Profit Wildly with Starting a Business on Facebook

admin    Facebook     business, Facebook, Profit, Starting, Wildly

You probably heard of Facebook as a social bookmarking site, but did you know you could also start a business there? In fact, it is ideal. Think about that for a minute. Literally millions of users come to the site every day, and each of those users belongs to various groups and networks. They also use different side applications. With this type of social bookmarking site, they share their lives and interests with you, so that you can turn around and provide a service that will help benefit them.

Social bookmarking or networking absolutely requires that ethics be followed when you use the site to give your business exposure. First, you need to make sure that your actions do not violate any terms of service. If they do, change your approach so that you are not violating terms of service. This is your responsibility.

No matter what you want to accomplish, of course, make sure that you are not spamming anyone. You are not going to be successful this way and will just be an annoyance for people. In addition, you are probably going to be kicked off, which is exactly what you do not want.

However, if you use Facebook ethically and follow its terms of service, you should not have any difficulties.

Philosophy of Facebook in a Nutshell

To use Facebook properly to promote your business, you need to build your own community around your product, service, or profile. It is not going to work to simply slap together a bunch of links or a sales pitch, because people are going to go away in droves. Instead, what you want to do is to open your brand or company up and let people really see it; they want to have a good time there.

As an example, if your site is based around fantasy football, focus your profile on how much you love the game. You might also start a group utilizing -fantasy football- as its focus. Post your link to your fantasy football service in the group, and if someones interested, he or she is going to click on it.

If people learn to trust you and your voice, and they understand that you are on the site to get to know them, they will respond and will decide to use your service or buy your product.

If you want to further enhance your participation there, make a group more attractive, and encourage participation, you can add or create serious applications, hold meetings, post a poll, etc., and let group members discuss things amongst themselves so that they feel like they have a vested used in what is happening.

Facebook Can Give Your Service or Product Exposure

Most likely, what you are going to want to do is to use Facebook to get more exposure for your service or product. Use your site so that people become familiar with you and with what you are selling. One of the most important aspects of this is to use the site to help you -brand- yourself. Even if your product is a little bit mainstream and dull to the general population (such as if you run a bookeeping site or do something else with regard to finances), you need to do what you can to make sure that you have made your site (and your product or service) interesting to potential customers who will then want to go have a look.

Facebook works when you keep people interested and engaged in what you have to offer. You can do this with groups, applications, or by attracting customers who may be interested in you, based upon what you have in your profile.

Community Matters

If you want your online business to succeed with Facebook, think community. People want to belong, and this is true anywhere. It is a basic part of human nature to want to belong. Therefore, if you want your business to be successful, you cant sell your community a product. Instead, make your community understand that you want to belong, that you want to create something where people can go and participate in which are often.

People like new ideas, and want to know about them. They also want to find people who share similar interests with them. They want to establish a connection with others and form friendships on the site. If you use the site for business purposes, keep this in the forefront of your mind, because it is going to be what makes your business successful and will set it apart from others.

Using Facebook for Your Business

How, then, can you use Facebook for your business? There are several things you can do with your account, any of which could make you successful. If you decide to run a business from your Facebook account, choose activities that will dovetail with the goals you want to set.

Here are some things you can do with your account:

- Use your site for some affiliate marketing, as long as you do not violate the terms of use for Facebook when you do so.

- You can beta-test product there to see that will sell. Use feedback from friends on the site to make needed changes to the product so that it will actually sell.

- Use the groups, applications, networks and general site trends to figure out some new ideas for yourself.

- You can use your profile to get clients, if your business is something that needs to regularly attract new clients (such as if you have a housecleaning business or something similar).

- Promote your service or business.

- Test a product on a niche to make sure that it will sell well in that particular niche, and make changes if you can.

- Create a customer and user base

These are just some examples of what you can do to use Facebook to enhance or start your business.

Take a look at some companies that are currently using Facebook to promote their products or services. You will see that if they are successful, each is doing a few basic things. Use each of these ideas even as you keep the idea of building a community in the forefront of your consciousness.

Links

Of course, you can use Facebook to do affiliate marketing. What is affiliate marketing? You sell products other people have created and get a certain percentage of sales and commissions.

However, if you use Facebook to do affiliate marketing, you cannot post an affiliate link directly in your profile. Instead, put affiliate links in your blog and then put the link to your blog in the profile itself.

Facebook Is Expanding

Facebook is one of the fastest growing social networking and Web 2.0 sites out there. Primarily, it began as a site for college students, but it’s grown into an amazing Web 2.0 phenomenon.

Unlike some social bookmarking sites, Facebook actually encourages the idea that people can use their sites to build businesses. Developers and founders of Facebook primarily want to provide a positive user experience for everyone in the site, including business owners.

However, if you want to use the site in this way, you need to take a few precautions. You need to follow Web 2.0 and social bookmarkings rules, or you wont be successful.

Rumors About Financial Situations of Facebook

admin    Facebook     About, Facebook, Financial, Rumors, Situations

Does Facebook need cash badly? Has its growth caused to far outpace the revenue Facebook generates? All these any many more questions and rumors regarding the financial dire of Facebook are in the air these days. Although it’s against the policy of Facebook to comment on any sort of market speculations or rumors regarding its financial position.

But as there have been many miss conceptions recently about the financial status of Facebook so a few comments were passed about what Facebook had to say about the entire story. It was stated that Facebook is quite well stabled and very firmly positioned in the market. Resources have told that the revenue brought in by the company which was $150 million last year is expected to be much greater this year. A marketing research firm has given an estimate that Facebook will bring in about $265 million this year. Another close source to the company reveals that the revenue brought inn by the famous company would be at last $300 million which was earlier estimated by Facebook. The company has updates the market that its marketing business has a great depth and breadth  and just like any advertising business expecting 100% recession proof business isn’t possible, Avery close and proper management of the entire business is made sure to expand the number of hiring’s and the scale. The company says that a big number of our goals have been achieved and we are ready to set new targets new goals and achieve new milestones and they are desperate only to get greater success in business. The fact of Facebook’s extensive gain in popularity can not in any case be denied. But the problem occurs when its popularity in the US isn’t up to the mark. Only if the US market could be better for Facebook things can be much better because the international market for Facebook is pretty well already, But keeping in mind and consideration the present situations of the US market which seems to be tapped at this point in time gaining market share would definitely be quite difficult.

http://wwwfacebookster.com

How To Build A Highly Targeted Friend List on Facebook

admin    Facebook     Build, Facebook, Friend, Highly, List, Targeted

Most internet marketers realize that social networking sites are an important part of the online business strategy. However many times if you ask these same people what their exactly strategies are for using these sites, they don’t really have much to say.

If you will be using Facebook to promote your online business, you need to understand that you absolutely have to have a clearly defined strategy in place.

Using social networking websites to promote your online business puts the reputation of your business on the line. You want other social networking sites to have a good image of your business and the only way to do this is to use these websites in the correct way.

Spamming the websites with your advertisements is definitely NOT the right way to go about this. People who are spammers and also come across to users as insincere are quickly exposed on these websites.

Many times people seem to forget that the primary purpose of social networking sites is to be social and not to directly sell! The members of these social networking communities respect new members that have something worthwhile to say and will add value to the community.

This doesn’t mean that you can not promote your products on these websites. Yes, they can become a good source of sales revenue. However the only way that you will get to this point is to first focus on building relationships.

The Facebook Strategies Guide will show you how to apply very specific strategies that will help you to create a winning Facebook Page or Facebook Group that can help you to take advantage of the viral effects of Facebook in order to grow your business.

This guide also explains why different types of businesses need to use somewhat different strategies on Facebook to become successful.

Aside from using Facebook to create new customers, you will also learn how to use Facebook to develop relationships with the top leaders of your industry. This is probably the most important secret to using Facebook because it is nearly impossible to achieve exponential growth if you do not have the industry leaders as your colleagues.

By following this guide to the unwritten rules of Facebook you will avoid all of the mistakes that Facebook newbies make while trying to become popular on Facebook. Not only can using Facebook the wrong way put your business’s reputation on the line, it can also result in you getting banned from Facebook!

The Facebook Strategies Guide is a six book series that was developed by internet marketing experts to guide you through the difficulties of learning to use this site to your advantage. Stop wasting time trying to figure things out on your own by guessing and get ahead of your competition by reading this guide.

Investors, please do not try building another Facebook!

admin    Facebook     Another, Building, Facebook, Investors, Please

During the Worldwide recession the lotteries jackpots are still huge therefore people winning them still need to invest few million of dollars or euros or any other currency to some business Internet business is still one of the most attractive directions of investment. Now it is very difficult to create a competitive and successful e-shop, web design studio, online project management service or any other affiliation site because of huge competition. Some entrepreneurs still try to create social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, but majority fails. Does that mean that no one can repeat the success of Twitter or Facebook which started with very little budgets? Probably not, but only 1 of 100 attempts may succeed.

What about bigger chance of success? Let’s see what big social networks offer to people:

* Lots of contacts to choose from different countries, speaking different languages;
* Lots of interests to discuss using social networking tools such as micro-blogging, groups, forums, social bookmarking, file share etc.
* Unified communication features for all members;
* Generic forms of marketing and ads;
* Possibilities of using third parties applications (widgets) to satisfy specific needs.

When people have general interests in communication with people worldwide in own and general language huge social networks are the best solution. No one can beat Facebook or MySpace in traffic as they satisfy this communication thirst. However still remains the need for communication in local circle. Example is Hyves.nl social network in the Netherlands, which is more popular than Facebook or MySpace. There is a short presentation illustrating the local networks versus Facebook and MySpace usage.

The newest hype of WWW is Twitter – the simple micro-blogging platform with lots of the additional services around. Twitter is huge, but that is not going to last forever because of Twitter clones. Someone counted more than 200 of Twitter-like sites in different countries. That shows the power of the locally based similar services to giant social networks. If someone has a spare million of dollars, he/she should think about creating a local social network in some country or region (example of regional social networking success is Netlog.com – one of the most popular Social networks in Europe). Of course there is almost no market without competition (I doubt there is big market in Zimbabwe where people do not have electricity, not speaking about computers and internet), so it is good to analyze the market first.

If we look at the social networks list we can clearly see another interesting criteria – the interest based social networking. That’s the main competitor of big social networks, as they cannot provide the interface for every interest. All they can do is allowing third party widgets to be installed making the profile and management of the personal space messy and troublesome (look at the MySpace profiles). The interest based social network can be international; therefore it can be easily tested on some local markets first and then launched internationally. That makes management of investment easier and more effective.

What can be the main interests of people to be transferred to virtual space in the shape of social network with friends ties, status updates, blogging, picture, video exchange, bookmarking features, groups and chats etc.? Classmates, dating, blogging, job search are the main ones attracting huge amount of people, but still there are some other areas.

Let’s review it personally. I have a Russian Blue cat so I participate in such social network for cat lovers as UnitedCats.com (by local country, of course). If I would like to leave this network I would choose a brand new CuteAsHell social network for pets in general. Why I like this social network instead of Facebook Russian Blue Cats Group with almost 300 members? Because it has very nice features for cat lovers such as virtual gifts (all kinds of kitty toys and equipment what makes this gift feature unique), photo voting is called “Pat the cat”, blog can be written on behalf a cat or owner which make really interesting to read. Also I know that some of the participants of this community are professional cat breeders which can really give me help if my cat gets sick or I do not understand her character. Neither Facebook or MySpace cannot give me that.

I travel a little, therefore I participate in travelers social network WYAN.com where people share their reviews about countries, tours, day trips and of course shares pictures of the places of interest. I can easily make decision where to go and what to see. I always can share my plans and can even make some friends in that country to meet them once I arrive and hear another story about the country rather than tour guides tell. Probably I will have lots of troubles looking for similar information in Facebook and Myspace.

As a professional I have my profile in LinkedIn and participate in local professionals discussions as well as global ones. Here I can share my professionalism, participate in discussions about specific work related issues. Here I can find another job, or find the entrepreneurs for my business plan. Have you ever seen people who are hosting their resumes and CV in Facebook or MySpace? I have not.

As you can see the interest social networks are very good for sharing the personal interests and setting the communication among people with similar interest. In Facebook I always see my friends speaking about the things I am not interested or even do not understand (hear programmers speaking – if you are not in IT market their language will be like gibberish). In the interest social network I will always understand what my peers are talking about.

Investor should think if there are any interests which are covered quite poorly. For example pet social network market is quite saturated as some serious people made some investment. But maybe bikers’ social network still would make a nice ROI? There are always some profitable markets uniting golfers, cooking lovers, photographs, poker players etc. which must be investigated and some competitive social networks with unique tools created. Technologically it is not very difficult as there are so many open source systems with huge social networking add-ons collections.

Another important feature of new social media should be a flexibility to adopt new trends in case some phenomena like Twitter emerges in next couple of years. Status updates are so popular (like SMS in Mobile world), that every social network must have this feature and in some cases it must be better developed to fit the needs of specific interest. For example poker players community enjoy the icons of cards speaking about their hands, however Twitter cannot have any icons. So maybe poker related Twitter clone FTsweat could provide such feature? Very big attention must be paid for internal messaging system as it may become very powerful communication and marketing tool. Look at the MySpace example. They have 125 million of active internal messaging system users and once they will build a webmail service they will automatically become 3rd largest email provider in the World. Interest based social network may never do better email service as Yahoo or Gmail, but some handy features can keep some members using internal mail outside the social network space.

Creating social network is not enough. Every social network should have additional applications for third party websites – widgets and apps for iPhones and G-phones and all the rest new type of mobile devices allowing not to use computer for communication. Without them every social network is doomed sooner or later. But let’s leave this topic for future.

Summing up. If you are an investor, please consider creating local or quite narrow interest based social network in order to kick Facebook’s and MySpace’s ass. That’s not impossible. That’s better than wasting money creating one more Facebook or MySpace.

Making Money Online Using Facebook Ads

admin    Facebook     Facebook, Making, Money, Online, Using

So you wanna make money online? I don’t blame you, but how are you going to do it? Adwords? Maybe, but it’s getting harder to turn a profit. Yahoo Search Marketing? Sure, but they’ve been around for a long time and many of the niches are very saturated.

There is a brand new way of advertising your products and offers online called Facebook Ads. The program is brand new and has never been touched by marketers up until a couple of months ago. The program boasts paying the lowest CPC (cost per click) on the internet. With this said, my team investigated to see what type of results we received from promoting the same offers that we promote on Google and Yahoo. The results were amazing. It’s actually very possible to make money online using Facebook Ads.

Facebook did have a program called “Facebook Fliers” that was successful, but not well liked by internet marketers and promoters. The reason being was you had to pay per thousand impressions and not per click. Marketers decided that they would rather pay per qualified click rather than showing impressions to every bob, joe, and jane on the Facebook network.

Now, here comes Facebook Ads, where you pay per click. On top of paying per click, you are able to target your audience of viewers however you want to. You can target them based on age, gender, geographic area, school, hobby, anything! This option is great, because do you really want to be promoting a sports offer to a 16 year old female? Probably not. Facebook Ads has really changed how internet marketers are able to promote their offers and keep profit margins high.

Nobody knows what the future will bring for networks like Adwords, Yahoo PPC, and MSN Adcenter. The saturation of marketers, niches, and offers has become very high and the days of making thousands of dollars a day paying nearly nothing for your clicks are long gone. The internet is constantly changing and it seems that Facebook is doing their best to keep up with everything that is happening on the internet in relation to trends, marketers wants, and their users wants.

The main reason why Facebook is so successful is because of the popularity of their network. Close to 100 million high school students, college students, and other people are registered and log in every single day of the week. Facebook has become much of an addiction and a necessity across high schools and college campuses. By experts predictions, Facebook will continue to grow for decades to come. Their network includes every feature a teenager or college student could ever want to stay in contact with their friends. The evolution of Facebook Applications proved to be very successful by allowing developers to create their own applications and place them on Facebook.

If you can’t tell by my excitement towards Facebook, it’s really an amazing place to be right now if you are a marketer. The opportunities are abundant, all you need is a bit or originality to turn large profits.

How to Build an Impressive Social Networking Presence, Beginning With Facebook

admin    Facebook     Beginning, Build, Facebook, Impressive, Networking, Presence, Social

Professional and social networking sites like LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, and Squidoo are effective outlets for finding new readers, but it is easy to find your message spread thin if you don’t choose the right strategy. Many businesses settle for sparse profiles on various sites, never discovering the other powerful marketing tools many of these social networking platforms have to offer

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Home Page > Computers > How to Build an Impressive Social Networking Presence, Beginning With Facebook

How to Build an Impressive Social Networking Presence, Beginning With Facebook

Posted: Jun 27, 2008 |
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<br /> <h1>How to Build an Impressive Social Networking Presence, Beginning With Facebook</h1> <p> </p> <p><strong>By: <a href="http://www.articlesbase.com/authors/deltina-hay/52506" title="Deltina Hay's Articles">Deltina Hay</a></strong></p> <p> <br /> <!--articlecontent--> </p> <p><strong>About the Author</strong></p> <p> </p> <p>Deltina Hay is the principle of the companies Dalton Publishing and Social Media Power. She has worked in programming and Web development for 25 years. Ms. Hay’s graduate education includes computer science, applied mathematics, and psychology. If you’re looking to tap into the power of <a href="http://www.socialmediapower.com/social-media-web20-guide/">social networking and social media</a>, check out www.socialmediapower.com</p> <p class="tracker">(ArticlesBase SC #465034)</p> <p> </p> <p>Article Source: <a href="http://www.articlesbase.com/">http://www.articlesbase.com/</a> – <a href="http://www.articlesbase.com/computers-articles/how-to-build-an-impressive-social-networking-presence-beginning-with-facebook-465034.html" title="How to Build an Impressive Social Networking Presence, Beginning With Facebook">How to Build an Impressive Social Networking Presence, Beginning With Facebook</a></p> <p> <br />

Professional and social networking sites like LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, and Squidoo are effective outlets for finding new readers, but it is easy to find your message spread thin if you don’t choose the right strategy. Many businesses settle for sparse profiles on various sites, never discovering the other powerful marketing tools many of these social networking platforms have to offer

Marketing to Realtors – 6 Ways for Using Facebook

admin    Facebook     Facebook, Marketing, Realtors, Using, Ways

Marketing to real estate agents just got a little faster. Recently, a new marketing strategy started: social networking. During the past few years, loan officers have increasingly turned to creative tools like Facebook to impact their marketing to real estate agents. Realtors give opportunities to loan officers they have rapport with – why? Because people like doing business from people they like. This is as matter of fact as in business-to-business sales as it is in the business-to-consumer market. Facebook helps you to become mates – with loads of real estate agents in your local community.

Six Suggestions to Use Facebook For Marketing to Real Estate Agents

Listed here are 6 ways you may use Facebook to help your relationships – without trying to sell any service. This may be a new technique of marketing. Downplay the business side of your being on Facebook. Stress building rapport.

1. I know, that sounds paradoxical, but first, show you are human. Use Facebook to let your “friends” see you as somebody like them, somebody they can find common ground with, somebody they can like. Then, when they become ok with you, they are going to want to conduct business with you as they originally came to like and trust you.

2. Share a bit about your other interests. If you feel comfy doing so describe your hobbies and interests. Join groups that interest you. And act like a friend — think about them first: send resources and links related to their interests and post testimonials for them on their Facebook.

3. Invite Realtors to become Facebook friends. Skew your Facebook activities towards business by inviting peers to become “friends.” While you may invite family and pals outside of business, also ask customers & prospects to be pals. Additionally, you can invite people whom you need to get to know better. In addition, you can send out notices to members of your group.

4. Post business events like teleseminars, webinars, and even conventions. Send invites to them thru the Facebook Event Coordinator.

5. Use Facebook to do background research. Facebook provides amazing tools to research your clients, prospects and vendors. Use what Realtors openly share on Facebook to better know them.

Besides their profiles, Realtors on Facebook upload footage, write comments on their walls, and post what they do now. Here your buddies will generally tell you more about their private interests than the characteristic database researching all the general public records can tell you.

6. The last tip about using Facebook for marketing to real estate agents is to incorporate a signature on any messages you send pals just like you do on notes and regular letters.

In your signature, you can offer a free article or report and include a link. If they follow that link, it takes them to an opt-in page for newsletters from you. Then your autoresponder will send out regular messages or mailings in order that you can build a more robust rapport with them.

Facebook can be another method for marketing to Realtors so you develop more referral sources and close more loans.

The Truth About Facebook

admin    Facebook     About, Facebook, Truth

There are lots of social networking websites that you can participate in today like MySpace and Bebo, and they all have their pluses and minuses. The best way to choose a community to participate in is to evaluate the people who have already joined. To me, Facebook is certainly one of the best internet meeting places for networking, both socially and professionally. I also use Linked In and Myspace. Of all the social networks, Facebook is the best place when it comes to all around marketing and networking.

I have been using Facebook for the past two years, and it is a first-class tool for marketing to add to your marketing arsenal. Here are 10 tips to use on Facebook to introduce new people to your business for FREE!

1. Make an Attractive Profile: This is absolutely the FIRST thing that you must do to get noticed on Facebook . Think of your Facebook profile as part of your branding. A powerful profile will include a professional picture of you. Don’t use the one of you dressed as Santa Claus, unless that’s what your selling. Make sure your new Facebook profile is complete. Your profile should include your contact information, your website address (this is really important), education, work experience and your personal interests. A complete profile is the only way to go.

2. Add Friends: This is what sets Facebook apart – the ability meet new people, build relationships and sustain them. The more relationships you develop, the more satisfying your marketing efforts will be. You can use Facebook’s own tools to search for friends that already belong to Facebook. Once you add your friends, you can search for kindred spirits. Make their acquaintance, become their friend, build a relationship. One great thing on Facebook is that you can see friends of your friends. This will help you build a extensive network in no time.

3. Join Facebook Groups: You can join groups within Facebook that are similar to what you do. There are groups for consultants, councilors, and instructors. Almost every conceivable type of professional service provider has some kind of group on Facebook. I belong to several Facebook groups and have made hundreds of new contacts this way.

4. Create your Own Group: Can’t find a group that really fits your style? Create your own! You can add members, publish articles, begin some great discussions, and probably start quite a few important new relationships. And even if you find great group to belong to, start your own. This gives you the platform to be the trendsetter!

5. Syndicate your Blog Using RSS: You can syndicate your own blog on your Facebook profile page. This in essence means that every time you make a post, it will automatically show up on your profile page. More Exposure leads to More Readers leads to More Leads creates More Business. And the bonus is the back links to your site. I syndicate headlines from my 3 blogs on Facebook.

6. Comment on Other Peoples Profiles: Are you a follower or devotee of someone’s work? Reach out to them on Facebook! Many of my friends check their Facebook messages more constantly than their email. They are also more likely to respond to Facebook messages. Don’t feel quite right sending out a message to someone you don’t know? Don’t worry! Leave them a “just saying hi!” or “I love your work!” message on their wall. All profiles come with “virtual walls” where business associates can leave a comment. The more comments you leave on your friend’s profiles the more exposure you get!

7. List your Events: Speaking somewhere or Hosting a Teleseminar? Add an events page and invite everyone you know. You can even see who RSVPed and get feedback from your attendees. Marketing doesn’t get any simpler (or more inexpensive!) than this.

8. Send Virtual Gifts: Want to show your appreciation for someone? Send them a virtual gift. You can choose from a teddy bear to an egg that hatches a surprise gift over 4 days (plus tons of others). With all the Facebook applications for gift giving available, what are you waiting for. This is a clever way to build and nurture new relationships!

9. Use Some Cool Apps: Facebook has literally dozens of applications that were built just for the site. Quizzes, games, challenges and more. When you use an application, you get to invite your friends to use these cool mini applications (Apps). So just like number 8 above, this allows you another way to stay connected to your friends on Facebook. Again, this helps you maintain and nurture new relationships.

10. Create a Community: Perhaps Facebook’s greatest benefit is that it allows you to build a community. It provides you a group of people who are perpetually connected to you, and these friends are open to hearing what you have to say. Write on people’s walls, have conversation, and introduce them to each other. Start building your brand and leveraging Facebook for business building!

Facebook is a fantastic place to introduce yourself to lots of new people who may also become customers and/or clients. Just keep one thing in mind: don’t get too carried away and spend all your time there. Facebook is a tool, part of your online marketing plan. Use the tips above, use them wisely and have a little fun at the same time.

Social Media Marketing and Facebook

admin    Facebook     Facebook, Marketing, Media, Social

Why You Need A Facebook “Profile” (If You Don’t Have One Already)

Over the past few years, social networking sites enabled by Web 2.0 technologies have dramatically changed the way we use the Internet. What was once a one-way connection has transformed into a dynamic connective medium, allowing users to share a wide range of content including blogs, photos, videos, and much more.

Yet how have social networking sites like Facebook changed the way online marketers advertise online? For one, they’ve made our jobs much easier. Facebook is the ideal medium for advertising within an environment that’s viral by nature. These online social directories use an interactive format that allows users to create a personal profile, connect to other users, and share content.

In a sense, these users have already effectively segmented themselves, coming together through like interest groups and connecting through content. These behaviors, which are inherent to social media and enabled by Web 2.0, create valuable networks of targeted and specific demographic groups. Now more than ever, the “Net Generation” is becoming involved in social media and presenting online marketers with the chance to market to predefined segments of online users, positioning branded messages on sites where these users spend time online.

Moreover, these social networking sites are growing at an exponential rate, adding more and more users from more diverse backgrounds. Initially, Facebook was created only for college students, but last year, it was opened to anyone with an email address. According to Microsoft, Facebook is the sixth most trafficked site in the U.S., and now has over 73 million registered users in 40,000 different collegiate, high school, work-related, and geographic networks. This represents a 530% growth rate over one year alone.

The tactic through which advertisers communicate with these segmented online audiences is known as Social Media Marketing (SMM). SMM has become a popular tool for search engine optimization (SEO) thanks to its unique ability to improve website visibility, name recognition, and brand awareness among specific online audiences through the acquisition of a network of relevant links.

So what opportunities does Facebook present for targeted online marketing efforts? Among Internet users ages 18-24, Facebook placed first on the list of favorite sites in Youth Trends most recent survey. Over 70% of females ages 17-25 indicated that Facebook was their favorite site in terms of time spent online. For males, this figure was still a powerful 56%. These demographic is clearly technology-driven, thanks to their growing up in a culture that considers time online an integral aspect of daily life. More than half of those surveyed visited Facebook at least once a day, logging an average of 35 minutes on the site.

Furthermore, these users are familiar with online environments and are adept at seeking out and finding specific pieces of content they’re interested in. Thus, social networking sites, especially Facebook, present online marketers with the opportunity to engage users with advertising messages at critical moments of relevance.

So how can we utilize social media marketing to effectively engage these elusive audiences of young adults? Below are several ideas on how to utilize social media marketing on Facebook.

Connect Through Groups:

Facebook has an infinite number of shared interest groups which users join for a myriad of reasons. These groups cover an unlimited number of subjects and interests, from marine biology to snowboarding to politics to rap music to Italian food. No matter what your interest or target market, there is a group for you. Take it from me. I’ve been a registered Facebook user, or “Facebooker” since 2003, and I’ve seen a group for everything, literally. Many even have a local focus, like Denver Broncos fan groups or Denver Chinese Students Group. Each of these groups has its own page with a forum, discussion board, photo gallery, etc. This is the best place to position messages meant for specific niche audiences, as you’re almost guaranteed everyone who sees it fits your target profile. In the past, when I was trying to drive traffic to a video site I was working for, I placed descriptive and enticing links to relevant videos on the group’s “wall,” or discussion board. I saw great results as many of the members of this particular group, which was devoted to skiing, followed these links to watch videos about their favorite sport, skiing.

Connect Through Applications:

Recently, Facebook has opened up its platform to outside developers who have created innumerable applications, ranging from fantasy stock picking simulators to video games of “beer pong” to world maps marking desired travel destinations. Users can add as many of these applications as they like to their profiles, creating opportunities for marketers and developers alike to subtly integrate marketing messages into these applications and their functions. Many developers have already done so and are not doubt reaping some major benefits, not only through increased brand awareness but through traffic driven from Facebook, which many have bridged to their own sites.

Connect Through Content:

Because Facebook allows users to post videos, images, links, photos, and more, advertisers can seamlessly utilize social media marketing strategies to connect with these groups through content. By positioning your content where your target audience is, you can be assured your brand will be right in front of their eyes as they interact with your message. Facebook is a repository for an endless amount of consumer data, what many experts have dubbed “a community in a box.” So why not leverage this data by getting involved? Connect through content.

Connect Through Events:

As Facebook has grown, it has added an “Events” section where users can post information about upcoming events and then invite their Facebook friends to attend. The entire section of events is searchable, and users can quickly locate events they’re interested in, find the host’s name, location, time, and even a description of the event. What’s more, Facebook gives each event its own page, where users can RSVP, decline to attend, or even post information on the event page’s public discussion wall, like what to wear, what to bring, etc. This presents social media marketers with a valuable opportunity to post events and then invite people that are most likely interested in attending. In my own experience with this medium, I’ve created events for clients and then posted information and invites within groups that align. For example, when promoting an upcoming reggae concert or college football game, find as many groups related to reggae music, college football, music and sports that you can, and post the event information on their group discussion boards to ensure that anyone who’s interested now knows and attends.

Connect Through Mobile Devices:

Just this week, Facebook announced that it has partnered with RIM, or Research In Motion, and their BlackBerry device. In addition to BlackBerrys, Facebook is accessible to a wide range of other mobile devices. This presents valuable opportunities for advertisers to reach potential customers on a local level, positioning their company presence at the moment of relevance.

Still, Facebook’s explosive growth hasn’t been without challenges. In response to criticism from a plethora of groups, Facebook recently added additional security measures in an effort to better protect private information. In addition to assuaging privacy fears, this is sure to encourage more users to join the site and share more information about themselves. Yet this will also force social media marketers to be more innovative and creative when identifying and locating target audiences.

As you can see, Facebook users have taken care of the segmentation process, connecting themselves through content and shared interests. These behaviors, which are inherent to social media and enabled by Web 2.0, create valuable networks of targeted and specific demographic groups. Now more than ever, the “Net Generation” is becoming involved in social media and presenting online marketers with the chance to market to predefined segments of online users, positioning branded messages on sites where these users spend time online.

The company I work for, Fusionbox, uses social media marketing to combine the objectives of Internet marketing with the capabilities of social media sites and Web 2.0 technologies. Click here for more information on social media marketing.

Essentially, our SMM services create powerful forms of viral marketing that leverage the large audiences and user communities of social media sites. Whether on MySpace, YouTube, Digg, Facebook, Del.icio.us, Flickr, or any number of others, SMM revolves around the creation and connection of users to companies through unique content.

For this reason, SMM can be utilized to build a network of links, spread brand messages, increase visibility and awareness, and even manage your company’s reputation online. After all, these social media sites each have millions of registered users, grouped into like-interest communities. Now all you have to do is discern where your target audience is congregating online. What more could a marketer ask for? No other channel allows companies to declare their identity, service offerings, value proposition and location within such a targeted environment.

Our team of experienced and innovative social media marketers will effectively position your website content in a targeted digital space where it will be seen by those you want to see it.

Fusionbox is a leader in applying Web 2.0 technologies to the Internet marketing domain. Our services have been aptly deemed Web Marketing 2.0 because of our ability to connect clients to customers by engaging the market and initiating conversations through social media.

Facebook Business Applications and Marketing Tools – Even Create Your Own

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The idea behind using a social networking site as Facebook as a venue for doing business is building a user base in the form of a community who respond to you as a person or to your product. If you just turn your page into one big advertisement, you are not going to get much in the way of a response. You need to educate people about the product without coming across as a hard sell.

You want to create the impression that you are here for socializing, not business. People will come to trust you and be more likely to buy your product or service if you can do this.

Facebook has built in tools which can be used to build your business. These include:

- Social Ads

- Pages

- Beacon

- Insights

- Platform

- Polls

These tools can help you to build awareness of your brand through this social networking site and bring in potential clients. Needless to say, you are going to have to learn to use them effectively. Read on to find out how to harness these tools to build your business using social networking sites.

You can learn how to take further advantage of these features by visiting the facebook website business section.

SOCIAL ADS

Social ads have a lot of promise for building your business since they can go directly to the news feeds of your Facebook friends. Anyone who is on your friends list will be able to get the word about your business right on their profile page.

This is also a very easy way of target marketing. You can control exactly who sees your ads – and target marketing is the way to get sales.

FACEBOOK PAGES

You can make a Face book page for a business, just as you would for yourself. This allows people to interact with and even become friends with your business. It is a great way to make a lot of people aware of your product and your brand who would not otherwise.

You know when someone becomes friends with your business on Facebook that you have a potential client; at the very least, they have shown some interest. People can interact with your business as they would with any of their other social networking site friends – they can leave comments and generally enhance the experience of a visit to your page.

You can use this social networking site to your best advantage by adding features that will appeal to your target market and fit in with the brand image you are aiming to create. Quizzes, games, a Facebook group and so on.

FACEBOOK BEACON

Like social ads, Facebook Beacon gives you the ability to build your business by promoting yourself via your Facebook friends news feeds. You can set Beacon to notify all of your Facebook friends whenever you have a new product available, or any other sort of news or information you would like to disseminate amongst your Facebook friends. All you need to do is to add a little code to your Facebook page (this can be done by copy and paste, so no need to panic).

This encourages more interaction with your page, the website of your business and your company in general. This also helps get the word out about your businesses product or service.

Do not fret that you will be mercilessly spamming your Facebook friends and invading their privacy – they can opt out of these updates at any time they choose. You of course have the same ability for Facebook Beacon updates from others.

FACEBOOK INSIGHTS

If you are using facebook as a method of promoting your business you will of course want to know just who is checking out your Facebook page, clicking on your ads and joining your friends list. Facebook Insights is a tool which can give you a lot more detail on these sorts of statistics, which can help you to evaluate the efficacy of your campaign.

Armed with this information you can make the call as to whether viral marketing is working in your favor. Word of mouth is one of the best means of advertising and Facebook can facilitate it on a large scale. Facebook Insights lets you figure out what parts of your campaign are working and which are not as well as giving you valuable demographic information which will help you refine your campaign further.

FACEBOOK PLATFORM

Facebook Platform is an exciting tool for business indeed. Programmers can use this tool to build programs which will work with Facebook and add to the usefulness and fun of your Facebook page. If people like what you have on your page, they will spread the word and this build your client base.

You can add all manner of different applications to your site using this platform. Many opt for games, quizzes and other interactive features. You can have a look at the Applications page on the Facebook site to get an idea what sort of things others are using the platform for. These kinds of features can really help you build your brand image; take advantage of them.

FACEBOOK POLLS

Facebook polls can be a great way to gather demographic information from people using the site. Since you can make the poll interactive and fun to use, you’ll have no trouble gathering data. Best of all, you can target your polling.

You can make sure your polls are targeted just where you want them to be since you already have access to some data such as marital status and age of your Facebook friends. This helps you keep your polling relevant.

Do not forget about these valuable tools – they can really help out your business.

Anyone who is willing to put in just a little bit of effort can make their own applications for Facebook. You just need to learn Facebook Markup Language – there are plenty of tutorials online which can help you learn the ropes of this quickly.

Remember to have a look through what is already out there in terms of Facebook applications before you develop your own. If everyone is already using a very similar application, not too many of your fellow facebook users will be enticed by it. Do something a little different if you want to grab the attentionof people.

CREATING APPLICATIONS FOR BUSINESS

With just a little bit of programming know how, anybody can make and distribute their own applications. You’ll be doing this to build your business and it can make a big difference. Applications can really draw in people and keep them on your site. Games are especially popular and can build your brand while keeping users engaged and entertained.

You would be unwise to neglect the use of these applications available to you through Facebook. They can help get the word out about your business – and that is why you made a Facebook page for your business in the first place, no?

You will also be building a sense of community amongst all of these potential customers which will help you get sales.

Here are a few tips for getting the best results from your applications:

1) Make it relevant

In marketing, relevancy is everything. If your potential customers can not get into it, or if it is unclear how the application ties into your product or service, rethink your application.

2) Privacy policy

Even if they are on facebook to socialize, people still want their privacy to be respected. This is why there are friend lists and groups, to which one must be invited. Privacy is a natural human desire and Facebook facilitates this while still allowing for socialization. Remember to respect the privacy of users and retain that trust you have worked so hard to build with them.

3) Free distribution

Once your application is finished and ready to go, you will distribute it. You can do this by listing it on the site along with all of the other Facebook applications and then invite others to install it. If your facebook friends like your application, they will spread the word.