Blog

Posts Tagged Facebook

Add Additional Facebook Apps to Your Business Page

The great thing about the Facebook Timeline page for your business, you can add apps that will help you with a complete variety of functions. Three of these apps will show up in your Views and Apps Bar. When they are clicked on, it will take your page visitors to a new page that has the specific app. There are apps for just about anything you could think of that would be helpful to further market and sell your products and services. Many of these apps are free and some will have a cost associated with them depending on where you get the app to use at your Facebook Page.

A popular app to have is an app that automatically posts links to your blog articles as they are posted to your business blog. This app can be integrated into your business website so you do not have to do it manually. People who may not have visited your site might see these posts at Facebook and click through to your site for additional exposure to your business.
Other apps include social bookmarking apps that allow Facebook users to subscribe to your RSS feeds if they so choose. E-Commerce apps are available so you can sell products and services directly from your Facebook account. Since Facebook does not allow for promotions and contests to be posted directly on your wall or cover photo, you can use a variety of apps in order to create exclusive promotional and sales for your Facebook followers.

There are apps that allow you to publish polls to further engage your followers and learn more about how to offer them the products and services they need. Apps for surveys and discussion boards are also helpful to keep followers engaged and receive important information from them in order to improve your business offerings.

Apps that help you see news and deals from your website is a timesaving app for many time challenged business owners. Another time saving apps allow integration from other social media sites that will automatically upload posts across the networks your business is involved with. Apps that allow additional contact information such as Google Maps are timesaving for potential customers so they do not have to leave your business Facebook page in order to find out how to get to your business.

There are also apps that allow you to highlight your top followers, your Business page “Likes”, a calendar for events and a large variety of other apps. Consider which apps would be most beneficial for your business to use. Chances are you will find one that fits the bill.

Posted in: Facebook Marketing, Online Marketing Articles

Leave a Comment (1) →

How to Engage Your Business Facebook Timeline Page Followers

When you start to get more Followers to your business Facebook Timeline page, you will begin to wonder how to best keep them engaged. Brands have a harder time keeping people engaged, especially if they come across as too much of a business and not enough of a personality. That is why it is so important to define the personality your business has by emphasizing the culture of your business and personality of you and your staff members. Another reason is people need to be emotionally stimulated in order to share, post or otherwise engage with Facebook posts and many businesses fail to emotionally stimulate their Followers because they are afraid to stretch the limits of what might be appropriate for their target market.

The most important thing to have in order to keep your Facebook Followers engaged is great content that goes straight for your Followers hearts. Think about what your target market is going to love the most. If you are a dog washing business, adorable pictures of dogs and puppies, tips about caring for and training your dog and other interesting information is going to be exciting for your Followers. Remember people go to Facebook to stay connected and be entertained, if they wanted dry or boring information, they would not go to their favorite social spot on the web, so keep that in mind. Be shocking, create feelings of joy or give people great tips that will help them in their everyday life.

Videos and images will go a long way to keep Followers engaged. People are becoming much more visually conditioned and catching their eye long enough to make sure you get their interest is going to come through images and videos over words any day. Create videos of how your products or services work, create videos of the little league team your business sponsors, or the company holiday party, or summer picnic. Keep the videos under four minutes long and moving at a rate that will keep viewers captivated. You can also share compelling videos from YouTube instead of always creating your own.

Images can be of your products, employees, topics relative to your products or services, or just about anything that you believe your target market will love to comment on or share with their friends. Facebook etiquette is very specific about tagging images and if people such as staff or customers show up in your pictures, make sure and let them know before you tag them. Better yet, ask them to tag themselves. When someone is tagged in an image, the image will show up on their Facebook page as well. This is a great way to get exposure.

Keep a good sense of humor. If you can keep your Followers laughing, and especially if you can help them get their social media friends laughing because they could share what you offered, you are going to develop a loyal group of Followers. Make fun of your business in a lighthearted way and share images of goofy moments. Share the daily escapades of the office adventures with your Followers and allow them to feel like they are part of your business. Everyone loves to feel like they are a part of something and the more they feel as if they are a part of your brand’s culture, the more they will want to do business with you.

While Facebook frowns on contests and promotional events being hosted through your business Facebook Timeline page, you can still have some guessing games, or ways of keeping Followers engaged that is not a formal contest, yet will still be highly popular. Giving away a $5 gift card to someone for answering some random trivia question or coming up with the best caption for one your business images is a fun way to celebrate your Followers. The $5 gift card is well worth the investment when Followers stay engaged hoping they will become the next $5 winner. It will also create more Followers when winners brag to their Facebook Friends about how they won something from your business Facebook Timeline page.

Remember to ask questions about business ideas you are considering as well. People love to give their opinion. When they feel as if you are interested in what they have to say about the way you do business they will gain trust that you are a great business to give their patronage to. For example, if you are a car wash, you can ask customers what scent they prefer for the interior of their car and why they like it the best such as “New Car Smell”, “Pine Fresh”, or “Fruity Scents”.

With all the ideas for posting content that will keep your Followers engaged, responding to them is the most important practice to keep up with. Respond as immediately as possible to comments or wall posts from your Followers. Use open ended questions when possible to keep the communication flowing. When your Followers see that you reciprocate with responses to their activity they feel as if you value them and will become more inclined to stay engaged. They will also feel more inclined to recommend your business to their friends and associates because they will feel as if they have a personal relationship with you. That alone can convert Followers into customers more than any promotional or sales item you may have to offer.

Posted in: Facebook Marketing

Leave a Comment (0) →

Search Engine Optimization for Your Business Facebook Timeline Page

By now you should be getting an idea of how successful a well put together business Facebook Timeline page can be for your business efforts. More businesses than ever are considering their Facebook Timeline pages to be a second home page for their marketing, sales and lead generating presence on the internet with remarkable results. There is no reason you cannot set up your business Facebook Timeline page to do the same for your business.

Getting increased traffic to your business Facebook Timeline page requires a collection of elements including how captivating the images and content are, what value your Timeline page adds to Followers to want to pursue, and other best practices. Your own website can be dramatically affected by how well the business Facebook Timeline page does. One crucial element for all this success and business building is optimizing your business Facebook Timeline for the search engines. Facebook is also working on additional search engine optimization techniques. When you combine efforts of your own business to optimize your business Facebook Timeline page for Google, Bing, Yahoo Search and other major search engines, you will capitalize on a critical way of being found by those who are searching for you businesses products and services.

As mentioned before, the name you give your business Facebook Timeline page is important in order to appeal to Followers and for search engine optimization efforts. You want a name that clearly describes your products and services and contains your business name. You want to make sure it does not sound overly spammy or that you are blatantly advertising. Choose this name carefully and do not change it, because if you change it in the middle of the game, you will lose the entire search engine optimization efforts you had made up to that point. The search engines may also penalize you for changing the name, so it is best to put the forethought into it and then keep it as your first choice for the duration.

Using a clear definition and your business name for your Facebook page is important because if your page name is too generic, it risks being disabled for updates by Facebook. For example, if you are a car washing service, “Car Wash” would be too generic. If your business is a car washing service, and its name is “Sudzees”, Sudzees” would not clearly define what your business is about. If you combine the business name with the description, you could have a clear winner. Naming your business Facebook Timeline page “Sudzees Car Wash” would be an ideal choice. Combining them in this way will give them the unique name Facebook requires, and will also allow potential customers to know what you offer, as well as offering an important keyword about your business for search engine optimization efforts.

You do have the opportunity to choose a URL for your business Facebook Timeline page than is different than the name that shows up as your Facebook name. Reasons you may want a different name would be if someone already has your business name and you have to adjust it to be unique. An example would be if “CarSudzs Doggy Spa” had the name “CarSudz” for their URL. You could choose “CarSudz Car Wash”, “CarSudz Chicago” or something along those lines to have a unique URL that will also allow for people searching for car washes, or for your business in Chicago (Assuming your business is in Chicago) to find you easily. It will also aid in search engine optimization.

The “Basic Information” area in your business Facebook Timeline page account is important to fill out thoroughly and use keywords where possible. Choose the most closely matched category from the dropdown box of business categories and add everything that is possible to include in ways that will allow you to use additional keywords to explain your business. Make sure to fill in every blank.

The “About” area that gives you space to talk about your business is a crucial part of search engine optimization for your business Facebook Timeline page. Use keyword rich content in this area. Make sure it still reads well and is compelling for customers and potential customers to learn more about your products and services also. Normally, the best keywords for this area will be the same keywords and keyword phrases that you use at your own website. While you want to use the same keywords, you want to have unique content, so avoid copy and pasting your “About Us” from your own website in order to avoid posting duplicate content. This “About” box only allows you to use 250 characters so planning on how to work the keywords, in while comprehensively highlighting the information you hope to portray to the public, is important to become strategic about.
Make sure and include backlinks to your business’s website as often as possible in your business Facebook Timeline page content posts without going overboard or looking as if you are being overly-promotional. Ways you can do this is by posting links to blog articles, videos or other informational or entertaining content at your own website, or when you are adding milestones or history posts for your business. This will create additional weight for both your business Facebook Timeline page and your business website.

Make sure that these are relevant links to the post topic. An example would be if you are a landscaping business and post a picture of a new design for raised flower beds, you could link to an article to your website that talk about how to make raised flower beds with railroad ties or bricks. Also make sure that you do not post too many links all at one time or you could get penalized by the search engines. Posting them with relevant daily posts should be enough. If you have a collection of content you want to post that all includes backlinks, only upload a couple a day to avoid being penalized in the search engines.

Adding backlinks to your website at your business Facebook Timeline page does not have to be only done through posts on your wall or in the basic information area. If you have a discussion board you may find the opportunity to add links that point back to your site. Getting creative will help you discover other ways to add backlinks from your business Facebook Timeline page to your website.

When you are working on links, remember to put links on your website that point back to your business Facebook Timeline page. Along with Facebook “Like” buttons on your website’s pages, you can also add direct links to your Facebook page on your “Contact Us” page and other relevant pages, or in articles. This will give additional weight to both your business Facebook Timeline Page and business website.

The more Facebook followers you have for your business Facebook Timeline page the more intra-Facebook inbound links you will have pointing back to your Timeline page. Being able to help with search engine optimization is an important reason to pursue getting people to become followers of your page. It also makes your page visible to their friends to help get more people to your page. You can also include your business name in images and videos you upload by saving the files with your business name in them. These are not backlinks, but do carry relevancy with the search engines. When these videos or images are “Shared” and show up in Followers news feeds, it will further increase search engine weight.

When your business Facebook Timeline page is optimized for the search engines, you will notice more activity at both your Timeline page and your business website. Using the “About” box, Basic Information and posting content to your business Facebook Timeline page that uses keywords and keyword phrases will be time and effort well spent. These efforts will cut down on the amount of advertising that your business will need to do to keep exposure high for your products and services.

Posted in: Facebook Marketing

Leave a Comment (0) →

Social Networking

Social media is one of the most cost-effective ways to connect with your customers, to keep your business in front of them in relevant ways. Social media tools make it easy for word of mouth marketing to help your business take off quickly and efficiently.

Success with this strategy involves building your business presence on social sites like Facebook and Twitter as well as publishing content on your site that engages your customers and encourages them to take action and to spread the word to their contacts as well.
Just a few benefits of having a social media strategy in place:

  • Build brand awareness and loyalty.
  • Relate with your customers and prospects in a way that is meaningful to them.
  • Gather market research quickly and easily.
  • Display your expert status online.
  • Enhance your customer support efforts.

Posted in: Online Marketing Articles

Leave a Comment (0) →

What Content Should I Post on My Facebook Business Page

Where most businesses get hung up and fail on Facebook is they come into it with the old marketing mentality and most of their posts are about marketing their services, announcing sales and asking people to check out their site. That mentality will kill your efforts quickly. Remember that Facebook is a social media platform. Therefore, you want to remain social. The popular rule of thumb is to keep at least 80% of your posts social, 10% marketing and information about your business and 10% announcing sales or other promotions.

One way to look at how to create content for your Facebook Timeline page is to think about going to a social networking party. If all you did was walk around and talk about your products and services, few people would ask you for your business card. Or, if you showed up, but just sat in the corner not talking to anyone, no one would learn about your products and services. The truly successful networking will be schmoozing, making small talk, bringing up compelling and interesting information and everyone will want his or her business card. Facebook is the same way, only you have to be successful at creating that personality by using words, images and videos.

So while you know the 80-10-10 rule, you also want to be very active in posting content. Three to four posts spread out throughout each day would be ideal, one a day would be minimally successful, and too many would irritate people. When people get irritated, they will “Un-Like” your page fast and possibly even complain about your business which is the last thing you want to have happen. Even with three to four a day, spread out throughout the day, if they are not thoroughly interesting, compelling and/or entertaining risk causing people to “Un-Like” your page. It would be best to just stick to one a day to avoid irritating your followers.

Knowing what to post everyday can be challenging when you know that your business needs to stay 80% social. The best thing to do is consider what your target market would be most interested in hearing about. If your business caters to moms, posting recipes or ideas for the home and garden are always well received. For further engagement, you can ask them to share their favorite recipes, or ask them questions about what their favorite meals are for the weekdays or weekend. If you are a service oriented industry, it may be trickier to know what to post every day, but there is sure to be some relative information that your target market would find interesting. Avoid trite and cliché posts such as “Happy Monday Everyone”, while a few Facebook users may enjoy that, the majority of them will see it as a pathetic attempt of your business to get their attention.

You can post comments with links to blog posts you create at your business blog, or other news or information that your target market would enjoy hearing about without coming across as “marketing” if you are conversational about it. Mentioning personal tidbits about yourself or your staff members will help followers know you better. Obviously, you do not want to go overboard on personal information, but comments such as “Mary won Employee of the Month and gets to leave early on Friday” with a picture of Mary grinning ear to ear with a thumbs up sign is whimsical and people will feel good about congratulating her which will bring some great interaction on your business’s Facebook page.

Videos are popular and choosing fun, yet appropriate, videos to post and share with your followers is always content that is well received. Quotes and sayings are popular too, but go lightly with those because they are overdone and people get tired of seeing them unless they are truly unique and captivating. When you find a great one, you will be amazed at how many of your followers will share it with their friends.
Any time your content is shared by your followers at your business Facebook page, a link will show up on their page, back to your page. You will be able to get additional exposure and followers to your page. People will also be more likely to comment on your content when it is posted if it is interesting to them. That will bring more popularity for your business Facebook page as well. Keeping this in mind, go for content that you think will be thrilling for your followers.
Along with consistent posting of content, responding to other’s comments of your posts, or posts on your business Facebook page by followers is critical. People want to know they are worth your time and responding quickly will allow them to feel that way. It will also help keep the conversation going, and show up on their page as well as your business Facebook page.

You can organize content in the admin panel to show up in your Timeline. Many posts you may want to hide after they have run their course, so six to eight weeks. Other posts you might want to change the posting date on to include them in more relevant parts of the Timeline history, and others you will want to highlight and keep up for a long time even if they are not directly relevant to your business history. For example, if a Follower posts a glowing testimony, mouse over the upper right hand area of the post. You will see a star. Click on that star and it will highlight the post, making it bigger, so it becomes more noticeable.

When you post consistently using the 80-10-10 rule, followers will get used to seeing your brand on their page. When they share it with their friends, their friends will get used to seeing your brand on their page as well. Your conversion rates will begin to improve and your business reputation will start to sky rocket.

Posted in: Facebook Marketing

Leave a Comment (0) →