If you are new to the idea of social media marketing then it’s important to start with a refresher course on the most important websites making names for themselves and how you, as a business owner or perhaps even a social media manager, can use these online tools to your advantage.

Firstly, do not copy and paste your profile information and status updates to every major website. You must create a strategy in which you use each social media website for a unique and relevant purpose. It’s better to not use a website at all than it is to create duplicate social media pages. Why is this? Because (a) search engines typically penalize web pages that feature duplicate content and (b) you’re communicating with the same audience saying the same thing.

Successful social media managers suggest that you strategize and decide upon a special purpose for each website that you decide to incorporate into your campaign. Let’s consider the four most important websites and effective ways to use them for business.

Face Book/Fan Page: Face Book allows business owners to create either a personal or business page. If the owner chooses to incorporate a personal page into business, he or she will be allowed more options than using a strictly business profile. At this point, the owner can create a fan page or business page and serve as an administrator of the page. He or she will then have the ability to add friends and perform standard Face Book features that are not available with a business page. Face Book can be used for business in the way of advertising new products, services or discounts, as well as sharing multimedia images. Face Book is also ideal for networking, as users can view friends of friends.

LinkedIn: LinkedIn is a professional website helping people to expand their network of friends and acquaintances. Unlike Face Book and MySpace, LinkedIn promotes a business first attitude. Features here include people finders, job listings and questions and answers. LinkedIn can be used to increase your visibility, connect with more companies and users, enhance your search rankings (since LinkedIn is web searchable) and perform company reference checks. Some people love LinkedIn because it allows them to “stalk” interviewers and potential employers, or potential employees on the management side. LinkedIn also uses keywords to its advantage, making networking much easier even for newcomers.

Twitter: Twitter limits all of your links and statements to 140 words. Twitter is ideal for sharing status updates, connecting with important people, answering questions, providing insight into the daily experience, and searching for relevant keywords to your business. There are also many valuable web tools like Who Should I Follow and Summize, which give you further advantages in searching.

MySpace: MySpace operates similarly to Face Book but with many more options in the way of formatting the page, creating a unique theme and lending you more web space. MySpace is popular among younger users and is the preferred social media site for web-savvy merchants and entertainers who want to focus more on visual spectacle.

Blogging: WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr and SquareSpace are among the most popular blog sites online. Practically every popular social media site has limitations on how long posts can be, thereby giving the advantage to blog sites when it comes to full features and long commentaries. However, full-length blogs are among the most effective tools you can use for establishing professional credibility and targeting new leads with keywords.

All of these popular websites are being used to promote businesses and encourage interaction with the large online community. Have you signed up and filled out your profiles? More importantly, have you devised a short-term and long-term strategy as to your goals and objectives in each particular social media site? This attention to detail could spell the difference between success and an embarrassing waste of time ala PeopleofWalMart.com. Keep your social media page positive, welcoming and above all else, interesting!

“You have heard about social media, but you may not be familiar with how the idea works and what websites are the most valuable to pursue. Learn about the top social media sites and how you can use them for business.”

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Admit it. You have a Facebook account you’re just dying to get back to right? I don’t blame you. Where else can the common man get the exposure he needs without having to deal with criticism from ‘concerned’ friends and family members? However, not everyone has the time and leisure to sit back and add friends all day long, but wouldn’t you like to? Knowing how to maximize your Facebook time can help you create a vast network of friends who will be available to you almost any time you wish to parlay.

The good news is that you can do just that by applying some simple techniques that can teach you how to maximize your Facebook time:

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Let’s face it. Facebook has become a vital part of our everyday lives no matter how much we try to quit ourselves of the habit. It has brought the world together within a social system the likes of which can easily dwarf even a small nation! This was all the incentive the corporate world needed to take full advantage of this pseudo global village though.

Create a PROFESSIONAL Profile

First thing’s first-you have to create a profile that defines everything that is uniquely YOU. This includes entering your PROPER name, email address, fax number, postal code and cell number (if you want to) so that interested users can know who to contact. Try not to apply a nickname if you can help it. Few people have the patience and humor to tolerate funny guys when it comes to spending their hard earned money.

Build a Network

Facebook is all about networking after all. Your job is to add friends and relatives so that your own grows substantially. Why? That’s because your Facebook marketing success depends on how big your social network is and how well you are able to maintain it. The next step will be to start some events on your account and post it on your news feed. If they’re successful enough you can get more friend requests than you know what to do with!

Another good way to do that is to post every update you make in your marketing website as well as the links to any affiliate products. Try not to post advertisements on your Facebook page. Remember, this is a social gathering, not a pure marketing tactic. This will aid you in gaining your customer’s trust in a more amicable environment which can make them comfortable enough to give your business a try.

Connect With Like-Minded Individuals

Another good way to gain popularity is to connect with users that share your interests. This will definitely help you get the referrals you need to make yourself known to others in their own networks. People will be more willing to communicate if they know that you have their best interests at heart after all.

Use the Facebook Advertising Program

This is a pay per click program where you can invest your money in advertising your products/services effectively. However, the only drawback is the strict policies this social networking site pushes regarding the content you decide to put up on their site. Typically affiliate programs are not allowed to be put up in their advertising program so you may have very limited options. To avoid being ousted from the site, make sure that you go through the terms of service and policies regarding their advertising models.

Photo by pshab

Image via WikipediaGuest Post from James Adams

Guest Post from James Adams

As Facebook continues to grow and more people move toward social media marketing, it’s likely that your profile page has gotten pretty cluttered. Even if you’re looking to use your Facebook page for business purposes, you may still be receiving notifications of every award one of your friends wins in Farmville or Mafia Wars. If this sounds familiar, it’s time to clean up your Facebook profile. It may sound like a tedious task, but it’s well worth your time to get your Facebook looking fresh and professional once again. Here are six tips for cleaning up your Facebook profile to get you started.

1. Go Through Your Friends List
You’ve probably heard of the popular new verb “unfriend.” To unfriend someone is to delete them from your Facebook friends list, forever banishing their status updates from your news feed. Though it might sound a little harsh, in reality it’s a very practical way to keep your Facebook page under control. When you have hundreds or even thousands of friends, you can’t really expect to dig through the mass of updates to find the really valuable information. Grooming your friends list allows you to stay in touch with people you actually care about and who can provide you value.

2. Delete Inappropriate Photos and Information
While you’re cleaning up your Facebook profile is a great time to take a look at how you’re presenting yourself to the world. This is particularly important if you’re looking for a job or keeping in touch with colleagues on Facebook. Go through your photos and your profile information and consider how the content makes you appear. If there are any pictures you wouldn’t want your boss to see, that’s probably a good sign that you shouldn’t have them on Facebook. Remember that many employers conduct online searches of job candidates before making hiring decisions, so those pictures from a crazy party could come back to haunt you.

3. Create Lists
Facebook allows you to create separate friend lists so that you can control exactly who has access to your information. You can create multiple lists for friends, family members, co-workers or casual acquaintances so that you can monitor which information is available. This is a great way to keep your profile in check, especially if you can’t bear to part with some of your photo memories. Friend lists also help you to keep your private information private, so that you can post information like your phone number to close friends without making it accessible to your old high school classmates.

4. Change Your Privacy Settings
Even if you’ve created segmented lists for all of your different friend groups, it’s still a good idea to go through and check out privacy settings. Facebook’s default setting makes your profile public, though many people prefer to have their profiles public only to those who they have accepted friend requests from. Go into your account settings and figure out who you want to have access to your profile, as well as what type of information you would like to be visible to the public.

5. Update Notification Settings
While you’re changing your privacy settings, take the opportunity to go through and change your notification settings as well. This will allow you to control when Facebook sends you an email or a notification, so that you won’t have to receive messages every time someone writes on your wall or sends you an application request. You can also change settings for individual applications. For example, you can choose to hide all requests from game applications or gift notices.

6. Clean Up Your Wall
It’s important to go through and clean up your wall while you’re working to make your Facebook more presentable. After you’ve done so much other work to groom your friends list, delete information and change notification settings, you should be receiving fewer wall posts in the future. Going through and deleting recent clutter on your wall can create a more professional appearance and make it easier for you to find the information you’re interested in. This is also a good opportunity to respond to messages and get up to date with your contacts.

Investing time into cleaning up your Facebook profile is a great way to enhance your social media experience. You’ll be able to find relevant information more easily and stay in touch with people, while maintaining a professional appearance. With a bit of regular maintenance on your lists and friends, you can keep your profile fresh.

Today’s article has been compiled by James Adams who writes and is a reviewer on CartridgeSave, offering the best ink cartridges in Great Britain.

Like many other features, Facebook offers yet another way to market your business. Previously you would send invitations to your contact list through your personal profile. Now the fan page makes it easy. It gives you an opportunity to upload 5,000 contacts using your address book.

This allows fan page administrators to invite customers or any other web contacts to join your respective pages on Facebook. With the provision of two latest features, you can bring your email contacts to join your page. All this became possible after the launch of “tell your Fans” feature.

All you or your admin need to do is import your email contacts to find out which ones haven’t already like your page.  After sorting out the ones who haven’t liked your page, you can send them an invitation. It’s simple yet an effective means to increase your fan base.

Tell Your Fans

The story begins with locating the option of ‘tell your fans’. You will find it just under the page admin dashboard right after clicking marketing. This wonderful feature is available to all fans irrespective of their number.

Uploading contact file

Now importing your contacts, first upload the contact file. You will find some required instructions depending on your particular email service. Instructions are well formulated for your ease and feasibility that makes the process effortless. Once your document is aptly formatted for this tool, you can proceed with exporting the contact list and then upload it back in this tool.

Choose Contacts

After you have successfully imported all your contacts, you will find a display of contacts that are not currently your fans. This distinction makes it easy for you to proceed. The reason why some of your email contacts aren’t your fans is perhaps because they are not on facebook yet. You can either select all recommended ones or manually hand pick the ones you wish to select.

Invitation

After going through the selection procedure, this feature generates a preview. Just go through this invitation preview before sending it to your selected contacts. From those who are already on facebook they will receive this invitation which has your page as a recommended page.

When your contact is not on Facebook, then he/she will simply receive an invitation requesting them to join facebook through your brand. This particular invitation will be received through email. The person in question first has to join facebook after which he can join your fan page.

Conversely, this new tool allows you to start your page from scratch and take your business to great heights. The common apprehension in most businesses regarding making a move to facebook will be wiped out when they are able to make use of their existing e-mail resources. This is a great way to connect and grow your audience.

photo credit: Generationbass.com

You will agree that in spite of some strange features, Facebook is still an addiction. Having crossed the benchmark of 500 million users from across the world, there is still no stopping. The number of users creeps in everyday and why it shouldn’t, Facebook provides some extraordinary features to keep its users glued to this particular social networking site.

One such feature of great acclaim these days is that of friendship pages. The friendship pages allow you to view conversations between your friends or find out how flirting between any two of your friends led to their marriage or how their fights led to breakup. All in all it’s allows you to see what your friends are posting on each others walls.

It’s not like your conversation leaks out in public, for viewing someone’s history, you must be friends. So for those scared of privacy issues, friendship pages don’t have this problem. For instance you met someone at a party via some mutual friend. And now you wish to know more about them. All you have to do is look through their history or wall posts to learn more about them.

It sounds creepy! But if it wasn’t everyone’s desire then why would Facebook stalking catch so much fame. Before Farmville became the major thing, going through your friends’ profile page, like buttons or status updates were the biggest pastimes. Friendship pages have given a new meaning to social interaction.

As for those who are not comfortable sharing their personal stuff with everyone including some friends then they can make use of standard disclaimer rules. Reset your privacy settings if you don’t want to become a part of the show.

So this in-depth glance at relationships can not proceed without mutual consent. What’s more interesting is the fact that now you are spared from a lot of Facebook browsing. Because previously, you would have had to sift through profiles to determine relationships between any two of your friends. However, now you don’t have to go through all that trouble.

With friendship pages, significant ease has been brought to browsing. All RSVPs, comments, events can be viewed from your wall. There hasn’t been a better way to remain updated with your friends’ activities.

For some users, friendship pages are the means to commemorate some cherish-able moments between friends, while there are some who take delight in pouring through insults or some long history comprising of snarks.

Though it appears creepy just be aware that people can see conversations you’ve had with friends. Just like some other features, friendship pages on Facebook have been a huge hit. The high user retention rate on this social network are tied to a human desire to stay in touch.

In the light of some recent stats, you will find that almost every business intends to make a fan page on facebook. Most of them already have one. But that doesn’t mean you can have all the fame. There are around 77% of fan pages who have less than 10,000 fans.

So obviously, it’s not easy for any brand to make it big through social media networking. Being a brand you certainly wish to engage too many people online. That’s understandable but with every other brand trying to do the same, setting up a fan page on facebook is just not the answer.

Primarily because the number of fan pages capable of attracting a lot of fans is quite small. Technically, it’s not the size that matters. However, many brands wish to set up their presence on facebook expecting to gather a huge fan base. Too sorry to say, such brands often get disappointed.

This is because; everyone having a fan page on facebook was determined to cross the 10,000 fan mark. After crossing that milestone, facebook offered some particular analytics. These were only meant for pages with more than 10,000 fans. These special analytics were impressions and feedback per cost.

As of today things have changed. Now the pages having less than 10,000 fans also have the liberty to view this particular information. With that known, the very next query in your mind would be regarding impressions and feedback.

Let’s start with impressions first. It’s actually the measurement of repetition of some particular post. Impressions give you the number of times a post appears in a news feed. Whereas, feedback tells you the percentage of fans who simply ‘like’ or even comment on some post.

With this new data, you will be able to find out how much the exposure of some particular post is. Moreover, you will know how much your fans are engaged and intrigued by a specific post. These analytics are a good indicator about the worth of the stuff you are posting.

You will find impressions right underneath your post. And it’s not just from the post people saw on your page but also involves impressions generated from news feeds.

Even those fan pages who haven’t exceeded the 10,000 fan limit can now find out how powerful a wall post can prove. Your reach can be greater with larger fan following and this new provision allows you to do just that. Imagine your friend and then the friends of your friends can have a look at the interactions available in news feeds. They don’t even have to visit your page to find out.

It’s a nice way to find out how important a post can be for a fan page. It potentially multiplies your reach over your fans. This means your brand is being viewed by many others who aren’t even your fans. Furthermore the likelihood that whatever you post will appear in someone else’s news feed also increases. This liberty now open to all fan pages makes expansion easier.
photo credit: Jeffrey Beall

Facebook, probably the most famous social media website today, has recently added some new features to its platform. Many have not noticed these features yet, but they are extremely important to use, especially if you use Facebook for business purposes. So without wasting any time, let’s get onto what these features are…

Advertisement accounts can now be accessed by multiple users:
Previously it was quite frustrating for advertisers to know that their advertising accounts can only be accessed by one person at a time. However, this restriction has now been removed. Of course, if you are a small brand, this feature won’t be of high importance to you; but for bigger brands, it sure is. With this change, you can now give admin access to your teams as well. They can monitor results and share the information with others as well. That is a really good feature that can help advertising teams on Facebook to garner better results!

The all-new rating system:
This is another important feature Facebook has recently announced. This is a valuable function to those running retail businesses on Facebook.  Previously, your friends or people in your list were only able to ‘Like’ your brand page, but now they can even rate it. They can also add reviews so that others can view it. Facebook has integrated a five-star rating framework that allows your friends to rate your page. This means that you can now get to know whether all the people in your list are actually the ones who like your brand or not.

Questions on Facebook:
Facebook has announced a new feature known as Facebook Questions. Right now, this feature is not available for everyone. However, once it gets in the public’s hands, it will prove to be a revolutionary feature. Users will be capable of crowd-sourcing solutions to their concerns just like Yahoo and LinkedIn users. For instance, if you run a brand page on Facebook, you will be able to ask your members what they feel about your brand, etc. This feature will act as a survey which you can run within your Facebook profile. This will be a beneficial feature for businesses on Facebook but we have to wait for it for now.

Multiple posts can receive threaded comments:
This is particularly a very useful feature, and the good news is that it is already in effect. For instance, 20 of friends post the same link again and again on your profile, it will aggregate as one single thread and all the comments regarding the post will be summed up at once place. This means that if you are spreading the word about your brand and you are leaving posts on the walls of your friends, you won’t need to check out their comments separately. All their comments will be present at one place.

Are all these new features good?
Well, you can’t really say whether these features will be interesting for the masses or not, but they sure look promising right now.

photo credit: FindYourSearch

LinkedIn is a social networking site that is meant for businesses.  This professional networking giant
was founded in December 2002 and was officially launched for public use in May 2003.  LinkedIn is open for worldwide use and as of August 2010 LinkedIn reported over seventy five million users. This site is multilingual which enhances its international appeal.  The site caters to English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German and French speaking users.

LinkedIn is comparable to the other social marketing networks in that you make connections to other people.  These connections may be classmates, coworkers, colleagues or other friends in business.  This is a great place for not only larger corporations but also smaller businesses as well as self employed individuals and freelance workers.

Let’s face it, the employment market has become pretty brutal in the recent years and many job-seekers have lamented that they wished that they knew somebody that knew that certain somebody that could help them get a job.  LinkedIn makes that possible.  It is a great resource for both the job seeker and the employer.

For the job seeker, there are several companies that advertise openings right on the network.  You are able to follow companies that you are interested in working for.  This allows you can do some research on the company, read reviews and feedback about the company, and follow that company’s growth, including employment opportunities.  So as a job seeker, make sure that your profile is accurate and free of any errors.  This may be your first introduction to your perspective employer.

For employers LinkedIn provides a place to find new employees.  You can view the previous employment of prospects and you can also see some feedback and recommendations of people who are interested in your company.  Social media tells a lot about a person and you can learn how technically savvy they are and what level of netiquette they practice.  Employing those that are tech savvy is very important to today’s businesses.

LinkedIn also allows you to connect with former classmates and colleagues and see where they are in business.  You never know when you might have a friend in a business that you need.  You may need a lawyer and of course a lawyer needs clients.  This is an incredible networking tool.  It’s definitely better than rummaging through thousands of business cards or having your business card end up at the bottom of someone’s pile.

photo credit: mkorcuska