Social Media Tips
Social Media Tips
Facebook Places Puts the Pressure on Foursquare, Google Maps
Oct 11th
2010 has been a big year for Facebook. Thanks to the introduction of an open graphAPI and the ability to “Like” almost anything on the web (not to mention a new movie coming out this fall), the social media giant has proved that it has the drive and the capacity to rule the digital landscape as we know it. And this week, Facebook launched a new location-based service that challenges the niche markets of startups like Foursquare, as well as the Maps arm of corporations like Google.
Facebook Places is a service that allows users to “check in” to restaurants, bars, retail stores and other local hotspots to share their location with friends. There are three main goals behind the introduction of Places, according to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg:
1. Share where you are in a social way
2. See who is around you
3. Discover cool new places to visit in the future
When a user checks in to a specific location, the update appears on the Place page for that venue, and is posted to the person’s own wall. One interesting aspect of the service, which we haven’t seen in other location-based offerings, is that Places allows you to check your friends in to the location you’re at, as well. However, if you aren’t into the idea of other people checking in for you, you can tweak your privacy settings to opt out of this entirely. Facebook put up a post on it’s blog with more details on the service.
Now that the service is live, the big question is how this is going to impact brands that exist on the platform of social location-based offerings. As opposed to the small niche services, the advantage for Facebook is that it maintains a database of more than 500 million loyal users who are familiar with the brand and how it works. Will people who check into Facebook Places still feel the need to check into Foursquare, as well?
And as a challenger of Google Maps, Facebook’s social component has the draw that no stand-alone map can live up to. While Google Maps aims to provide as much information about a place as possible, it doesn’t have the capability of also telling users who is there.
Facebook Do’s and Don’ts For Your Business
Oct 11th
Advertising business on Facebook is an option which a number of business owners are using today. Apart from giving your customers a platform to discover your brand and services, it also impacts your SEO. With more content and links on your Facebook page, you are assured greater visibility online.
Your Fans and Friends – Your Customers
And vice versa. By regularly posting on your wall, sharing promotions or discounts or offering a sneak peek into your upcoming products you are assured an increasing number of fans and friends who will turn into customers and recommend your products and services to their friends also.
Facebook Do’s for Your Business
Profile: While you make your business recognizable on Facebook you can choose to optimize your profile with images of your company’s logo, products and any other noteworthy information.Connect and Link with People and Groups: Facebook Pages and Groups are great options to create and provide your business an identity to strengthen your brand. Interact with your fans and group members and initiate discussions. Also, ensure that you address all postings and comments (good and bad) from your fans.Promote Offers and Events: Customers who find you on Facebook and become your fan will be interested in your products and services than average customers. Keep your Facebook connections updated about upcoming events, product launches or sales and they will surely remain your loyal customers.
Facebook Don’ts for Your Business
Spam: No matter how good a product or service you are trying to market, it is not going to work if you post on your wall a number of times during the day. You might feel that this might attract your group members or fans but this will surely annoy them more.Personal account and business account in one. Although some people believe that a personal account with information on your business makes you appear more human, it is best to have a dedicated page for your business.Ignore requests or comments: It is essential to remain an “approachable” business so your fans and customers feel welcome into your business family and remain interested to know more.
Professional social networking websites have remained great options for promoting businesses and Facebook is turning out to be a great marketing opportunity providing some options for free.
Facebook Paid Advertising – Is It Better Than Free Advertising?
Oct 10th
It can no longer be argued that Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the world. In fact, it is said to have almost half a billion members all across the globe, which consequently makes it one of the most often visited sites that exists in the internet.
This particular characteristic alone should be considered as an asset for anyone who wishes to post advertisements in Facebook. By making the site an important medium for promoting products and services, advertisers can be assured a good degree of success because of the fact that they can expect more people to notice and actually entertain the idea of buying.
However, Facebook offers paid and free advertising but, if you want to be assured of success in your marketing efforts, you may need to invest money by picking the former. Free advertising surely does not cost you anything other than time and energy but it also does not guarantee you good results as much as paid ads do.
With a Facebook paid ad, you can be more specific with your target customer base by choosing certain profiles of members you wish to offer your products to. The social networking site has enough information to provide you an idea of the demographics that will certainly help in focusing your advertising campaign to people who will most likely be convinced to buy from you.
Once you have the demographics, you can then employ the keyword-based marketing tactics. Your advertisement’s copy should only be written in a way that it contains the keywords that will surely attract the attention of many other members of the social networking site.
If you use Google Ads, you may be constrained in putting graphics in your ads that are meant to capture the attention of internet users and persuade them to try your products. This is something that you will not encounter with Facebook’s paid ads since you are free to use the necessary amount of graphics to make your promotion more effective.
There may be limitations set to the number of characters used for describing the ads though but it is definitely more than that offered by other online advertising mediums such as Google AdWords. Facebook allows you to use 135 characters at the maximum while Google limits you to just 75.
Finally, paid advertising in this popular social networking site is often less expensive when compared to other paid advertising avenues in the internet. In fact, because it is a less costly option, Facebook paid advertising is fast becoming the choice of many individual and small businesses.
More and more online sellers have turned to Facebook for advertising. They do this alongside the other usual internet marketing tactics and they have become successful for doing so.





