Bra’s and Facebook: A Social Media Inspiration for Your Business

Black. Pink. Leopard…I will let your mind do the rest. For those of you who are not avid Facebook junkies, like myself, you probably have no idea what these words even mean.  Well, it just so happens, that Facebook has been in the center of a social media-marketing storm.

Female Facebook users, from all around the globe, decided to implement a small “game” to raise awareness for breast cancer. All women (starting with only a few) bombarded the live news feeds with the color of their bras. Who knew that something this simple could become a ‘Grass-roots movement?’

Talk about viral marketing…within two hours, the Susan G. Komen Facebook fan page increased from 135 fans to 700.

Now, if this story doesn’t motivate you to get out there and brand your business, than I don’t know what will. With the power of the social media community, the Susan G. Komen Foundation was able to raise awareness about their cause, thus, causing an increase in donations, volunteers and event participants. Think of all ways your business can use social media networking to create and establish a visible brand, while driving traffic to your business.

Whether it is a contest exclusive to Facebook fans, releasing a discount coupon for your product, or hiding an eBook on your website to have people search for-get people excited.

Use the story above to inspire your business marketing strategy.     Think: How can I get people energized about my product/service? Don’t be afraid. The Internet is more forgiving than your think. If your idea doesn’t exactly “take off,” don’t get discouraged…just keep trying.

So, with all of that encouragement, I expect you to all to go out and interact with your community in a fun and creative way.

What ideas do you have to maximize your Internet presence?

Facebook Marketing: 5 Surefire Ways to Give Your Page Clear Visibility

Facebook has gone from a small, Internet-based college directory to an International business platform.  Facebook is a network that gives you the insight into your target community, more so than any other social media site on the web. That being said, what good are all of these features if your businesses page is going unnoticed?

As your social media expert, and friend, I am here to unwrap your lonely Facebook page and give you the necessary tools and advice to frame your market and form a solid community around your business.

Here is the top 5 Surefire ways to get your page out there and get your business on the Facebook radar:

• Utilize Facebook Apps. One of the best “perks” to having a Facebook page, over a Facebook group, is the availability of all the applications you can use to better your page’s visibility and community. The “Business” section of the applications page has some great tools to add to your page. For Contractors, I highly recommend the “testimonials” application and for small businesses, I recommend using “Static FBML” to create a landing page, or other customizable tabs, for potential fans to go to.

• Advertise. Whether you put a button on your blog/website or run a paid advertisement for your page on Facebook, make sure you are making your presence known. I put a link to both of our Facebook pages in my email signature, and I also advertise it in the blogs and forums I frequently participate in.  Remember: every little bit helps, so don’t hesitate to try something and see if it works.

• Post, Share and Comment. Don’t abandon your page! Being an admin on a Facebook page is like taking care of a newborn baby, it needs love and frequent attention in order to grow. Post article links, pictures, information, etc. about 3 times a day.  If someone posts a comment, you should be very proud of yourself, but don’t stop there. Keep the person engaged by responding in a timely manner to let them know that you are listening.

• Use Other Facebook Pages to Network. Many of our fans, and leads to our website, have come from postings in other Facebook pages. Do a search and find some popular, frequented pages and start hanging out there.  Introduce yourself and mention the name of your business and many people will check your page out. The more you frequent these groups, the more relationships and credibility you will build, and thus, more fans you will produce.

• If your friends really love you, they will become fans. Facebook is the mecca of viral marketing for your business. Every time you join, post, or reference a page, all of your friends see it on their “Live Feed.” Ask your friends to become fans of your page. It is ok if they are not involved in the same industries and niches you are. In fact, this allows your page to reach people that you might have never found on your own. So ask your friends to give you a hand…you can buy them a drink at happy hour to thank them.

I have found that Facebook is a tough place to get noticed (probably because of the millions of people surfing the site), but if you have patience and a strategy, you will be seeing serious traffic and increased conversion rates within 6 months.

So go out there and make Facebook your marketing platform, but before you do that…how about you become a fan of two more pages? We promise to return the favor!

Become a fan of GenNext Media and Surefire Social Marketing on Facebook!

Facebook Marketing: Pages and Groups

Facebook recently overhauled Groups to look a lot like Pages with a few small (but significant) functionality tweaks. For marketers, how should you think about Groups and Pages in your social media marketing mix?

Facebook attempts to explain the difference:

“Keep in mind that while Groups and Pages now look the same, they still serve different purposes. Groups are for fostering member-to-member collaboration, while Pages remain the best way to broadcast messages to your fans if you are a business, organization, public figure or other entity.”

Groups provide a great opportunity to demonstrate leadership in a market or niche.  If a strong group does not exist already, you can fill the void and create a Group. Key here is to lead the community, inspire innovative thinking and open communication and community.  If you do that, you will learn new things about your prospects, understand where your market is headed and be a sharper marketer. Oh yea, you get authority and leadership perception in your market as well.  But you need to inspire before you can lead.

Pages are a great place to broadcast your messages to you Fan base. Key with Pages is to incorporate a linking strategy from your Facebook Pages with your blog, website and other distributed content.  Facebook Fan Pages are a great audience aggregation vehicle, but you need to move your fans to where you will eventually do business with them.  That is your webiste.

Like any new media vehicle you employ, Facebook should fit into your overarching strategy and tactics that drive more leads, customers and profits to your business.

Facebook Pages: 9 Steps To Business Marketing Success

Facebook is the social media phenom.  It is the third most trafficked site on the Internet and is increasingly becoming a powerful business tool with Groups and Pages that can be used to connect and educate prospects and promote  your business.

Before you start to build your Facebook Page, make sure you should have an overall social media business strategy.  As we have discussed in previous posts, all the elements of what we call the “distributed web” work together and build on each other.

Organizing all your media prior to building social media pages in the distributed web is also a good idea.  Have your logos, articles, videos and pictures ready in a handy digital file so they are easy to access.  Make sure you have a keyword strategy, a linking strategy that targets specific landing pages on your website and blog, content that will attract fans and link bait that will get leads…before you start building a Page (or any other social media pages).

When you are ready to build, here are 9 steps to take to make sure you are off to a good start in building a fan base:

1. Get the Title right

When first creating your fan page, you need to choose a title; it could be your brand name, personal name, or business name, but make sure you add a few descriptive keywords you are targeting for SEO purposes. The shorter the title, the better, because each time you add content to your fan page your long title will append to each post.  Also, if you promote your fan page though the Facebook ad network, long titles tend to get cut off and make your ad look incomplete.

2. Make sure your picture is optimized for the space you have

Facebook’s ideal size for a fan page image 200 pixels wide by 600 pixels high.

Whenever you post on your own fan page, the thumbnail image that appears will show a section of your main picture, so you may need to play with your graphic to get the image just the way you want it. We found this out the hard way with Surefire Social…

3. Customize a page for non-fans to land on

You can create a customized “landing page” for non-fans to encourage them to become fans.  You can fully customize it with images, keyword-rich text, links, even video.  Just add the Static FBML app, paste in your FBML code (very similar to HTML), then edit your fan page settings to select the specific tab you wish non-fans to land on.

For examples, see http://www.facebook.com/ellentv, http://www.facebook.com/cocacola, http://www.facebook.com/ONE, http

5. Describe your business well and have a call to action

The small text box area just under your fan page picture is a place to summarize what you do, what your product or service is, and how your business will benefit your target customer. Make sure you include a call to action with a hyperlink  (include the “http://” so it’s clickable).

6. Secure a real user name with your business or product title

After you get your first 25 fans, Facebook allows you to register a unique username (often called a vanity URL) at http://facebook.com/username. So, instead of being a long, unmemorable link, you can shorten the link by using your brand name, company name, etc.

7. Import your blog posts

Using the Notes app, pull in your blog feed so that each time you make a blog post, your fan page automatically updates and your fans can read and comment on the post. Doing so also helps to consistently add content to your fan page and keep it fresh and engaging. You will need to do this separately for each Page you have as well as you blog.  It is basically a three step process.  First, to to your Page and make sure you have the Notes Tab available (if not hit the plus tab and then click Notes). Then click on edit notes and after you get to that page click on the top right (edit section) the notes tab.  You can take it from there.

7. Create a dialogue on your Page

We know sometimes we have strategic reasons for showing posts only by you on the fan page, or only by your fans, but we highly recommend setting it to show both. That way, anyone who comes to your page can see the interaction from both sides.

8. Encourage your fans to add content

For some businesses and product categories, it makes sense to allow and encourage your fans to add their own photos, videos, and comments on your “wall.” Allowing and encouraging your fans to add their own content will make them feel more a part of your business and community, and when they tag themselves that content goes out into their feeds creating more visibility for your business.  Imagine if you are a contractor and some of your clients started to put up photos of the great work you did and comment on those photos…

9. Make sure you respond to your fans

Providing quality content is just one aspect of building a good Facebook fan page (or any social networking presence, for that matter). Another critical aspect is engagement. By actively responding to your fans’ comments, questions, suggestions, ideas, etc., you show that you’re a company that cares, listens, takes action, and engages your community.

Don’t try to do all this at once. Implement some of it and then add more once you feel you have some traction.  The key is to keep improving. Most of all, have fun! These are your customers you are interacting with.