Getting started with the creation of a Facebook friends list is as simple as looking for people with similar likes and interests to your own. However, before you start building your Facebook friends list, you will first want to ensure that you created a personal profile or timeline of how you want to appear to your Facebook friends. You may want to project a professional personality on your profile. Or perhaps you simply prefer to be seen as a positive and friendly person. The choice is entirely yours, as long as you ensure that you show people on your profile or timeline how they would benefit from being friends with you. You might want to post a few images of yourself and write about your interests or what you have been up to recently. You will find that people will be able to quickly identify with you and want to know a little bit more. Be prepared to be consistent, responsive and proactive when you start to gain Facebook friends by commenting on their latest pictures and posts.

Find FaceBook Friends

Time now to find Facebook friends by starting to look for groups that are centered around a particular hobby that you enjoy. Or groups of people who have the same care or concerns that you have over a particular subject. You will also discover many pages that share the same excitement or enthusiasm as yourself for a pastime or pursuit. There will be no shortage of groups and people who share something in common with you. Leave a few posts on groups and pages walls. Make your comments interesting, but do not be tempted to self advertise. There will be people who are naturally curious after reading your comment and will check out your profile or timeline and, perhaps, add you as their Facebook friend.

Connecting To Build Your Facebook Friends List

Join as many groups as you can that share something in common with you. If you do not have a lot of interests, you can still find Facebook friends based upon geographical location, or gender. Be prepared to look through people profiles, and then add them as friends. You will soon discover that some will reciprocate and add you as a friend. Of course, if you would like to spend a little more time with the process, you can gain a lot more Facebook friends by leaving a personal message after adding them as a friend. This is as simple as saying ‘Hi,’  addressing them by their name and mentioning that you noticed they share a common interest with you [which you will have seen by reading their profile or timeline]. State that you enjoy connecting with people of similar interests and that you would like to be their Facebook friend. A personal note like this can really set you apart from the crowd. Don’t forget, of course, to send them a quick note and thank them when they accept your friendship! Creating a Facebook friends list can be fun and easy to do. Take your time to do it right and you will connect with a lot of great new friends.

If you are a business owner  interested in personalized marketing  -  outsourcing your company’s social media – we are here to help!  We not only build and brand your social media sites; i.e.  Facebook profiles and timelines, Facebook business and welcome pages, Twitter, YouTube, Blogs and Google Plus – we also MAINTAIN these sites so you can do what you do best…run your business and let us do the rest!  Contact us today for a FREE consultation!

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I hear this phrase everyday when I ask small business owners, “Who does your social media?”  The common answer – “Well, no one. We don’t have time.”   Of course, with hands flying in the air in utter frustration, “and even if we did have time, we REALLY don’t want to learn Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, blogging or Google Plus!”

Frustrated with Your Social Media?

Can’t say that I blame business owners for throwing their hands in the air, when it comes to social media.  Social media is a tough nut, to say the least.  And social media marketing is so much more than just blogging, building a Facebook business page, following folks on Twitter and getting followers, or making YouTube videos for business.  There are the mechanics of building the sites, and then there’s the actual marketing of the sites…that’s the key…that’s what most small business owners miss…the marketing aspect of how to make all of their social media sites work in concert to raise brand awareness and search engine optimization for Google ranking.

Some say that building the social media sites are simple.  Yes, they CAN be, IF you know what you’re doing!  I can’t tell you how many times we’ve had to ‘walk back the cat’ and correct the mistakes that small business owners or their employees have made in building out their social media city. As an example, branding is huge problem.  Ensuring Facebook profiles are tied to the correct business page is another.  Another horrendous problem on Facebook are the business owners that are building their business presence on the ‘profile’ side of Facebook.  Big mistake, folks.  This goes against the terms of service for Facebook.  Business owners beware!  If you have a business, build out a Facebook business page and don’t create a personal profile for your business.  Remember…what Facebook giveth, Facebook can taketh away in a heartbeat!

Outsourcing your social media needs to Personalized Marketing will save you from headaches and will also save you money.  Contact us today for your FREE, no obligation quote

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EVERYONE wants to know how to promote your Facebook business page! Now more than ever, we want to be connected with everything and everyone in our realm and nothing makes it easier than social media. Social media applications, like Facebook, put connectivity at our fingertips and provide an interactive opportunity to reach new audiences, encourage new relationships and foster lasting partnerships. Facebook, the most popular social media application to date, makes it simple to promote your business by providing an alternative to traditional advertising platforms and offers a way to let your customers do some of the advertising work for you.

Currently, Facebook boasts over 750 million active users, meaning the potential for exposure is limitless. The only question remaining is how to get those users to your business page. To promote your Facebook business page most effectively, consider the following:

Driving Traffic & Instant Information: The most surefire way to get your current customers to your Facebook page is by providing a direct link to your Facebook page on your current business webpage. It’s easy to implant a linking icon on your page, just follow the simple instructions (including source code information) provided when you set up your business page.

The newest and greatest way to share information about your business is by adding a QR code (quick response) to your advertising materials including everything from business cards to window banners. The code, a two-dimensional electronic barcode, is captured as a photo by smartphone users. Using new processing technology, the smartphone reads the photo as information and instantly opens the phone browser and takes the phone owner to the webpage for that company, product, or service- all within seconds!

Loyalty Incentives. Nothing drives a customer to your product or service website faster than the idea that their loyalty will be rewarded. By adding promotions and award incentives such as discounts or coupons to the “like” option on your Facebook page, you can dramatically increase the number of visitors to your site.

Location, Location, Location. Advertising on Facebook is a simple and highly effective way to promote your Facebook business page. Facebook offers advertising that is specifically targeted to your preferred audience and can be honed to include very specific demographic details. Advertising fees vary and determine placement and appearance of your business page ad on the users “homepage.” Check out info about advertising on Facebook including case studies exemplifying the potential for success.

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Why should you worry less about how many Facebook “Likes” you have? Lets take a look at what is really going on. It is easy to get caught up in the allure of the latest, greatest, best new thing. Often we find ourselves blindly following the masses into doing what we think is the better thing only to find out there are other things just as fabulous. And so we arrive at the almighty and much adored Facebook “Like” button. Because it’s virtually everywhere on the internet, it’s easy to misunderstand exactly what this magical little button is doing and not doing, and exactly what it could be worth to your business.

When assessing whether or not you are reaching your intended market, it might be an automatic assumption that the awareness level of your business relies solely on the number of “Likes” you receive. Actually, that little button can be indicative of many, many things – but be warned, your status among competitors or an actual representation of real fans may not be among them. Instead, your “like-ability” could be heavily buried and strategically bound in tech-savvy marketing practices including “robo-likes” which don’t represent the views of real, live users.

Another thing to consider is that though clicking the “Like” button is some-what interactive, it’s only interactive on the part of the user and very passive. There is no way for the business to respond and thereby create a relationship – which is the ultimate goal, right? So, if you really can’t rely on the “Like” count to be an accurate indicator, are there other features that could be more helpful? Absolutely!

Utilizing features on Facebook and other social media outlets that encourage the user to comment, and allow the business to join in that conversation is a direct way to create a relationship, one user or potential client at a time. This new relationship indicates real, live engagement on the part of the user and the potential for continued positive exposure is limitless. Not to worry, though, “sharing” is still at the root of this marketing tool. When users comment, other users see the conversation and can share with their friend groups and so on, and so forth. So, in short, don’t focus so much on being “liked.” Instead, engage, expand, and grow your business presence on the internet by being part of the process. Do not just be a button.

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Fersons, Floggers and Sybils are new threats to your online reputation. What are they, you ask?

Fersons and floggers – short for fake persons and fake bloggers- are populating the Internet like never before. Spammers, competitors and online identity management firms are in opposing corners, trying to leap frog over each other to the top of Google searches. The target is your online reputation.

Fersons and Floggers are really people (but usually companies) that create dozens or hundreds of fake identities in the form of e-mail addresses, bogs and Web sites. Their sole purpose is to manipulate Google searches for a particular company.

How? They will buy many domain names and begin blogging against an established business. They will invent scores of email addresses and leave great or nasty comments on public forums and blogs.

Also known as the Sybil attack, (named after a woman with multiple personality disorder), an online attacker creates a large number of pseudonymous entities, and uses them to gain a disproportionately large influence on a business’s reputation.

Always, they are anonymous and hard to trace. One Washington lobbyist, the victim of scathing and untrue personal attacks, told the Washington Post, “There’s no policing, no rules, no standards.” Bloggers are “cowboys,” she said. “It’s the wild, wild West.” (read the full story)

Of course, fersons have existed as long as the Internet has been around. One poll conducted in 2007 said an astonishing 55% of respondents say they regularly or always use fake Web identities. But the newest incarnation is systematic, organized and professional. It is intended to hurt legitimate businesses.

Why does this matter? If a company website has a negative search result directly below it then up to 70% of surfers will click on the negative result first rather than the company website. It is important for a company to ensure that its website gets close to the top of search results for terms relevant to its business.

How to counter negative attacks? You guessed it: With MORE fersons! Search Engine Reputation Management firms, or SERMS, use these same tactics to minimize and counter damage inflicted by inflammatory web sites and blogs.

The downside is that SERM services start at about $10,000. For the small business, this is just not feasible.

The best course of defense is to employ the old customer directive: ”If you are happy with our service, tell everyone. If you are unhappy, tell us!” Tout your accomplishments and testimonials on Facebook and Twitter. You can get professional advice and excellent, POSITIVE small business marketing promotion through the social media marketing experts at Personalized Marketing. Contact us today to chat about positioning your small business on the Internet!

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Small businesses need to get on the social media bandwagon.Why? You built your business through interaction with people and keep it going by networking, word of mouth and just plain reaching out. Social media is just an extension of that!

Platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter are just new ways that allow you to reach customers and potential clients without stepping out your door. How easy is that?! Better still, it’s FREE advertising!

In fact there is no longer an excuse for not having social media!

Free Small Business Marketing

Interacting with your customers through platforms such as Twitter and Facebook helps build solid relationships that will keep them coming back. If you own a restaurant, you can get the word out about specials and new menu items. If you are a Realtor, you can give virtual YouTube tours of properties you want to sell. Any service provider can advertise offers and educate customers about why they need the service. And the best news of all, it is FREE advertising!

It costs nothing to set up a Facebook Fan Page and a Twitter Account. If you have a flip camera you can even shoot your own mini commercials or testimonials and upload them onto YouTube. Everything you create can link back to one another.

Branding: Claim Your Name!

You don’t have to have golden arches to make your brand recognizable to the public. Branding is all about public identity of your unique business: Staking your claim in the social media world and setting up accounts with your company’s name. Facebook vanity URLs and Twitter handles are both first come, first served. If you don’t take your business name, someone else might snag it. Not quite ready to dive in to social media? Go on these services and just claim your name!

Pass It On

Think your business is too small for advertising?Think again! The best part of social media is its FREE and shareable nature. Social media is a great way to stretch your existing advertising dollars… for FREE! If you ask customers to visit your Facebook page, they can share that page with their friends at the click of a mouse. Those people share it with their friends, and so on. It multiplies! Suddenly an ad for your service with a small reach is extended exponentially.

It’s free (and easy)! It costs nothing but time to set up your Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn profiles. Additionally, monitoring, scheduling, posting and interacting are made simple with free software like HootSuite and TweetDeck.

Still not sure how to go forward? Leave it to the pros at Personalized Marketing. Social media for small businesses like yours is all we do. Now that you know how important a social media presence is, what are you waiting for?

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 Small business? Think BIG – brand yourself through blog marketing!

Think about it: No one else does business quite the way you do. You may sell the same product as someone else, but your way of doing things is uniquely yours. Why not let the world know? And it’s FREE!

You maybe saying “But I do not have a big advertising budget!’  Here is a secret: YOU DON’T NEED ONE! You can get low or no cost branding through social media. Blog marketing-that is, marketing yourself through blog posts on your Web site, is how you do it.

Small business branding is not a good logo, a rhyming name, or special font. Small business branding is the owner. It’s what the owner does, says and how the owner’s traits come through in every aspect of the business. It’s the way relationships are built and maintained, the way a person does business and treats other people.

Here are some ways to brand yourself through blogging.

Blogging Advantages

The business world has long had a reputation for being sterile and faceless:  Press 1, Press 2, Please hold.  What sets truly successful businesses apart is a human touch. And that naturally promotes your brand. Thanks to blogging, there is no more powerful brand message to project than yourself. Even one new blog post a week conveys the message that you are interested in your customers, that your business is thriving, active and responsive. THAT is the brand you want to project!

Complement Blogging Through Other Social Media

Drive people to your blog through Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin. Facebook, for example, puts you, a real person, out there with other real people. It uses a real time element. It is nimble and responsive. Establish a Fan Page now! Get your customers’ e-mail addresses, look them upon Facebook and invite them to friend you or follow your Fan Page. Post what you are doing or a recent testimonial or a recent accomplishment. Or just tell your customers how much you appreciate them.

Next, tell your Facebook friends or fans to follow you on Twitter. Got a special deal or offer? Hear some industry related news that you want to share? Tweet it! Or you can Tweet and link to your blog, Facebook page or Web page. 

Your Brand is YOU

Remember you have one competitive advantage that can not be replicated – YOU! No on can ever duplicate your personality, the way you do business and your attitude towards other people. Projecting your personality is a powerful competitive advantage, branding message and business tool that you should be using every day.

For expert advice on social media for small business, turn to the team at Personalized Marketing. They can help you project your brand on any social media platform.

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There are many reasons why social media really matters. From personal to small business marketing, it is the way to stay connected!  Social media gives families that live so far apart a chance to keep in touch with anyone they want to.

What IS social media?  An example of social media would be Facebook. That is only one of the few that are out there. Another of the sites is Twitter. Let’s don’t forget YouTube for all the video lovers!

Social media is wonderful advertising for any kind of business.  Social media really matters to people because they get to share ideas and market products. There are a number of things that a person or business can do on these medias.  Figuring out how to manipulate the apps, or applications, can get a bit tricky!

Social media matters to the people that live in faraway countries who cannot communicate any other way with their families or businesses in the States or even other countries. Social Media has a calendar to keep track of dates and create caledar events to which they can invite people.

Social media can also be a source of advertisement for businesses. This is where everyone is socializing nowadays. A person can even make a page for the business that they want to promote.

Imagine the buzz you can create by sending your links to friends and prospective clients! Imagine setting up and marketing your own events that can make you money and valuable connections!

Creating and managing your business social media sphere can be a challenge! Personalized Marketing can help!!!   Contact us for your online social marketing requirements!

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FREE can a beautiful thing, when it comes to reaching your audience through social media marketing, but even though you can reach millions of people without digging into your pocket book, if you don’t know the rules of the road to really tap into your market niche, FREE really means nothing! And as you’ve probably discovered, it does take up a LOT of your precious time to keep your online presence fresh, crisp and interesting.

Some folks, in an attempt to share their message about their business through the social media environs, will ‘bang’ out all their social media interactions all at once.

If this situation is resonating too close to home, you need to consider the frequency you are attempting to reach out to your online sphere.  You don’t want to appear ‘spammy’!!! What you have to consider is that today at 10:00 a.m. may be your ideal time to pump out…

• A blog post
• Comment on your Facebook business and profile page
• Shoot out a few tweets on Twitter
• Grab one of your videos from your YouTube channel

…and share throughout the interwebs, but you may not be sharing your interactions when they would have the highest results or impact! And you don’t want to be on the ‘delete’ list, when it comes to your online followers.

Social Media Marketing Not Him AGAIN!

As a business owner, you probably had the time to sit down and ask a lot of people to join the pages you are promoting, without considering that it would show up as a series of ever increasing spam. Uh oh, what are you supposed to do?

• One tool you could consider using is Hootsuite!  Hootsuite allows you to schedule out your Tweets, Facebook Business Pages, Facebook Profiles and LinkedIn, as examples.  “Pending” in this case is a GREAT thing, as you spread out the timeliness of your messages.  Think of ‘pending’ within Hootsuite as fire cracker messages going off when you want them to go off and scheduled for a time that produces a better result for your audience.

The long and short…take the necessary time to consider your audience and pre-schedule your online interactions so that there is the highest and most targeted impact!

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Constructing a new client’s social media city is a lot of work, and our new clients are amazed at the full blown construction process.  Think of building your online social media presence just like you would building a new house.  So with that in mind, let’s dive into the world of blog marketing, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, and how that equates to the online construction process.

Constructing Your Social Media City

First, you must select the perfect lot for your house.  In the social media world, this is selecting the keyword rich url that you will utilize to build your blog site on.  Oddly enough, what you ‘think’ your url should be for your business may not be what Google says your url should be to attain the best search engine optimization ‘SEO’ possible.

Second, what style of house do you want to build?  How many square feet? What color do you want to paint your house?  Depending on your budget, will your online presence consist of a one bedroom, two bath or is it a four bedroom, four bath, four car garage, or something in between? Selecting the look and feel for your blog site is critical!  Here’s where the branding starts.   We start with the creative for your blog, and that creative is what we will use to brand you across the social media platforms.

Just as your new home has an address, we go through a process to ensure that you are getting the best keyword rich (address) url as possible.  Afterall, we need to please Google, and Google loves words and SEO (search engine optimization).  Each new client is presented with at least  four different choices for their ‘home’ address, if you will.

So now we have the home ‘address’ and the plans for the ‘house’ have been selected and the unique, one of a kind branding is going to start.  Concurrently, the construction process will begin for the client’s Facebook business page, Twitter and YouTube channel.  All the elves have their tool box at their side and start hammering away.

Constructing and branding your social media presence is just the beginning.  Once constructed, the real niche marketing begins.  At  Personalized Marketing, we are cognizant that each client possesses their own unique online niche.   As an example, there is a rhyme and a reason to the ‘type’ of  friends that you invite to your Facebook profile.  Just like inviting ‘friends’ to your new home, you just don’t invite every Tom, Dick and Harry into your Facebook world. You aren’t convinced that you need a Facebook presence?

• More than 500 million active users
• 50% of our active users log on to Facebook in any given day

With those kind of numbers, it’s not whether you like or dislike Facebook…this is a ‘must-have’ portal for your online social media city.

GETTING SOCIAL WITH TWITTER

Let’s move on to Twitter.   Many new clients say, ‘but I don’t like Twitter!’  Of course, our response, ‘you may not like Twitter but a LOT of people do.’  It’s all about prospects, ladies and gentlemen!  Just like a house warming, you may not want to serve champagne because it’s not your thing, but guess what?  Most of your guests are coming to your house warming because you ARE serving champagne!

According to Blog.Twitter:

Today, on every measure of growth and engagement, Twitter is growing at a record pace. Here are some numbers:

#tweets

• 3 years, 2 months and 1 day. The time it took from the first Tweet to the billionth Tweet.
• 1 week. The time it now takes for users to send a billion Tweets.
• 50 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, one year ago.
• 140 million. The average number of Tweets people sent per day, in the last month.
• 177 million. Tweets sent on March 11, 2011.
• 456. Tweets per second (TPS) when Michael Jackson died on June 25, 2009 (a record at that time).
• 6,939. Current TPS record, set 4 seconds after midnight in Japan on New Year’s Day.

#accounts

• 572,000. Number of new accounts created on March 12, 2011.
• 460,000. Average number of new accounts per day over the last month.
• 182%. Increase in number of mobile users over the past year.

#employees

• 8. 29. 130. 350. 400. Number of Twitter employees in Jan 2008, Jan 2009, Jan 2010, Jan 2011 and today.

GETTING SOCIAL WITH YOUTUBE

According to YouTube:

• Over 4 million people are connected and auto-sharing to at least one social network
• An AutoShared Tweet results in ~6 new youtube.com sessions
• Over 5 million people have found and subscribed to at least one friend on YouTube using friend-finding tools
• Millions of subscriptions happen each day. Subscriptions allow you to connect with someone you’re interested in—whether it’s a friend, or the NBA—and keep up on their activity on the site.
• Users like Machinima, MysteryGuitarMan, Fred, collegehumor, and UniversalMusicGroup have millions of subscribers
• More than 50% of videos on YouTube have been rated or include comments from the community
• Millions of videos are favorited every day

Views

• YouTube mobile gets over 100 million views a day
• The YouTube player is embedded across tens of millions of websites

Hmmmm…need we say more?  The numbers speak VOLUMES!

With those statistics, and even though you may not like or give credence to YouTube, just look at the numbers!  You cannot discount the value that YouTube brings to the table.  Again, using your new home, as an example…when planning your snacks and appetizers for your next cookout, aren’t you planning to serve what your guests are going to like?  Even though you might not like chips and dip, some of your guests do!  To keep them coming back for more, serve them what they like!!!

So as I preach to new prospects and new clients alike, YOU may not like the thought of building that online city, but the world, it is a changin’ and without a social media presence these days, you’re missing the opportunity to showcase your business to millions of…not just people…BUT prospects!!!

One last comment.  Many clients who look to us to build their online presence shake and shiver when we hand over the ‘keys’ and their instruction manual.  With that in mind, one of the best product lines we offer is to quell the fear and alleviate the shakes and shivers of running your online social media city.  Just like your house, if you don’t like doing the daily and weekly maintenance on your home and outsource that task to experts, that’s exactly what we can do for you with your online city!  We are marketing experts, and our challenge is to provide you with daily interaction that keeps your online city fresh, crisp and up to date providing interesting content for your brand!

We’re here to help!  Contact us today for your personalized quote to build your social media and online marketing presence!

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