On July 28th, I will be conducting a 2 hour Webinar on using Facebook for business promotion.   I recently conducted this Workshop in person to a sold out crowd here in New Jersey.

I was an attendee and can attest to the fact that Deborah gave a first rate presentation! Highly recommended! Catherine Gorman Klug

This particular workshop was so well received that I have decided to present it once again, this time online in the form of a Webinar.  This lets me offer it nationally and lets you learn all about Facebook from the comfort of your own home.

Participation will be limited to 15 attendees, so we can open up the session for Q & A at the end.  Each participant will get a recorded version of the Webinar as well as printable copies of the presentation and a written transcript of the session.

Don’t keep wasting your time dabbling on Facebook or even worse, making critical errors.

In just 2 hours, you will learn:

• The difference between a Profile and a Page
  (what your business needs and why)
• How to set your Profile for better privacy
• How to create a Business Page
• SEO Best Practices for Facebook Pages
• Recommended Business Applications and how to install them
• How to keep your Page active and interesting to clients
• Paid advertising on Facebook: How to make it work.
• Integrating other Social Media accounts with Facebook
  
  Space is limited – register today!
  

Testimonials from past Webinar Attendees

“I’m relatively new to social media and I attended Deborah’s seminar on Twitter. I learned more in an hour than in all the hours combined that I’ve spent using and studying Twitter. She gives good solid business advice on how to use Twitter and its tools. It was well worth the small investment! Steve Lampert www.enannysource.com” January 21, 2010

“I highly recommend Deborah’s Webinars. I am the Chairperson of The Monmouth/Ocean Financial Executives Networking Group and recommend Deborah to my members. I have taken Deborah’s seminar on Twitter and found it informative and necessary for all business executives. Deborah is super prepared and participants go away educated and feeling good. Social Networking – FaceBook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc is critical in business today, make sure to learn from an ethical expert like Deborah.” Jim Farrell CFO Single Throw Inc.

For more comments from my clients and workshop attendees, click here.

Space is limited – register today!

There are some simple methods for spreading the word about your business Facebook page.  But first, I want to address the issue I have been coming up against with clients recently. When taking a look at their Facebook accounts, I am finding many businesses or their marketing companies have set up Profile pages instead of Business Pages. This is against the Terms of Service agreement of Facebook and is resulting in some problems for the businesses who then later try to set up a Fan page and register their Vanity URL.  This may also become a very serious if Facebook decides to start really policing this issue and deleting accounts.  So, if you are just starting out with a business page, please know the difference between a profile and a fan page first. Here is an excellent article on the topic, Difference Between a Page and a Profile on Facebook.

10 Ways to Attract more Fans (be sure to read all 10, I’ve left the most important tip for last.)

1. Suggest to Friends: Ok, so let’s assume you have gone down the right path and created a Facebook Page for your Business.  The first thing I recommend is that you also have a personal profile set up for yourself.  If you have a personal profile already and you’ve been acquiring friends over time, this will give you your first opportunity for growing your fan base.  Simply use the “Suggest to Friends” link on the upper left side of your page to pick and choose the friends you would like to invite to become fans.

2. Post a Fan Box: Facebook gives you a very handy tool for promoting your Business Page, the Fan Box widget. Just copy the HTML they provide through their widget and paste the HTML onto your blog or website. You can see my Facebook Fan Box in the right side bar of this blog.

3. Trade Links: The Favorite this Page feature on each and every Facebook page is a great way to trade links with other relevant pages. If you are a fan of a page that you believe attracts the same type of consumer/client then reach out to the owner of the page and offer to trade links.  You favorite their page to your fan page and they likewise, favorite yours.

4. Register your Page’s Vanity URL. Once you have 25 fans, Facebook allows you to register a Vanity URL for your page. Just go to http://www.Facebook.com/usernames.  Once you have the URL registered it makes sharing the direct link to your page so much easier.   My URL on Facebook is Facebook.com/SocialMedia4Business.  This is a lot easier to remember and to share than the long, messy URL’s Facebook generates.

5. Insert a hot link to your page from your Personal Profile. In the little text box Facebook provides below your picture on your profile page.  If you post the full link including the http://www.  in the beginning, the link will become clickable and will lead people right to your Fan page.

6. Paid Advertising: Facebook Ads for Pages and Events allow users to engage with your ads the same way they interact with other content on Facebook – without leaving the page they are viewing. Ads for Pages include a “Become a fan” link, while ads for Facebook Events include an “RSVP” link. Users who view these ads can connect with your Pages and Events from the ad itself, automatically creating a story on the user’s profile page and possibly even their friends’ home page Highlights, generating free distribution for you. When placing a Facebook Ad be sure to choose the Pay Per Click option.  You can set your own daily budget threshold and target your ad to individuals in a specific geographic area and/or gender, age, education level, interests and more.

7. Convert your Twitter Followers and LinkedIn Contacts to Fans: Let your followers on Twitter know you have a fan page.  Send the link out periodically inviting everyone to fan your page. Post a link to your Fan page on your LinkedIn profile. You can post a direct link if you haven’t used all 3 spots for URL’s allowed by LinkedIn.  If you have, post the URL in your Summary section at the bottom with a bullet point.

8. Ask Your Fans to spread the word: This is where having friends who are also fans comes in very handy.   If you have some fans you feel close enough with to reach out to and ask for their help in sharing your page, do so.  Nothing beats a personal endorsement from a fan.

9.  Offline Marketing: Don’t forget to invite your customers and clients to “Become a Fan” of your business in all of your offline marketing.  I have seen invites on Menus, business cards, Power Point Presentations (that would be me), ads in newspapers and magazines. I have one client who has a banner hanging in her store inviting customers to connect on Facebook.  Be creative.  Think about all the places you come in contact with your customer and how to build in that Facebook invitation.

10. Create a vibrant Fan Page with frequent updates:  Video, photos, and fan interaction.  Ask questions, give advice. The more updates and interactions that take place on your page, the more updates will appear in the Status Updates of your Fans which is free publicity for your page.

11. Ok, I lied, you get a bonus tip.  Be sure to tell your customers or clients exactly what you want them to do. “Become a Fan” Some are still very new to the whole Facebook thing and don’t understand that they need to DO something.  Please Become of Fan of my Fan page and stay in the loop on news and information in the ever changing world of Social Media.  Just Click Here.

This announcement came from Facebook today.  I plan to give this a try.  I will report back on my results.

“Do you have a Facebook Page, Application, Group or Event? If you do, the following announcement is for you! Beginning today, you can expand your audience by delivering ads to the friends of people already connected with your Page, Application, Group or Event with “Friends of connection” targeting.

In addition to harnessing the social graph by targeting your connections’ friends, every “Friends of connection” targeted ad promoting a Page or Event includes social content about a friend’s interaction with your business, amplifying the relevancy of your ad. For example, Priya is a fan of the Nordstrom, Inc. Page. When Nordstrom, Inc. promotes their Facebook Page, they can choose to target ads to Priya’s friends by selecting the “Friends of connection” filter. Priya’s friends will receive the Nordstrom, Inc. ad with the following sentence: “Priya Gupta is a fan of this Page.” Priya’s friends are naturally more interested because Priya’s interaction with Nordstrom, Inc. is showcased directly in the ad.

You can find this targeting capability in the ad create flow. Simply fill in the open field next to “Friends of connection” with the name of your Page, Application, Group, or Event. The names of the eligible content that you manage on Facebook will appear in the type-ahead. Please note that you must be an Admin of the Page, Application Group, or Event. Let us know how this new targeting is performing for you.”

On November 6th,  AllFacebook.com reported that according to Facebook’s advertising statistics, the social media super giant just reached its 325 million subscriber mark.   In a follow up article on Mashable by Ben Parr the author does a little math that is equally impressive.  “From September 15th to November 6th, Facebook grew by 25 million users. That’s 53 days, if we include the start and end days. Divide that by 25 million you get a daily growth rate of 471,698 users per day for Facebook. That’s a small city joining Facebook every single day.”

A small city every day.  I thought that deserved repeating.  So, lets stop the debate about whether Facebook will stick around, or whether or not it will benefit your business.  The question should now be, how do I harness this incredibly powerful tool?  And yes, I will admit there are some businesses that are not the right fit for Facebook Pages.  And if you have a specific question about your business please contact me.  I’d be happy to give you some guidance.

I just recently launched a Facebook Page for my consulting business.  This was a mind shift for me, I’ll admit it.  Up until a few weeks ago,  I wasn’t sure how I would use a Fan page to support my business.  The purpose is now crystal clear.  My page will serve as a hub for sharing information and answering questions about Social Media Marketing.  What could the purpose be for your business besides a blatant advertisement?  Remember, it is about providing value.

In just one week the page has attracted 91 fans.  These fans consist of clients, former workshop attendees, friends, and a lot of new faces who must have caught an update in their friend’s timeline and followed to join.  Perfect.  That’s exactly how it should work.

Fan pages have some new features that are very helpful for Admins.  One is the ability to target your updates to fans by geographic area, age, and sex.  Another incredibly useful tool is the Page Insights.  In Facebook’s own words:

“Facebook allows you to engage with your fans in more ways than ever before – and Insights now allows you to dive into the context of those interactions with deep analytics. We now show you how users are interacting with your page, broken down by Wall posts, likes and comments. Your Post Quality shows you how engaging your posts are to your fans, and your star rating compares your Post Quality to other pages of similar size. Your Fans Over Time graph now lets you track when users decide to unsubscribe from your posts in their News Feed. And we now provide statistics on where your fan base is located and which languages they speak. If you would like to export your reports, please click “Switch to the Old Insights” in the menu and follow the Export link. Check back frequently, as we will be adding new metrics in the coming weeks and months!”

So, could your business use a Facebook Fan Page?  It’s time to get creative and put your thinking cap on.  I’m posting here some links to some fan pages that are getting it right to give you some examples and food for thought.  I am purposely not showing you the big brand pages developed by the big brand marketing departments.  Here are some small businesses and charities who are working it, without the big budgets.  They may not have thousands of fans (except for the first three) but their fans are interacting and the Admins are keeping things fresh and varied with photos, videos, events, and questions and their getting comments from their fans.  As I work to develop my Fan Page (psst, see the Facebook badge to your right?  Click on it and become of Fan)  I will be putting together a series of articles on Fan Page development, so be sure to subscribe to the blog either through email or RSS feed.

As always, if you have questions, I’d love to hear from you.  Either post them here as a comment below or on the Fan Page.   And if you have a Fan Page that is working for your business, please leave a link below.  We’d all benefit from more examples.

Surf Taco

St. Jude’s Children Hospital

Blog Squad

Highland Park Public Library – Teens

A Food Coma

Jersey Bites

Stuck on You

Jersey Shore Restaurant Week

Many of my business clients have expressed resistance to using Facebook in their Social Marketing strategy. For the most part, not wanting to mix business and personal life is the main concern. I’ve heard it enough times to realize that there are still many people who do not understand the privacy options on Facebook and that they can easily keep their personal lives and professional lives neatly divided. So, here is a quick and easy two step tutorial on how to do just that.

Step one, Click on the Friends Link at the top of your Facebook page. Click on the “Create New List” link. This will open a box with all of your contacts and give you the ability to create a “Friends” list and a “Professional” list where you can sort your contacts. I have created even more specific categories including “High School Friends” which is the only group I allow to see photos that I am tagged in. This keeps my professional contacts and casual friends away from the embarrassing yearbook pictures and New Years Eve debacles, because as the saying goes “You can always tell a real friend: when you’ve made a fool of yourself he doesn’t feel you’ve done a permanent job.”

Step two, involves modifying your privacy settings so that only your friends can see pictures where you are tagged, read your updates, etc. So, mouse over the “Settings” link in the upper right corner of your profile page and click on the “Privacy Settings” option that appears in the drop down menu.

You will then be able to determine which Lists of your contacts will be privy to your Profile, Basic Information, Personal Info, Status and Links, Wall Posts, Photos Tagged of you and more. Specific photo albums can also be designated as private or public. Perhaps you have photos from a speaking engagement or company picnic that you don’t mind sharing with your professional contacts. This is where you would set the album’s options for visibility.

Save your changes at the bottom and you’re all set up to use Facebook for personal contacts and professional networking. I know a lot of people feel that Facebook is more for connecting with friends and Twitter is for business. I do admit that Facebook is where I have found my grammar school friends and where I keep in touch with them on a daily basis. However, many of my friends are also faithful readers of my blog and a great referral network for me. Off line we hope our friends will refer us to their friends and acquaintances. Why should the online world be any different? Friends are a great resource and Facebook is a great tool to nourish and grow your list of connected friends. Once you have your privacy settings in place, relax and enjoy discovering old friends.

A friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature.
* Ralph Waldo Emerson