There are thousands of social networks available online today; trying to join each and interacting on them will stretch your efforts far too thin to the point that you’re not making any impact. It’s best to focus on just a few social networks at a time. Staying focused on a small group of social networks will allow you to devote time for market interaction, sharing content and building an online brand.

This article will explore the top three social networks you should be using. Each of the following will provide you with access to the largest segment of your market and give you the ability to try different marketing approaches when interacting with your community.

Facebook

Facebook is the essential social network that every business should be a part of due to the massive size of the platform. With Facebook, your business will be able to build a loyal fan base, take advantage of fan pages, share promotions and interact with your market in ways that may prove difficult on your business website.

Facebook is great for businesses as an outlet to share regular content and updates without requiring manual updates to the businesses’ website. The majority of web users have Facebook accounts; each message they respond to on your own fan page wall or message will show on their own which makes an opportunity for subtle word-of-mouth marketing. Likewise, Facebook has continued to expand their offerings with advertising options, marketplaces and event pages if your business chooses to take advantage of these options on the platform.

Twitter

Twitter is a micro blogging platform where users may interact, share content and build a strong personal brand using 140 characters or less. Even with the limitations on the size of a message your business can fully tap into this social network by providing a great experience to your market in a real-time environment.

Twitter has quickly shot to feverish heights as one of the most popular social media platforms on the web today. Each time your business has news to share to the world, do so on Twitter. Interact with your customers by finding their profiles and build a following by sharing widgets on your own website. Twitter also allow for easy sharing of your content across the platform which may drive customers through your website and increase your bottom line.

Blogging

Blogging is a traditional social media platform that has been around for years now. Blogging provides benefits over a static website because of its ability to readily share timely information, provide a platform for users to interact and integrate other social networks using widgets and plugins.

Search engines love timely information; blogging provides search engines with fuel to regularly indexing your site that directly results your overall organic traffic from new pages for search engine users to discover. Additionally, blogging allows your business to share great information to your community that adds value to what you have to sell such as tutorials, reviews, testimonials and more. Each new piece of content pushed on your business blog is another piece which conveys your brand, authority and helps drive traffic to your business (more sales!).

Conclusion

The top three social networks are those which are wildly popular. You can find benefit by chasing after niche markets but the top three listed within this article will be the locations where you’ll be able to make the largest impact within your market. Dedicate a section of your time during your business hours to tap into these social networks as they will provide a positive return on investment through branding, authority and great customer experience.

Facebook can be a powerful tool for small businesses to connect and interact with their audience. However, without followers, on Facebook, small businesses really aren’t connecting at all; for this reason, promotion is in order. This article will share several different strategies you could be using to promote your Facebook profile and build your online following …

 Method 1: Create a Facebook Fan Page

Start promoting yourself on the big time by creating a Facebook fan page. A fan page can be dedicated to anything from a business to a cause; for the purpose of this article, you would most likely be creating a page dedicated to your business or website (they’re often one in the same). Sign up and create your Facebook Fan page, fill in the necessary information and begin promoting it through various channels you’re already active on such as your emails to people, your website or any other social media profile you may have such as Twitter, Google+ or LinkedIn.

Method 2: Create a Facebook Event

Get active with your industry by holding events within your local area. Events can bridge the offline and online world; you may have a massive amount of potential followers but aren’t very active on the web which puts your local event in the perfect position to get these people on board with following your Facebook profile, joining your fan page or visiting your website. Find out a perfect time to create an event in your area such as a holiday weekend when people are likely to have time off. Host the event and give away free items or products for those that attend. Tell people more about your Facebook profile and where they can find you online; not only will you build trust in your local community but you’ll also have the potential to land some quality leads to your website.

Method 3: Advertise on Facebook

Facebook offers a very large advertising platform with a wealth of features and filters that let you hone in on the exact type of person you wish to market to. The Facebook advertising platform lets you play around with filters such as geographical location, hobbies & interests, age and so much more. Laser focus your advertising campaign, through Facebook, to talk to the niche groups in your industry. Focusing your advertising campaign not only lets you keep the costs low but you’ll also find people that are far more likely to take action because you’re not taking a broad swipe at your marketing message. Send people to your Facebook page and entice them to sign up; a few hundred dollars to promote your page can lead to thousands of new followers in a rapid amount of time.

Method 4: Create a Facebook Group

Groups differ from Fan Pages and Events; they’re more like a collective behind a cause, piece of entertainment or just anything in general. A Facebook group can take on any shape and form; people can easily ‘like’ a Facebook group as it can relate to just about any broad or niche topic. For example, you could create a Facebook group related to your industry. On your group page, you could share valuable information which would, in turn, get people interested in your personal brand. All of your interactions on a broad (or niche) scope can lead people to your Facebook page and convince them to follow you

Method 5: Hold a Contest and Link to Facebook

Create an online contest which you host on your website and promote through social media. Point people to your Facebook page as part of the requirements for willing the prize; have people sign up as their “entry” for the contest. Tapping into social networks and removing the barriers of entry for your participants will greatly grow your Facebook following because it’s as simple as clicking a button for people to enter and share. Add an additional requirement for all people to further share the contest on their own Facebook profiles or other social media accounts; this can create a viral effect for getting your contest found online. Finally, remember to offer something incredible that people have the hots for so they’re much more likely to participate.

Method 6: Release a Freebie through Facebook

Develop a list building freebie incentive and release it through a Facebook landing page. A list freebie for Facebook works similarly to those that are often used for building email lists; create something such as an ebook or report that is very valuable to people and give it away, for free, in exchange for someone following you on Facebook. You may not want to offer the same freebie you may be using on your website because this doesn’t give existing followers the incentive to follow you on Facebook; create something completely unique that will capture everyone’s attention. To further improve your opt-in rate, create a lush set of graphics specifically for the Facebook landing page and add an email newsletter opt-in box to virtually guarantee that you gain a follower.

Method 7: Add a Facebook Widget to your Website

Finally, add a Facebook widget to your website using the built in tools provided by Facebook. Since people won’t know about your Facebook profile, fan page, event, etc, they need to be alerted in some fashion and this is where the widget comes into play. The Facebook widget is a simple copy & paste job to get it on your site. Add the widget to your sidebar above-the-fold so people can easily see it without the need to scroll. Additionally, reference your Facebook page within your content or in the author bio so it keeps people reminded that you do have a page for them to follow.

Conclusion

Facebook, as noted, is an incredible tool for building a following without the technical hurdles caused by common options like RSS and email; each of which require a lot of effort on the part of the follower to fully subscribe. A person can ‘like’ your Facebook fan page, event, advertisement, contest and more with a single click of a mouse which removes all barriers for the vast majority of people on the web. Get active in promoting your Facebook profiles and projects by mentioning it everywhere you can; get people to the page, get them to sign up and you’ll get them to follow you into new ventures throughout the future.

Countless businesses have made the mistake of entering social network only to be rejected by the community because of their false interaction with others. Although there aren’t any set ‘rules’ to using social media there are a few best practices within this article that you should consider prior to and during your use of social media for your business.

1: Share Worthwhile Content

Share content that’s valuable to the community. Avoid content that’s overly promotional or has no benefit to the end user. Find what your community wants to consume and deliver it to them. You will find that much of the information people want to consume is related to what you have to offer. Sharing content related to your business will keep you in mind when others go to look at each piece of content.

2: Listen

Listen to what your community has to offer; talk to them about the content they’ve shared and how you can best help them in their own ventures. Forget business for a moment and think about what you can offer people other than a marketing message. Try to genuinely help people with what they’re working on. Helping others without the thought of gaining something in return eventually comes back to you and your business through positive interaction with your community.

3: Remember the WIIFM Factor

The ‘What’s In It For Me’ factor should always be on your mind whenever you publish a social media update. If your message does not provide value to the end user than it may be best to forgo sending out a message at this time. Always remember that the bottom line for your community is the value that you provide; it’s an equal exchange of information between business and its community.

4: Don’t Overdo It

Don’t force your community to follow you on hundreds of social networks; pick a few that work best for your business and stick to them. Likewise, keep your status updates to a minimum to avoid overloading your community with information. Keep your messages to only that which provides value whether it’s one publish a day or a dozen but never push it to hundreds every hour.

5: Engage

Always remember that the fundamental reason people use social media is to engage with others. Don’t be caught up with publishing new marketing messages with each push. Talk to your community directly in a casual manner asking them what’s new, if they need help or simply what they’re up to for the day. In short, treat your social media interaction like you would with a best friend; casual and transparent.

I think it is a good time to temporarily hand over the reigns of your web business to an expert who can update and optimise it ready for your return and the inevitable increase in visitors throughout September.

Now is the best time to make sure all the various working parts of your online business gel together to ensure your websites and blogs are operating at the top of their game. A great way to re ignite your business through out what we hope will be an Indian summer eh?

Maybe you just need a revamp to make the website fit your brand better

There are five main areas where I think we need to concentrate on:

1. The Look & Feel – Does it look professional?
2. Content Creation – Do people love to read & share your content?
3. Search Engine Optimisation – especially off page which gets neglected all the time.
4. Social Connectivity – Facebook and Twitter are you getting the best from them?
5. Membership, Squeeze & Sales pages – Really ramp it up now, it’s easy!

Design:

Is you site easy on the eye, is it looking professional? Or does it need a makeover? A premium theme such as Catalyst is SEO friendly right out the box and is highly customisable which makes rebranding a breeze.

Content:

Do you need help with content ideas and inspiration? Is you content being read and shared enough by your current followers? Is your content bringing in new readers?

SEO:

August is a great time to start an SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) overhaul. Is your sitemap up to date, are all your Meta tags, alt tags etc. in place. Or have they been neglected. Do you have a regular link building campaign in place to help hold your hard worked for rankings? Are you taking advantage of all the latest off page SEO tactics?

In my opinion this is the most neglected part of most online businesses. The guys who consistently see results are on this ALL the time!

Social Connectivity:

Are you taking advantage of all the social networks, do you have a plan to expand and
leverage your efforts? Facebook & Twitter just get bigger and bigger but the strategies for using them and getting the best out of them change on an almost monthly basis. A Facebook page for you business is essential and it is now easier than ever to create welcome pages with video for maximum impact.

Membership, Sales & Squeeze:

Or maybe you want to create a membership site or some squeeze and sales pages. It has never been easy to integrate all the tools necessary to set up a membership site with multiple paid levels. Sales & Squeeze page are now more or less point and click with Optimzepress.

Take advantage of the downtime in August to get your website ready for September.

Check out my services page or contact me here TODAY!

There are many small items that new bloggers often omit when they are starting a blog from failing to add their voice to delivering less than stellar content. This post will explore some of the more subliminal items that bloggers often forget; see if you’re omitting them on your own blog.

Mistake #1: Leaving out the About Me

People come to your blog to read content produced by you. You’re the reason why people stick around on a blog well after they complete a post. Failing to fill in the about me section of your blog will stop people from learning more about you and what you have to offer. Even though you may think that the About Me page doesn’t matter in the long-run; it actually does because that’s where people will eventually land if and when they decide to stick to your blog.

Mistake #2: Failing to Optimize for Search

Each blog platform come with preexisting features which allow posts to rank well in search engines but they do often need additional help through plugins and user experience with using keywords. Craft your content with the main keywords you wish to rank for by placing the keyword within the title, description and throughout the body of the content. Optimizing your blog for search will increase the likelihood of it being found in search engines which, in turn, means more traffic and a greater ability to promote your business or brand.

Mistake #3: Adding Difficulty to User Sharing

Blogs have become popular because of the ease for the visitor to share and distribute content. Adding difficulty to users sharing such as omitting buttons like Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon and many others means you’re less likely to have your content shared with others. Think of your sharing options as a call-to-action; without a call-to-action and adding high resistance to users sharing will mean your blog is less likely to be discovered.

Mistake #4: Lack of Building Backlinks

Many bloggers push out a new post and move directly on to the next topic. A crucial step to take when starting and running a blog is to build backlinks to your content after the post has been published. Building backlinks don’t have to take your entire afternoon; commenting on a few other blogs is all you need to add a bit of extra search engine juice to your content. Despite your best efforts to write a search engine friendly post or to rank for your keywords, without keywords you won’t rank well; always remember to build a few links in between each post you publish.

Mistake #5: Delivering Less than Stellar Content

Content is what matters most when starting a blog. Content is the reason people come to your blog and without it they will have no reason to stick around for more than a few seconds. Your content should be a combination of your own voice, experience and knowledge. Each piece of content should draw upon all that you know and should be created in a way that people directly tell you they would be willing to pay for it. When you know that people find true value in your content, share it and comment, you know you’re going in the right direction with your blog.

Conclusion

Have you been making these deadly mistakes? You could be losing out on hundreds (even thousands) of visitors to your website. Go through each of the items listed in this post and see if you’re omitting them from your blog and then correct them.

Share your Expertise through Content

Share content to your community which helps your visitors with items related to your products or any other need they need fulfilled. Content does not necessarily need to be just about what you’re selling; it can be glimpses into your office, highlight your employees, convey your culture, share experiences from customers and much more. Each piece of content builds upon one another that continue to construct a strong online brand. Push only your best content to the world, don’t be overly promotional and always provide value to your end user.

Share your Authority through Interaction

Build your authority from the messages and interaction you have with members of your community. People have come to your business looking for a solution to their problem; extend the solution beyond your product by sharing messages that add to the overall value of what your product offers. When people have problems they often flock to social networks to ask the community. Join social networks to answer questions. Each time you interact with members on a social network you will also be reaching friends of these people that leads to a great perception of authority.

Share your Message through Updates

Update your community with recent events at your business or what’s happening within your marketplace. Information is powerful; sharing it will educate your community. If you are the only player within your market that’s taking advantage of social media than you’re at a prime spot to properly build an online brand. Businesses that are slow to join social networks are missing out on great opportunities to convey their message and build a lasting online brand through this interaction.

Share your Products through Networks

Tap into the millions of users on each social network by providing links, overviews and promotions about the products you have to offer. Social commerce is the future of how people buy on the web. Users share their experiences with products and businesses from companies that, in turn, entice others to buy from the company because of the powerful recommendation from a friend. Find your customers on the social networks, create a strong bond and your business will see a rise in customer interaction (and sales). A business that’s able to stand behind their products and answer questions open the flood gate to a highly recognizable brand.

Share your Culture through Transparency

Share the thing that makes your business special on social networks. People have moved away from dealing with businesses that only want to make money; share the unique element about the culture behind your business to have people get on board with what you represent rather than what you sell. Apple, for example, doesn’t simply sell products, their brand represents an artistic movement in computing; the movement is what people get behind and the products come second.

Conclusion

Branding goes well beyond a logo and the products you have to offer. Branding gives your business the ability to venture into new segments of your market and pull along your existing community to launch on a high note. Begin using social media for your business today, share amazing content, craft your message and remain transparent. You’ll build an online brand through great interaction on social media; your business has a message – spread it.

Hey I’ve just watched this new video from Mari Smith and needed to share it on my blog immediately because it kicks **se. The video is only 11 minutes long and well worth a watch. The final 6 minutes has some awesome marketing tips you can use on your own Facebook pages today!

The new Facebook upgrade gives our businesses some new marketing tools. Here’s what you’ll discover:

• How to create a call to action visible to all your visitors
• How to reorganize the links in the new navigation
• What you should put at the bottom of your navigation list and why
• How the new iFrame features can help your business
• How to use Facebook Ads to drive readers to specific tabs
• How you can create a free ad for your Fan Page

Video source: Social Media Examiner

Interaction is key to your success when using Facebook for your business. Below are just 8 quick and easy ways to get your brand noticed out there.

Tag Your Friends in Status Updates

If you have a product or service with a sales letter, squeeze page or video, post a link to them via a status update and integrate your friend’s name. You need to be creative with this and not over do it. Us the @ symbol in front of your friends name in your status and this will tag them.

Tag Your Friends Photos

This works well if you have market influencers in your friends list and is good for brand recognition. Upload a photo with your product or offer, add a promotional description and then tag as many friends as you can in that one photo.

The names then show up on your pictures and will appear on your friends profile for all of their friends to see. Even if their security settings disable the public showing of tagged photos they will still see they have been tagged and open it up.

Tag Your Friends in Notes

Facebook notes can be used in a variety of ways. If you have a blog you can import those posts into Facebook so they show up as notes. Notes can sometimes go viral very quickly (depending on the content). But again tag your friends in these notes. Remember not to over do this.

Comment on Your Friends Walls

Interaction is what Facebook is all about. Be a good friend and write on your friends walls.  A bit like the old fashion “popping next door for a cup of sugar”. Stop by and spark up a conversation.

Comment on Group, Fan Page and Event Walls

This is where Facebook comes into its own for us business owners. If you target your niche, you can join groups, “like” fan pages and events. Once you get involved you can discretely mention your product or service on their walls and everyone else who is following or liking them will see your post.

Slip this into overdrive without leaving your homepage, you can tag the group or page or by using the @ symbol. Then it no only appears on your profile, news feed and friend’s news feeds but it will also show up on the page that you tagged. How cool?

Like Status Updates on Friend, Fan Page and Group Walls

We have a choice here.  You can like status updates by using your personal profile account or you can create a brand and use that. When you “like” from your profile, you friends know what you are up to. When you “like” from your business page you are now promoting your business. Yes you can now like a status while you are using Facebook as your business page. Again this is very powerful.

Create a Group Page and Keep Adding

Once you create a group you can add as many of your friends to it as you like, without asking their permission. Obviously an easy way to promote your business or service and give you immediate exposure. Make sure the group is interesting & compelling, if it rubbish they will leave.

Create an Event Page and Keep Inviting

Again once you create an event you can invite all your friends. Make the name compelling (think blog headlines). Then send everyone an invite that will appear as if by magic in their inbox.

At the end of the day what this boils down to is using ALL of Facebooks features to the max to get the most out of it. We have a powerful networking tool here which is only going to get more powerful. Take advantage of it now.

Although this posts mentions 8 quickies, these “quickies” make up 90% of all the content of all the training that can be bought via eBooks, membership sites, and videos out there. They just package it in a clever way and make it sound more interesting.

If you have any strategies that you have used and have found successful please share them below in the comments

I’m not sure if you have noticed but Facebook have changed the design and functionality of its Pages. The change has aligned the pages more closely to our user profiles in terms of look and functionality.

The great thing about these updates is that they will improve the ability for us all to connect with our audiences. The new changes have bought a more compelling look and feel with them which will allow companies and brands to operate more like the way us mere mortal users do. The result of these changes will see an improvement in application performance and apparently there will be more flexibility in how we name our pages.

These changes take effect on March 10^th, so we have four weeks to check out the new format. We can switch over at any time from now until March 10^th but after that date will have no choice in the matter.

(click for larger image)

1. 1. Photo strip above the Wall
   2. Tabs moved over to the left panel, in the form a list
   3. Profile picture reduced from 200 x 600 to 180 x 540
   4. Blurb box that was below the Page picture now moved to info tab
   5. Pages can now “Like” other Pages, no just favourite them
   6. Featured Pages & Admins
   7. Page Category
   8. Choice for Wall posts between “Everyone” and Page posts only
   9. Mutual Friends and Interests section
   10. Ability to interact on Facebook as your Page
   11. Ability for Admins to post and comment around the site under their Page’s alias
   12. News feed of updates from Liked Pages
   13. Pages can now feature iFrame tab applications
   14. Email notifications when users post or comment

It is important to note that you can preview the new layout but once you upgrade, there is no way to revert back to the old design.

Photo Strip Instead of Tabs Above the Wall

The replacement of tabs with the photo strip at the top adds a dynamic, colourful element that will significantly improve the look of the average Facebook Page. The photos are drawn from the most recent ones you posted on your Wall and those you have tagged, but does not photos posted by fans. Users can hide photos they don’t like. The new left nav placement of tabs also allows for longer tab names.

Expanded Functionality For Fan Page Admins

By enabling Fan Page admins to comment in the name of the page itself and to interact with other Fan pages, Facebook has finally made it possible for brands to truly engage in tremendous interactive engine which powered its growth among individuals. Your power as a page administrator is increased in a number of other ways, including the ability to set filters on your Wall so that visitors see relevant posts first, and to view all the content and get notices whenever someone posts to your wall.

If you have any questions about these changes send me an email, I will be only to pleased to help you out.

If you want to discuss online business in general I’m available for a chat at any time. Maybe you have a website and want to upgrade it and move it to WordPress or maybe you have an idea for an online business and want to talk about how to get it moving.

For more information click here to peruse my services page >>

Post inspired by Involver

Ok so you have your Facebook page all up and running, what now?

Today I have read four articles which really put that question into a nutshell, or is that four nutshells? Anyway the first artilce is a Facebook page business 101, just to get some myths zapped and to cover the basics. The next thee articles cover loads of different ways of telling everyone that you now have a Facebook page and you want them to see it.

Social media marketing has its own set of rules or etiquette if you will. It is not good enough to create your page then go a bang up a load of offers and products to sell. Build a relationship first and then go bang up some offers and some things to sell! I’m obviously being a bit facetious there but you know what I mean.

Here are the links to those greate articles, by Mari Smith and Social Media Examiner…

• The Facebook 101 Business Guide

• 21 Creative Ways To Increase Your Facebook Fanbase

• How To Better Engage Facebook Fan Page Fans

• 13 Ways To Move Your Facebook Fans To Action