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Facebook use to have an awesome tool where people can suggest fan pages to their friends, it was easy, fun, and it worked! Well back around November the button was missing, then a few weeks later it was back but only the admin of that page could suggest it to their friends. This became a little difficult and I feel it broke some of the online communities that were being created. It was very simple to use, you would click onto suggest to friends, and then choose the list of people you wanted to send it to, click select all and hit send! What a great concept. Once a page was suggested to you then you would get an alert once you logged into Facebook on the right hand side and you could choose to like or fan at that point the pages that were suggested to you. It was such a great tool and really helped the small businesses increase their fans. Now the button is still there on the pages and you can click it and still select all the people you want to invite to like your page but now there is a catch . . . IT DOESN’T WORK! Once you hit send it says a message was sent out but nowhere to be found is a message in your email or on Facebook that a page was suggested to you. Now where is the building community in that?

Us as small business owners need to increase our fans so we can build that relationship through our businesses. Here are a few ways to still grow your fans:

1)    Talk about your page on your personal profile using @ (then type your page name) this way people that are your friends can see your post and go directly to your page and “Like” it.

2)    Create list of friends up to 200 and send a message to them asking for their support to grow your online community and give the link to your business page.

3)    Put your Facebook business page link in all email signatures, newsletters, marketing materials, voicemails, videos, blog, and website.

4)    Post to your Twitter account to “like” your page

This can seem a little irritating and frustrating, trust me I am right there with you, but until Facebook figures out how to manage themselves and page we have to follow their rules. Because so many companies were and still are creating fake people on there, Facebook is trying to control the SPAM. One person can ruin it for all of us. With that being said stay away from buying “Likes” they are mostly fake people! I hope this information is useful, if you have any questions please feel free to contact us.

Join branding/spiritual business expert Ellen Melko Moore and social media specialist Amber Irwin as we help you create a brand that speaks for itself and a social media structure that allows everyone to talk about you.

Whether you’re just starting a new venture, or considering a renovation/revolution for an existing or established business, this uplifting yet extremely practical series will set you on fire with the knowledge and tools to burn brighter, stronger, and truer than you have ever dared before.

You are about to Become Visionary.

Dates: June 8th, July 13th, and August 10th

Time: 8:30-11am 

What Is a Visionary Brand? 

By its purest definition, a visionary brand is a brand that inspires people to act.  It inspires devotion and communication in its audience, clients, or consumers.  Its customers speak and act and advertise for the brand, spreading the word because they love associating with its power, possibility, heart, or “sexiness.” In some way, large or small, those who participate feel transformed, and they want to share that transformation with others.

If you are part of the “tribe” interacting with a visionary brand, you want to talk about it, to share it, to debate its merits or flaws with others who care about it. You take pleasure in introducing it to the uninitiated.

A visionary brand can be big or small, profit or nonprofit, can be a large corporation or a single person.  Some famous examples of visionary brands that have changed our lives might be Facebook, Starbucks, Tom’s Shoes, Oprah Winfrey, Netflix, and The Susan G. Komen Foundation.

How Does a Brand Become Visionary?

Big brands and big names can inspire us.  But it’s also important to look at the inspiring people and companies all around us.  If you think about it, you can probably identify several visionary brands in your own circle, your own neighborhood.   

 It might be a painting company who donates a free paint job to a neighbor facing foreclosure, a bakery who celebrates Wednesdays with free éclairs, or a friend who rallies a community to serve a returning injured veteran.

It may be an artist whose paintings take our breath away, a computer store whose top priority truly is the customer, or a garage band who collaborates with a tattoo artist to clean up the local skate park.

Whether large or small, traditional or totally unprecedented, commercial or compassionate, an emerging visionary brand compels us to look, to notice, to talk, and to act.  And most importantly, to spend our money!

 And you can bet your boots that with a good strategy of playfulness and perseverance, that brand won’t be a beginner for long.

Build a Killer Brand and Give it a Voice.

So, a visionary brand inspires action, and that inspiration begins with you. 

Are you inspired by your own idea, your own business, your own way of showing up in the world? Are you so excited that you can’t stop talking about what you are doing, learning, selling, experiencing?

 Or is it perhaps time to open the doors of your mind and soul and let some fresh air down the corridor?

Our three part workshop focuses on the three essential ingredients of the visionary brand: the Creators, the Participants, and the Collaborative Process (otherwise known as the brand, the customers, and the sales relationship!)

In each session we will devote equal attention to BOTH the visionary spirit of our brands AND the powerful tools of technology that allow us to share that spirit in unprecedented ways.

Ellen will lead us as we create, pitch, and examine the Inspirational Ingredients of all who play in the sandbox of our brand.   Amber will guide us through the exciting (but often intimidating) waters of Facebook, Twitter, Twello, and Hoot Suite.

Between sessions, we will support and inspire each other in small groups using our new-found social media skills (gaining first-hand experience with innovative email, free conference calls, YouTube, and Blog Talk Radio!)

Our Vision for You.  And our Promise.

 

No matter where you begin, whether as a first-time entrepreneur or a seasoned veteran, by the end of session 3 you will take home:

*a recipe and road map for your own visionary brand, including new pathways for money to come to you

*a support team who believes in your dream

*a tribe that loves to talk about you

*a working knowledge of the most important components of social media and a system for using them powerfully

*a rejuvenated sense of your life’s purpose and a renewed enthusiasm for getting out of bed, even on Mondays

You could pay thousands of dollars and spend hundreds of hours for this coaching and training.  Like many of your friends may be doing.  Just think how jealous they’re going to be when you say you did it in two months for $147! That’s okay, though.  Next time they’ll know where to go to Become Visionary.

http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1597505181

Having a Facebook fan page can really drive traffic to your website and equal revenue for your business, but only if you know how to get Facebook fans. Facebook fan pages can work miracles for your brand and visibility if you have enough people liking and sharing your page.

Create Your Circle Of Promotion

The goal is to create a circle of promotion so that you have people coming to your fan page and then to your store of business. To increase Facebook fan and start the ball rolling, you have to put the word out about your page, what it has to offer and what kind of special advantage your fans will get by liking and following what you are doing there.

Be Creative

With just a little creativity, you can figure how to get them using all kinds of promotional tools. One way is to write articles for some trade periodicals, or more general article distribution sites that will get your name and a link to your Facebook fanpage out to a desirable audience. While steering potential fans to your page, you will also be establishing your knowledge and expertise in the industry. Then, people will feel like they are gaining at least the value of your shared knowledge when they become a fan on Facebook.

It also makes the relationship with customers more intimate. A Facebook fan page is a place where there can be more extensive conversations, with a community with your business, website and service in common. To mix the media, you can make a video about your fan page and why people should ‘like’ and share it. Then post all of your articles and videos on all kinds of sharing sites, social networking sites and more, which open your page to whole new audiences.

How Do You Get Fans?

Once you add links, you still have to know how to get Facebook fans. The people who click in and go to your fan page then need a reason to like, stay or come back. You can point them to your newest deals, or have a code only on your page that can be entered on your site for a discount. A weekly contest for fans or a coupon just for liking, are just some of the ways to get more Facebook likes, or increase your Facebook fans.

Also Use Other Social Media

Other forms of social media and online interaction can also help you get more Facebook fans. You can post YouTube videos on your Facebook fan page and then tweet the link to the videos. Ask all of your followers to retweet. Take a couple minutes and select followers for whom you retweet as well, they will likely return the favor. Most people will retweet or share if you simply ask.

On Twitter, use Follow Friday hashtags to pick out your followers and they will return the favor, increasing your fan base and helping you to get more Facebook likes. Post on industry forums and include a signature that links to your Facebook fan page and offers a great deal.

Figuring out how to get Facebook fans is just one more part of your brand building and promotional campaign that together, drive your traffic and revenue. If done well, you will see an increase in fans and business!

Want to know more great internet marketing tips? Then visit this website.

Also check out these awesome FREE videos that show you how to generate endless leads, attract traffic, use social media, create multiple streams of income and much more.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Greg_J_Scott

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/6074693

This was a great post from HubSpot.com

Social media and blogs are a key part to any inbound marketing strategy. Here are 6 ways they help grow your business:

  1. Quick to Start. You could launch a Facebook page today or get a blog going in a few days.
  2. Low Cost. You can get started in social media and blogging for very little or no money. They are among the most cost-effective methods of reaching your audience.
  3. Instant Interactivity. Both blogs and social media can give you nearly instant market feedback – good or bad. We get all kinds of feedback through the comments on our blog; people also leave reviews and other comments for us on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media channels.
  4. It’s the Search Engines, Silly. Surveys indicate that 90% or more of people begin their purchasing process in search engines. Blogs and social media make it more likely that your prospects will find you online when they search.
  5. Inbound Marketing. If you read our blog, you know that we’re big fans of inbound marketing at HubSpot. Outbound marketing is telemarketing, direct mail, cold email blasts (not lovely nurturing emails like this one to you), TV and print ads – all the things that buyers tend to block out more and more.  Social media and blogs are essential inbound marketing tools.
  6. First Mover Advantage. For blogs and social media, there is an advantage to moving first. If you don’t jump into the conversation, your competitors will (if they have not already) and then you’re fighting an uphill battle to become influential in these online conversations. Start now to claim that first-mover advantage.

How are you using social media today? Learn how you can build a successful inbound marketing strategy that combines social media, blogging, lead conversion, and marketing analytics. Get a complimentary Inbound Marketing Assessment from HubSpot.

Are you finding it difficult to get people to like you on your Facebook page?
There’s a way you can increase your following quickly . . . if you do it the right way. Yes, there is a right way to get people to like you and it is very much the same as making friends. This right way is where so many people go wrong because they treat it differently than they do when they make a friend in the “real world.”

Guess what? The Internet is the “real world” because it consists of the same people. Are you treating them differently? 

Get Likes on Facebook: Give People a Reason to “Like” You
People aren’t just going to randomly “like” your page.

First, you need to know who your ideal market is, you can do this by knowing their interests, likes, professional where they live and more. Introduce yourself. The best way to do that is to “like” them first and tell them you look forward to connecting with them or to seeing more from them.

Also, compliments go a long way. Show them you are paying attention to what they have to say and it is a two-way street.

Interact with the people who have “liked” the same page. An excellent way to say, “Hey, notice me” is to pay attention to the comments on the posts of the page you have liked and “like” their comment. This will show up in their notifications and it’s a way of introducing yourself to people outside of “pages.” It’s a way to expand your exposure to your target market.

It’s Not All About You (Hard to believe huh?)
The best way to get likes on Facebook is to realize that it is not all about you and what you can do for them or what you have done. It’s about giving to others first and helping others succeed. If you do that, people will have no option but to stop an notice you, and like your page!

Others that share the same niche are not necessarily your competition. In fact they may actually be your future business partners, cross promotion opportunities, or collaboration partners. The key here is to identify some excellent people, teams, or businesses that stand out to you and you truly believe are doing an excellent job. Remember everybody has a different niche or specialty.

Interact with these people, promote their relevant products or services. Promote them without any expectation of anything in return. Do it because you are establishing relationships with other people you respect in your area of expertise. You’re providing value to your readers and you’ll give yourself the opportunity to learn from other experts.

Get Likes on Facebook by Being Likable
A way to get likes on Facebook is to be yourself. People will sense it if you’re not being yourself and they’ll probably run in the opposite direction as fast as they possibly can. Be authentic and creative. Show your personality.

Allow for people to actually get to know YOU, not your business necessarily. People want to do business with people they know, like, and trust. If you are not well liked, it doesn’t matter if you have the best deal in the world. People will hide when they see you coming to avoid you and they’ll find what you offer from someone they like.

Ask yourself, “Would you do business with someone that introduced themself with a sales pitch? Facebook is NOT a place to sell, it truly is a place to build relationships and find people all over the world! Your reputation is created by the way you present yourself. You can present yourself as likable or as that person who keeps trying to sell something to somebody blatantly. Remember what goes up on Facebook represent who you are as a person, so if there are inappropriate pictures on your personal page, people can find them and may not want to do business with you or like your page. Regardless if you own your own business or work for a fortune 500 company, your reputation is all you have.

You will be amazed at how you’ll get likes on Facebook because of your personality and the way you present yourself. And if you can master that, you will then be able to introduce your business.

What’s your experience? Do you get likes on Facebook?

Social media marketing like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube is a

tricky beast. It can be time consuming and if done wrong, super spammy.

That having been said, social media can produce REAL results for your small business!

We do social media marketing for small business owners and oftentimes during

the sales process they ask us what kind of results they can expect

from our efforts.

 I THINK that they are asking what kind of SALES can they expect to receive

within a couple of days of starting, but that is just conjecture on my part!

Social media marketing is not a direct line kind of thing. It is more like grabbing

a tigers tail and hoping that he is going where you want to go!

 I read the best post the other day about why Facebook marketing does not work,

it is worth a read for sure. The nice thing about this article is that it

comes from an agency who has really deep pocket clients who have made the mistakes that our

small biz marketing peeps cannot afford to make.

Social Media Marketing Results and Goals

I was talking to a client the other day and he was VERY focused on growing his database so that he

could send them marketing messages. With that in mind he had developed a series of four different

 autoresponders with GREAT content. The problem was his front-end pitching of it. Basically by reading

what he was saying, you could tell immediately that his goal was to get you in his database which

would turn anyone off. With social media marketing (actually with all marketing) we have to know

that there are humans at the other end of line. Our goals for using social media have to be REALLY clear so

that we know what we are trying to accomplish with our efforts. Here are a couple of goals that

you could have in social media:

To Get Them Into Your Database

Social media marketing results

If you are talking  A LOT with someone on social media,

 check out their information. Often they will have their email or phone number on there,

add them to your database. Additionally, you can have a

 great teaser and a link that you can post judiciously that will allow people to opt into your

database but don’t be a spammer about it! Here is a link

to one of my clients FREE ebooks about “How To Buy USA Real Estate” that could be a good carrot!

The photo shows how you can add it to your Facebook

 profile without looking like a spammer.

To Sign Up People To Work With You

Social Media Marketing Results

One of my favorite online MLM marketers is Kirsten McKay Smith

 of Passion Parties. She REALLY knows how to engage her clients, team members and

prospects on Facebook. THIS Is the kind of thing that can happen when you are out there.

She had a prospect who she “friended” on Facebook. Now that could have gone nowhere as

 many of our leads do BUT through communicating on the Facebook, Kirsten stayed in touch and

when her prospect was ready was there to sign her up immediately. Kirsten is also an author

of the What It Takes To Make A Million Dollars In Direct Sales books, unsurprisingly, this same thing works for sales of her

books. In fact, I saw on there the other day someone asking about when her forth volume was set to come out!

 Gotta think that will lead to some sales.

To Stay In Front Of Prospects Without Spamming Them

Social media marketing social media real results

The picture is a lead that I got yesterday from a prospect. The content basically

said that she had met me at a talk that I gave over a year ago and had implemented some of the

 suggestions that I gave and had great results for her company. NOW, she is at another company

and is interested in finding out about the services that I offer. YAY! So how did this happen? Was it because

I set up a Facebook profile a year ago, ignored it and then magically someone wanted to buy something?

Nope! This is the process that this prospect went through:

  • She attended a class that I gave
  • I put her into my database AND asked her to be my Facebook friend
  • She did not need my product or service right then BUT we saw each other on the Facebook, I liked some of her stuff off and on, generally she
  • still knew I was out there in the business
  • She sent me a message through Facebook asking about my services

Now, will she turn into a client, maybe. BUT the whole point is to fill up your pipeline with people

who are curious about what you do and make sure

to pay attention to them. Have to say that having them as Facebook friends is a super easy way to do that!

– – – –

I do not know if you know this or not, but we have a Small Business Marketing and Social Media membership site

will all kinds of great information about how to actually DO some of the things that we talk about over here!

In fact, I am going to be adding so me new videos TODAY

that cover how to do these kinds of posts that get results for your social media efforts!!!

Found on http://www.Marketingartfully.com

A news update with features, case studies, tips and a social media white paper
HootSuite has gathered up a variety of tools and tips which will help your social media campaigns
We see social media in action from organizing political revolutions to hobby meet-ups along with businesses which are embracing the social web in creative ways to outreach to brand fans.Well, the industrious owls at HootSuite HQ enjoy seeing the remarkable things people do with our beloved social media dashboard, so we’ve gathered up research and tips to help you along. Plus, we’ve made a few noteworthy additions to the dashboard which we think you’ll enjoy.

Useful White PaperWhite Paper with HootSuite

Whether you use social media tools for business or personal purposes, the rapid rise of these communication tactics is a fascinating topic. With this quick emergence though comes challenging questions about how social fits into business settings.

For this reason, we’ve partnered with Useful Social Media to produce a white paper examining the role of social media for enterprise businesses. This report – titled The State of Corporate Social Media 2011 – includes a foreword written by HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes, and identifies evolving trends and tactics in the corporate space.

Even non-business-minded users will enjoy seeing the difference between how businesses in Europe and North America use social media. So head on over to Useful Social Media to download your free copy and tell us what you think via @HootBusiness.

Download the White Paper

Filed Under Win

The New York Public Library is the largest public library on Twitter and a star in movies like Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Sex and the City. We were pleased to create a case study exploring how @NYPL used HootSuite to efficiency serve their audience. They even won an award for their unique Tweeting efforts – Congrats!

Read the NYPL Case Study in media library, or download it from Slideshare to share with your friends and colleagues. Next up: A case study showing how a transit authority raised awareness and improved emergency service using HootSuite.

#HootTips about Re-Tweets and Lists

We launched a series of short how-to articles starting with ReTweets and Lists.
Hoot Tip from HootSuite
Learn how to choose your Re-Tweet style on-the-fly from each Tweet. See a quick lesson on how to create and manage Twitter lists in the HootSuite dashboard.

We call these handy nuggets #HootTips – Tweet your #HootTip (and follow the tag) and you may earn a #HootKit full of limited-edition Owly swag for sharing your wisdom.

‘Berry New Updates

HootSuite for BlackBerry HootSuite for BlackBerry is now even more loaded up with networks with LinkedIn, Foursquare, Facebook (Profiles and Pages), and of course Twitter. Schedule updates, “check-in,” manage lists and track stats on your ‘berry. Performance updates make posting even breezier.

Get started by downloading HootSuite BlackBerry and remember to do a hard reset after install – and it’s free!

Updated Facebook Pages

Going along with Facebook’s recent updates, we’ve also added more functionality to Facebook Pages:

Delete a Comment from HootSuitePost as your Facebook Page: Post comments as your brand rather than from your personal profile – particularly handy to retain brand consistency for premium users with multiple team members posting on your profile

Delete Facebook Page comments: Quickly remove inappropriate comments from your Facebook Pages without having to leave the HootSuite dashboard – great for getting ahead of potential problems and unsavoury remarks

Up Next

We’re heading to SXSW for panels and meet-ups. Keep an eye on the HootSuite blog for more information about our SXSW plans, but before we head to Austin, we have another (big) release planned. We’ll be sure to let you know.

HootSuite is a Trademark of HootSuite Media, Inc. More: HootSuite Online Media Kit.