Written by Anne Miller
Tuesday, 25 May 2010 05:13
1. Create Your Profile
Facebook is all about personal relationships, i.e. “friends”. People probably DON’T want to make friends with your business, but they may like to be friends with you. In any case, you are not allowed to create a profile for your business. What you can do is create a profile for yourself, using your real name (false names are also against Facebook’s Terms of Services and risk instant deletion if detected).
Don’t forget to check your Privacy settings. You may, or may not, wish to share those “cute” family moments with the world and potential customers.
2. Work At It.
Upload your contact database to see if any of your contacts – or customers – are already on Facebook. Send “friend” requests. Then continue working at it! There is no point in starting a social networking marketing strategy unless you are willing to spend time at it, usually every day! Chat and joke with your new “friends” and answer their questions.
3. Create Your Company Page
Once you have created a personal profile, you can create a page for your business (this option is also available from Facebook’s initial log-in page)
This company page looks similar to your personal profile and can also be enhanced with applications that, as Facebook describes it, “capture new audiences virally through friend recommendations, News Feed stories, Facebook events, and beyond”.
Business pages should have your company contact information as well as photos, videos, news about upcoming events, discussion forums and links back to your corporate website. You can also include an RSS feed from your blog, embed videos from YouTube or re-tweet Twitter posts. And the bonus is, these company pages are spidered by search engines so your info will show up in Google!
The Facebook residents who become fans of your company are putting up their hands to tell you they like your product. They are inviting you to stay in touch with them and share information and advice. Do it!
4. What not to do
Don’t privately message too many individuals. You’ll be identified by Facebook as a spammer and you risk having your profile deleted.
Hard-selling doesn’t work!
Remember Facebook – and in fact all social media avenues – aren’t “get-rich-quick” schemes. Social media is about building networks and your reputation slowly over time. People will like your page and absorb your message if you provide content that it interesting and gives them value.
5. Advertising on Social Media
Of course, you can also advertise directly on Facebook in an attempt to drive people to your business page. There are benefits of advertising with a social media network, for example, Facebook ads allow you to target a select demographic.
6. Be Alert & Keep On Your Toes
One of the real problems – and opportunities – with social media outlets are that they are continually evolving.
More likely than not, these changes will be beneficial to marketers but you have to be alert to take advantage of opportunities as they arise.
Facebook, for example, seems keen to improve its revenue streams and often tweaks its users’ settings. However, it is important to watch how these changes play out in the marketplace as privacy issues can arise and Facebook can “pull the plug” on a feature almost instantaneously.
For an interesting oversight of some of Facebook’s history of changes, visit CNET
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