There are over 1 billion active monthly users on Facebook. That’s a huge audience to tap for your business or website! However, not ALL of those users are going to be interested in your products or services, nor would it be appropriate to waste your time trying to sell to all of those users. Therefore, you have to find ways to focus your efforts on your target audience, so you can make the biggest impact with the least amount of effort.

There are several ways that you can target your posts on your Facebook page, so that you reach only the fans that you want to reach with each post. Here are a few tips:

Use News Feed Targeting

When you update your page, your post appears in the news feed of your fans. If you want to make sure that only certain fans see this update in their feed, you can use news feed targeting. You can use this to make sure fans in other parts of the world only see information that is relevant to them, or to make sure they only get “Good morning” posts or other time-related posts at the right time.

To use news feed targeting, you have to turn on the option in your account. Go to “Edit page” and choose “Manage permissions,” then select “post privacy gating.” You will then find the option for targeting right under your status update, between the option to include a time stamp or a location. You’ll be able to choose the countries to which you want to show your post. You can also target by gender, relationship status, education, “interested in,” age, location and language.

Just remember: This option only controls what appears in news feeds. Your posts will ALL still appear on your page.

Use Post Gating

With post gating, you can make sure that your posts only appear to those users you select, whether the post appears in the news feed or on your page. However, there are not as many options for filtering with post gating: Only language or country.

Just like news feed targeting, you have to turn on the option for post gating in order to use it. You turn it on the same way you do news feed targeting. You’ll find the filtering options just below your status update and to the left of the “post” button.

Pay for Promoting Posts

Not all your posts appear to all your fans. Facebook has recently begun limiting the exposure that your posts get — unless you pay for them. While promoting posts doesn’t give you the option to target a certain audience, it does allow you to reach more of your fans (which should already be your target audience anyway). When you want to get the most exposure for your posts — such as for a sale or a special promotion — this is a great way to get the targeting you need.

The price of promoting posts will depend on the size of your audience. You could pay $5-$10 for a small reach, or you could easily pay up to $100 or more for a large audience.

Buy Facebook Ads

The best way to get more targeting for your page is to buy Facebook ads. You can create your own ads for your page or even for certain posts that you want to promote. You can set your own budget for your ads, and you can target them by location, age, birthday, interests, education, connections, and location.

Facebook ads are much cheaper than search engine ads, and they will help you get more targeted traffic for your page and your website.

While it is important for you to connect to a larger audience to create more exposure for your brand and more traffic for your site, if you have not connected with your target audience, it is worthless exposure because that traffic won’t convert to sales. Use these strategies to help you target your Facebook posts and your page to the right audience so that you can see a bigger return on your investment of time and money.

What strategies do you use to target your messages on Facebook? Share your tips in the comments!

Amber Satka writes on financial topics, such as her look into paying off car loans. Amber is a former office manager and current mother and writer.

Related articles

• What Small Businesses Need to Know About the New Facebook News Feed … And Other Hot Topics
• Facebook Ads Updates: Bigger Images & News Feed Option Placements
• Infographic: A Guide To Facebook Page Post Ads

Related articles

• YouTube Introduces Paid Channels
• YouTube Launches Paid Subscription Channels, Starting at $0.99
• Watch out cable TV, YouTube’s paid channel subscription program is official
• Google Inc (GOOG) Turns YouTube Into YouPayTube By The Summer

Is Your Next Development Platform in the Kitchen? (via Dice News in Tech)

Related articles

• Considering Developing Business Apps?
• EliteGoodsOnline.com Opens Its Virtual Doors, Providing US Consumers with a New Online Shopping Platform
• unf***ing the habitat, one step at a time.

Even if you have an amazing app, you can’t just rely on word of mouth to get you more sales. You need to create a marketing strategy to get the most exposure and drive sales. Here are a few tips for how you can market your app to stand out from the competition and increase sales:

Create a Website

Creating a website is the first step you need to take when marketing any product. It’s the first thing that users will look for when they want to learn more information about you, your company, and your other products.

Make sure you create a compelling website that has an eye-catching design that reflects the quality of your app. Include information about your app, including price, features, and upgrades. Strive to include features that users won’t find on other sites — perhaps a preview of the app or even complementary material like bonus games.

Offer a Free Version

Even if you plan to sell your app, you should make a free version available. Users are more willing to try out an app if it costs them nothing. If you create a free version of your app, you can convince users to buy the full version by giving them a taste of the quality they can expect.

Make sure that your free version offers users a quality experience while still holding back the most interesting or useful features for the paid version.

Create a Leaderboard

If your app has an online leaderboard, you will be able to get more word-of-mouth sales. Users will enjoy posting their high scores or their personal bests on the leaderboards, and other users will start to see a buzz building around your app. The more buzz there is, the more other users will be motivated to try out your app, and the more press you are likely to get from other blogs. You are also more likely to be featured in the app store.

Use Social Media

Social media is free marketing — take advantage of it. Create fan pages or profiles for your company or your app, and build a following to market your app. You can share updates about new apps, offer exclusive discounts, or share high scores and personal bests.

YouTube and Vimeo are special cases. You can use these networks to create and promote a trailer video for your app, which can showcase its best features for users and help them to get excited about it.

Get Reviews

Perhaps one of the best ways to market your app is to get others to do it for you. You can encourage reviews by asking your followers on your website and social media to leave them. You can also get more reviews by creating a press kit for your app and sending it out to blogs, tech review sites, and even local newspapers and magazines.

The more positive reviews you get, the more buzz you will build around your app, which will lead to more traffic and more sales.

The app marketplace is crowded, and it can be hard to break through to get your app noticed when you are just starting out. However, these tips can help you to market your app so you get the sales and traffic you need to create the passive income you want or to build up your business.

Guest contributor Chloe Trogden is a seasoned financial aid writer who writes on specific opportunities such as cosmetology school grants. Her leisure activities include camping, swimming and playing her guitar.

Related articles

• 5 Tips for Marketing Your Mobile App, Increasing Downloads
• Why App Store Optimization is key for building an audience
• How we tripled our user base by getting localization right
• Create A Mobile App Without Any Code Using AppMachine

English: World map showing the percentage of citizens living in an urban environment in 2005 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

According to Cisco, over 50 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by the year 2020 which could create a very large business opportunity for companies poised to take advantage of it.  Opportunities will created in manufacturing, transportation, health care, energy and government.  This new market, the Internet of Things, is banking on society’s need to have all their devices connected and online at all times.  It would encode 50 to 100 trillion objects and have the ability to track them (the average person in an urban environment is surrounded by 1000 to 5000 track-able objects).  If everything was equipped with identifying devices, our entire landscape would be transformed and improved.  Businesses would never run out of supplies because the stock would self-monitor and be continuously replenished when necessary.  Customers would always know what was on-hand in their favorite stores before walking into them (if they had not checked online beforehand), and hospital equipment would be able to notify technicians when calibration was needed.

At this time, Cisco is working with dozens of utility companies to deploy smart meters supporting Internet Protocol.  Today, there are over 2 billion smart meters in use using over 135 different protocols.  The company also invested in Cohda Wireless, a company pivotal in the creating of boards supporting the infrastructure to connect cars to each other and the Internet.  This technology would prove very helpful in large metropolitan areas to aid in traffic prediction, smoothing, and accident prevention.

Related articles

• Cisco pegs potential profit value for Internet of Everything at $14.4 trillion
• Top 5 wireless routers: Home-networking evolved
• Cisco preaches internet as human right

English: This poster provides a good visual of the standard Agile Software Development methodology. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Many fans of the Star Trek franchise are familiar with the Kobayashi Maru.  In the fictional series, cadets are taken through many training exercises designed to test their intelligence and leadership skills.  One of the most difficult tests is the Kobayashi Maru, which is a test designed to be unbeatable.  The test pitted an unwitting cadet as a starship captain on a mission to save a crippled vessel in enemy territory.  The computer simulated exercise was designed to counter any actions the captain attempted and would always end in the destruction of their ship and the vessel in need of help.  The only person to pass the test was a young Captain Kirk who reprogrammed the computer to allow him to defeat the no-win scenario.  Although we can’t correct life’s toughest problems with a few keystrokes, we can make changes which allow us to redefine our problems which allow a new solution to be worked.

Agile software development can be considered as  operating within the same boundaries of the fictional test.  When there are changes to be made, they are designed, applied, tested, and given to stakeholders for their approval.  These iterations continue until a workable product is created.  In fact, continuous planning, collaboration, design, development, and testing occur until an acceptable product is produced.  Instead of relying on the old methods of following one plan until the end, Agile practices allow developers to change the game in midstream, adapting to new challenges, without having to go all the way back to the drawing board.  If a team member has an idea, it can be integrated into an iteration of code at the time of discovery instead of wasting time and money redesigning it from the very beginning of the process.  Much like the young Captain Kirk, by constantly correcting issues, thereby redefining the code and the problem, developers are able to quickly adjust to programming problems and stakeholders’ changing requirements.

Related articles

• Ensuring Client Collaboration Through Agile Marketing
• Dad Hacks Donkey Kong So Daughter Can Play as the Damsel and Save Mario
• Starfleet Academy Board

Thank you to user: macleodc for this informative presentation on Visio.

NuGeneration Web Design Supports Minorities through STEM programs: nugenerationwebdesign.com/services-view/…. #HappyBlackHistoryMonth #STEM

— NuGen Web Design (@NuGenWebDesign) February 18, 2013