Web Traffic At Once

Yahoo! have been in talks with Facebook for over a year now and apparently recently got shy at Facebook’s $1 billion asking price but as I will explain here Yahoo! have missed out on an absolute bargain.

Facebook have 18 million users, plenty. However MySpace has 100 million + and sold for a mere $580 million to News Corp’s in 2005. YouTube sold to Google for a reported $1.65 billion in 2006 but it serves over 100 million video’s a day and has over 25 million visitors a month. So what makes Facebook so valuable? It gets relatively huge traffic levels but not on par with YouTube or MySpace. Despite now being available to anyone it began life as an exclusive network for students (you needed an educational email to register) and this is still its primary user group.

So where’s the money?

Currently Facebook displays conventional banner advertising on users’ homepages and selected pages through the site. Adverts are unobtrusive and random in so much as they’re not targeted at any particular user- they’re just served to the entire site on a random basis. Facebook are doing ok out of this arrangement on the basis of the number of page impressions they receive, although in reality they’re keeping advertising at a minimum in order to build up the value of the site for its eventual sale which will almost certainly happen in 2007/8. Smart guys!

The power of information

Register with Facebook and quickly you can find yourself giving away huge volumes of valuable personal information. Think about it… Facebook know your name, they know how old you are (actually your D.O.B which is infinitely more valuable as I’ll go on to explain), they know if you’re male or female, they know your hometown, your postcode if you choose to give it away (although I doubt many users choose this), they know if you’re single, in a relationship (and who with), married, divorced etc, they know your sexual orientation. Ok so you can answer all these questions as honestly, dishonestly or vaguely as you like but from what I’ve seen people happily give accurate information about themselves as it’s their friends and potential friends who are going to see it- and no one else right?

But what else do Facebook know? Well they know where you went to school, where you work, more sinisterly your religious and political views. From this we can start to build up a pretty valuable market profile. As I’m telling Facebook I may as well tell you I’m Male, 22 (born in August), Straight, in a relationship, conservative, atheist from Brighton, England. Went to school at Blatchington Mill Secondary, college at a place called BHASVIC, University at Bournemouth. From this information we can draw further assumptions- I live in Brighton and based on the location of my schools catchment area we could pretty accurately map places in Brighton I know about, visit, and live in (think Google maps API). I’m a straight; conservative from a reasonably wealthy area in full time employment therefore I’m probably white, middle class with a decent disposable income.

So what else? Facebook know what you look like, they probably know what you used to look like a few years ago as well. Probably most significantly they know who your friends are, they know how you know them, they know when you talk to them, what they look like and ultimately they know exactly the same information about them as they know about you- you’re interests, likes and dislikes and your friends tastes as well.

They know your email address, so they know if you use Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail etc. They know your phone number so they could pretty easily work out your phone provider. They have your IP address so they could work out your ISP. They know where you’ve arrived at the site from so they know what search engine you use (enter Yahoo! And Google to the bidding war), what browser you’re on, they know if you’re visually impaired or have learning disabilities from the settings on your browser.

Facebook know when I’m logging in and from where so they know the hours I work, if I’m using the internet at work, the pages I leave Facebook to go to or the pages I come from so they know what other sites I look at. I can set my current status and tell Facebook exactly what I’m doing or feeling right this second.

Ok so you get the picture by now, one last thing though, is your Facebook password the same as your email account password, your internet and telephone banking password, every other password you use in your daily life (because until I wrote this post mine was!) how much more information do you want to give away?

What’s the risk here?

Realistically it’s pretty slim. Facebook are a nice bunch of guys and a great site, I love using it and despite knowing what I know about information security and the like I choose to give away a big chunk of the information I’ve talked about here.

Yahoo! And Facebook

So if Yahoo!, Google or god forbid Microsoft successfully purchase Facebook (as I say I’m reasonably confident this will happen this year) the Orwellian lucid dream proposed by this post becomes a perpetual nightmare. Imagine a company who have made billions and dominated the fastest growing market in the world by developing algorithms which crawl hundreds of millions of pages of random information (the internet) and categorize that information with the ultimate goal of matching it to businesses and selling advertising.

The search algorithm let loose on Facebook

Imagine the search engines let loose on Facebook. An algorithm tuned to pick out profile information (John, born 13.08.84). Map it to keywords in personal interests i.e. football, Manchester United. Plot your location on a map i.e. Brighton, England. Follow links to your closest friends with similar interests i.e. Bob and Dave who live round the corner and serve me an advert something like:

Happy birthday for next week John.

Did you know its Dave’s birthday the week after?

Why not book tickets for Brighton and Hove Albion vs. Manchester united on 12.08.07

Click here to book now and get 3 tickets for the price of 2 (why not ask bob to come along- he supports Brighton and you haven’t spoken in a while).

Book today and we’ll give you a half price limo from your house to the game with trashy-limo’s.com.

Now that’s powerful advertising and it’s just around the corner. If Facebook has 25 million registered users by the time it’s sold, half of whom visit every day that’s a minimum 12.5 million page impressions a day. Serve the advert above at $1 a click (which is far less than its worth based on the current AdWords CPC model) expect a click through rate of up to 10% based on the precise nature of the advertising and that’s $1.2 million minimum a day- almost $½ a billion a year. Grow that user group to 50 million (realistic if Google or Yahoo! can tap into their existing user database) and sell ad space on an affiliate basis say the football tickets at $300 with a 10% affiliate kickback and a 10% conversion rate =$3 per user x 25 million users =$75 million a day or $2737500000 in year 1! OK lets not get carried away people aren’t going to spend $300 every other day but the logics there and so the cash.

Will the audience except it?

Better quality advertising means less advertising- less websites rammed with banners so you can’t find what you’re looking for, less popups, less low quality products. This is the main driving force behind the success of search marketing programs and profile based advertising is already in place with Google’s personalized search returning more targeted AdWords ads than previously possible. If it falls into the hands of Microsoft then people may be more wary but with the image of Google or Yahoo! and Facebook profile information is seen as soft information as the company doesn’t sell you products directly and he service is free. It’s the way the internet is going and I believe it’s where we’ll be in 5 years.

Identity theft

The point I’ve been making tediously through this post is that we should be more careful about what information we give up and to whom. If the internet was a county it would be Nazi Germany and Facebook would be the Gestapo! Social utilities like Facebook are afforded the sort of privileged information fascist governments the world over would and have killed for. We moan about identity cards being introduced in the UK (ironically there’s several Facebook groups dedicated to the cause) but we happily give up personal details to a bunch of college geeks in the states who are ultimately planning on selling our details to the highest bidder (the value of any site is based on the volume, quality and amount of information they have about their traffic- but best of luck to them) possibly to the company who already control the majority of world business systems through the windows platform.

This post is not meant to scare- it’s simply a recognition of the power of new internet technologies, their possibly applications and to pose the question- if your Facebook friends are your real friends shouldn’t they know your birthday? Are Facebook really going to buy you a present?!

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There are lots of social networking websites that you can participate in today like MySpace and Bebo, and they all have their pluses and minuses. The best way to choose a community to participate in is to evaluate the people who have already joined. To me, Facebook is certainly one of the best internet meeting places for networking, both socially and professionally. I also use Linked In and Myspace. Of all the social networks, Facebook is the best place when it comes to all around marketing and networking.

I have been using Facebook for the past two years, and it is a first-class tool for marketing to add to your marketing arsenal. Here are 10 tips to use on Facebook to introduce new people to your business for FREE!

1. Make an Attractive Profile: This is absolutely the FIRST thing that you must do to get noticed on Facebook . Think of your Facebook profile as part of your branding. A powerful profile will include a professional picture of you. Don’t use the one of you dressed as Santa Claus, unless that’s what your selling. Make sure your new Facebook profile is complete. Your profile should include your contact information, your website address (this is really important), education, work experience and your personal interests. A complete profile is the only way to go.

2. Add Friends: This is what sets Facebook apart – the ability meet new people, build relationships and sustain them. The more relationships you develop, the more satisfying your marketing efforts will be. You can use Facebook’s own tools to search for friends that already belong to Facebook. Once you add your friends, you can search for kindred spirits. Make their acquaintance, become their friend, build a relationship. One great thing on Facebook is that you can see friends of your friends. This will help you build a extensive network in no time.

3. Join Facebook Groups: You can join groups within Facebook that are similar to what you do. There are groups for consultants, councilors, and instructors. Almost every conceivable type of professional service provider has some kind of group on Facebook. I belong to several Facebook groups and have made hundreds of new contacts this way.

4. Create your Own Group: Can’t find a group that really fits your style? Create your own! You can add members, publish articles, begin some great discussions, and probably start quite a few important new relationships. And even if you find great group to belong to, start your own. This gives you the platform to be the trendsetter!

5. Syndicate your Blog Using RSS: You can syndicate your own blog on your Facebook profile page. This in essence means that every time you make a post, it will automatically show up on your profile page. More Exposure leads to More Readers leads to More Leads creates More Business. And the bonus is the back links to your site. I syndicate headlines from my 3 blogs on Facebook.

6. Comment on Other Peoples Profiles: Are you a follower or devotee of someone’s work? Reach out to them on Facebook! Many of my friends check their Facebook messages more constantly than their email. They are also more likely to respond to Facebook messages. Don’t feel quite right sending out a message to someone you don’t know? Don’t worry! Leave them a “just saying hi!” or “I love your work!” message on their wall. All profiles come with “virtual walls” where business associates can leave a comment. The more comments you leave on your friend’s profiles the more exposure you get!

7. List your Events: Speaking somewhere or Hosting a Teleseminar? Add an events page and invite everyone you know. You can even see who RSVPed and get feedback from your attendees. Marketing doesn’t get any simpler (or more inexpensive!) than this.

8. Send Virtual Gifts: Want to show your appreciation for someone? Send them a virtual gift. You can choose from a teddy bear to an egg that hatches a surprise gift over 4 days (plus tons of others). With all the Facebook applications for gift giving available, what are you waiting for. This is a clever way to build and nurture new relationships!

9. Use Some Cool Apps: Facebook has literally dozens of applications that were built just for the site. Quizzes, games, challenges and more. When you use an application, you get to invite your friends to use these cool mini applications (Apps). So just like number 8 above, this allows you another way to stay connected to your friends on Facebook. Again, this helps you maintain and nurture new relationships.

10. Create a Community: Perhaps Facebook’s greatest benefit is that it allows you to build a community. It provides you a group of people who are perpetually connected to you, and these friends are open to hearing what you have to say. Write on people’s walls, have conversation, and introduce them to each other. Start building your brand and leveraging Facebook for business building!

Facebook is a fantastic place to introduce yourself to lots of new people who may also become customers and/or clients. Just keep one thing in mind: don’t get too carried away and spend all your time there. Facebook is a tool, part of your online marketing plan. Use the tips above, use them wisely and have a little fun at the same time.

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There are lots of social networking websites that you can participate in today like MySpace and Bebo, and they all have their pluses and minuses. The best way to choose a community to participate in is to evaluate the people who have already joined. To me, Facebook is certainly one of the best internet meeting places for networking, both socially and professionally. I also use Linked In and Myspace. Of all the social networks, Facebook is the best place when it comes to all around marketing and networking.

I have been using Facebook for the past two years, and it is a first-class tool for marketing to add to your marketing arsenal. Here are 10 tips to use on Facebook to introduce new people to your business for FREE!

1. Make an Attractive Profile: This is absolutely the FIRST thing that you must do to get noticed on Facebook . Think of your Facebook profile as part of your branding. A powerful profile will include a professional picture of you. Don’t use the one of you dressed as Santa Claus, unless that’s what your selling. Make sure your new Facebook profile is complete. Your profile should include your contact information, your website address (this is really important), education, work experience and your personal interests. A complete profile is the only way to go.

2. Add Friends: This is what sets Facebook apart – the ability meet new people, build relationships and sustain them. The more relationships you develop, the more satisfying your marketing efforts will be. You can use Facebook’s own tools to search for friends that already belong to Facebook. Once you add your friends, you can search for kindred spirits. Make their acquaintance, become their friend, build a relationship. One great thing on Facebook is that you can see friends of your friends. This will help you build a extensive network in no time.

3. Join Facebook Groups: You can join groups within Facebook that are similar to what you do. There are groups for consultants, councilors, and instructors. Almost every conceivable type of professional service provider has some kind of group on Facebook. I belong to several Facebook groups and have made hundreds of new contacts this way.

4. Create your Own Group: Can’t find a group that really fits your style? Create your own! You can add members, publish articles, begin some great discussions, and probably start quite a few important new relationships. And even if you find great group to belong to, start your own. This gives you the platform to be the trendsetter!

5. Syndicate your Blog Using RSS: You can syndicate your own blog on your Facebook profile page. This in essence means that every time you make a post, it will automatically show up on your profile page. More Exposure leads to More Readers leads to More Leads creates More Business. And the bonus is the back links to your site. I syndicate headlines from my 3 blogs on Facebook.

6. Comment on Other Peoples Profiles: Are you a follower or devotee of someone’s work? Reach out to them on Facebook! Many of my friends check their Facebook messages more constantly than their email. They are also more likely to respond to Facebook messages. Don’t feel quite right sending out a message to someone you don’t know? Don’t worry! Leave them a “just saying hi!” or “I love your work!” message on their wall. All profiles come with “virtual walls” where business associates can leave a comment. The more comments you leave on your friend’s profiles the more exposure you get!

7. List your Events: Speaking somewhere or Hosting a Teleseminar? Add an events page and invite everyone you know. You can even see who RSVPed and get feedback from your attendees. Marketing doesn’t get any simpler (or more inexpensive!) than this.

8. Send Virtual Gifts: Want to show your appreciation for someone? Send them a virtual gift. You can choose from a teddy bear to an egg that hatches a surprise gift over 4 days (plus tons of others). With all the Facebook applications for gift giving available, what are you waiting for. This is a clever way to build and nurture new relationships!

9. Use Some Cool Apps: Facebook has literally dozens of applications that were built just for the site. Quizzes, games, challenges and more. When you use an application, you get to invite your friends to use these cool mini applications (Apps). So just like number 8 above, this allows you another way to stay connected to your friends on Facebook. Again, this helps you maintain and nurture new relationships.

10. Create a Community: Perhaps Facebook’s greatest benefit is that it allows you to build a community. It provides you a group of people who are perpetually connected to you, and these friends are open to hearing what you have to say. Write on people’s walls, have conversation, and introduce them to each other. Start building your brand and leveraging Facebook for business building!

Facebook is a fantastic place to introduce yourself to lots of new people who may also become customers and/or clients. Just keep one thing in mind: don’t get too carried away and spend all your time there. Facebook is a tool, part of your online marketing plan. Use the tips above, use them wisely and have a little fun at the same time.

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There are lots of social networking websites that you can participate in today like MySpace and Bebo, and they all have their pluses and minuses. The best way to choose a community to participate in is to evaluate the people who have already joined. To me, Facebook is certainly one of the best internet meeting places for networking, both socially and professionally. I also use Linked In and Myspace. Of all the social networks, Facebook is the best place when it comes to all around marketing and networking.

I have been using Facebook for the past two years, and it is a first-class tool for marketing to add to your marketing arsenal. Here are 10 tips to use on Facebook to introduce new people to your business for FREE!

1. Make an Attractive Profile: This is absolutely the FIRST thing that you must do to get noticed on Facebook . Think of your Facebook profile as part of your branding. A powerful profile will include a professional picture of you. Don’t use the one of you dressed as Santa Claus, unless that’s what your selling. Make sure your new Facebook profile is complete. Your profile should include your contact information, your website address (this is really important), education, work experience and your personal interests. A complete profile is the only way to go.

2. Add Friends: This is what sets Facebook apart – the ability meet new people, build relationships and sustain them. The more relationships you develop, the more satisfying your marketing efforts will be. You can use Facebook’s own tools to search for friends that already belong to Facebook. Once you add your friends, you can search for kindred spirits. Make their acquaintance, become their friend, build a relationship. One great thing on Facebook is that you can see friends of your friends. This will help you build a extensive network in no time.

3. Join Facebook Groups: You can join groups within Facebook that are similar to what you do. There are groups for consultants, councilors, and instructors. Almost every conceivable type of professional service provider has some kind of group on Facebook. I belong to several Facebook groups and have made hundreds of new contacts this way.

4. Create your Own Group: Can’t find a group that really fits your style? Create your own! You can add members, publish articles, begin some great discussions, and probably start quite a few important new relationships. And even if you find great group to belong to, start your own. This gives you the platform to be the trendsetter!

5. Syndicate your Blog Using RSS: You can syndicate your own blog on your Facebook profile page. This in essence means that every time you make a post, it will automatically show up on your profile page. More Exposure leads to More Readers leads to More Leads creates More Business. And the bonus is the back links to your site. I syndicate headlines from my 3 blogs on Facebook.

6. Comment on Other Peoples Profiles: Are you a follower or devotee of someone’s work? Reach out to them on Facebook! Many of my friends check their Facebook messages more constantly than their email. They are also more likely to respond to Facebook messages. Don’t feel quite right sending out a message to someone you don’t know? Don’t worry! Leave them a “just saying hi!” or “I love your work!” message on their wall. All profiles come with “virtual walls” where business associates can leave a comment. The more comments you leave on your friend’s profiles the more exposure you get!

7. List your Events: Speaking somewhere or Hosting a Teleseminar? Add an events page and invite everyone you know. You can even see who RSVPed and get feedback from your attendees. Marketing doesn’t get any simpler (or more inexpensive!) than this.

8. Send Virtual Gifts: Want to show your appreciation for someone? Send them a virtual gift. You can choose from a teddy bear to an egg that hatches a surprise gift over 4 days (plus tons of others). With all the Facebook applications for gift giving available, what are you waiting for. This is a clever way to build and nurture new relationships!

9. Use Some Cool Apps: Facebook has literally dozens of applications that were built just for the site. Quizzes, games, challenges and more. When you use an application, you get to invite your friends to use these cool mini applications (Apps). So just like number 8 above, this allows you another way to stay connected to your friends on Facebook. Again, this helps you maintain and nurture new relationships.

10. Create a Community: Perhaps Facebook’s greatest benefit is that it allows you to build a community. It provides you a group of people who are perpetually connected to you, and these friends are open to hearing what you have to say. Write on people’s walls, have conversation, and introduce them to each other. Start building your brand and leveraging Facebook for business building!

Facebook is a fantastic place to introduce yourself to lots of new people who may also become customers and/or clients. Just keep one thing in mind: don’t get too carried away and spend all your time there. Facebook is a tool, part of your online marketing plan. Use the tips above, use them wisely and have a little fun at the same time.

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Learn about using social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, and others. What are they and how are they used?

A small but rapidly growing percentage of employers are using social networking sites as part of their recruiting process as well as part of their business processes.

Social networking sites can be dangerous when used as part of a background checking process but present tremendous opportunities when used as part of the sourcing process.

MySpace, Facebook, and Friendster are amongst the most popular sites, especially amongst high school and college students. Unlike most sites where even regular visitors spend at most minutes a week and look at a handful of pages, visitors to social networking sites often invest hours a day at the sites, viewing, and disclose a tremendous amount of information about themselves and their friends.

On-line recruiting expert Steven Rothberg of CollegeRecruiter.com career site has tried to demystify social networking sites and demonstrate the tremendous risks and opportunities they present to employers in articles he has written. The articles are recommended for people who want to find out more about these sites and their scopes and opportunities, both positive and negative sides.

We realize that more and more companies use Facebook for a reference check amongst new hires candidates. Whether this is positive or not, whether it is ethical or not is not the discussion here, but we should ask ourselves. Has our private sphere become to public, and do we have a responsibility ourselves as individuals to protect our private information if we do not want some elements of society to use them against us? My personal answer is that we should be careful with information publicized in sites like Facebook. Both legal as well as illegal companies and individuals can use the information on Facebook if it serves their purpose. Therefore the trap for us as individuals could be that we open up for big brother syndrome ourselves, without thinking of the consequences of this.

Serena Software uses Facebook as part of their intranet. 800 employees in 18 countries. Facebook is the frontend of their intranet with links to a cheap CMS system that is beind their firewall. It all started with Facebook Friday. The management in Serena Software encouraged their workers to use one hour every Friday to update their profile on Faceboook and create relations to collegues, customers and partners, friends and family. So Facebook acts as a front end with a CMS in the back end where links to confidential documents behind the firewall is performed. The process of change in Serena Software was focused on web 2.0. 35% of their 800 coworkers 800 does virtual work together. The management wanted that these coworkers should know each other better and get to the same understanding, make relations and feel engagement in the company’s activities. Facebook is free and a good web 2.0 sofware, so it fell natural for Serena to use this application as part of their intranet. They made privat groups for the employees on Faceboook and developed some simple programs for the intranet. Then they made links to relevant documents inside the firewall and therefore secure.The make press releases on Facebook and the human relationship department makes links to relevant information sources. This way the employees learns not only about the documents, but also about their coworkers behind the documents.

Some customers communicates today with Serena Software through Facebook. These customers does not use e-mail anymore. The relations between the customers and the coworkers in Serena Software has become stronger, since they know each other very well on a personal level Both employees in Serena Software as well as the customers updates their profiles on a regular basis and tell each others what they do, so it creates a stronger bond through Facebook.

Serena also use Facebook to recruit employees to the company. Potential coworkers knows about Serenas cooperation tools and therefore easy can get in touch with the environment and potential decision makers easier, Serena will know about the candidates since they also updates their Facebook on a regular basis and therefore latest news around this person is known.

Ernst & Young hires more than 5,500 college students and recent graduates pr year for internships and entry level career opportunities, only in North America alone. In addition to the traditional on-campus recruiting efforts, employee referrals, and advertising on job boards and other media, Ernst&Young now has a page on Facebook, which is one of the most popular social networking sites amongst college students.

Ernst &Young’s sponsored Facebook page contains information and discussion boards aimed at college students. Although students and other individuals use Facebook for free, Ernst&Young’s paid an undisclosed fee to Facebook as their page is more like advertising than it is to a traditional Facebook profile page. The risk of this is of course that there could be negative comments posted to their page by students and other individuals who use Facebook and even enabling people who don’t like Ernst &Young to connect more easily and perhaps allow their negative views to be more widely disseminated.

The price paid for the presence on Facebook is only part of the true cost, since Ernst & Young will have to take the costs related to the tremendous amount of staff time required to properly maintain a Facebook page. If they are not responsive to students who contact them through the page, they will look out-of-touch and do more harm to their brand than good.

Ernst & Young’s page is the first sponsored page on Facebook that is used exclusively for recruitment purposes. Other organizations such as Microsoft have pages that include information about their hiring efforts, but this is the first time that an organization’s Facebook page has been only about their efforts to hire college students who are searching for internships and recent graduates who are hunting for entry level jobs and other career opportunities.

So far about over 5000 Facebook users have linked to the Ernst & Young page as members. Once you have a Facebook profile, you can search for people or organizations which are of interest to you. You can find the Ernst & Young page by typing in Ernst and Young (without the quotation marks) into the Facebook search engine. Facebook then gives you the option of becoming a member of the Ernst & Young page and you can accept this. That’s all it takes. Now Ernst & Young’s recruiters will be able to review your profile. If you are a college junior or senior with a high GPA in a program such as business, finance, or accounting, the phone would probably be ringing right now.

This is probably a brilliant move by Ernst & Young. This is a big step towards Ernst & Young becoming more transparent. It also sends a powerful message to students that Ernst & Young is listening to their needs, wants, and desires. Recruiters who tell highly qualified candidates that they must apply through traditional channels will lose those candidates if those candidates want to connect through newer channels such as Facebook because those candidates have options and they know it.

Other companies such as Opera software has also adopted Facebook as a part of their business and uses it actively for various purposes.

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Professional and social networking sites like LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, and Squidoo are effective outlets for finding new readers, but it is easy to find your message spread thin if you don’t choose the right strategy. Many businesses settle for sparse profiles on various sites, never discovering the other powerful marketing tools many of these social networking platforms have to offermost of them for free.

To avoid the scattershot approach, choose one or two social networking sites that fit your business well and invest the time to maximize your presence in them. Let’s explore what that might look like if Facebook is one of your choices.

Prepare your best information before you start.

Avoid the “I will go back and fill that in later” trap. Have all your necessary information on hand, ready to copy and paste on the spot. Complete a worksheet containing:

1. Key Terms:
Make a list of your best key terms and weave them into the rest of your worksheet items. Key terms are one, two, or three word terms that someone might use if they were searching for your business in a search engine.

2. General Information:
Your Name
Business Name
Email Addresses
URLs
Instant Messaging screen names

3. Biographical and Descriptive Information:
Short bio (50 words)
Longer bio (100 words)
Short company description (50 words)
Longer company description (100 words)
Business mission statement

4. List of Products

I based these worksheet items on a typical Facebook profile and page. If you choose a different social networking site, examine some completed profiles and base your worksheet items on them.

Create an account and thoroughly complete your profile

If you haven’t already, get a Facebook account. Completely fill out your profile using your worksheet. Under the relationships tab, choose “networking.” You can skip the personal and education tabs for business profiles, but there is no harm in filling them out. If you have an existing account, upgrade your profile information using your key terms.

But don’t stop there!

Facebook, like most good social networking platforms, offers many marketing opportunities for businessessome for free. You can find these by clicking the “Advertising” link in the footer of the Facebook site, or by following this link: http://www.facebook.com/business/.

Since I can’t cover all of the marketing tools in one article, let’s focus on my favorite: The Facebook Page. It’s my favorite not only because it is free, but because it makes use of the many diverse Facebook applications.

Facebook pages are specifically for marketing a business or a product. They offer a way for a business to represent itself to the Facebook community in an authentic way. Facebook users can search pages the same way they search for people within the network community.

Create your page by going to “Page Manager” in the left sidebar of your Facebook profile, or by following this link: http://www.facebook.com/business/ and choosing Facebook Pages. Choose the best category for your business.

Use key terms in the name of your Facebook page!

It seems that the actual page name is the only text on a Facebook page that is used in a search. With that in mind, use at least two of your best key terms in your page name.

Populate your page with all of your best worksheet information. You may have only a few seconds to catch a reader’s attention, so put your best key terms forward.

Once your page is in place, add applications to help represent your company in your own unique way. To find applications for your page, click on “Applications” in the upper left corner of your page, or search for them here: http://www.facebook.com/apps/.

Applications are not difficult to install and are usually very easy to set up. Use this general rule of thumb when choosing an application: If you can’t figure out how to set it up after the second try, find another one. There is often more than one application available to accomplish the same task.

Applications Top Picks:

My Flickr (http://apps.facebook.com/myflickr/): Display photos from your Flickr account using this application. These photos can include logos, product photos, photos from events, etc.

Upcoming (http://apps.facebook.com/upcoming/): Add all of your events to upcoming.org, and you can easily display them on your Facebook page with Upcoming’s Facebook application.

YouTube Box (http://apps.facebook.com/videobox/): Allows visitors to play your YouTube videos right on your Facebook page.

Simply RSS (http://apps.facebook.com/simplyrss/): This allows you to display up to eight RSS feeds on your Facebook page and display the feeds from your business’s main site and newsrooms.

Implementing these applications creates an interactive page that also gives visitors a personable look into your business. To see all of these applications in use on one page, visit http://www.facebook.com/pages/Dalton-Publishing/9792568507.

Note: If you use a particular application regularly, consider donating to the application’s creatorthey do not get paid to develop these applications.

Promoting your social networking presence

Now that you have invested the time in creating an impressive presence on Facebook (or whichever social networks you chose), go the extra mile and research how you can promote your new presence both inside and outside of the network. Here is a link to Facebook’s promotional guidelines: http://www.facebook.com/pages/manage/promo_guidelines.php.

Of course, invite everyone on your mailing lists to join your network and visit your sharp new page!

Don’t turn your back on your investment

Remember: The social Web is a fickle place! You need to keep your content dynamic and interesting in order to encourage people to return to your page, or to recommend it to their friends. Do this, and you will see better results than those who just move on to building their next profile. Once you have a good, healthy presence in one community, use your experience to move on to your next successful presence.

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Facebook first introduced the Marketplace application in mid 2007 as a way for people to post classified listings on the site. Now Facebook has launched its new, updated Marketplace. This time the Marketplace is powered by a company with a funny name, Oodle. Despite the name they are a big online classifieds company founded by former Excite and eBay executives. Oodle has built a completely new version of the Marketplace focused on giving people a place to buy, sell or give things away to the people they know.

This Facebook Marketplace Guide is a practical Step-By-Step Guide for all of you who want to learn how to sell your items effectively on the new Facebook Marketplace.

Using the Facebook Marketplace you can sell, give away, buy, ask or search for anything you want. You can also use the Marketplace to support your favourite charities by selling your unwanted goods for a good cause. Additionally, you can see what your friends are buying and/or selling. Facebook users can post their Marketplace listings free of charge. Your listings will be viewable to millions of Facebook Marketplace users worldwide. If you have previously used the old Facebook Marketplace, you should see it bookmarked in the lower left hand corner of your monitor. And, if you had active listings in the old Marketplace, you should be given the option to transfer them to the new Facebook Marketplace. If you have not used the Facebook Marketplace application before, you can find it here: facebook.com/marketplace.

Ok, let’s get down to business. As I mentioned, this is a

Step-By-Step Guide how to sell in the Facebook Marketplace effectively

So, here we go:

Step 1 – Take a Photo

Grab your digital camera and take a nice close-up picture of the item that you wish to sell. It is best to shoot against a light, solid background. Transfer your photo to your computer as a JPG-file. If your item is something that can’t be presented with a photo, don’t worry, you can still get it listed.

Step 2 – Log On

Log on to your Facebook account and fire up the Marketplace application. Just click the Applications menu in the lower left hand corner of your screen and choose Marketplace. You are greeted with the Marketplace welcome screen.

You have four main options at your disposal:

Sell It Sell for a Cause
Give It Away and
Ask for It

In this guide we are concentrating on the Selling-for-Money side of things, so you may leave the screen as it is and write a short description of your item in the box where it says “Sell something to make extra cash.” When you click the box it will change into “Yourname” is selling..?. Write your main headline for the listing here. After writing your headline description, click the blue Post-button.

Step 3 – Write Your Advertisement

After you have written your headline for the listing you are presented with a new screen with more options related to your listing. Write a punch line type of a description in the box “Why are you selling it”?. You could write “I need money to buy more stuff.” but, even though it might be the case, I don’t think it would get your listing noticed. Consider this space as your sub headline for the ad. Write this description like you were working in an advertising company. Or, if you feel more conservative, just describe your item as funky as possible. You have two lines to hit the point.

Next, state your asking price in the Price-box. You know what its worth.

Write your location. This is a must. Just write in your city.

Choose a category for your item. At the time of writing this book, there are only the following 13 categories available:

Baby & Kid Stuff
Books & Magazines
Cars & Vehicles
Clothes & Accessories
Collectibles
Computers & Accessories
Electronics
Furniture
Home and Garden
Musical Instruments
Sporting Goods, Bicycles & Equipment
Tickets
Everything Else

If you can’t find a suitable category for your item, you can always choose Everything Else, however it is not a very good category to be listed under.

In the next box you can provide a wider description of your item. Here you have more room than just two lines. Describe your item with as much detail as you can. You know, size, colour, condition,.. those sort of things. But, don’t stress yourself too much with this; you can always change it later. Once you have created the best advertising text ever, hit the Browse-button to locate your photo from your computer, USB stick or where ever you think you saved it in Step 1. Yes, I know, … I can never find my images either. Don’t panic though, you have time to locate it; the screen isn’t going anywhere.

You found it? Good! Actually, you can upload two photos if you wish. For instance if you are selling a book, it is a good idea to upload both front and back covers. You can upload even more images later on, but for the sake of this exercise, one is enough.

Tick the Terms of Use-box and click the Submit-button.

Step 4 – Rather Unnecessary Step

The next screen has your details on it and your only option is to click the Continue-button. I really don’t know why this screen exists, but since it does all we can do is click the button.

Step 5 – Publishing

Next you will get a screen asking if you want to publish this listing in your own Facebook profile. This is a good idea. You will get a choice for a Full, Short or a One Line description. I would recommend you’d choose the Short-option. You may tick the Always do this for Marketplace-box if you wish to use this same option every time you list something. So, if you wish to publish this listing on your profile, click the Publish-button, but if you only want it to appear in the Facebook Marketplace, choose the No, Thanks-button.

Step 6 – Promotion

This step is your first chance to advertise your new listing. This is also a good idea. You can Recruit Friends to Promote your Listing in their News Feed. You can add up to 5 of your friends by clicking on their pictures. You can also choose them by writing their names in the Find Friends-box. Once you have chosen your friends who might be interested in promoting your listing, click the Send Request-button; or if you don’t want to bother your friends this time, choose Skip.

Step 7 – Personal Marketing Message

You will be presented a confirmation screen with your details. You can add a personal message to this post by clicking the blue Add Personal Message-hotlink. If you don’t want to add your personal message, just click the Send-button. You also can cancel this message altogether by clicking Cancel.

Step 8 – Done!

Congratulations! You have listed your first item on the Facebook Marketplace. Listings take approximately 30 minutes to be included in the search index.
You will be presented with the screen titled “Manage My Listing: Active”. Here you can review your listing and, if you wish to make any changes click the Edit Details-hotlink in the light green bar. You can also delete your listing as well as promote your listing with a Facebook Ad. I will not get into details how to produce Facebook Ads in this book. That topic, among many other good ones, will be fully covered in my Facebook Advertising Guide.

That’s it, you’ve done it! Good work! Thank you for reading so far.

Additional, good to know stuff:

Editing Your Listing

You can easily edit your listings after you have published them. Just click the Edit Details-hotlink on the screen mentioned in the Manage My Listing -page, and you will get pretty much the same screen as when you were writing the listing in the first place. You can change every detail of your listing here as well as upload more images if you wish. It is a good idea to show as many images as you can.

After you have made your changes in this panel click the Submit-button to get your listing updated. You will again be presented with a useless confirmation screen as seen. Just ignore it, and click the Continue-button.

Next, you will be asked if you wish to publish this updated listing on your Facebook profile as in Step 6. You may choose to publish again, or you may just click the No, Thanks-button.
Finally, you will see your updated listing on the “Manage My Listing”- screen.

Managing Your Facebook Marketplace Listings

You can easily manage all of your Facebook Marketplace listings in one convenient location. If you click the My Listings-hotlink in the Marketplace menu, you will see your current listings. This is your place to manage all your listings. You can add more listings, edit them and after you have sold your items you can delete them.

As I mentioned earlier, you can also sell your items for a cause or you can give them away for free (don’t know why, but you can). You can also find something you need for yourself. These functions are not covered in this book, but I’m sure you’ll manage them with the principles covered here.

Ok, I hope you enjoyed this Facebook Marketplace Guide. I wish you luck in selling your stuff through Facebook. I sold my first item, an awesome Jimi Hendrix Wah-Wah guitar pedal in just 3 days.

Best regards,
Kris Olin, MscBa, marketing

This Facebook Marketplace Guide is also available as a fully illustrated PDF-version.
You can download it FREE: www.facebook-advertising-marketing.com

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Many online marketers are looking to Facebook notes to drive traffic to their websites. This fascination with Facebook is easily understandable. Facebook is one of the most popular social networking websites in the world. According to some estimates, Facebook attracts more visitors each month than any other social networking website available today.

Facebook is the most popular social networking website among many English speaking countries. Unfortunately, in the US, MySpace is still more popular than Facebook. At the time of this writing, MySpace has approximately 2 times more US users compared to Facebook.

However, this weakness can be easily mitigated when one notices the tremendous global popularity of Facebook; a popularity that extends to Canada and the United Kingdom. Facebook marketing is one of the most popular demands I receive from my clients. As a result, I have developed several marketing strategies that can be easily applied to Facebook by the novice webmaster.

One of the easiest methods of generating links on Facebook is by leaving a message on your contact’s Facebook note.

Facebook differs greatly from other social networking websites. Facebook prominently features applications as part of its product experience. These applications are programs that can be applied to any Facebook user’s profile. It is like an application you install on your computer. The applications are applied universally. Whenever a Facebook user logs into his/her Facebook account they will be greeted with the same applications, regardless of which computer they are using.

Several applications come ‘preinstalled’ whenever someone sets up a Facebook account. “Facebook Notes” is one application that comes preinstalled in all accounts. Facebook notes is a simple application that acts as a virtual notepad that can be used by all. Facebook users can write in their own notes or in the notes of others.

This presents two opportunities for traffic generation. You can generate traffic by promoting your website on your own Facebook note or you can promote your website on someone else’s Facebook note. Leaving a promotional message on your Facebook note is a simple affair. However, you should exercise caution when promoting your website through Facebook notes that belong to other people. Overt promotion can be seen as spam by some users and may result in you getting banned from Facebook. Exercise caution when you promote your website on someone else’s application.

To successfully promote your website, you should ’soft sell’ the website’s address. The best way to achieve convert marketing success is by genuinely contributing to the Facebook note. You should make informative and constructive contributions to the Facebook note. You can gently mention the website at the end of your post.

It would be even better if you utilize html to embed the link in some text. Facebook note accepts some html, but it does not recognize Flash or javascript.

Leaving an insightful message in a Facebook note application is just one way to market your website on this popular social networking platform. I have spent years perfecting the art of social network marketing and have seen many trends come and go. But in the dynamic and ever-changing landscape of the internet, Facebook is an immovable mountain that is here to stay. Websites who fail to leverage upon the phenomenon of social networking websites risk getting left behind.

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The idea behind using a social networking site as Facebook as a venue for doing business is building a user base in the form of a community who respond to you as a person or to your product. If you just turn your page into one big advertisement, you are not going to get much in the way of a response. You need to educate people about the product without coming across as a hard sell.

You want to create the impression that you are here for socializing, not business. People will come to trust you and be more likely to buy your product or service if you can do this.

Facebook has built in tools which can be used to build your business. These include:

- Social Ads

- Pages

- Beacon

- Insights

- Platform

- Polls

These tools can help you to build awareness of your brand through this social networking site and bring in potential clients. Needless to say, you are going to have to learn to use them effectively. Read on to find out how to harness these tools to build your business using social networking sites.

You can learn how to take further advantage of these features by visiting the facebook website business section.

SOCIAL ADS

Social ads have a lot of promise for building your business since they can go directly to the news feeds of your Facebook friends. Anyone who is on your friends list will be able to get the word about your business right on their profile page.

This is also a very easy way of target marketing. You can control exactly who sees your ads – and target marketing is the way to get sales.

FACEBOOK PAGES

You can make a Face book page for a business, just as you would for yourself. This allows people to interact with and even become friends with your business. It is a great way to make a lot of people aware of your product and your brand who would not otherwise.

You know when someone becomes friends with your business on Facebook that you have a potential client; at the very least, they have shown some interest. People can interact with your business as they would with any of their other social networking site friends – they can leave comments and generally enhance the experience of a visit to your page.

You can use this social networking site to your best advantage by adding features that will appeal to your target market and fit in with the brand image you are aiming to create. Quizzes, games, a Facebook group and so on.

FACEBOOK BEACON

Like social ads, Facebook Beacon gives you the ability to build your business by promoting yourself via your Facebook friends news feeds. You can set Beacon to notify all of your Facebook friends whenever you have a new product available, or any other sort of news or information you would like to disseminate amongst your Facebook friends. All you need to do is to add a little code to your Facebook page (this can be done by copy and paste, so no need to panic).

This encourages more interaction with your page, the website of your business and your company in general. This also helps get the word out about your businesses product or service.

Do not fret that you will be mercilessly spamming your Facebook friends and invading their privacy – they can opt out of these updates at any time they choose. You of course have the same ability for Facebook Beacon updates from others.

FACEBOOK INSIGHTS

If you are using facebook as a method of promoting your business you will of course want to know just who is checking out your Facebook page, clicking on your ads and joining your friends list. Facebook Insights is a tool which can give you a lot more detail on these sorts of statistics, which can help you to evaluate the efficacy of your campaign.

Armed with this information you can make the call as to whether viral marketing is working in your favor. Word of mouth is one of the best means of advertising and Facebook can facilitate it on a large scale. Facebook Insights lets you figure out what parts of your campaign are working and which are not as well as giving you valuable demographic information which will help you refine your campaign further.

FACEBOOK PLATFORM

Facebook Platform is an exciting tool for business indeed. Programmers can use this tool to build programs which will work with Facebook and add to the usefulness and fun of your Facebook page. If people like what you have on your page, they will spread the word and this build your client base.

You can add all manner of different applications to your site using this platform. Many opt for games, quizzes and other interactive features. You can have a look at the Applications page on the Facebook site to get an idea what sort of things others are using the platform for. These kinds of features can really help you build your brand image; take advantage of them.

FACEBOOK POLLS

Facebook polls can be a great way to gather demographic information from people using the site. Since you can make the poll interactive and fun to use, you’ll have no trouble gathering data. Best of all, you can target your polling.

You can make sure your polls are targeted just where you want them to be since you already have access to some data such as marital status and age of your Facebook friends. This helps you keep your polling relevant.

Do not forget about these valuable tools – they can really help out your business.

Anyone who is willing to put in just a little bit of effort can make their own applications for Facebook. You just need to learn Facebook Markup Language – there are plenty of tutorials online which can help you learn the ropes of this quickly.

Remember to have a look through what is already out there in terms of Facebook applications before you develop your own. If everyone is already using a very similar application, not too many of your fellow facebook users will be enticed by it. Do something a little different if you want to grab the attentionof people.

CREATING APPLICATIONS FOR BUSINESS

With just a little bit of programming know how, anybody can make and distribute their own applications. You’ll be doing this to build your business and it can make a big difference. Applications can really draw in people and keep them on your site. Games are especially popular and can build your brand while keeping users engaged and entertained.

You would be unwise to neglect the use of these applications available to you through Facebook. They can help get the word out about your business – and that is why you made a Facebook page for your business in the first place, no?

You will also be building a sense of community amongst all of these potential customers which will help you get sales.

Here are a few tips for getting the best results from your applications:

1) Make it relevant

In marketing, relevancy is everything. If your potential customers can not get into it, or if it is unclear how the application ties into your product or service, rethink your application.

2) Privacy policy

Even if they are on facebook to socialize, people still want their privacy to be respected. This is why there are friend lists and groups, to which one must be invited. Privacy is a natural human desire and Facebook facilitates this while still allowing for socialization. Remember to respect the privacy of users and retain that trust you have worked so hard to build with them.

3) Free distribution

Once your application is finished and ready to go, you will distribute it. You can do this by listing it on the site along with all of the other Facebook applications and then invite others to install it. If your facebook friends like your application, they will spread the word.

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Where have YOU been?

Unless you have lived in a cave the last 4 years, you have probably heard of this. It is a rocking hot social networking site that seems to be almost everywhere today. It is on the news. It is on the radio. It is on the minds of millions of folks a day.

It is called “Facebook” and over 175 million people are active on this site.

Ok- I know that you may be asking,” A LAW about facebook?” Yes, 10 of them for marketing and business success in what you do. I am a marketer and have been for 20 years. I built a training and consulting business that does business in over 20 countries, because of social media and the internet. And there are marketing laws that all marketers and business professionals must follow if they are going to have Success in the marketplace online.

It is the same for Facebook.

Lets cover them briefly:

1) The Law of Visibility on Facebook.

You MUST be visible on facebook of you are going to get your message out. You must spend time on facebook and get to know people. You must put yourself together a “facebook blueprint” and work it. How many hours a week are you going to be seen on FB? How many times are you going to befriend someone this week? How many times are you going to upload photos this week? All of these things put you in the ‘Visibility Zone” on facebook, and on the radar as far as people on facebook. Be SEEN and be THERE on a daily basis.

2) The Law of the Powerful Facebook Profile.

Why would people want to get to know you? One of the first things they check out is your facebook profile. What does it say- but better yet- what does it DO? Does it make people curious and want to get to know you? Does it make them think? Does it make them smile? Does it make them see that you have Value for their life and can help change it?

Powerful facebook profiles are NOT based on what is said in your profile- but what it DOES.

Does it direct them to DO something? Does it tell them you are person they MUST know? Or someone that has a nice picture and a nice profile- with no magnetism? Put yourself OUT THERE and tell the world WHY they need you as a friend, and get them to take action towards YOU.

3) The Law of the Facebook WALL.

You MUST use your Wall to market or message. many folks regard their Wall as a communication utility like email. It is not that. You already have a facebook email. The Wall is for you to BUILD- BRICK BY BRICK- MESSAGE BY MESSAGE- NOTE BY NOTE- VIDEO BY VIDEO- your Brand on Facebook. Every time something happens with you- it goes on your Wall. Don’t stare at the wall- CLIMB THE SUCKER and make your message the PEAK of the page- and keep yourself out there with the Wall. And answer the messages on your Wall. Thank people for sharing with you their visit or message. This will show up on THEIR wall. This will set you apart from most on facebook. The Wall is simply a BILLBOARD of what you are doing and your friends are doing on Facebook. Use it often and wisely.

4) The Law of Your Facebook Network.

You are part of a local facebook network and you have access to that network to befriend them. I live in Birmingham Michigan, and the network i am a part of is the Detroit network. There are 640,926 people in my network that I could potentially MEET LIVE in a local place and get to know them and connect with them. You have local folks as well. Where do you find your network?

Click on “settings” and then click on “network.” You will find it there. This is a GOLD MINE of people in your local area to CONNECT and Construct new trust bridges that may lead to business down the road.

5) The Law of the Facebook Notifications.

This is an overlooked and rarely talked about utility. Notifications are part of your “facebook email system.” Go to “email” at the top of your Facebook profile page, and then click on “notifications.”This is list of who is thinking about you, talking about you, including you in tags, and generally is pointing to you. This is a GOLD MINE of people that have PROVEN they are behind you and willing to make you a part of their Facebook experience. Pay attention to the facebook notifications. Thank them for their thoughts of you on their Wall and let them know you appreciate it. Include them as well on your tags and other activity on facebook. The notifications are GOLD and is a prospecting Vault of Leads. And make sure you stay CONNECTED to them.

6) The Law of Facebook Link Love.

The Link application on Facebook is a HOT commodity. It allows you to post a link that you like and then sends it out on the news feed that is on your home page. It picks up the image that you want on the link page, and allows it to be a LIVE link. Send out other people’s LINK and givem some LOVE. Do NOT just send out your own links. Let others do that. Find interesting links of others and send them out.

WHY? EXPOSURE for you. You will be given credit for the link. People LOVE link love. If you send out a LOT of other people’s links on facebook, they will start sending out YOUR links. Been there done that.

7) The Law of Facebook Groups.

Join groups. Join a LOT of Groups. Start your OWN groups. The join MORE groups. Why? Here are a few reasons: EXPOSURE. CONNECTION to other Group members. AUTHORITY. Start your own and be a Leader. INCREASE YOUR REACH.Groups extend your reach into Facebook. MULTIPLIED PROSPECTS. There are more people in a group — then on a profile page.

Duh. Build a list in your own group and then you can become an admin and email messages to them. Make them messages of VALUE and interest.

The Law of Facebook Events.

Attend events. Attend more Events. And then attend many MORE events. Why? It allows you to leave a message on the events page wall, and create exposure. I attend at least 2 facebook events every week- to learn- and to network. Events can be found on the new Facebook page in the upper right under “Upcoming”-these are the events that are upcoming. There is one unique twist: You have birthdays under the “upcoming” tag- and you can send presents to folks. THIS will get their attention as it shows up on their wall and the news feed as well. Attend as many events as you can. make them worth your while- learn and grow from them. BUT’always leave a RSVP message about attending or not- with an encouraging message. This will show your professionalism, and caring.

Event UP! This will do you well on facebook. Put the term “events” in the search box, and it will find every event that is going on in your network of friends. It is a GOLD MINE of new possibilties of business. Become a master of events!

9) The Law of Facebook Multimedia- Videos and Photos.

People LOVE photos and videos. They are the most looked at and watched pages on facebook. Make some videos and upload them. Upload some photographs. Not only will the be seen on your wall and the facebook news feed, but also will allow you to “tag” others on these. This means that you can pick out people you have befriended and let them know you are thinking of them. And when you tag someone- it shows up on THEIR wall. Not isn’t THAT cool? It is called EXPOSURE!

10) The Law of the Facebook NEWS FEED.

This is the big kahuna of Exposure on facebook. This gets you out to ALL of your friends and creates a massive exposure vehicle that can keep your brand in front and recognized. You also will be many times on the “featured” part of the new news feed on the right. This gives you HUGE exposure. Whatever you do, like change your status, upload a video, write and publish a note, or just comment on another person’s message on the facebook news feed- it SHOWS UP in the news Feed. Be seen- and be seen often if you are trying to brand yourself on facebook.

Yes, you need to establish relationships, and build community. But if you are going to MARKET on facebook-then you need to at least get a guideline of what and how to do it. The 10 Social Media Laws of Facebook hopefully gave you some idea in your social media marketing.

blessings…doug firebaugh

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