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!”
Often when businesses start a blog they are all business, and then at some point you hit the “freak out” meter and start to wonder how many times can you write about that topic! And if you keep writing about it, will they really need to hire you? Content seems to be a BIG challenge of business bloggers! (Now granted, if you blog as a mom, or as a person on a journey, hopefully it never ends, so my focus is on Business Bloggers here, these ideas could still help). See, when you don’t post regularly, you miss opportunity. Opportunity with potential customers, opportunity with search engines.
Here are three ideas to increase the content you write about, blog more often and increase your audience:
subscribe to several competitors blogs, read what they write about. I will bet it allows you to form your own opinions and write from your point of view. Pull articles out of magazines you read that inspire you and write your opinion.
combine your passions and your life with your work. Write down 5 things that you love to do personally and then think about how they relate to what you do in your business and write a blog. (I do this all the time, a couple examples: Persistence and BEcoming MORE Authentic)
create an editorial calendar. On your calendar for the YEAR write out topics you’d like to blog about EVERY week. This gets your brain processing and thinking about what to write.
Remember, the more you give when you blog, the more fabulous your potential customers know you are. And then they think: “wow imagine what I will get if I pay!” On the Social Networking Coaching Club I teach you unique way ways to stand out, and create powerful blogs that DRIVE business results.
What creative way do you keep the blog ideas flowing?
Ann’s Social Networking Coaching Club, lifetime membership is now just $499 and you pay it off in ten months but get access to her right away! Contact Ann Evanston to learn why it’s a smart business investment for you!
Ann Evanston, MA, has been named by About.com as one of the Top Six Marketing Consultants, Feb 2011, and recognized in the Huffington Postfor her unique approach in using Facebook to increase profits though giving. In October 2008 Ann created the Social Networking Coaching Club, a forum where you get personalized support to learn how to “discover your REAL edge” and make more online in less time with integrity.
There are many places on the internet to put your blog. Blogspot, Typepad, WordPress and Yola are 4 commonly used sites. There are many others and more popping up every day. Reality is this though: WordPress cannot be beat. Why?
the site stays cutting edge with all social media trends and technologies.
search engines love wordpress sites (probably because of their editing system) so posts rank better.
it is easy to change your look at feel of the site as you evolve and not lose content.
it is easy to brand.
it will grow and evolve as you grow and evolve.
it gives you plug-ins that help with your SEO (search engine visibility), when you use them of course!
The great thing about WordPress if you are willing to learn it (or hire someone to set it up -I have a GREAT person that I’m happy to refer) is it can develop into a full website that you can sell product, create a membership group and much more!
With other sites you might gain ease of use but give up visibility and flexibility. Which I do not recommend! That means you might have a slight learning curve, but long term it will be worth every minute. Therefore I recommend WordPress.
I tell all my clients to play around a bit, and first just build a free site on WordPress. You can play with themes and changes. And as you build your brand you will be happy you used wordpress. Eventually, if you want to be taken seriously, you will want to host your wordpress site (the difference is the URL: annevanston.wordpress.com is free, annevanston.com is hosted) Once you host your site, you will be even more thrilled with the add-on’s changes and true branding you can create!
Review 1 or 2 blogs that you like. You can go to Google and search for them by topic or industry if you like. You can also take a look at Blogger Monday with Ann Evanston, we have TONS of blogs to look at over there.. Review the blog and ask yourself:
1. Which platform (tool) are they on? One of the 4 above? Another? Was it privately developed? I look at the bottom of the page.
2. How often does the owner of the blog post?
3. Does the owner create links within the blog with searchable key words?
4. Does the blog have a subscription button?
5. Does the blog have a blogroll?
6. What to you like or dislike about the blog?
These questions are a great way to get you started to make your transition over to WordPress so you know what you want!
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!”
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:
