Local Online Marketing

The internet has certainly provided us with a variety of opportunities and benefits that everyone, all over the world, have been taking advantage of. Besides enabling people to easily and instantaneously communicate with each other despite the distance, it has also allowed people to start their own online businesses through it. The benefits of the web when it comes to marketing businesses are quite astonishing as well. In fact, there is something that’s referred to as the “local web” and this basically helps in connecting people with the different places within their hometown including businesses located there as well as travel destinations. For the local business owners, something like this would certainly be helpful when it comes to reaching potential clients and vice versa. Of course, all of this could only be achieved if that certain business has a website for itself and a good grasp of how local online marketing works.

By now, you must’ve already heard all about the different benefits of having a website for your business. However, this article is not about to wax poetically on the subject and instead would provide you with some of the available internet resources that you may or may not want to try. The bottom line is that, in the end, everything is all up to you and this information is just here to provide you with options. Now, if you already own a website or have been thinking about getting one, you would want to know how to maximize the use of your site. Today, because of the technology available, the ability of people to locate various local businesses has become more efficient. With just a click of the mouse, people who are in New York could very well be purchasing items from a shop located in Dallas and so on.

Business experts would tell you that in order for your business to succeed, you have to be where your customers are and of course, a good majority of said customers are actually online. Online shopping has become one of the biggest trends simply because it makes everything convenient for both the buyer and the seller. Plus, you can find almost anything online. All you have to do is use the various search engines or refer to the online directories that would hold the information to the online store which carries what you’re looking for. Directories and links from one business to another are just some of the ways that a person might be able to find a specific shop. With that said, it also is a great way for you to start your local online marketing strategies.

Now, getting started would always be a bit tricky and challenging because it would require plenty of patience and effort on your part. Once you have your website ready, its time to move on to the more daunting stage which would be getting it listed. This is a pretty straightforward process, actually and would mean that you have a total of 3 websites to make stops at. Three of biggest search engines would be MSN, Google and Yahoo thus making them your priority. All you have to do in order to successfully submit your website to these search engines would be to visit the “local sections” and then enter your company information. The information that would be required from you includes the following: the basic information for your business, the working hours, the products and/or services that you have available and the payment methods that you accept. Once everything has been processed, your business would subsequently appear on the Yahoo! Local maps as well as in the searches that are related to the category and description that you have included. The best bit about these listings is the fact that they are free.

Another website you should include would be Ask.com’s recently launched site, AskCity which is specifically designed for local searches. AOL generates a good portion of its traffic and as such, you should definitely include it in the places where you ought to make a listing for your website. Once you have the trifecta of web searches done, you should move on to every search listing that’s available.

Directories – Google Local Business Center (Free), Yahoo Local (Free Basic, Paid Upgrade), Windows Live Local (InfoUSA Affiliate), AOL Local (InfoUSA Affiliate), TrueLocal (Free Basic, Paid Upgrade), Local.com (Free Basic, Paid Upgrade), Citysearch (Paid Programs)

Yellow Pages -SuperPages (Free Basic, Paid Upgrade), BigBook (SuperPages Affiliate), InfoSpace YP (SuperPages Affiliate), 411.com (SuperPages Affiliate), Switchboard.com (InfoSpace YP Affiliate), Yahoo Yellow Pages (InfoUSA Affiliate), YellowPages.com (Free Basic, Paid Upgrade), AnyWho (YellowPages.com Affiliate), Yellowbook.com (Paid Programs), MagicYellow (Free Basic, Paid Upgrade), Dex (Paid Programs), YP.com (Free Basic, Paid Upgrade),

Local Search Engines – MapQuest (InfoUSA Affiliate), Dogpile YP (InfoSpace YP Affiliate), WebCrawler (InfoSpace YP Affiliate), MetaCrawler (InfoSpace YP Affiliate), WebFetch (InfoSpace YP Affiliate), Metrobot (Free), Tyloon (Paid Programs), ZoomInfo (Paid Programs)

Local Business Listings – InfoUSA (Free) – Submits listings to thousands of the best listing sites companies., MacRAE’s Blue Book (Free Basic, Paid Upgrade), Localeze (Free Basic, Paid Upgrade), Experian (Paid Programs), DeepData (Paid Programs), Wcities (Free Basic, Paid Upgrade), iBegin (Free), UniversalBusinessListing.org (Paid Programs)

Local Networks – Yelp (Free Basic, Paid Upgrade), Judy’s Book (Free), MojoPages (Free), Tupalo (Free), Insider Pages (Free Basic, Paid Upgrade), YellowBot (Free), Citysquares.com (Free Basic, Paid Upgrade), LittleEngine.com (Free Basic, Paid Upgrade), Yokld (Free), Lopico (Free Basic, Paid Upgrade)

A shortcut to getting listed on the popular business portals just submit to InfoUSA and SuperPages as they supply listings to many of the major local business portals.

There is a professional service that will manually create and professionally optimize your local sections on all the major Search Engines, search directories, online yellow pages, GPS navigation systems, online 411 services, specialty mobile search services as well as the major directory assistance services. Check out Automated Local Search Submission as they are offering a major discount right now.

This is an important aspect of your entire strategy because customers could come from everywhere and as such, you shouldn’t overlook any listing simply because you aren’t familiar with it. You might also want to consider getting ads up on various local newspaper websites because they are affordable and would give you the targeted traffic that you need. Sites such as Craigslist are also good places to have links or ads on because thousands of people access it on a daily basis thus providing you with plenty more opportunities.

Did you know that there was a study conducted by a research company and they came up with the information that there are more and more people who are looking for various local services online? In fact, there are a good number of businesses who are doing the same thing as they look for local suppliers and partners through online means as well. Now, while physical mediums such as newspapers and the yellow pages are still widely in use, they are just part of another growing industry and aren’t the only options available for people anymore. Of course, people like having options. Now, while being found online and using local online marketing to achieve this might seem like a great idea, you need to understand that being found by potential clients online isn’t necessarily always free.

In fact, there are businesses out there that allot a portion of their marketing budget into search engine advertising. Many businesses that have websites turn to Google AdWords which is a great way to begin because of two things: Google is a big name when it comes to search engines and you’ll be able to reach a significant amount of people without burning a hole right through your pockets. But of course, getting the traffic is one thing. How can you turn that traffic into actual clients? Well, a restaurateur in San Francisco has actually designed his website to allow people to make reservations online. Of course, he provided them with all the information they need such as their extensive wine collection as well as their event catering services. Basically, you should include all the information that a potential client might need. After all, they are looking for specific information and that is what you ought to provide them with.

However, your local online marketing strategy shouldn’t totally depend on search engines because a multi-faceted approach is definitely better and more beneficial for businesses. While search engines remain to be the top choice, there are quite a number of websites out there that would provide you with the same services only with a more local approach this time around. The biggest of which would convergence websites that basically put together all the local business listings as well as directories and gives it a nifty search functionality as well as paid advertising. An example of this would be Citysearch which is considered to be the pioneer of such kinds of websites. Citysearch’s main focus would be the various restaurants, must-visit places as well as reviews for various local businesses particularly in the bigger cities. So a combination of this and Google AdWords should certainly give your business a significant boost.

If you really want to know, there are hundreds perhaps even thousands of places where you’d be able to reach potential customers online. However, with the sheer amount of options comes one minor problem and that would be determining which ones are working and which ones aren’t. To understand this properly, you would have to go through a series of trial and error experiments while continuously editing your strategies to make it better. Refinement is a keyword here and it is something that you would find yourself constantly doing as you go on with your local online marketing strategies. Also, be willing to step out of your comfort zone and try something new to see if it would work for you. After all, you can always alter your strategies in the event that they don’t or have stopped delivering the results you want.

If you want to track just how many visitors you are getting in a single day then you should definitely turn to the analytics and reports that your chosen search engine advertising services have provided you with. These reports would show you just how many unique visitors you get on a daily basis. It should also provide you with the information you need when it comes to determining what aspects of your marketing strategy needs more work and which ones are working just fine. Of course, besides being able to track your visitors, you would also want to be ahead of the curve at all times. In other words, you would want to try other things that would help you gain more targeted traffic. After all, it’s not the amount of traffic that’s important here. It would be the conversions that you’re able to make that matters. So, how do you do that?

Well, ever since local online marketing became accepted by the industry as a legit form of online marketing, more and more people have developed various things that would help develop it. One of which would be local search engine optimization. This would be able to optimize any website into getting higher ranks for more localized search engine queries. How can this be done? Well, it’s pretty simple at first. All you need to do is included your targeted areas in the title tags, links and contents that you’ll put up. For example, if you’re selling garden furniture and you want to target potential clients that are living in the Boston area then you should put “Boston Garden Furniture” on your tags, links and content. This should make sure that you website gets a higher rank if someone where to search for “Boston Garden Furniture”. It also a good idea to buy the domain BostonGardenFurniture.com. Sounds simple, right? Well, that’s not all there is to it.

There are businesses out there that could care less about what rank they are for as long as they get clients. Now, this would seem like such a contradiction since SEO’s main goal is to get you high up in the rankings. But this is not always the case, especially when you think about all those people visiting your site without taking any action at all. After all, you would want to get more clients and business other than just building your popularity with all these visitors. SEO can be quite different local SEO because with local SEO, you need to get a bit more creative. For example, different businesses would require different website treatments. A wine store would have to optimize their page for those who might be staying in nearby hotels and are looking for the products that they have. Restaurants should do the same thing while optimizing their menu page to attract more people, to attract the right kind of attention.

So, how does one go about local search engine optimization? Well, much like its standard counterpart, you should begin with creating relevant content simply because online, content is king. In fact, a quality copy for your user as well as great research when it comes to the proper local keywords that you need to target would certainly go a long way and provide you with that much needed edge. One of the most important things that you have to remember if you’re researching for the right keyword is that there are plenty of colloquialisms spread across the nation. For example, there are people in Philadelphia and Los Angeles that might be searching for the exact same thing but would type in two different search queries in order for them to find it. So always keep that in mind. Another crucial content would be inbound linking. Think more on the side of quality instead of quantity this time around.

For starters, if you are a member of a Chamber of Commerce or any other associations for local businesses then there’s a good chance that this association has their own website where they would place a link to your website at no cost at all. Inbound links such as this one is great for your website because it would provide you with more targeted traffic and at the same time increase your ranks in the search engines. Of course, while natural links such as this one would be significantly helpful, don’t forget about the more traditional process of link building because it would certainly be beneficial to your website as well. Now, let’s talk about why getting these links is important to your local online marketing strategies. They are important because they are free. The thing with listing your website in online directories such as Verizon Superpages is the fact that they charge you by the click. If your site isn’t able to outrank them, it would be rather useless having to pay the costs of a recurring click each and every time someone searches for your business.

Currently, there are plenty of changes when it comes to the internet. There are various site building tools that are being made available by both Microsoft Office Live and Yahoo! which makes it easier and more affordable for businesses to create an online presence. Unlike before when business owners wish to create websites for their businesses they would have to call upon the services of companies who specialize in it, the same business owners could opt to do it themselves thus reducing the amount of money they need to invest. Now, the influx of these tools would certainly also spark the interest of more people and you could expect more businesses to have their own online versions soon enough. This would make the whole online market place extremely competitive and there would surely be a need for change when it comes to the local online marketing strategies that you’re used to. In other words, there would be a need for you to work extra hard in order to make sure that you get a bigger piece of the traffic pie and at the same time, make more conversions.

But what if you don’t have enough time on your hands to take care of everything? Well, you could opt to hire another party to do the job for you. Indeed there are plenty of reliable companies out there that would offer you these services at a reasonable price, of course. There are certain packages on offer that would include a keyword optimization tool, PPC search engine ads as well as the ability to create special offers and online coupons that’s sure to boost your traffic and conversion even further. Now, is hiring another party a wise thing to do? In a way, it could be both good and bad. It all depends upon your own preferences. If you’re the kind of person who wants to be hands-on when it comes to handling all the different aspects of their business then handing it off to someone else might make you feel uncomfortable. If you want things done your way then don’t even think about hiring someone else to help you out. Needless to say, this would only cause friction and that is something that you wouldn’t want to have around.

However, if you don’t have enough time to work through everything that has to be done then it would be better to get assistance from these companies. There are plenty out there that would get the job done and if you manage to pick the most efficient of all, they could also make significant changes that would surely improve your business. Now, if you’re wondering about Google AdWords and how you might be able to use it, there are a couple of things you should keep in mind always. For starters, keywords are auctioned there. So you would have to bid for the ones that you like. The highest bidder would of course, win top positioning for that specific keyword. The amount you bid is the amount you would need to pay each time a person clicks on that ad. Now, such a thing could be very risky. How? Most of these ads often pop up on related searches but that does not guarantee you with a targeted audience so someone might click on your ad but would leave without even buying anything. In other words, you can lose more than what you might potentially gain so be very careful when using AdWords.

Remember what we mentioned above, about how business owners should be where their clients are? Well, you should always keep that in mind. Besides going online, many people are also using their mobile phones as a means of browsing the internet. Now, not all websites are viewable on these devices and in a way, those websites also lose out on the potential business that mobile phone browsers can provide them with. Thus the need for you to create a website that would be accessible through mobile phones. Think about it. Local online marketing is significant and at the same time, very scattered. The bottom line here, really, is to make your website easily searchable by potential clients. You should go through the different means to do this because at the end of the day, the more visible you are, the more people would visit your website. Now, with all those people coming and going, your chances at making conversions ultimately increase.

All of it is a process that involves trial and error. It would require all you know about local online marketing and your own instinct. Getting listed is just the beginning. Research is continuous and must be done in order for you to stay ahead of the curve. Ads are also necessary because they help broaden your exposure. But at the very nerve center of it all, is getting your website well-rounded and properly oriented for local searches. After all, the whole point of all this work is to get more targeted traffic which you could subsequently turn into conversions that would generate profits for your business.

Technorati Tags: Local Online Marketing

Facebook Business Page

Overview: Facebook

It is no doubt that Facebook is one of the most popular social networking websites across the globe.  Facebook allows anyone to discuss their interests, post photos, and connect with other people through games, fan pages, and groups among others.

Facebook business page can help you if you have an online business as it is able to promote both your site and brand.  Making use of Facebook for promoting and advertising your product, services, website, or business is imperative in today marketplace if you do it correctly.

Having a Facebook business page is fast-becoming popular among online marketers and entrepreneurs because Facebook has over 500 million users that spend about 45 minutes per day on the site and produce over 500 billion page views each month and is the number one most visited site on the Internet. Many online marketers are joining Facebook so that they can promote and sell their products and/or services.

One of the most significant advantages of Facebook is that anyone can join in the network regardless if you are a student or marketer.  More so, many people are investing money in Facebook to advertise their products and/or services so they can attract more people to become part of Facebook.  Thus, Facebook can truly be a benefit for anyone especially those with online businesses.

Setting Up Your Facebook Profile

If you are planning to set up a Facebook profile, you may find that it is very easy to do.  Once you have created your account, you only have to set up the account settings to create a profile.  The account settings contain methods with regard to who can view or access your information.  You should also check on the privacy settings in order to avoid any unwanted transactions in your profile.

Most of the information contained in your profile is easy to understand.  You only have to fill in relevant data that you want people to know or see.  Say, if you are uploading your profile picture, make sure that people can clearly see or recognize you.  As people are able to see or view your picture clearly, they can associate with you easily.  Remember that your picture will be significant in representing what you want people to perceive as your image.

Facebook can be used for connecting with your friends, family, and relatives among others.  However, it can also be used to pursue your business and brand.  You can utilize your Facebook profile in many ways as long as you know how to use it to its advantage.

Make sure that you complete your profile.  This means that you should fill out every field that is available to let people know you are legitimate.  More so, you should be able to spice up or make your profile as interesting as possible.  You can make use of applications that represent your brand or product.

When maintaining a Facebook profile, make sure that you keep it fresh and up to date.  This will also keep people interested in your profile as they see new things about you and your brand.  More so, keeping your profile up to date can generate more traffic.

If you want to gain as many contacts as possible, make sure that you do not only connect with your friends and relatives. It is also important that you interact with other people who belong to your industry as well as other niches.  You can do this by joining different groups that you are interested in and relevant to your brand.  Joining groups can help in promoting your profile to other people and industries.

Since your goal in joining Facebook is to connect with other people and to pursue your online career, it is important that you interact with other Facebook members.  This means that you have to be a persistent and an active member.  It would not help if you are too shy to comment or to write on other people’s walls.  It is important that you keep connected with your contacts so they would not miss out on your products or forget that you are one of their contacts.  Write on their walls, ask questions, greet them during their birthdays, or comment on their photos.  These are ways that will help other people know you better instead of merely knowing your brand or name.

Your profile is significant in ensuring the success of your Facebook marketing.  However, you have to market your brand in order to be popular among other members.  You have to work it out as people would not come looking for you.  It is important that you keep your profile updated and active.  You also have to go out of your way to interact as often as possible with other people in order to increase your popularity.

Things You Can Do With Facebook

Facebook is comparable to a large database of users with different purposes.  However, it is ultimately a tool for communication.  There are many things that you can do with Facebook to communicate with fellow members.  These include applications such as photo albums, events, walls, notes, chat, groups and Facebook business page.

• Photo albums – The photo application in Facebook allows you to upload your pictures in order to share them to other people.  You can post descriptions or comments in your pictures or even “tag” people so that they would be able to see your pictures.  The tag feature in Facebook allows you to communicate with your contacts because once they are tagged; they will automatically see it on their walls.  The tag feature can be controlled in your account settings where you have the option to be tagged or not.
• Events – The event application in Facebook is very useful especially if you are planning an event for your brand, product, and/or services.  This application allows you to invite your contacts to the event whether they are members of Facebook or not.
• Walls and notes – The primary part of a Facebook profile is the wall.  This is where most of the activities transpire including the photos, status, and added things, which your friends can see.  The wall is where your friends can add comments in which you can reply.  Consequently, the notes application in Facebook allows you to communicate with your contacts by starting a discussion on specific topics or posting questions that they can answer.
• Chat – The chat application in Facebook is similar to other chat programs such as Yahoo Messenger, AIM, and Skype.  It allows you to communicate instantly with your contacts when they are online.
• Groups and fan pages – If you have organizations, fraternities, sororities, or shared interests you can create groups or fan pages in Facebook.  This allows you to encourage members who can associate with your group.  If you do not want to create your own group or fan page, you can search for other groups wherein you can join to expand your connections and affiliations.

Facebook Marketing: Why It Matters

Today, many online marketers are recognizing the value of Facebook business page marketing in their online businesses.  This is because Facebook offers a one of a kind marketing venue for businesses.  For instance, it has partnered with Microsoft in order to integrate both Facebook and Twitter updates with Bing search results.  This is a great way for obtaining real time search results.  Thus, Facebook can offer new methods for online marketers to reach and transact with their target niche.

Most online marketers acknowledge the fact that the number of members Facebook has, offers them a great opportunity for promoting and selling their products and/or services.  Some of the advantages online marketers obtain from Facebook business page include the following:

• Acquiring potential customers – Once you have created your own page for your products and/or services, people will notice posts such as news, events, or new products.  Thus, more and more people would be able to view your page as Facebook has a viral effect.
• Interacting with customers – Facebook is a venue where you can communicate with your customers.  It is a tool in which you can build stronger relationships with both existing and potential customers.
• Driving and generating traffic – One of the most significant benefits of Facebook business page is that it can efficiently drive and generate traffic to your website.  Once your page yields increased activity, it is most likely to appear in search engine results, which would eventually drive and generate traffic to your website.
• Managing reputation – Since Facebook allows people to comment on posts, you can learn how customers, readers, or visitors perceive your products and/or services.  Thus, you would be able to monitor your reputation through feedbacks or comments posted on your wall or other people’s walls.
• Branding – Facebook allows you to present brand awareness to your target niche apart from your own corporate website.

Using Facebook Marketing in Your Online Business

It is inevitable that all online business owners want to generate as much traffic as possible for their website in order to sustain the success of their businesses.  Thus, the most efficient way to generate traffic is through internet marketing.

Internet marketing involves different ways of driving and generating traffic to your website. These include writing articles, blogging, and participating in forums and discussion boards among others.  Although it can be difficult to capitalize on such internet marketing methods, it would be worth your money if you are able to utilize them properly and efficiently.

On the other hand, social networking websites such as Facebook make it easier to integrate internet marketing to your online business.  For one, Facebook is one of the most used social networking websites.  This is to say that it has a huge number of users who can generate traffic to your website.  Since there are millions of Facebook users, you can be confident that you generate as much traffic as needed to your website.

Different kinds of people from all over the world join Facebook everyday.  More so, these people have different social backgrounds in which they try to separate in specific groups.  As such, you are offered the opportunity to find your target niche easily.  On the other hand, regardless if groups are based on gender, interests, age, or schools, you would be able to find every sort of people in Facebook.

If you make use of Facebook business page, you will be offered with every tool that you need for communicating with your network.  The tools provided in Facebook can be used to promote, advertise, or sell your products and/or services to other members.  Facebook provides applications such as news feeds and blogs to keep you updated.

You can make use of Facebook marketing in simple ways.  Once you have created your own account, all you need is to add contacts or invite your friends and relatives to join Facebook so you can build your own network.  You can also join groups that are relevant to your products and/or services in order to expand your network.  These tools are ways in which you can attract people and generate traffic to your website.  You can also add pictures, videos, and other applications.

Facebook is undoubtedly the hottest trend in the Internet today.  Its network grows daily, which makes it a great venue for marketing different products and/or services.  Apart from being able to keep in touch with family, friends, and relatives, you can make new friends to build another network.

Facebook can be an efficient venue in marketing your products and/or services as well as your corporate website.  The tools that it can provide allow you to communicate with your group, network, and target niche.  For instance, the Groups tool allows you to join other groups that you have common interest with.  You can interact with such group in order to know them and vice versa.  After which, you can market your products and/or services.

Another great tool that Facebook provides is the News Feed.  This tool allows you to market not only your profile page but your corporate website as well.  The News Feed announces your current activity or posts so that your contacts can see them.

The Facebook Ads is a tool that allows you to advertise your products and/or services.  However, Facebook asks for a fee in order to use this tool.  The fee is affordable and can be worth it since it can definitely make your network interested in your offerings.

Facebook makes Internet marketing easy and convenient with the tools it provides for promoting, advertising, and selling products and/or services and corporate websites.  It drives and generates targeted traffic as well.

Ultimately, Internet marketing is an important part of any online business.  It is needed to acquire customers as well as targeted traffic for your website.  There are various ways to generate traffic including writing relevant articles.  However, not all online marketers are good in writing articles to promote and sell their products and/or services.  Most online marketers make use of other methods of Internet marketing through people skills.  People skills involve communicating with people efficiently.  As such, social networking websites including Facebook are places in which you can apply your people skills.

Facebook is considered as one of the hottest and popular social networking websites today.  With 500 million users, it is definitely the most prominent among social networks.  Facebook allows people to create networks in order to keep in touch, build new relationships, and market products and/or services.  It offers people with many different things to do including applications that allow members to communicate and interact with each other.

With millions of members that continue to grow each day, Facebook is able to generate a great amount of traffic.  People log in or out daily or create new accounts.  As such, Facebook has been considered one of the best venues for marketing products, services, or business websites.

Facebook has become popular among online marketers, which prompted it to develop the Facebook Ads.  Facebook Ads is an advertising system that is similar to most pay-per-click programs.  However, Facebook Ads is much more affordable as compared to other advertising programs.  Thus, any online marketer would not have to worry about investing too much money on promoting or advertising.  More so, you can surely get returns on your investment by using Facebook Ads.

Consequently, if you are trying to experiment on your marketing strategy and do not have enough budget, Facebook Ads can definitely work in advertising your products, services, or business website efficiently in an affordable amount.

As compared to other pay-per-click schemes and advertising programs with high costs, Facebook Ads can create positive effects on your business.  High cost advertising, on the other hand, can even have negative impact on your online business including the following:

• High cost of investment in advertising – Whether you already have an established online business or only starting one, it is very risky to invest in advertising programs with high costs because you will never know if your offered products or services will translate into profits.
• Uncertainty in demand – When starting with an online business, high cost of advertising entails a huge risk in terms of losing money.  This is because you are never sure if the demand for the products and/or services you offer is high.  As such, it can be futile to utilize expensive advertising programs.

Facebook social targeting allows advertisers to define your target audience’s profile.  If you want to target ages You can customize your ads according to their demographics. So if you want to target females in Denver Colorado between the ages of 35 to 45 who are into fitness you can display your ads exclusively to that profile.  No money is wasted on anyone that does not match your target audience.  Additionally you can create different ads that speaks to different market segments to maximize results.  For instance you would have different ads for males, females, age groups, English, Hispanic, fitness enthusiasts or people looking for workout programs.  The right message for the right audience yields the best results.

Facebook also allows you to target according to keywords but keyword research is different and easier than Google Adwords.  Facebook uses an algorithm to determine if a keyword has been used in a profile or mentioned in posts sufficient times to warrant your advertising spend.  When filling out the simple form to place an ad on Facebook you will see the “Likes and Interest” field (this is the keyword field).  Think of your main keyword like fitness and start typing it in to the Likes and Interest field.  You will notice a list of keywords to target appear in the dropdown menu.  Add a single letter after your main keyword e.g. fitness a, fitness b. The keyword list below changes to any combination of words phrases that contain the word fitness and start with that letter e.g. fitness ab exercise.  The better your ad copy speaks to that specific keyword phrase the more effective the ad.

So how do you know the correct demographics to target?  One way is to go to Google.com and do a search for your target keyword e.g. fitness.  Take the top competing sites e.g. fitnessmagazine.com and paste in the top box at http://www.quantcast.com it will reveal the demographics of the majority of your competitors site’s visitors which is in this example is female 35 to 49.  If your competitor does not have enough traffic try another site.  Another thing you can do is go to http://www.google.com/insights/search/ and search for your target keyword.  It will reveal the highest searched geographic areas, seasonal peaks and the hottest keyword trend spikes to target.

You can also target by workplace.  Most large companies employees have similar focus and therefore respond better to certain products e.g. Apple and Microsoft employees respond better to tech products like camcorders or HD TV’s.  You could target employees of mortgage companies if you had a course to help them market their business.  The possibilities are endless if you think about it.  The right message for the right audience yields the best results.

There was a photography company that offered a $500 coupon targeted to only people on Facebook engaged to be married.  After spending only $600 they made $40,000 in sales with a 60% closing ratio by targeting the right audience with the right message. Not that you should expect similar results.  Start out very slow $1 to $5 a day and split test until you have a campaign that works then increase slowly tracking your results daily.

The image you use in your Facebook ad is very important.  Your image is what will draw a person in.  Those that watch images are called power searchers.  Google will be testing this type of advertising in their image section in the near future.  The correct image emotionally attaches people to what they are getting and has shown that 37% of power searchers are more likely to buy.  On Facebook images are key to getting someone’s attention away from talking to their friends.  The image, not the copy is about 80% of the secret to a successful Facebook ad campaign.  The most effective change you can make to increase an ads success is the image.  Switching to an image that stands out on the page can dramatically increase your conversion ratios.  For royalty free images you can go here http://www.sxc.hu/.  I do want to control expectations so you do not keep changing your ad trying to obtain the same click through rate you may have experienced on Google.  A good click through rate on Facebook is around 0.1% while Google CTR is around 2%.  The far lower CPC (cost per click) makes up for it.  This is one reason PPC (pay per click) seems to perform better than CPV (cost per 1000 views) with Facebook ads.

Something to remember is Facebook users are not there to solve a problem as they are on Google so you need to structure your ads differently.  You are not selling solutions and their features and benefits.  Facebook is more like a party interactive, conversational, socializing getting to know each other.  If you were at a party and started going around handing out your business card and asking them to buy your product you might be asked to leave.  Your main initial goal is to gain an understand of who they are and their interests.  This knowledge empowers you to communicate that you understand who they are and identify with their beliefs so you can build a relationship and earn the right to discuss your product or service.

Once you start running campaigns on Facebook you can go in and run reports that will reveal their interest such as books, movies, hobbies, where they work, what they enjoy doing etc.  This information will give you a tremendous insight into who these people are.  To glean a better understanding of your customers you can also go to Amazon.com and type in your keywords and look at what comes up.  Look at the list and the books, get an understanding of the stories as they are a reflection of a persons inner desire.  On Facebook the key to success is not necessarily keywords like it is in Google.  It is understanding your customers likes and dislikes to customize your ads accordingly.

Now let’s discuss where to send this traffic.  Facebook gives you the ability to build a free company Facebook business page.  Sending traffic to the company Facebook business page has proven to yield far better results.  When consumers are on Facebook they feel safe.  When you send them to a website outside of Facebook their real world defenses go up.

After creating your profile you can create your company Facebook business page by going here http://www.facebook.com/pages/manage. The best approach is to design a page that stands out from the rest. There are many Facebook apps you can use to add some interactive pizzazz found by clicking here http://www.facebook.com/apps/directory.php.

Let’s talk about creating a company Facebook business page.   Login to your Facebook account and on the left side you click on Ads and Pages (you may need to click the more link to expand the view) and then click on Create Page.  There are 3 buttons you can choose from to help identify if you are promoting a local business, a brand, product, organization, artist, band or public figure.  Just select the category and subcategory that best fits what your are promoting.  Under detailed info put your website URL. Now put in your Company overview, mission, and products.  Use appropriate keywords that your target audience might use without overdoing it. For the image add the largest image you can so it looks like a background 200 x 600 pixels.  You can create one from you logo or website.  If you don’t have a image editing software you can download one free at http://www.getpaint.net.  Once you have your jpg or gif image ready, go back to your Facebook business page, put your cursor on the image area that will have ? on it, select change picture, upload picture browse and find the image on your hard drive.  Below the picture is a text box that you can add information about your product or service.

On the bottom left side click on edit page.  Then click on settings to setup any country or age restrictions you may desire and the public status but leave it unpublished for now (uncheck only admin can see this page).  Then Wall settings, initially you want to send the people to another page besides your wall.  You can also choose the default post permissions on your wall to only post by page or post by page and fan.  Then set your fans permission if you want them to be able to post photos, videos, links or anything at all.  The mobile section will allow you to upload from a cell phone.

Then you get into the applications section that you could add to your page. You could make your discussion board appear as a box or tab.  That simply makes your discussion board available via the tab or the little + at the end of the tab area or not at all.  Click on the discussion board to edit link and add interesting topics if you want.  By starting interesting topics you encourage interaction, communication and mutual understanding which is why people go to Facebook.

The Events app is similar if you want the tab available.  You can add events and edit permissions. You can then click on link to this tab (if you want to paste link on another page to your events this is the link you would use).  When creating an event you can add a picture, choose what type of event it is, give a description, attach event to wall, attach photos, videos, links, allow guest to bring friends and if you want to show the guest list.  Save and continue then publish.  You can send invitations to your friends and add a personal message.

The Links app is the same with showing tab or box and you can set who can post links to your page.

The Notes app is the same with showing tab or box (see a pattern going on here).  Notes allows you to create a note with a title and picture with a caption. You can also tag any friends that might be in the picture.

The Photos and Videos apps also have show tab or box.  In photos you can create an album after installing the plug-in.  Just add photos, what the photos are about and create album.

Then give your Facebook business page a name that includes your target keywords.  You do not want to make your page visible until you feel it is ready to show to the world.   Now click create page and your basic Facebook business page is created.  Now click on the info tab on top and the link Edit Information.  In the Founded field put the date you are creating the page.  Videos as you would think allow you to upload videos.

IMPORTANT UPDATE!! Facebook is moving away from FBML which I feel is a good thing for people just getting started as FBML just link HTML can be difficult to learn. I have found FBML to be unstable and not supported at this time. Unfortunately at the same time Facebook is not giving clear directions to the iFrame application providers (which is the direction Facebook is moving towards) so most applications have stopped offering their application at this time.  With all that said I have identified one application that is super easy to create a professional looking Fan page in minutes plus you can easily add pages like your YouTube channel, Tweeter feed and contact page. All you need to do is go to your applications page, click on more applications at the bottom of the page and do a search for Static FBML (the search term may change but searching for the company’s name iwiPage does not work right now). Click on Static FBML and Welcome Tab by iwiPage. This application is already built in iFrame so whatever specifications Facebook decides on this application will continue to work. There is a free version where you can create a nice looking Welcome page and an inexpensive paid version that gives you more functionality.

With all that said let’s continue with the training but want you to be aware FBML is going away. I do discuss a free WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) Web Editor http://www.kompozer.net, Iframes,  adding applications and Facebook marketing strategies so please finish this training!

That covers the basics now let’s talk about creating your own static pages using FBML (Facebook Markup Language). On the bottom of the app page click on Static FBML.  If you do not see it click on browse more which will bring you to the applications page I referred to earlier in the training and do a search for static FBML. This is also how you would add any app you would like.  Click on Static FBML, add to my page and choose which page you would like to add the app to.  When you are done go back to your app page and you will see a new app added called FBML1.  Click on edit, give it a title, then you can paste basic HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) in the box not including the <body> tag.  Any images you want on the page will need to be hosted on another site and you would need to link to it.  So go to your web editor or if you do not have one you can download http://www.kompozer.net for free.  I suggest using a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) Web Editor.  It is similar to creating a page in Word. You do not need to know HTML.  When done view and copy the code and place it in the box. Another simple online option is http://www.faceitpages.com but there is a small charge but it is the simplest way I have found to create custom Facebook business page with out spending $1000 plus it has tracking built into it.  I suggest you use Kompozer as your Web Editor http://www.kompozer.net it is free, easy and the knowledge will come in handy.  Once you create the page it will appear on your app page and you can edit it.  When you have the page the way you want it go back to your app page, click on setting and set your new page as your default page.

FBML has some limitations such as not being able to use certain scripts used on HTML pages.  So Facebook created tags to address this such as User/Groups, Profile-specific, Embedded Media, Social Widgets, Visibility on Profile, Platform etc. found here http://wiki.developers.facebook.com/index.php/FBML. So if you want to embed an iframe, video, photo, mp3 click on the link and it explains there attributes and how to utilize that functionality with an example of the code you want to use.  To implement each functionality you would go and edit the page you created earlier, click edit and on the bottom left, click on add a new FBML box, then click edit.  Put in a title and you will want to put in some HTML using your Web Editor as we did before with a table and then put the FBML code in the table.  Then copy and paste the FBML example code from the page above and place it in your table. You will need to have the video, picture or mp3 file uploaded to your hosting server as Facebook will not host these files.  Then you just edit the FBML example code you pasted by editing the file identifying information, and URL of the file you want to appear.  Save the changes and it will appear in the pull down menu on your page.

Now let’s talk about adding applications to your Facebook business page.  Go to your app page and on the bottom left side click on browse more.  Select pages on the left side which brings you to applications you can add to your pages.  Scroll to your right until you find an application you would like to add to your page.  Click on the application icon, then click add to my page.  Then click add to page found just below whatever page you want the application to be add to.  Now go back to your app page and find the application you just added.  As with the other application click on application settings how you want it to appear and additional preferences, click save.  Then just click on edit and fill in the information, save and publish the page.  Applications make your fan page fun and sticky (reasons for people to come back and stay on your page).  Become a fan of your fan page, start promoting it by suggesting it to your friends and with a Facebook ad.  Again start out slow anytime you are paying for any ad, create ads for each target audience, split test, and double check their success, use images that jump off the page and increase spend slowly.

Again I encourage you to send Facebook ad traffic to your company Facebook business page.  Traffic sent to the fan page has shown to double your results.  If you do chose to send the traffic to a website outside of Facebook you need to immediately make them feel they are in the right place by placing the same picture you used in your ad above the fold on the landing  page (above the area of the page they cannot see without scrolling down).

Whatever page you chose to send them to don’t start hard selling them or they will be gone.  You need to take a simple soft sell approach e.g. become a fan, become a friend, ask their opinion, request additional information, have them sign up for something free.  Enticing them with free additional bi-weekly information that will better educate them on the reason they visited the page will deliver far better results.  Setup an auto responder with an e-mail management system like http://www.aweber.com that contains good information, maybe start them off with a short free e-book.  It’s all about trust and being accepted in their circle.  If there is a hint of a scam or you are only out to get their money they will be gone.  After you start sending them this information you can sprinkle it with special offers for only your inner circle of friends and they will buy again and again.  Earn their trust and earn their long-term patronage.

Again it is always best to start small and be persistent in working your way up.  Facebook business page can be an efficient tool to achieve online success as long as you know the different ways to bring out its full potential.

• Put the most valuable or significant information in title tags
• Optimize the titles of photo albums
• Obtain prominence with different applications
• Share external links to drive traffic to your business website
• Post on walls, news feeds, and notes

Marketing in Facebook is easy and convenient to learn as well as implement.  However, make sure that when marketing your products and/or services, you still appear natural.  Make sure that you are tactful when interacting and communicating with your target niche.

Create and personalize your Facebook account, which contains pertinent information about your company, products, services, or brand.  Include your activities, interests, and preferences among others.  Personalize your posts in such a way that it makes your target niche interested.

Include links to external websites so that your contacts and visitors can access another place to get to know you better.  Although it is best to put your links in the most visible locations in your profile, make sure you do not overdo it.  Put the links strategically so that people will not think you only want them for their money.

Add as many friends or contacts as possible.  However, you should employ judgment when adding friends.  Remember that your list of friends is futile unless you build a relationship between each of your contacts.  As such, add the contacts in which you can keep a relationship with.  This would ensure that you are connected with them not only for your marketing schemes but in a personal manner as well.

Wall posts can also be a great way to communicate with your contacts.  You can post replies or comments on other people’s walls so that they would get to know you and begin a conversation.  On the other hand, when posting anything on other people’s walls, make sure that your posts are appropriate and are properly written.  This is because many people are able to see your posts.  Some may agree or disagree with your posts; as such, it is better to make your posts as appropriate as possible.

Finally, Facebook groups have been proven to be the most significant tool in Facebook marketing.  In fact, Facebook groups are considered the keystone that makes marketing in Facebook a success.  Facebook allows you to join different groups in which you have common interests with.  In some cases, groups are primarily for network marketing and MLM.  These are groups that represent a particular industry.  You also have the option to create your own group that is relevant to your company, product, or service.  This can provide you the opportunity to interact or communicate with people who can share relevant experiences, skills, and marketing skills.

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