There are almost 800 million members on Facebook today. With this vast web of interconnectivity, Facebook is fast becoming the leading way for ideas and content to spread on the internet. If you want to go viral, Facebook is one of the main platforms to pay attention to.

Two powerful tools to master on Facebook are Facebook pages and Facebook apps. Both of these are integrated in Facebook’s ecosystem and have access a wide array of tools.

Here’s how to use Facebook’s pages and apps to go viral.

An Idea with a Call to Action

Your idea for a page or for an app needs to have a call to action built into it.

Many of the protests in the Arab Uprising, from Egypt to Libya, were organized on Facebook and/or Twitter. Newly created pages literally got tens of thousands, sometimes hundreds of thousands of followers in as little as a week or two.

They grew so quickly because there was a call to action. Share the page and let the world know what was going on. Even people in non-Arabic countries got involved, because of this strong call to action.

For a more light-hearted example, take a look at FarmVille, one of the most successful Facebook games in history. One of the reasons it was so successful was because there was a constant call to action. People were always being asked to share the game with their friends.

Your idea needs to not only be great, but have a call to action for sharing built into it.

Reporting

Facebook has one very unique reporting feature: it tells you about the viral aspect of your posts and of your app, as a statistic.

The statistic measures how often people share your content. If you primarily have three different kinds of content, say polls, videos and text, you could measure each post individually and see which one(s) people tend to share.

If you find that people share videos released on your page four times more often than text released on your page, you’ll know exactly where to focus.

While it’s possible to derive this statistic on other media platforms, generally they don’t give it to you in this clear-cut form. Facebook makes tracking and optimizing for virality easy.

Making It Go Viral

Going viral on Facebook is all about having a great core idea, then testing and testing until you reach the maximum viral velocity you can reach.

It means testing different messages, different kinds of outreach and different call to actions. If you find it extremely hard to get traction, it’s likely that your idea just isn’t striking a cord. On the other hand, if your idea is spreading, then your job is to accelerate the pace and make the idea go truly viral.

Pinterest is the latest social networking craze to take over the country. The concept behind Pinterest is to share photos and images. Users create boards with themes and categories and then “pin” images to their board. It’s a fun site for personal use and also a great way to build your business.

As a business owner you can create a Pinterest account and use it to drive traffic, build awareness, and connect with potential customers. Once you have a Pinterest business profile, it also makes good business sense to integrate Pinterest into your blog or website. That’s as easy as adding a Pinterest button to your website. Here’s how:

Step One: Sign Up for a Pinterest Account

This may actually be the most challenging step because you cannot simply go to Pinterest and sign up. They’re still in Beta, which means that membership is limited. You can sign up in one of two ways. You can get an invitation from someone who is already a member. Once you have that invitation you can sign up immediately. You can also request an invitation from Pinterest. Simply visit Pinterest.com and request a membership.

Sign up with your business email address and create a username that reflects you and/or your business.

Step Two: Add a “Follow” Button

Once you’re logged into Pinterest, click on “About” in the upper right hand corner. You’ll see a drop down menu. Choose “Pin It button”.

You now have a few choices. You can add a “Follow” button to your website. There are three button choices. Choose the one that you like the best, then simply copy the html code and paste it where you want the button to appear on your website.

If you’re adding a “Follow” button to a WordPress blog, get into your editor and add it to the code. Alternatively, if you use widgets then you can simply add a text widget into your sidebar and then cut and paste the code.

Step Three: Add a “Pin This” Button

You can also add a “Pin This” button to your website. This encourages people to add images from your website to their Pinterest boards. It’s a fantastic way to drive traffic and potentially boost your SEO.

There are also some truly wonderful plug-ins for WordPress that allow you to integrate Pinterest into your blog. And as Pinterest continues to grow in popularity, you can bet that there will be more developers creating ways to capitalize on Pinterest.

Pinterest also links to your Twitter and Facebook accounts. Each time you post a pin on Pinterest you can also link that post to your other networking sites. It can be a very powerful tool to grow and build your business.

Check me out on Pinterest, I’d love to connect with you there. No, I am not really marketing my business there (yet!), but I am getting familiar with the site and how people are using it for biz. Mostly, I am enjoying the variety of images. You can even see a few of my own travel photos there on my boards!

In the early days of the web, the only ways a marketer could build a connection with customers was either through email or through their website. Then came Web 2.0.

With the advent of social media, the potential depth and breadth of your connection with your customers has become virtually limitless. That is, if you know how to leverage social media properly.

Social media presents an incredible opportunity for the shrewd marketer. How can you use social media to deepen existing connections and attract new customers?

Build Relationships with People Who Don’t Give Email Addresses

It takes a lot for someone to give you their email address. Even top marketers rarely get more than 20% of the people who land on an email capture page to actually give them their email address.

Contrast that with what it takes for someone to “Like” or follow you.

In order to like you, people just need to see a piece of your content that they connect with anywhere on the web, or through their friend’s feed. It doesn’t take much and can be just a passing thought.

The same goes for tweets. If someone sees one tweet of yours that they like, they can decide to follow you.

You can reach a lot of people who wouldn’t have otherwise got in your funnel through social media.

Social Media Is a Two-Way Street

Email marketing and (most) website marketing is a one way street. That means that you’re the one who’s providing the content, while your customers consume the content. You put out emails, they read the emails.

While this can be an effective way to market a product, it’s nowhere near as effective as having a real connection with your customers.

Social media allows you to have a two-way conversation. They can comment on your stories, tweet back, answer polls, like, post on your wall and express their opinions however they like.

This gets people much more invested in your brand and in your product. Someone who just reads your emails versus someone who’s in active discussion with you are two completely different kinds of customers. The latter will vehemently recommend your products, buy from you regularly and share your content, while the former may only purchase every once in a while.

Access to People’s Friends

Finally, social media gives you access to other people’s social networks.

With email marketing, you only get access to one person. On social media, if you make a post or a tweet that someone strongly agrees with, your content will immediately be shared with hundreds of other people. Among those people are more people who might re-share your content.

Social media is a powerful tool for building two-way connections and reaching friends of your customers. If you don’t have a solid social media strategy yet, now’s the time to create one.

Do you want additional tips for using Social Media for business, join the Social Media Newsflash today!

Just about everyone uses social media networks these days. It’s a way to keep up with friends old and new. But, did you know how important it is for the business side of things?

Social Media Hype

What is it about social media that is so appealing? For one, in the age of technology, it is a way for people to keep up when their schedules are too busy for actual face-to-face meetings. People can stay social and share with others over the cyber waves even if they don’t get out much.

Friends and family can stay in touch over the long miles with social sites. You can also meet and make new acquaintances through the personal information that you provide on your profile. Facebook can make suggestions for you of people you might know.

What Does It Mean for Your Business?

If you own a business, whether brick and mortar or online, you can benefit from your association with Facebook. Most of us use Facebook for personal reasons. We chat, share photos and other things. But it can be turned to profit your business.

One way is by creating a business page on Facebook. You can link to this page from your website. Use your social media page to offer special coupons or offers to those who visit and see what you are talking about there.

As your page is an extension of your business, use it as a way to hone in on what your customers are thinking. Do your due diligence as well. Respond to questions and comments asked there. Offer surveys and polls for those who “like” your page.

Highlight what is going on at your business and upcoming features. Target your updates to those who are in your niche market. And, keep them brief and timely so no one is inundated with a lot of posts to their wall.

If you are just beginning a Facebook business page, invite your friends and family members you are already “friends” with to visit and “like” your page. This can get the ball rolling. They can suggest your page to their list of friends as well.

Another suggestion is to hold contests on your business page. Mention them on your website, but only offer entry to those who check in on the Facebook page.

Did you know that Facebook pages appear in search results on major search engines? With that thought in mind, don’t forget to optimize that page just like you have done with your website. Post snippets of your content here with links back to your website for those who find you through the social site first.

Facebook fans are important to your business because there are so many of them. And, through their clicks, you can find more targeted traffic for your website.

LinkedIn is the premier social site for business professionals on the Web. If you are not a part of it, get involved today. One effective tool is LinkedIn Groups.

You may be familiar with LinkedIn but don’t really know how it can help you. Being a business professional, it can be hard to connect with other professionals. Running an online business or holding a pivotal position in a company can consume most of your time.

LinkedIn takes the guesswork and legwork out of networking with others in your field. This site allows you to search for, connect with and get needed advice from professionals with a few clicks. There are no face-to-face meetings unless you want them. Even so, you can get to know people through their profiles and interacting in groups and discussions.

LinkedIn Groups: Increase Your Visibility and Expert Status

This brings us to LinkedIn Groups. What are they? These groups are like small gatherings of professionals with similar business niches or interests. The entire site is available to you, but concentrated groups help you to target those professionals with whom you need to network.

Groups help you do many things:

• Discover other professionals to meet quickly
• Actively participate in discussions relevant to your interests and needs
• Zero in on the most influential people on LinkedIn within your professional sphere
• Know which profiles to view and which people to “follow” in discussions
• Begin your own discussions to help establish yourself as a leader in your field

These are also excellent reasons to begin your own LinkedIn Group. Before you do, though, get a feel for the process by joining a group or two. You can search for relevant groups using different parameters.

Once you find one that you like, introduce yourself. Do this by posting a new discussion question and then leaving a comment. Let people get to know you.

LinkedIn Groups can also increase your visibility and popularity on the site. While you are leading discussions, don’t forget to leave meaningful comments on other discussion topics. It will look pretty suspicious if you only post questions and never join in the discussions of others.

Build up a presence and a following. When you are ready, create your own group. If you are an executive coach, creating a group for upper-management motivational ideas is an ideal place to connect with others within companies you want to target.

Ask your new business contacts to join your group. Don’t forget business contacts on other social sites like Facebook and Twitter. Invite LinkedIn members with similar interests as a way of connecting with new faces.

Why should you create a LinkedIn group? You can increase your visibility, ranking, popularity, network and credibility in the business world.

If you want additional tips for using LinkedIn for business, join the Social Media Newsflash today!

Knowing how to build rock-solid profiles online is a valuable skill in many ways. Websites like LinkedIn for example can help you make career-launching contacts. On websites where you do business deals online like Facebook, Twitter and Google+, you usually need some sort of profile as well. Just knowing how to create a compelling and professional profile will help you establish trust, get more clients as a provider or get better service as a buyer.

Here are a few of the most important things that go into creating an online profile.

A High Quality, Professional Photo

People do judge a book by its cover. Before they’ve read your profile and before they’ve read anything you say, people are already going to be forming impressions of you based on how you look in your photo.

Aim to have a high quality, professional, high resolution photo for online profiles.

Ideally you should be wearing a suit and tie, or for women a suit jacket or blazer. The image should be crisp and it should be color corrected.

If you don’t have such a photo yet, go out of your way to take one. It makes a difference.

Focus on References

Your references will make or break you. Each social network’s referencing system works slightly differently, but by and large most communities have some sort of referencing system.

On LinkedIn for example, the references are called “recommendations.” The more positive recommendations you have, the more solid your LinkedIn profile looks.

On the other hand, on the domain buying and selling forum NamePros, they use a system called iTrader. ITrader allows users to record feedback for one another for every transaction conducted.

No matter what the reference system looks like, do everything in your power to get as many compelling references as you can. People lend a lot more weight to these references than what someone says about themselves.

Your Personal Description

Finally, your description is where you really get the chance to come out and make your case.

Try to touch on the most compelling things about you and what you have to offer. Use credibility-enhancing statements, such as talking about how many satisfied clients you have or any news outlets that you’ve been featured in.

Try to make your profile sound as professionally compelling as possible. However, try to also drop in just one or two little personal tidbits. This will help humanize you and set you out from the crowd.

These are the three most important elements of creating a compelling online profile on any website or online community. If you have a professional-looking photo, overwhelmingly positive references and a credibility-building description with a hint of personality, then you’ve nailed the online profile.

You can now get instant access to 350+ Social Media and Internet Marketing gifts absolutely FREE.

Stephanie Mulac, Queen of Giveaways, is returning for her second giveaway event of 2012. The Ultimate Social Media Giveaway is a time limited event with a MASSIVE collection of FREE Social Media and Internet Marketing products and services….

You’ve heard it from me many times…

Social Media is HOT right now with millions of users worldwide logging into popular sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ each and every day.

9000+ jobs were created last year thanks to Social Media – so I think it’s fair to say that having the necessary knowledge and skills needed to use a range of Social Media sites, is definitely something you will benefit from!

The Ultimate Social Media Giveaway hosted by Kerry Russell, Stephanie Mulac and Paul Teague will only be open for a VERY LIMITED TIME – just a few weeks in fact! So if you don’t want to get left behind in 2012, then you need to jump on board as soon as you can.

Here’s just a small sample of the 100s of FREE gifts that are available for you to download instantly once you join the event with your name and email address:

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Here’s the link to get whatever you need for YOUR social media marketing.

Like any giveaway of this size, you will need to spend some time sorting through the offers to find the gems, but I am sure it will be well worth it. This REALLY is the largest collection of Social Media and Internet Marketing information you have ever seen!

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It’s no secret that search engine rankings are important to the success of your online business. Even though algorithms keep changing, one thing is for certain – social media is here to stay and it can be quite useful to you and your audience.

If you aren’t already familiar with social media, you might want to get started. In the next few years everyone in the civilized world will know something about Facebook, Google +, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube – to name a few. You can find everyone there, especially those who are within your target audience.

Search engine optimization is necessary if you want to achieve any useful ranking that can impact your business in a positive way. It can take months and even as long as a year or more for websites to gain a garnered spot on the first page. To speed up that process, you can take a look at social media to increase your visibility.

Google is now considering social media stats in their overall algorithm for website rankings. The good news is that many of us use social media anyway, so turning it for business won’t be a stretch. You can use your knowledge and the keywords from your website to help you attract other social media members who are in your target market.

Using Social Media

Here are a few tips to help you utilize social media to improve your SEO efforts.

Join the social networks that matter – There are several social media sites but the ones most used are Facebook, Google +, Twitter and YouTube. Establish personal (if you haven’t already) and business profiles on each of these sites. Within your profiles, incorporate the target keywords that you use on your site to attract visitors.

Utilize every area of these sites – Link updates on your website to posts that you make on these sites. Uploading a video to YouTube? Use keywords in the description and add a link to your site. “Like” pages that are similar to your niche market.

Join sites relevant to your target audience – This is an old one but a good one. For instance, when you sign up for community forums, become an active member. Two-word comments, or posting to promote your site, can be viewed as spamming. You will gain more traffic from other members and influence in the community if you genuinely participate.

Follow other relevant blogs – Make comments, offer to guest blog for influential bloggers in your niche and offer useful information.

The more engaging that you are on social media sites, the more you will rise to the top on the lists of others who also patronize those sites. This can elevate your status and increase traffic to your website. Also, communicating with your target market here can offer valuable insight towards profitable changes to your website business.

There are a few pages that every blog should have. These pages will help give your readers an idea of who you are and what you blog about. They’ll help your readers navigate your website. Also, some pages are required for other reasons, such as web regulations or search engine optimization.

Here are a few of the pages and widgets that every blog should have.

An About Me Page

At the end of the day, people want to know about who you are.

If they’re reading your blog and taking advice from you, they want to know who you are. They want to know about your past accomplishments and failures. They want to know what makes you who you are. They want to know your story.

Put this in an about me page and make it easy to find.

Contact Page

Not all bloggers want to be contacted. However, it’s a good idea to at least have a contact form. Why?

You could be contacted by potential partners or someone could be considering referring a buyers to your site and just wanted to ask you a question.

You don’t have to answer every single question you get, but it still helps to have contact information up.

Social Media & RSS

Give your readers a number of different ways to follow you.

In your sidebar, have buttons that allow people to follow you on Twitter, on Facebook and even on Google+.

You should also have a clearly displayed RSS button that allows people to subscribe to your feed.

The Best Posts

Also in your sidebar should be a list of your best posts, most popular posts or your personal top picks.

When someone lands on your site, they don’t necessarily just want to read your blog in chronological order. A lot of people would prefer to start by reading your 5-10 best articles to decide if they like your content.

If they do, then they’ll start reading your blog regularly. Having these 5-10 top posts easily accessible helps give new visitors the best stuff right up front.

Privacy Policy, Disclosures, Sitemap and Terms of Service

These four pages are meant mostly for search engines and regulatory agencies.

If you’re using Google AdSense, collecting email addresses or using tracking software, you need a privacy policy.

Google strongly recommends having both a privacy policy and a terms of service. Not having them could be detrimental to your ranking. They’re also required for AdSense.

Having a sitemap will help search engines index your site.

These are a few of the pages and items that every single blog should have. Adding them will increase both your usability and your compliance.

Online or off, networking takes a bit of skill and know-how. It’s not enough to show up or be present at networking events or on networking sites. You have to participate and take an active role. Here are ten tips to network like a pro.

1. Ask Questions

When you meet people, whether you’re at a networking event or just standing in line at the supermarket, ask questions about who they are, what they do and what they’re interested in.

Asking questions accomplishes several important goals. It signals to the person you’re speaking with that you are interested in them. People are automatically drawn to those who are interested in them. They’ll like you and remember you. Asking questions also helps you learn more about this new person. It puts you in a position to help them out and to maybe gain a new associate or friend.

2. Have an Elevator Pitch Ready to Go

Your elevator pitch is your thirty-second “Here’s who I am and this is what I do” speech. Have an answer ready when people ask.

3. Don’t Forget Your Cards!

Always have business cards with you. Keep them in your wallet, bag, or purse.

4. What’s Your Goal?

When you attend networking events or you’re networking online, make sure you have a goal or objective. Do you want to make sales? Do you want to build your audience? Do you want to expand your reach?

5. Do Your Research

When attending networking events, spend some time researching who might be there and what they offer and need. You then put yourself in a position to make a more powerful and potentially lasting impression.

6. Help Others

The goal of networking isn’t just to make connections that help you. In fact, if you approach it that way you may not get the results you desire. Instead, focus on how you can help others. That’s the real key to making an impression and making good connections.

7. Introduce Yourself

It sounds so simple, but many people wait for others to come to them. Chances are half the people there are hesitant and just waiting for someone to approach them. Be the one who makes the move online and off.

8. Listen Attentively

When speaking to people, listen to them. Actually listen to what they’re saying. If you’re distracted or trying to think about what you’re going to say next, you’ll lose some of the value of the connection.

9. Know When to Leave, or Take It Offline/Offsite

There comes a time in every conversation when it’s time to bring it to a close. Learn to recognize this point and be ready to take it offsite.

10. Take Notes

Unless you have a spectacular memory, you won’t remember everyone or everything they say. It’s okay to take notes!

Networking online and off is a fabulous way to build your business. Learn how to do it well and you’ll be able to optimize your networking time and achieve your goals quickly.