You are here: Home / Social Media Blog

Facebook is an absolute Must for your Business

November 22, 2010 By admin
Facebook is an absolute must for your business. No question about it. It’s a free tool that as a business owner you must take advantage of. If you don’t you are missing the boat on getting your business name out to over 500 million people. Let’s look some ways to begin on Facebook and bring in more customers for your business. Facebook is a social media networking site. It allows for you to create a business page that will connect you with potential customers to learn about your business. You are bale to build now trust and rapport. To begin on Facebook as a business tool, don’t use your personal profile where you use your real name.  Setup a profile with your business name.  There you generate contacts as potential customers by becoming friends with people you already know. The great thing here is that friends of friends will become your friends, and again potential customers. 
Don’t Rely on Your Personal Profile alone!
It is crucial that you will setup a Business Fan Page. On this page you have a huge opportunity to spread the word of your business to more and more people and businesses.  Remember, there are 500 million users on Facebook! After creating your fan page, ensure you create a profile photo that has Call to Action like you phone number, some benefits or even a special offer! Due to Facebook’s new AD system, it is more important than ever to promote your brand with every spot you can use on Facebook’s Screen Real Estate. Now you are ready to send an invite to your friends and friends of friends and they will become fans of your business page. The really awesome thing is that on your fan page, you will be able to post your website address, information about what your business does and daily posts--if you desire and think it would benefit your business in bringing in customers.  Many businesses post specials they are running, irresistible offers or other promotions. This encourages visitors to your Facebook page to LIKE YOU and to become a Fan. Once a Fan, your are able to publish your news to your Fans’ Walls.
And remember, all 500 million users have access to your business fan page just by typing in the name of your business.
If that isn’t enough, Facebook also allows you to create ads.  This is a low cost way of getting your business even more advertising.  For a fee determined by you, your business website and short information can be seen by a very targeted audience.  There they can click the link and see what your business is all about. And finally, you can create a Facebook Landing Page that is unbelievably successful in bringing in customers. On this page, you will implement an image that displays your offer, shows the value and creates the opportunity for a giveaway. Create a strong call to action and people will respond. This page will allow you to have a lead capture form to put potential customers on your master mailing list. It is an awesome marketing tool! Facebook, without a doubt, should be used by your business. If you are not using it, you are missing the boat.  It is absolutely a necessity in this world we live in today.
Filed Under: Featured, Small Business Blog, Social Media Blog Tagged With: , , , , , , , ,

Using Facebook to Generate High Quality Email Leads

May 29, 2010 By admin
One of the best ways to generate high quality email leads is to take advantage of the today's popular social media sites which only continue to grow. Today we'll focus on Facebook, which boasts more than 300 million active members that is most-likely harboring a significant share of YOUR market just waiting to be reached. But why bother? Well, the thing that separates Facebook profiles from a regular old website is the level of personality that is automatically injected (and expected to be) in your profile. The personal "nature" of a Facebook page breeds a lot more trust than a website or even a blog, and it's easy to see why. Would you be more likely to trust someone who is real, has a personality, is helpful, and whom you can communicate with directly? Or would you rather trust a cold website that seems rather flat in comparison? By contrast, Facebook is a clear winner. So why not use it to generate email leads? After all, the effectiveness of an email list depends greatly on the level of trust you have built up with it. From whatever perspective you look at it from, it just makes sense. Here's how you can get started with using Facebook as a highly effective email lead generation tool:

Offer Subscriptions Directly From Your Page

In order to use Facebook as an email lead generation tool, it's obvious that you need to let your visitors know that you HAVE an email subscription to offer in the first place. If people don't know about it, how can they even begin to be interested? You can place your subscription offer wherever you want, but because of all the "commotion" that goes on in most Facebook profiles, the one place you can ensure that most people will see your subscription offer is your sidebar. I recommend displaying your offer at least twice on your page, but make sure you're not being overly pushy or you might be viewed as just another tricky Facebook spammer.

Offer Something.. For FREE

Now that you've got your subscription offer on your profile, it's time to give people an incentive to subscribe. In today's online world, the words "subscription", "free updates", or even "free newsletter" don't really cause people to come rushing to your door to see what you have to offer. So to maximize the amount of subscribers your Facebook page pulls, offer something for free. A free giveaway or trial offer (though "trials" are starting to become less and less effective) is a perfect way to entice people into becoming your newest subscribers. After all, who doesn't want something for free? Especially someone who was interested enough to visit your page. If it is viable for your niche/market, I recommend using a free PDF report offering valuable, free information as your giveaway incentive. Not only are these convenient, but if you outline a powerful benefit with your subscription offer, it becomes a perfect push to drive people to subscribe. Not only that, it's a form of value that you can deliver over and over again to as many people as you want at no extra cost. Many feel overwhelmed at the idea of putting a report or "eBook" together, but it's not that difficult. The report doesn't have to be long like the books you see at stores, it simply has to be useful. Can you offer some useful information to your market in just a few pages? If so, then it's good enough for a free report. I recommend OpenOffice.org for a free word processing solution with a good PDF export feature.

Use FBML to Capture Leads Directly

Now you've got your subscription offer on your page with a good incentive (freebie) to entice visitors to become your newest leads; however, when they click over to your website or "squeeze page", you still have a chance to lose them. They might get turned off by a small detail on your website and click away, never to return. Or, they might get distracted and leave before they had a chance to opt-in. There are countless variables that may or may not be out of your control, but the fact of the matter is, when people click from your Facebook page to your opt-in page, you're losing some valuable leads. Why not combine everything to turn as many of your Facebook visitors as possible into email leads? You can offer a subscription, an incentive, AND your opt-in form all on your Facebook page in an attractive, compact, and unobtrusive manner that produces results by using a unique Facebook concept called FBML (the Facebook Markup Language). Use the Facebook Static FBML application in conjunction with the opt-in form code that your autoresponder service provides to place a subscribe form directly below your free incentive. That way, they don't have to leave your Facebook page and be re-convinced to subscribe. You simply make your free offer compelling enough, and you'll get a new email lead... simple as that!

Network Effectively

Here's where the real work comes in. As with any other social media website, you can't just go out and SPAM the Facebook member-base in hopes of pulling a vast amount of email leads. You have to network effectively to get people interested in YOU. Then, and ONLY then, is when THEY decide if they're interested in what YOU have to offer. In fact, when placing comments on other people's walls and participating in relevant groups, simply be helpful to others and make friends. Networking isn't where you promote yourself or let people know what you have to offer, it's about being a real person that is helpful to your online community. Once you do that, you'll get more and more followers and as a result, more and more email leads. Always remember that your page is the only thing that does any kind of subtle advertising (mainly for your free incentive and subscribe form), not you. So to re-cap on everything, place your email offer directly on your Facebook page with an enticing FREE offer and a subscribe form. From there, simply become an active, helpful member of the community and you'll quickly realize just how effective Facebook can be to building your brand and producing a vast amount of high quality email leads. I highly recommend you give Facebook a shot and see if it improves your email lead capturing efforts. Besides the portion of your market that fits into 300 million active Facebook members, what do you have to lose?
Filed Under: Featured, Social Media Blog Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

How to Get the Most Out of Local Networking Events

May 29, 2010 By admin
You probably already know what kind of positive effect that networking can have on building your brand, your website traffic, and a creating loyal following that genuinely likes and trusts you. In the online world, whenever the word 'networking' is mentioned, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn immediately come to mind. And for good reason: the online social networking scene is only getting bigger. But there's a more "classic" form of networking that, if combined with your existing online networking efforts might just have the potential to work even better. It's face-to-face networking at local events. That's right; with REAL people. When it comes to meeting someone in person and communicating in the physical realm, there isn't much that can come close in terms of networking. Let's face it, it's much easier to trust a real person over someone hiding behind a computer screen, no matter how many photos and videos you've seen of them.

Pre-Event Actions

First and foremost, you need to find a local event that pertains to you. Many of the social networks you're already using have built-in features for finding events (such as Facebook), but it may be worth your while to try some services dedicated to finding these events, such as: Or simply do a Google search for 'your industry + local events search', but the above list should be more than enough to find an upcoming event near you. From there, I highly recommend finding others who are going to be attending the events and start connecting with them on your other social media profiles right away. For example, say you see that Joe Smith is attending a local event in your area, one you ALSO plan on attending. You see he has his Facebook profile shown, so you go in and get in touch with him through Facebook. This way, when you get to the event, you already have some connections that you'll immediately strengthen upon physical "meet up".

At the Event...

Once your event comes up, make sure your name tag has your most prominent social networking screen names shown, that way people can connect the person with the alias easier. Also make sure you have a few mechanisms for collecting contact information, because you'll undoubtedly be gathering a lot. I recommend having at least one electronic method, such as a nifty iPhone app and a physical business card holder to help you keep up with all the cards you'll be collecting. It also doesn't hurt to have a good old fashioned notepad and pen handy, just in case. When you're ready to begin networking, I recommend starting with those who you have already networked with online (see Pre-Event Actions) and then go from there. Make sure to be yourself, be friendly, have some fun! Don't forget to represent yourself in a professional manner that will reflect positively upon your business. Your goal is to meet as many people as you can, and connect with them on a level that isn't possible to do over the internet. Here's a quick tip: If your Facebook profile/website uses the strategy of giving away a freebie to generate email leads, be sure to include that on your business card somewhere! The back is a great place for this, as it doesn't interfere with your contact details and is unobtrusive.

Your Follow Up: The Most Important Step

When the event is over, you'll undoubtedly have seen/met quite a few people and have more business cards and contact details than you want to keep up with. From here you'll begin following up with all the people you networked with in person. This is the most important step because all of the contacts you made have also met more people than they can keep up with on their own. How well you follow-up with them will determine if you get lost in the "sea of faces", or if you stick out and become a memorable contact. The first step you should take is to send them a friendly email reminding them that you just attended the event, and of course, remind them who you are. If they aren't too busy, most-likely you'll get a response fairly quickly. Next, go to their social networking profiles to see which ones they are most active on and start connecting with them there. Don't be annoying, but send them a friendly message every now and then until you get a response. Sometimes persistence pays off because the more times they see your name, the more likely they'll be to respond.

Stay In Touch!

What usually happens is you get a handful of people who actually decide to contact you first or respond right away to your follow up, but not everyone will be this way. Your goal is to successfully follow-up with as many of your contacts as possible, and here's the kicker: stay in touch. You have the advantage of having met these people in person, so that places a much heavier psychological "weight" in their minds. The people you network with at local events have the potential to not only be some of your most loyal followers, but might even become your biggest source of NEW followers... but only IF you keep in touch with them. But don't take my word for it! Go out for yourself, socialize and network with others in your local area to see just what kind of positive impact it has on your business... You won't be sorry :-)
Filed Under: Featured, Social Media Blog Tagged With: , , , , ,

5 Ways to Ensure Your Social Media Efforts Don’t Bomb

May 29, 2010 By admin
After signing up for all the popular social media sites, you set up your profile, make everything look just how you want it, and display all the right information. Days, weeks, and months go by, and that flood of traffic never shows up… what went wrong?? Is social media a spoof? The answer to that question is no; however, it’ll be just as good as a “spoof” if all you do is sign up, set up your profile, pop-in every once in a while, and simply expect your web presence to be known. Social media can be an incredibly powerful force to drive traffic, clients, and customers to your business… but it takes work. The good news is, the “work” can often be enjoyable if you tackle it with the right mindset. Below are five steps that, if followed on a regular basis and with a positive attitude, can shoot the results you get from your social media efforts through the roof. 1. Dedicate Some Time to Your Social Media Campaign Social media is effective, but it really can’t be automated. You need to find a way to incorporate it into your schedule on a regular (preferably daily) basis. Once you grow a loyal following that’s large enough, you might be able to put a little less effort on your social media activities, but you’ll never be able to do nothing and get the results you want from it. 2. Don’t Forget About YOUR Audience Whether it’s friends, connections, or followers (all depending on which social media channel you’re using), you need to focus a certain amount of your energy on those who have taken the first step and followed/friended you. Don’t just focus on getting more, more, and more all the time. Make a concerted effort to also focus on those who have already given you a chance. If you never make an effort to communicate or be there for your real friends, how long will they remain your friend? Not very long I’m guessing. The same applies in social media. Remember, you’re dealing with real people. Don’t throw away your efforts by constantly trying to build upwards; take some time to build inwards every now and then. 3. Don’t Treat Them Like You Paid For Them When you pay for advertising, depending on how much you’re spending and the market you’re targeting, you can have reasonable expectations as to what kind of results you’re going to get. However, social media is a different ball-park. You didn’t pay for those who followed you… they made that decision themselves, and they can withdraw it even easier. If you can blast a paid ad to a market and get results from it, don’t expect your social media audience to respond the same way. People aren’t just numbers, and the sooner you realize that, the sooner you’ll get better results from your social media efforts. Treat your audience like you earned them… because you did. 4. Listen to Your Followers Being active on social media doesn’t mean that you need to be the one always sending, posting, submitting, etc. in hopes that a certain percentage of your following responds to what you’re outputting. You also need to listen and be open to what others are outputting. Be genuinely interested in what others in your niche are saying and presenting. If you can make your audience feel important, you’ll be easier to trust… which makes YOU more important. The best way to do that is to simply be receptive to what your audience is putting “out there” and respond to it accordingly. 5. Don’t Give Up Almost everyone faces a point where they feel like they are in an upward battle to get any kind of return on their social media efforts. Your connections seem to be stagnant, and growth seems menial if not negative at times. Just keep at it and you’ll pull through! Normally during these stagnant times, if you take a moment to review your efforts you can usually identify what the problem is. Perhaps you haven’t been dedicating as much time to it as you should. Or maybe you need to take some time to focus a little more inwards, or something else you’ve yet to identify. There’s always room for optimization, and sometimes that’s all it takes to get you over the hill. The bottom line is, if you want results from your social media campaigns, you need to earn it by continuing to be active without expecting anything. Once you figure out your personal strategy, learn to incorporate it into some kind of schedule and follow the five things I described on a regular basis, you’ll quickly realize why there’s such a craze around social media: it works, as long as you do.
Filed Under: Featured, Social Media Blog Tagged With: , , , ,

Use Social Media as a Supplement, Not a Means to an End, You still need your website

May 29, 2010 By admin
So you've heard about the social media craze and are ready to focus some of your business resources on a new social media campaign before deciding to make the full-move online huh? Well, you may want to think twice if you plan on making social media the primary vehicle to bring your business online. But why? Isn’t social media “the thing” nowadays? Well, in many ways, YES, but there still are some things you need to be aware of… With social media sites such as Ning suddenly switching to a paid service, Utterz going out of business, and Facebook constantly having privacy issues, you can easily begin to see that social media should by no means be the backbone in which your online campaign is supported. That’s not to say you shouldn’t take advantage of social media, because you should, but you need something besides social media channels if you want to successfully bring your business online. Having One Central Location on the Web There are dozens of social media channels you can use to promote your business online, and the number is growing, so which one do you focus on? The answer: whichever you want, as long as you point them all to one central location: your website. As dreadful as that may sound, especially since a growing number of businesses are using social media as an excuse to NOT have a website, the first place you need to be is YOUR online home. Not Facebook’s, not Twitter’s… but yours, no exceptions. You need a home before you start renting office space. And that’s essentially what your website vs. your social media channels are. Your website is your business’ online home, and social media channels are merely rented space (albeit free rental space).   So the bottom line is, create a website before going the social media route, because that’s what people are going to be looking for once you make a positive impression/connection with them on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or any other social media website. What to Include on Your Website If your social media efforts are there to create connections, build trust, and show your potential client base WHO you are and what your business is about, then your website needs to provide straight-forward information on what your business can do for them. As a bare minimum, your website needs to include the following items:
  • Professional design to give your visitors a good impression.
  • Friendly, informative introduction on your homepage.
  • Description of your services, and the BENEFITS of your services.
  • Contact information; as much as you can provide.
Of course, depending on the nature of your business, you may need more or less than that, but the above list should give you some general guidelines to follow. Maximizing Your Social Media Efforts First and foremost, explore the different social media options you have out there (the options are vast; Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, LinkedIn, the list goes on) and choose ONE. You need to get the hang of using social media to benefit your business before you expand into multiple channels. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen a business homepage that has icons for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and a plethora of other services only to visit them and see that they aren’t even mildly active on a single one! Don’t spread yourself too thin by signing up for every social media channel you can find. That’s not going to do you any good. What WILL benefit you is if you get the hang of ONE, build up your presence, your network, connections, and establish a good following of people who know and trust you. Then and ONLY then should you consider expanding to other social media channels. This may seem counterintuitive, especially when you see everyone else putting themselves on every known social media site, but I guarantee your results will be much better than theirs. It’s MUCH better to have one strong machine working for you than to have a handful of smaller ones doing absolutely nothing but sitting there. The days where you can merely sign up and be discovered on social media sites are long gone; you must be regularly active or your social media efforts will be wasted. Funnel Into Your Website Once you’ve found a social media channel you want to pursue, you need to set your profile up to funnel your interested prospects to your website. Your social profile should not be the end of their journey; your goal is to drive as many people as you can to your website FROM your profile pages. The best way to do this is to make sure your main description encourages people to visit your website. You can even add a subscribe form to your profile’s sidebar (depending on what service you use) along with an incentive to generate email leads (which in-turn will drive even more people to your website). Then, you just need to focus on being a genuine, helpful member of the community and naturally people who visit your profile and want to know more about what you have to offer will end up on your website. However, if you do NOT have a website, there are lots of other distractions that will keep people away from your business… even if they were interested in finding out more. Social Moods and Mindsets When people are browsing around Facebook (for example), they aren’t in the mood to pick up the phone and call about your service, because they aren’t on Facebook to FIND your business. However, you CAN peak their interest by properly networking with them and funneling them to your website. And as a side benefit, your website also has the opportunity to be linked to from other websites, and even getting picked up by search engines which will result in even more traffic and potential clients for your business. The bottom line is, if you want to take your business online, make your website it’s first stop above any social media channel and you won’t have to worry about what social network is going out of business next.
Filed Under: Social Media Blog Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Online Marketing & Social Media as Business Tools

November 5, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment
What Is Online Marketing? Online Marketing is the interactive process of selling your company, goods or services over the internet. A good online marketing strategy will create a synergy between your company’s business model and sales goals and your overall website appearance and function. Some of the most commonly used online marketing strategies include internet advertising (hyper links and ad banners), the management of a customer data base and email strategies. Using a broad mix of components (see “Social Media”) the purpose of online marketing is to increase brand awareness and generate revenue through sales. How Is Online Marketing Used? Online Marketing should be a part of your overall marketing strategy. Although many companies still utilize more traditional methods of marketing, not having a strategy for online marketing means you are not reaching an incredibly large sector of the market. Online marketing should showcase eye-catching web design, develop and enhance your brand, utilize online advertising and ultimately, increase your sales. In addition to promoting and advertising your business, an online marketing strategy will allow you to conduct research revealing the preferences, needs and demographics of your customers. You can also post press releases and articles. Why Is Online Marketing Important To My Business? Online Marketing is important for the same reason a more traditional marketing plan is. How are you going to generate revenue without selling anything? Online marketing combines creative and technical elements so that you have a specific look and feel to your company while maximizing the broad marketing opportunities web technology provides. One of the most exciting things about online marketing is that you can reach your customers anywhere at anytime! Probably the most important reason to engage in online marketing is that almost everyone else does. If you don’t, all of your competitors will attract and keep your customers! What Is Social Media? Social Media is an internet based means of communication allowing you to interact with other people. There are various forms of social media. You may recognize the names Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or Digg for example. These sites allow users to create a presence on the internet as well as post and exchange written content, pictures, video and audio messages, emails, blogs and podcasts. Social media is inexpensive and wide reaching, allowing you to connect with literally millions of people both nationally and internationally. Social media gets your message, business or products known in a web based interactive way. How Is Social Media Used? Social Media is used to create an online community, develop a following, exchange ideas and information and build relationships. It is also a great way to generate “traffic” to your website which is another way of saying that people are able to find you online and then go directly to your website. There are also many ways that Social Media can be effective for specific business purposes. A business can “gather links” which means you can provide a link to someone else’s website where they then promote you. You can also post other business links on your website. This encourages cross promotion and is a great way to attract more internet attention. Businesses also use Social Media to test a market or product, generate feedback, provide customer service, hold webinars, blast emails and post announcements or useful company information. Why Is Social Media Important To My Business? Social Media is an incredibly fast way to develop or increase brand awareness, improve your reputation or position yourself as an expert in a certain field. Social Media can also keep you up to date on industry news, provide you with an education that can be applied to your business model, and have related industry recommendations. It is also an excellent path for personal development. Finally, Social Media can build strong and numerous relationships, enable you to network with an international community, post testimonials about your products or services, advertise or promote and in general, build your business bigger, stronger, faster.
Filed Under: Social Media Blog

Get Cloud PHP Hosting on CatN