So you’ve created a Facebook Fan Page for your company or cause. Now what? Check out our tips for increasing your page likes and keeping your fans interested and engaged.

1. Add a Like Box to your Website
Installing a “like box” on your website allows visitors to like your page directly from your site.

To create a Like Box for your website go to: www.facebook.com/badges

2. Suggest Your Page to Friends
Use the “Invite Friends” option to suggest your page to all of your friends. You can also remind people to share your content if they find it useful.

3. Create a Memorable URL
Once you’ve collected at least 25 fans, creating a simple and obvious URL for your page allows people to find it easily and quickly.

Example: www.facebook.com/vogelsocialmedia
Set yours up by going here: www.facebook.com/username

4. Tagging
If you’ve created a new partnership or are participating in an event with another company, be sure to create content that includes them, tag them in your statuses by using the @ symbol. You will know you did it correctly if the pages you tagged are blue and link to their page. This will show on your page wall and the other page walls that you have tagged.

5. Link, Link, Link!
If you’re on facebook, there’s a pretty good chance that you’re also on a number of other networks. Include the link to your facebook page on all of your networks, including your email signature.

6. Incentives
With facebook landing pages, it’s easy to offer incentives to new fans of your page. Reveal an exclusive video or a coupon code to new fans.

Examples: http://facebookfanpagecreation.com

7. Piggyback
Like other pages that have the same target market you do, and interact with them on a consistent basis, gaining fans along the way.

9. Utilize your Address Book
Send out emails to people in your address book with a link to your fan page, letting your contacts know that you’ll be posting good quality content regularly and that you’d like them to be a part of the community by clicking Like on your Facebook Page.

10. Create Quality Content
Create quality content! Use facebook as a promotional tool, but remember that you’ll attract more and better quality fans with content that allows for interaction.

Examples: Videos, Articles, Quotes, Photos, Questions, and Polls

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2011

ADMISSION: FREE

PRESENTED BY:

MISSION
Empower small business Detroit to revolutionize their success formula by showing them how to use email and social media marketing as well as (and maybe even better than) the world’s largest and best-known brands.

DESCRIPTION
In just a few short hours, this information-packed seminar will show you how email and social media marketing can help you drive your business success. Discover how communicating with your customers regularly can help you stay connected, and generate increased referrals, repeat sales, and unwavering customer loyalty.

SPEAKER: RON CATES
Presentations feature Constant Contact’s Ron Cates, one of the country’s leading email and social media marketing experts.
“Bar none, the best, most entertaining, most informative speaker I have ever heard.”
- Sylvie Putnam, SCORE e-Business Now

Session 1: Power of Email Marketing with Social Media
During The Power of Email Marketing with Social Media seminar you’ll learn best practices, tips and techniques for smart email marketing strategies:

• Building your email list the best way
• Identifying effective content for your emails
• Ensuring your emails are opened and forwarded
• Incorporating Social Media into your Email Marketing Campaign

Session 2: Social Media Marketing Made Simple
Social Media Marketing Made Simple will cover some of the strategies and best practices that can help you to get the most out of your social media activities. Topics include:

• Incorporating social media into your business without losing productivity
• Managing your social time
• Measuring your return on time invested
• How to gain visibility, develop relationships and drive sales
• Selecting the best social media outlets for your business

After each session and throughout the day, you’ll have plenty of time to ask questions, share your experiences, and network with your peers.

Special Session for Marketing Consultants, Business Coaches, and Marketing Service Providers
At the end of the day, we are hosting a special session for marketing consultants and service providers, small business coaches and educators to discuss how you can work with Constant Contact to continue the email and social media revolution for small business beyond today’s seminar.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD EVENT INFORMATION (PDF)

My last article about Facebook showed the benefits and basic set up of using Facebook Fan Pages.  A Fan Page is a tool for you to reach and connect with your target audience, or potential customers. After reading the last article, you should have set up a fan page or plan to. In this article, I’d like to discuss how to maximize your fan page.

I used the analogy of an office for Facebook, pointing out that if the internet were an office, Facebook would be the ‘water cooler’. Building a fan page for your brand allows you to make personal connection with your customers. At this point, you should have your fan page up and running, and actively gaining more ‘fans.’ As users are directed to your fan page, you can either direct them to your website or continue to engage them through your Facebook fan page.

I see several reasons why you can build a better connection by keeping them on your Facebook fan page.

The Water Cooler is a Great Location!

If Facebook is the ‘water cooler’ of the internet, then your website is equivalent to an office or conference room. By taking your network back to a formal environment, you lose the benefit of social connection; people instantly start interacting with you like a company.

Your network will become personally connected to your brand if you can engage them in an honest way and the longer you can do that, the better. Social settings are the best place for building relationships and Facebook offers that environment on the internet.

Familiarity

Facebook users spend an estimated 700 billion minutes on the site each month. The average user will access games, fan pages, photo albums, and applications. All of these different tools use the same Facebook interface and format. So, while every user participates differently, they are all used to the same format. Facebook consistently takes heat every time they change around tabs because users are so used to the look and function.

Keep users on the Facebook network where they are comfortable and know how to navigate. Their comfort level with Facebook will increase their comfort level with your brand!

Anatomy of a Fan Page

A familiar format has many advantages, one of which is easy access to information. People want information and they want it fast. The familiar format allows people to quickly access the information they want without having to orient themselves to a new format.

Information People Want

• Contact information and location
• Information about new products or sales
• How to find your blog
• Popularity of your brand
• Information about products, services, and the personality of your brand

You may have all this information on your website, and that’s great, but the fan page gives this information in an efficient and familiar way. The left coloumn includes the profile information for your brand and displays the above information and more. Because Facebook users are so familiar with scanning this information, they will learn everything they want to know before they even think about it! No more searching for an “about us” page.

Customization

The information provided on your fan page is customizable. Tabs allow users to flip through multiple pages on your fan page without changing the format. This is perfect if you have multiple ways to connect because you can customize your tabs according to your brand.

A few examples of how tabs can be used:

• Information on Promotions or Limited Time Offers
• Notes, the Facebook version of a blog post
• Photos of products and people who make the company run!
• Polls
• Tutorials
• Videos

The more personal and original you create your brand and fan page to be, the more brand loyalty you will create.

One Stop Shop

As the internet grows, it continues to evolve. Each new generation and new product changes how people use the internet. Internet users are looking for simplicity, instead of searching and running all over the internet, they want to find as much in one place as possible.

When people are searching for a new product, they are more and more likely to start that search on Facebook.

By converting your online presence from www.YourWebsite.com to www.facebook.com/YourFanPage.com you can take advantage of Facebook’s reach, instead of trying to compete with it.

Facebook users already spend an estimated 380 minutes per month on the site, how many of those minutes could be spent connecting with you?

Searchable

Public Facebook profiles and fan pages can be openly searched by any search engine including Google and Yahoo. So anyone looking for your product or company can find you through a normal search. An additional advantage is that Facebook offers its own internal search engine, just one more source of visibility.

The Facebook search engine uses the same SEO principles as other search engines, so your site content can increase your visibility and reach.

The facebook search for your brand will bring up a link to your fan page.

Image example

If you are willing to learn about social media tools and personally engaging your customers, your brand visibility is limitless. Facebook makes marketing affordable for even the smallest business. Facebook gives you the chance to build customer loyalty and brand identity in a way that is cost and time-effective!

Social media reaches hundreds of millions of people every day. Most of those people are on Facebook. According to the social networking giant, Facebook has more than 700 million users worldwide. At least half, or 300 million, of those users are actively using their Facebook account on a daily basis.

Facebook and social networking in general, has proven itself as more than just a fad. Social networking is a valuable tool to reaching more people than you ever could before.

It can be tempting to use Facebook like a big billboard, to use old school sales tactics by putting your brand in front of as many people as possible and waiting for them to turn into customers. However, Facebook is about social interaction, not mass marketing.

Facebook users aren’t interested in hearing a sales pitch, they’re looking to interact with their network and to stay connected. Advertising on Facebook is fine and can be very effective, but your user account or fan page should focus on social interaction. Save the sales pitch for the Ad campaign, which we’ll talk about later.

How does a business or brand fit into this social environment?

• Spark up a Conversation Who said a brand can’t be personable? Consider the values of your company and use that to guide your brand. The key to engaging your network is to be genuine.
• Social Networks Develop Brand Identity and Loyalty.

Go To your Network

Imagine the internet like a big office; Facebook is the socializing area or, ‘the water cooler’. Everyone needs a place to relax and socialize. Instead of barging in on the conversation like a nosy boss, you want to join the conversation and introduce yourself.

Joining the Conversation

• Fan Pages provide a place for your brand to participate in the conversation.

Fan pages are public Facebook profiles for just about anything; these profiles are a place for people to connect around a particular topic, product, or company. Even if you have an individual Facebook account, you should make a fan page for your brand to establish your business as its own entity.

Fan pages may focus on a single product, your brand, or even the culture of your company; anything that will bring together likeminded people that are in your target audience.

As your page starts gaining ‘fans,’ you will be able to connect with your network.

• Listen more than you talk. The goal is to get others talking about you and your product, you will make better connections by listening and encouraging dialogue.
• Stay true to your brand. Your fan page is a great opportunity for you to bring your brand to life. A laid-back company can be informal while a large corporation should maintain a more professional image. If you are an environmentally minded brand, let that reflect in how you conduct yourself. Just be sure to keep conversation relevant.

Gaining Fans

Now that you’ve set up a brilliant fan page and you’re ready to go, how do you gain new fans? It doesn’t help much if your only fans are your friends and family that already know you. So, how do you reach those 300 million plus users?

Pubic Facebook accounts for individuals can be searched by keyword. Consider the keywords your network might use in status updates and profile information. When you have found users that might be interested in your page, send them an invitation.

You can also network by joining other fan pages that are related to your product, try to avoid obvious competitors.

These links will help you search public Facebook profiles

http://www.facebook.com/blog.php?post=115469877130
http://youropenbook.org/

Use Advertising Data

Facebook keeps good records of their users and these records can help you find your network. If you are having trouble finding fans and relevant keywords, making a mock ad can give you some valuable information.

After making a mock ad, before you pay to run it, you can look at the ‘estimated reach’ that estimates how many users your ad would apply to. Parameters can be placed based on keywords, interests, age, and location. Try different keywords and ideas to increase your reach.

Our next post will get into what you do once you are in the conversation.

As the economy crawls toward a recovery, businesses and consumers are cautiously optimistic at best.

2012 has the potential of recovery for businesses that learn to adapt to the cautious environment. Consumers are looking for a more personal approach using tools like Facebook, YouTube Twitter or LinkedIn; the businesses that provide it, will recover the quickest and most successfully.

Use Genuine Language
Consumers feel misled about the strength of the products they were buying before the economic crash. Whether they purchased stocks or a starter home, the promises of large profits and a more secure financial future were dashed. Tools like Facebook, Linkedin and Twitter offer customers a more personal connection, which builds the trust consumers are looking for.

Outlandish slogans and hyped up promises are questioned and resisted by today’s consumer. Marketing content should come across as genuine and sincere rather than sensationalized. YouTube can be used to market complex products without using industry jargon or complex. By using Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and YouTube, companies can avoid looking disconnected from their costumers.

Offer Immediate Value
Sites like Twitter and YouTube have been growing throughout the recession, in part because they are so valuable to their customers or users. The best way to grab customer attention and to earn trust is to offer value upfront. YouTube videos and Twitter feeds are a great way to establish a relationship.

Websites that offer free advice and resources are more likely to get repeat visits, and develop a loyal customer base; imbedding Twitter feeds or YouTube videos makes this easy. Don’t keep valuable information secret. The more substance provided upfront, the more impact achieved.

Avoid a Salesman Mentality
It will be difficult to switch gears from the traditional A.B.C. approach- Always Be Selling; but the ones that can, will thrive in the new economy. Hard sell techniques have become a signal to customers to jump ship. Avoid these tactics by engaging customers in a dialogue through Facebook and Twitter.

When you engage in a back and forth dialogue on Twitter, you give customers the opportunity to connect with your brand and your product. Encouraging them to talk to you about your product also encourages them to talk to others about your product.

Marketing through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube are essential to connecting with customers, a necessary element to making the sale in 2012.

What social media platforms will you use most in 2011 for your business? Looking forward to your response below

Top 5 Reasons to Use Video on the Web

Incorporating video into your business website is an important tool for every industry. Videos are an excellent opportunity to grab your viewers and make an impression, an opportunity you shouldn’t miss.

1. Videos Communicate Easily
Watching a video is easier than reading loads of text. Important information can be more easily communicated to website viewers through a video. Viewers are also more likely to click on a video than to scroll through pages of text with the same information.

2. Videos Offer a Diverse Platform
Videos can be used for many purposes and still be effective at growing your business. Videos can be made to explain the history of a business or the mission of an organization. Videos are a great way to highlight customer testimonials or to tell a story about the services a company provides. Videos can be used to showcase any important information on your site.

3. Videos Keep Viewers Engaged
Sites full of text encourage visitors to click around, and away, from your site. By adding videos to your site, you keep them in the same place longer. The longer they stay on your site, engaged in your message, the more exposure your business gets. Larger amounts of information can be communicated through a well-produced video because the video keeps a viewers attention longer than text. This makes videos a great opportunity to showcase innovative processes or services that are more easily understood visually.

4. Videos Improve Search Rankings
Search engines pay attention to video content. Adding descriptive titles and captions are helpful to viewers and catch the attention of search engines. Videos used on your site can be uploaded to video sharing sites like You Tube to increase visibility on the web.

5. Videos provide Branding
Videos communicate large amounts of information to a viewer, but they also tell a story about the business. Because a video engages the viewer more actively than text, it gives the viewer a feeling about the personality of a company or organization. Videos can be an important tool in showing your customers how your company is different and making a lasting impression. A well-placed video can introduce your company to the viewer while making an impression that will last.

There are many more advantages to using videos on your site. The important thing is to know that if you aren’t using video, you are missing the chance to make a lasting impression.

I received my Verizon iPhone 4 from the UPS driver on Monday at 9am. I have had very little issues in setting up the phone through itunes and transferring my contacts from my palm pre plus. After using this phone for a full day I have to say it is by far the best phone I have ever had. I waited 2 years for the iPhone to come to Verizon and i’m thrilled it is finally here and I have one in my hands!

What the Verizon iPhone has that the AT&T iPhone Doesn’t
- Mobile Hotspot
- 4 antenna locations
- Seems to be faster

Are you annoyed with receiving Facebook application requests that post directly to your wall? Games like Mafia Wars, FarmVille, CitiVille, FrontierVille and on and on….

In this video you will learn how to delete Facebook application invitations that are posting to your wall forever!

STEPS:
1. Go to your Facebook Wall and locate where the unwanted application is posted
2. Underneath the picture of the application it will say the date then via ….(application name) click the app name
3. You will be directed to the application Facebook page.
4. Click Block App underneath the application picture
5. You are done!

Sites mentioned in video:
Alltop.com
Kurrently.com
Booshaka.com

Do you have some to share? Please post them below in the comments

Controlling How You Share:
Facebook is about sharing. Privacy controls give you the power to decide what and how much you share. Learn how to manage who can see your information on and off Facebook. Read the Facebook Privacy Guide

Do you feel safe on Facebook? Have you had anything crazy happen from your information being on Facebook? Share below.