Fantastic Suggestions for using Facebook as an Online Business Tool

September 23, 2009

Internet marketing has been revolutionised over a few short years by a phenomenon known as social networking. You probably wouldn’t have needed a crystal ball to imagine that the Internet would develop its social theme as more and more people realised the reach of the web, and became increasingly connected through the use of smart phones and other new gadgets.

Many people consider MySpace to have initiated this trend, but in recent times the buzz has all been around Facebook, and to many people MySpace has become “very 2005.” At this point, Facebook is the number one social media site around. Its stunning dominance seems to originate from its dynamic platform and its clean and organised appearance; many individuals also even see it as more upscale than MySpace.

Facebook was developed by Mark Zuckerburg, Justin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, who were students and room-mates at the prestigious Harvard University. The site was initially intended for use by college students, but it quickly expanded nationwide through the school system, and eventually to everyone else. Zuckerberg’s original “Facemash” has now expanded to encompass more than 200 million users. Incredibly enough, there are even some people who put its present value at around $5 billion.

Facebook is, quite simply, networking at its very best. Not only can you use the platform to interact with family and friends, but from an online business point of view, it’s great for marketing as well.

The first thing that you should apply yourself toward as an internet marketer is to create a first-rate profile. You should give this a great deal of consideration as your profile is essential to your success in this venture. Incorporate a quality branding strategy, and always ensure that you’ve a good understanding of what environment you’re working in. When dealing with any kind of social networking, commercial branding and marketing should be very subtle, and it should never be “in your face”.

Facebook allows you to expand your network of friends infinitely. Start off by building a network of your actual friends, and then move on to establish contacts with “friends of friends”. You’ll soon realise that with a sustained effort, your contact list will increase rapidly. Make sure that you never spam, and always temper your enthusiasm. Build quality relationships – not just a long list of faces.

Within Facebook you will find that there are many, many online groups and there will certainly be groups which are associated with what you do. Every type of professional service provider has a group of some kind, and you should belong to all of these in your field. You can make tons of contacts this way.

If you cannot find a Facebook group that fits your vision, you can always create your own. You will need to be very proactive here to solicit members, and you should publish articles and give a lot of good information away, essentially for free, to create some buzz. You can create a Facebook “fan” page, especially if you find that your original page has reached its limit for membership, which is currently 2000. The fan page creates an additional subtle marketing opportunity, and it’s all a part of the process of getting people into your sales funnel and ultimately to your checkout.

If you have a blog or some form of website development which you regularly update this with great information, tips, tricks, solutions, assistance and generally good stuff – then you should syndicate it so that your posts appear on your Facebook profile page. The goal is to get as much exposure as you can, which in turn of course converts to readers, visitors and potential sales.

If you’re holding any events or creating a milestone of any kind within your business, you should create an event page within Facebook. By sending an open invitation, you solicit people to go to your events page and find out what’s going on, and they can then advise their friends, creating even further exposure.

Facebook should be an integral part of your business strategy, but you must also have your “fun” face on when you’re there. Warning – Facebook is addictive (not to me of course – but to many), so don’t let it take over your marketing programs altogether!

Michelle Dale is The Managing Director of Virtual Miss Friday, an Executive Virtual Assistant who assists businesses and individuals with achieving their professional goals. Want to find out more about online business building success strategies? Contact VMF Now!

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Thanks so much!
Michelle

Posted by Virtual Miss Friday | Filed Under **Internet**, **Marketing**, **Media**, **eBusiness**, Advertising, Promotion

Comments

Anna

Can't agree more, it's so important to leverage Social Media to grow your business.... About starting business, watched an interesting film named ''The YES Movie'' (by Louis Lautman) interviewed today successful young entrepreneurs.

www.TheYESmovie.com