1. Know Your Goals and Plan Around Them

The first step is understanding what you want accomplish. Some goals could include looking to build awareness of your company or brand, and driving traffic to your web site. Promoting a specific event or generating sales are other common goals.

To build awareness and grow your fan base (getting people to “Like” your page), there are standard marketplace ads. The ads point to your Facebook Page and allow users to “like” your page, using the Like link right in the ad. You also could try a “Page Like” sponsored story, where the ad shows friends who have liked your Page.

You can even target people who are friends with people who already “like” your Page, which creates a social context, that makes people much more likely to remember the ad’s content.

When you want to promote a particular post from your page, such as a special offer or important news, you can also use “Page Post” sponsored stories to convert your post into a News Feed item.

Sponsored Stories is one of Facebook’s newest marketing tool which promotes word-of-mouth recommendations about your business that are happening in the News Feed. You can sponsor stories about people checking in to your business or “liking” your Page.

Measure success by social media metrics. Click-through rate (CTR) is an important metric to track, but since the average CTR for Facebook ads is only about 0.05%, which is half the industry standard of 0.1%. Instead set goals to increase in comments, Likes, impressions and active users. Facebook has hundreds of reports you can use to analyze results, make use of them for maximum results.

2. Targeting with Your Ads

When placing your Facebook ad, the form makes it very easy to select the demographic profile of your target audience. It has the added feature of the ability to target very specific audiences. Here, less is more.

Better results are achieved by having less very targeted people, rather than having large numbers of people who are not interested. Gaining smaller but very specific target audiences, even at the risk of reducing the size of your audience, can be more effective.

Let’s say you want to promote an event at your business. It would be more effective to target people who are already fans of your page, who may be more likely to respond to a a local offer. Besides targeting people by location, you may want to also use names of popular local businesses, colleges and clubs into the ad manager to find the people that don’t put their city and zip code in their profiles.

3. Choose Text and Images That Grab Attention

When designing your ad, you have up to 135 characters, but some of the most effective ads don’t use the whole character limit. Use small and concise ads that speaks directly to the audience you will reach. Special offers or unique features that differentiate you from the competition, are also effective. Facebook suggests using your company name in the ad title or somewhere in the body of the ad. A simple line can be the biggest draw. It can be in the form of asking a question or making a bold or odd statement. Remember to include something that encourages users to click on your ad and explains to the user exactly what you expect them to do when they reach your landing page.

An image that will draw a person’s attention to your ad is recommended. Logos in this case, may not be the best way to go. Since the photos are small, use something unusual or a face shot of people. Smiling women tend to generate a high click rate. Experts recommend trying natural photos with colors that contrast with the blue color scheme of Facebook, such as red, yellow and orange.

4. Use and Measure Multiple Ads

Create multiple versions of your ad and test them to see which ad gets the best response. Once an ad has been created, you have the option to “Create a Similar Ad”, via the Facebook interface, and put in a new picture or text.

Experts recommend creating four different ads for the same campaign. Run each ad for a day or two and then check your ad statistics on Facebook to see which did best. You can then create a new ad that is similar to your ad that performed the best, with a few minor changes to see if it improves the ad’s performance. Since these ads rotate constantly, keep changing the ads so that your specific target audience doesn’t get disinterested.

Also, take top-performing ads and create new ad groups with related ad copy and pictures. This will lower your costs because your ad group has a higher CTR (Click Through Rate).

Facebook has hundreds of reports available, and it is wise to make use of them.

5. Be Ready To Get the Most Out of Your Traffic

Keep your Facebook Wall fresh and updated. Stale content, like the last Wall update was weeks or months ago, will make people lose interest. Give them a reward for visiting so they keep coming back.

Most people don’t click through to your Facebook page; they click ‘like’ right in the ad. Have fresh status updates or special offers or events available that follow up on the content in your ads, and get people to keep coming back.

The click you get is not the end result, it’s the beginning of presenting your campaign to your audience. When someone likes your page, you now have their consent to talk and update them over and over. Boundless opportunities can result by keeping them interested with fresh content, special offers, coupons and events, on an ongoing basis.

Get Started Now: If you have been an active Internet user for any amount of time now, you already understand just how important Facebook is. But lots of people still haven’t begun to use Facebook to build their businesses…how come? It’s really because most people enjoy watching other people take action. Don’t be a procrastinator; start benefiting from the social revolution that’s sweeping the web. Become one of the popular users of Facebook and use that to raise yourself up in the business world too. It’s not super simple but it’s not super difficult either; if you begin today, you’ll be rewarded tomorrow.

When you interact with your friends on Facebook, one thing you should never do is treat them like a mailing list and try to sell them products directly. You should be using Facebook to help get interested visitors to your site. Rather than directing your Facebook friends to a sales letter, a better strategy is to use a lower key, pre-sell page. Remember, the people in your network are your “friends”, and friends don’t like being sold – they want to be recommended. So if you really want Facebook to work for your business then don’t sell, but recommend. As long as you’re tactful and friendly about it, there’s nothing wrong with telling people about your product, blog or website.

Begin Adding Applications: Applications are all over the place on Facebook and these apps have been created so that your Facebook experience will be better. You need to begin using applications that will allow you to better reach your goals while having a good time doing so. One good example is of the applications that match up Facebook and Twitter so that as soon as you compose and publish something on Twitter it gets re-posted on your Facebook account. The more intelligently you use these apps, the easier it will become for you to take part in the social network more effectively. It’s not a good idea to use a personal Facebook account to promote your business; you should, instead, set up a new, dedicated account for this purpose. Besides that, you shouldn’t be mixing your business with your personal life on Facebook, because that’s just not right. The best way to promote your business on a social network is to have a dedicated account made specifically for this reason.

To sum up, Facebook is the future of communication and interaction online–the people who use it are much better connected than they were as few as ten years ago. If you really want your business to be involved in the revolution, jump into the pool now!

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Whether you are a bricks and mortar businesses or online Internet-based businesses, chances are you sales will go up if you are marketing your business online. There are many offline businesses that can effectively leverage social media to strengthen and grow their businesses in creative and effective ways. It’s about thinking outside the square.

Most importantly, your social media marketing must fit in with your overall business Marketing Plan. If you are ad-hoc how you use social media to market your business then Yes you will probably get ad-hoc results. Be sure to implement a Social Media Marketing Plan to ensure you get the most effective results for your business.

Many of the popular social media websites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, You Tube, all engage prospects and customers, increase the awareness and popularity of your business and inevitably boost your sales.

If you are serious about taking your business into the 21st century, then you will need to embrace social media. There are many ways that businesses can use social media to its advantage, here’s just a few:

* Be present and become and Expert: The first step is to create your profiles on the various social media websites, and then you will need to update them on a regular basis. You will need to check your sites a couple of times a week to respond to comments from your followers. This a great way to build presence, be seen as an expert and continue to build relationships with your followers. The more you update and are seen to be interactive with your followers the stronger your business’s reputation will be.

* Educate not Sell: Social media is another way to build relationships with people, prospects and customers that you may have never otherwise been exposed too. So make the most of it. In today’s market, consumer are getting smarter, plus we live a world of mass advertising. The last you want to do is sell your products and services on social media. It’s about educating your fans. Every once in awhile you might promote a workshop, special offer, however this is less often. Educate more Sell less. If people want to find out more about you and your products’ and services they can easily access your website.

* Get the whole company involved: If you have a staff, get them involved and task them to update your social media posts on a daily basis. This is an excellent morale booster and your staff’s involvement will strengthen your marketing effort and increase your business’s online exposure. A little suggestion, you might want to keep an eye on how much time your staff is spent on social media and that it is for work and not personal purposes.

* Encourage people to Join you on Social Media: Ask people to “like” your social Media pages, you can promote the social integration on your business receipts, signs, email marketing, brochures and invoices so that your existing customers will want to jump on the social media train as well. You can also ask your customers to check in to Foursquare or one of the other geo-location applications once they arrive in the general proximity of your store offering them special promotions enticing them come in.

* Keep an eye on your Competitors: Social Media provides a great medium to keep an eye on your competitors and stay ahead of the game. It is a great way to research you’re your competitors are offering, special promotion, how active they are on social media, who is following them and what they are saying. Always remember to stay on top of what your competition is doing by reading everything that they post. Remember that you and the other businesses are always fighting to stay on top.

* Become a Community: People want to feel like they belong to something ie a community, this is your job and social media provides a perfect platform for this. People are more likely to buy from people They Know, They Like, They Trust. The way to achieve this is by having live events at your store as well as events online, promote special offers, give advice and Be There for them.

Start small: If you don’t have any help in managing your social media platforms and you try to do it all by yourself, you may find that you aren’t doing it well or at all. Start with one and get comfortable with that, make sure that you go for quality over quantity.

* Listen and Learn: Are you aware of what your existing customers and potential customers are saying about your business, products and services and brand? Pay special attention to the comments that people are posting online. It is also a good idea to set up Google alerts and to immediately handle issues as they occur. This is your chance to show people how much you care about them. Help them to solve their problems and address whatever concerns they have. Generally people are OK if a mistake is made, as long as you resolve it.

* Be Patient: It takes time to see significant results with social media when it comes to the success of your business. Remember that your hard work will definitely pay off and the more relationships you build and the more you interact with others, the more interested other people will be in connecting with you again and again. It’s also important to remember that social media does provide a means for you to connect with people you would never have had the opportunity otherwise.

* Giveaways: You can use social media to give away free products from your store. There is a guarantee that that will attract attention and people will want to interact with you and will want to be the first to know when you introduce new products and services. Be wary how much your sell and undertake competitions.

Social Media is here, many consumers are spending hours online, so it makes sense to have a presence as well for your business. The Real Results will come when you are Strategic about your social media marketing. It’s all about taking your business into the 21st century, if you are ready to embrace it, so will your clients and watch your business grow.

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Online social media, it seems, is an untamable beast. But nothing could be further from the truth. To propel your name into strange lands; to the horizon; into the sky, the monolith that is social media must be lassoed and utilized to make your business an entity that has the potential to be bigger than the sum of its parts.

As social media spreads ever quicker, umbrella-like, around the world; your business association with it allows for ever new, ever exciting and ever expanding opportunity. Opportunities like brand recognition stretching past your normal demographic and increased opportunity to generate much needed traffic for your website. Through social media, your friendships and everyday acquaintances are propelled into new positions as potential vehicles for your business, providing free advertising and word-of-mouth promotion to your business; a service so powerful it has the ability to build your business even as you sleep at night.

Building a business presence on a social media website is vital to the expansion of your brand, or name, or organization. Reasons why social media is imperative to the growth of your business include:

Target Audience is easily tapped: The amazing thing about social media, and probably the attribute contributing most to its power, is its ability to be able to reach each anyone, anytime, anywhere. This type of exposure cannot be ignored and gearing your product to your specific target audience is now as easy as pointing, and clicking.

Consumer Feedback: Your presence online allows clients, buyers and potential investors confidence in the knowledge that they can contact you at anytime. Making yourself available at all times affords a peace of mind to all who engage with you and your business. This boils down to the ever-present and sensitive area of business-consumer trust and what better way to build that trust than to be available to question, at all times.

Marketing and Promotions: The online world provides a great platform to build customer relation through social media promotions and even discount and special offers. The internet can be used to propel incentive for site visits and purchases, by offering specific online gift cards, discounts and rewards. This type of service also increases pleasurable feelings toward your brand and will surely build your presence in the minds of your customers.

Content: Your content can be manipulated, molded and aimed at any demographic, at anytime and because of the internet’s vast stretch, can be exposed to numbers beyond comprehension. Keeping content relevant and timely is vital as once that content is out there, it’s out there. Minimize mistakes, maximize presence, and watch as your hit counter climbs into numbers unfathomable.

Online profiles: Creating online profiles for your business allows you to target specifically the audience you see as your primary demographic. Through aligning with various interests and preferences, you can expose your product or service to those who relate to the content the most. This amazing feature allows you to stand up proud amongst potential clients and almost shout to them, exclaiming that you have what they need; you are the solution to any given problem.

So, by no means can we become complacent when discussing the entity that is social media. Constant work and daily attention will catapult your name into the stratosphere but results may not immediately be seen and maintaining an online social presence is no mean feat. But it seems the beast can indeed, be tamed; controlled; calmed, for small periods of time, in between massive growth and runaway progression. If done correctly, and paid daily attention, you can use the leviathan that is social media, as a rolling juggernaut to a business presence and functioning that defies comprehension. The future of business growth and prosperity is now and it roams the corridors, byways and catacombs of the World Wide Web, and it’s growing bigger every day.

Derek Jansen is the author of the Free SEO Course. Click here to download your free SEO course today!

Social Media Marketing Services are growing at exponential rates.   Business and consumer use of Google Search, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Blogger, WordPress, YouTube, Bing, Yahoo, and thousands of other social media sites are in high demand.  The platforms give you, and your online brand, new media applications to communicate directly with your consumer.  The days of one way marketing are over and marketers are now able to enter into two way conversations with buyers about their products and services.  These 3 steps help you along the road to social medial marketing success.  Paint the world a beautiful picture of exactly who you want to be through professional social media marketing strategy.

If you’ve been paying attention to what people are doing online, you’ve heard of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and blogging. Basically, if you found this article, you’re technically savvy enough to deal with tools like that. You know they can build your online brand.

But, what most people don’t realize is that building an online brand doesn’t just involve opening up the social media toolbox and blasting out sales messages. Nothing will harm your online brand quicker than social media spam.

Social media marketing isn’t about numbers, it’s about relationships. Do your customers feel like they have a relationship with you? Do they know you care about them as people, not as sales targets? Online brands that build these relationships with people tend to be more successful than those that just treat them like numbers.

Here are five ways you can improve your brand through proper social media marketing techniques.

1) Listen

Rather than sending out constant messages about upcoming sales and special offers, “turn the bullhorn around,” Tara Hunt says in her book, “The Whuffie Factor.” People are talking about you, whether it’s complaints, questions, feedback, or compliments. Social media tools help you listen to them, and answer back where they are, rather than where you want them to go.

It’s also important to listen before you just jump in and start talking. Whether it’s Twitter or a specialty social media group, listen to what people are saying before you start talking about your online brand. Learn what the tone of the group is, and match it. Make sure the tone is right for your online brand, and a place you would actually want to associate with people.

2) Answer questions

This is where your online brand can prove some real worth to potential customers. Take any opportunity you can to answer questions in your field, not just about your online brand. If you’re a video marketing consultant, answer anyone’s questions about how to make online videos. Whether it’s about the best video camera to buy, how to edit video clips, or even how to do video marketing (yes, seriously). By doing this, you’ll establish your online brand as being someone who is knowledgeable and helpful.

3) Be a resource

This goes hand in hand with answering questions. Rather than waiting for people to ask something you can answer, push out other helpful information and articles. Forward articles you’re reading to your network. Help them learn, and show potential customers that you’re constantly keeping up to date. By staying on top of industry trends, you’re more able to help them with their own issues.

4) Be yourself

This sounds like advice our parents gave to us in high school, but it’s still good advice, even [**system error**] years later. Nothing kills an online brand like being inauthentic. This is where your personality and your face needs to shine through. Remember, you are your brand. If you’re a funny, quirky person, then your online brand should match it (within reason, of course). If you’re a caring person, then your online brand should be caring as well.

5) Gather more people like you

This is the fun part. This is where you build your network of people who can be potential customers, or even potential referral partners. The easiest way to do it is just to check out people who are already in your network, and see who they’re following or are connected to. You can be fairly safe in assuming that the people they’re following are people who have similar interests and are in the same field.

These techniques will apply to any social media tool. Remember, social media marketing is about engaging in relationships and conversations with customers. By using these techniques, you can help build your online brand and reach your ideal customers.

Many experienced businesspeople are still married to traditional marketing and business promotion techniques. They still think in terms of advertising in broadcast and print media. They still think about eyeballs, open rates, and CPMs (cost per thousand views). They’re thinking about impressions, drive time, and prime time. But business promotion has grown beyond traditional marketing and advertising, and moved online.

Why Is Business Promotion Changing?

It’s because of Generation Y and the explosive growth of social media. There are 82 million members of Generation Y (compared to the 78+ million Baby Boomers), and 96% of them are on a social network of some sort. Whether it’s Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or other networks, these online tools have reshaped business promotion as we know it.

If you want to reach Generation Y through business promotion, consider social media as your best bet. It costs less than traditional advertising, can be targeted to reach only the people you want, and can easily be measured. The problem with traditional advertising is that you can’t effectively measure whether it was your TV commercials or billboards that resulted in increased sales, and even if one of them was more effective.

How Can I Use Social Media for Online Business Promotion?

Social media is all about communicating and building trust through relationships. By speaking to your customer base on their terms and their turf, you can earn their trust a lot more easily, which can make your business promotion much more effective. Generation Y spends a lot of time online, getting their news and entertainment from the web. They communicate via text messages on their cell phone. And they are the biggest consumer of mobile videos of any generation.

Social media is becoming more popular and widespread. The biggest demographic on Facebook may still be Generation Y, but the fastest growing one is women 50 and over. If that was your biggest customer base, how would you reach them? You could advertise during shows that women over 50 typically watch, but you’re not going to necessarily reach them. Plus, you need to repeat those ads many times, which will get expensive. But with Facebook, you can create fan pages and groups specifically for your target audience. You can even purchase ads that are served only to women in their 50s. You can’t do that with traditional advertising.

Your online business promotion campaign should consist of Twitter, Facebook and/or MySpace, and blogging. Set up accounts, fan pages, blogs, and communicate with your potential customers about the things they want to talk about. Don’t tell them what you do, talk to them about what they do, like, and enjoy. Become a resource for their interests by forwarding articles, providing tips, and telling people about other resources that meet their interests and needs.

Whenever possible, use online business promotions to support your offline promotions as well. If you’re attending a trade show, are sponsoring a special event or team, or are still using traditional marketing, tell people about it through your social networks.

If you’re at a trade show, encourage people on Twitter to stop by your booth. If you’re sponsoring a special event, talk it up on your Facebook fan page. Or if you’re sponsoring a sports team, consider setting up a fan page for that team. Put your Twitter account and Facebook URL in your advertisements, and encourage people to follow you or become fans. There’s no reason these two business promotion methods have to be separate.

While we’re not predicting the death of traditional marketing methods, we are encouraging you to add social media as a big part of your business promotion toolbox.