Five Ways to Make Facebook Work for Your Brand

In the modern world, no business of any size can afford to ignore Facebook, by far the Web's largest social network, with over a billion active users. These days, the best way to browse local businesses is via the Internet, and a large portion of those who check out businesses online are also on Facebook.

More than hosting the social whims of its users, however, Facebook offers the marketing machine to small businesses - all these businesses need is a little know-how to get started. Facebook is a great resource for businesses looking to connect with potential new customers, offering more ways than one to expand one's marketplace. In fact, the site offers so many ways to engage potential customers that it may be difficult to figure out where to begin.

Check out these five steps to get started.

• Establish an appropriate Facebook presence. A business that hasn't staked a Facebook claim will typically find that its competitors are already on the scene. However, a little competition doesn't mean that a business should strive to create a monolithic Facebook page dripping in ad copy. Businesses should stick to their own pre-established brand identity.


• Seek and nurture true advocates. It may seem tempting to "friend" every Facebook users in a 20-mile radius, but those Facebook users who are willing to stand behind a brand are much more valuable than those who feel lukewarm about it at best. When making posts and leaving comments, businesses should curtail the urge to be anything less than genuine; they should avoid bribes, threats, and empty "likes." A true brand advocate will spread that business's message because he wants to - not because a business liked all his photos.


• Break out the best possible online customer service. More and more, Internet users expect to be able to ask business questions, resolve ongoing issues, and get good advice online. To be truly valued in the eyes of customers, businesses should aim to use social media as a customer service platform.


• Maintain a Facebook presence. After building a fan base, businesses should keep in touch. These fans actually want to hear new and worthwhile tidbits about a business they believe in, so it pays to stay in the forefront of their thoughts. A business that has big news or is offering an especially enticing deal would be wise to pay to promote such a post. Unfortunately, Facebook posts won't reach all of a page's fans without a paid promotion.


• Direct fans to the business website. In addition to maintaining a Facebook presence, the modern business must build and keep an accessible, easy-to-navigate webpage. One of the best uses of Facebook, then, is to direct fans to the company site, where they can learn everything they need to know about company products and deals. Perhaps they'll even link back to the company site on their own Facebook pages.

When everything is said and done, Facebook offers plenty of benefits for a company, its most sincere advocates, and its new clients. Companies would be wise to remember, however, that they can't control everything that goes on in a social network, and that they shouldn't try to curb every unwanted user post. Businesses should maintain a Facebook presence, but this social media site shouldn't represent the one online basket that holds all the eggs.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8378754

Making Money With Facebook

Facebook is the number one social networking site with over 400 million active users worldwide. Let's look at it this way: Facebook is a market with over 400 million people to advertise and sell products to, which, to be perfectly honest, is every entrepreneur's dream. Here are the top ways to make money in this market with little to no experience.

* Change an Existing Game

This is a tried and true method of earning money on Facebook. Have you ever wondered why there are so many clones of Mob Wars? Because the game generates millions of dollars every year from it's player-base. Developers pick a popular game, give it a face-life and new name and launch it hoping it'll become an addicting Facebook sensation. They make money through selling ad space and from those who buy the game's currency or limited edition items.

Websites such as O-Desk and GetaFreelancer.com enable the masses to create Facebook games with no experience. If you have a keyboard and the ability to communicate with others, you can hire coding professionals for very little money. Some time in the future, it could be you reaping the benefits of someone purchasing a $10 virtual "mystery box" on a Facebook game.

* Create a New Game

You don't have to limit yourself to an old game, but it's a bit risky to develop a totally new one. Making the game is the difficult part, but you can outsource this to foreigners. By doing this, you get a quality product for a fraction of the price someone living in North America or Europe would charge.

Using GetaFreeLancer.com, O-Desk or a similar website geared toward providing cheap outsourcing, anyone can post a project along with their tight budget and talented developers can bid on it. Run your game idea by your friends before pulling out the wallet and potentially creating a game that falls flat.

* Sell Goods or Services

Research and pick out an affiliate product that might sell well. ClickBank.com offers a large variety of affiliates to choose from, and gives very precise instructions on how to set up an affiliate page. Start several Facebook accounts and collect friends on each. Don't go over 25 friends per day on each account since Facebook tends to delete accounts that do this. Maintain relationships with these people by posting on your wall, but don't overdo it and harass them. Your goal is to gain their trust and eventually advertise the product you've chosen to sell them.

If starting Facebook accounts and maintaining friends on each sounds like too much work, this is also something easily outsourced. You can pay someone as little as $2/day to gain 25 friends on each account and post the status updates of your choosing.

* Develop Facebook Apps

If you have experience in programming, this could be perfect for you. Some developers are paid as much as $200/hour to develop new applications for Facebook. Even if you don't have the experience necessary, that number should be enough motivation to learn. Facebook is here to stay and application developers will be in demand for years to come.

* Create a Facebook Blog

Similar to selling goods or services, but this time you're creating a blog and gaining trust and reputation through it. Once you've developed a significant fan base, you can begin to lead people to other webpages to sell them things or sell adspace and sponsorships.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/3801876

Five Things You Shouldn't Do On Facebook

Facebook has been around for almost a decade now and its impact in the way people communicate and interact has changed. Facebook extended its capability as a social media, beyond just enabling persons to communicate despite time and geographic boundaries. It is also now widely used for variety of purposes in business marketing and promotion, education, philanthropic causes, information and knowledge management, entertainment, blogging and many more.

There have been a lot of articles and researches published that talk about the benefits, risks, advantages and disadvantages of Facebook. Some social science scholars have also attempted to show how the benefits of Facebook outweigh the risks and/ or the other way around.

For me, I should thank Mr. Zuckerberg for starting Facebook. I've been using it for many years now for personal and business activities, and it has also helped us recently in our endeavor to raise funds for the typhoon Yolanda aftermath and update sponsors about the project and relief efforts.

Whatever arguments they may have, the truth is that Facebook has the power to reach the deeper being of its users. Netizens would often make posts that expose their life making them vulnerable from insults and attack from others. Unaware at times, some supposedly positive images or thoughts posted may be negatively understood or interpreted by others - and oftentimes is subjected to ridicule and judgment. In the end, each FB user is responsible for his actions and he must make a commitment to find it in his heart to use FB for good purpose.

One of the things we need to be careful about are those that we post in the news feed. We may be posting images or comments that seem fine to us but might irritate or annoy the readers. Some may have good intentions but others do it on purpose to post these top five annoying posts on Facebook that I observe.

Five things you shouldn't do on Facebook:

1. Brag
- Some people may post on Facebook, just to brag. One of the good but not a good thing about Facebook, is it enables persons to portray themselves in a grand and overly positive way. A recent research done by University of Michigan in the US about the impact of Facebook concluded that it causes low self-esteem and depression. There seems to be a great possibility for someone to be resentful, jealous and feel inferior when seeing other people's pictures and comments about the perfect events of their lives. Anyhow, I think that you don't need to show to all your friends about your newly acquired possessions, places you just went, food you just ate or a charity you just made unless that you want them to know. The next question you ask yourself however is, why do you want your friends to know about it?

2. Seek Attention
- Some people would try to seek attention due to need or lack of it, because of insecurity or other reasons. While some directly asks readers to comment on their posts, I often see Facebook posts that indirectly asks for attention such as; questions that means nothing or weird questions that obviously has no answer, statements made about others but is obviously about him/her, self pitying remarks, accusing or gossiping in public news feed about someone who annoyed or did something bad to him/her, too much posting of anything he/she does as if people are really following him/her, and sending out a hundred invitations for a game he/she plays or group he/she created.

3. Hit Back
- I often read aggressive posts in response to a comment made about them on Facebook. Some just cannot let go, accept and tolerate what others say or think about them (which may be true or not), and as a result, would post images and comments to prove that they're way better than their enemies. Other people who do not have the guts to be truthful face to face with the person find it easier to do it on Facebook in front of others' eyes who aren't supposed to be involved and have nothing to do with it. Using Facebook for word wars and walloping statements to retaliate is not a good place to explain one's self. Nobody really wins.

4. Waste time
- Due to cheaper, faster and easier accessibility of the internet, some people do not usually feel and understand the fortunate chance of having an internet, as a valuable tool for other productive purposes. Some just spend hours face-booking and making unnecessary posts without realizing the amount of time and resources wasted. One really annoying post is seeing someone's "selfie" again every time you open your Facebook - as if you're face-booking just to see him/her. This usually seems to be the habit of those who do not seem to be doing anything in their 24 hours of life everyday.

5. Complain
- Facebook is widely used for promoting good causes and sensible opinions. Many however are just habitual pessimists, making posts only to complain about the government, societal issues and little negative experiences encountered in the everyday life. Too much complaining only spreads negativism, fuels hate and is useless. People are often stereotyped because of what they display in the online mirror of their life.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8295910

How To Use A Facebook Fan Page To Market Your Business

There is no better time than now to start utilizing Facebook for marketing your business. Facebook is getting more traffic than ever and it is a great place to market because people trust it. One of the best ways to brand yourself and market your business on Facebook is to create a fan page for yourself.

Creating a fan page within Facebook is very easy to do. If you do not know how to create a one there are plenty of tutorials on YouTube that can walk you through the simple process.

What Are The Benefits?

Having a fan page is going to do a number of things for your business. If you set it up right, it can brand you as a leader and someone who has value to offer people. Not only that, but you can actually set up your page to become a lead source for you as well.

You can set up a tab within your fan page that will ask visitors for their name and Email in exchange for some sort of training that you can offer them. This is very cool because now you are branding yourself and generating leads all within Facebook.

This strategy works very well for driving traffic to your main website too. You can place a link to your blog on the page, and people can go from Facebook right to your blog. Not to mention the fact that you can send messages directly to people who "Like" your fan page.

When someone "Likes" your fan page it gives you the ability to send them messages within Facebook. This is beneficial because it is just like having an Email list. You can send them offers, or links to your recent blog posts, or whatever you want.

If you have not yet started to market on Facebook, that is fine, but it is time to start! Facebook is growing like wildfire and you do not want to miss out on the traffic that it has. You can generate tons of leads and many new business partners just from Facebook alone.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5740577

Facebook: Getting Started - Get Familiar With The Step By Step Directions

With the immense popularity of Facebook, the whole world seems like a small interconnected place. Needless to say, Facebook has taken the concept of social networking to a whole new level. Whether you are looking to have some fun online or you are purely looking to socialize with old and new acquaintance, Facebook would mean the world to you. Today, it comes as no surprise to learn that millions of people across the world tune in to Facebook during their spare time. So, would you like to have more information about Facebook getting started? Let me provide you with a step by step blueprint on how to get started with Facebook.

First and foremost, you need to visit the official website of Facebook. On the homepage, you will witness the "Sign Up" section. All you need to do is feed in your personal information such as name, email address, date of birth, gender and password. Once you fill out your personal information on the homepage, you will have to click on the "Sign Up" button. After clicking on the "Sign Up" button, you will be asked to enter the security code that will be displayed on the next screen.

After entering the security code, you will be sent a confirmation email. You will have to check your inbox to access the confirmation email. Click on the link provided in the Facebook confirmation email. You will be taken to a page which will read, "Getting Started". Facebook comes with an inbuilt feature that allows you to view and add friends that are already in your email list. You will be presented with an option to accept or reject the friends. You will have to click on "Confirm" to move on to the next step.

The next step would be to update your profile. You will be asked to include other basic information about yourself such as the name of your school, place of employment etc. Once you fill up this information, you will be taken to a page that displays users that have updated similar information on their profile, so that you can add them to your friends list. Next, you will be asked to enter your city. In case, you don't find your city in the dropdown option, you can choose a nearby geographical location. That's all! You will be all set to explore the enticing world of Facebook.

The entire registration process will barely take a couple of minutes. You can add and edit your profile anytime in the near future. Facebook has certain settings that can help you hide certain information as per your will and wish. You can also add new friends and update the Facebook status with your current activity to get the feel of this amazingly popular social networking website. Today, Facebook is loaded with countless applications and features that can be enjoyed by one and all for free. Stay active, and make the most of the social boom.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6087989

Facebook Marketing - A Widely Accepted Internet Marketing Strategy

Internet marketing took a new turn with the entry of social networking site Facebook which now has over a billion active users. It is now the most sought marketing platforms by all kinds of businesses. According to marketing experts, Facebook marketing owes it popularity to its simplicity and ability to reach out to a wide audience. Facebook provides businesses with the opportunity to create brand awareness among the millions of registered users and to target users who can become their potential customers.

Growing Popularity of Facebook Marketing

Facebook offers several marketing tools for businesses.

• Facebook fan page can attract more clicks - If your website is not getting considerable clicks as you expected, creating a Facebook fan page can help in attracting more traffic. Making your Fan page an extension of your site will encourage customers in visiting your site. You can make your page interesting for your customers. For instance, if you own an auto repair business, you can catch the interest of car owners with posts on what drivers can associate with such as traffic, commuting, safety and traveling. If you are a plastic surgeon, you can provide visitors with information on cosmetic surgery procedures, latest techniques, and more. Facebook now has a new feature to embed posts on your blog or website.
• Facebook Likes - Right from the start, Facebook engagement has focused on the Like button. The Like button helps people show their appreciation of a post or a Page with just one quick click. When someone clicks on the button, comments from your business Page will start appearing in your News Feed. This will potentially lead to more engagement. You need to focus on getting the right Likes for your page by better understanding your target audience and providing them with what they would like to see.
• Facebook Ads - Facebook ads can help you target customers by specifying age group, gender and geographic location. You can set your own bid rate and campaign budget, and test as many headlines, ad images and ad copy as you want.
• Effective content posting platform - Facebook is the right place to post content for wide access. You can update your Facebook page by posting blogs videos and much more to engage your audience. Keyword-optimized content can be added on a regular basis.
• Word-of-mouth is effective on Facebook - When you decide to go for a movie you would ask your friends who have seen it whether it's watchable or not. The point is word-of-mouth is effective on social media sites especially on Facebook. You can use this opportunity to creating brand awareness by conducting contests or promotional offers on your Facebook page such as rewards for those who spread the word about your brand. Facebook recently made a big change in the way they allow contests to be run. Businesses with a Facebook page can now use several options to run a contest quickly and easily by posting a photo or text and inviting comment and/or likes.
• Facebook Apps - By using Facebook apps you can import your blog, conduct contests and promotions, gather email sign-ups, sell products via ecommerce and provide customer support services.

Get Professional Help to Achieve Your Social Media Marketing Goals

To make the most of your social media campaign, partner with a professional SEO company that offers Facebook marketing services. A reliable company's expert team can provide your business with affordable and effective ad strategies and customized pages to enhance your 'likes', brand awareness and sales.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/8188814

Facebook for Beginners Revised by Mark Ellis

Learn How to Make Money on Facebook

Do you really want to know how to make money on Facebook? It can expand your business's reach beyond your wildest dreams. But you probably need training to learn to market on Facebook.

The first thing you will learn is there are thousands of Guru's. Some good, many bad. Many assume you know more than how to log in to Facebook. So the first step is too weed through them and find a fit for you and your pocket book.

Step 1 on How to Make Money on Facebook.

You can try many Facebook training systems for free. Beware the free gifts or trials that ask for your credit card number. The person who is making money on Facebook here is not you. It is only my opinion but Free and Credit Card are mutually exclusive. Don't you want a system you can respect and trust? I don't respect or trust people who are trying to trick me and I bet you don't either.

There are good Facebook training systems out there. I found the good ones offered some sort of free trail which is a great way to start. They believe in their service and are good with you testing it out. If you can't test it without paying skip it.

There are many brilliant trainers and you need to choose somebody to help you make money on Facebook that's at your level. Many techniques are too confusing for somebody starting to login to Facebook. But like Goldie Locks you can find a Facebook Training system that is just right. The techniques you learn should start at a very basic beginners level and progress up in difficulty. There are many ways to make money of Facebook. Get in with a group that will continue to introduce new things.

Step 2 on How to Make Money on Facebook

Next, jump into some Facebook Social Networking. Learned how to make your own profile and fan page. Make some friends and watch how other people do marketing on Facebook. The main thing you will probably learn is what you don't want to do to make money on Facebook. I really don't like the Timeshare Salesman style. I don't like to be pushed and if the product or service is good I don't think it is necessary. Narrow down how you want to present yourself to Make Money on Facebook. Deciding how you want to present yourself is called Branding.

Basic Qualities Needed in a training system to Learn how to Make Money on Facebook.

Free Facebook Training to find out if the system fits your level of understanding.

Continued On-Going Training to keep up with the endless, on-going changes on Facebook and to continue honing your skills.

A Fair, Reasonable Price for the complete system so you can continue learning how to do business on Facebook. You do NOT need to spend hundreds on dollars to get high quality training! Price does NOT equal quality.

Access to a real humans for advice and suggestions on how to really use the Facebook Training to market your business. I like a 24 hour Master Mind group on Skype. This is a really good way to be able to access people no matter what time zone you live in.

Follow these suggestions and with some focused effort the process will work for you. Thousands of people, just like you, make good money of Facebook. I do and am still learning new things everyday. Social Media Marketing is one of the most exciting things that can happen in your business. Hook into the right Facebook Training system and it couldn't be easier. Believe me, anybody can make money of Facebook.

Are you ready to take your business to the next level?
Social Media and Video Marketing is the most exciting thing that will happen in our lives.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5582232

How To Actually Start Facebook - Facebook Tips and Tricks

No matter where you go these days, everybody is talking about his or her Facebook page and companies are telling you to follow them on Facebook. I bought a fake Bolex watch from a mysterious back alley van the other night and the guy even mentioned, "Hey man, and 'don forget to follow us on Facebook for 'da latest coupons." If you've searched every library and still haven't found this Facebook and are sick of people around you talking about friend requests, it's time to break down and start Facebook. Eventually you know you will anyway.

The first thing to do to light your Facebook candle is go to Facebook.com and find their help button. Here you will also find a section that will guide you in getting started with opening up your account. Once you've decided on your user name and put in your email, you will have developed a profile. Once you get the confirmation email you can go to Facebook and log into your page.

At your profile you'll notice a place where you can visit your account. Click on that and proceed to Help Center > Getting Started and they will learn you on how to send friend requests, add photos, put up a profile pic, send messages and all the other plethora of options at your disposal now that you've sold your soul. As with anything, the easiest way to get accustomed to the different features of the site is to play around with them and gain experience. Last but not least, welcome aboard! There's no turning back now...

My mother swore she would never succumb to the Facebook epidemic and now she is glued to every new status update that flows through her page. My mum knows what's going on in everyone's lives, and has a lot more gossip to chat about to her real life friends. If you are thinking of joining here is my number one Facebook tip: please visit the Facebook help center before phoning your daughter at 2 am in the morning. (Hope you are reading this mum.)

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/4970924

Start a Facebook Fan Page for Enhanced Interaction - Business and Social

Facebook launched their Facebook Pages at the end of 2007 and it was a great success, is a great success still. Facebook fan pages are a God given blessings to small businesses. They can attract new contacts and thereby new businesses through developing their Facebook fan pages. Social sites are meant to be social - not selfish. Self-centered people are shunned by others. Likewise sites, let it be any social site, which brag about their merits and achievements only are shunned by the mass. Give others the chance to contribute something. Make the site interactive. That is the key to build a Facebook fan page.

You can just keep your fans coming back to your Facebook pages, by introducing interesting things into it. You can put up competitions with rewards; you can start some kind of debates or discussions etc. You have to keep your pages for fans live always. Never be tightfisted when praising some one on their achievement or winnings. Share your views, but without offending them.

Show them what an expert you are in your field of work or business, so that they look for you when a need arise. Another most important thing you must do is to keep you Facebook fan page updated always. It is needless to say that a stagnant pool gathers moss. In the same way, a Facebook page unattended for a few days will become stale and unattractive.

Introduce modern or newest ideas that your fans will share with their friends and thus help to increase you fan base.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/5477257

Using Instagram to Promote Your Business or Service

The first time I tried Instagram, I must have spent an hour going through all the different ways one can touch up a pictures. I sampled a photo against all the available filters, with and without frames, and tested how I could share my posts through other social channels. It amazed me, too, how quickly I gained followers after a short time, and of course the social media strategist in me wondered how I could utilize this neat tool for clients.

If you are not familiar with Instagram, it is an application that works exclusively with mobile as a photo sharing program. Users may download the app and post pictures - untouched or enhanced with filters that give the photos a retro look - to a public feed. As with most social networks, users can follow each other and like and comment on pictures. While one can access Instagram feeds through various websites, users can only add new photos through the app.

Since launching in late 2010, Instagram can claim over 30 million registered users and the interest of Facebook, which has bid to purchase the company for one billion dollars. Numerous services that allow users to turn their Instagram photos into postcards, stickers, and magnets have also launched in the last two years, further solidifying Instagram's influence in mobile.

As a business offering product or services, you may wonder how you can use Instagram to your benefit. The app is used for sharing photographs, so naturally your first inclination is to populate your feed with relevant photos and encourage likes and comments. The one challenge with Instagram is that one cannot link a photograph to another site, so you can't count on it for site referrals. You can, however, use the app to get people involved in sharing your brand.

Instagram users, like Twitter users, may often tag the photos they upload. One idea to promote your company would involve contests where users can tag a themed photo according to your contest rules. Not only have you branded yourself on the network, but you present the opportunity to go viral as followers of entrants pick up on the tag and the feed.

It's important to note, too, that Instagram may be integrated into Facebook pages and multi-purpose Web applications. You can set up an Instagram tab on your Facebook page to pull in pictures with a specific hashtag, and encourage users to tag their photos so they show. People who use Hootsuite, for example, can easily share Instagram photos through Facebook and Twitter profiles. Present the opportunity for people to share your photos - it makes for a nice contest that can go viral.

As people turn more to mobile application to communicate, your business needs to think outside the box and use social media to reach people. Play around with Instagram and see how it can benefit you.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7189348

Instagram Tips: 5 Unmissable Techniques To Get Massive Likes On Instagram

There has been a buzz going around the media world regarding the well known photo sharing app, Instagram. What exactly is going on?

Instagram (Photo Facebook) wants to make money using your information without telling you? Honestly, that should not be of any surprise. Instagram, the popular photo-sharing service that Facebook bought this year, is the target of a storm of outrage on Twitter and other sites after a change in its user agreement hinted that it might use shared photos in ads.

The main reason why:

Money, money, and more money.

Users don't realize that Instagram does not produce any monetary value. Instagram chooses not to rely on ads within the app to increase user experience. The company who created it did made 0.00$ and yet it had millions of users. It makes sense, as there are no ads or promoted links within the app.

Last September, Facebook bought out the company. The cash-and-stock deal was worth $1 billion when it was announced in April, though that fell to about $740 million by the time it was completed because of Facebook's falling stock price. That's almost a 300 million dollar loss.
Ouch.

It's not clear that anything substantive has changed in Instagram's new terms of service, which were posted Monday and go into effect Jan. 16.

As is the case before, the service reserves the right to use shared photos in any matter it likes, though the photographers keep "ownership" of the photos.

Of course, this launched a media and social frenzy as many users began to wonder about privacy issues.

Instagram announced the change in a blog post, but initially didn't explain its intentions. The updated terms suggests that Facebook wants to integrate Instagram into its ad-serving system, which can, for instance, promote an item by telling users that their friends "Like" it. This is fairly similar to Facebook's current ad-serving system. The new terms make it clearer that Instagram could use your photos to market to friends instead of a business.

However, yesterday, Instagram announced that it was miscommunication. They actually just wanted to experiment different aspects of advertisements.

Dodged a bullet there, Mark Zuckerburg. Facebook seems to have dodged a lot recently.

All in all, users are upset. So upset, that many similar photo sharing apps like the "flickr" app are receiving huge amounts of downloads within the last few days. But as everyone should know, posting pictures and information on the web believing it is private, is well, ignorant.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7431168

Facebook For Beginners