on marketing, traveling and living…
Social Media
Social Media
Facebook – The New Internet Marketing Frontier
Dec 17th
It takes getting eyeballs to see your product or service, millions of eyeballs, and Facebook is an untapped marketing resource. Only a handful of Internet wise guys know how to use it. Here are some tips.
Facebook, Inc., runs a leading social networking web site, Facebook.com. Initially launched by undergraduates at Harvard University for college students, the site was soon expanded to include alumni in the corporate world as well as high school students. Membership was opened to anyone with a valid e-mail address in 2006 and it has grown into the millions since.
The key to marketing on Facebook is this: A members full profile information is available only to other members who are somehow connected. The resulting “connections” is what makes Facebook a billion-dollar idea that offers fat bank accounts to marketers who know how to be one of “them”.
A news feed feature, controversial at first, allows sponsors to push ads to highly targeted audiences in ways never before imagined. The value of these online connections that imitate those in real life is also reflected in classified advertising and that is where marketing is done, for free, among those connected “friends”.
Forget about trying to spam the system. Friends tell their friends about spammers and global searches of all registered users are not possible, limiting the possibilities for SPAM and other abuses.
Facebook has features to stay relevant in the Web 2.0 world. It leads the generation of interactive web sites designed to make it easy for users to share video, music, and other multimedia content. And, for marketers to reach those people in this sharing model.
Facebook ranked as the sixth or seventh largest social networking site. It was on top in some key metrics, according to ComScore Media Metrix statistics quoted in Fast Company. It led the country in photo sharing, a capability at the heart of the Web 2.0 challenge. In 2007 the company signed up with Comcast to produce a webcast called the “Facebook Diaries,” based on video contributed by users. Opening membership to the general public swelled the membership rolls and shifted the demographics away from the college age crowd. Interestingly, more than one-quarter of users were outside the United States.
Some marketers saw this shift to an older, more affluent, user base and moved in to make Facebook a steady source of steady income.
Some of the site features these marketers are using include:
…….. The Wall
The Wall is a space on each user’s profile page that allows friends to post messages for the user to see. One user’s wall is visible to anyone with the ability to see their full profile, and different users’ wall posts show up in an individual’s News Feed. Many marketers use their friend’s walls for leaving short, temporal notes. More private discourse is saved for Messages, which are sent to a person’s Inbox, and are visible only to the sender and recipient(s) of the Message, much like email.
Facebook users are allowed to post attachments to the wall, whereas previously the wall was limited to textual content only. Marketers are wisely using this feature.
…….. TheMarketplace
In May 2007, Facebook introduced the Facebook Marketplace allowing users to post free classified ads within the following categories: For Sale, Housing, Jobs, and Other. The market place is available for all Facebook users and is currently free. You can guess how valuable this feature is to marketers.
…….. Pokes
Facebook includes a “poke” feature which allows one user to send a “poke” to another. Facebook defines it as – “a poke is a way to interact with your friends on Facebook. When we created the poke, we thought it would be cool to have a feature without any specific purpose. People interpret the poke in many different ways, and we encourage you to come up with your own meanings.”
In principle this is intended to serve as a “nudge” to attract the attention of the other user. Friends often engage in what is known as a “poke war,” where the poke is exchanged back and forth continuously between two users by using the “poke back” feature.
There are several new applications such as “X Me” and “SuperPoke!”, that allow users to put any action in place of the word “poke.” Again, smart marketers have found ways of using this feature as well.
…….. Status
The “status” feature allows users to inform their friends and the Facebook community of what they are up to. Facebook prompts the status update with “(User name) is…” and Facebook users fill in the rest. Status updates are noted in the “Recently updated” section of a users’ friend list. How about “Mr. blue is working on a new ebook.”?
…….. Events
Facebook events are a way for members to let friends know about upcoming events in their community and to organize social gatherings. This can be used for seminars, meeting, courses, podcasts, etc., but, used very carefully to avoid being tagged as a spammer.
…….. Applications
The “Facebook Platform” provides a framework for developers to create applications that interact with core Facebook features.
Among the most popular applications are “Top Friends”, which allows users to select and display their favorite friends; “Graffiti”, which gives users a visual version of Facebook’s wall; and “iLike”, a social music discovery service that features concert information and a music trivia game, similar to the one featured on the iPod. Even games such as chess and Scrabble are available.
…….. Facebook Video
Users can add their videos with the service by uploading video, adding video through Facebook Mobile, and using a webcam recording feature. Additionally, users can “tag” their friends in videos they add much like the way users can tag their friends in photos. This feature was expected to increase competition with MySpace. However, the Facebook Video Application does not allow sharing videos outside of Facebook.
Users are not supposed to be able to export or download videos from Facebook. I say “not supposed to” because a Greasemonkey Userscript was posted on Userscripts.org which allows both the downloading of Facebook Videos and the embedding of Videos on sites outside of Facebook’s website. Another marketers dream tool.
Get educated about FaceBook marketing today. Jim DeSantis is an Internet Publisher and former TV News Editor who provides information about FaceBooking for experienced and newbie Internet Marketers at http://www.answersplus.info – AnswersPlusInfo. Check the sidebar for “FaceBook Advanced” and FaceBook for Newbies.”
How to Use Facebook and Twitter to Grow Your Business
Dec 16th
Growing your business is how you succeed. Let’s face it, very few people run their business and not care at all about the money. Almost always, people run a business with the hopes of making enough money to support their family and do what they want. Vacations, conferences, and bills are the things we think about regularly. If you didn’t have your business, how would you pay for those things?
Growing a business can be a challenge if you don’t use the tools that are right in front of you. The best thing to do is use as little money as possible to grow your business. When you do this, you’ll have more money to put towards things that are needed like food and clothes. If you’re unsure of the tools you need to use, then you won’t know how to grow your business easily and effectively.
One of the easiest ways to grow your business is to use Facebook and Twitter. These are tools you can use yourself and not spend any money doing it unless you choose to pay someone to handle it for you.
Almost every person that uses Facebook has a profile so they can talk to their friends and family and have a good time. Quite a few people use Facebook to grow their business. A large number of those people that don’t use it for business are not against purchasing a product or service from someone that uses it for growth.
There are three ways you can use Facebook to grow your business. One way is through your profile page, another is through a fan page, and the last way is through a group. Each of these will work and should be something you should consider. You’ll want to choose either a fan page or a group as you don’t need both. Most times a fan page will work sufficiently.
Twitter is a great way to share your business with a large number of people with very little work. One post is all it takes to have all of your followers read what you say. It’s easy and very valuable.
Since Twitter is so easy to use it’s a must for every business owner to use. You’ll get the most bang for your buck when you make business posts. Remember you must make other types of posts too because people won’t purchase from you if that’s all you do is post for yourself.
When you want to grow your business in the easiest way possible, you should consider using Facebook and Twitter. You’ll find with very little work, you’ll have the growth you’re looking for. You’ll have to make the posts on a regular basis, but it will work over time.
