| Hugo Cabret | New Year's Eve |
|---|---|
| Alvin and The Chipmunks: Chipwrecked | Mission : Impossible - Ghost Protocol |
| Sherlock Holmes 2 | The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo |
| The Adventures of Tintin: Secret of the Unicorn | We Bought a Zoo |
| A Very Harold and Kumar Christmas | |
Invite All Facebook Friends to Help Your Brand – A SPN Exclusive Article
By Coen Smith in Facebook
Can Facebook friends really help brands? The answer may be obvious to some, or not that obvious to others, but online marketers believe that brands doing social media marketing can gain plenty of benefits especially when they invite all Facebook friends of their fans to engage with them. This marketing strategy maximizes the reach of a brand, and globally if need be.
Loyal consumers are what brands desire but one doesn’t become a loyal consumer overnight. It takes some time, and it starts at some point in time. Hence, brands must continue reaching out to new consumers and converting them to repeat consumers. Highly satisfied consumers could themselves advocate for the brand among their friends, a manifestation of the true value of Facebook friends to a brand.
Yes, the value of a Facebook fan is not that easy to determine in terms of money, but attempts have been made by some companies to compute it. One social media marketing platform used the ratio of number of fans to wall posts, and came up with a low figure. At least two companies, however, showed high figures when they identified other key factors such as brand loyalty and product spending.
The formula for assessing the value of a Facebook friend may not yet be discovered but online marketers are working on this. Of course, it’s not all about the number of Facebook friends that a brand gets; this, in fact, could be a negative rather than a positive indicator, as experienced by a couple of consumer brands that had to address a problem in public relations – they were getting plenty of “friends” who wanted to join the other discontented consumers. It’s not also just the number of “Likes” that a brand gets.
Perhaps the key element is not really quantity but quality. Brands that engage their consumers with meaningful marketing conversations have done better sales. And this is where creativity in Facebook can come in for the brands. A Facebook friend that “Likes” a brand for the first time is the first step in making that friend into a loyal customer. Hence a creative approach is needed by the brand to hold the attention of that friend.
How can brands build up loyalty in its fan base and gain more friends from its fans? A few time-tested marketing strategies can still work in the online world. These include providing content that forms habit-forming behavior among consumers so they keep on coming back for more, recognizing fans that help the brand in spreading the good news about it, and rewarding loyal customers with exclusive deals. By thinking like their customers, brands can come up with programs and deals that work both ways. This way satisfaction can also be achieved not only online but in the real world as well.
What’s nice about Facebook for brands is that there are some 800 million users worldwide and starting a brand page entails little or no cost at all. The potentials for a vast audience and good return on investment are there. It’s not uncommon for a brand to have a few million fans especially if the product has a wide appeal and becomes popular. Of course, the brand’s Facebook page should provide useful, and even entertaining, content. This will reach out to the fans and achieve engagement that ultimately leads to sales. All comments on the wall should be read and taken into consideration by the brand.
A brand can win more Facebook friends by being a Facebook friend, socially active and reaching out. This will encourage fans to engage with the brand, making communication easier. Posting photos, sharing news and stories, and commenting on comments are all part of the social media activities. Naturally, a brand that’s just starting out on Facebook won’t have a sizeable number of fans at the outset, so it should collect friends and invite the friends of its friends.
The value of individual Facebook users can’t be underestimated. They are potential customers, as well as potential promoters of the product. The brand that can keep a loyal base on Facebook can reap rewards not found elsewhere, so it’s best to act like a friend to a friend in this social media. Yes, brands should invite all Facebook friends as they can, but they can’t sacrifice quality over quantity. It’s also good to remember that Facebook friends can unfriend a brand if satisfaction is not achieved. Worse, Facebook friends who are unsatisfied may spread their discontent among their friends. There’s now a good deal of interaction on Facebook going on between brands and their friends, and more brands are joining and becoming active in social media marketing. Perhaps a question for Facebook is: Will it be able to sustain a good environment for an ever increasing number of brands?
Coen Smith is into Web site designs, SEO and Facebook Applications (such as Facebook Layouts). His latest exploits are Google Plus Backgrounds and Facebooking101.If you want to pimp up your Facebook and Google pages, logon to http://fbexpressions.com/, http://www.facebooking101.com/blog/, and http://www.plusbackgrounds.com/ now!
10 Ways to Get More Fans on Facebook
By Joy Bing Fleming in Facebook
Have you created a Fan Page, but now you’re wondering – “How Do I Get People to ‘Like’ my Page?” If so, you’re not alone. Many people struggle with getting Fans. Here are 10 ways to get more Fans.
1. Create A Customized Welcome Page – Creating a Customized Welcome Page is an excellent way to increase your number of fans. Statistics show that it will help you turn 72% of your visitors into fans.
To create a custom page, you can use the Facebook application, Static HTML iframe tabs.
If you’re not familiar with HTML code, then you can go to Pagemodo.com. Pagemodo is free, and they have ready-made templates that you can use. So, all you have to do is just pick a template.
There’s also a website, Woobox.com, where you can add sweepstakes, coupons, and more to your Fan page.
2. Email your current customer list & invite them to your new Fan page – You can send a nice email out to your current list letting them know about your new page, and you could say something like – I would be honored if you would click ‘like’ to become a fan of my new page (and make sure to include a link to your page).
3. Post Links on your Social Media Profiles like Twitter, LinkedIn, & Your Personal Profile on Facebook – For example, in your Bio on your Facebook Personal Profile, you could include something like: Come hang out with me on my Fan page at: facebook.com/______________. In your Twitter or LinkedIn Bio, you could type: Connect with me on FB at: facebook.com/____________.
4. Use Facebook as Your Page - When you login to Facebook, you can click the down arrow in the upper right-hand corner next to “Home”, then click “Use Facebook as Page”. When you click on this, you will now be interacting with people as your Page (NOT as you personally). So, a strategy that will help you get more fans is to click “Use Facebook as Page” and then comment on other Fan Pages as Your Page.
5. Use Facebook Ads – You can always purchase ads on Facebook to drive traffic to your Fan page. If you use this strategy, make sure to target your ads appropriately and start out small. Start out by only spending a few dollars a day and testing out different ads, so you can determine which ads work best for you (before you spend a lot of money).
6. Add the Facebook “Like” Box to your Website – When you add this to your website, then people can click “like” and become a fan of your Page (directly from your website). When people come to your website and they see that you have a large following on your Fan page, that also helps build up your credibility.
7. Ask Friends to Share your Page – All Fan pages have a “Share” link on the left-hand side of the page. You can always ask your friends to come to your page & click on the “Share” link. This way, your friends can share your page with their followers.
8. Add Your Fan Page Link to your Email Signature – If you do this, then every time you send an email to someone, they’ll see your Fan Page link in your signature. So, they can easily click on the link to go to your Fan Page.
9. Invite Friends – On the right-hand side of every Fan page, there’s an “Invite Friends” link. Simply click on that link in order to invite your friends to become a Fan of your Page.
10. Create an Event Launching your Page – You can create an Event called something like: “Launch of the _______ Page”. When creating the Event, in the More Info section, you could type 1 sentence about your Fan page and then type: I would be honored if you could click ‘like’ to become a fan of my new page at: facebook.com/____________” (Always include a link to your page. If you don’t include the link, then people may not know where to go to access the page).
When you’re Selecting the Guests to invite to your Event, you’ll see a link to “Add a Personal Message”. I recommend clicking on that link & typing the same thing again: I would be honored if you could click ‘like’ to become a fan of my new page at: facebook.com/____________
If you have your Fan page Link in 2 places, there’s a better chance that your friends will click on it in order to become a fan.
Article by Joy Bing Fleming. Would you like to learn more about how to use Facebook to promote your business and get more paying clients? If so, please visit: http://lifepassion.net/category/online-marketing/facebook/Don’t Have a Facebook Business Page? Why You Must Suck It Up & Create Your Facebook Business Page Today
By Suzen Pettit in Facebook
If kids, soon-to-be-adults and millions of not-so-young adults are your future audience, then you need to have a Facebook Business Page as you need to be where your audience is. And, today, our children, teens, young adults and even older adults like my former room mates and my ex (who deny they are addicted to Facebook) can be found updating their profile, commenting and changing their status updates regularly.
The New York Times even wrote an article recently that showed kids are finding crafty ways to get around the increasing number of Facebook bans their schools are implementing. One eighth grader, who preferred not to be named, said he coached a school administrator on avoiding the ban last year. “She hated not being able to get on Facebook at work and asked for my help one day in the office,” the boy explained, more than a little sympathetic to her plight. “What could I do?”
It came as no surprise to me, and it’s speaking volumes of the need for small businesses, as much as they want to continue down that stream of FB Denial, to get on board and create a Facebook business page. It is time for them to put themselves in front of this next generation of Facebook addicts.
Need more proof?
5 Reasons Why You Must Setup a Facebook Fan Page Fast!
1) Kids, soon adults, and millions of young and not-so-young adults are your future audience and they are all there, “friending” Justin Bieber under their covers (like my daughter last night) when they should be asleep.
2) With over 600 million users and almost 50% of them on Facebook daily…. stop…. think about it…..AND over 40% of existing businesses already up and running on it, you want your business to be where your customers and potential customers are going, right? If you knew that your customers were passing by one of the huge billboards in Times Square every day and those billboards didn’t cost millions per month to be advertising there, you would want to be up there…wouldn’t you?
3) Your Facebook business page is like the huge billboard in Times Square except for the fact that it’s free. Your customers are there, their friends are there. And you can say a heck of a lot more on a FB page than you can on a billboard.
4) The search engines love a Facebook Business Page. Because a business page is a public URL and not a private one, your site will have a much easier time making it to the top of a Google search than your website. That’s unless you’ve invested a lot of $ into SEO (not that there’s anything wrong with that).
5) As mentioned earlier, your competition already has a Facebook business page, and not because they want to share about their favorite rice and beans recipe. The “like” button has become the new “link.” Many online marketers, myself included now believe that the Facebook “like” button is becoming just as significant as backlinks to a website. In other words, the more “likes” your page has, the greater the chance of it ranking high in the search engines for your specific field and keywords. So think of it as a link and encourage your customers to press it. Every time you update something on your page these customers will now see it as they have been “linked” to it.
There are so many good reasons to create one of these Facebook business pages I could blather on and on about them forever. For now, think about the math. The average Facebook page has 140 friends. When you post to Facebook, your “friends” and all their “friends” will view your post. Can you spell V-I-R-A-L? As insane as it might sound, there’s a reason why Shop Rite wants you to “like” them on Facebook.
Suzen Pettit specializes in designing, building, marketing and maintaining optimized websites and social media profiles for busy small business owners. By using her strategic internet marketing techniques you will ensure your business is being found and that clients are seeing what YOU want them to see on the internet about you. For even more free tips, tools, strategies and resources, read her free articles at: http://www.omaginarium.com/blog/The 10 Anxieties That Put Me in a Tizzie About Facebook
By Leo J. Vidal in Facebook
With over 800 million users worldwide, everyone knows that Facebook is now the hottest social networking internet site to use for online marketing. Many businesses have already taken steps to capitalize on this massive marketing opportunity. But do you know about the problems with Facebook that you should REALLY be concerned about?
Before devoting too much of your marketing budget or even your leisure time to Facebook, you should understand the items on this list of the Top Ten Things About Facebook That Make People Mad.
Facebook, as a website, really doesn’t offer that much if you think about it. I mean, if you’re not into Farmville or Mafia Wars, what does it do? Well, it does allow you to have your private information shared with complete strangers — or even people you know. Do we really want that? Even the navigation is difficult.
Facebook doesn’t support the Open Web, because to access everything you must be a member and logged in. They claim to own all of your data, then do not make it openly accessible to others.
Facebook makes it almost impossible to actually delete your account, so all of your data will remain online even after you deactivate your account.
Facebook is not technically competent when it comes to protecting your data, or else they just don’t care enough to really try. There have been major glitches such as public access of private profiles.
Facebook is tricking their users into giving advertisers information about themselves. They do this by not disclosing how Facebook applications make all of your data accessible not just to Facebook itself but also to developers, who may not even have privacy standards.
Facebook seems to have declared war on privacy protections. Facebook wants to know everything about you, own that data, and then make it available to everybody else on Facebook, including advertisers. They have a stated policy that all data should be available to everybody (your data, that is).
Your supposedly private data is shared with applications, and the developers who write them. Think about it: all your data is shared with applications that you install unknowingly. This make it potentially available to almost anyone.
Facebook has bullied (by suing) people who have had the fortitude to tell the truth about how Facebook shares private data. They don’t want their members to know how much data is really being made available to advertisers, developers and others. So, it appears they do believe in a right to privacy, at least when it comes to their own shenanigans.
Facebook’s CEO has a documented history of unethical behavior. He has been accused of various things in the past but I won’t repeat them here. (That’s what Google is for, right?) Perhaps where there is smoke there is also fire. There are plenty of past indicators of ethical issues surrounding all of Facebook’s operations and dealings with members. Caveat emptor.
Facebook’s Terms Of Service are completely one-sided. They state that not only do they own your data, but if you don’t keep it accurate, they can deactivate your account. This is because they need all the data to be current to be useful to advertisers. So we are all working hard to make more advertising revenue for Facebook! It’s almost like we are Facebook slaves.
Conclusion
I guess I’ve decided that if they terminate my account: so what? I think I can learn to live without Facebook. How about you?
If you want to stay on Facebook, my recommendation is you understand how your data will be used, and be careful about what you post as content or in your profile.
You can get the help you need in navigating the treacherous waters of Facebook marketing. Go Right Now to “How to Make a Facebook FanPage” at http://fanpage.inflorida.biz and fill out our newsletter signup form. Leo J. Vidal, JD, MA, CPA is a marketing expert with over 30 years of experience in helping business owners and professionals become more successful.Facebook Tips and Tricks
By Donielle Schipper in Facebook
If you are trying to grow your business, Facebook is a great way to do so quickly. Here are ten Facebook tips and tricks to help you get started.
Facebook Tip #1:
Fill out all of your personal information, such as your profile picture and your favorite books and movies. It’s important to update your Facebook profile so that people can find you if they are searching for someone with a similar interest as you. People can also get to know you as a person. When you write your biography, make sure you use your personal “story”. Include things that your customer would care about. Don’t go into too much detail unless it is important to the story. You aren’t writing your story just to share your own life dramas. Write it for the purpose of attracting customers. Get specific, because “like attracts like.”
Facebook Tip #2:
Add a few friends every day. Be consistent with this. Try to add around 10 per day, and you will gradually grow your customer base. Make sure you are inviting people who would be interested in the product or service you are selling.
Facebook Tip #3:
Be sociable. Show people that you are interested in them and they will become interested in you. If you simply send a friend request to someone who doesn’t know you, without somehow showing them that you are interested in them, they may not want to add you as a friend.
Facebook Tip #4:
Say something about a potential customer on their wall. Don’t mention your business, but instead show your interest in them and what they are doing. They will be more likely to pay attention to you that way.
Facebook Tip #5:
Send a message with your friend requests. Look into the info page of your potential customers and find something that you share in common with them. Then, when you friend request them, you can mention that or ask a question about it. They will be more likely to add you as a friend if they see you are interested in them or share something in common with them.
Facebook Tip #6:
Find people in your business niche. An easy way to do this is to enter your business or your product or service into the search bar in Facebook. Then you can click the “People” tab at the left to find your potential customers.
Facebook Tip #7:
Find groups and pages in your business niche. Do the same thing as in tip #6, but this time click on “Groups” or “Pages.” Once you find a group or page that fits your business, then go into that page and look at the people who “like” that page or are a part of that group. You can then friend request them using the same techniques as mentioned in tip #5.
Facebook Tip #8:
Be a “go to” person. You want to become the only logical choice for people to come to for your product or service. So talk to people about your business in an information giving type of way, rather than in a selling type of way. For example, you could give people tips on how to use your product. Then, when they are ready to buy that product, they will naturally want to come to you to purchase it.
Facebook Tip #9:
Find something in common with people and talk to them about it, either on their wall or in a personal message or in “chat.” People love to talk about themselves. Building a trusting relationship with your potential customers is key to attracting them to want to purchase from you.
Facebook Tip #10:
Don’t “promote” your business. Let people ask you about it instead of pushing them away with constant “advertisements.” Don’t use your wall as a bulletin board to say “Buy this product!” or “Purchase this service!” Instead, write things on your wall that would be helpful to your customers.
Start using these tips today and your business will grow exponentially. By building relationships with people, you can touch more lives, because when people see your leadership and the value you bring to their lives, they will naturally want to share you with their friends, too.
If you are interested in learning more about growing your business, you can watch a free video on How to Get Famous in 60 Days on Facebook. Please visit http://www.donielleschipper.com and join me on my blog!5 Amazing Tips For Successful Facebook Ads
By Wolf Krammell in Facebook
Facebook ads are one of the most popular and inexpensive ways to promote a small business online. According to research from BIA/Kelsey LCM, 48 percent of SMBs (small and medium businesses) are using Facebook for advertising or promoting their business. Forty percent said they have a Facebook page just for their business.
1. Know Your Goals and Plan Around Them
The first step is understanding what you want accomplish. Some goals could include looking to build awareness of your company or brand, and driving traffic to your web site. Promoting a specific event or generating sales are other common goals.
To build awareness and grow your fan base (getting people to “Like” your page), there are standard marketplace ads. The ads point to your Facebook Page and allow users to “like” your page, using the Like link right in the ad. You also could try a “Page Like” sponsored story, where the ad shows friends who have liked your Page.
You can even target people who are friends with people who already “like” your Page, which creates a social context, that makes people much more likely to remember the ad’s content.
When you want to promote a particular post from your page, such as a special offer or important news, you can also use “Page Post” sponsored stories to convert your post into a News Feed item.
Sponsored Stories is one of Facebook’s newest marketing tools which promotes word-of-mouth recommendations about your business that are happening in the News Feed. You can sponsor stories about people checking in to your business or “liking” your Page.
Measure success by social media metrics. Click-through rate (CTR) is an important metric to track, but since the average CTR for Facebook ads is only about 0.05%, which is half the industry standard of 0.1%, set goals instead to increase comments, Likes, impressions and active users. Facebook has hundreds of reports you can use to analyze results – make use of them for maximum results.
2. Targeting with Your Ads
When placing your Facebook ad, the form makes it very easy to select the demographic profile of your target audience. It has the added feature of targeting very specific audiences. Here, less is more.
Better results are achieved by having less very targeted people, rather than having large numbers of people who are not interested. Gaining smaller but very specific target audiences, even at the risk of reducing the size of your audience, can be more effective.
Let’s say you want to promote an event at your business. It would be more effective to target people who are already fans of your page, who may be more likely to respond to a a local offer. Besides targeting people by location, you may want to also use names of popular local
businesses, colleges and clubs in the ad manager to find the people that don’t put their city and zip code in their profiles.
3. Choose Text and Images That Grab Attention
When designing your ad, you have up to 135 characters, but some of the most effective ads don’t use the whole character limit. Use small and concise ads that speaks directly to the audience you will reach. Special offers or unique features that differentiate you from the
competition, are also effective. Facebook suggests using your company name in the ad title or somewhere in the body of the ad. A simple line can be the biggest draw. It can be in the form of asking a question or making a bold or odd statement. Remember to include something that encourages users to click on your ad and explains to the user exactly what you expect them to do when they reach your landing
page.
An image that will draw a person’s attention to your ad is recommended. Logos in this case, may not be the best way to go. Since the photos are small, use something unusual or a face shot of people. Smiling women tend to generate a high click rate. Experts recommend trying natural photos with colors that contrast with the blue color scheme of Facebook, such as red, yellow and orange.
4. Use and Measure Multiple Ads
Create multiple versions of your ad and test them to see which ad gets the best response. Once an ad has been created, you have the option to “Create a Similar Ad”, via the Facebook interface, and put in a new picture or text.
Experts recommend creating four different ads for the same campaign. Run each ad for a day or two and then check your ad statistics on Facebook to see which did best. You can then create a new ad that is similar to your ad that performed the best, with a few minor changes to see if it improves the ad’s performance. Since these ads rotate constantly, keep changing the ads so that your specific target audience doesn’t get disinterested.
Also, take top-performing ads and create new ad groups with related ad copy and pictures. This will lower your costs because your ad group has a higher CTR (Click Through Rate).
Facebook has hundreds of reports available, and it is wise to make use of them.
5. Be Ready To Get the Most Out of Your Traffic
Keep your Facebook Wall fresh and updated. Stale content, like the last Wall update was weeks or months ago, will make people lose interest. Give them a reward for visiting so they keep coming back.
Most people don’t click through to your Facebook page; they click ‘like’ right in the ad. Have fresh status updates or special offers or events available that follow up on the content in your ads, and get people to keep coming back.
The click you get is not the end result, it’s the beginning of presenting your campaign to your audience. When someone likes your page, you now have their consent to talk and update them over and over. Boundless opportunities can result by keeping them interested with
fresh content, special offers, coupons and events, on an ongoing basis.
http://pumpupyourwebsite.com or follow us at http://twitter.com/#!/pumpup . Receive a Free eBook – “Online Marketing Insider Secrets Revealed”.
F-Commerce | Revolutionising the Way We Buy Online
By James Brandwood in Facebook
Social Innovations, the Manchester based Social Media Experts have released the latest version of their revolutionary F-Commerce plug-in. SIIP (Social Innovations Interactive Plug-in) is an application that allows an E-commerce site to be replicated into Facebook.
SIIP intelligently targets users by interests, events and likes that are posted on their Facebook pages, this means that businesses who utilise the plug-in can actively target users on aspects such as the music, books or movies they like, where they like to go on holiday, birthdays and other general demographic information such as age and location.
This means that the site, once incorporated into Facebook will present relevant products to the user based around their interests and likes.
The application also has the facility to incorporate a separate section for ‘Facebook Offers’ giving the user the incentive to use the interactive f-commerce plug-in.
SIIP also allows users to leave reviews on products, recommend products to friends and buy products without ever leaving Facebook. The above means that products and services can be promoted virally, very quickly.
Due to the innovative advertising features built into the application, such as publishing products to walls and news feeds, posting purchases and reviews to walls / news feeds this not only helps companies to cross and up sell products to existing and new customers, but it also helps in naturally listing the site on all the usual search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing etc.
As many vendors who opt to have their E-commerce site replicated on Facebook offer incentives for users to buy on the site, a user feels they are getting value for money.
As mentioned above, the plug-in also allows vendors to advertise ‘Facebook Offers’ which in some cases may be similar products on their usual E-commerce site, or in other cases vendors such as Vicky Martin offer lines that are not available anywhere else, so in essence the items become Facebook exclusives.
Social Innovations believe that SIIP will revolutionise the way we buy online and also the way that retailers can promote their products and services using the world’s largest Social Network.
The value to retails will be unprecedented due to the ‘opt in’ marketing aspect of SIIP which will not only help promotion of products but more importantly sales!
This article was written by Social Innovations the experts in Social Commerce. Social Innovations is located at www.SocialInnovations.co.ukFacebook Ads – Do You Use Them? If Not – Should You? – A SPN Exclusive Article
By Gayle Hawks in Facebook
Business owners are always looking to optimize advertising and use the best locations on the Internet. Ultimately, they need to measure whether the time and effort – and the money spent are worth it. Facebook is one of those prime Internet sites that is emerging as an attractive location for advertisers. With over 500 million active users – Facebook is a force to be reckoned with – and probably one worth considering for advertising your company’s goods and/or services.
Let’s take a look at the dynamics of advertising on Facebook:
First of all, it is a social media network that is made up mostly of family and friends so the information profile that is tied to each user should be fairly accurate. That makes it an ideal source to tap into targeted groups: by location, by age, and by gender.
Targeted advertising can also be done based on users “Likes” or “Interests” because that is part of the user profiles. This makes it easy to target specific groups such as those that like basketball or ballet. This can be useful but don’t get caught up in the restrictions of just focusing on those who picked a particular “Like” or “Interest”. Targeting age groups and locations can be just as effective. Regional advertising options are available to companies who don’t offer national services.
You can enhance the social recommendations from a Facebook ad by having your brand link with a Facebook page. This highlights that you value the Facebook ad and increases the exposure when friends purchase something from your brand. Facebook will display when your friends “liked” the page. This will only help to make your brand more desirable. Maintaining an up to date Facebook page for your company also displays a willingness to engage with customers, fans, and potential customers. Keeping on top of a company Facebook page adds credibility to your advertising campaign.
Keeping your Facebook ads simple is important because the best ads have been those that extend special offers or calls to action with simple text that grabs people’s attention. Too much information will lose people quickly.
Be creative and different. Test a variety of pictures and product ads to come up with the one that works best. Imaging is important and essential for you in order to gain people’s attention quickly.
Facebook has an ad format called Sponsored Stories that will turn people’s “Likes” and status updates into ads to their friends. It is, therefore, important to ensure that you keep up with Facebook formats and ways of advertising to ensure that you are the one that is always one step ahead.
All of this being said – should you advertise on Facebook? Absolutely! Why would you turn down an opportunity to advertise to such a large audience that is just waiting to hear from you! If you are not a Facebook advertiser – you should be.
Article By Gayle Hawks. Give us a call today at 858-522-9335 or email at Author@CardAdmin.com. We look forward to discussing your comments, suggestions, or hearing any ideas for future article topics you may be interested in regarding professional business cards design or business cards management.
How You Can Make A List Using Facebook
By Cathy Quel in Facebook
Nearly every one of you have heard the saying, “the money is in the list”. That is very true today and will be for the foreseeable future. Having a great subscriber list is a fantastic way to let people know as soon as you have updated your website or your blog and as you you have new products or services which they may very well be interested in. Maybe you have a new product and need to get the word out fast. Facebook is a good means to do that. If using Facebook is a great method of getting your message out and building your subscriber list is the ideal way to make money, how can you combine the two? How can you use Facebook to create a great subscriber list?
The conventional way that a business person gets people to subscribe is by placing a sign up form on their website. This usually is a fantastic way to get subscribers, but there’s a different way that’s even better. This is a strategy for anyone who wish to use Facebook in conjunction with building your list.
First, Create your Facebook Page
Of course, this is the first thing that you need to do. If you do not have a Facebook page yet, you should head over to Facebook pages to start creating your page. In case you are unsure what you want your page to look like, browse different business Facebook pages to generate some ideas.
This way you will see precisely how the page is structured as well as what you would like to include on it. Don’t forget to include links to your website from this page.
When people visit your Facebook page, you would like to have them sign up to be a subscriber. It’s alright to request that they ‘like’ your page, however it is much more effective to have them sign up. Having them sign up gives you their email address. So, how should you get people to register when they are on your Facebook page?
Create a Facebook Subscriber List
It is possible to build a subscriber list that is only associated with your Facebook page. This way, when you send something out to your subscriber list, you are also able to put the notification on your Facebook page. Then, those people who have ‘liked’ your page will receive the notice in their feeds. If they happen to be interested by your articles, that will bring them back to your Facebook page.
You can also send visitors to your website from your Facebook page by giving a free report or free ebook. It is possible to put the notification on your page and then direct people to your website to subscribe on your subscriber form to then get your free report.
This method is absolutely better than just having people ‘like’ your page because they’re registering on your subscriber form so you then have their email address.
However, sometimes it is a bit more difficult to get others to leave your Facebook page and then actually sign up for your free report on your website. The easiest way could be for you to combine the two approaches. Use your traffic campaigns to get people to your Facebook page and after that occasionally put an invitation on your page to tell people about your freebie if they head over to your website and register. Again, you need to test to see what will give you the results you want as well as what will work for your business.
So, how will you use Facebook to build your list? Offer your visitors both opportunities. Offer your visitors who like to hear what is happening with your business the opportunity to ‘like’ your page and after that use their feeds for updates and also offer your visitors the opportunity to go to your website to sign up as a subscriber and receive a free ebook or report. Just test what is best for your target market.
If you want to learn more about using Facebook for your business, download my free Social Media Guide here: http://workonlinesuccess.com/Free-Reports/Socialmarketing.html
Get more information on my website http://workonlinesuccess.com
How To Save Money With Facebook Advertising
By Cathy Quel in Facebook
Here are a few techniques that you can save money using Facebook advertising:
1. Use the cost per impression setting vs. the cost per click setting
You should pay less in advertising costs when using the cost per impression setting so long as you are getting a very good click through rate.
2. Direct your clicks to your Facebook page
If you direct your clicks to your Facebook page rather than to your external website, your cpc will likely be more cost-effective. The one thing that you still have to do will be to make certain your Facebook page is set up just like your website in that you can have visitors sign up to your list and you are also set up to send them through your sales funnel.
3. Only keep your ads active for a day or two
When you first start your Facebook advertising, you receive most of your clicks on the first or second day. Your audience gets used to seeing your ads over the next few days and they don’t click on them as often. What you need to do would be to modify your ads every other day with new headlines and new images. That way, you should keep the interest of your audience. Produce enough of these variations for up to 1 month or so and after that begin again with the first ad and continue rotating the remaining through in a cycle. You’ll be creating a sequence of ads rather then only one ad. Almost like split-testing. This way, your ads don’t get stale plus your target market will stay interested in what you are advertising.
Keep track of which ads are performing the best and once you have cycled through your series, keep the ones that did the best and run them again. Keep adding to the series with different headlines, different photos and different ad text. You would like to keep your cpc down under $.30 per click.
4. How do you know if you are making or losing money?
To ascertain just how much money you are making or losing using Facebook advertising, it is important for you to track everything. You have to track the cost per click, the click through rate, and what percentage of those clicks are subscribing to your fan page or turning into leads by visiting your website. In addition you have to have an efficient sales funnel created when capturing your leads. You could really have the ideal click through rate and you may be generating leads, but if no one is buying anything, you will be losing money.
Adverting on Facebook can be considerably more rewarding than Google AdWords. The kind of advertising that you do on Facebook, which is basically a soft-sell approach, works very well on Facebook. This type of strategy won’t work well on Google AdWords. And, the cost per click would be much more on Google AdWords than on Facebook.
These are just a few strategies that you can save money when advertising on Facebook versus advertising with Google AdWords. Just remember, when using these strategies, track everything that you are able to to help you determine simply how much money you’re making using Facebook advertising.
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