Archive for 08/16/11
Using facebook for business
The latest trend in the internet world these days is to join one of the many social networking sites out there. These sites will enable you to keep in touch with your old friends and relatives, plus also make new friends and meet new people with similar interests as yourself. It also allows you to add your opinions, update your status’, link to videos you have liked and much much more.
There is one social networking website which is very popular among millions of people around the world and it is called facebook. This site enables you to post pictures, discuss your interests and hobbies with your friends as well as play games and visit celebrity facebook pages.
Facebook was originally exclusive to Harvard Collegeand its students but then over time it evolved and expanded to include other schools and universities. Now it has become widely available to everyone above the age of 13 from different parts of the world.
Presently, the Facebook website has more than 750 million active users worldwide.
Facebook has now developed into a platform for brands, companies and small business to promote their products and services and keep in touch with their existing and potential customers. Facebook is now one of most popular forms of marketing among online entrepreneurs today.
Among the many reasons why large and small companies use Facebook to promote themselves is because they have access to over 750 million active users worldwide who can be yourpotential clients to do business with.
The main advantage of Facebook these days is that anyone can join. People using facebook can be school kids, university students, housewives, entrepreneurs, small companies or even large companies – all looking for their potential niches and niche markets. People are more likely to visit a person’s page and buy a product if their friends recommend it.
Facebook has become so popular that it has recently invested in creating different forms of advertising opportunities for people to advertise. Like Google Ads, Facebook Ads allows you to promote and advertise your products and services. However, unlike Google Ads, people are on facebook three or four times a day and can be targeted by demographics. This means your ads can be heavily targeted and is therefore more likely to be seen by potential customers.
Big companies such as Coca-Cola, Dell, Microsoft, Nike and other companies use facebook ads to promote new products or deals which subsequently have become very successful. Businesses can create a fan page for the company where can add details about themselves, add promotions, news about the company and the products and services they are offering. Coca Cola has over 32 million likes on their page, which means they can communicate with over 32 million people regularly. Imagine a tiny percentage of millions of people who are on facebook like your page and you could communicate with them regularly.
Facebook is a great way to market your business online and to increase your company’s sales. By more effective marketing, you will be able to reach millions of people your niche market, or products and services and increase sales.
Get started with social media
Millions of people around the world have a social media account in the various social media websites out there. This is a place where people like to update regularly about what they get up to, post pictures, share views and post comments on other people’s pages. Now, people are using social media to promote their business and communicate with their customers.
There are many benefits of joining social media networks such as:
- YOU can build a strong online brand through community interaction
- YOU can drive free traffic to your website through content sharing
- YOU can network with influential people within your community
- YOU can find partners for your online project that compliment your own skills
- YOU can share your expertise and build authority on a topic
There are 5 easy steps to get started with social media which are shown below:
1) Sign up for a social media network
The First step in joining a social media network is to register an account, visit many social media websites and join whatever is of interest to you e.g. (Facebook, twitter, Digg, etc). Follow the steps required for you to join the social media website and usually, they will ask to confirm your email and then you can use your account.
One tip – try to limit the number of social accounts you open as it can be hard to manage them and update them regularly.
2) Fill in your profile information
Make sure you fill your profile information which is related to who you are and what you can offer to people. Make sure the information about yourself is such that people actually want to talk to you and interact with you. Make sure you link back to your main website.
3) Find great content to share with people
Search lots of different websites with content you appreciate and then compile a list of the best information into a post for your website. Share your links on social networks to get a wide range of people viewing them, but restrict to 3-4 links otherwise it will overwhelm people and it can be classified as spam. Share opinions and start discussions with other people to get yourself known and soon, you can start advertising to them.
4) Listen to what people want
Keep a list of popular discussions, what people’s problems are and how they can be helped and improved by your knowledge. Give back what you have learned on social networks to help people with any problems they have.
5) Reach out to millions of people
On social media networking sites you can reach out to millions of people and you can create relationships with them. You will gain followers over time from content and discussions you share.
After a few months, you will have built a strong following with whom you can share your ideas, your content, your expertise and knowledge with, which can lead to mutual benefit to everyone.
