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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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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Did you know anyone can rank high in Google searches. How? Pair your marketing with keywords attached to current events.

Small business marketing and social media marketing can get a huge boost just by pairing their products or services with a famous event, happening or person.

Do you search for current events on the Internet to learn more beyond the headlines? So does everyone else. By linking your product or service current events in your keywords, you as an online marketing entity can catapult upward in Google rankings.

Not convinced? Consider this: A small team of motorcycle racers in Colorado did a fantastic job of leveraging the marketing powerhouse of Apple Computers by using its new iPhone 4 to shoot a mini documentary: iPhone 4 Short Film – “156 Turns” – Pikes Peak International Hill Climb with Ducati Multistrada.

The phone had been out for less than a week, so people were buzzing about it: searching it online, using social media to rave about it and using Twitter to spread the word. The races just piggybacked on Apple to rank high.

And remember that kitschy Will It Blend guy who puts all kinds of crazy things in his powerful blender – including electronic devices – and shows it YouTube to prove how powerful it is? What a genius! Why this is so brilliant marketing-wise is that he is showing how good his product is AND getting more and more viewers with every product launch. He just puts the latest, greatest gadget in his blender including iPhones, iPads, Olympus cameras, and even Facebook. He uses those keywords with “blender” to, well, BLEND his product with a hot topic. HE gets the ranking everyone else is chasing.

So how can a small business marketing person do this? Social media blogging! A flip video camera costs less than $150. Creativity costs nothing. Someone who sells equestrian supplies can pair the term “horse supplies” with “Kentucky Derby Winner” or “Belmont Stakes Traditions.”

People who sell makeup can blend their product with the keywords Grammys, Oscars, Miss America, etc. For those who sell toys, Santa, Christmas, Child Star Birthdays are no-brainer links.

Think of it as another way of name dropping!

Small business marketing and social media marketing can get a big boost and rank high in Google searches by linking up with current events.

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When starting a new business, we all know that we need a good venue to display our products and services. Social media offers a host of sites, and one of the household words these days is Facebook.  Facebook reaches over half a billion people and it is FREE….let me repeat…FREE to create your personal Facebook profile and business page! If  your business is already up and running or you are considering starting your own business, marketing on Facebook can be a great deal of help.

Here are some Facebook marketing tips and tricks:

• As already stated, Facebook reaches a lot of potential customers! If you have already created a Facebook profile, it’s now time to create your business page.  You can start populating your business page by inviting your friends to ‘like’ your page. It’s like having a built-in client base right at your finger tips. Ask them if it is okay to test marketing skills on them. Let them know that their feedback is welcome and important. Remember to keep your business page updated with the latest and greatest information regarding business products and services.

• Try to understand and know your target demographics. Think about and then decide which kinds of people to attract.  You can use as wide or narrow a range as they like. Once the target demographic is determined, start looking for similarities on friends’ sites.

• Your friends’ opinions matter! Inquire what it is they are interested in and how to go about reaching more people that have the same interests. Try not to make friends feel as if they are just business contacts. Friends can be a powerful resource, but it is important to let friends know that they are more than business contacts.

• You can also consider using paid advertising on Facebook. It is a low cost way to generate leads and a  HUGE potential for growing a larger customer base!

If you’re new to online marketing and social media and just don’t know which direction to turn, consider outsourcing this very important piece of your business marketing.  Contact us today for a FREE no obligation quote!

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If you’re an entrepreneur  and have a small to medium size business, it is important that you make the most of your advertising and marketing dollars.  Getting the most for your dollar is as true for the small business owner as for the big business owner. Social media marketing is literally FREE and a resource worth its weight in gold!

Social Media Marketing Tips For Small Business

Here are some quick tips for small business owners.

Facebook has several great opportunities for FREE and also at low cost.  If you have not  yet created a personal profile on Facebook, I would highly encourage you to get on the social media bandwagon and start today. You can create a business account on Facebook without creating a personal profile, but the advantage of having a personal profile connected to your business page on Facebook is VERY powerful.  Friends from your Facebook’s personal profile are your bucket of  ‘prospects’ for your business.  Best of all…this is all FREE !!!!   After you’ve created your personal profile and created your business  page, take a peek at your competitor’s Facebook business pages and get an idea of how they are  showcasing their products to Facebook users.

Twitter is growing rapidly.  Again, Twitter is FREE.  All you have to do is create an account and start tweeting.  Keep in mind that keywords play a HUGE role on Twitter.  If you get lost in the Twittersphere, they have put together a guide that will help make the best use of their site.

LinkedIn is another useful social media tool to add to your social media marketing toolbox. LinkedIn is a great resource for B2B engagement.

YouTube is right up there with all the social media sites!  Do NOT leave this trusted social tool out of your online marketing toolbox.  Humans love videos that are not infomercials!  Humans like watching ‘real’ humans talk about ‘real’ things in less than one minute!  Why spend thousands of dollars on a videographer when you can literally reach thousands if not millions of prospects by harnessing the KISS methodology – Keep It Simple Stupid!

Blogs are a super complement to your already existing website.  If you don’t have an existing website, I would highly suggest building a hosted blog site.   WordPress blogs can aesthetically resemble a website AND they have the power of NOS on the internet. Google loves keywords. Feed your blog with rich keyword articles to assist in enhanced ranking on the internet.  And…drum roll…blogs have RSS feeds, giving your blog the ability to go viral all over the internet! I also suggest that you read and participate in other businesses blogs. Roll up your sleeves and start sharing some stories  and helpful hints of what has and has not worked well for you.

You may want to also consider utilizing mobile social networks.  Take a peek at Foursquare and Gowalla.  Setting up Google Alerts to watch for comments and conversations, and overall general mentions of your company!  Great way to be ‘alerted’ when  your company is being talked about.  Adwords are also a great  tool.  And always remember to review your web analytics!!!  Without reviewing your analytics, you don’t know how to steer your business!

The beauty of social media marketing is that you can reach local, regional, national and international markets for FREE.

What we hear almost on a daily basis is:

• I know I need an online presence
• I don’t know where to start
• I really don’t want to manage all these sites
• I just don’t have the time to build and manage all these sites

Your first step is to contact Personalized Marketing to build and outsource your small business social media.  We know how to get build your social media online presence and get ‘er done; and we take it a step further.  We’ll even manage all your sites so you can do what you do best, and that’s run your company!

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Did you ever see a sign that said ‘wet paint,’ and you just HAD to touch it?   How about that ‘link’ that stands out like ‘wet paint’ from one of your friend’s email messages and you ‘just have to CLICK it.’ 

 Here are a few tips to curb the ‘click the link addiction’ and to assist you along the bumpy online highway:

First, forget about being the trusting soul who believes everything that comes through your email is genuine, pure and wholesome.

 NEWS FLASH 

News Flash!

Our emails may appear to be from the most trusted of sources, but they are not always ‘all that they are cracked up to be’ and we become victims of ‘hacked’ up to be!  Hackers are clever.  Disguising emails to look as though they are coming from friends, when in reality, they aren’t!  If you even have the slightest suspicion, trust your ‘gut,’ and contact your friend by another means to verify the authenticity of the message sent.  This information holds true, even for social networks!

Seems most of us either individually, through business or a combination thereof have discovered that social media has become our online appendage, of sorts.  And as the popularity grows, we’re becoming prime bait for virus writers, hackers, spammers and beyond!  A word of CAUTION – do NOT, under any circumstances, allow the social site to grab hold of your email contacts. There are times, after joining a new social site that you might receive a notification to enter your email address information and also your PASSWORD to find out if your precious contacts are on the ‘network.’  Hmmmm…just think of this maneuver as an open invite to grasp all of your contacts and send unwanted email messages to everyone in your address book! 

 Do a favor to all your ‘friends’ and keep their information private, as well as yours!

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