Using Facebook for Business – Resource List

In preparation for my presentation tomorrow about how to use Facebook to promote your business, I’ve put together the following quick tips and resources.  Enjoy!

Keys to Facebook Success:

1. Get in the game – The earlier you get started with Facebook, the sooner you’ll be able to determine its marketing potential for your business.  Don’t dabble.  Watch what other successful users do and imitate them!
2. Build a network – Social media marketing success is about building a community or following.  Remember when you first started email marketing and your list consisted of your family and your two best friends?  It seemed like a waste of time.  As your list grew, so did the value of email newsletters as a marketing channel.  Facebook is similar.
3. It’s not about YOU – It’s about your customers and what they want.  Selfish thinking is counter productive when it comes to social media marketing.
4. Content is king – Although there’s a lot of talk about data when it comes to marketing online, content really is king.  If you don’t write well, you better start practicing (easy, easy, why do you think we blog so much!)!  Create content that people genuinely derive value from, want to share, etc.  Quality trumps quantity.
5. Reach out and touch someone – Don’t wait for people to find you – find them!  There are a million ways to make people aware of your presence.  Start with emailing all of your existing customers as well as friends and family.  Reach out to other business owners in non-competing businesses.  Add social media buttons to all of your online assets (website, email newsletter, blog, other social sites, etc.).

Here are a few great Facebook resources:

• Facebook Marketing Solutions – Facebook’s in-house marketing solutions page – a great place to get started.
• Facebook for Influencers – Facebook’s own page for people that want to use Facebook to promote themselves or their business.
• Example Influencers – Examples of people and businesses using Facebook.
• Allfacebook.com – The unofficial Facebook blog – lots of good app info and stats.
• Insidefacebook.com – Tracking Facebook for developers and marketers – techie detail and marketing insights.
• Whyfacebook.com – Using Facebook and social media to grow your business – lots of good tips and tricks.

Some interesting Facebook stats:

– 59% of the top 100 retailers are on Facebook (Source: Rosetta)

– Facebook’s not just for college kids – the fastest growing population on Facebook is people over 35

– The top application for Facebook is the iPhone app, but the Blackberry app isn’t far behind (Source: Allfacebook.com)

– Over 200 million active users – 100 million log in daily!

That’s all for now – if you use Facebook to promote and market your business send us your story!  As with every marketing strategy, don’t forget to track your results!!!