Businesses Can Learn From How Politicians Use Facebook Fan Pages

Over a year after leaving the Oval Office, President George W. Bush has launched a Facebook Fan Page. Mr. Bush's appearance on Facebook piqued my curiosity, leading me to drop by his Fan Page to see what he's doing and to look in on what other top politicians are doing on this social networking site.

Why look at politicians at all? Learning what they do on Facebook can show businesses how to succeed on Facebook. Politicians during an election year engage in a high-stakes marketing campaign. The product they sell is their own person and there is only one in inventory-if they can't sell themselves they lose. Politicians are also well-known for crafting their image and wanting only positive public opinion to maintain that image. So, what do they expose on Facebook and how do they interact with Fans on their fan pages? What can they teach us about engaging a following on a Fan Page?

Al Gore: You may be under the impression that the ex-Vice President is going to be personal and accessible on Facebook, after all his account is set up as just plain ol' Al Gore, none of that high-brow stuff of using his full birth name Albert Arnold Gore Jr. There's no mention of the Nobel Prize. The purpose of his Fan Page appears to promote environmental issues: his Info tab has only sparse information and links lead to his personal webpage and TheClimateChangeProject.org. Al and Tipper announced their separation on June 1, 2010 and on June 2 Tipper was still listed as one of his main interests on his Info tab. There are plenty of well wishes from concerned fans, hoping Al and Tipper find happiness, but there is no post from Gore. Despite developing news everyday about the largest oil spill in US history that threatens the Gulf Coast, Gore has broken his pattern of frequent posts and hasn't updated his Facebook account for over two weeks. Strategy: Stick to the environment and don't share too much personal information. Appears to be taking a break from updates.

Barack Obama: The lines blur a bit around Obama-there are two Facebook pages that post Mr. Obama's activities. Barack Obama has posts and Notes that date back to before the 2008 Presidential Election. His Info tab is as complete as any high school junior with his favorite films, music, etc. The second Fan Page that chronicles The President is The White House page. Both of these pages are exceptionally up-to-date with daily posts of appearances and issues and even recent photos of his trip to Louisiana to view the affects of the BP oil spill. Mr. Obama appears to be the first President to truly building his presidency and legacy online, but the fans who found him on Facebook during the campaign already knew that. Strategy: Committed to everyday posts and using all features.

John Edwards: It's obvious from the first glance that Edwards fan page was launched strictly as a campaign strategy. His current status is listed as running for President. The last post was in February 2008 about the time he pulled out of the campaign. His Info tab still states his marriage to Elizabeth Edwards and mentions his four children, ignoring the fifth child born out of the extra-marital scandal that became public in 2009. This is for all purposes a dead Fan Page-what's mystifying is that there are over 17,000 people who are still "fans". Why stay a fan of a Fan Page where nothing is going on? Strategy: Used Facebook for the short term goal during campaign. No commitment seen to using Facebook to maintain a public profile and manage a public image.

Hillary Rodham Clinton: Ms. Clinton doesn't have a Fan Page, only a Community Page on Facebook is a bit like an encyclopedia article chronicling her life and achievements. Neither Ms. Clinton nor her staff post comments on the page. Strategy: No Facebook involvement and Facebook presence is managed by others on her Community Page.

George W. Bush: No matter how you feel about the former president or what you think about his policies, you have to give a nod to his ability to collect over 35,000 "likes" to his Fan Page in less than 24 hours. His page is simple, no flourish of Facebook apps and his Info tab reveals only the link to the Bush Center (his presidential library) and also an Info box that states he attended Harvard and Yale. His boxes link to his up-coming book and fundraising for Haiti as well as fundraising for other organizations. Strategy: Promote his book and causes.

Who makes the best use of Facebook? The Fan Page that is so out of date it just isn't even a contender is John Edwards. Al Gore's page scores well due to his focus and using his environmental credentials to create a page that is informative and connects with people who are concerned with the environment. The super nova of Fan Pages is President Obama: 8 million fans, frequent updates, and lots of information for the presidentially-curious.

You don't have to be a battle for office or be concerned with creating an online legacy to succeed at Facebook: Start your Fan Page to connect with people of similar interests and show your dedication by updating frequently.

Vanessa Wood at Design to Spec LLC works with businesses ready to make their websites work for them. You'll find at http://www.designtospec.com more tips to accelerate your Internet Marketing. It's time to have website or a blog that will bring your business! Let this be the year you say I get business from my website!

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Facebook Fan Pages and Fan Boxes For Your WordPress Blog

I have written in a previous article about the simpler ways to connect your blog into Facebook. Now we'll go ahead a step further than that: we'll create a Facebook Fan page.

It may sound a bit over-the-top to create a Facebook Fan page for your blog, but it could really help increase your blog's audience share. With this, you can easily interact with your fans and discuss topics from your blog or anywhere else. The following instructions will help you create your very own fan page.

First, go to the Facebook Home page. From there scroll down to the bottom of the page then click the "Advertising" link. From the Advertising page, click the Pages link. Once the page loads, click on the "Create a Page" button. The next page will let you create your fan page. You have to choose your category and type in the name of the site you'll be promoting. After that, you have to confirm that you have permission to create the page and then type in an electronic signature. This is a security measure on the part of Facebook. It is part of their Terms of Use that no user is allowed to make fake pages or "unofficial" fan pages and violators may get their accounts disabled. So just be careful.

After your page has been created, you have to customize it by putting up a logo, your blog's and maybe your own information then publish the lot. Then you can start sharing it to your friends and begin building a fan base.

The Embedded Facebook Fan Page

In conjunction to your Facebook Fan page, you can take it up a notch by embedding your fan page in you blog. You can increase your fans this way, and you can also advertise your fan page which advertises your blog. XD

Anyway, there are three ways to go about this. You can either:

1. Go large. You can show your streams and your fans. It will take a lot of space and it could be hard on your blog's real estate. If you really need to save space, then you can try the second option.

2. This just shows some of your fans and a count of the total fans you have in your page. This is the most used format in most blogs.

3. The last option takes the least amount of space and the most simplest among the three. It is just a simple button with the fan page's name and a bit telling your readers or users whether they are fans or not. If you have yet to start a fan base, I think opting for this button might be better, for obvious reasons.

Please remember though that changing the javascript to just show the "Become a Fan" button and nothing else, is against Facebook's Terms of Service. The code can be tweaked, yes, but that violation could lead to your page's termination. With that said, you can place the code in your site by going to this link. Select which items you want to include in your widget then click the "Other" button to generate the code you need to insert in your theme.

But if you want to bypass the hard coding part, then you can install the Facebook Fan Box plugin in your website. Well, whatever you decide, these will help draw more traffic to your site.

Wait for my next post about creating a Facebook Application for your website or blog. It won't be easy, but it would be cool to know.

I am a stay-at-home mom blogging about my family, my interests,pet peeves and experiences about blogging, WordPress and Facebook. Look me up at http://slackermommy.com

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Facebook Fan Pages - The Best Marketing Practices

Facebook is very quickly becoming the platform most often chosen by small businesses and corporations who want help building their brand. The reason Facebook is so popular with companies is because of its reach. If you study the growth rate of Facebook over the last few years you will see that most of the people who use the network remain pretty active. This is a good reason for any small or big business to use Facebook for publicity purposes. Everybody, even you, can jump into the Facebook ring and build a fan page of your very own for your audience to like or join.

The Facebook fan page provides a unique place for businesses and companies to build and strengthen personal relationships with their clients. Given below are 3 simple and effective Facebook fan page creation strategies that you can use right away.

Aim at creating live conversations that are ongoing. You can create these discussions by making use of the status updates and also by using the discussion app. Treat your fans like gold because they are; so just be normal, cool, and talk to them and get them at your fan page and interact with them. That is a terrific approach and strategy for simply getting to know your market audience that much better, and it also sows good will. If you allow them to say what's on their minds, then they'll appreciate that and feel good about talking to you. Once you know what people are saying you can take control of the conversation.

Sometimes you may get a dissatisfied customer but that is to be expected, and you can work to resolve the situation. The best approach is to be as professional as possible. You want to brand your page to the fullest extent, and so you also want to put a photo of something on your page that is related to the page/product/service. Facebook is definitely the biggest photo sharing site on the Internet, which means people are used to seeing pictures on it. Take your time with the picture, and make sure it's relevant and is of the highest quality.

Always market your fan page, and you can make good use of the Twitter application designed to promote Facebook fan pages. Simple really, you'll communicate, Tweet, your FB fan page marketing to your Twitter followers. Don't have any? Get some. This is how it works: Whenever you update your status on Facebook fan page (which could be a link/photo), there will be an automatic update to your Twitter account linking back to your page on Facebook. What you can do with this little gem is send targeted traffic to you fan page from Twitter. Even though there are other applications that let you integrate Facebook with Twitter, this is one of the best apps for the job.

All anyone needs to do is click your Twitter link, and then they'll magically appear on your fan page where they can become another fan. You are free to look at Facebook as the new and much friendlier Google because of the huge amount of niche traffic. There has never been an easier way to tap into massive amounts of traffic as you can do with the fun and stupid simple fan page. There are very many businesses of all kinds that recognize the potential at Facebook, and they're doing business there. You'll need to realize that using a page is like any other legitimate form of business, and you will have to make it happen.

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Social media marketing – 9 ways, use Facebook fan pages for businesses

Facebook is a goldmine - for those who know how to mine it Dessert Gallery bakery & Cafe is one such company. Based in Houston, Texas, it found that store visits increased by 36% because they had a Facebook fan page. Additionally, customers who were their Facebook fans spent 45% more, and company loyalty increased by 41%.

Another company, the Heartstone Inn of Eureka Springs, Arkansas, saw a 20% increase in revenue within 6 weeks of building their fan page, and a ten-fold increase to their subscriber base.

Andrew Wilkins of St. Petersburg, Florida, what about to loose his restaurant due to tough economic times in 2010. Because he had a fan page, there what hub a central for people to not only tune into and hear his cry for help, but so to pass on the message. As a result, restaurant sales went up 40%, and he was able to keep the doors of St. Pete Brasserie restaurant open, as well as attract potential investors.

What is it about Facebook fan pages that have the capability to increase business revenues, and even turn around failing businesses? Here is a list of 9 ways that marketing on Facebook using fan pages can add to your bottom line:

(1) Possibility of spreading your message virally. Though Facebook has removed its "Suggest to Friends" feature, there are other ways of spreading your message and creating a viral effect. Posting status updates that engage fans can thus engage fans' friends. When a status update is sent from a fan page, it shows up the fans' newsfeeds, and this is often how they see it. It also allows their friends to see the status update, and potentially join the fan page. There are also scripts available which allow friends to invite friends to invite friends, and so on, that can explode the fan base. And, of course, the more fans, the more eyes on your message, the more potential revenue.

(2) Traffic to your website. If you have a website with the product/service same as your fan page, linking the two together is a great way to get more traffic to the website. People visit Facebook often - every day, sometimes several times a day - to see what their friends are doing, to play games, look at photos, etc. How many websites can boast similar levels or varieties of engagement?

If a fan wants more info on your company / brand, while on your fan page, they can click on the Info tab, see links to your website, and possibly click on one. Thus, more eyes will potentially see the products and services on your website.

(3) Being engaging. Fans love to and want to be engaged. Engage them and they'll generally come back for more. Asking them to open-ended question, giving a poll, setting up a contest and announcing the winner with perhaps a testimonial from said winner, allowing fans to post comments and pictures, informing of new products, services, and specials - these upload are all ways to engage fans and keep them coming back for more. You want them to think, 'I wonder what's going on with XYZ today,' so that they check your fan page regularly for updates.

(4) Low-cost marketing with potential high yields. A fan page can cost a few hundred dollars to build, and perhaps a few hundred more to get seed fans. This in comparison to websites, which cost hundreds to thousands more, and offline businesses, which cost tens of thousands more. After the building, maintenance, which is hugely important, is done by status updates as mentioned above.

Here is an example of a status update that could lead to high yields: Let's say a fan page on spa services has 2,000 fans. A status update that says "15% discount on all services this week!" "Simply mention REWARDS when paying and we'll set you up," can bring in a surge of customers and bookings that week or longer.

Another example: A fan page about chocolate could highlight one of their products: "Famous ABC chocolate, now selling at $2 per bar, shipping included." Get some for your significant other, to celebrate special occasions, or just because. "Order here [link to chocolate store]." Say there are 5,000 fans, and 1,000 people actually see the status update. Of the latter, 50 people choose to order on average of 3 bars each. That would be $300 generated from posting that one status. In addition, friends of your fans see your status update from your fans' newsfeeds. So, let's say that 200 friends of your fans see the status update in their newsfeed and become fans. Of those, 15 order chocolate worth a total of $ 60. This means that one status update what worth $360 plus 200 fans. Now, imagine if there are 10,000 or 15,000 fans. The yield of one status update multiplies. This is the power of using Facebook for business.

5) Opt-in lists. To opt-in list is a powerful tool to grow your subscriber base and promote your products and / or services to an increasing number of customers.
Entice fans to fill out their name and email address in exchange for a giveaway or contest. The more desirable, the more sign-ups.

(6) Video. People enjoy visual stimulation. Give them something to watch that entertains, informs, and / or invites curiosity, thereby retaining their interest.

(7) Brand credibility. Seeing is believing is stamping indelibly in people's minds that a business with a fan page has a face, is a contender, can stand up and be counted. Please note: much of brand credibility has to do with the fan page being on Facebook, but other important aspects include its appearance, how many fans it has, and how engaged these fans are on the fan page. Deeply imprint a's brand all these factors more minds on people, to where they unconsciously begin to trust it.

(8) Reveal page. A reveal page is content that comes up on a fan page after fans click the "Like" button; otherwise they are not able to see it. by contrast, no-reveal means that the fans can see all content on the fan page without having to "like" the page. Subscriber rates are up to three times higher with a reveal fan page than with a no-reveal page.

(9) Setting up shop on Facebook: you can add a shop tab to your fan page. This way, fans don't have to leave Facebook to purchase a product. Between the shop tab and Facebook statuses announcing specials or highlighting specific products, a fan's buying experience is easier, which increases purchases. This is a better option than having the fan click the link to your website to make a purchase.

So there you have it nine ways to use social media marketing for business. Done right, they will build customer loyalty and ultimately generate more business revenues for your. Listen to your fans, ask them questions, give them what they want, and they'll stick around. So will your business.

Susan Reigner helps businesses build Facebook fan pages. Visit http://www.facebooklikesbuy.com/iframe-fan-page-design to get started today to your fan page. Your websites and Facebook business could be getting increased revenues and massive traffic starting a few days from now.

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Create your own Facebook fan pages

Did you know there is a free tool that could help promote your music and make probably not full use them? This tool is the Facebook fan page.

Provides a variety of activities, facilitates the Facebook fan page stay in touch with your current fans and build a bigger fan base. Facebook itself combines 250 million people around the world in a large social network. 100 Million of these people are also Facebook mobile on their mobile phones and other mobile devices use. If you have a mere 1% success rate, you could build almost over night 2.5 million fans. How many fans do you have now? I bet that could say quite less the 10,000 most of us... What could be 2.5 million fans for your career?

One of our team members, Larry Ray, together before recently a Facebook fan page for the MusicBizCenter blog so I asked to see him a couple of questions about the process, if he all of the procedures that could help the rest of us with our own music promotion on Facebook. He had some good answers, and I think that they will prove very useful to our readers.

How do you make a Facebook fan page?

By visiting Facebook pages you start and you click on the link to create a page, the third button where it says artist, band, or public figure, enter your desired page name and official site, select Create. This will then create and open the page for editing.

This is the basic page. This is however only a starting point. You must upload a background image. Size 200 x 200 pixels to ensure that it is correctly displayed. Then fill your bands information, including the year you your bands website and other important information formed. Once this is done, you have the essence of a Facebook fan page for your band.

So, we have the fan page. We stop can it?

Now, could you; If you do not, that want to promote your band. For development to be truly effective with a Facebook fan page, must continue the things and add some functionality and flair for your fans. Visit the Facebook apps directory on http://www.facebook.com/apps/directory.php to find some awesome add-ons for your Facebook fan pages.

One of the most important things, add to fan page to your Facebook is a RSS-feed. If you keep your website regularly, you can syndicate the RSS feed on your website directly to your Facebook fan page and all your posts directly on your fan page wall appear. There are several good apps for this task so only choose one that you like. Larry Ray recommends the called NetworkedBlogs because it deals to also your blog on a searchable directory, make it possible to gain some new fans.

A further great addition to your Facebook fan page is the online showcase. She would not to carry out a free live show without setting up a table ware dream why Miss the opportunity, a table were online for your CD's, digital downloads, T-shirts, or other set up? Like the RSS feed Add ons, there are several large shop Windows to choose from. Larry Ray recommends Payvment E-commerce storefront, because it is free, searchable, user friendly and it is PayPal based, so that your fans can buy your merchandise with their PayPal account, e-checks, or any major credit card. You can add link also a button on your home page, to the storefront.

Another good idea is your music, add your Facebook fan page. There are a variety of applications, to do this, and you can also add, that listed your ReverbNation game to your Facebook fan page so you hear your fans join can let your music and your promotion team.

These are just some of the great things that you can do offer functionality and entertainment to your bands fan pages for your fans. There are literally hundreds of applications available so take the time and find yourself something awesome, the best your bands online advertising make.

Find more great tips and tools like this almost every day during the visit of the MusicBizCenter.com blog http://www.MusicBizCenter.com/blog

You get regular doses of practical advice like yours more of your music, get more exposure, attract more fans, pull more concerts and make more money! By M. Moales, Platinum Millennium publishing and the MusicBizCenter.com blog team

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Facebook Fan Pages - The New Capture Page and List Building Tool

Using Facebook Fan Pages to Capture Contact Information

The use of capture or squeeze pages for viral list building and lead generation is familiar to most people who browse the web regularly, but the use of a Facebook fan page (or business page) to capture visitor information is just starting to "catch on." The use of social media in general has taken off at a staggering rate and has ushered in social marketing with it. A Facebook fan page, when used correctly, is an essential component and offers some tremendous advantages over traditional capture pages for list-building and lead generation. With Facebook exploding to now well over 750,000,000 people, the viral power to expand your traffic many times over, greater conversion and the highest accuracy possible makes a Facebook capture page the superior alternative to traditional capture pages.

A Good Capture Page Offers Value

A good capture page offers some type of incentive in exchange for visitors typing their name and email into a form, essentially "opting in" and giving permission to receive emails or even to be contacted by phone. Obviously, the incentive needs to be something of value in order to draw in the right people, but it need not be something of high monetary value. In fact, in many cases the incentive is simply providing online information and/or training and is either delivered via email, like an "e-book," for instance, or in many cases providing a link to a website with videos and links to other valuable resources. This type of lead-capture system requires a graphic-rich offer page with the ability to capture the information and then pass the visitor on into the destination page, where the sale, or "conversion" process continues. The process of converting a visitor to a paying customer often takes time - like a courtship where you develop trust over time and engage in an ongoing dialogue, all while providing ongoing value.

Why Build a List?

The most obvious answer as to why you would build a list is to sell someone something, but the smart marketers are not necessarily looking for just the immediate, one-time sale. They are looking to develop a large following to which they can provide products and services over an ongoing period of time, so it is important that they nurture and cultivate the list by continuously providing value - a "win-win" situation for both parties.

Driving Traffic

How to drive traffic to a capture page is a huge topic and there are many techniques to do so including SEO (search engine optimization), email campaigns, and now through the very powerful new world of social media and social marketing. Businesses are aggressively driving traffic utilizing many of these different methods and we'll take a look at how they can get the most out of their efforts and out of their advertising dollars.

What's a Facebook Fan Page?

Facebook fan pages, often referred to as business pages, are pages where businesses are able to promote themselves on Facebook. Conversely, Facebook's personal profiles are intended to be used for non-commercial, social networking only. Where individuals on Facebook collect "friends", fan pages collect "likes" as they establish a following.

Why do Businesses Need to be on Facebook?

Simply put - because that is where the people are! With over 750,000,000 million users and most of them logging in multiple times per day, Facebook already has more traffic than Google. Already, 83% of businesses are using Facebook in some way because they know they need to have a presence on Facebook. As the saying goes, "put your bait where the fish are" - and they are on Facebook!

The Importance of a Capture Page on Facebook

So if the people are on Facebook, then why not just concentrate your traffic-building efforts on getting the attention of Facebook users and then driving them to your existing capture page websites? Why have a capture page inside Facebook? Well, being active on Facebook is, for most users, an enjoyable activity where they are able to interact with friends, check out what's going on in their social circles, join in discussions, browse through photo galleries, search for lost friends, etc., and often the last thing they want to do is click on something that takes them outside of Facebook. When something of interest floats by them (social marketing), they are less likely to check it out if it points to a site that is external to Facebook. As soon as they click on something which starts redirecting them to an external website, they will simply close it before it even finishes loading. Conversely, they are much more likely to check it out if it keeps them within Facebook.

The statistics for Facebook advertising bear this out, as conversions are much higher if the landing page for an ad is within Facebook. It also fits the sales process well, allowing marketers to develop buying interest in stages, eventually getting them to the point where they are willing to go to the transactional site. Facebook also offers discounted advertising rates of up to 30% for channeling ad traffic directly to a page within Facebook, as opposed to moving them to an outside site.

Facebook is an Open and Viral Network

Facebook is an open network and is built on the basis that everyone within your social circle (your friends) sees everything that everyone else is doing. The newsfeed (when you click Home) is simply a collection of the content that is being posted on the walls (personal profile pages) of all your friends. Understanding this simple concept highlights the powerful viral benefit of marketing on Facebook, or even driving traffic from outside of Facebook to a viral capture mechanism on a fan page within Facebook.

Just as with a traditional capture page, a fan page capture page needs to provide a way to present a graphic-rich and engaging offer or incentive to get the visitor to opt in and then automatically send a confirmation email. Unlike a traditional capture page, it should leverage Facebook's open network environment and automatically send a customized wall post to that visitor as well, thus exposing all of their friends to your business or service. This essentially automates the word-of-mouth process, not requiring the visitor to take an active role. The credibility of that individual translates directly to your product and service, providing an instant recommendation and increases the likelihood that their friends who have an interest in your product or service will go to you first. In fact, by clicking on the linked wall post, they will go to your fan page capture and the whole process starts over again.

So, if you are already driving traffic to a capture page, using a Facebook fan page capture can literally multiply your traffic many times over. Even if only one friend clicks the wall post to check it out, you've doubled your traffic. With many Facebook users these days having 300, 400 or even 500 friends or more, the additional exposure can be tremendous!

Greater Conversion and Better Accuracy

Since Facebook is a membership network (i.e. free), users must log in and identify themselves to Facebook in order to access the network. This allows a Facebook fan page capture to streamline the capture process. Instead of requiring the visitor to fill out a form, providing at the minimum their name and email address, they can simply, with two clicks, give Facebook permission to provide their information directly from Facebook's database to the capture tool. Since they are not directly providing this information it lessens their reticence as well as eliminates the additional keystrokes, so visitors are much more likely to follow through. Statistics support this showing a 3- to 4-time greater conversation rate over traditional capture pages.

This process also ensures the accuracy of the information captured, as it is captured directly from Facebook's database. This eliminates the common occurrence of visitors putting in false information (i.e. Mickey Mouse and Santa Claus will no longer be visiting your site) to get past the capture page. In fact, people typically use their primary email, which is less likely to go away, when they sign-up for Facebook, and they are much less likely to provide a fake name as this would obviously hinder the social networking process of finding old friends, colleagues, etc. Using a Facebook fan page capture automatically upgrades the quality of the information captured.

So to wrap it all up: A market with over 750,000,000 people, viral power to expand your traffic many times over, greater conversion and the highest accuracy possible truly make a Facebook fan page capture the superior alternative to traditional capture pages!

Tim Kacprowicz is an Independent Social Media Consultant with Social Outbreak, helping provide business owners and entrepreneurs with powerful social marketing solutions and business opportunities that leverage the explosive growth in social media, all under his Social Marketing Engine brand. To learn more, visit our Facebook fan page: Social Marketing Engine, and if you like what you see, we always appreciate your "Likes"!

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Facebook fan pages - key to social media marketing

The phrase "Social Media" is everywhere these days, and if you are like me, you may be a bit unclear about what it actually is... the infamous phrase "I'll know it when I see it" comes immediately to my mind!

I went looking online for a short, easy to understand definition and found this analogy:

Think of regular media as a one-way street where you can read a newspaper or listen to a report on television, however, you have very a limited ability to share your thoughts on the matter.

Social media, on the other hand, is an active two-way street that gives you the ability to communicate and respond.

As the internet develops and evolves, the various Social Media websites are also growing and changing. Several years ago, MySpace was the place to be but it is now, generally, considered to be on the wane. Likewise, on MySpace, 33% of its users are aged 17 or less.

Ravalry is a relatively new, large community based around knitting with over 1,200,000 registered users. As you would expect, its membership is primarily female and the average member age is not available.

Facebook provides this information about its users:


More than 500 million active users (I recently saw the number 600 million, but it hasn't been changed yet, on the Facebook site)
50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day
Average user has 130 friends
People spend over 700 billion minutes per month on Facebook

As you can see, each Social Media site appeals to and has a different user base than any other site.

One of the powerful considerations about using a Social Media web site is the fact that most of them provide a level playing field when it comes to small business owners vs the big boys. For instance, you can build a Facebook Fan page for your offline business and so can a major automobile manufacturer. Within those Facebook Fan pages, both you and the multi billion dollar car maker have the same tools and resources. On Twitter, as another example, both you and the big companies are limited to 140 characters per tweet. They can't buy more characters and blast you out of the competition.

When considering which Social Media site to use with Social Media Marketing, you should consider the site's membership but you should also evaluate its culture and how the members interact. It is important that any Social Media site have a population whose interests are in line with your goals and, also, that it have a structure and pattern of interaction that is compatible with your objectives.

In addition, you must keep in mind that things change on the Internet, sometimes at breakneck speed. As an example, between March 2011 and May 2011, Facebook implemented some major changes which changed the whole landscape of using it for business. Suddenly, controlling the content on a business Fan Page and using product images to build a brand became game changers... for those who knew how to do it!

While a particular Social Media site may be a good fit now, be aware that it may not always be a successful marketing vehicle for you! Monitor the efficacy of any Social Media site you are using AND also keep an eye out for the next big thing!

With all of that in mind, at the current time, I consider Facebook and Twitter to be the Social Media sites most likely to be compatible with the majority of offline businesses and their needs.

In this article I am going to briefly cover Facebook, its structure as it pertains to Social Media Marketing, discuss some of the pitfalls, and propose some strategies appropriate to it.

Facebook Marketing for Small Business

Facebook's membership has exploded and is currently greater than 500 million, according to its own website.

It originally began as a way for college students to keep in touch with fellow students. As a result of that, the basic Facebook community seems to start from an academic basis, joining students and former students with friendship circles widening out from there. If you are like me, you will be shocked at how many members from your high school class seem to appear out of nowhere!

As part of the Facebook mechanism, possible Friends are suggested to you, based on Friends that you and the other person have in common. While you can do searches, it is hard to find and befriend a person that Facebook doesn't think you should know. On the other hand, Facebook makes suggestions that will extend your network, based simply on friends you may have in common with someone.

Another important mechanism is the Facebook Like option, which has now been extended beyond Facebook Profile pages and Facebook Fan Pages and out into the web at large.

A third and exceedingly important Facebook mechanism is the ability to link between websites, Facebook Fan Pages, and Twitter accounts. This can be done with a variety of website creation software options. At the moment, I am encouraging my clients to use the blogging software, WordPress, for non blog websites.

With WordPress as your website management system, once you have signed up for the Networked Blogs Facebook App(lication), you can set your website to show any changes on your Facebook Fan Page and your Twitter account. Your Twitter Account can be set to show Facebook Fan Page Comments along with Posts from your WordPress website. In addition, your Tweets will be displayed on your Facebook Fan Page and your website.

Now, I know that the previous paragraph was confusing so let me give you the abridged edition! In my example, you have three web presences for your business - A Facebook Fan Page, a website built with WordPress, and a Twitter account. Any Post made on one of those three sites will automatically appear on the other two sites.

This is VERY powerful and is a REAL time and energy saver IF you take the time to plan your web marketing strategies with this capacity in mind!

With the potential of getting a three to one benefit from any of your Social Networking posts, as described above, let me go a bit deeper into the opportunities afforded to an offline business by having a Facebook Fan Page.

NOTE - It is important to understand that while a Facebook Fan Page can be considered a potential web site substitute, it offers long term hazards that, in my opinion, are not worth the risk.

Building your business's primary web presence on a third party web site is taking the time, effort, and money to build a nice new house on land that you DO NOT OWN! You might be OK in the short term, but later down the road, you may lose you house, simply because you do not own the land.

While you may decide that it is efficient to start with a Facebook Fan Page, you should also plan to build your own website ASAP! As a business owner, you should be careful to own and control as many of your business assets as possible.

With that warning out of the way, before utilizing any Social Media site for your Social Media Marketing, take the time to read the site's ToS or Terms of Service. Do NOT assume that you know what is allowed and what is not.

As an example, you may have multiple Twitter accounts, but each account must be tied to a different email address. Any email address can have only ONE Twitter account.

With Facebook, any human is allowed ONLY ONE ACCOUNT! This means that any Facebook Fan Pages built for any businesses will be offshoots of your primary, personal Facebook account.

If for some reason, you do not want a Facebook Fan Page to be obviously tied to your personal account, you can set the Privacy setting to obscure the connection. In the case of most offline businesses, this would not be a concern. However, I have a number of online businesses, some of which I am open about and others that I have chosen to run from behind the scenes. There is nothing questionable about doing this, I just prefer to keep the connection quiet to minimize others copying my business model. However, ALL of my business Facebook Fan Pages are offshoots of my SINGLE personal Facebook account.

Part of the evolution of the Facebook Culture is that, in most instances, it is considered appropriate to ask other members to share with their Friends about your Facebook Fan Page or your new post or any of a number of other Facebook interactions. This is markedly different from other websites and their culture, and as a business owner, it is a powerful tool.

It is perfectly OK to ask others to LIKE your Facebook Fan Page. In fact, this can be an important traffic builder for your Facebook Fan Page!

Google AdWords vs Facebook Ads

Another online marketing benefit offered by Facebook is the option to use their Pay Per Click advertising. In the Facebook universe these are known as Facebook Ads - which seems obvious, but online, things are not always obvious!

Last night, I was on a call with one of my consulting clients and she mentioned that she had just gotten a $100 voucher for Google AdWords. She wanted to know if this would be worthwhile. I said that I thought that using Facebook, creating a Facebook Fan Page for her business, and spending her limited budget on Facebook ads would be a better use of her resources, even considering her $100 AdWords voucher.

I explained it to her this way:

Google AdWords and Facebooks Ads are Pay Per Click... each ad is shown (this is called an impression) and you pay when someone actually click on the ad.

While the mechanism for figuring ad payments is the same (PPC or Pay Per Click) the basis for showing an ad differs drastically between Google AdWords and Facebook.

On the surface, the ads themselves are similar. While they may or may not have a picture included, the text or content of the ad is short and presented in plain and simple text. Ads are displayed off the side in vertical stacks or within the body of the page's content. For the most part, these ads are subtle and unobtrusive.

However, the Ad Display Criteria is where the biggest differences lie.

In Google, AdWords are shown on the pages generated with Search Results as well as on website pages related to the Ad's specified search term. This means that Google AdWords are displayed using a mechanism of which terms are being used in online searches. As AdWords have developed, in some instances they are also displayed according to the geographical location of the person doing the Search.

Facebook actually takes an entirely different approach - Facebook Ads are displayed in front of PEOPLE who meet the demographic requirements that you have chosen.

To simplify further, Google AdWords are displayed based on the content of the page where they are shown and Facebook Ads are shown based on the interests, and even the physical location, of the person doing the looking!

As you can see, there is a radical difference between Google AdWords and Facebook Ads.

This is one of the reasons that I feel that Facebook Ads may be far more beneficial for offline businesses.

It is also important to note that when creating a Facebook Ad, you have the choice of sending people who click either to an offsite web page or to a specific Facebook Fan Page.

All in all, I consider Facebook a strong option for offline businesses, since you have the ability to target both demographically and geographically. The potentially viral effect that is inherent in the Facebook culture is another good reason for adding Facebook in to your online advertising mix.

WordPress works well for integrating Social Media options

Finally, if you are using WordPress to build your website to blog, it is relatively easy to integrate WordPress Posts, Facebook Fan Page Posts, Twitter Tweets, and possibly even, your Autoresponder Service messages, so that each one appears on the others... AUTOMATICALLY!

Between the timesaving automation available and the three for one currently available combining WordPress, Facebook, and Twitter, spreading your company's message across the internet has gotten MUCH easier!

Visit SurviveAndConquerCoaching.com and discover more information and solutions about the pitfalls of putting an offline business online! Also, be sure to check out Tink's Kindle Resources. Go to the Kindle store and search for "Tink Boord-Dill".

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Fast Easy Free Trick To Increase Optins Using Facebook Fan Pages

Social Media sites such as Facebook are fast becoming the number one traffic resource for both Affiliate Marketers and Internet Marketers alike, especially the use of Facebook fan pages.

The Facebook fan is not much different to a personal Facebook account, except for one main reason, there is no limit to the amount of fans or likes page can have.

So whilst a personal account is limited to 5000 friends, a fan page is not capped in such a way.

Fan Pages can be set up in literally under 5 minutes and need no coding knowledge whatsoever which makes them an ideal option for beginners to Internet and Affiliate Marketing.

Once a Facebook fan page has been created it is highly customizable with profile images, the import of feeds from external sites such as Wordpress Blogs, Aweber and other Autoresponder services, EzineArticles and other article directories, Twitter and many more websites online.

This means you can create your content once then automatically feed it into your Facebook fan page, meaning it does not require constant content to be added.

Of course the process of setting up a fan page is simple, getting Facebook users to like your page or become a fan can be slightly more difficult.

That is why I would like to share with you my number one tip for getting fans on your fanpage and as a double whammy, adding optins to your mailing or subscriber list.

The technique is known as the Facebook fan page reveal method.

Essentially you require 5 things in order for this method to work.

1. The reveal code script.

This script can be found for free on many blogs, simple Google the search term and you shall find it.

2. Blur Image

The blur image is the image that is shown to non-fans or people who have not liked your page yet.

3. Clear image

The clear image is revealed to fans only, so in order to see that image a person has to like your page.

4. A free gift

In order to entice the sign up or opt in you will of course have to offer a gift of high quality on the squeeze page or reveal image.

5. Opt In Code

In order to collect the opt in or subscriber details you will need to use an autoresponder service such as Aweber.

And that is essentially all you need.

You upload the script with your optin code and links to both images.

You then promote your Facebook fan page link, and hey presto, you will get people to like your page and optin to your mailing list.

Of course the true value of your Facebook page is to ensure that you provide value, if no valuable content is added then you will lose fans quickly.

So you should interact with you fans, provide value, offer help, advice and tips and above all never mistreat your fans.

You can view a live demo of a fan page using this method here Facebook Fanpage Reveal Method Demo.

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