What’s the missing, yet critical element for successful B2B marketers? – Creativity.
It is a common fact that many B2B marketers stay the path of the traditional and in the box techniques. To create a competitive edge to your business marketing, add some creative thinking and opportunities to attract and engage prospects and customers.
Typical B2B marketing can be dry –Marketing business technologies or services typically don’t have much room for emotional interaction or social engagement. It’s not anyone’s fault, this is just how it’s always been.
Today, most B2B marketers still don’t embrace social engagement or online B2B marketing tools – they still stick with what they have always known and used. These marketers tend to stay in the box and not look outside of how they market their products and services.
Those willing to look outside of the box begin to understand how innovative thinking helps create new and expand existing opportunities with their customers.
Stand out with creativity – For B2B marketers that want to increase opportunities that will lead to sales, looking outside of the box is not enough – they need to stand outside of the box. Combining traditional B2B marketing and using new and creative options, business marketing becomes more than just dry marketing of the same old technologies and services.
Let’s look at a few areas it pays to be creative:
Business Blogs – To traditional marketers, a business blog is not worth the time and effort. To others, this is a perfect way to not only attract new prospects, but also engage and convert them into paying customers. With a blog, you provide information that educates prospects. When they have the information they need, they are ready to engage and ask for more information about what you offer – this will lead to better sales leads.
Social Engagement – It’s not enough to just wait for prospects to find you, you have to go to them. Look at social networks where your products and services would benefit those community members; engage prospects and give them places to look for more resources such as your blog or website.
Content Creation and Sharing – Creating content doesn’t just mean writing; it could be text, audio, video or other types of content. When you create your content, you can put it on and off of your own sites. Examples could be posting a video to your blog, adding a podcast to a podcast directory or sharing content on your social networking channels.
Sharing content is a great way not only for you, but also your customers to spread the word about your product and services. When you post something on your blog, include ways for others to share it on their social networks. Encourage others to share the content you post to your Facebook page or on your YouTube channel.
Use creativity to improve metrics – Now that you understand some ways to add creativity to your B2B marketing, what does it do for your metrics and overall revenue? By engaging with prospects and current customers on multiple networks, you get the word out; increase search engine rankings to you through back links and also get others to spread your information on their networks for you.
Now look at your digital marketing metrics; what do you see? All of the creative ways you have marketed out are bringing back in targeted traffic, conversions and are helping you build lasting relationships with your customers.
To get more prospects, more conversions and more sales, look at adding some creativity to your B2B marketing.
This was originally posted by Maria Pergolino
Monday, August 23, 2010
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Getting to scale: direct marketing vs. mass market thinking
A mass marketer needs to reach the masses, and to do it in many ways, simultaneously. The mass marketer needs retail outlets and fliers and a website and public relations and tv ads and more more more and then... bam... critical mass is reached and success occurs.
Best Buy is a mass marketer, but so are Microsoft and the Red Cross. Ubiquity, once achieved, brings them revenue, which advances the cycle and they reach scale.
The direct marketer, on the other hand, must get it right in the small. That pitch letter can be tested on 100 houses and if it gets a 2% response rate, then it can be mailed to 100,000 houses with confidence. That business-to-business sales pitch can be honed on one or two or three prospects, and then when it works, can be taught to dozens or hundreds of other salespeople.
The key distinction is when you know it's going to work. The mass marketer doesn't know until the end. The direct marketer knows in the beginning.
The mass marketer is betting on thousands of tiny cues, little clues, and unrecorded (but vital) conversations. The direct marketer is measuring conversion rates from the first day.
That's the reason we often default to acting like mass marketers. We're putting off the day of reckoning, betting on the miracle around the corner, spending our time and energy on the early steps without the downside of admitting failure to the boss.
Of course, just because it's our default doesn't mean it's right. Business to business marketing is almost always better if you treat it like direct marketing. Most websites that do conversion as well. Same with non-profit fundraising. As well as marketing goods and services to the bottom of the pyramid, people who live in villages where mass media and mass distribution are difficult and have little impact.
Get it right for ten people before you rush around scaling up to a thousand. It's far less romantic than spending money at the start, but it's the reliable, proven way to get to scale if you care enough to do the work.
This blog was originally posted on Seth Godin's Blog at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
Best Buy is a mass marketer, but so are Microsoft and the Red Cross. Ubiquity, once achieved, brings them revenue, which advances the cycle and they reach scale.
The direct marketer, on the other hand, must get it right in the small. That pitch letter can be tested on 100 houses and if it gets a 2% response rate, then it can be mailed to 100,000 houses with confidence. That business-to-business sales pitch can be honed on one or two or three prospects, and then when it works, can be taught to dozens or hundreds of other salespeople.
The key distinction is when you know it's going to work. The mass marketer doesn't know until the end. The direct marketer knows in the beginning.
The mass marketer is betting on thousands of tiny cues, little clues, and unrecorded (but vital) conversations. The direct marketer is measuring conversion rates from the first day.
That's the reason we often default to acting like mass marketers. We're putting off the day of reckoning, betting on the miracle around the corner, spending our time and energy on the early steps without the downside of admitting failure to the boss.
Of course, just because it's our default doesn't mean it's right. Business to business marketing is almost always better if you treat it like direct marketing. Most websites that do conversion as well. Same with non-profit fundraising. As well as marketing goods and services to the bottom of the pyramid, people who live in villages where mass media and mass distribution are difficult and have little impact.
Get it right for ten people before you rush around scaling up to a thousand. It's far less romantic than spending money at the start, but it's the reliable, proven way to get to scale if you care enough to do the work.
This blog was originally posted on Seth Godin's Blog at http://sethgodin.typepad.com/
Sunday, August 1, 2010
B2B Social Media – 10 Tips From The Definitive Guide To Social Media
As B2B marketers, we know the growing importance of B2B social media. We know it’s a necessary tool for seed nurturing and demand generation, but in many cases, B2B marketers are still not sure where to begin. The following 10 tips from the Definitive Guide to Social Media will help you understand what components are essential to grasp, use and focus on.
1. Develop a plan – Ask yourself these three questions:
WHO – Who is your target audience? Do you have a buyer persona?
HOW – How can you deploy social media tactics for measurable success? What KPIs are important to your brand?
WHAT – What goals or objectives do you want to accomplish? Increase brand awareness? Improve engagement?
2. Blog – This plays a key role in lead nurturing and educating prospects. Therefore, its pertinent that you:
Update often
Create thought leadership content
Add a human touch
Provide insight into company & products/services
Develop linkbait & use anchor text links
3. Twitter 101
Create a full account – Always create your account with a full profile: picture, bio, link to company website and customized background.
Follow with relevance – Connect to significant people, thought leaders, industry experts and encourage others to follow you.
Tweet daily, multiple times daily – Include links, RT followers, be interesting.
4. Facebook 101
DON’T friend people you don’t know. DO ask people if you can friend them, particularly if you’ve only spoken to them on the phone.
DO take advantage of privacy settings to manage personal and business content separately
DO use Facebook status updates to include powerful tidbits of information, similar to Tweets. DON’T update what you had for breakfast unless it’s somehow relevant to your audience.
DO add a picture.
DO create a Facebook page for your business, especially if you aren’t comfortable with a personal profile.
DO post events and create groups. This will help develop your following.
5. LinkedIn 101
Connections – Connect only to those who are relevant. You can actually be banned for trying to connect with people you don’t know. However, it’s fine to connect with those whom you do know but only in a professional capacity without a personal connection.
Timeliness – Send connections shortly after meeting with someone so he/she remembers you.
Complete profile – Provide as much detail as possible, what you’re looking for out of the site and include a picture to ‘humanize’ the profile.
Recommendations – Request from individuals that can leave positive feedback and comments about your company.
6. Online Video Sites – These are great B2B marketing tools.
These sites include mainly YouTube but also Vimeo and Viddler. This provides a great opportunity to build awareness, demonstrate thought leadership and drive business. It also offers the chance to improve SEO, creating a greater likelihood your company will appear in search engines. Sites to test for your marketing include:
YouTube
Vimeo
Viddler
7. Bookmarking Sites – These allow users to share websites and content they find interesting. Sites like Delicious, Digg and StumbleUpon house lists of websites, blog and articles categorized by tags and topics. Use these sites to:
Gain referrals
Build a community
Increase brand awareness
8. Leverage widgets – Widgets are stand-alone tools or applications that provide dynamic content.
It’s very important widgets are relevant and useful, as it’s easy to get lost amongst the masses. Widgets make great viral marketing for companies by offering unique, easy-to-use content that’s visually appealing.
9. Share – The age old lesson of giving to others.
But in this instance we aren’t referring to cookies in the lunch room, instead we’re referencing document or presentation sharing. Encouraging sharing from those researching your content by providing presentations and documents via sites like SlideShare and Scribd. This increases the propensity that visitors re-share this information on their own blogs.
10. Photos – Pictures are great tools to give your company personality and life.
Prospects researching company events, conferences and offices love visual elements, as well. Tell a story through photos deliver dynamic content.
These 10 tips make a great start to help you ease into B2B social media. By downloading The Definitive Guide to Social Media from Marketo, you can learn even more about implementation and analysis. Discover the ROI of social media and how to implement tactics throughout each stage of the revenue cycle.
This content was originally posted by Maria Pergolino on http://blog.marketo.com/
1. Develop a plan – Ask yourself these three questions:
WHO – Who is your target audience? Do you have a buyer persona?
HOW – How can you deploy social media tactics for measurable success? What KPIs are important to your brand?
WHAT – What goals or objectives do you want to accomplish? Increase brand awareness? Improve engagement?
2. Blog – This plays a key role in lead nurturing and educating prospects. Therefore, its pertinent that you:
Update often
Create thought leadership content
Add a human touch
Provide insight into company & products/services
Develop linkbait & use anchor text links
3. Twitter 101
Create a full account – Always create your account with a full profile: picture, bio, link to company website and customized background.
Follow with relevance – Connect to significant people, thought leaders, industry experts and encourage others to follow you.
Tweet daily, multiple times daily – Include links, RT followers, be interesting.
4. Facebook 101
DON’T friend people you don’t know. DO ask people if you can friend them, particularly if you’ve only spoken to them on the phone.
DO take advantage of privacy settings to manage personal and business content separately
DO use Facebook status updates to include powerful tidbits of information, similar to Tweets. DON’T update what you had for breakfast unless it’s somehow relevant to your audience.
DO add a picture.
DO create a Facebook page for your business, especially if you aren’t comfortable with a personal profile.
DO post events and create groups. This will help develop your following.
5. LinkedIn 101
Connections – Connect only to those who are relevant. You can actually be banned for trying to connect with people you don’t know. However, it’s fine to connect with those whom you do know but only in a professional capacity without a personal connection.
Timeliness – Send connections shortly after meeting with someone so he/she remembers you.
Complete profile – Provide as much detail as possible, what you’re looking for out of the site and include a picture to ‘humanize’ the profile.
Recommendations – Request from individuals that can leave positive feedback and comments about your company.
6. Online Video Sites – These are great B2B marketing tools.
These sites include mainly YouTube but also Vimeo and Viddler. This provides a great opportunity to build awareness, demonstrate thought leadership and drive business. It also offers the chance to improve SEO, creating a greater likelihood your company will appear in search engines. Sites to test for your marketing include:
YouTube
Vimeo
Viddler
7. Bookmarking Sites – These allow users to share websites and content they find interesting. Sites like Delicious, Digg and StumbleUpon house lists of websites, blog and articles categorized by tags and topics. Use these sites to:
Gain referrals
Build a community
Increase brand awareness
8. Leverage widgets – Widgets are stand-alone tools or applications that provide dynamic content.
It’s very important widgets are relevant and useful, as it’s easy to get lost amongst the masses. Widgets make great viral marketing for companies by offering unique, easy-to-use content that’s visually appealing.
9. Share – The age old lesson of giving to others.
But in this instance we aren’t referring to cookies in the lunch room, instead we’re referencing document or presentation sharing. Encouraging sharing from those researching your content by providing presentations and documents via sites like SlideShare and Scribd. This increases the propensity that visitors re-share this information on their own blogs.
10. Photos – Pictures are great tools to give your company personality and life.
Prospects researching company events, conferences and offices love visual elements, as well. Tell a story through photos deliver dynamic content.
These 10 tips make a great start to help you ease into B2B social media. By downloading The Definitive Guide to Social Media from Marketo, you can learn even more about implementation and analysis. Discover the ROI of social media and how to implement tactics throughout each stage of the revenue cycle.
This content was originally posted by Maria Pergolino on http://blog.marketo.com/
Friday, July 16, 2010
Facebook Marketing: Ultimate Guide
It is an overused practice to start from some "shocking" stats and dissertate on how Facebook is powerful and important for business. So, I will just consider you all know what is Facebook and how cool it is.
What you're about to read is a step-by-step SMM strategy for promoting your business on Facebook. I've gathered all the best practices and tips that I have used myself, together with some advice that I haven't tried but am confident will work well. Ok. That's enough for the intro, let's go!
Where To Start?
1. Brand Ambassador.
First of all, don't use your personal account to promote your business, unless you want your customers to see your childhood pictures and lulz from the recent party. You can create another (purely business oriented) instance of yourself or hire someone to become your brand ambassador. This will be the person who represents your business online and handles all communications, so the info on the profile should be brief and clear and all the pictures neat and professional. Remember that users will associate your business with this guy.
Power Tip: Create a separate e-mail account in Gmail and import all the e-mail addresses of your clients there. Now when you use this account to create a new Facebook profile - the system will automatically find all of your clients in your address book and suggest to add them as your friends on Facebook! What a great start!
2. Creating a Facebook page.
Promotion on Facebook is all about having a page for your business. To create one, go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/ and click the "+ Create a Page" button.
Power Tip: "Page Name" is one of the the strongest ranking factors on Facebook search. Don't miss the opportunity to add some keywords you wish to rank for as you are not allowed to change your page name later.
Configuring Your Facebook Page
1. Profile picture & avatar.
Profile picture is one of the few things in the design of your page that you can actually customize, so be sure to make the most of it. Here are two great articles that will help you: "5 Creative Ways to Hack Your Profile Photo"; "Making the Most of Your Facebook Profile Picture".
2. Page info.
The next important thing to do is fill your Facebook page with information about your business. Most of it is stored under the "Info" tab, which you cannot remove or hide. Lots of people visit it, so work hard to make your info as brief and engaging as you can. "Think SEO" and use your keywords, as each of the tabs is indexable by the search engines.
Power Tip: if you type a URL starting from http:// in the info box under your profile picture, Facebook will turn it into a clickable link. So you can easily refer your visitors to your website, blog or twitter account.
3. Applications.
* Static FBML (Facebook Markup Language) - allows you to create 10 additional tabs, which can contain HTML/CSS, Flash, FBML, iframes and FBJS;
* NetworkedBlogs - allows you to post your RSS and Atom feeds directly to your wall;
* Twitter Tab - posts your twitter updates to a separate tab;
* Extended Info - adds an additional box which supports html/fbml, images, video and music to the left sidebar of your page;
* Fan Appz & Promotions - helps you handle all kinds of contests, sweepstakes & give aways.
Tip: you'll probably end up with lots of tabs by adding various applications. However you can easily drag them around if you think that some of them are more important.
4. Vanity URL.
To be able to convert your ugly "326727833086?ref=sgm&ajaxpipe=1&__a=7" URL into something fancy-looking, like "http://facebook.com/mybusinesspage" you need to have at least 25 fans. Once you do - go to http://www.facebook.com/username/ and click the "Set a username for your Pages" link at the bottom.
5. Custom landing page.
You need an attractive landing page, which will convert your visitors into fans. Here is when the FBML application comes into play. Using HTML, CSS, FBJS and even flash you can create awesome landing pages that people will not only "like", but link to, and suggest to friends.
Tip: If you've got no development skills you can find some nice facebook FBML page templates that have just started to appear around the template stores.
What To Expect?
Before we start reviewing various Facebook promotion techniques, I'd like to clear things up a little bit. Essentially when someone "Likes" your Facebook page, they will be notified every time you update its status, it's almost the same as following someone on Twitter. To have your message spread on Twitter you need to have your followers retweet your post so that their followers could see it and retweet in turn. On Facebook, the principle is a bit more sophisticated: when someone likes or comments your status update, this fact is being reflected in his profile. And when your status update gets a decent amount of "likes" and comments it is promoted to the Top News section of a user's News Feed, so that more people could see it.
Now let's refer to a famous "90:9:1 Social Behaviors Rule" to understand what it takes for your message to become visible.
Let's consider that "Heavy Contributors" are those ready to comment on your update, "Intermittent" ones will probably "like" it, and "Lurkers" will read it or just scroll through. Say your page has 100 fans. Knowing the fact that only 12%-20% of all your "Fans" will see your status update in their Live Feed, we can see that:
I hope this delivers a clear understanding that Facebook promotion takes an enormous amount of effort to become successful.
Promoting Your Facebook Page Internally.
1. Using your Brand Ambassador.
* Add to friends any people that may be your potential customers or somehow relate to your business. Recently, Facebook has added Skype integration, which can suggest you some Facebook friends from the list of your Skype contacts. Once you have a decent amount of friends use the "Suggest to friends" and "Share" buttons to promote your Facebook page to them;
* Use Facebook Search to discover relevant pages, groups, events, people and even messages. With Search you can easily track any mentions of your brand and provide feedback - people really love that;
* Once you join pages, groups and events, you are able to participate in the conversation, which is a great way of direct promotion. Moreover you can see the list of the group members and easily add them to friends;
* Communicate. Once someone comments on your new status, a photo, or anything else - answer back. Moreover you need to make people love your brand and become active contributors and then brand ambassadors. 1/4 of search results on each big brand is UGC (User Generated Content).
Power Tip: When composing a message put the @ symbol and start typing the name of your business page to mention it, just like you mention someone on Twitter. This can be used as a signature to your updates.
2. Keep the page fresh and interesting.
People join your page hoping to receive some interesting stuff from you, so do not disappoint them. Facebookers usually prefer pictures, videos and links to plain text updates. Here is a comprehensive list of things that you should keep in mind to avoid losing your fans: don't post too many updates; don't automate your content; don't be a duplicate of your website and don't be boring. Your page wall is your social proof and a signal for people to get involved.
3. Cheat a bit.
Ask fellow staff & your team members to post "likes" and comments on each of your status updates to boost its rankings. Only status updates with 5 or more "likes" and comments show up in the Top News section. This will also make your wall look "alive", which will inspire your fans to be more active on your page and participate in the conversation.
4. Fill in your page with media content.
* Upload pictures of your products/services, your office and your team at work to make your company easier to relate to;
* Encourage your fans to post pictures of how they use your product;
* Upload pictures from each event you host and tag your fans there;
* Post videos of your team members talks;
* Show your products/services in action;
* Use video to respond to your fans (Bill Clinton frequently does video responses on his page).
5. Treat your fans.
You need to offer your fans something special and reward them. For instance 1-800-FLOWER Facebook page shows the discount code only when you click the "Like" button.
You can make some special offers, which are available to your Facebook fans only and are not announced outside of Facebook. It's dead easy to reward your loyal fans by promoting them to the admins of your page, which will most likely turn them into enthusiastic brand ambassadors. Anyway, if there is some prominent fan - he should be publicly rewarded.
6. Send an update to Fans.
Direct messaging is a very powerful tool, but do not misuse it. Think twice before sending a message to all of your fans - it should be really valuable if you don't want everyone to ignore it or get irritated.
Tip: Facebook allows you to send targeted updates. Think of a way you could use that feature for your business.
7. Ask your fans for help.
Now and then you can post a status update asking your fans to help build the community by suggesting your page to their friends. Just refer them to "Suggest to Friends" and "Share" links on your page and measure their response.
8. Build partnerships with other pages.
Notice that each page on Facebook has an "Add to my Page's Favorites" button. When you do this, the logo of this page appears in a special "Favorite Pages" box on your own page. People see it and they might click the link to find out more about this page.
Your aim here is to build partnerships within your niche and be "favourited" as much as possible. Add to favorites pages that you like or that your business is related to and inform their owners about it with a wall post or a private message. Most likely you will be "favorited" back.
9. Use the applications.
There are a lot of crazy apps that you can use to promote yourself. You can even develop one of your own if your budget allows that. But how do the viral applications work in common?
You need something that people would willingly launch. This might be a game or a quiz or any other kind of dynamic content that most people love. Once a person has his score, bagde, vitual gift or any other result - the application publishes it to his wall so that all his friends could see it. The application should have a clear call to action, so that new people could easily get engaged. If the application has some kind of a High Score - people will play it again and again till they outrank their friends. You can (should) use the apps for sweepstakes and giveaways - people love them a lot.
10. Spy!
Yes! Always keep an eye on your competitors, especially on those outranking you. Check what they do and if you consider it to be a successful strategy - do the same. When they fail - try to avoid their mistakes. Anyway, you should always be informed on what others are doing to promote themselves.
11. Ads?
Indeed the most common way to promote your page. But before you use it, check out these stats:
Promoting Your Facebook Page Externally.
1. Facebook for webites.
The Facebook team has come a long way toward making your website more personalized and social. There is a list of great social plugins that can be easily embedded into your website and drive lots of new visitors: "Like Button" plugin, which is almost everywhere now, "Like Box", which let's you become a fan of the website without leaving the page, "Live Stream" which is often used while broadcasting some event. Try them on your website and see what happens next.
2. "Like" and "Share" buttons.
These two are so powerful that they require a separate paragraph. Once you own an online store - those buttons are of exceptional value. Whenever you find something that appeals to you in an online store - you no longer need to copy the URL and send it to your friends to ask for their opinion. Just press the "Like" button. They will see that and comment on it. This applies to photos, videos, games, blog posts, reviews - literally anything that can be found on the web.
3. Put a link everywhere.
Once you have a website, you put its address everywhere - e-mail signatures, forum signatures, twitter info, author bio section, LinkedIn profile, links section of your blog. Do exactly the same with your Facebook page. Highlight your Facebook presence at offline events, print it on your business card, use every opportunity you have.
Power Tip: Take some twitter auto follow script that follows a person whenever he has specific keywords in his tweet. Some percent of the people you've followed will follow you back. Write an engaging request to join your Facebook page and set it as an automatic direct message to people, who have just followed you. Being launched, this system will drive some new fans to your Facebook page on a regular basis.
4. Using video.
Almost every video sharing service allows you to annotate your videos with links. This is a great way to drive some new fans onto your Facebook page. You can make viral videos, funny videos, tutorials, explanations, presentations etc. and include a link to your Facebook page with a request to join. Works perfectly!
5. Other services.
There are a lot of websites where you can get some targeted audience. For instance, upon writing this guide I've gone though dozens of presentations at SlideShare and Scribd. There I've seen many referrals to join Facebook pages specialized on marketing, and I did join some of them truthfully as I enjoyed their presentations. Examine carefully all the websites where you post information or showcase your services and think of the way you could refer people to your Facebook page.
Power Tip: In case you have some kind of a digital product - create a torrent with some demos, name it with trending keywords and upload to all torrent trackers you can find. In the info or in the comments section add a link to your Facebook page. Then go to your analytics and watch your numbers grow.
Wheew... That's the end of my guide. Sure there's a lot more to add, but I tried to keep my tactics brief, to leave some space for your imagination. I'm sure each of you can invent lots of fantastic ways to use Facebook for SMM. I am open for any questions, shoot!
The blog was originally posted on SEOmoz: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/facebook-marketing-ultimate-guide
It is an overused practice to start from some "shocking" stats and dissertate on how Facebook is powerful and important for business. So, I will just consider you all know what is Facebook and how cool it is.
What you're about to read is a step-by-step SMM strategy for promoting your business on Facebook. I've gathered all the best practices and tips that I have used myself, together with some advice that I haven't tried but am confident will work well. Ok. That's enough for the intro, let's go!
Where To Start?
1. Brand Ambassador.
First of all, don't use your personal account to promote your business, unless you want your customers to see your childhood pictures and lulz from the recent party. You can create another (purely business oriented) instance of yourself or hire someone to become your brand ambassador. This will be the person who represents your business online and handles all communications, so the info on the profile should be brief and clear and all the pictures neat and professional. Remember that users will associate your business with this guy.
Power Tip: Create a separate e-mail account in Gmail and import all the e-mail addresses of your clients there. Now when you use this account to create a new Facebook profile - the system will automatically find all of your clients in your address book and suggest to add them as your friends on Facebook! What a great start!
2. Creating a Facebook page.
Promotion on Facebook is all about having a page for your business. To create one, go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/ and click the "+ Create a Page" button.
Power Tip: "Page Name" is one of the the strongest ranking factors on Facebook search. Don't miss the opportunity to add some keywords you wish to rank for as you are not allowed to change your page name later.
Configuring Your Facebook Page
1. Profile picture & avatar.
Profile picture is one of the few things in the design of your page that you can actually customize, so be sure to make the most of it. Here are two great articles that will help you: "5 Creative Ways to Hack Your Profile Photo"; "Making the Most of Your Facebook Profile Picture".
2. Page info.
The next important thing to do is fill your Facebook page with information about your business. Most of it is stored under the "Info" tab, which you cannot remove or hide. Lots of people visit it, so work hard to make your info as brief and engaging as you can. "Think SEO" and use your keywords, as each of the tabs is indexable by the search engines.
Power Tip: if you type a URL starting from http:// in the info box under your profile picture, Facebook will turn it into a clickable link. So you can easily refer your visitors to your website, blog or twitter account.
3. Applications.
* Static FBML (Facebook Markup Language) - allows you to create 10 additional tabs, which can contain HTML/CSS, Flash, FBML, iframes and FBJS;
* NetworkedBlogs - allows you to post your RSS and Atom feeds directly to your wall;
* Twitter Tab - posts your twitter updates to a separate tab;
* Extended Info - adds an additional box which supports html/fbml, images, video and music to the left sidebar of your page;
* Fan Appz & Promotions - helps you handle all kinds of contests, sweepstakes & give aways.
Tip: you'll probably end up with lots of tabs by adding various applications. However you can easily drag them around if you think that some of them are more important.
4. Vanity URL.
To be able to convert your ugly "326727833086?ref=sgm&ajaxpipe=1&__a=7" URL into something fancy-looking, like "http://facebook.com/mybusinesspage" you need to have at least 25 fans. Once you do - go to http://www.facebook.com/username/ and click the "Set a username for your Pages" link at the bottom.
5. Custom landing page.
You need an attractive landing page, which will convert your visitors into fans. Here is when the FBML application comes into play. Using HTML, CSS, FBJS and even flash you can create awesome landing pages that people will not only "like", but link to, and suggest to friends.
Tip: If you've got no development skills you can find some nice facebook FBML page templates that have just started to appear around the template stores.
What To Expect?
Before we start reviewing various Facebook promotion techniques, I'd like to clear things up a little bit. Essentially when someone "Likes" your Facebook page, they will be notified every time you update its status, it's almost the same as following someone on Twitter. To have your message spread on Twitter you need to have your followers retweet your post so that their followers could see it and retweet in turn. On Facebook, the principle is a bit more sophisticated: when someone likes or comments your status update, this fact is being reflected in his profile. And when your status update gets a decent amount of "likes" and comments it is promoted to the Top News section of a user's News Feed, so that more people could see it.
Now let's refer to a famous "90:9:1 Social Behaviors Rule" to understand what it takes for your message to become visible.
Let's consider that "Heavy Contributors" are those ready to comment on your update, "Intermittent" ones will probably "like" it, and "Lurkers" will read it or just scroll through. Say your page has 100 fans. Knowing the fact that only 12%-20% of all your "Fans" will see your status update in their Live Feed, we can see that:
I hope this delivers a clear understanding that Facebook promotion takes an enormous amount of effort to become successful.
Promoting Your Facebook Page Internally.
1. Using your Brand Ambassador.
* Add to friends any people that may be your potential customers or somehow relate to your business. Recently, Facebook has added Skype integration, which can suggest you some Facebook friends from the list of your Skype contacts. Once you have a decent amount of friends use the "Suggest to friends" and "Share" buttons to promote your Facebook page to them;
* Use Facebook Search to discover relevant pages, groups, events, people and even messages. With Search you can easily track any mentions of your brand and provide feedback - people really love that;
* Once you join pages, groups and events, you are able to participate in the conversation, which is a great way of direct promotion. Moreover you can see the list of the group members and easily add them to friends;
* Communicate. Once someone comments on your new status, a photo, or anything else - answer back. Moreover you need to make people love your brand and become active contributors and then brand ambassadors. 1/4 of search results on each big brand is UGC (User Generated Content).
Power Tip: When composing a message put the @ symbol and start typing the name of your business page to mention it, just like you mention someone on Twitter. This can be used as a signature to your updates.
2. Keep the page fresh and interesting.
People join your page hoping to receive some interesting stuff from you, so do not disappoint them. Facebookers usually prefer pictures, videos and links to plain text updates. Here is a comprehensive list of things that you should keep in mind to avoid losing your fans: don't post too many updates; don't automate your content; don't be a duplicate of your website and don't be boring. Your page wall is your social proof and a signal for people to get involved.
3. Cheat a bit.
Ask fellow staff & your team members to post "likes" and comments on each of your status updates to boost its rankings. Only status updates with 5 or more "likes" and comments show up in the Top News section. This will also make your wall look "alive", which will inspire your fans to be more active on your page and participate in the conversation.
4. Fill in your page with media content.
* Upload pictures of your products/services, your office and your team at work to make your company easier to relate to;
* Encourage your fans to post pictures of how they use your product;
* Upload pictures from each event you host and tag your fans there;
* Post videos of your team members talks;
* Show your products/services in action;
* Use video to respond to your fans (Bill Clinton frequently does video responses on his page).
5. Treat your fans.
You need to offer your fans something special and reward them. For instance 1-800-FLOWER Facebook page shows the discount code only when you click the "Like" button.
You can make some special offers, which are available to your Facebook fans only and are not announced outside of Facebook. It's dead easy to reward your loyal fans by promoting them to the admins of your page, which will most likely turn them into enthusiastic brand ambassadors. Anyway, if there is some prominent fan - he should be publicly rewarded.
6. Send an update to Fans.
Direct messaging is a very powerful tool, but do not misuse it. Think twice before sending a message to all of your fans - it should be really valuable if you don't want everyone to ignore it or get irritated.
Tip: Facebook allows you to send targeted updates. Think of a way you could use that feature for your business.
7. Ask your fans for help.
Now and then you can post a status update asking your fans to help build the community by suggesting your page to their friends. Just refer them to "Suggest to Friends" and "Share" links on your page and measure their response.
8. Build partnerships with other pages.
Notice that each page on Facebook has an "Add to my Page's Favorites" button. When you do this, the logo of this page appears in a special "Favorite Pages" box on your own page. People see it and they might click the link to find out more about this page.
Your aim here is to build partnerships within your niche and be "favourited" as much as possible. Add to favorites pages that you like or that your business is related to and inform their owners about it with a wall post or a private message. Most likely you will be "favorited" back.
9. Use the applications.
There are a lot of crazy apps that you can use to promote yourself. You can even develop one of your own if your budget allows that. But how do the viral applications work in common?
You need something that people would willingly launch. This might be a game or a quiz or any other kind of dynamic content that most people love. Once a person has his score, bagde, vitual gift or any other result - the application publishes it to his wall so that all his friends could see it. The application should have a clear call to action, so that new people could easily get engaged. If the application has some kind of a High Score - people will play it again and again till they outrank their friends. You can (should) use the apps for sweepstakes and giveaways - people love them a lot.
10. Spy!
Yes! Always keep an eye on your competitors, especially on those outranking you. Check what they do and if you consider it to be a successful strategy - do the same. When they fail - try to avoid their mistakes. Anyway, you should always be informed on what others are doing to promote themselves.
11. Ads?
Indeed the most common way to promote your page. But before you use it, check out these stats:
Promoting Your Facebook Page Externally.
1. Facebook for webites.
The Facebook team has come a long way toward making your website more personalized and social. There is a list of great social plugins that can be easily embedded into your website and drive lots of new visitors: "Like Button" plugin, which is almost everywhere now, "Like Box", which let's you become a fan of the website without leaving the page, "Live Stream" which is often used while broadcasting some event. Try them on your website and see what happens next.
2. "Like" and "Share" buttons.
These two are so powerful that they require a separate paragraph. Once you own an online store - those buttons are of exceptional value. Whenever you find something that appeals to you in an online store - you no longer need to copy the URL and send it to your friends to ask for their opinion. Just press the "Like" button. They will see that and comment on it. This applies to photos, videos, games, blog posts, reviews - literally anything that can be found on the web.
3. Put a link everywhere.
Once you have a website, you put its address everywhere - e-mail signatures, forum signatures, twitter info, author bio section, LinkedIn profile, links section of your blog. Do exactly the same with your Facebook page. Highlight your Facebook presence at offline events, print it on your business card, use every opportunity you have.
Power Tip: Take some twitter auto follow script that follows a person whenever he has specific keywords in his tweet. Some percent of the people you've followed will follow you back. Write an engaging request to join your Facebook page and set it as an automatic direct message to people, who have just followed you. Being launched, this system will drive some new fans to your Facebook page on a regular basis.
4. Using video.
Almost every video sharing service allows you to annotate your videos with links. This is a great way to drive some new fans onto your Facebook page. You can make viral videos, funny videos, tutorials, explanations, presentations etc. and include a link to your Facebook page with a request to join. Works perfectly!
5. Other services.
There are a lot of websites where you can get some targeted audience. For instance, upon writing this guide I've gone though dozens of presentations at SlideShare and Scribd. There I've seen many referrals to join Facebook pages specialized on marketing, and I did join some of them truthfully as I enjoyed their presentations. Examine carefully all the websites where you post information or showcase your services and think of the way you could refer people to your Facebook page.
Power Tip: In case you have some kind of a digital product - create a torrent with some demos, name it with trending keywords and upload to all torrent trackers you can find. In the info or in the comments section add a link to your Facebook page. Then go to your analytics and watch your numbers grow.
Wheew... That's the end of my guide. Sure there's a lot more to add, but I tried to keep my tactics brief, to leave some space for your imagination. I'm sure each of you can invent lots of fantastic ways to use Facebook for SMM. I am open for any questions, shoot!
The blog was originally posted on SEOmoz: http://www.seomoz.org/blog/facebook-marketing-ultimate-guide
Monday, July 12, 2010
Attend our CAMA meeting this Wednesday and be entered in to a raffle for a free OMS ticket $369 value http://tinyurl.com/l6gef3
Saturday, July 10, 2010
CAMA Members: Get 20% off the Online Marketing Summit this Friday the 16th in Charlotte http://tinyurl.com/l6gef3
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