How to use Facebook to promote your business for FREE!

Introduction

There are plenty of social media platforms that you can participate in today, and they all have their pros and cons. The best way to choose a platform to participate in is to look at the people that hang out there. In my opinion, Facebook is one of the best platforms for networking-both personally and professionally. I also use Linked In and Twitter. Linked In is nice for having a more or less static professional profile online. Twitter is good for “blasting” bits and pieces of news to friends and clients. The one social networking group I am not part of is MySpace. Privacy controls are more lax at MySpace than I prefer. Of all the social networks, Facebook is the real gem when it comes to all-round marketing and networking.

I have been using Facebook for the past two years, and it is an excellent marketing tool. Here are 10 ways you can use Facebook to promote your business for FREE!

1. Create an Excellent Profile- This is THE first step in utilizing Facebook efficiently. If you think of Facebook in terms of a marketing campaign, your profile page can be considered your “brand.” Here is my profile. A strong profile should include: a professional picture (please resist the urge to put up pictures of yourself in this year’s Halloween costume-unless of course that is part of your brand), your contact information, your website address, and your personal interests. You don’t have to list out all your personal interests-you can stick to listing just you professional interests if you prefer.

2. Add Friends- This is what makes Facebook really special-the relationships it allows you to build and sustain. The more friends you have, the more affective your marketing and networking efforts will be. The most simple way to add friends is to use Facebook’s own tools to search for current friends already using the platform. Once you have added all current friends, you can start adding acquaintances. One unique feature of Facebook is that is allows you to look at friends of friends. You can build up a huge network this way in no time.

3. Join Groups- You can join online groups within Facebook that are related to what you do. There are groups for consultants, coaches, and trainers…almost all professional service providers have some type of an online group. I am part of many marketing groups and have made quite a few contacts that way. So, find a few groups that suit your tastes and get to mingling!

4. Create your Own Group- Can’t find a group that really fits your style-create your own! You can add members, publish articles, carry on discussions, and probably meet quite a few prospects.

5. List your Events- Hosting a Teleseminar or speaking somewhere? Create an events page and invite all those you want. You can even see how many RSVP and get feedback from attendees. Marketing doesn’t get easier (or cheaper!) than this.

6. Syndicate your Blog- You can syndicate your blog on your profile page. This basically means that every time you make a post, it will automatically show up on your profile page. More Exposure = More Readers = More Potential Leads.

7. Reach OUT! – Are you a fan or admirer of someone’s work? Reach out to them on Facebook! Many colleagues of mine check their Facebook messages more regularly than their email. They are also more likely to respond to Facebook messages. Don’t feel comfortable sending out a message to someone you don’t know? No worries! Leave them a “I enjoy your work!” blurb on their wall. (All profiles come with “virtual walls” where friends and acquaintances can leave comments.)

8. Send Virtual Gifts- Want to show your appreciation for someone? Send them a virtual gift. You can choose from a bunch of balloons to a potted plant that actually sits on the recipient’s profile and grows over time (my favorite).

9. Use the Marketplace- Facebook has an online marketplace that allows you to list your services and products for free. This is a great way to gain exposure. You can also list certain things you are looking for. I often find some great books through the Marketplace.

10. Create a Community- Perhaps Facebook’s greatest benefit is that it allows you to create a community. It provides you a group of people who are constantly connected to you, and are open to hearing your message. Write on people’s walls, respond to their comments, and introduce them to each other. So…start building your brand and leveraging social media networks for marketing!

Action Steps:

1. Join Facebook (If you aren’t already using it!)

2. Feel Free to Add Me as a Friend

3. Join the free LEGIT ONLINE BIZ CLUB on Facebook

About the writer

Akin Babatunde is an internet marketing guru, Web developer and IT Expert. He is the CEO of AK Globaltech Concepts and the Sole Admin of LEGIT ONLINE BIZ on Facebook. You can contact him via 2348025102532, akinnoah@yahoo.com

Internet Marketing Strategies - How to Develop High Impact Information Products and Programs

by Akin Babatunde, CEO, Ak Globaltech Concepts

As an Internet marketer best ways to develop online revenue is through the sales of your own products. The hardest part of that is, being good at developing information products and packaging them in a way that will bring back repeat customers.

There is a way that you must write the content in order for it to be enjoyable to the consumer in them wanting to come back for more. Following are several strategies, tips and techniques to use when writing your information products.

1. If you are writing in the introductory section or a quick start guide you want to cover a topic only I touching on certain topics in a general manner. You want to emphasize what areas are going to be covered in the other program components.

2. Any specific component or chapter of an information product, you want to emphasize things more specifically such as a course on search engine optimization or article marketing, for example. But remember, when your customer orders a course on something specific, they want to get as much information as possible on the topic, so they want a complete overview, and of course a house the author you want to cover all the information so that when people read the information, they feel as though they are well versed.

3. You want to be as specific as possible on the topic you're individual program of course is about. However, the purpose of your course may be very different. In fact, you have probably bought courses on each of the topics that you are covering in your own course, and yet you find that you have been unable to weed through all of the information and determine exactly what you need to do to make your web site, Internet marketing business or whatever topic the product is about, and make the information productive. Often, you may have felt as though if you applied all the information you learned, there would be no time for anything else. So keep this in mind when you write your manual or information products so you do not leave your customers feeling this will.

4. If you are developing content for an Internet marketing coaching program for example, focus on a wide range of techniques designed to take your web site from where it is to a new level - a level that has top ten search engine results, massive traffic, high conversion rates, and a strong membership list. Use search engine optimization techniques, both on-page and off, article marketing and web site submission strategies, and incorporate list building techniques. Whatever your topic is you want to break it down in the same manner I just did with Internet marketing and cover each of those separate components specifically in separate modules.

4. Expect that as your go through this coaching program, you are going to apply all of these techniques, and integrate them into your internet program to create profitable web programs. Not only do I expect that you will learn the critical aspects of each of the above - mentioned skills, but I expect that you will learn to incorporate all of the skills into your web program, and that they will work together synergistically to create maximum profit for you.

If you are out to attract prospective customers and develop your online presence and exposure, you owe it to yourself and the financial future of your business to learn everything you can about Internet marketing.

Want to learn more Internet marketing techniques on how to build a successful businesses online?

If so, read about and download my brand new free ebook 27 Habits of Internet Marketing Super Stars

For more information on this topic and author go to http://www.DrDaveHaleOnline.com

Dr. Dave Hale, The Internet Marketing Professor, specializes in the integration of Web 2.0 strategies into business marketing systems of all sizes.

The 4 Ps of Marketing in Your Internet Marketing Plan

1. Product Strategy
by Akin Babatunde, CEO, AK Globaltech Concepts
The first P in the 4 Ps of Marketing is product.

Except for manufacturers, perhaps, for many businesses the product strategy part of marketing is really about marketing the company, often not the individual goods or services that the company offers. So as we discuss product marketing strategy, begin to think of your business as the product you are marketing, and you'll gain some new insights.
Various Product Factors

Of course, there is much overlap in aspects of an Internet Marketing Plan. Various sections look at some of the same realities in different ways. In the article on "Positioning Your Online Business as Part of Your Internet Marketing Plan" (http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/plan-position.htm), for example, we discussed points of difference and positioning. These relate both to your business and to your line of products or services. Branding also concerns product strategies, though we won't discuss it in this article. More info at http://wilsonweb.com/webmarket/branding.htm and in Rob Frankel's off-the-wall book on branding, The Revenge of Brand X. http://www.ifulfill.com/frankel.asp?referer=167.100264

Other product strategy items include your guarantee and customer service policies to support the product, as well as instructions on how to install and use the product or service, and product accessories. Troubleshooting trees, knowledge bases, and FAQs that support the product or service are also part of your product marketing strategy.
Packaging

On grocery store shelves, packaging has a lot to do with which box of cereal you select. On the Web, however, packaging doesn't work the same way, since site selection is often made on the basis of search engines or traditional advertising. On the Internet the "packaging" comes after the initial advertisement. The packaging consists of website design elements that create a stimulating selling environment using color and graphics. (See "Techniques to Increase Store Sales," Web Commerce Today, Issue 31, February 15, 2000, http://www.wilsonweb.com/wct3/issue31.htm ) Of course, website "packaging" can be projected to your customers via HTML e-mail in order to draw your previous customer back into your store.
The "Product" You Market Is Often the Website

As I mentioned, for many companies, the product you are marketing IS the company itself, the business. Yes, you may be talking about individual products among your products or services, but your overall message is, "Buy it at our site for these reasons.... Let us serve you because ...." As we discuss various kinds of Web businesses, you can see this interplay of marketing the website "product" as well your goods or services products.
Kinds of Internet "Products" or Companies

Manufactured goods. If you're a manufacturer, then your products are self-evident. Your business probably isn't General Motors, but you may be among the many small manufacturers on the Web. Perhaps you're an artist or woodworker selling your creations. You may have a tool and die shop that produces custom parts according to specific customer needs (so you're probably marketing more of a service than goods). You may have a single product or a product line you are producing or importing. But usually you're advertising your company on the Web, not an individual product by itself. You want the online community to know and visit your website. Getting your business known is the major goal of your marketing for now. (Of course, there are exceptions to this.)

Online Catalogs. Web catalog sites are essentially wholesale or retail order-taking terminals. They may carry products from dozens or thousands of manufacturers. But what is the product? Their own "store" is the product here. They are building an online "brand" that they hope will represent to you the kind of store where you can find and purchase just what you want. Yes, they market their product lines through HTML e-mail fliers (see http://www.wilsonweb.com/wmt5/html-email-multi.htm), but they're essentially saying, "Come here, come to our store out of all the other choices on the Web. We have what you're looking for." One way to look at an online catalog site is as a shopping service that helps you find what you want among their carefully selected collection of best-of-class products.

Amazon.com is an example you may be familiar with, but how about free catalogs? One early software download site is http://tucows.com What is their service? Storage and download of thousands of shareware software programs. Tucows.com offers a vast product line, though none of their products are unique to tucows.com. But the site itself is unique in the way it is arranged, in its breadth of offerings, in the software reviews it carries, in the speed of its download servers, and in the geographic diversity of its server locations. Online catalogs offer a branded shopping service. (Of course, there's more, but I am simplifying.)

Online Services. In a similar way, many online services can be thought of and marketed as products, too. http://HitBox.com, for example, offers a suite of services for the webmaster to check your spelling, analyze the accuracy of your HTML code, score your META tags, track visitors to your pages, and generally massage and clean up your website. You can find service sites that will calculate your taxes; and others to predict your success, personal characteristics, and love prospects based on your birthdate and relative planetary positions in the heavens. Websites compare prices of computer monitors available at other online businesses. Search engines are really an online service, and the list goes on. Think of your site's collection of services as the product you are marketing.

Custom Services. Custom services, too, can be viewed as products. In the mid-90s I pioneered marketing website and e-commerce design services as product "packages." One of the keys to success was to define the "standard" product carefully, clarifying what was included in the standard website, and what items were considered add-ons. I learned to market not just "a website," but a 12-page website that included a single response form, custom graphic header, background, menu system, certain marketing elements, etc. When you package your services into clearly-defined bundles, they become a product that is clear to the customer and therefore saleable. Your service packages constitute your product line.

Information products. One of my favorite sites is http://Britannica.com -- the website that includes the entire Encyclopedia Britannica free to the visitor. What a wealth of material -- a great example of an information product (in this case, a free product). An online newspaper is another example of an information product, as well as our E-Commerce Research Room (http://www.wilsonweb.com/research/). So is Doctor Ebiz (http://doctorebiz.com) -- a question and answer e-mail newsletter designed to help small businesses solve their problems.

Entertainment products. Very close to information products are entertainment sites -- online game sites, music sites, photo essay sites, etc.
Price Tag Is Irrelevant

Often we don't view a site as a product because we are offering something to consumers for free. Don't let the price tag or lack of it fool you. Think of your website as a product, and your content as product lines and you'll know how better to market.

The exception, of course, is if you have no product at all. I've seen a lot of product-less sites on Yahoo! GeoCities. Here's a typical site: me, my pet, a photo of my apartment, a picture my girlfriend with me at the beach last year, my pet peeves, my favorite hobbies. Oh, and a few affiliate program banners I wish you would click on in order to make me wealthy without working.

If you want a business that earns money, if you want to attract significant traffic, then you must offer a website product that customers want. As you see your website as a product in and of itself, you'll be able to market it more effectively.

Exercise: Define the overall "product" that your website offers. The richer the product-set the more attractive your business. Now describe your product strategy, that is, they way you are planning for your products or services to complement each other and stimulate sales.

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