Showing posts with label Social network. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social network. Show all posts

Saturday, October 13, 2012

How to Use Facebook for Business - Your Quickstart Guide for Getting Customers Fast (Social Media for Business)


How to Use Facebook For Business:
Your Quickstart Guide for Getting New
Customers Fast (Image via Amazon aStore)
With Facebook you can identify exactly who wants your products and then actively attract them, according to Wynne Pirini in this book. Facebook enables people to voice their opinion about your business to hundreds of their friends instantly, and you can choose to take control of this new frontier, or you can leave it to others to influence what the market thinks about your business.

This short ebook focuses more on the practical steps involved in getting started on Facebook rather than the philosophical aspects or the broader business consequences. The author uses clear instructions and helpful illustrations to show how to set up a personal profile, how to set up a business fan page, how to advertise to a targeted audience, how to use images to enhance engagement, and why Facebook Apps are useful.

There mere use of Facebook does not guarantee a return for a business. Many of the advertisements currently appearing on the site are a waste of space. In order to succeed, a business needs to find a creative way of engaging customers and potential customers. Some businesses are naturally more interesting than others, but the book does give some hints as to engagement strategies that might work even for boring businesses.

Before reading the book I was of the opinion that it was not worthwhile for most businesses to devote resources to Facebook. Facebook ads are usually not appealing or very relevant. But now I am not so sure. There is endless scope for low-cost experimentation, and with sufficient expertise and ingenuity it clearly is possible to create a campaign that achieves results. If you have not already experimented with a Facebook fan page, this book provides a handy step-by-step guide for you to follow.


Article Source:
http://www.amazon.com/review


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Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Marketing via Social Media: What Professional Firms Should Know

SAN FRANCISCO - NOVEMBER 15:  Facebook founder...
SAN FRANCISCO - NOVEMBER 15: Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg speaks during a special event announcing a new Facebook email messaging system at the St. Regis Hotel on November 15, 2010 in San Francisco, California. Facebook will launch a new messaging system aimed at enhancing it's social media product to its 500 million users. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife)
The recent explosion of Social Media - Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook, in particular - has probably caused enough head scratching and unease among marketing directors to last them a lifetime. How does Social Media actually work? Who does it reach? How influential is it? What happens if you ignore it? How should it be used? And how much time should be devoted to feeding it? Nobody seems to have clear answers to these questions, and the few that do, speak a language that most ordinary human beings struggle to understand.

Marketing heads at large professional organisations, by which I mean commercial law firms, accountancy firms and financial services companies, are as concerned about Social Media as anyone else - which, on the face of it, is surprising, because traditionally these outfits have relied upon a relatively discreet universe of mainly corporate clients. Their business relationships are built on face-to-face contact (not Facebook to Facebook contact) and often long histories of proven service. Nevertheless, the perception exists that Social Media is an arena in which every serious player has to be visible, as if to be invisible there would mean being invisible everywhere - an unforgivable capitulation in this age of mass communication. Just such preoccupations drive much of the current interest in Social Media: a fear of missing out, of seeming out-of-touch, rather than excitement at the arrival of a new marketing opportunity. So is the promise really there? And are the fears justified?

The first thing to remember about Social Media is its name: not Marketing Media, but Social Media. The reason sites like Facebook caught on in the first place was not because people saw an interesting new opportunity to go shopping. They saw it as a way to keep in touch with friends old and new, and to reach out to people with similar interests. Though discrete retailing of one kind or another has crept on board, most users says they don't like it. The exception here is cultural product: music, films, books and (to a lesser extent) video games. But even here - very much at the mass consumer end of things - the amount of promotion users will tolerate is limited. Any marketing that firms do attempt must be discreet, as well as useful, readable and current. Achieving all this is easier said than done.

Saturday, September 22, 2012

Likeable Social Media: Branding Facebook

English: Infographic on how Social Media are b...
English: Infographic on how Social Media are being used, and how everything is changed by them. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I am a 21-year-old marketing major graduating college in less than six months who helped my college design curriculum for an e-commerce course featuring social media.

When approaching books about social media, I am hesitant to spend my hard-earned money on a book that tells you what you already know about Facebook and Twitter. Likeable Social Media was the first book of five I purchased in the business and social media field.

Mr. Kerpen is a talented writer and complements his discussions about what it means to be a "likeable" brand with positive and negative anecdotes. It's a fairly quick read with frequent content headers, screenshots from Facebook and easily-digestible highlights to share with coworkers (such as the "10 Reasons Why Consumers Like Fan Pages on Facebook).

There are other books and resources out there that give more concrete how-to's and a step-by-step guide to undertaking social media. If you are looking for content focused around these areas, seek out whitepapers and ebooks from social media monitoring companies who will gladly hand you the information for free in return for your contact info.

Hands down, the best asset of this book is its appeal to different audiences. While you could place this book in the hands of a CEO to show them the power of social media, I as a 21-year-old digital native confident in my knowledge of social media was able to walk away with roughly 10 pages of notes and suggestions.

Likeable Social Media left me not only encouraged but empowered to undertake the creation of a social media strategy for a company.

Where this book falls short is a lack of diversity. Discussions surrounding Facebook dominate this book--and rightfully so given its place as the top social network. I would have liked to see more discussions on the power of Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+ in the same scope Facebook is discussed. I do understand though that this book was published in 2011 and things have drastically changed even since then.

However, I still rate this as a five-star book. What's incredible to me is how connected and committed Mr. Kerpen is to this book and building an engaging community. He practices what he preaches. Recently, I tweeted a friend with a suggestion to read this book. Within five minutes, I had a personal tweet sent to me from Mr. Kerpen thanking me for recommending his book.

Mr. Kerpen clearly gives those working in social media a blueprint on how to be more "likeable" and lives it out in his own social, online life.

Article source:
http://www.amazon.com/review/

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Thursday, September 20, 2012

Facebook Fan Page Marketing Tips


Make the most of your brand's Facebook fan page
with these
Facebook marketing tips
(Photo credit:
Social Network Asia)
As you're probably aware, Facebook fan page marketing is what most people are talking about in the online world at the moment. However, are most doing it correctly? That reality is no, they are not! There is an art and science to marketing on Facebook and building relationships but most never fully get it.

Here are some tips to help you on the fast-track to getting new customers.

Don't be a jerk and spam people! No one likes an annoying person so don't be that guy/girl. If someone didn't subscribe your status updates, don't pressure them to and send them info without permission. This is a big no-no and will get you kicked off of Facebook fast.

Get a professional background created.

This will help your Facebook fan page marketing more than you realize. It sets the stage for interaction later on. Don't be cheap on your design either. Trust me, you don't want that to be the first impression someone gets of your business.

Get a custom Facebook landing page built

This serves two purposes. One, it will get the prospective new customer to "like" your page. This will allow any status updates you post to appear in their news feed. This helps you have top of the mind awareness with them and be able to provide value their way.

Purpose number two of the custom Facebook fan page is to capture a name and an email. This allows you to keep in contact with the prospective customer on your own terms off of social media. This is essential! You have to get them onto a separate list.

A good thing to do is to offer something of high value in exchange for the leads name and email. You can offer a free report or video training. It's up to you, just make it valuable.

Get traffic

Use the Facebook sponsored ads platform to drive traffic to your fan page. This is very easy to set-up and target to your market. There are literally dozens and dozens of ways to bring visitors to your page / site but pay-per-click runs on autopilot. You can turn it on and turn it off when you want.

Other forms of traffic you can use to get more fans are email marketing, videos, online forums, press releases, articles, blogging, and Google Adwords.

Measure conversions

Always test your Facebook ads and track your conversions. If traffic is king, conversion is surely queen. See which ads perform better than others. You always want to strive for the highest click-through rate.

Using the above Facebook fan page marketing tips will get you more fans and allow you to turn them into actual paying customers quickly.

Discover how to get a flood of new customers each month with Facebook fan page marketing. For the latest free tips and Facebook marketing strategies that work, visit Social Network Asia's blog now!


Article Source:
http://EzineArticles.com/6105442

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Saturday, September 15, 2012

Using Instagram App to Increase Engagement


Instagram - Android Apps on Google Play
By now, you no doubt will have heard of the popular photo tool Instagram. This is an app available for smartphones that allows users to add visual effects to their pictures before sharing them through social media. Recently, Instagram has also emerged as a useful business engagement tool. It has excellent digital PR potential, so here are five ways brands can use the app to increase engagement.

Photo competitions

One great option for brands using Instagram is to hold photo competitions and encourage users to enter. The app is very easy to use and plenty of people have access to it, so there's every chance you'll get a good response - especially if there is an attractive prize on offer for the winner. This sort of competition can also lead to greater exposure, particularly if entrants share their photos on their own social media pages.

Brand marketing

Companies can also use Instagram pictures for their brand marketing. For example, as well as engaging a SEO agency to make sure a brand can be found in search engine results, a company could add extra appeal to their marketing with eye-catching Instagram pictures of products. These can be integrated into a social media strategy in order to encourage engagement.

Event promotion

Another way to encourage engagement using Instagram is to harness people power around upcoming events. By tying in with pre-defined and branded hashtags companies can invite users to upload their own photos of the event along with the relevant hashtag thereby igniting conversation amongst your target audiences.

User photos

At the start of 2012, Instagram had 15 million users. Now it has 50 million. This rapid growth, plus the fact that many people love to share photos through social media, means that you can easily find social media users who also use Instagram. Sharing cool user photos on Facebook and Twitter can be a good way for brands to engage with new people and let them know that they're appreciated. For instance, as well as running the more traditional photo competitions discussed above, you could get people to send in their favourite pictures on the understanding that you'll share the best - giving your users publicity as well as helping to promote your brand.

Behind-the-scenes info

Finally, some brands are also using Instagram to share behind-the-scenes pictures of their offices to give people more insight into what they do and help spread a more human image of their brand.

A growing number of social media agencies are using Instagram to promote their brand, and so it's definitely worth checking it out to see what the app could do for your company.

Article Source:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Five-Ways-Brands-Are-Using-Instagram-to-Increase-Engagement&id=7146614

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Social Networking Tips for Businesses

Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...
Image via CrunchBase

Social networking is gradually evolving, facilitated by the technological developments. This is clearly understood when we visit the websites of companies that have all facilities in place, right from the product knowledge to the promotions, from providing knowledge to collecting responses and suggestions. Besides the major activities like advertising and promotions, companies nowadays indulge in activities like sales promotion incentives on the internet; these companies offer coupons, contest and sweepstakes to spread their social networks.

Social networking allows interaction with professional in an informal way. It's the easiest way to reach hundreds at a time without any expenditure. The power of social networking cannot be underestimated. The best social networking tips for businesses are as follows:

1. Quitting traditional networking mode - The first of social networking tips for businesses is to quit traditional networking mode and use the latest technology. You can set up a blog in your company name and get the feedback of the customers. It helps the company to have access to the global marketplace and identify the target audience with minimal effort. It provides wider reach with personalized messages and two way interactions.

2. Using facebook for business - The second of social networking tips for businesses is to use facebook. Facebook is the recent growing social networking medium. It is being accessed by thousands of people for business networking. You can create a company page and keep on updating it. Make it a page where your fan would go and checkout the page. When it comes to business, face book has always been the first choice of any businessman.

3. Using twitter - The third of social networking tips for businesses is to use twitter. Twitter is a fast growing and powerful tool used for business. It helps to create direct contact with the potential customers and provides them with the quick updates. It acts as an advertising channel and is quite safe and handy.

4. Highlight your expertise on forum - The fourth social networking tips for businesses is to use forums. forums are best networks to advertise your USP. It should be interesting and voice something to create your credibility. Reasonable comments received in it are highly acknowledged and recommended as an expert's advice.

5. Privacy online - The fifth social networking tips for businesses is to use Privacy Online. The top professional sites helps you to provide and offer high privacy setting. Every detail is personalized and is safe here. However the information should be filtered carefully.

6. What is necessary to post and what is not - The last social networking tips for businesses is to understand that there should not be any personal comments about the product. Through the response you receive, it is essential to target the audience of personal interest.

Social networking is used as a weapon, and it creates such a powerful wave of positive feelings that even strongest competitors cannot stop customers from buying their products. It creates a corporate identity in the minds of the people about the product. There are many social networking tools like face book, twitter, privacy online etc which can be used. All these networking tools can help you to build a strong relationship between the customers and the intermediaries. It creates a corporate identity of a person and helps him to face the competitive advantage. Another factor that helps is sponsorship. It is a sort of agreement in which the sponsor facilitates the activity of the person or the team or the organization sponsored. Sponsorships are valued because they contribute towards public awareness and create goodwill by promoting positive messages for the company and its product.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/marketing/article_5181.shtml

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Friday, September 14, 2012

Internet Marketing Tips on Social Networks

"Robin Sage" as she appeared on soci...
"Robin Sage" as she appeared on social networking pages. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Marketing on social networks requires more of a focus on the human element since its more about building relationships then it is your technical knowledge. There's no way around it, social networking for business requires building trust with others which requires time and interpersonal skills. You notice I did not say effort since making 'friends' should be more an act of enjoyment and not regarded as labor!

In order to get the best results when social networking for business here are 3 things you will need to do.

Exercise Patience

Take off your selling shoes and pull up a chair so you can get to know people. Building relationships is an absolute must to even get notice on any social sites and as you know this takes time. Even if you are only social networking for business time must first be taken to develop some type of bond with others or you will be invisible to them and useless to your business!

Establish Credibility

The bonds you do develop need to be meaningful insofar as maintaining a knowledgeable, professional and always helpful profile. For any marketing attempts to be successful people must first have some confidence that you know what you are talking about and that your intentions are good and not all business. Your best results will come ONLY after you have taken the time to develop this good reputation with others.

Develop Trust

The most important 'component' of the reputation you develop is trust! As touched upon above your reputation must be a positive one that reflects credibility but building trust is just as, if not more important. If people can not trust in you then any efforts you put into social networking for business will be wasted. People can not be expected to part with their hard earned money if they lack faith in you so obviously building trust is a priority. The best way to achieve this trust is to make a habit of being helpful or freely offering any type of information that may be of use or interest to others. Do so without any expectations of receiving anything in return and people will quickly regard you in a trustworthy manner. Besides, it feels good to be helpful to other!

There is no need for technical skills when marketing on social networks just simply be willing to pull up a chair and stay for a while. Tapping into the viral potential of these communities will require building relationships with others first and this will take time and patience. By building trust with people in this way simply makes it easier to effectively promote to them in the future. It is very important to remember these are in fact social communities therefore your acceptance MUST precede any marketing efforts. Once this acceptance is earned by following the 3 suggested steps above it will make social networking for business a breeze for you!

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/marketing/article_6710.shtml

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Effective Social Media Marketing Tips

English: Stephen Monaco speaking about Social ...
English: Stephen Monaco speaking about Social Media Marketing (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Social media marketing is the very effective tool for marketing your products. There is no other alternative marketing strategy for social media marketing. Hence social media marketing is indispensable for any online business. Social media marketing needs a different approach when compared to the other online marketing strategies. For a social media marketing campaign to be successful, it is very much important to understand the tactics that work better. This article is all about the effective social media marketing tips.

1. Creating unique profiles in Social Networks

Social networking sites like myspace and facebook have great importance in business promotion. This part of social media marketing can get lots of traffic to your website along with building credibility among people worldwide. The social networks are now crowded with the online marketers and hence it is important to highlight your profile in the crowd. Though there are lots of customization options available in the social networking sites itself, it is always good to get some professional help for advanced customization. These social media marketing professionals will be able to provide you will very unique profiles which will get noticed by the social media crowd immediately.

2. Don’t try to sell anything in the Social Networks

Many social media marketers just advertise their products through their social media profiles. This is a wrong move. Social networks are for connecting to people and not for advertising the products, Hence your main motive in the social networks should be to connect to as many people as possible. The traffic to your website and the credibility to your services/ products will eventually increase as your networks grow.

3. Don’t leave any social media profiles unattended

Active participation is a basic necessity of any social media marketing campaign. Just creating some profiles in a handful of social media sites doesn’t do any good. You should post some content to the social media profiles frequently and make them look lively. Always remember the fact that Google crawls the profiles that are frequently updated. Moreover, the visitors of your profile will love to see many updates. You should also involve in activities like participating in polls, posting in forums, making comments and connecting with the people of similar interest.

Social Media marketing is a time consuming process and for the moment of truth it is really worth the time you spend. If you don’t have enough time for social media marketing in your tight schedule, there are professional social media marketers who are ready to help you. To the added advantage, these professional social media marketers can analyze your website and create the best marketing strategy. By paying them a nominal fee, you can just sit back and relax, watching your network grow along with the web traffic and business.

Article Source:
http://www.articlecity.com/articles/marketing/article_4420.shtml

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