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Tag Archives: nurturing
Ireland’s Amazing Six-Fingered Lady
Posted in Social Media Strategy
Tagged douglas burson, farming, green, irish american, nurturing, planting, socially artistic, sweettomato
Are You Age 40+. Inforgraphic Shows Why You Are Unhireable Without This Set Of Skills.
1. The Social Engagement Spectrum
2. 10 Levels of Intimacy in Today’s Communication
3. The Social Media Effect
4. Social Marketing Compass
5. Facebook vs. Twitter
6. Balance Your Media Diet
7. Social Media Statistics
8. Social Web Involvement - Sweettomato
9. The Spectrum of Online Friendship
10. How People Share Content on the Web
11. Donut Marketing
12. Twitter Territory
13. Twitter PR Strategy
14. The Journey of a Tweet
15. The Hierarchy of Digital Distractions
16. When Social Media Attacks
17. The Art of Listening
18. The Conversation Prism
19. Word of Mouth Visualized
20. Social Web Reputation Management Cycles
21. Twitter Statistics
22. The Story (So Far) of Twitter
23. Who Participates Online
24. Gender Balance on Social Networking Sites
25. Building a Company With Social Media
26. The Life Cycle of a Blog Post, From Servers to Spiders to Suits—to You
27. Social Media Spending
28. The Facebook Juggernaut
29. Twitter Perceptions of Google Buzz Over Time
30. Breakdown of the Blogosphere
31. Visualizing 6 Years of Facebook
32. The Boom of Social Sites
33. Age Distribution of Social Sites
34. Make Social Media Work for Your Company
35. The World Map of Social Networks
Why You’re Not On Google’s First Page. Social Media/SEO Tips The Pros Use.
Justifying the Value of SEO
Editor’s Update: One of the points to be kept in mind in any aspect of SEO is return on investment of time, money…ultimately, the margin on your digital asset. You may have a #1 Ranking on a keyword, for example, but at what cost?
Most people don’t set fair expectations for a search engine optimization (SEO) effort. I was reminded of this while speaking with a prospect, who asked what kind of a return on investment (ROI) he should expect from his SEO engagement.
“I’m expecting exponential growth, something like 20X the traffic that I’m currently getting,” he told me. “If we can get a number 1 ranking for this one keyword, that should be enough to get us there, don’t you think?”
One Top Ranking Isn’t Enough
Your goal can’t be to rank number 1 on one keyword. That’s not a goal.
What happens if you get the top ranking for your keyword and something happens, such as a major algorithm tweak by Google? You’ve then lost your ranking for that one keyword. What then?
Though everyone has one of those keywords that they salivate over, a solid, long lasting presence in the search engines is one in which your presence is balanced across a number of keywords.
A “goal” should be increasing traffic and – at the end of the day – growing your business (more leads, more sales, and ROI).
SEO vs. Paid Search
Many people find it easy to budget for paid search. They understand the basic premise:
- Spend $1 per click.
- Set a budget of $10,000.
- Get 10,000 clicks for keywords I want to “rank” for.
But what if you could potentially get 20,000 clicks by investing that same $10,000 in SEO rather than PPC advertising? Wouldn’t that be an even better deal?
To be fair, the above example is an over-simplification only intended to make a point. This 20,000 might represent a 10 percent increase in “good” traffic – meaning traffic that’s relevant, converts into a lead or sale, or at least shows some quality measurements (e.g., time on site).
After telling this to the prospect, he paused. “I’ve never really thought about it that way.”
SEO ROI: No Guarantees?
- There’s no search volume for the keywords you’re
interested in targeting – no amount of number 1 rankings could ever equal ROI.
SEO can be high risk, high reward. When I say “high risk,” I’m not talking about the kind of high risk associated with the possibility of being banned/penalized in the search engines for such tactics as hacking, cloaking, spamming, etc.
My point is that, even given that you work within the search engine’s guidelines, there truly are no guarantees because we don’t own the search engines. Search engines are a third party we have zero control over.
A “Good” ROI on SEO
If you’re investing $10,000 per month in an SEO effort (be it in staff costs or with an agency), you need to get a sense as to what a “good ROI” looks like.
Perhaps you’re one of many who have noticed that cost per click in paid search is getting higher and higher for the keywords that you’ve been targeting. Perhaps it’s gotten to a point where it’s challenging to make a case that the money spent is worth it?
Let’s say that you sell a widget for $100, and you net 30 percent from each sale ($30). If your average cost per click is $1 and you convert 1 percent into a sale, that’s $100 invested in paid search for 100 clicks for a $100 sale in which you netted $30.
Unless you care about the branding value (which I would argue folks should consider, at least a little bit, when they’re looking at valuation of PPC and SEO), that’s not a good ROI. In fact, that’s no ROI. That’s a loss.
What would you need your investment to be for this to pay off? Let’s do some math: out of every 100 visitors, we convert 1 percent into a sale in which we make $30. We would need 3,000 visitors to get 30 sales. Those 30 sales would be worth $3,000 (300 X $100/each) and we would net 30 percent of this ($900). Since we’d need about 10 times that revenue to make this work, we’re going to need 10 times the number of visitors (30,000).
Do we feel that we could put $7,000/month worth of resources (money/time, etc.) into a SEO effort to help to achieve the goal of gaining 3,000 visitors? Or, perhaps the conversion rate is way off and it’s more like 5 percent?
Perhaps we need 6,000 visitors? Are we willing to fund this “at a loss” (during the initial months of research, etc.) in order to hopefully realize the potential ROI for the months thereafter?
Tools to Help Determine the Value of SEO
Once you’ve mapped out how, and/or if, SEO can drive ROI then you can begin to discuss how much value/opportunity there may be and what the risks and rewards might be.
I’ve mentioned these tools before, but to get a sense of what the potential value of an SEO effort might be, I would recommend SEMRush and SpyFu Recon. There are certainly many other providers which can also help with an opportunity assessment and I welcome readers to comment below and share with others tools that you might use and why you like them.
Written By My Good Friend Mark
Jackson; Edited By Douglas Burson
“Do You Know Your Company’s Google Score – An Overview On Keyword Density, Prominence and Frequency
In the context of search engine optimization (SEO), keyword density, prominence and frequency are particularly important with respect to a website’s ranking in the major search engines. These three terms are often confusing to website owners.
However, each one of them is extremely important to onsite optimization and if you are able to implement them in the context of a web marketing strategy, you may see a huge difference in your website’s ranking.
Keyword Density
Keyword density measures the number of times a keyword or a
keyword phrase appears within a web page against the total number of words on
this page. For instance, if a keyword occurs 4 times in a web page of 600
words, the keyword density of the web page is 0.0067, by dividing 4 by 600.
Keyword density is always calculated as a percentage of the total words on the
page, therefore 0.67%.
Generally, webmasters suggest that the preferred keyword
density ratio, although it is not the same in every search engine, ranges from
2% to 5%. The higher the keyword density, the higher the website’s visibility
in the search engine results pages (SERPS). Typically, webpages that have a
high keyword density are more likely to be ranked higher in the major search
engines. Also, a keyword that appears 4 times in a web page of 600 words has a
lower keyword density (0.67%) than a keyword that appears 5 times in a web page of similar length (0.83%).
In the context of search engine optimization (SEO), keyword density, prominence and frequency are particularly important with respect to a website’s ranking in the major search engines. These three terms are often confusing to website owners. However, each one of them is extremely important to onsite optimization and if you are able to implement them in the context of a web marketing strategy, you may see a huge difference in your website’s ranking.
Keyword Prominence
Keyword prominence indicates how many significant keywords a
webpage contains. The more important keywords are typically placed near the
area that it is more relevant, anywhere at the top of the page, sentence, title
or Meta tag. Keyword prominence is critical to the major search engines, but
particularly to the directory search engines like Yahoo. In this case, placing
the keyword in the beginning of your website description may make a huge
difference in your website ranking in the rating systems.
Overall, identifying and understanding the difference between
keyword density, prominence and frequency is the first step in developing a
keyword strategy and achieve effective SEO for your website. This will ensure
quality web content and high traffic levels that will be converted into sales.
Sources:
http://www.submittoday.com/keyword_density.htm
http://www.bytestart.co.uk/content/15/15_4/keyword-d
ensity-why-keywo.shtml
Keyword Frequency
Keyword frequency measures the number of times a keyword or a
keyword phrase appears within a web page. The difference from keyword density
is that keyword frequency alone is not enough to rank a website high in the
major search engines. Even if a keyword is repeated too often, it needs to be
related to the webpage’s products and/or services because, otherwise, it will
look suspicious. This is why keyword density is important because it not only
shows how often a keyword is repeated in a webpage, but it also shows the
frequency in relation to the total number of words on the webpage. Therefore,
unlike keyword frequency, keyword density shows the relevance of the webpage to a particular keyword or keyword phrase.
Douglas Burson Gains Google SEO Certification
The author of Sweettomato, Douglas Burson, today received Google SEO certification, now paired with credentials in social media and analytics.
To give users the best possible results, search engines are constantly making changes to their algorithms. Although experience is the best way to become an expert at SEO, training can helpful in understanding and adapting to search engine changes.
Like most SEO practitioners, knowledge of the search engines comes from experience. Reading what other people have done can give you a place to start but since it is not an exact science there is no way to guarantee what will and won’t work, which is where learning by doing helps.
Many of the articles archived at www.dougburson.com are helpful in understanding the ever-changing dynamics, details and strategies of search engine optimization. Subscribe or share this site with a colleague!
Thanks//Doug
Posted in Social Media Strategy
Tagged douglas burson, Google, nurturing, planting, sweettomato, Web search engine
“Turning Your Blog Into A ‘One-Armed’ Bandit!”
Ever stop to think about who is reading your blog? No one knows your readers better than you, so what are you doing about it?
Your blog should really evolve right along side you. A few things to consider as you learn more about your readers are:
- Is it easy for readers to contact you? Can you make it easier?
- Is it easy for readers to find you on other networks,
like on Twitter? - Is it easy for you readers to find some of your more popular articles?
- Do you offer anything worth promoting to your sidebar
or home page? - Are people using your search and are they finding what
they’re looking for? - Can people easily subscribe to your RSS feed?
Keeping your content fresh can go beyond just posting regularly. Keeping your blog fresh as a whole is an easy way to keep people interested. Just remember not to go overboard.
How Have We Put This Into Action?
First of all I acknowledged the fact that certain posts perform better on some days than others due to trending topics on Twitter and in social media. So I added a ‘Popular Posts’ section in my sidebar that shows the most popular posts over the past 2 days. This is just
an easy way to take advantage of the spikes of traffic I get from social media by taking full advantage of a topics popularity within a time frame.
I also added buttons that link directly to the plugins from the end of articles because I recognize that this is one of the main reasons people visit my site and I want an easy way for them to find what they’re looking for.
Speaking of my plugins, my Socialize Plugin allows me to selectively add social bookmarking buttons to my posts. After awhile it’s pretty easy to see which button are being used more than others and with my plugin I can easily go in and remove unneeded buttons.
This is just to increase the overall user experience as well as to encourage more shares on the services that are already doing well.
And finally, I use the feedback of readers through comments and on Twitter to come up with new topic ideas. It’s probably my main source of inspiration aside from my spontaneous brain bursts.
How Can You Put This Into Action?
Ask you readers! Seriously. If you can’t figure out what needs to be done through previous interactions with your reader base why not formulate a post asking for ideas and direction. Don’t just let your blog become a place to spill your thoughts, let your readers milk your brain for all it’s worth … maybe that’s where the gold is.
“Americans Conduct Astonishing 19.3 Billion Net Searches In September”
Featured By idigitalorganicmedia@gmail.com
Some may find this material mundane, even valueless. Make no mistake, the rich search engines continue to become richer – organically driven campaigns to drive keywords, URL’s, social media loops – are becoming more cost effective.
| AOL, Inc. | 1.3% | 1.5% | 0.2 |
*“Explicit Core Search” excludescontextually driven searches that do not
reflect specific user intent to interact with the search results.
More than 17.1 billion explicit core searches were conducted in September, with Google Sites ranking first with 11.2 billion (up 1 percent). Yahoo! Sites came in second with 2.6 billion, followed by Microsoft Sites with 2.5 billion. Ask Network delivered 507 million searches, followed by AOL, Inc. with 265 million (up 16 percent).
| comScore Explicit Core Search Query ReportSeptember 2011 vs. August 2011 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University LocationsSource: comScore qSearch |
|||
| Core Search Entity | Explicit Core Search Queries (MM) | ||
| Aug-11 | Sep-11 | Percent Change | |
| Total Explicit Core Search | 17,122 | 17,103 | 0% |
| Google Sites | 11,090 | 11,171 | 1% |
| Yahoo! Sites | 2,782 | 2,644 | -5% |
| Microsoft Sites | 2,510 | 2,516 | 0% |
| Ask Network | 510 | 507 | -1% |
| AOL, Inc. | 229 | 265 | 16% |
U.S. Total Core Search
Google Sites accounted for 65.4 percent of total core search queries conducted (up 1 percentage point), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 17.2 percent and Microsoft Sites with 13.4 percent (up 0.1 percentage point). Ask Network comprised 2.6 percent of total search queries, followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.4 percent (up 0.2 percentage points).
| comScore Total Core Search Share Report*September 2011 vs. August 2011 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University LocationsSource: comScore qSearch |
|||
| Core Search Entity | Total Core Search Share (%) | ||
| Aug-11 | Sep-11 | Point Change | |
| Total Core Search | 100.0% | 100.0% | N/A |
| Google Sites | 64.4% | 65.4% | 1.0 |
| Yahoo! Sites | 18.5% | 17.2% | -1.3 |
| Microsoft Sites | 13.3% | 13.4% | 0.1 |
| Ask Network | 2.6% | 2.6% | 0.0 |
| AOL, Inc. | 1.2% | 1.4% | 0.2 |
* “Total Core Search” is based on the five major search engines, including
partner searches, cross-channel searches and contextual searches. Searches
for mapping, local directory, and user-generated video sites that are not on
the core domain of the five search engines are not included in these numbers.
As a part of comScore’s commitment to accurately represent the continued
evolution of the search landscape, comScore is providing insight into the share
of organic Core Explicit searches that are powered by Google and Bing.
In September, 67.4 percent of searches carried organic search results from
Google (vs. 66.8 percent in August) while 26.7 percent of searches were powered
by Bing (vs. 27.1 percent in August).
Americans conducted 19.3 billion total core search queries in September. Google Sites ranked first with 12.7 billion searches (up 1 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 3.3 billion and Microsoft Sites with 2.6 billion.
| comScore Total Core Search Query ReportSeptember 2011 vs. August 2011 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University Locations
Source: comScore qSearch |
|||
| Core Search Entity | Total Core Search Queries (MM) | ||
| Aug-11 | Sep-11 | Percent Change | |
| Total Core Search | 19,482 | 19,345 | -1% |
| Google Sites |
12,541 | 12,659 | 1% |
| Yahoo! Sites |
3,610 | 3,326 | -8% |
| Microsoft Sites |
2,592 | 2,588 | 0% |
| Ask Network |
510 | 507 | -1% |
| AOL, Inc. |
229 | 265 | 16% |
About comScore
comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR) is a global leader in measuring the digital world and preferred source of digital business analytics. comScore, Inc., a leader in measuring the digital world, today released its monthly analysis of the U.S.
search marketplace. Google Sites led the explicit core search market in
September with 65.3 percent of search queries conducted.
U.S. Explicit Core Search
Google Sites led the U.S. explicit core search market in September with 65.3 percent market share (up 0.5 percentage points), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 15.5 percent and Microsoft Sites with 14.7 percent. Ask Network accounted for 3.0 percent of explicit core searches, followed by AOL, Inc. with 1.5 percent (up 0.2 percentage points).
| comScore Explicit Core Search Share Report*September 2011 vs. August 2011 Total U.S. – Home/Work/University LocationsSource: comScore qSearch |
|||
| Core Search Entity | Explicit Core Search Share (%) | ||
| Aug-11 | Sep-11 | Point Change | |
| Total Explicit Core Search | 100.0% | 100.0% | N/A |
| Google Sites | 64.8% | 65.3% | 0.5 |
| Yahoo! Sites | 16.3% | 15.5% | -0.8 |
| Microsoft Sites | 14.7% | 14.7% | 0.0 |
| Ask Network | 3.0% | 3.0% |
|
Posted in Social Media Strategy
Tagged Google, idigital organic media, nurturing, social media, sweettomato, Web search engine
“Building A Bridge To Your Customer – Using Modern Social Vaccum “VMAP Branding Theory”
Building A Bridge To Your Customer Posted by iCoach Arthur Tassinello
Written By: G. Douglas Burson/MediaWeaver
#idigitalorganicmedia: How Much Do You Really Know About Advertising And Promotion?
This is a question I often ask myself and you need to ask yourself as well. In my last consulting position, for a retailer, I had many discussions about where to advertise, when to advertise, especially if your talking about radio or TV spots, how often to advertise and how much can we afford to spend. In addition, the biggest question is always, “can we not afford to advertise?”
You see, no matter how long you’ve been in business, no matter how many customers you have and no matter how successful you are, advertising a little or a lot is a must. Why? Because there are always new potential customers looking for what you are selling and even your tried and true customers want to hear from you and get a deal every so often.
Also, remember to brand yourself. What does this mean? It means having a consistent message telling the world exactly who you are, because if you don’t know what you do and who you are, and who your target audience is, then neither does the rest of the world. Be consistent!
While you may not be in Kansas, Dorothy, what my friend Doug Burson offers is something to look at and consider. And if you are in Kansas then it might be wise of you to look him up and have a discussion.
BUILDING A BRIDGE TO YOUR CUSTOMER
By Douglas Burson, Summit Publications, Inc.
(AS PUBLISHED ON WORDPRESS, FACEBOOK AND TWITTER)
In most businesses, 20% of your customers from one year ago are gone.
Price, location, selection, instant availability, reputation = your brand. Your business.
YOU KNOW MORE ABOUT YOUR BUSINESS. I KNOW MORE ABOUT YOUR CUSTOMER.
After 24 years as owner of a national advertising firm, I’ve learned there is one constant. Change.
How could you possibly and effectively combine these media in a meaningful way that causes customers and clients to “stick” with and to you – all while you operate your business? Promise: You do not have a person in your organization who understands how to cost-effectively select and weave these media together:
A. Print Directory Advertising
FACT: One-Third of Jackson County, Missouri, residents do not have access to the internet.
FACT: “It’s not your mother’s Maytag……”
“But it’s still your mother’s phonebook…”
FACT: Babyboomers, women, money are the key targets of Print Directory Advertising.
Summit Publications is a local business that for the past eight years has been involved in Print Directory publishing (18 Trading Areas) reaching 1.2 million Kansas Citizens. We also recently formed a subsidiary, BestLocalSearch.com, which is an Internet platform designed to bridge local search print results with hyper-local internet to reach consumers throughout the area.
Our 30-person sales force contacts more than 50% of all businesses each year, supporting you with comprehensive radio, print, publicity, iPhone texting/couponing, etc. We also are the local provider of Internet search and hardbound search directories in association with the Kansas City Royals, Children’s Mercy Hospital, NASCAR Nationwide Series, CAPA and more!
How could you possibly and effectively combine these media in a meaningful way that causes customers and clients to “stick” with and to you – all while you operate your business?
B. Local Online Search and SEO Lead Channels
http://www.bestlocalsearch.com
Hyper-Local. Consumer “Stickiness.”
FACT: “Reviews, recommendations, video, smart phone applications, bounce-back texts, hotlinked with your website.” — Measured and putting a rocket booster under your website’s search results.
How could you possibly and effectively combine these media in a meaningful way that causes customers and clients to “stick” with and to you – all while you operate your business?
C. “Groupon-Type” Offer Delivery….. NOT Google Results…KANSAS CITY RESULTS!
You determine the offer, the timing, and the limits. TRUE, no-cost information delivery.
LOCAL DEALS: “Showcase your business and attract new customers risk-free and online where your buyers are.”
To learn more and sign up for BestLocalSearch.com
http://www.bestlocalsearch.com
How could you possibly and effectively combine these media in a meaningful way that causes customers and clients to “stick” with and to you – all while you operate your business?
D. “Val-Pac-Type” Offer Delivery
It’s almost certain one of your neighboring businesses has printed a coupon, placed it in an envelope (along with 40-50 other coupons) and “snail-mailed” them to thousands of people — all for one great price called “ValPak” – along with its “signature Blue Envelope.”
Instead, Summit Publications micro-targets businesses and consumers in each of its unique 18 trading areas. The combination of “flush-cut inserts,” “tip-on” cover offers, etc. can be better alternatives.
FACT: “Print Directory advertising has a retention of 18 months…everyday.
E. Social Media
Do you know the 70/30/10 strategic approach to Social Media? It’s not what you may guess by visiting my Social Media advertising and message networks:
http://twitter.com/#!/Douglas_Burson – Approaching 20,000 “Followers”
http://www.facebook.com/douglasburson – More than 1,000 “Followers”
http://youtu.be/67gu-2EM2pg – New YouTube Channel 500 “hits” 5 Days (No Promotion)
G. DOUGLAS BURSON/LINKEDIN: “Slightly less than 200 “Followers” and you must be a member.”
How could you possibly and effectively combine these media in a meaningful way that causes customers and clients to “stick” with and to you – all while you operate your business?
Call Me. Always Here. Always Fresh. Never Frozen. #idigitalorganicmedia
“If You Want To Raise Your Business and Social Media Profile – You’ve Gotta’ Break A Few Eggs!”
5 Ways To Raise Your Business and Social Media Profile
Establishing connections is critical to your social media and business-building efforts efforts. Follow these approaches to raise your profile and increase the number of connections you make.
1. Tap into Social Networking
Build your contact list on social networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook, Meetup, Twitter – and look for ways to team-up with others. When
appropriate, ask for introductions to others’ colleagues, and offer to do the
same for others. Join online groups pertaining to your industry and pose
questions. At the same time, provide answers to others’ questions in order to
gain a reputation as a knowledgeable expert. Do the same on forums and
discussion boards sponsored by industry associations.
2. Attend Events
Find out about conferences and workshops that offer training and additional opportunities to meet potential partners. Prospective customers and partners may attend some of these to answer questions and provide potential business opportunities. The more you learn about each agency and opportunity, the better your chances will be of building “linkage.”
3. Become an Industry Expert
Other key ways to make yourself known in the industry are to speak at conferences and write articles. To be successful, you need to be proactive and reach out to organizations at which to volunteer. By speaking and getting published, you boost your name recognition and help establish yourself as an expert in your field and with the agencies you target. You also develop your presentation skills.
4. Join a Local Business Group
If you don’t already belong to a local business network, join one. At networking events, other small business owners will share their experiences and expertise, which may help answer any questions. The best relationships and opportunitiees I’ve developed over the years have come from getting out and meeting people! Break a few eggs!
5. Volunteer in Your Community
Although you think you don’t have time to volunteer for a community project, local service can be a great way to enhance your business profile, build professional relationships and strengthen your ties to the community. With thousands of charitable organizations to choose from, make sure the one you select has a good reputation and dovetails in some way with your business goals.
Posted in Social Media Strategy
Tagged douglas burson, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, nurturing, social media, sweettomato, twitter, YouTube
“Is Writing Lost In The Envelope Of Social Media?”
I’ve been talking to several people recently about setting up a Facebook fan
page, how to get more fans, and how to use Facebook effectively.
Full disclosure: Yes, I have a Facebook page: Douglas Burson/MediaWeaver. I use Twitter and Linkedin for business, but I haven’t set up a page for my copywriting business.
However, I DO run a Facebook page for the same nonprofit that I mentioned in
a recent post one in a note on e/mail marketing. It’s performing well, averaging 50 new fans a day.
The first thing people ask me is what type of account is best? A group or a
fan page? For me, that’s simple. A fan page. Why? A post on Mashable about the difference between Facebook pages and groups lays out the differences nicely. Here’s a summary:
Groups are great for organizing on a personal level and for smaller scale
interaction around a cause. Pages are better for brands, businesses, bands,
movies, or celebrities who want to interact with their fans or customers
without having them connected to a personal account, and have a need to exceed
Facebook’s 5,000 friend cap.
A fan page lets you grow as big as you want, send updates to an unlimited
number of people, and keep the focus on the organization without revealing the
administrator (unless you want to).
Okay, so once you’ve set up your account as a fan page, then what? Here are
some tips:
Upload a logo or photo with a web address
at the bottom. It won’t be clickable, but fans can see where to go if
they want to visit your website.
Fill out your info page completely. Here you can have a
clickable web address, company overview, mission, and products. You can give
only what Facebook asks for or get creative and provide other information as
well.
For example, in your company overview, you can list links to pages on your
website, your newsletter signup form, other social media, or whatever you want.
Use FBML to create a landing page. FBML is Facebook’s
version of HTML, which you can use with an application called Static FBML. This lets you render basic HTML in a box or tab on your page. You won’t find it in your default applications, but you can find it with a search in the application
directory.
The idea is that instead of sending people to your wall, as most people do, you send them to a landing page with whatever message you want to provide. For example, you can give a short description of your organization and tell people to click the “become a fan” button.
This is one of those “duh” things you may not think about at first, but
which can dramatically increase your Facebook growth. A landing page is just
good direct marketing.
Use your tabs wisely. If you think of a Facebook page as a
secondary website for your business, you’ll realize that the tabs at the top of
the page are like site navigation. You can have a tab for your newsletter, a
tab for donations, a tab for products, etc. How? With that nifty FBML
application.
Don’t forget the sidebar. Anything you can put in your
tabs, you can also put in your sidebar. A newsletter signup form fits here
nicely. So does a poll (another application you can add), affiliate banner, or
set of links.
Post often. The same rules apply to Facebook as any other
social media. It’s all about content and interaction. Posting something every
few weeks won’t cut it. Post every day or even several times a day to make sure
you’re showing up in the news feeds of your fans. This can be links to your
blog, product announcements, questions, news items, or anything your fans would be interested in.
Every time someone becomes a fan, comments, clicks the “like” link, or
shares your post, it shows up in that fan’s news feed for all their friends to
see. So “viral” is built in.
Link to your page from everywhere. If you want fans, you
have to let people know you’re on Facebook. Put an icon or link in your
newsletter, on your website or blog, in your email footer, everywhere.
Email and blog it. Don’t be shy. Do an email blast driving
subscribers to your fan page. Post a blog about what’s happening on your fan
page with an invitation to become a fan.
Send updates to your fans. This feature is a little like email. Don’t abuse it, because Facebook fans aren’t expecting (and don’t want) an avalanche of messages from you. But used wisely, this handy feature lets you update fans about your products, sales, and events.
Subscribe to similar fan pages and groups. You can buy ads
on Facebook, but the consensus is that response is poor. A cheap way to reach
beyond your fans and attract new fans is to subscribe to similar pages and
groups and post short messages inviting people to visit your page.
There’s more you can do with Facebook, but this is plenty to get you
started.
Is it worth it? Absolutely. I’ve found that Facebook can drive significant
traffic to your website as your fan base grows. And it gives you a totally
independent way to interact with potential customers or supporters.
UPDATE: Facebook has changed “Fan” to “Like.” So you don’t become a
“Fan” of a page now, you “Like” the page.
Source: My Good Friend Dean Rieck
on Copywriting & Direct Marketing and Sweettomato. Always Fresh.
Never Frozen.
Posted in Social Media Strategy
Tagged Business, douglas burson, Facebook, Fansite, LinkedIn, nurturing, planting, social media, Social network, sweettomato, twitter, Uniform Resource Locator