Nowadays, there are tons of social networking websites available in the internet. If you use them, you will be able to keep in touch with your friends, find long lost relatives, and even make new friends. However, social networking isn’t just what you can get from Facebook.

This marketing tip will show you how to take advantage of Facebook as a website that you can use to market your business or your products and services. There are quite a lot of social networking websites that you can join today. However, if you really want to join one of the best sites for marketing your products or services or really generate targeted traffic for your website, then Facebook is a great choice, especially when combined with other social sites like Twitter for example.

Facebook is considered by a lot of people as the best place to go to when it comes to marketing and networking. With over 250 million active subscribers, you can see that it could definitely have some potential in increasing your sales.

The great thing about Facebook is that it will be able to provide you with tools that can be used to effectively market your products and services. However, you need to know how to effectively use the tools in order for you to really fully take advantage of the website.

These marketing tips can help you use Facebook to market your products and services for free.

1. The first tip is that you need to make an awesome profile. With a great profile, you will be able to attract more people to view it. More viewers will mean more people will be able to know about the products or service you are offering. Try to use Facebook as part of your online branding and try to include a nice photo of you. Also, include your contact information, your website address, work experience, personal interest and your education. Always remember that a complete profile is the best way to go in Facebook. Be as transparent as possible and let people get to know you.
2. When you are already a member of Facebook, try adding friends. You have to remember that Facebook is a social networking website where you will need to make friends and build relationships. The more relationships you build in Facebook, the more effective your marketing efforts will be. The great thing about Facebook is that you will be able to see the friends of your friends. By building an extensive network of friends, you will be able to boost your marketing efforts in no time at all. Just be sure not to grow your Facebook list too fast. There are limitations and if you exceed them your account can be deactivated. Know the rules.
3. You can also join groups or create your own group. In Facebook, there are different kinds of groups that you can join. You can try joining groups that have similar interests, such as yours. Or, you can try joining groups for coaches, wealth building and marketing experts, for example. By joining or creating your own group in Facebook, you will be able to make hundreds of contacts that can help you in letting your business grow.
4. You may also want to syndicate your blog using RSS. In Facebook, it is possible for you to place your blog in your profile through RSS. With this feature, you will be able to let people read your blogs and even further boost your marketing efforts. With an increased number of readers, you will get more leads which also mean more business.
5. Make sure the Facebook does not become a time sink for you. There is so much to do there that you will be tempted by the games and othe applications. You have to remember, with crystal clarity, what your focus is and why you are on Facebook. It’s shouldn’t take more than a half hour of your day. You may even want to get a viritual assistant to help will some of your Facebook duties so you can proceed with more important business.

These are just some of the things that you can do in Facebook to effectively market your website or your business. Through these marketing tips, you will see that you will be able to increase traffic and get even more traffic to your online businesses.

]]> http://www.frommykitchentable.com/social-marketing/facebook-social-marketing/facebook-marketing-tips-for-success/feed/ 4 http://www.frommykitchentable.com/social-marketing/twitter-social-marketing/5-tips-on-how-twitter-helps-boost-your-blog/ http://www.frommykitchentable.com/social-marketing/twitter-social-marketing/5-tips-on-how-twitter-helps-boost-your-blog/#comments Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:12:08 +0000 Carol http://www.frommykitchentable.com/?p=358

It doesn’t matter if you’re blogging for fun or business, Twitter can help boost your blog tremendously. Here are five Twitter Tips to help you out.

1.) Twitter is all about the conversation.

You can have conversations on blogs and on social media sites like Facebook, but it’s not the same kind of conversation as with Twitter. With blogs, you’re trying to speak to a crowd. You’re in command and running the blog your way and hoping that people will respond to you with questions or comments. With Facebook, you can get to know people via their profiles, but you’re mostly still just communicating one on one. Now Twitter is kind of like a gigantic party. There are thousands of conversations going on all the time and you can join one, or you can just jump in and start your own. If you start a new one, then others can decide to join in and talk to you. It’s even easy to carry on multiple conversations at the same time. It’s total conversational freedom. To make a long story short, Twitter is a social media tool meant to create community and relationships. It’s your job to build on those relationships.

2.) Twitter is a great source for blog post topics.

When you’re wondering what to write about on your blog, and you need some inspiration, just go to Twitter. You can pick up other posts and expand on them, get ideas from the conversations you’re having or watching and even discover new authors to add to your feed reader. You can even ask Twitterers what you should post about. Just ask them what questions they have about the subject you want to write about. Their questions can even give you ideas for more posts. The good thing about this is that it gives you a sense of what people are really thinking about on a topic. This helps you to get to know them on a new level and also helps you know the needs and feelings of your potential readers.You can do a Twitter search on the subject you’re interested in and find even more targeted Tweets to give you ideas.

3.) Anyone can master Twitter.

It doesn’t matter if you are a newbie or a professional blogger or a tech freak. Anyone can Tweet and build relationships on Twitter. You just have to be yourself and people with similar likes will follow and interact with you. Treat them right and they might even join your list and buy something from you. Even the newest of newbies can find good information online to get them up and running in just a few minutes. It doesn’t take weeks or months for people to find you either. You are instantly live on Twitter.

4.) Twitter helps you find other people in your niche.

You’ll want to connect with as many Twitter users as possible, but there are some that are more important to connect with than others. These are the people who are active in niches that I interact in on my blog. If you want to become known in your niche and build your own profile or brand in it, then you need to be interacting with others who are also active in that niche. Add yourself as a follower to other key Twitterer users, add value to these people’s conversations, interact with them via direct messaging, RTs, etc. Building a good relationship with these people will expand your blog much faster, as some of them will link to you and leave valuable content. Having something in common always builds trust faster too.

5.) Twitter can make your blog go viral.

I constantly see breaking news come across Twitter before I see it anywhere else. If just one person on Twitter hears some important news, it can spread like a wild fire. If you get that news on your blog fast, before anyone else, everyone will be rushing to your site to read it. Twitter is faster than the news media many times, so be on the lookout for hot breaking news and be one of the first to post to your blog and Twitter about it. Then sit back and watch your list of readers grow.

I hope these Twitter marketing tips help you grow your blog.

This Twitter Marketing Tip is actually about a couple things. Hashtags and Twitter Parties. Since they work  together well, I think they need to be addressed together.

Many people don’t know what Twitter hashtags are or how to use them. This is a simple explanation of how to use Twitter hashtags to simplify and enjoy your Tweeting more,how to attract new followers and maybe even how to monetize with a Twitter Party.

On your Twitter homepage you will find Trending Topics on the bottom of the right side bar. You will notice that many of the topics have the hashtag or # sign in front of them.

If you click on a #topic (like #swineflu), it will bring up a search for all the Tweets about or containing that topic that have used that hashtag. All these people will be talking about that particular subject.

It’s a way of categorizing Tweets across Twitter for like minded people who are Tweeting about the same topic. It’s a way to organize them so they can easily converse with each other and see what people are talking about on that particular topic. This is also a great way to Tweet only about what you are interested in.

There are third party applications out there like TweetDeck and TweetGrid which are free and totally safe to use. They help by letting you search for everyone who is Tweeting about a certain topic. They also let you see who is replying to all your Tweets on this topic.

So, you can quickly and easily see all the people who are talking about a particular topic, reply to them and see who is replying to you. How cool is that? All on one screen.

This leads into…

How to have a Twitter Party?

A Twitter Party is a virtual party that is a fast paced and fun way to connect and discuss a topic of choice. Most Twitter parties have an expert panelist or moderator to keep the party on topic.

A group of users or a moderator will organize a Twitter Party at a certain time to Tweet about and discuse a certain topic. They will advertize it on their blogs, websites, send out emails and then Tweet about it on Twitter all day long. Then people can go to Twitter at the pre chosen time and put in a chosen #hashtag.

You then just set TweetGrid or TweetDeck so the #hashtag is on the left column. Your own Tweets and replys should appear on the right column and  the moderator or whoever is hosting the Twitter party should be in the center. How easy is that?

Twitter Party attendees encourage each other to reach goals. They get together for fun, friends and support. Sometimes there are prizes given for the one who Tweets the most, etc.

Twitter Parties can be held for pet lovers to chat about their dogs, Autism parents to get support and answers for their children, or even Twitter users to get new ideas on how to monetize Twitter. Any subject is OK and the sky’s the limit.

Twitter Parties can also be held at a pre determined public location, like a bar or restaurant or a seminar. Twittering can be a lead into a very important person to person chat. Everyone who shows up and or Tweets can then be eligible to win a prize or gift. This is really just a new spin on the old Tupperware and Amway parties. You can have them from the privacy of your home or in a group or even out in public. Any subject is fair game and the contacts you can make and the relationships you can build are priceless.

I hope this Twitter Marketing Tip has given you some ideas for new ways to use Twitter in your business and personal life. Who do you know? Tweet ‘em.

Twitter just decided to implement a new limit – the 1000 follows a day  rule. This new rule will affect everyone who follows new people on a regular basis. It will even affect those who just follow back their big lists of followers. So I decided to share what I’ve found out in this Marketing Tip.

What’s Wrong With This New Twitter Rule?

No one knew about it or that it was coming! It seems that Twitter admin did not have the common courtesy to report this new rule/limit to their loyal followers. This new feature was not even written about on the support section of the Twitter help blog till Monday, 4/20/09. That’s when Twitter officially announced that this limit is for real.

They say they are trying to optimize the follow limit for good Twitter people who auto-follow other people. What’s wrong with this picture? Everyone thought it was a bug. Yep, me too.

So… why did Twitter do this?

One reason could be that in the past few days Twitter has experienced a very slow performance from their servers. This could be from the 1 million auto-follows from @britneyspears maybe? Or it could be from the Kutcher/CNN faceoff! Maybe it’s happening just because everyone wants to use an auto-follow tool. Now, don’t get me wrong, the auto-follow feature of these 3rd party programs is very cool, so cool that everyone wants to have them. Face it, Twitter is becoming automated, it can’t keep up.

The Twitter Fail Whale probably doesn’t like all the bots/scripts, that people are using, picking on him. So… the more people who use these new automated tools, the more often the Fail Whale shows up. So Twitter admin decided… lets slow up the show! It’s probably a very good idea in actuality, but the worst mistake Twitter made was not to inform anyone about it.

The second bad idea that Twitter had was to just implement a dump restriction without first testing if it would be effective. It doesn’t seem like there is a real Google-like algorithm to it. There seems to be no genuine reason behind it that can optimize and help the experience of those Twittering. It also seems there is nothing good in it for the real big guys on Twitter. They are miffed!

So… WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO US TWITTER?

Maybe after thousands of  support tickets and millions of negative discussions on the internet the Twitter team will deactivate this limit or at least tell us how to optimize it for our own good. We can always hope.

What do all you Twitter fans think?

Was this the best idea that a big, super company like Twitter could have come up with? Was it fair to all the people who are loyal, Tweeting fans of Twitter? The ones who, like me, try to follow all the rules and use this great social marketing site as a tool to help build their marketing network.

Who knows what Twitter will come up with next. Maybe a link or RT limit? Scary stuff Twitter fans. Hope this Twitter Marketing Tip helped. I’d like to  hear your comments.