This post has been submitted by Tracey Sands. You can find more on Tracey’s work at www.coffeehousepoetry.blogspot.com.

Times are changing on the internet, and you need to change with them or get left behind. One of the biggest changes is social networking sites; they are popping up everywhere, and the smart marketer knows how to take advantage of them.

My article focuses on Facebook and how a savvy business owner markets himself.

First things, first, you need to go to www.facebook.com and register yourself. This gives you a profile. Now before you even start remember this is for business. Some people think Facebook is only for personal, that you can’t profit or mix business with it, well that is their opinion, not mine. Another point I want to clear up, you can have two Facebook accounts; one for business, one for personal. Facebook will not let you use the same name so be creative; use your middle name. Facebook also does not like this approach, but it does work.

Now you need to fill out your profile and center it on your business. Fill in as much detail as you can. People will look at your profile to learn more about you. This is where you really get to shine and advertise your product, toot your horn. Explain why you are the best salesman in the sports world, explain why no one knows IT like you, or can be a personal coach like you. And believe! Also make sure you state that you want people to add you as a friend. Let them know you’re all about marketing. Trust me people will ask to be your friend even though you don’t know them or have never talked to them.

Before we move on, I want to address applications. Facebook is full of them; you can download ten applications a day and not run out. Just because you find a great application, does not mean everyone you know on Facebook wants to try it too. And this also means you do not have to accept every application that is sent your way. Specifically I am talking about the fun wall. This is a bad, bad application; this application can leave you with some very distasteful pictures on your profile, bad for business. Remember, when one of your friends sends you an application, before you run it or install it, read about it first, or say no.

Now that you have your profile built, your goal is to build a group centered on your business. An example, my business is Branding Yourself Online, I have a group called Branding Yourself Online on Facebook. I create the group, put my URL there and a little blurb about what the group is for. Now I visit similar groups and join them. Because I am interested in marketing to business owners, I want to join business groups. So I’ll join a few groups and on the wall I’ll write a little blurb like

“Join Branding Yourself Online, learn how to make yourself stand out from the competition, click here to learn more”

Trust me this works. This is how I built up Facebook Marketing 101 to have over 100 people in less than a week.

Another point I want to talk about is advertising on Facebook. Facebook is very strict about marketing or advertising on their site without giving them a cut. You cannot spam people; you cannot go to other groups and advertise. The only safe places to advertise are, on your profile, and on the group that you created. That’s really the only place you can talk as much as you want about your product or business.

Facebook has a marketplace, but you must tread carefully here. If you put an ad up that people don’t like, they can vote that it’s spam. Not only will your ad be taken down but Facebook will email you with a warning. If you get enough warnings, they will boot you off the system.

My last point I wanted to touch on is friends. Feel free to invite people to make you a friend, or ask people to be your friend. The more friends you have, the more you can send them emails about things they might be interested. Like say you are a makeup company and you have a bunch of women who wear makeup, send them a casual email telling them what’s going on. Be sure to make it informative in some way so it’s not seen as spam. Also the more people you have in a group, the larger the database, feel free to email them stuff about the group. In my group on branding, I would email them if I was having a conference in the area, or another book in my series was coming out, etc.

Facebook builds trust and makes sales easier. Facebook gives people a chance to interact with other people on a faceless world. Facebook gives people faces and that builds trust. With trust you now have a reputation and become credible so it is easier to make that sale.

By applying these tools and a professional attitude, marketing on Facebook can be successful. And if you don’t have a company group on Facebook, you’d better think about joining, before your competition does.

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Tracey Sands
www.blondecurlyandsuccessful.blogspot.com

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