In the past, I’ve written about some Twitter tricks, like overcoming Twitter politeness and using Twitter as a followup tool. These methods are great for indirect twitter marketing: they help you create long term relationships. Ultimately, these long term relationships are where most of your leads are going to come from.

For those who want to try the direct route every once-in-a-while, there is a way to find people looking to buy. The way to do this is to use Twitter Advanced Search.

Unless someone makes their tweets private, everything on twitter is open and searchable by the public. This has a great benefit for salespeople looking to enhance their prospecting using Social Media. You can find and connect with people at the very moment that they express interest in your product or service.

Here’s how it works:

Let’s say that you’re a web designer looking for web design leads. Your goal is to connect with people that need a website. Firstly, you’ll want to recognize the type of tweet you’re looking for.

People on Twitter love to ask their network for recommendations on vendors to use. This is part of the curious nature of Twitter culture. Users are judged by the resourcefulness, quality, and responsiveness of their network. Image how nice it is to tweet that you’re in search of something, only to be instantly presented with several vetted results from people that you trust. Pretty compelling, huh? It’s no wonder why there are so many tweets like this one:

Read full article from Nick on “How to Find Leads with Twitter Advanced Search“

Step 1) Identify Your Goal

First things first, and like everything else should be, you should start off with identifying your goal. You have to know what you want before you start planning and venturing for it. If someone clicks on your ad… okay, then what? “You have to have a strategy for what you want to do AFTER a person clicks your ad (Maurice Evans).”

What are you trying to accomplish? Increase in sales? Generate awareness? Promote something? Just like any other organization goal, determine the end result and look at Facebook ads as a tool to help you reach that goal.

Also know that focusing only on ONE goal at a time is going to be the most effective.

Step 2) Keep Users Within Facebook

People are on Facebook to socialize and are comfortable being on Facebook to do that. Many individuals are hesitant to click on ads because they have NO idea where it is going to take them. If you create a very compelling ad and it takes them off of Facebook, chances are they are going to quickly close out of your URL.

Make sure that you tailor your ads experience to the typical Facebook user. Use custom landing pages and applications on Facebook to give users a consistent feel.

If you want to lead people to your landing page off of Facebook, try to give your page a more “social” look. Include “Like”  and “Share” buttons. Get some user generated reviews and videos on the page.

Step 3) Have a Catchy Headline

The headline of your ad is the first thing a person will typically read. Make sure that you “write a headline title that is simple, yet gripping“.

One way to add to your headline is to make it a question. Short catchy questions are best.

Another element is to capitalize some words within the question to make them stand out. Don’t capitalize all the letters because its not as noticeable. For example, Do you want to Lose Weight? or Need a New Fashion style?

Step 4) Create a Compelling Offer with a Clear Call to Action

Make sure that your ad is talking to the viewer. Tell them exactly what your trying to get them to known, tell them what to do, and most importantly do not let them down if they do click on your ad.

When creating the ads content, think about putting keywords that someone would recognize. Words like a location, a persons name, and other strong keywords related to your topic.

Make sure you are using some kind of call to action as well. Tell the viewer what you want them to do. Use words like “click here” and “learn more” to have no assumption on what is the next step.

Step 5) Use a colorful and engaging images

This one is simple! Make sure that your ads image is colorful and relevant to your offer. A good idea that was given on the Mashable website was to make sure that you are “Adding borders to your photos in colors like orange or yellow, which contrast with the blue and white Facebook interface, is a simple way to pull the user’s eyes in your ad’s direction.”

Step 6) Segmentation is Key

Segmentation of your ad is a HUGE factor when it comes to optimizing your Facebook ads. First off, the idea is to create a bunch of ads that are very focused and targeted on a specific demographic.

Do not take the shot gun approach and advertise to all males 18 to 55 in the United States who have an interest in “working out”. Instead, use a multiple shot riffle by creating a hand full of ads that in whole target the same group. Break down the age group into multiple age ranges, break down to specific cities and towns, add more interests that relate to working out. By doing this you are potentially creating 100 ads, but they are much more likely to speak directly to someone! In turn, this will generate better results.

Anything Else?

What are some other ways that someone can optimize their Facebook ads? Have you followed a path similar to this that worked or didn’t work for you?

I would love to see image examples of ads from you that worked!

Sources Used:

https://www.facebook.com/adsmarketing/index.php?sk=gettingstarted_audience

http://mashable.com/2010/10/28/improve-facebook-ad-performance/

http://tommy.ismy.name/and-these-are-my-thoughts/optimize-your-facebook-ads/#comment-1046

http://justindupre.com/optimize-your-facebook-ad-headlines/

Plenty of companies have fan pages on Facebook. However, many of them treat it as a marketing afterthought, something that needed to be done because “everyone else was doing it.” They must not be paying attention to the growing popularity of Facebook fan page creation services. The majority of these services cost money, yet their rapid success means multiple businesses must be paying these providers to help them improve their fan pages.

For small businesses with limited marketing capital, do the available funds go to bettering the company website through SEO or improving the Facebook fan page via SMO? The gut instinct is to skip Facebook in favor of improving the website proper. Yet by creating a more enticing Facebook fan page, you could actually be taking care of both at once.

But pay for Facebook business page optimization? Seriously?

Go ahead and create your own Facebook business page. It’s certainly not hard to do so. Yet when you’re finished, start looking around at the business pages of other companies, especially competitors. If they’ve utilized fan page creation services, then their pages are sure to blow yours out of the water.

At the center: tabs and apps. Currently, Facebook doesn’t let just anyone throw any app onto a fan page. Instead, they allow several chosen companies to provide extra profile perks to people for a fee. In order to have a stylized fan page, you’ll have to utilize one of these services.

So how does all this glitz and glam help your business and boost traffic to your website?

Look at Facebook as a mini-Google. Your fan page is your website. The hundreds of millions of members of Facebook represent the hundreds of millions of bits of competing web content. Your fan page’s popularity is determined by how much it stands out from the rest.

Now, think about the fact that Facebook directs more online traffic these days than Google. What that means is that more people are on Facebook than they are anywhere else, which includes your website, but basically entails the web in general. Therefore, more of your potential customers are likely to encounter your fan page than your actual website.

And guess what gets to be put onto your fan page with or without the added bonuses of apps for your tabs? Your company’s URL. You’ll improve the traffic to your website with a valuable backlink by strengthening your business’s Facebook page.

Your presence on Facebook is more likely to get attention than your presence on the general web. With that in mind, your fan page is more important than your website. One can definitely improve the other. The same cannot be said the other way around.

(Facebook page creation services can be free for one-time use for one personal profile or they can cost $100/month. The majority, however, fall far closer to the free-end, with most basic entrepreneur-packages costing around $20/month.)

Join the forum discussion on this post

The reason I’m laying it out so simply is because for SOME REASON people are STILL setting up profiles instead of fan pages OR people are not switching their organization over from a profile page to a fan page even though they know they are not going about it correctly.

So here are 7 reasons you should Create a Fan Page, and Not a Profile for your organization

1. Profile are for people, Fan Pages are for organizations…. brands, and public figures
2. It is AGAINST FACEBOOKS TERMS to use a profile as an organization/brand
3. Fan Pages are indexed by search engines, profiles ARE NOT
4. Fan Pages can have UNLIMITED fans, profiles are limited to 5,000 friends
5. Business related applications are created for fan pages, not profiles
6. Fan Pages allows for customized landing/welcome pages or mini websites within fan pages unlike profiles
7. Fan Pages have detailed statistics of visitors to the page, profiles do not.

I hope this little post helps someone understand the importance of creating a fan page instead of a personal profile. Facebook is making it easy to switch over now, so I suggest you take advantage of it before your profile is deleted forever and all your hard work is lost.

Are there any more reasons you can think of? Why do you think people are still setting up profiles instead of fan pages?

How to Create a Facebook Business Page

Also as Facebook changes regularly – this guide was written in April/May 2011.

This guide will take you through how to create a Facebook Business Page (aka Facebook Like Page).

Since the demise of the Facebook ‘Static FMBL’ application, it has been confusing for users of Facebook to create an effective ‘Like Page’ for their business, organisation or interest. I wanted to write this eBook guide to show that it is still easy to create a great Like Page with other, similar applications to the original Static FMBL application. I was confused earlier this year when these changes on Facebook occurred and found it very difficult to find direction on this. I did my own research and have condensed what I found into this guide. I hope it is useful.

This guide will show you how to create a Facebook Like Page for your business or organisation, including how to set up an initial Landing (or Welcome) Page (or Tab) to give a new visitor a great experience. Subsequently we will be writing other informative articles in this area about Facebook Like Page design and engaging with your Fans.

Step 1: How to Create a Basic Facebook Business Page:

1. The first stage in how to create a Facebook business Page is to set up a basic Business Like Page and then customise:

2. From your personal profile, go to any other company’s or person’s own Like Page.

3. Click on ‘Create a Page’ (located in the bottom left of the page)

4. The best choice on the next page for an effective Like Page is ‘Brand or Product’; this can be fine-tuned later if necessary.

5. Next, you can choose the type of business/organisation you are, under ‘chose a category’.

6. Then you can type the name of your brand (and name of your new Like Page) into the ‘Brand or Product’ box.

7. Your basic Like Page will now be created – ready for customisation.

8. The first ‘tab’ within your new Like Page that you will see is the helpful ‘Get Started’ page. Click the ‘Update Category’ button.

9. The ‘Get Started’ tab guides you through some of the things that you will need to and we will revisit this in a later guide. Our first priority is to customise your Like Page with a page known as a ‘Landing’ or ‘Welcome’ page (or Tab).

10. After you have confirmed the Category of your page (‘Update Category’); you have created your basic Like Page.

11. You now have a basic Like Page set up; all ready to customise and make it more effective.

Step 2: Switching Between Your Personal Profile and Your New Like Page:

1. Now you have a new (basic) Like Page, you can switch between it and your Personal Page.

2. This is a new feature in Facebook. You can use Facebook as yourself (your Personal Profile) or as your business/organisation/interest (your Like Page).

3. To switch between the two, click on the ‘Account’ tab at the top-left of the page, then ‘Use Facebook as Page’.

4. You will then be presented with all of the Like Pages that you have created (or that you are an administrator for – we will come on to administration of pages in another eGuide) see above.

5. Click on the ‘Switch’ button for the Like Page that you want to switch to.

6. You are then back to the ‘Get Started’ tab within your Like Page.

Step 3: Customising Your New Facebook Like Page:

Now that we have created a Facebook Business Page, we want to make your Like Page more appealing and more effective for you to build your Facebook community around your business/organisation/interest.

1. The first thing to do (as also suggested by the ‘Get Started’ guide) is to upload an image or logo.

2. This is straightforward: Click on ‘Upload an Image’.

3. Then click on ‘Choose File’.

4. This will then take you to a file explorer, allowing you to choose a picture or logo file from your own (local) computer.

5. Double-click on the photo that you want to upload.

6. This picture/logo (also sometimes known as an Avatar) is then published to the left-hand side of your Like Page.

7. Note: All pictures that you upload are also shown at the top of your ‘Wall’ tab also.

8. Steps 2 onwards on the ‘Get Started’ page can be carried out later, and we will be writing a further guide for these steps. We need to set up a Welcome page before these steps.

Step 4 continued: Setting up a Welcome Page.

Note: Part of how to create a Facebook Business Page is creating a Welcome Page. A Welcome Page is also sometimes known as a ‘Landing Page’ is it is where a visitor ‘lands’ the first time they access your Like Page.

1. From the ‘Get Started’ tab(page), click on ‘Edit Page’.

2. You will arrive at the Manage Permissions tab.

3. You will need to go to the ‘Apps’ (short for ‘applications’) tab.

4. Facebook may ask you to switch back to your Personal Profile identity at this point. This is fine – click the ‘Continue as You‘ button.

5. You will then be taken to the ‘All Apps’ (applications) part of Facebook.

6. Search for ‘Static HTML’.

7. Then click on the ‘Static HTML: iframe tabs’ (with the star logo).

8. You will then be directed to the page for this App.

9. Click on the ‘Go to App’ button.

10. Facebook will then ask which of your Like Pages you would like to add this application to.

11. Choose the Like Page that you have just created.

12. Facebook will then ask you for confirmation that you want ‘Static HTML: iframe tabs’ to be added to your new Like Page; click on the ‘Add Static HTML: iframe tabs’ button.

13. Once confirmed, you will see that there is now a ‘Welcome’ tab included on the left hand side menu. This will become the page that all of our visitors see initially when they first arrive at your Like Page.

14. We can now go to our new Welcome tab and create some content for our Welcome page. Click on the Welcome tab to get Welcome Page screen.

15. We will come back to this page – so leave this internet explorer window open for now.

Step 5: Creating Content for Your Welcome/Landing Page

To create this content I use a company called Squarespace. Squarespace is a hosted web building tool that makes it very easy to create your own high quality web site(s). We are going to use it to create some HTML code to input into our Welcome Tab for our Facebook Like Page.

Note: You do not have to use Squarespace; there are many tools for doing this. What we are trying to achieve here is to create some content using a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor. This enables you to create content very easily – just typing in your copy (text) and inserting pictures, video, forms, et cetera, just the way that you would using Microsoft Word. Using these tools (or applications) you can then choose to view the HTML version of what you have created. You can then copy and paste this HTML code into your Welcome Page on Facebook and the Welcome Page will be created.

1. Once your Welcome Page content has been created in your WYSIWYG editor and you have viewed and copied the HTML version of that content, we are ready to past that HTML content into the Facebook Like Page Welcome tab.

2. We can then go back to the Facebook Welcome page that you should still have open (if not – don’t worry, just go back to Facebook and open the Welcome page again).

3. Then right-click with your mouse and paste the HTML code into the top box from the two in the Facebook Welcome page editor.

4. You can then see the HTML code in the Welcome Page box.

5. Then click the ‘Save and view tab’ button to save what we have.

6. Then click on view your tab as a fan (or as a non-fan; it does not matter at this point).

7. You will then be able to see your new Welcome page as your visitors will.

8. We can still add more content in the form of pictures and video to make it more appealing, but the basic technical techniques have been covered here now.

Step 6 – Adjusting Settings For Your Welcome Page.

We now need to set our Like Page so that whenever a new visitor comes to our Like Page, they see the Welcome Page first.

1. From the ‘Get Started’ page click on the Edit Page button.

2. You will then see the ‘Manage Permissions’ page.

3. Currently the default Landing Tab will be set to ‘Wall’.

4. Select the drop-down menu and change the option to ‘Welcome’.

5. The Default Landing Tab is now set to ‘Welcome’.

6. You can then click on ‘View Page’ to exit from the edit mode.

7. You can then navigate around your Like Page by using the tabs on the left of the page.

8. Each time you click on the Welcome page you will see the HTML version of the page. You just need to click on the ‘Save and view tab’ to see the page as your visitors will see it.

9. And view tab as a non-fan.

10. It is now possible to use a WYSIWYG/HTML editor (like Squarespace) to add further content to your Welcome page.

Watch out for subsequent guides, covering: Adding Video, Adding a Form Using an Autoresponder, Making your Welcome Page More Effective, Creating a Nice Username for your Facebook Page, Setting Up and Using Squarespace to create HTML and Effective Web Sites

(c) Copyright 2011 OrangeStamp Ltd

There are now more hits on average every day on Facebook than on Google. Facebook is a great way to expose your business to the world and your market place.

Martin Petts is the founder of OrangeStamp – a UK based consultancy that specialises in Social Media Marketing and helping business create an effective online presence. Focussing mainly on Facebook, it is relatively easy and very cost effective to use Facebook as source of traffic to your main web site and as a great lead generation tool.

Visit the OrangeStamp web site for more information on what we can help you with and advise you on: http://www.orangestamp.co.uk. Our Facebook page is also available at http://www.facebook.com/OrangeStamp.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Martin_Petts
http://EzineArticles.com/?How-to-Create-a-Facebook-Business-Page:-A-6-Step-Guide&id=6244758

Anyway, I wanted to use this post to give you a quick look at Google+ and allow you to watch a hand full of Google’s YouTube videos that they created about its features. Once you view the videos, let us know what you think. Is Google+ really a “Facebook Killer”?

Having an effective Reputation Management approach is one of the driving forces behind success that has grown in the last several years. In a far more scaled down example, many businesses have started to base a growing emphasis on their hiring process based on an individual’s social profile. If a candidate has a checkered or questionable online profile, then they’re not likely to hire them. This was addressed in an article released by Forbes.com. The world is becoming an increasingly social place and any bad press you’ve gotten can impact you, and your business, in a negative way.

Negative comments, attention, or postings can often have disastrous affects and can steer potential clients away from you. These devastating consequences can appear in a variety of ways and many have sought out the assistance of specialized companies that work tirelessly towards assisting businesses with regaining control over how their social image is perceived on the Internet. By providing additional positive listings, you’ll be able to displace any negative ones that will, in effect, become nullified.

Through using different online tools like search engine optimization, a company can effectively increase the volume of content that relates to your company. At the same time, you can get some good publicity on your side that will help minimize any negative press that your company has received in the past. This by no means is cheating. If you’re a small business and you think that your business is good enough, just know that the chance is very high that all of your competitors are already using SEO to improve their online presence. Look at is as one option in your tool belt.

It’s essential to take your online reputation seriously, otherwise you could fall victim to the same fate of other online business. A little bad feedback can sink a company quicker than anything, especially in the realm of online business where search rankings and reviews are integral to a company’s success.

It has been brought to our attention that there is a system called HashTracking.com that will give everybody exactly what they are looking for when it comes to hashtag tracking.

Features specifically include the following

• a snapshot of tweets, impressions and reach of the Hashtag
• Top 20 list of contributors
• Detailed hashtag analytics
• Detailed contributor list
• The the much anticipated full twitter hashtag transcription