Posts Tagged ‘FaceBook’

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I love to network!  Of course, I love being around people, so it makes it very easy for me to network.  When you are just starting to grow your business, networking is crucial to your success.  I know it was mine!

These are the top three ways I network to keep my business growing, meet new and interesting people and keep my sanity as a home-based business owner!

Join Local Networking Groups like:

• Business and Professional Groups
• Groups targeted to your niche
• Local Chamber
• BNI/REO or other organized referral exchange group
• eWomenNetwork Luncheons

Form your own Mastermind Group

• Invite others who are looking for connections, support and brainstorming opportunities
• Build from each other strengths
• Share each person’s business with your list and ask them to do the same
• Look for ways to work together as partners to grow your business, i.e., teleseminars, joint venture partnerships, affiliate partnerships, etc.

Social Neworking (This is my favorite!)

• Establish your profile on as many social media sites as you can effectively manage
• At least, start with Facebook and move to Twitter
• Give and share on these sites
• Don’t come out of the gate, asking for the sale
• Drive traffic back to your website through the many tools available using social media
• Have Fun!

These are just a few of the things I do to grow my business and it has been working pretty successfully.  So give it a try!

Facebook has just released it’s Promotions Guidelines that detail how and where you can use contests, sweepstakes and promotions on your Facebook Profile and Fan Page.  In a nutshell,  Facebook has put the brakes on doing any of these without prior written approval and I’m thinking that’s not going to be easy to obtain.

Here are a few of the highlights of the new guidelines:

• You can’t promote any contest, competition or sweepstakes that require people to become a Fan of your Page to be entered
• You can’t use Facebook Fan Pages, your profile, chat, or messages to notify winners of any contests you administer
• You can’t require content on Facebook as a condition for entry in any sweepstakes or contest
• You can use third-party applications for entry into contests when content is required
• You can allow your Page Fans to access a Tab on your Page that contains the third-party application
• You can use a third-party application to collect an email address or mailing address in order to contact the winner of a contest

To fully understand these guidelines, how they effect your Facebook accounts and learn how not to be an “offender” you should print them and keep them handy.  Click here Facebook Promotions Guidelines to review all the details.

Want to send a message to your friends on Facebook, but don’t know how?  Here are simple steps to help you send messages through your Facebook Inbox and other helpful tips for sending messages in Facebook.

• Type the person’s name into the Search box at the upper right of any Page.  When the search results are returned, click on the “Send a Message” link to the right of the result.  A box will open to type in the subject and message.  When finished, click “Send.”
  
• Open the Inbox and click on “Compose“  the same box will open to type the specifics of your message
• To learn how to send a private message on Facebook, visit my YouTube Channel to view a short video where I walk you through the entire process.

Here are other tips to help with sending messages on Facebook:

• You can message up to 20 friends per message
• If you have a Group or Fan Page, you can send to all of your Group Members or Fans with one message
• Users can receive messages from anyone on Facebook, regardless if you are friends or not.  To avoid this, go to Settings/Privacy/Search and under “Search Result Content” uncheck the box for “A link to send me a message.”
• Photos, videos and links can be attached to messages
• The Inbox is not intended for “live” conversations.  The Chat option can be used for instant messaging others on Facebook
• Be careful of promoting a product or service or any type of advertising to your friends through the Inbox as it is considered spam and against Facebook policies
• The Inbox has search features for finding messages by sender, keywords, recipients or Friend Lists
• You can manage your Inbox notifications by going to Settings/Account Settings/ Notifications.  Here you can select which information you would like to see in your Personal Email Account.  For example, if you use Microsoft Outlook for your email management, you will receive an email each time you get a message in your Facebook Inbox.  You can uncheck this notification to stop those emails from going to Outlook.

The Facebook Inbox is a great communication tool when used properly.  It is just another alternative for connecting with your online friends and business contacts.

Want to stay up-to-date on all the current news related to Social Media?  Take a look at this video.

http://facebook.com/socialmediatraining

Facebook is not just for kids, contrary to popular belief!  In a recent update from Experian^® Hitwise^® Facebook users 55 and over, increased by 108% from September 2008 to September 2009.  As more baby boomers are taking advantage of the many features of Facebook to connect with friends and family, market and grow their business relationships and even develop an online presence through Facebook for a new business, it is clear that Facebook is no longer just for the kids.

The 18-34 year old age group still leads the way in using Facebook, but the boomers are “hot on their trail.“  And overall Facebook grew 194% within a year.

So, do you have a presence on Facebook?  There are more than 300 million others who do.  Experian^® Hitwise^® data reveals that Facebook is 2nd only to Google in the amount of visits to their site, and Facebook is #1 for social networking sites.

So again I ask, do you have a presence on Facebook?  Everyone wants to be found in Google searches, and it looks like the next place to be found is Facebook!

Don’t know how to get started?  Check out this easy to follow, step-by-step guide The Start Here, Now Do This Social Media Guide, to establish your Facebook presence, or just give us a call!

Take a look at this video to help you evaluate and develop a strategy for accepting Facebook Friends.

Be careful little eyes, what you see. Be careful little ears what you hear. And be careful little Twitter users what you Tweet!

Now that Twitter and Facebook have beefed-up their search capabilities, all of your Twitter and Facebook posts are easily searched and found by others.

Such is the case of a business that was in a dispute with their marketing firm and said some “not so nice” things about them on Twitter and Facebook. The marketing firm is now suing the business for breach of contract related to the use of promotional materials without permission, along with some other things. But really, had the business not been so vocal with their comments through social media, this might have been easily rectified.

So the lesson is, to be aware of what you are saying on social media sites.  Use the “count to 10″ rule if you’re angry before you post a comment.  Just because it doesn’t show up on your computer screen, doesn’t mean it isn’t still hanging around cyberspace.

My philosophy is…if you don’t want the world to know what you are saying, don’t post it on Twitter!

I am quickly finding that I can’t live without my new iPhone.  I love the fact that I can post to my social media sites while I’m away from the office (like I did while on a date with my hubby), and play games like PacMan (I never was very good at that game) and my new favorite application, FaceMic.

FaceMic is THE coolest application!  For a mere 99 cents, I purchased the app from iTunes and now I can record my thoughts, make a joke, record my dog snoring, or whatever!  Then I can take a photo to attach to my recording or I can use the Map feature to share the location I recorded from.  All that’s left is to post it to my Facebook profile.  OH, and there’s even an option to post it to a friends profile with just a click!

If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, check out the new FaceMic app.  They claim it’s easier to navigate than a toaster!  I agree.

If you know me, you know I love Facebook and work hard to keep up with all the new features and applications that can make this explosive social media site work for me and my clients.  Last week, Facebook rolled out several new features and I’m going to share two of them with you.

Facebook had offered the ability to filter your friends by the city they lived in, but recently disabled this feature.  However, as of last week, they have now re-instated it.

Click the Browse by: Drop Down Box to select to sort by city, workplace, high school or college

So basically, you can sort your friends by the city in which they live.  Why would you need this?   You might want to visit some of your Facebook friends if you are planning a trip to the city where they live or you might want to schedule meetings to introduce yourself and your business if you are in the same city.  Or you could plan a conference and look for joint venture partners in the area you are hosting it.

The other feature that Facebook introduced last week (but is not available as of this post) was a feature similar to a Twitter ID using the @ symbol.  Now you can type the @ symbol and a list of your friends will drop down so that you can “tag” them in your status update.  It’s similar to tagging of a photo, but without the photo!  You can tag groups, Pages, events and more.

The @ symbol will provide a dropdown box in which to select the name of the person you are tagging.  The symbol will not show in the post when it’s live.

Once you have tagged a friend, page or event, the tag will turn blue and be clickable to the person’s information on Facebook based on their privacy settings.  The person you tagged will receive a notification and a wall story and also, will be notified when someone comments on the tagged post.

These new Facebook features will add more opportunities to really target your marketing and enhance your communication with your friends, partners, clients and prospects.  Keep watching Facebook for them to unveil the tag feature.  It is planned to be rolled out to all users over the next few weeks.