Internet Marketing Tools

In the next series of post, I will explore using Facebook Ads as a tool to get your business in front of more potential customers (branding); attract more people to become your Facebook Fans; as well as using Facebook Ads to generate more sales from your Facebook Page.

I will start with an overview of the Facebook Ad process and what  it can become one of your most powerful tools.  Some of these ideas are taken from an earlier post I made on the same subject.
http://successfulinternettools.com/2010/03/19/facebook-ads-will-overtake-google-ads/

Ads Will Overtake Google Ads!

Google forever changed the world of advertising with Pay for Click Ad words. Pay for Click are the small ads you see on the right side of every Google search page. Payfor Click advertising is successful for three reasons.

First, when someone clicks on the ads, the visitor is acting in a proactive way. They had interest in the product or service and are willing to click on it. Pay for Click visitors are more likely prospects than internet surfers.

Second, Google Pay for Click helps your business appear on the top page of the search engine ranking. It is not easy to get on the first page of Google. Using Pay  for Click you can by pass the normal organic ranking system of Google.

Third, with Pay for Click, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Google helps you create a budget and monitors the budget based on how many clicks are made on your ad.

Google Pay for Clicks has limitations. You get proactive views on your site but beyond their interest, you know nothing about the visitor to determine if they are a good candidate for your business. In highly competitive areas, Pay for Click is expensive. A Click can cost you 10-12 dollars per click. A $100 budget can go in less than one day!

Facebook Ads

What if you could target these pay for click ads so they only appears before certain types of prospects? Facebook ads allow you to do this. Take the example of the Woodbury Minnesota wedding Photographer. He placed a Facebook ad to appear only on those pages of women from the St.Paul/Minneapolis area, ages 22-30, whose status is engaged. Over a two year period he spent $300 to generate $60,000 in business. How does this work?

When people join Facebook they complete a profile about their age, their sex, where they live, their interests, their hobbies, their family status, their political and religious preferences.

Facebook ads use this profile information as a screen. As an advertiser your ad appears only on the profile pages you determined, just as the wedding photographer did. The result is a more targeted ad. Because these ads are new, there is less competition, Facebook ads are cheaper. A $100 budget can last for weeks.

Facebook ads provides all the same features as Google ad words, daily budgets, measured results, pay based on clicks. In addition Facebook also allows consumers to interact with the ads in an entirely new way.

Conclusion

Facebook ads not only target keywords like Google, you can also target these words by age, sex, location and a variety of personal attributes such as hobbies, favorite types of music, sports, food and many other preferences.

Can you begin to see how you may use these Facebook Ads to your business advantage? Not surprising, many predict these targeted Facebook ads will soon overshadow Google ads. It’s only one of the power strategies you can use the tool called Facebook Ads.

We will talk in more details about how to create your Facebook ads in following posts.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

Facebook Events real or virtual are another wonderful Tool you can use on your Facebook Page.  In this article by Lark Miller, you will learn the step by step process for creating a Facebook Event.  Enjoy and prosper.

Treating Facebook like a party is the best way to generate quality leads for your business. There is no better way to start the party than kick it off with a free exciting valuable event!

Make sure you have something of value to offer for free. A free marketing webinar, 50% off product special or a free eBook would work well.

Go to your Facebook home page, click on “Events” below your profile picture on the left. Click on the “Create an Event” button. Here you will fill in the when, what and where details of your event. Do not forget to add a great capture photo.
Make sure you create the event long before the event happens. 3 weeks would give you enough time to build the hype and maximize your guest list.

As soon as you create the event, post a status that reflects that the event is on this certain date. Post 2 times a week about the benefits of attending this event. Do not overwhelm people by posting about your event every day. Your friends will most likely delete you or ignore you because they will find your posts repetitive.
Send a personal message along with the event invites. You would not believe how many event invites everyone gets in one day so make your message unique and personal. Here is an example: “Just for being a loyal friend on Facebook I am offering my free tips eBook for a limited time to you absolutely free. You can get it by joining my event.”

So how exactly do you generate leads from creating a Facebook event? Make sure your event has an opt in option. If you are creating an eBook, you can have links at the bottom for people to get more information about your business. If you are doing a webinar, you can make an opt in form before or after the webinar for where people can get more information about what you do. Not everyone will opt in, you might have a 10% conversion rate. Just remember that knowing how to create a Facebook event is another great method to generate leads for free.
- Lark Miller

Article Source: http://www.articlesnatch.com

About the Author:
www.HonestIncomeOnline.com
Find out More Facebook Tricks Here; http://dld.bz/gEDv

Read more: http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/How-To-Create-A-Facebook-Event/1246037#ixzz0rWGM3ePb

To be continued, your comments are always welcomed…

Al Hanzal

Notes are not a well know feature of Facebook Page. It is a great marketing tool. More attention is often put on making a Facebook Page look pretty. Notes will give your Page much more exposure than pretty looks. How do Facebook Notes work?

Notes gives you get higher exposure for three reasons. First, Google crawls and indexes your Notes. When you use keywords in your title, you produce more visibility for your content.

Second, Notes are interactive like a blog. This gives your fans an opportunity to comment on your Notes, take part in the conversation and well as sharing it with their friends.

Finally, you can use Notes to drive traffic to your website or blog. You can do this by importing the RSS feed from your blog right into your Facebook Notes. They will appear on your Facebook Page automatically. When a fan clicks on one of your titles, they are immediately taken to your blog. You don’t have to do a thing!

To learn how to create a Note on your Facebook Page, watch this simple video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cutbm3xIYAw And start creating your own Notes.

You can promotes your Facebook Page from your website or blog. The tool is called a Facebook Like Box. (Not to be confused with a Like Button). How does installing a Like Box promote your Facebook Page?

Like Box Promoting Your Fan Page

1. When a person sees your Like Box and likes what they see on your website or blog, they may want to become a fan of your Facebook Page. With a simple click, they immediately are added to your Fan Page. This action also goes into their newsfeed, letting their friends know they have now become a Fan of your Facebook Page. Instant viral effect. No need to leave your website or blog to become a fan.

2. The Like Box allows a stream of your Page Updates and actions to appear within this Like Box. From your website or blog, a visitor can see the current stream of Updates and other activities you have on your Facebook Page. No need to leave the your website or blog to see them.

3. At the bottom of your Facebook Like Box, you can show pictures of your Facebook Fans. Think of the added credibility someone will have when they see 49 fans that have already made that decision? They do this without leaving your website or blog.

Installing a Like Box

It’s very simple to install a Facebook Like Box. Go to your Facebook Page and click on the Edit Page Link under the Page Photo. When the new screen comes up, on the right side you will see several options to promote your Facebook Page. Choose “Promote with a Like Box.

The Like Box Screen will appear:

!. Change the Facebook Page ID to match your Facebook Address (copy the numbers from your browser bar)

2. You can change the width to match a side bar on your webpage or blog.

3. Identify how many Fans you want to display (up to 49 and Facebook randomly chooses which Fans)

4. In the preview screen on the right, you will see how it is going to look. Feel free to experiment with it.

5. When finished, you can click on the link to get the html code. Copy this code and paste it into your website or into your blog.

Now you have a Facebook Box on your website or blog that people can use and click to become immediate fans of your business.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

Let me state the obvious. The more you know about your target fans, the better you can make connections with them on your Facebook Page. If you have ever made sales calls, you know the more you know about the prospect’s needs and priorities, the better chance you have for the sale.

I have written in earlier Facebook Page post about your need to create a profile of your ideal customer.http://successfulinternettools.com/2010/04/04/developing-a-customer-profile-for-your-facebook-page/ Having a fan profile is critical if you want to connect with fans.

Look at Facebook Pages from a Fan Perspective

Train yourself to look at Facebook Page connections through the eyes of your fans. What do they need and want? What are their goals and aspirations? What are the problems that you can help them solve?

What do they believe about your industry? What needs to change if they are going to connect with you? Look at your business from their eyes.

When you use this mental picture of your ideal fan to conduct your Facebook Page activities, you will generate more fans.

Example

Let me give you a simple demographic example. Women love to shop. Men go the bottom-line. Women are more relationship orientated; men are more competitive. Women make 80% of the household buying decisions.

Would you approach your Facebook Fan Page connections differently if you were connecting with women rather than men?

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

The debate continues. Should you strive for large numbers of Fan connections? Or should you go for quality relationships with your Fans? In this post, I will weigh in

on the subject and provide some answers to this question. Enjoy and prosper.

Quality Verses Quantity Connections

There are a number of choices you will make as you build your Facebook Page connections.  Your first choice involves quality verses quantity Fans.

At first blush, you want as many Fans as possible on your Facebook Page.  If a hundred Fans is good; a thousand is better.  Going for as many Fan connections as possible is one strategy.

Choosing a large quantity of Fans is fashionable today.  The money is in the list!  Statistics show that at any one point in time, only 3% of any group is ready to buy, with another 7% considering a purchase.

With the quantity strategy you build as many Fans possible.  Many sales strategies are built on “the numbers game.”  Go for as many numbers as possible and there will always be a certain number of people that are ready to buy what you are selling.

Another strategy is the qualitative approach to Fan building.  In this approach you seek to build relationships with a limited number of Fans on your Facebook Page.  Using your own criteria, you carefully select who to connect with on your Facebook Page.

If you have a hundred Fans on your Page and 30% of them are qualitative connections, then that number equals 3% of 1000 weaker connections.

What Strategy to Use?

Here’s my answer to that question. Base your strategy on the answers to two questions: your type of business and your goals for using Facebook Pages.

Your Type of Business

Some businesses such as personal or professional services promote themselves based on establishing relationships with potential clients. Before a prospect will choose your service, they need to know, like and trust you. If you are offering kitchen design services, it makes sense to use a qualitative approach to your Fan building.

Other businesses sell products. In many of these businesses the relationship is less important than the product qualities. If you are offering kitchen cabinets, prospects are less concerned about the relationship with you than the color, style, and wood of the cabinets. At any one point in time, 3-7% of homeowners are looking for cabinets. So it makes sense with these businesses to use a quantities strategy.

Your Goals for Facebook Fan Pages

Why are you using Facebook Pages in your small business? Are you looking for internet awareness about your business? Are you looking to promote your business? Are you looking for more information about your prospective clients buying preferences? Are you looking for business resources for your small business?

Choose a strategy that works best to accomplishing your goals for your Facebook Pages.

Conclusion

There is not a right or wrong answer about quantity verses quality. One strategy does not fit all businesses. You may even mix your strategies and use different strategies on different Facebook Pages. This is the beauty of using Facebook Fan Pages. You get to call the shots. I hope these comments help you sort out quantity verses quality connections on your Facebook Fan Pages.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal