This is the 4th in a series of 5 steps to help you get your Facebook business presence set up quickly and easily.

Here are a few tricks for expanding your exposure from your Facebook Page.

Interesting, thought provoking, tastefully controversial posts entice people to comment.

Add Facebook widgets (buttons) to your newsletters that link back to your Facebook Page.  Ask readers to folow you on Facebook.

Announce brief discounts or specials on Facebook and ask customers show them from their phone in your store.

Use the Facebook Events application to let people know of any upcoming events you have scheduled, such as a local workshop, a sale, or a teleseminar.
Event RSVP’s appear in the follower’s News Feed, and can be seen by their friends.  Take pictures at the event, upload them to Facebook and ask attendees to tag themselves.  Tagging also appears in the News Feed.  (If you can get your signage in the background of the photos, even better)!

Be sure to “Like” Marketing Simply Done on Facebook to keep in touch.  We’ll give you more tips to help you establish your business online quickly and easily and look forward to conversing with you!

This is the 3rd in a series of 5 steps to help you get your Facebook business presence set up quickly and easily.

The objective when posting to your Page is to encourage dialogue and interaction between yourself and others. The content you include is completely up to you, but it should provide helpful information, solve a problem or entertain.

Content can be in the form of text, links to other sites, videos or photos. Consider providing content related to your niche or industry, and people will begin to see you as a resource.

With your busy schedule, it can seem overwhelming to post something original every day. Fill in the gaps by adding a link to an interesting or entertaining website or blog post, and add a quick comment.

When your followers comment on your Wall, their comment is seen in the News Feed of your followers and all of their friends! Asking questions is a good way to encourage interaction with your followers on your Page.

As more and more people begin to see your posts in their News Feeds, the number of people that ‘Like’ your Page will grow over time.

Remember, mediocre content consistently done beats great content done sporadically (that tip, compliments of Patrick Schwerdtfeger).

Be sure to “Like” Marketing Simply Done on Facebook to keep in touch. We’ll give you more tips to help you establish your business online quickly and easily and look forward to conversing with you!

This is the 2nd in a series of 5 steps to help you get your Facebook business Page set up quickly and easily.

At the lower left corner of your business Page wall, click the “Share” button to create a message telling others about your new page.  A “Post to Profile” box will open, where you can write your message. 

Click the lock icon to choose whether you want the message to be visible to friends, friends of friends, or everyone.  The message will be displayed on your personal Profile Wall for all your friends to see in their News Feed, along with a link to your new Page.  Be sure to tell them to click the “Like” button!

You might also want to send an email to some or all of your email contacts, inviting them to view your site.  Be sure to include a link to your Facebook Page and again, ask them to click the ‘Like’ button. 

People who ‘Like’ your Page are expressly saying they want to find out more about your business.  This is similar to “opting in” to a newsletter on your website.

Note: only people with a Facebook account can ‘Like’ your page.  However, anyone can view your page.

Be sure to “Like” Marketing Simply Done on Facebook to keep in touch.  We’ll give you more tips to help you establish your business online quickly and easily and look forward to conversing with you!

This is the 1st in a series of 5 steps to help you get your Facebook business Page set up quickly and easily.

Your business needs a Facebook Page. This is different from your personal Profile.  For someone to see your Profile, they must be your “friend”.  Your business can be seen by anyone, and will be found by search engines, if it has a Page.

If you’re ready to set up your first Facebook Page, here’s all you need to do:

Go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

Select the type of page that matches your business and enter the requested detail about your business.  The name that you enter for your business will be the name of your Facebook Page.
Upload a photo or logo.  Photos tend to be more personal and social.  To upload or change your photo, click “edit page”, then select “Profile Picture” on the left side of the screen and upload a .jpg file.

On the Info tab, you can talk about all that your company offers.  Be sure to include all your websites (including links to Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn or any other site you participate in) and your phone numbers, address, etc.

At the top of the Info tab, you’ll notice the Category that you originally selected.  If you change the Category, you will see that the types of info boxes also change.  Experiment with different Categories until you get the best one for your business. 

The information boxes, such as Description or Products, give you ample space to fully describe what your business does, who you serve, where you are located, etc.  Take advantage of all this real estate and use plenty of keywords to make it easy for the search engines to find you.

To update anything you’ve entered on this page, just click the ‘edit’ button on the upper right corner of the page.

If you’re feeling ambitious, you can always set up a custom Welcome tab if you know a little HTML.  With a Welcome page, you can direct a visitor to this page first when they find your site through a search engine.  This page can be custom designed to include a welcome video, email opt-in for your newsletter, or attention grabbing graphics.

Once you are happy with your page, tell your friends about it.  Click the Share link on the bottom left of your Page to enter your message. 

That’s it!  Start posting!

You can change the URL to a “Vanity URL” when you have 25 “Likes”.  For example www.facebook.com/yourname or www.fb.com/yourname.

Remember, Pages are public and indexed in Google.  Facebook is one of the most searched for terms, which means great search engine optimization (SEO) for your site!

Be sure to “Like” Marketing Simply Done on Facebook to keep in touch.  We’ll give you more tips to help you establish your business online quickly and easily and look forward to conversing with you!

Twitter is a fun and effective tool for interacting with others online.  It can be overwhelming though, due to the huge volume of conversations.  There are currently about 175 million people using Twitter, all with diverse interests.  It is no surprise that the prospect of attracting quality followers seems difficult, if not impossible.   

If you want to use Twitter to reach out to potential customers, you need to find people interested in your product or service.  There are a few different ways to do this.

Find People on Twitter

Go to the home page of the new Twitter http://twitter.com/#. At the top right of the screen is a “Find People” link.  If you click on the link, in this section you can search four different ways.  First, you can type a key word in the search box at the top of the screen and find Tweets that contain that key word.  On the Find Friends tab, you can find friends in your email list that are using Twitter.  On the Browse Interests tab, you can search by subject.  And lastly, Twitter will recommend users based on others you currently follow on the View Suggestions tab.  

Twitter Search

To better refine your search, try using Twitter’s Advanced Search feature over at http://search.twitter.com and enter a word or phrase that describes your area of interest.

If you click on the Advanced Search link, you can search on additional criteria such as key words, phrases, even hashtags.  You can also search for specific people, references to people, location and the attitude interpreted in the Tweet. 

For example, let’s say you are a Realtor and you want to find people in Chicago interested in relocating to California.  On the Advanced Search page, I entered these key words:  relocate, california, CA.  In the Places section, I entered Chicago, within 50 miles.  Twitter returned a list of all the relevant Tweets!

As you take a closer look at the posts, you might want to follow some, and reply with something helpful like “Sonoma’s Wine Country is a lovely and affordable place to live”.  Often when you follow someone, they will follow you back without question.  You can then begin to engage in conversations with them.  Remember that your conversations should be helpful and add value, not overtly sell.

Save Your Search

You can fine tune your search to better target a geographic area.  For example, you could include ‘Sonoma’ or ‘Wine Country’ in your search criteria.  You can also set up multiple searches. 

Once you are happy with your searches, you can save them to an RSS feed.  In the upper right corner of the search results page, you will see the orange RSS icon. 

Click on the link and your results will be displayed in a new page.  Copy the URL of this page into a Reader, such as Google Reader, and tweets meeting your search criteria will stream in to your Reader.

Just remember to check your search results in your Reader periodically and continue to reach out to those that might be interested in your services and provide relevant and helpful information to them. 

There is so much to learn about Social Media that it can certainly seem daunting and intimidating. I talk to people all the time that say they want to get set up on Facebook, Twitter or whatever social platform has their current attention and curiousity, but they never take action. That is often because they simply don’t know where to start.

I read a lot about Social Media. I read a few blogs, I go through temporary phases of addiction on Twitter. Lately, I’ve stopped reading so I can get some work done! Honestly, there is just so much information out there, you can get stuck in “analysis paralysis”.

If you really want to get started, you have to just do that - START!

Take these 5 steps to get your business online. Don’t worry about doing it all perfectly - you can tweak it later.

1. Pick 1-3 social media sites and set up an account. Pick a user name, post a photo and write a short bio on each site.

2. On each site, look for other companies similar to yours, as well as industry experts. Spend a couple of weeks “listening” to what they are writing and “listen” to what questions people are asking.  This will give you insight to what customer needs exist, as well as the tone and style of the online conversation.

3. Make note of sites that you like, how they’re organized, what colors they use, etc. Make note of what you like and what you could do better.

4. Get involved! Post content on your sites. This could be simply links to articles you found interesting, articles you write yourself (keep them brief), photos, videos, tips.

5. Invite people to follow you on your social media sites.  Send an email inviting your personal friends and family, people in your email address book or customer list. 

Complete these 5 steps and you are on your way.  Remember, this is not the time to be a perfectionist.  Just get started with something.  You can perfect it as you and your business grows!

It’s not about you, it’s about the online community you interact with. 

If you’re blogging for business (or tweeting or otherwise communicating online), think of those that you are trying to attract into your social network.  These are your customers or potential customers.  You want to give them something that makes them want to be a part of your circle.  Why else would they come back?

Think of what gets them excited.  What makes them want to interact with you?  What can you share that makes them want to share with others?

If you’re in fashion, what are this year’s fashion trends?  What is hot for this holiday season?  Share the most trendy colors or styles. 

If you’re in travel, where are the best deals, most favorable conversion rates?

If you’re in technology, share industry news and new developments.

Get it?  You’ll become an expert, or at least a key “go-to” resource.

What helpful, interesting or entertaining information or story can you share that makes them want to come back for more?

There is a lot of talk out there about how social media is the next great thing that will make your business successful. There is even a lot of talk about how you need social media to survive!  That can be a scary thing to hear as a small business owner.

Social media is not really that complicated if you think of it as simply online word of mouth marketing. Does you small business today depend on word of mouth? Of course it does! 

Using social media can make it easier to keep in touch with your existing customers. Those people that like your product or service will stay in touch with you to stay informed about what’s going on in your business, what promotions you’re offering, and so on.  Your existing customers can easily spread your message online to their friends, introducing you to an expanding market.

Is It Right For Me?

Social Media means different things to different people and businesses. It is easy to get distracted by all the hype. Before you just jump in head first, you need to consider the marketing fundamentals and strategy for your business. Then add new activities as you have the time and resources.

As a small business owner, here are 5 things you should consider before embarking on a new social media campaign.

1.  Know your business goals. Are there clear growth targets that you aim to achieve, are you looking to expand geographically, introduce a new product or service? Having a clear idea of what you hope to achieve will help you make decisions about what to do and when.

2. Know your ideal client. You probably already know what they want, but you also need to know how they shop for your product or services. If it is unlikely that they would search for you on the internet, then social media may not be the right marketing activity for your business. Most people today do look for products and services online. Understanding their buying habits and help you determine which social media platform would be most effective for you.

3.  Know what makes you different. Know what makes your company unique or special and promote that. It will help you stand out and be noticed on any social media outlet.

4.  Know what value you offer. Know the goals and needs of your customers and how you provide the best solution for them. Be able to clearly explain why someone should buy from you to get people to listen onlne.

5.  Know how much time and money you have to spend on marketing. It’s easy to get caught up in the social media buzz. You just need spend your precious resources on those activities that will get you the best return on your investment.

Before you jump on the new social media bandwagon, be sure you answer these 5 questions about your business. Then we can put a plan together that maximizes the potential all of the marketing channels in a way that makes the most sense for your business.

OK, I understand the confusion…you always hear to treat others with respect, treat your customers with respect, even treat your competitors with respect…but the product???
 
Absolutely…this is so important yet overlooked by so many people in business….so let me take you back to my days as a paperboy…lessons learned at 12 years old.
 
Every day, I would wait for the newspaper delivery truck to bring our bundles of newspapers to deliver to our customers. The trucks would pull up to the curb, the driver would quickly climb out of the cab, into the back of the panel truck, and he would toss these bundles of approx 25 newspapers onto the ground…they were wrapped with brown butcher paper and strapped with a wire that was twisted by a machine to hold the bundles together.
 
All prepared paperboys carried a pair of wire cutters to cut open the bundles. All paperboys had a bag of 100’s of rubber bands with which we would take individual newspaper, roll the paper into a small, round log, and then we wound the rubber band around the paper one, twice, sometimes three times to make the paper as tight and easy to throw as possible.
 
Is this treating the product with respect?
 
Remember, the product is the newspaper. The information contained within the pages of the newspaper represented the value of the paper…the content. The newspaper was the medium to allow the customer to access the information conveniently from a portable, lightweight, inexpensive and easily disposable document. However, the medium was paper and ink…very delicate and easily damaged…and the paper was subject to the elements (I.e. rain, wind, dirt) and to abuse (i.e. folding, bending, tearing, etc.).
 
Back to the wire cutters, rubber bands and “logs”.
 
If you think about it, why do paperboys roll the paper, tie it with a rubber band, and stuff the papers into a canvas bag or metal cart…..for the convenience of the delivery person. Easy to carry, easy (and fun) to throw, easy to get done fast.
 
What is the risk to the customer…the product is not pristine….it is bent, sometimes torn, sometimes wet…and those rubber bands….have you ever tried taking a rubber band off of an item, only to have it “snap!”, leaving you with a welt on your hand or worse?
 
Think about how a newspaper is displayed at a newspaper stand….flat, clean, protected in a metal container and a plastic window to allow you to see it but to keep the elements away…nice and neat, every page and section in its place…and sometimes, even handed to you by a real live person at the newspaper stand…with a “thank you” and a “have a nice day”.
 
That is treating the product with respect.
 
Back to the 12 year old paperboy making this startling revelation….my customers really would like their paper to be just like it would be at a newspaper stand…and delivered to their front porch at that!
 
So-o-o-o guess what I started to do….load the papers into the rolling hand cart without rolling them or wrapping with rubber bands…and taking them, flat, up to the front doors…setting them gently on the door mats, behind the screen doors, or best yet, handing them to the customer face-to-face with a “thank you” and “have a nice day”.
 
You would not believe the tips I would receive!  The customers knew me by name, they remembered and would even comment about the “personal touch” of my delivery style, and the appreciation that their paper was entirely legible and in excellent condition.
 
So here’s the secret… treating the product with respect…is treating the customer with respect!.
 
Treat the Product with Respect, Simply Done!