How Facebook Group Chat Works for Your Business
Facebook Groups are microcosms of the Facebook community as a whole. You may not be able to efficiently interact directly with the millions of people on Facebook, but you can have some very satisfying conversations with a smaller number of people who are in a group with you. Facebook Group Chat makes this possible, and you can use it to your advantage in your business.
Set up a Facebook Group by going to the homepage and clicking in the left hand column on “Create a Group.” From there, you do all the setup for the group, including inviting Friends to the group and adding a Group name and privacy settings. Since you can be in up to 300 Facebook Groups, it is a good idea to have several groups so that you can sort your Friends by target demographic. This streamlines the chat experience.
You have two options for how to start a Group Chat. If you want to plan for a Group Chat, you can send out notifications to your Group and request that everyone interested participate at a set time. This is the best way to get the maximum number of people from your group when you want to chat with them. The second option is to simply log on to Facebook and open up your Group’s chat window to see who is available for a chat. You can do this on the spur of the moment, anytime you have an extra block of time.
Once you start the Group Chat, you should talk about subjects that are interesting to your Group members. Yet, there will be times when you can bring in thoughts about your business. They can be serious thoughts about the state of your industry, or frivolous thought about the goings-on at your office. Be very careful about mentioning your product. However, if someone specifically asks what they can do about a problem and your product would solve or help with it, you might have a chance to interest them in your line. Just remember to be informative and not commercial.
The most important thing to do with Group Chat is to develop relationships with people who are in your target demographics. These are your Friends already; you are just cementing that relationship and making it one that has potential for growth. Use Group Chat to widen your contact with your consumer base, and you will reap the rewards over time.
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Using Facebook to Help Your Marketing Video Go Viral
Marketing videos rarely go viral without a little help from their makers. In fact, it usually takes a lot of effort to meet your goal number of views. You should use every means at your disposal to get your video in front of as many people as you can. Facebook is one place you can do that.
Share your video on your Facebook Page for all your Friends to see. Of course, this will not have much of an effect if you have not worked on your Facebook presence. You need to be adding Friends continually and being a regular participant in the ongoing conversation among your Friends. If you are set up with a solid network of Facebook Friends, it is easy to spread your video among them. It is even more likely that they will share it with their Friends and so on, until that viral thing begins to happen.
Have a video launch with the video you want to go viral. Make it a Facebook Event. Invite all your Friends and tell them you have something special on the agenda. If your video is impressive, intriguing, hilarious, or shocking enough, your Friends will immediately share it with their Friends too. By making it an Event, you set the video on its way to becoming viral at a certain point in time, and you can gauge its success from that point.
Post your video alongside other videos on Facebook Video. Add a link back to the YouTube or other video sharing site where it is located. For analytic purposes, this is better than simply having them view it on Facebook because it is easier to keep count on YouTube of how many people have viewed your video but not so easy on Facebook. However, there will likely be signs if you video is going viral on Facebook even though you do not have those numbers. Just like with the old-fashioned grapevine, news travels back to its source.
Remember that you decide who sees your video on Facebook. You can change the settings so that everyone can see it if you want immediate total accessibility across the social networking site. Yet, total accessibility does not always mean total exposure. Sometimes it is better to make the group viewing your video a bit more exclusive in the beginning, letting people know that you are sending this out to your Friends who might enjoy it. You can even choose Friends plus Friends of Friends. Choose a strategy to launch your video, and widen the accessibility if you see an opportunity to interest more people.
If you want a viral video, do not count on Facebook to carry all the weight of accomplishing that task for you. You can get involved with blogs and forums across the Internet, keep controversies going in the comments for your video on the video sharing site, and submit your video link wherever you find a place to put it. It is nearly always a combination of methods that makes your video go viral, and nearly all of them require effort from you.
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Fan Page Promotions – How to Captivate Your Fans and Followers
I have found it very helpful to use fan page promotions to create interest and buzz among my friends and followers on social networking websites. You reach out to them, and allow them the chance to interact with your business in a way that they will appreciate. All the different types of promotions benefit the potential customer in some way, and so they benefit you.
Coupons get customers interested in your products right away. I have found that putting a small, printable coupon on Twitter or Facebook has several advantages. For one thing, people will respond to the great deal you are offering, even if it is a small item or discount. Also, if a large number of people take advantage of your social media coupons, you know you are establishing an online presence there. If they do not, you know you have more work to do.
Another way to get folks interested in your fan page is to offer a sweepstakes where people can win a nice prize. The prize should be something worth having, or no one will spread the word about the great chance to get that prize. Since you do not have to give many prizes, you can give away only one large prize. Then you can add a few smaller prizes, perhaps a few of your latest products if they are not overly sizeable. People love a good sweepstakes and you get a chance to introduce more potential customers to your products.
It is always great when you can give away one of your products and get many customers who buy your products in exchange. One way to do that is to hold a contest. This usually involves having people send in a picture or video of something.
Holidays are fantastic times to have contests. For Christmas, you can have people send in pictures of their holiday decorations or videos of opening presents. For Halloween, they can send in pictures of their costumes. You can choose the winner or have people vote on the winner. Everyone gets excited, and your product gets exposure. Every time the message about your contest comes up, there will be a reminder of your product.
Fans do not always have to have monetary rewards to enjoy your fan promotions, either. Sometimes something as simple as a quiz or a trivia test will entice people to participate on your fan page. Make the questions out of the ordinary, and do not make the answers too simple. People often tell their friends to go to your fan page and try out the quiz or trivia test for themselves.
Getting your fans involved in contest, sweepstakes, quizzes, and getting coupons makes them more loyal followers of your fan page. I use these promotions often, to keep my page fresh and exciting. They draw more people in and make them glad they interact with me. For Christmas, have fans enter pictures of their holiday decorations in your contest.
Video – A Natural Addition to Your Facebook Fan Page
If you have not added video to your Facebook Fan Page, you should get started with it right away. The subtle marketing you can accomplish by presenting your image is astounding. There are several reasons for this.
1. People respond to you as a person better than they respond to other technologies. Technology may be the modern thing. It may be nearly taking over the lives of people from young to old. Yet, there is one technology that brings a superior person-to-person response, and that is video. People may interact with each other through words, but there is no more socially intense reaction than they get when they see the way you look, move and talk.
2. Your face becomes a symbol of your brand. Whether you are a guitar player or a cookie seller, putting a video on your Facebook Fan Page will help people associate you with your brand. All you have to do is pay heed to your branding objectives when you are making your video. For example, the guitar player will dress in a certain way to present the image of the kind of band he plays in. The cookie seller will present a certain image as well. It might be one of old fashioned hominess, cleanliness, or even luxury if the cookies are gourmet style.
3. People who want to follow you on a Fan Page like to know who you are. People want to put a face with the name of the person or company they are following. After all, they are not following a cookie if they are following a cookie seller’s Fan Page; they are following the company. They want to feel a connection with a person who represents that company. Facebook is a social network, for companies as much as it is for individuals. People want to establish that social connection or they would be reading commercials or articles rather than being on Facebook.
Add new video to your Facebook Fan Page regularly if you want people to become loyal followers. When they see you talking, moving, and showing your enthusiasm, they will be attracted to your Page and visit it often. Never lose sight of the fact that Facebook is a social network, and there is no technology more social than a video of a person.
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Turning Your Current Customers into Friends, Fans and Followers Who Work for You
You might put a lot of work into searching for all those ideal members of your target market to become your social networking pals. It is possible that your focus will be entirely on the new customers you might get. Yet, you should never underestimate the impact of inviting your present customers to follow you on social media sites.
Your current customers should not be ignored. You know this, but are you really thinking of it when it comes to your Internet marketing campaign? Existing customers continue to give you a steady stream of business if you pay attention to them and treat them right. If you think about their potential to reach people you do not even know, you will understand why you need to make them your Friends, Fans and Followers on social networking sites.
A personal invitation to Like your Facebook Page or Follow you on Twitter should accompany every delivered order. If you send out confirmation emails letting your customers know that you received their order and that they will receive it by a certain date, then also give them the ability to Friend you or Follow you from that email. In other words, strike while the iron is hot.
For current customers who get your email updates or newsletter, provide incentives to get on board with your social network. If you give them reason enough, they will not only get themselves on your list, they will bring their friends along with them. Extend the incentives to the friends. For example, you might give people a coupon, but they have to go to Twitter to get it. If they are not following you, they will probably do so to get the coupon. Just remind them that the coupon is out there for their friends as well.
As you grow your network, the new potential customers will show up at your door. Working with your current customers gets them interested in sharing your content with their friends. When they do that, they are doing your work for you. It is easy to keep the ball rolling once you get it started. Just keep welcoming new members of your social network and give them reasons to share your content with their friends. Soon they will become regular customers too.
Using Targeting for Your Facebook Ad
Facebook makes it very easy for you to get your marketing message out to your target demographic. Their system can define your objective down to small details you might not have considered. Use as many as you need of these targeting tools that Facebook offers.
Targeting by Birth Date There are several choices within this category of targeting. You can target people to receive ads specifically on their birthdays. This is a good practice for companies who give special birthday offers. Another way to target is to select a range of ages for your entire ad campaign. You can do exact match where 100% of the people who get the ad will be in your specified age range, or you can do a broad match where people just outside your range will also be included for a lesser cost.
You might want to target a specific, exact age range if you have a service that is only available to people within that range. An obvious example of a very specific age range would be a military ad, where recruitment is only open to people of the correct age. If you do not have any pressing reason to exclude people just outside your chosen age range, then you should probably consider a broad match.
Targeting by Likes and Interests This is a very interesting feature of Facebook that is not available in many other marketing choices. You choose keywords for Facebook to search for on the profile pages of users, and when they come up as likes, your ad will run for them to see on their page. For instance, if you sold beach towels and you chose the word “beach” to search as a Like, a person who said they “Like walks on the beach” would get your ad on their page. That would reach your target demographic of people who spend time at the beach.
Targeting by Education You can not only target by education level, but you can also target certain colleges or college majors. You can target people who graduated college in a particular year. Facebook will pick them up by the information on their profiles, and will deliver your ad to them if they fit into your target demographic.
Targeting Current Fans It is easy to target Fans of your Facebook page, and you should do so anytime you have special deals and offers. The setup screen for the ad gives you the option under “Connections.” Your Fans will become even more loyal and interested if you keep them informed and include them in events and sales.
You can gain from targeting your Facebook ad, no matter which of their given parameters are useful to you. Study the marketing information on the Facebook Help page and choose the ways to target that will get your ad directly to the groups of people whom you know are looking for your product. With a well-designed ad, this perfect positioning can make all the difference in both your website traffic and your conversion rate.
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Linh Tang Featured in "The Social Media Bible"
It was an honor to be featured in the 1st edition of “The Social Media Bible” published by Wiley and authored by Lon Safko, it’s definitely a double/triple honor to be featured again in the 2nd edition. Want to know what I covered? Can’t spoil the surprise….I guess you need to buy the book (shameless pitch).
Excerpt from Amazon….
The bestselling bible for social media is now completely revised and updated! The Social Media Bible, Second Edition (www.TSMB2.com) is the most comprehensive resource that transforms the way corporate, small business, and non-profit companies use social media to reach their desired audiences with power messages and efficiency. In this Second Edition, each of the three parts – Tactics, Tools, and Strategies – have been updated to reflect the most current social media trends.
- Covers all major new software applications, including features and benefits, in detail
- Lists more than 120 companies integral to the social media industry with updated data, products, services, and links
- Includes advanced topics like measuring social media return on investment (ROI) and how to develop and implement the Five Steps to Social Media Success strategy plan
- Includes dozens of social media ROI case studies
- Author is a widely acknowledged social media authority with numerous media appearances and speaking engagements
The Social Media Bible, Second Edition gives you a fully up-to-date toolbox to revamp your marketing strategy and create new opportunities for growth.
Increasing Traffic to Your Website with Facebook
One of the ways to increase traffic to your website or offer is maximizing the quality of your posts. Many of your posts should have keywords important to the product or service you are selling. Since the posts on Social Networking sites are small this can be a challenge, particularly on a site such as Facebook.
The users on FB or friends are particularly sensitive to direct selling. As such it would not be very helpful to you for all of your posts to be geared to selling. So how do you go about selling without selling? One of the ways is to talk about what you are doing for work but not directly about the selling part. You might talk about the sense of accomplishment around finishing an article or advertisement. You might talk about meeting a client.
In this way you are drumming up interest without directly selling. Of course this assumes you have done the proper work in the beginning by adding your website to your profile information. The direction you are going in is building curiosity so the Facebook friend will go looking for more information about you. Another tip to remember is to post often. Some people will find posting an easy thing to do. Other people will need to take a more thoughtful approach to building a volume of posts.
Occasionally Facebook users talk about family and friends. This builds everyone’s view that you are a real person and an interesting person. Another post that some FB friends use is quotes from famous people. Sometimes the quotes are by not so famous people. Even something as simple as ‘Good Morning’ and what the weather is like in the area you are in is a start.
Then there are the games. Many people on Facebook play games such as Farmville. It gives everyone the opportunity to spend a little down time and have fun. Playing the games available also give you the opportunity to ‘give’ different items needed in the game. This is another way to build good will and get your name out there. You can send invitations to other people to join the game as well. It is annoying if your only posts are about the game you are playing. The key is to keep a balance between work posts, personal posts, games, etc.
It is possible to post links to articles or news worthy items in your post. This should be part of your efforts at providing value to your friends on Facebook. Just like many other techniques this should not be the only thing you do on Facebook.