Wednesday, September 30, 2009

How to Build a Facebook Fan Page

A Facebook Fan Page is a public profile that enables you to share your business and products with Facebook users. People can be your fan without being your friend, and pages are designed for businesses.

How do I get one?First of all it's Free. Anyone can set-up a fan page, the only caveat being you have to be associated to the business or organization, in other words have permission to speak for the organization. If you're the fan page administrator you have to have an account on Facebook, if you don't it will ask you to set one up.

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

Follow the step-by step instructions. When it asks for the fan page name give this some thought. The name you give your Page is permanent, so make sure it's the one your fans and customers will recognize. It only takes a few minutes, and the set-up has about five questions.

Take note of your page address. It looks something like this: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Unilyzer/147971667594 In this link 'Unilyzer' is the name of my fan page and the link number is the ID.

What are Facebook Fans?Facebook fans are like your friends on your personal account. They will receive notices when you add new wall posts, photos, and videos. I recommend becoming a fan your own page, and inviting your existing Facebook friends to 'Fan' your page. Make a wall post with a link to your new fan page. Using your existing network to build your fan page is a great place to start.

Need More Documentation?Download Facebook's Guide to Fan Pages. This is a great ten page guide, published by Facebook, for setting up a fan page and getting started.

About the Author

Rebecca Zappacosta is an Internet Marketing & Web Development Guru based in Dallas, TX. Visit her blog at 'http://www.unilyzer.com' for more no-nonsense advice on Social Media and Internet Marketing. You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author bylines are included.

Repurpose Your Content

It can be overwhelming to think about all of the content you have to create to maintain a social media and internet marketing campaign. Coming up and generating original ideas for blog posts, tweets, fan pages, videos, and podcasts can be challenging. However, by compounding your content and using a blog post to inspire a chain of related tweets, posts, and video you can reduce the time and increase the effectiveness of your online marketing.

Here is the formula for getting the most mileage out of your content:

Write a blog post with the rule of three. The post contains an introduction paragraph, three supporting examples or arguments, and a conclusion.

Turn the blog post into tweets. Take your main point from the introduction paragraph and post it as a question to your twitter followers. Then take the first sentence of each of your supporting examples or arguments and drip tweet them through out the day. Make sure to link to your original blog post in all your tweets.

Turn your blog post in to wall posts. The conclusion of your blog post summarizes the overall point your making. Take this nugget of an idea and find a related video, resources, or book on the topic. Post the video or resource on your Facebook wall along with a link to your original blog post.

Turn your blog post into a video or podcast. Take the blog post introduction and personalize with your own voice and style. Take the three supporting arguments and find an expert in the opposing or supporting side and interview them. With a podcast format you can call them and record their voice. With video you can be like a journalist and interview a local expert in the topic. Suggest several resources for the audience to get more information and wrap up with your final conclusion. Don't forget to plug your website and encourage folks to subscribe to your channel.

Digg and Ping your blog & videos. After you post to your blog and video site of choice, make sure to recommend yourself on the social bookmarking sites. This introduces your content to folks and generates incoming links. If your using a tool like WordPress to write your blogsite make sure you have it set to auto-ping blog indexing sites like Feed Burnner and Technorati.

As you can see one blog post can be easily repurposed into four different social media channels. This not only saves you time, but keeps your message consistent. If one blog post can generate four different pieces of content you can exponentially increase the reach of your online marketing.

About the Author

Rebecca Zappacosta is an Internet Marketing & Web Development Guru based in Dallas, TX. Visit her blog at 'http://www.unilyzer.com' for more no-nonsense advice on Social Media and Internet Marketing. You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your ebook or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author bylines are included.

Facebook: $750 Mil In Hand Worth More Than $2Bil In Sky

It came up conversationally, but I believe I'm the only person at my company to have firsthand experience as a user of Facebook.com. It was kind of funny to have all these online advertising professionals asking me all about the website everybody used in college. Didn't they get the memo? I'm new. I should be asking the questions around here. The subject of Facebook.com is an interesting one that's worth a closer look.

Without question 2005 was the year of MySpace. Before Rupert Murdoch's $580 million social networking venture took the interactive world by storm, it's difficult to believe that even the most optimistic of the billionaire's lackeys would have predicted that new acquisition would more than quadruple its reach within a matter of months. With 23.5 billion page views by February, MySpace became the second most trafficked site on the Internet.

Murdoch's success naturally generated buying interest in anything deemed online social networking. One proposed deal in March 2006, was Viacom's unsuccessful $750 million bid for Facebook.com, the phenomenon started by wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg. After Facebook.com declined the offer, its founders pegged Facebook.com's worth at two billion dollars. Perhaps the brilliant sparks from MySpace's success has blinded Facebook.com to the flipside reality of Friendster's paradise lost. There's a real chance Facebook won't see an offer this generous again.

Facebook.com is essentially an online medium of communication for college students and high schoolers. For its valued reach Zuckerberg and his crew of Harvard dropouts (taking their cue from Bill Gates, no doubt) must be looking for Google-sized compensation, but the two billion dollar figure is arbitrary and difficult to justify. Perhaps Facebook is emboldened by their own wise decision in not selling to Yahoo for $15 million in 2004.

Zuckerberg was likely trying to establish a market value for his creation, not an unwise move on the face of things. However, Viacom's offer was not by any stretch of the imagination pocket change and the number of entities that can and will double the bid Facebook already got is finite.

Facebook's traffic numbers, as referenced on Alexa.com, during the last three months are not encouraging; that is, if the goal is to fish for more and greater buyout bids. The numbers actually have trended downward since March, anathema for enticing hyper bidding growth. These diminishing statistics can be at least partially attributed to the cyclical nature of the school year since Facebook, after all, is geared towards the college student. It doesn't matter how great the product is, it won't keep students from doing their own thing during summer vacation and this yearly dip is potentially damaging.

Seeing as how fast online fads can expand and contract in social networking as we've seen in its short time span, what if the numbers don't come back? What if something new pops up in two months that steals Facebook's thunder? (And, again, MySpace's success serves as good reason why this thunder is worth stealing.)

Facebook.com's success has also been marred with some controversy that could taint its popularity with students. At Syracuse University a flap over freedom of expression ensued when a Facebook.com group went overboard in critiquing a student teacher and ended up with expulsions from the class and social suspension before three students transferred. After Penn State's football team beat Ohio State this year students rushed the field and made a ruckus. Overwhelmed police made only two arrests that day, but later in the week they logged onto Facebook.com and, like Canadian Mounties who always get their man, got plenty of names and faces and photos from the info posted by students about their on-field shenanigans. Kids talk and these stories spread like wildfire, which may affect Facebook.com negatively - they can't control misuse of their product and the negative repercussions that come from it.

The future is promising for the social networking business space and I don't believe Facebook.com is doomed. Still, given the nature of short-lived and over-hyped dotcoms, Facebook may have reached their growth climax this school year, with possibility for expansion and success only contingent on acquisition. Time may not be on their side because as the pages of the calendar turn there will doubtlessly be new fads and trends that will threaten to make something else the "Next Big Thing" at Facebook.com's expense. The clock is ticking.


About the Author: Allan Ayazyam

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How to Use Social Networking for Recruiting

You may be interested in tapping into the power of social networking website when finding job candidates. There are four social networking websites that can work well for recruiting, if used correctly: LinkedIn, Facebook, Ryze, and Doostang. It might make sense to use just one of these sites, a few, or all, depending on your goals and what particular industry you are in. You can use these sites alone, or combine them with other popular job hunting sites such as Monster and CareerBuilder when hunting for potential candidates.

First, let's look at LinkedIn. This website is by far the most professional oriented of the social network websites. It was started in 2003 by a former PayPal executive, and it now has over 30 million members in over 150 different industries. People use this site as a place to keep up-to-date professional information about themselves, like a real-time resume of sorts. Its strengths lie in its professionalism and is primarily used for professional contacts only. If you wish to communicate with a candidate on a more personal or casual level, this is not the place to do it.

Facebook might be viewed at the opposite end of the spectrum from LinkedIn - it is definitely more casual and less professional. Why would you want to use Facebook for recruiting? Well, for one, it simply has a vast pool of people - over 150 million people worldwide. Custom applications have been built for Facebook specifically for job recruiters, some of which link into more traditional job-hunting websites. Other Facebook applications, such as Indeed Jobs, let potential employees search from millions of jobs across thousands of websites. Using the right apps, Facebook members can also post their profiles in specific niches, making them visible to recruiters.

Another interesting option for locating qualified candidates is the website Ryze. It was founded in 2001 by a former engineer, and now boasts a half million members. Ryze is popular among aspiring entrepreneurs and those looking to start small businesses. It is a powerful tool for people looking to network with like-minded business owners. People who want to network on Ryze, and potentially seek employment, are encouraged to fill out a complete profile about themselves and upload examples of their past work. While it is a professional networking site, many people add more personal details about themselves than is typical for a site like LinkedIn, for example.

Doostang is another professional social networking website that is relatively new to the scene. It has about the same number of members as Ryze, approximately half a million, but Doostang is an invitation-only network. It is heavily populated by business school graduates with at least five years of work experience. It stands relatively alone among social networking professional sites, and markets itself as an exclusive network. It may or may not be right for you, but if this is your niche, its exclusivity might allow you to make some powerful contacts.

Whichever website or combination of websites you choose to utilize, you will likely be drawing from a good pool of candidates. People who use these websites tend to be highly motivated and strong networkers. They also tend to be selective about where they work, and seek out companies that will let them fully utilize their talents and advance their careers.


About the Author

Henry Joen has been writing articles for nearly 3 years. His newest interest is in outdoor fire pits. So check out his latest website that discusses fire pit outdoor deals and outdoor gas fire pit info so you can give your backyard a special focal point that the whole family can enjoy.

Using Facebook for Business

The secret's out that social media can be used to the advantage of businesses and organizations of just about all walks. And even though for some owners the details are still sparse and the benefits are unclear, there's a growing willingness to open up shop in an unfamiliar land. As long as it will pay off.

So does social media pay off for businesses?

Take Facebook as an example. More than a convenient way to keep up on friends, this medium has grown leaps and bounds into a platform that does everything. It's not just updates and profile photos anymore.

The entrepreneurial mindset has taken residence at Facebook, and now there are a whole array of methods to market your brand.

For instance, here are a few ideas for using Facebook for business:

  • Show examples of customers using your product in creative ways
  • Promote an upcoming event and invite people to it
  • Hold a contest
  • Open the floor to customer suggestions (this is as much a listening tool as it is anything else)
  • Start a whisper campaign about a new product or service
  • Highlight a star employee, or honor a customer
  • Link to groups that your fans will appreciate and benefit from

As you outline your plan, remember that people are online looking for your brand. Someone wants to find you. And, like your company's email newsletter, Facebook offers another avenue for getting new people to your website, where they can call your phone number, fill out your contact form, or buy from your e-commerce store.

As you contemplate what to do next, consider these 3 basics of using Facebook for business:

Complete your page/profile. Filling out your company's name and phone number is only the beginning. This is your chance to talk about why you do what you do; make use of it.

Keep it fresh. Creating a social media account just to let it fall into abandon later is as bad as not setting it up in the first place. For the same reason you wouldn't send your resume from 10 years ago to your current potential employer, your fans don't want to read what was "current" about you last year; they want to know what you're doing right now.

Always remember what it's really about. Facebook's purpose, in part, is to connect people. Consider what fans are looking for at Facebook. They're probably looking for a face to put with your company's name. You can assist by updating your photos, videos, events, discussions, and notes.

Put these basics into regular practice, and you're over halfway there.


About the Author

The Internet Marketing Strategy team at August Ash likes to talk about these kinds of things. In fact, they really, really like to talk about these things. They aren't bad listeners, either. If you're looking to bring your business or non-profit into the social media age, give the internet marketing Minneapolis team at AAI a call.

The Most Important Internet Marketing Tools For Any Business

There are over 1 Billion Internet users around the world now and the number is increasing day by day. Roughly, one sixth of the world's population is now using the web to find information, to know facts and to shop. The Internet is one enormous marketplace nowadays.

Many individuals have taken advantage of internet marketing tools and have built up their own successful businesses. In the process, these online marketers have gained a luxurious lifestyle- working at home in their own hours and also creating a handsome part-time or full-time income for their families.

Internet marketing tools are most essential for you; if you're wanting yourself to compete in the competitive world of online business. It is not just the directory submitting, but there are many articles to write and submit, commenting in forums and blog posts, creating and uploading videos in popular video sharing sites. You need to capitalize your company through social bookmarking sites. The social media play a very important role in today's lifestyle, thus Facebook marketing, twittering and Linking IN can't be ignored.

Internet marketing is most effective when it creates such contents that attract people and benefits them. Following the short-cuts, which the so-called internet marketing guru's offer, may lead you to the wrong place very fast.

Backlinks are one of the major factors in determining search engine rankings. This efficient approach using internet marketing tools, insists on the speed and automation of your business.

A very significant tool for Internet marketing is the article submitting. The reason behind this is that content is the king on the internet. The more articles about your products or services are written and submitted, the more people will read the articles and come to your web site.

Another important tool for Internet marketing is keyword selection. This is important because when you are writing your articles, you are targeting those keywords, which people are searching for.

With effective usage of these internet marketing tools along with other marketing strategies you will be able to set yourself up a prosperous online business.


About the Author

Posal has been writing online for over 4 years. His newest website which touches on hobbies and interests can be found at Electric Sewing Machines and Sewing Machines For Beginners

FarmVille Basics

How to get started in Farmville!

Starting an Online FarmVille Game Farm

When the game begins, each farmer is issued a that is 12 by 12 squares large. Within this plot are six squares of plowed and seeded land, at varying stages of readiness-some ready to harvest, some still growing and some ready to plant.

The best strategy that a profit-minded game farmer can have is to grow, harvest, plow and expand, grow, harvest, plow and expand. This strategy will produce the most profit and faster level-ups in the early stages of the game. The amount of game coins that each farmer is given is not enough to plow the entire field and plant it with seeds, but it will get him started.

If the player harvests what is ready, plows the land and then plants new seeds, he will be ready to expand a few squares at a time until every square on his land is occupied. A fully plowed field will still yield enough space around the edges to plant any trees that are received as gifts from friends in the game and to put animals on..

In this game it is easy for the new farmer to get carried away with purchasing objects for decorative purposes, but the savvy player farmer will wait to buy these things until she has acquired enough fame coins to plow and seed an entire field.

Once the all of the game fields have been planted, any game money left over can be used for a few decorative items, keeping in mind that as the player's level increases, new seed varieties are opened up for use and become more expensive, so it is wise to leave the majority of the farm's profits in the bank for a while.

Choosing the Seeds to Buy for Raising Game Levels and for Best Profit

When the player begins , her choices in seeds are limited, but as her level of experience grows she will be awarded with coins, gifts and the ability to purchase new varieties of seeds. With each new variety comes more and more challenge to decide which ones to use.

Some seem to make more profit, but take longer to grow. Some give little or no experience, but seem to be the quickest to grow. When determining what seeds to purchase the player should remember that experience points are also obtained by plowing and planting so seeds that award less experience points, but harvest more quickly are not necessarily bad.

Farmers in this game also need to check the growth time of their crops. Each crop will take a certain amount of time to grow and will wither if not harvested. This is real time, not game-play time. If a crop is a two hour crop, it will take two hours to grow and it will wither within two hours of blooming, so crops should be planted according to the real-life schedule of the player, making sure that he is able to get back to the game before a crop dies.

Originally posted by: www.squidoo.com