As Facebook continues to make changes, branding what you do with who you are has become more and more difficult, from your profile. It used to be easy from your profile to post links to your blog, twitter etc, that were easily accessible (on the left column) as well as your tagline or pull statement (what I teach my clients on the Social Networking Coaching Club, attraction marketing). Now those have been buried on the info tab. You cannot even post your page(s) as favorites any longer and the link to your business at the top is their “community page” not what you want people liking! These changes definitely require that you are more “Guerrilla” in your approach. You have to be careful not to be overly pushy because you turn off friends and family. Here are 5 suggestions I suggest right now (strategies change as technologies change) to utilize on your profile on Facebook to support your business:
1. Have a business page and market from there. It only makes sense, first as it is fully index-able to search engines.
2. Share your business page(s) as links once a week and ask friends if they will “LIKE” your page. Do this in a creative way that captures their attention.
3. Grow to the “5000” more aggressively. Tell people why you want to friend them, as your info page isn’t clear anymore. You can always unfriend dead relationships later. This is important because some people are not as familiar with pages as you would think.
4. Create LISTS of those friends to “categorize the relationship”. Then you can post info from your wall just to them.
5. Be an amazing relationship builder and go-giver. Post on friends’ status updates, comment on their links. Get to know them. The more you do the more likely they will with you.
6. Offer attention grabbing, interesting education based tips and tools that align with your brand. Tease friends to come over and join the discussion.
7. Don’t post on your profile what you post on your page.
8. Share your blog on your page and ask friends to please come over and leave a comment on it.
9. Lastly, use Hyper Alerts to “notify” you of updates on your page so you can be responsive.
Are you using a technique that helps drive more “likers” to your business page that is Guerrilla and FREE?
Ann M. Evanston is a “Chief Breakthrough Officer” teaching other Business Warriors how to slow down, and find the most unique part of their business that makes them stand out among the crowd. She has been named one of the top marketing consultants by About.com, is a guest blogger for Showcasing Women and takes pride in moving you from “blah, blah, blah” to “BOOM, BOOM. BOOM!”
What a great way to start my day! I’ve been way too shy about building my friends and inviting people to my page. I’m going to copy this and print it out so I can keep it in my SNCC notebook. That way I can review it and keep practicing the recommendations. I really love these “here how you do it” posts!
Judy Stone-Goldman
The Reflective Writer
once again — thank you ann! as always – very useful and in a way that everyone can understand. A goal of mine in 2011 — is to build my fb page and grow it stronger – these will help!
Yay! I do a lot of this already but 2 and 4 need some attention. Such a helpful post. I did reach 200 fans yesterday – very proud of that 🙂 I LOVE my page – am I sad? I love getting people engaged and having fun over there.
Louise Edington
Facing Fears For Freedom
http://louiseedington.com
In addition to working with clients, SM has become a part of my daily routine. The trick is to balance them! Thanks for reiterating those tips!
Define your style. Define you.
http://www.mywardroberx.com
Thank you, Ann. Just started a new page and am at 99, need one more “like” to reach 100 and then on to the next milestone 🙂 I will celebrate, for sure, when I reach 5,000!!!
Brandy Mychals
Communications Coach
Creator of Split Second Perceptions
Good info, as always. Copying this list onto my visual board in my office so it’s in my face – love the tip about the “Guerrilla” hyper-alert. Thank you!
As the world of Social media changes so must we too. If you want to be successful then you need to be proactive and make sure you know all of the changes that are going on in your “online business world” just like you would in the real world. . Gone are the days of “fix it n leave it” Social Media is like the ocean ebbing and flowing so you’d better learn to swim
Facebook really keeps people like you in business Ann! I’m at least doing some of the things you mention but it does seem that the one thing that I resisted but need to re-think was actively friending people I really don’t know (or know of) – as my daughter says, “Mom, FB friends are not REAL friends.” But, if someone friend requests me, I’m pretty open to saying yes, but I like to know how they know me before accepting – so I usually send a message asking. Most do not reply, so I don’t friend them – is this wrong? I think some of us “old-school” have to engage in a paradigm shift. I know some people look at my page because they tell me that they liked this or that, but they don’t indicate that at the page.
Pat Zahn, Photo Solutions Superhero
http://www.patzahn.com
It’s so exciting to see when your Facebook business page attracts more fans, and what I am looking forward to is being able to generate more comments and interaction on the page. I can’t wait until I get more into the SNCC training on all of this. Thank goodness I have you to keep me aware of all the changes and latest information as there is no way I could do this on my own!
I need to share my page more with my friends…but before I do that I need to post more EBM’s on my page. So much to do, good thing I have a coach to keep me on task.
Darcie Newton
Wine not whine. Nature not nurture. Discipline for profit, none for cheese.
http://www.mywealthspa.com
Thanks for the great advice. Facebook is loathe to be user friendly for business! But as usual, the “people” take over. LOL!
You said 5 suggestions, but you gave us 9. Thanks for the bonus ones. How do you get to 5,000 “likes” to your fan page? I already asked my 200 friends to “like my page”, but I don’t know 4,800 more people. Can you give some examples on how to reach this? Thanks.
Hi Norma, well as the strategy says start with your profile-build that to 5000 (it will be important you take your biz name off your profile to do that) though networking. I don’t personally know everyone I liked but I send notes to connect all the time with new people, because the definition of friend is different on facebook.
Also though, and I could not find your page to see these things, you want to make sure your page is uniquely branded for you (not what you sell since you are in a MLN), and that you are giving tons of great tips and content so it indexes in search engines. Most people don’t post to their page frequently enough and don’t make it engaging enough to get into top news – ultimately the key!
Thanks for the suggestions Ann. I created a page for my business last summer; however, have not yet spread the word or posted to it. It is one of my goals for the second quarter of 2011.
Rachel Lavern
http://www.rachellavern.com
Personal Transformation, Enlightenment and Development
Thanks as always for the great tips. I’ll be using them to see how quickly I can grow from 300 to 500 ‘fans’! I was unaware of HyperAlerts but will certainly be getting familiar with it now! Thanks again.
Thanks for sharing these points Ann. I’m going to work on them and see if I can build more following. I celebrate every 100 I reach. Since I added Hyper Alert my page seems to have gone ‘dead’ so am checking it all out. Thanks for all your ongoing help – it’s great to have coaching in all of this.
Fiona Stolze
http://fionastolze.wordpress.com
Hi Ann,
Thanks for all these helpful reminders and tips, especially about Hyper-Alert (I just created my account) and creating Lists of Friends (which I’ll do on my iPad between parties this weekend). You can add three additional tactics to the list: First, include our business page link in our email signature. Second, create a compelling “Welcome” landing page for first-time visitors. Third, @tag our business page wherever appropriate in our profile posts. Finally, a question: Market of course from our business page, but I have more “friends” than “fans”, so after inviting all my friends to become fans, should I still market to my friends, or would that be overkill to my fans?
http://www.Facebook.com/MagnoliaJazzBand
I rarely if ever market form my profile Robbie- complete different strategy taught on the Social Networking Coaching Club! You are a lifetime members, come do the training!
Key statement: “strategies change as technologies change”. Difficult to absorb (at least for me) but necessary. Maybe it’s my age. Do the twenty year olds have trouble with this?
Love your suggestions Ann. A great reminder that doing business, no matter the medium starts with engagement and interaction. Reaching out and being proactive are steps well worth taking, if we want to be effective in our marketing strategies
Jennifer Duchene
Home Makeover Mixtress blending lifestyles and laughter
http://LYShome.com
Ok Ann, you’ve inspired me to build my Fan Page tomorrow. Is a fan page and a business page the same thing?
Cool Suzen! Technically they are called pages – for services, community groups, non-profits, celebrities. so yes they are the same thing. The tern “fan pages” comes form the “old days” on facebook when you used to Fan a page, now you like it.
Thanks so much. I started a website and am almost finished my memoir. I have made many mistakes along the way trying to build my brand. I am so happy to have found you and am learning everyday.
Ann’s techniques work. It is clear because she practices what she teaches. I’m still learning and feel lucky to have such a generous teacher as Ann. Love the idea of sharing my biz page once a week on my profile and using lists on Facebook. Great strategies.
Thanks for the reminder, Ann! I will be re-committing to getting my “likes” up on my page, and receiving more comments. I have been so focused on Twitter and my blog I haven’t done enough with FB lately. Always great content, thanks again!
Jillian
http://www.jilliansboudoirphotography.com
People ask in my Social Media seminars all the time how to get more likes on there page. I forgot all about Hyper Alerts. Great suggestions.
Lisa Ann Landry – Corporate Trainer
I’m an exuberant force of light… Come light up your life
http://www.imagedevelopmentgroup.com/speakers.html
Thanks for this, Ann. Somehow missed it two months ago when it was all the rage, but grateful to find and implement now!