends to come in and take a look at the offerings. However, you could also generate a negative result with Facebook if you do not do things the right way.

Facebook’s reach is more than any other social network available on the web – 500 million, and about 200 million among these people are mobile; meaning that they can access their Facebook account from their iPhone, Android and other mobile devices. In the past year (2010), an average Facebook user connected to eighty community pages as well as groups, shared nearly 31 million links, pictures, blog posts and new stories.

It has become crucial for every small business to get featured on Facebook; this is very essential to establish your brand as a trustworthy and available option.

Here are the Do’s and DON’T’s you should adhere to when using Facebook to establish your brand.

DONT’s

  • Excess Posting: This is a common mistake among lot many people. This is usually as a result of over-zealousness in the part of small business owners, they simply want to do it once and run off.
  • Don’t Hurry Over It: If all you have is barely 20 minutes to devote on Facebook, it may not augur well in establishing your brand on Facebook. A helpful thing you can do is to deploy more hands to your marketing team. Excess-posting would only end up scaring people away from your company – they will eventually ‘unfriend’ you. Don’t overdo it with posts. If all you have is just fifteen minutes on Friday evening to hook on to your Facebook and get things done, ensure that you focus on your most captivating status update in the initial minute. Use the next 12 minutes to look out for new friends as well as new conversations; then, make another captivating post exactly at the 15th minute.
  • Don’t Do Anything that Would Unbrand Your Business: If you want to keep up your brand’s integrity on Facebook, it is important that you ‘stay in business mode’ and also ‘keep up good character’. The fastest way to bury your brand is to indulge in ill-mannered acts such as posting inappropriate photos or discussing personal issues. If you spend time on Farmville and Cityville, you are only portraying your business as unserious and unprofessional.

Do’s

  • Brand Your Business By Making Your Messages Clear: The message accompaning each status-update/conversation and also with each photo upload – regarding your brand, should be clear, simple and straight forward.
  • Stay Consistent: This is critical to your success on Facebook as well as other social networking sites. If it is just one hour you can devote to build your brand on Facebook, share that one hour among the 7-days of the week to enable you stay consistent.

Doing the right things on Facebook would grow your brand name faster than you can imagine, and generate massive leads for you.

What is Facebook Social Currency?

Facebook is a social networking website where people
connect with each other based on the following:

1. They know each other personally.

2. They have or share a common association (work or belong to the same organisation)

3. Share a common Interest.

Every day facebook user’s trade information that they perceive has value,
this is so called social currency, this is in most cases information

that they feel will be of interest to their peers.

Here are examples

Breaking News:
Face bookers like to share news quickly because they want
to be the first to ‘break’ this to their friends.

Jokes/Humour
They will also share a funny video or photo (sharing this via
Facebook is considered ok/non-intrusive versus through email.

Online Coupons/Sales/Offers
People love free/discounted stuff and will share these with their peers.

Interesting/Informative Articles
Again, this content acts as social currency for the person sharing it,
making them look good and in-the-know -
the reality is, many people share this sort of content
without even fully-reading the content themselves.

Developing a Successful Facebook Marketing Strategy

The first step to developing a successful facebook marketing strategy is to
identify the target audience profile; and in particular the social currency
that is traded by this particular facebook demographic.

Original sources of social currency

The next step is to identify where the information or social currency
for a particular demographic originates.

All Information online has an original source; it originates from one place
and is then distributed throughout the internet via various channels,
news and information sometimes spreads faster via social media
compared to other channels, the secret is to identify the regular sources#
of original content and then redistribute this content quickly via your social media channels.

The actions of users recommending this information to their peers
will enable you to build a larger following, which in turn will grow
and grow as long as we can feed this audience with enough social currency.

Customizing your new Facebook Profile creatively

Majority of Facebook users are only starting to get conversant with the New Facebook profile design. A smart Facebook user comes forth with a very creative use of the new profile design. You can find valuable information on the web on how you can take advantage of the creative use that this Facebook user has provided.

Basically, the new concept on how to use New Facebook profile page creatively is all about customizing your Facebook profile in a manner which is much more than the default customization model of merely modifying a single profile image.

When you explore this new concept, there is no doubt that you will not wait even a minute longer to employ this concept in creating (for new users) or modifying (existing users) your Facebook profile page. It is not certain whether Facebook would produce similar creative use to Facebook pages; however, brands can jump at this new customization-concept-opportunity to repackage the presentation of their business on the profile page. There are unlimited possibilities that can be achieved with this customization concept.

You can Google in Dan Pellegrino to find more information about this smart customization concept for using Facebooks new profile page.

The springboard to swift growth on your Facebook Fan Page

If you look ahead to spark a swift growth on your Facebook fan page, here are top tips that are definitely going to help you.

  • Ignite the first growth numbers quickly within the network
    If your target is to get to a wider audience, the first and crucial step is to reach substantial active users in the network in order to achieve a tipping point. You can find a good number of prospects to ‘like’, ‘share’ and ‘comment’ on the content that you add to the channel. This substantially helps in a growing fan base and the activity is reflected in user feeds.The simplest way to begin is by influencing valuable users to convince their friends to be fans of your page. Getting at least 15 or 20 users to invite 80 – 100 users each and also compel those friends of theirs to invite others, helps you to jumpstart a powerful growth process. Where and when necessary, employ incentives such as rewards for those who join and also think out some out-of-the-box contests. However, you need to see Facebook updates on how to achieve this.
  • Update your fan page continually with fresh content
    When you put more and fresh content on your page, users will always find something new to interact with. Facebook system is set up in such a way that consistent engagement with content by users is a major tool to achieving growth. As you provide users with fresh and multiple contents, the growth of your brand starts to skyrocket. However, ensure that your content is what users can easily react to.
  • Take advantage of subscriber bases/external traffic streams
    Check your email lists, your communities, website as well as other places you have online presence. Embark on a campaign to call those people to action to be part of your Facebook fan page. Include a link on the sidebar of your blog, integrate a CTA on your website’s homepage that is already being promoted, incorporate a link in the emails you send out to employee as well as your email marketing. These efforts will pay you off with massive growing of your fan page.

More Tips

  • Using targeted ad on Facebook’s platform is helpful
  • Take advantage of your offline networks
  • Embark on a promotion/contest outside of Facebook with the aim of encouraging users to be fans of your page
  • Come up with exceptional content published only on your fan page
  • From time to time, try to announce availability of special offer as well as new products via the page
  • You can purchase Google ads to send traffic straight to your fan page
  • The end of your press releases should contain a link to your Facebook fan page
  • Get the services of a community manager to apply ongoing growth processes across every social channel that you have.

The most important fact is to work out on how to leverage your Facebook presence so that it starts developing positive results on your wider online strategy.

How to get people to like your Facebook Page

Facebook’s new language for becoming a ‘Fan’ is ‘Like’; in essence, when you connect with a business’s page, rather than saying you are a ‘Fan’, the most widely used word now is ‘Like’. Do you want people to ‘like’ your Facebook page? Then there is need to promote your Facebook presence both on and off Facebook; you also have to request outright that your clients ‘like’ your facebook page.

However, it is not sufficient to get users to like your page. More importantly, you have to make sure that they view your posts continuously by ensuring that they follow up your page by leaving comments, sharing their ideas and holding your posts in high esteem.

Explore the fundamental techniques used by top ‘liked’ pages on Facebook:

  • Ask Questions
    Post questions that are capable of provoking thoughts on your wall to encourage comments and enhance the opportunity of having your wall posts shown in Friends’ news feed.
  • Encourage Users to Check in with Foursquare or Yelp
    To let the friends of your users know that they visited your business, prompt your users to check in with Foursquare or Yelp any time they visit your business. A lot of users have Foursquare and Yelp synced to their pages, making it easy for their check-in to be made visible to all their friends.
  • The Promotions You Create Should be  Valuable
    Come forth with such valuable promotions that your friends are willing to share with others; do not forget to request for user input to provoke comments and interest.

Although it has been suggested that contests be used sparsely, there’s exception to a good number of the contests and tabs made available by Wildfire Interactive; these are capable of jumpstarting your presence.

Also, ensure that you include ‘Like Us on Facebook’ links all through your business site and within your newsletter. Remember to add your Facebook presence on your business receipts. Tactfully prompt users to ‘like’ your Facebook page wherever you deem proper to do so, and remember to encourage them to also follow you on Twitter.

The best time to encourage your customers or clients to ‘like’ your Facebook page is at the point at which they are pleased with you. It could be at the first purchase of your offering (product or service) or when loyalty points are earned.

Then, ensure that you are keeping track of your analytics. Daily, Facebook gives you information on your traffic as well as the engagement data available on your posts. This way, you can tell if your efforts are generating results or not.

It must not necessarily take lots of time or funds to create a Facebook presence that is engaging. You must give users a reason to consider visiting your page over and again. Don’t forget that Facebook is a powerful promotional and profit-making tool that has had a rapid evolution in the recent past and will continue transforming the way business functions.

How to gain thousands of Facebook Fans in the shortest time

One of the most recently and significant changes that Facebook introduced is the one that altered “Become a fan” to “Like”. The user is not aware of what is being liked – whether it’s the attractive saying, the visited website, the underlying page or the remark made by their friends.

Here are ways to gain thousands of Facebook fans or get users to “like” your Facebook page in the shortest time possible:

Tip 1: Request that Users Like Your Page in the Ad

You must give users reason to ‘like’ your page. For instance, include a lot of entertaining content, vary your copy to be long and short, test several images and experiment with wide range of interest targets. Ensure that you keep it as simple as possible – employ causal language, just like when you are conversing on cool issues with a friend.

If your click-through rate is high, Facebook decreases your CPC as a reward to you.
When you experiment with numerous ad variations, you are sure to discover a couple winners.

Tip 2:  Direct Users to Your Facebook Page

If you send users to your website, you are ruling out the possibility of gaining a ‘like’ from the ad – sending them to your website will imply that the ‘like’ action is for the ad rather than being for your page. There’s no doubt, when traffic is sent to your page, you lose control over the ad headline. On the other hand, being able to gain fans from the ad is highly preferred to losing your control over the headline. Targeting and being able to choose images are highly essential in ascertaining the effectiveness of an ad. Therefore, you need to be very careful when choosing your page title since it will constitute your headline henceforth.

Tip 3: Your “Like” Page Should be Created to be Incentivized

For instance, you can come up with something like this “See the hottest entertaining photos and news on Facebook daily” on your “Like” page. Do not forget to include that user must become a fan before assessing the entertaining photos and news; also, remember to direct them to click on the “Like” button in order to become a fan.

Facebook gives you the opportunity to let your fans see something different from what non-fans are seeing. Therefore, you may use phrases such as ‘click the ‘like’ button to view the exclusive video’.
It has been shown that incentivized pages received up to 300% higher click in comparison to the normal landing pages.

Tip 4: Sending Users to Your Wall is not a Good Practice

Sending users to your Facebook wall is a dumb thing to do just like directing your AdWords traffic to your website homepage instead of a pay per click landing page. The wall has no conversion ability. The better thing to do is to alter your original landing tab to become your incentivized ‘like’ page. Numerous users prefer to click ‘like’ button in order to view the exclusive content and subsequently go to the wall to learn about the views of other users and the number of fans you have generated.

Other tips include rotating your ads daily and sending regular updates to fans.

Top Facebook advertising tips for smart marketers

When investing in Facebook advertising, ensure that you keep close watch on the ad expenses since the expenses can increase drastically and eventually slay the effectiveness of your advertising. Most Facebook advertisers are committing novice’s error that ultimately makes Facebook rich while leaving the marketer financially wrecked! Desist from such mistakes today by implementing these tips below, which would radically improve your Facebook advertising competence.

  1. Test Your Ads Differently
    Among the top things to do for any advertiser would be to ensure that the advertisements are as best as possible. Most times, marketers/advertisers embark on a Facebook ad campaign and achieve little results probably with less than $200; subsequently, they rashly conclude that all Facebook ad campaigns follow that way. The truth is this; it is possible that your ad campaign was ill-performing as a result of a poorly structured ad. Smart marketers know that testing things out is the best way to realize the best performance or results.
  2. Structure a CTR (Click Through Rate) Threshold
    Though certain ads will outperform others, it is not wise to waste funds on advertisements that are performing poorly. Therefore, there is the need to come up with a CTR – Click Through Rate threshold, which would earn approval for your campaign.
  3. Test Your Ads with CPM
    Here’s all we are saying: Cost Per Click (CPC) is not for smart marketers but for those who are lazy; it makes you to carry out every test on Facebook landing page. This is a wrong way of getting things done. Test-run your ads on a CPM basis in order to discover the ones that drive the lowest Cost Per Click. It may amaze you to discover that more of lower CPCs would be the outcome than if you had used a CPC bidding model. When you use a CPM model, you will be able to know the best performing ads, which would potentially offer you the best opportunity to keep your ad campaign cost as low as possible.
  4. Keep Track of Your Campaigns Closely
    If you observe closely, at the very instance you start running Facebook ad campaigns, the performance will suffer degradation with the passage of time. The reason is this – what it costs to reach every successive user on Facebook rises incrementally.  Putting it differently, the initial persons that click on an ad eventually seem to be the ones that respond highly to ads generally.
    As you succeed in getting through to this initial wave of individuals, a rise in the cost of reaching the subsequent group is experienced. Therefore, there is need to keep close track of your daily CTR.
  5. Test Performance on a Different note
    Most times it is discovered that an ad would produce better result at different times of the day. Although Facebook does not make provision for marketers to choose a particular time of the day to run their ads, you can manually turn on/off your ads in order to assess the best performing times. But bear in mind that this involves very close monitoring.

Top Facebook pages you should follow as a Gamer

Over the past few months, social shopping is warming up to be another huge happening phenomenon on the Facebook. The following are two such social shopping apps that have occupied prime spots:

StoreEnvy

StoreEnvy is San Francisco based, and is a marketplace of stores owned independently. An online store can be opened for free; subsequently, you can place it on your Facebook Page using the StoreEnvy Facebook application.

Different from any store builders you know, the entire stores are connected via the StoreEnvy social shopping marketplace. When you add any product to your online store, it would be automatically added to the StoreEnvy marketplace and is likely to show on the homepage of Storeenvy.com. This way, people can search and shop across the entire shops simultaneously. Using the new version, those who use StoreEnvy can determine what is happening on the site’s homepage – which has been described as “Digg for cool stuff to buy”.

According to Jon Crawford (Chief Executive, Storeenvy.com), shoppers can find pleasant stuffs across several shops using the site; they can also comment, discover favourite things and also see their friends’ favourite stuffs. Jon Crawford also said that the StoreEnvy is channelling its product development efforts to the social shopping experience right now; so, users would have lots more to enjoy soon.

Those who own stores can employ CSS control and full HTML to customize their stores to suite their heart’s content. Apart from PayPal fees, it’s entirely free; StoreEnvy.com developers intend to put up a ‘freemium’ model that would enable a free basic version and services with additional features sold on top of it.

Addoway

For the time being, Addoway – another online marketplace is presently rewarding shoppers who share deals with others on Facebook and other social networks. A virtual currency known as Addo Bucks has been developed by Addoway; this is what shoppers will earn for sharing deals with others. Subsequently, those shoppers can cash the virtual currency in, for discounts offered on products/ services transacted on Addoway. They can also use the Addo Bucks to participate on limited-entry private prizes giveaways such as Nintendo Wii or iPad. The virtual money can also be redeemed for free gift cards.

According to the chief executive of Addoway (Fredrick Nijm), it has been discovered that shoppers referral generated from social networking sites are 8 times more likely to buy when compared to shoppers that are generated from comparison shopping engines. ‘Therefore, it is sensible to offer our merchants several techniques to reward shoppers who share their pleasant encounter with their friends,’ said Fredrick Nijm. He also added that their system only encourages genuine positive experience
sharing – this alsp being Facebook’s stand point.

Again, Addoway has upgraded its platform to assist merchants in growing their Facebook fan base; they achieve this by enabling merchants to give exclusive discounts to shoppers as exclusive rewards – only to their fans. Those who are shopping can “like” the merchants’ Facebook Pages from the Addoway platform.