Archive for July, 2010
Promoting Your Business on Facebook Using Video
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If you have a business and a website, then you’ve likely considered video marketing. Then when you combine video marketing with Facebook, you’ve got a winning combination. Once you’re convinced of the power of marketing with video, the next step is to decide how to use videos to promote your business. Here are just a few examples:
1. Testimonials – Ask your clients to give you quick 1-minute videos of their feedback. You can also interview them about your business for a more structured testimonial.
2. Case Studies – If you’re involved in some kind of before-and-after (coaching, website design, fitness, SEO, etc.) case studies are an excellent way to demonstrate your expertise. Seeing an example helps the potential client understand exactly what impact your service or product can have on their business.
3. Product Reviews – Video brings an added element to product reviews, particularly if you’re reviewing a physical product. But hearing you talk about a book or piece of software is effective too.
4. Education – Use video to educate your market on the use of your products. Lead them towards the sale by answering their most frequently asked questions and objections.
5. Entertainment – People love to be entertained! If you can entertain in your video and combine that with a call to action, you’ll have a winning combination.
6. Commercial – Done correctly (meaning compelling with a clear call to action), commercials for your product or service can be very effective.
7. Business Overview – One of the first things many people look for is who they are buying from and what they stand for. Let your potential customers learn about you and your business through a business overview.
When your videos are complete, upload them to YouTube and connect them to your Facebook account. You link them on your Wall tab and Video tab and you can also promote them to your Facebook followers via messaging.
As you can see from the list above, there are many ways to use video to promote your business. The key is to provide solutions with your videos and leave your Facebook followers wanting more of you.
If you’re looking to build your business and brand on Facebook, check out my new 3 part webinar series starting on August 2nd “Facebook 4 Biz: Ready, Set, Go!”, where I will delve into everything Facebook. Oh and before I forget, Facebook 4 Biz is part of my Super Summer Sale and you’ll get 20% off at checkout. With 500+ million strong, there has never been a better time to take advantage of all that Facebook has to offer your business.
Facebook 4 Biz: Ready, Set, Go!
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Here’s what you’ve been looking for…
Clear, accurate information on how to market YOUR business on Facebook!
Learn now and get going with results!
Those 500 million Facebook members include YOUR potential customers. They are looking for products and services like yours. NOW is the time to learn the effective ways to use Facebook as a marketing tool for your business.
Facebook 4 Biz: Ready, Set, Go is exactly what you need to walk you step by step through how to start and manage a powerful presence on Facebook. Three hours of webinar instruction will demonstrate each of the important elements. A bonus hour of questions and answers will make sure that YOU understand!
In a brief 3 week period you’ll learn:
- 5 business tools of Facebook.
- All about Profiles, Pages, Groups, News Feed, Friends, Fans, Community Pages.
- Step by step instructions for setting up a business page and customizing it.
- Ways to address privacy issues and how to separate personal and business information.
- Developing a Facebook marketing strategy to anchor your activity there.
- How to utilize the viral aspects of Facebook for maximum business exposure.
- Details of tagging, ads, search, importing your blog, events and so much more!
Here are the class details…
Dates: August 2, August 9 and bonus call on August 16th, 2010
Times: 6:00-7:30pm ET (Bonus call 6-7pm only)
Format: Webinar
Cost: 4 hours of instruction and Q & A at summer sale price of $79
Facebook 4 Biz is for you, whether you are brand new to Facebook marketing or just haven’t had the results you need with what you have done to date. Get rolling to success with the most powerful online marketing tool of all – Facebook. Know for sure what works and what does not!
Don’t hesitate! The class begins very soon so register NOW!
How To Create a Landing Page for Facebook
Posted by: | CommentsWith over 500 million users, Facebook is a powerhouse in social networking. If you’re not on Facebook and using it for your small business, then you are missing a huge opportunity. In my upcoming webinar series “Facebook 4 Biz: Ready, Set, Go!” (this webinar series is also part of my Super Summer Sale, which means you get an additional 20% off at checkout), I’ll be delving into the world of Facebook and how to use it to build your brand.
Have you ever wondered how businesses on Facebook get the “pretty” business pages? The answer is Static FMBL (Facebook Markup Language) which is Facebook’s answer to HTML. You can create your design in a WYSIWYG editor like DreamWeaver and paste the code into Static FBML. Just copy and paste everything between the “body” tags (leaving them out) and leave out any Javascripts. If you’re not familiar with writing HTML code, there are a number of HTML tutorials available online or you can partner with a virtual assistant, like Virtual Accuracy Companies, for your HTML creation.
After you’ve created your design elements then use this quick “how-to” I made about creating a landing page for Facebook Business page.
1. Install the Static FBML application located here: http://www.facebook.com/apps/application.php?id=4949752878
Underneath the FMBL logo, click, “Add to my Page”
2. On your Facebook Business page, click on “Edit Page”, which is located underneath your picture or business logo.
3. You will now be taken to the backend of your Facebook Business page. This is the nuts and bolts of the Facebook design elements. Under “Applications”, scroll to the FBML application and click “Edit”.
4. Create a title for your landing page, in this case, I chose “Welcome”. Now paste the HTML code you created earlier into the FBML box and click “Save Changes”.
5. To make the new page your landing page, go back to your Facebook Business page and underneath the “Share” button, click on “Options”, then click on Settings and a number of different options will appear. For the option of “Default Landing Tab for Everyone Else”, choose the name of your page from the drop down menu, in this case it is “Welcome”. Your information is now auto–saved.
Now anyone who visits your Facebook Business page and is not a fan, they will automatically be directed to your landing page.
How to Get More Traffic to Your Blog
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How do you get more traffic to your blog? There are all kinds of strategies that work. When you know the right methods you will be amazed at how easy it is to increase your readership and profits. Here are the five most effective tips:
1. SEO
Search engine optimization is your biggest asset. No matter how many other traffic-getting methods you employ, SEO will make or break your efforts.
The best strategy, of course, is targeting keywords in each post. Obviously you don’t want to make it look unnatural, but you need to lace your posts with keywords in a natural way if you want to get ranked.
What kind of keywords should you go after?
It all depends on the size of your blog. In general, you might want to consider targeting long-tail terms, because they are easier to rank for and are also the most profitable ones. It’s always simpler to rank for ten keywords that get thirty searches a month than one that gets three hundred searches. **To learn more about long-tail keyword phrases see http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/050314-164653**
Also, the long-tail terms are generally the most profitable because they are the most targeted. For instance, if you have a fitness blog, you wouldn’t want to get ranked for the term “fitness.”
Instead, you want to rank for something like “how to improve your health with the Mediterranean diet.” That’s a much more specific search, and you will find it much easier to give information or sell a product for this phraseology.
2. Update constantly
Make sure to continually add new content each and every week. Search engines like fresh sites, which is why blogs are so easy to get ranked.
How often should you add new posts? Try and do so at least a couple times a week.
3. Comment on forums
Forums related to your blog topic are great places to get the word out about your site. However, don’t just go and make a few meaningless comments and move on to the next forum.
Even if you get the link, which is unlikely, you will never get long-term traffic from that site. Make sure you add meaningful and useful content, which will help people come to trust you.
By answering people’s questions, you will build yourself as an authority figure. This will in turn drive traffic to your site. This way you get SEO benefits from the one-way links you are generating, as well as getting traffic at the same time.
4. Comment on blogs
Bloggers love reciprocating. So if you are taking an active interest in other people’s blogs and make intelligent comments, they will probably come and check out your site as well.
Again, make sure you provide a meaningful comment. Try to stick with the popular blogs in your category for more traffic.
5. Article marketing
This is another effective strategy for driving traffic and getting one-way links.
In summary, the best links are generally the ones that will also bring traffic in addition to getting you “link juice.” Therefore, before getting a link, ask yourself if it will also provide visitors.
Marketing Monday: 7 Marketing Benefits for Using Video As a Solopreneur
Posted by: | CommentsBefore we get into the blog post for today, I recorded a video to accompany it since the topic seemed to beg for it. 
How are you using video for your business?
You’ve heard that using video to market your business can bring incredible results. But do the benefits outweigh the effort it takes to put your video online? In a word, Yes! Shooting a video, editing and formatting it, uploading it to the internet with the right title and description takes a bit of time. But the payoff for video marketing can be tremendous. Here are seven real benefits of marketing with video:
1. Personal Connection – Especially for internet based businesses, the personal connection with your potential market is a huge selling factor. With video, your audience can truly get to know you, eye-to-eye. They get to see that you are indeed a real, live person. They start building a deeper relationship with you and feel as if they actually have met you.
2. Social proof – There’s an old proverb: “Believe nothing of what you hear, and only half of what you see.” On the internet it’s so easy to be a fake and a fraud. People are skeptical about claims they read online, and rightfully so. But video puts a face to your words and makes you more believable and trustworthy.
3. Traffic – People are watching 2 BILLION videos per day on YouTube alone! That’s a whole lot of traffic you’re missing if you’re not marketing yourself with video. It’s free and easy to add your video to a large number of the video sites available online.
4. Emotional Influence – The classic horror movie is a great example of how the audio has an emotional effect on us. The creepy music comes in, immediately cluing you in that something bad is about to happen. Now, imagine combining that audio with powerful video cues to influence the emotions of the listener and create a much more compelling message than with just text alone.
5. Portability – Maybe even more so then articles and ebooks, video is portable. iPhones, Smartphones, iPads and all kinds of other devices allow video to be seen on the go. You can also allow people to download video easily so they can view it over and over again.
6. Demonstrations – Reviews, case studies and examples are great ways to sell products and services. It’s the reason why infomercials make millions of dollars. Now there’s no need for you to be as annoying as the Sham-Wow guy to make money with video, you just need to create videos that show and tell your potential customers why your product will be helpful for them.
7. Engagement – There are many reports available online to show that video boosts response and conversion rates. When someone is watching a video, you have their full attention – eyes and ears. Unlike with the written word, they’re not likely skip ahead or gloss over important information. Most people will watch a video from beginning to end, allowing you to clearly create a message and call to action that engages your audience.
Overall, video is an effective marketing strategy that is only growing in popularity. Since video is here to stay, it’s time to check out the options and see how quick and easy video marketing can be.
