Tag Archives: facebook

Facebook Profiles and Pages | Do I Need Friends or Fans?

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Do I have to become a Facebook friend to get your business information? Until Facebook rolled out the Facebook Pages for businesses (sometimes called Fanpages,) the personal profile page was the only way to promote a business.

When businesses began to get the picture of how Facebook could work for them, they had no other choice than to use a personal-type account. New updates were VERY weighted toward their business. Forced to become a friend with old classmates, customers had a difficult time learning about the business through Facebook. When they did make the Friend connection, they had to wade through reports about the dog ‘doing his business’ to get to the serious business information.

Setting up a Facebook page for a business is a violation of Facebook Rules. Read more about the rules. Facebook has been ‘soft’ on enforcement of that, but does, on occasion, close an account. Facebook has a work-around for a personal profile page that wants to go to work as a fan/business page. Friends become fans. Photos are transferred in the change, but updates are not. The change is nearly impossible to reverse, so a person would want to be certain before making the decision.  Learn more about these changes.

It does appear that the new Cover Image option for a personal page can be something that quietly and consistently promotes your business which is also your ‘passion.’

The same words “profile” and “page”, are used over and over in the Facebook and Internet culture, contributing to confusion. If you have questions about seeking ‘friends’ or ‘fans’ while setting up your Facebook pages, please feel free to ask in the comments section below or ask us on the Engrave-A-Crete page. We’d really like you to share your Facebook tips and experience with us and other readers.

Two Options for Your Facebook Marketing

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You are not alone in some confusion about how to promote your business on Facebook. A lot of us began promoting our work right there on our profile WALL before the business page option — commonly called Fan Pages. We ran against the terms of use to make do with our personal profile page, promoting to our friends and maybe their friends.

Facebook has a new option that will let you move your personal profile that is aimed at your business into a business page. Your friends will be ‘beamed up’ as ‘likes/fans’. Images are transported too, but not other content. Using a new option in your Facebook account, your information can be downloaded securely. I recommend using this as a backup before changing from a personal page to a business page.

Second option is to create a new business page where you promote your business and put out the news to your friends that if they ‘like’ your page, you will be forever grateful.

Yet the personal profile page continues to offer your friends connection with you and the pictures of your summer vacation, discussions of recipes, politics and jokes.

You ask “What’s the big deal? Why change?”

  1. Facebook is gently directing users toward compliance with the terms of service document which prohibits ‘representing a business or non-human entity in a personal profile’.
  2. Business pages are favored by the search engines. Your business benefits from anything you can do that makes you look better in the search engines.
  3. Promotional applications, including pay-per-click advertising, are available to business pages.
  4. There is no friend ceiling of 5000 friends; the ‘likes’ on business pages have no limits.

Remember – Transporting will end the specific profile page — if it is truly a personal profile, that can be a painful decision. The choice to keep the personal profile and add a business page, dividing the activity between business and personal would be the best one in this situation.

Facebook Help Pages about changing and Facebook Video about downloading will help you make your choice.

Facebook is Worthless to Your Business

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Facebook is taking over the web… it’s becoming the very face of the web itself. Over 500 million (and growing and growing and growing) internet users strong have a personal profile on Facebook.

This is where everybody is on the web. This is where everyone is hanging out, sharing their lives, pictures and videos, and if you want to get seen, then you have to be where the people are, right?

Even though you’ve been hounded by us and other internet marketing pundits, I’ll be the first to tell you that a Facebook presence for your business is worthless if no one knows about it; and unless you’re a big brand with a big following that compels people to spontaneously look for you on Facebook (like Coca-Cola), you’re not going to get found.

The only way to remedy this is to promote your Facebook page as if it were your business.

Encourage your customers to “Like” your Facebook page, and to comment on the pictures that you post of the work you did for them. Ask them to share your page with their friends and family on Facebook.

Promote your Facebook page on your website and on your business cards and brochures and on the side of your trailer, or truck.

Make compelling complimentary posts about your customers and their newly beautified concrete, and you’ll see your presence on Facebook start to gain some ground.

This does take work on your part. You do have to monitor activity and respond to comments and questions, but that is what will lead to future business.

Your customers and potential customers have a lot of power these days… they have the power to help your business grow, or the power to bury it.

For more information on how the face of doing business is changing, I recommend Gary Vaynerchuk’s books, Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion
and his new book coming out tomorrow, The Thank You Economy.

Facebook on Twitter Wings

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Let your decorative concrete business use Facebook pages and Twitter to reach out and build connections. You will have the search engines singing love songs laced with your keywords. Sure, I’m giving you a ‘re-retweet’ about Twitter and Facebook, I have a reason. Recently Google reported using these social media giants to gather information for their index.

This article explains the process: How Twitter and Facebook Can Help Your Search Rankings by Linda Bustos.

A few things you can do to turn the sock hop into a grand ball include:

  • Begin to connect with powerful members of both Facebook and Twitter.
    • Follow them,
    • Add them to a list,
    • Re-tweet their posts.
    • Reply when they ask a question or make a pertinent tweet and
    • Respond politely when they mention you.
  • This activity leads to you becoming an influencer. Twitter has a measuring device called KLOUT.com that tracks influence. The optimum score is 100.   TwitterGrader.com is another fun resource. Again, the desired score is 100.
  • Dress-up your blog and website with the buttons and applications that will make it easy for readers to share your post.
  • Put your Facebook business page and Twitter link in your email signature
  • Watch your activity for something about you that could go viral on the social networks. It might be a contest or a wacky/unique video or the breaking news story. Creating this kind of passion is hard to force. Consistent activity which gets all of the information that will interest your customers there will certainly cover or include your potentially viral works.

Be consistent, be lively, be informative, be a giver! Of course dress all of that in keywords about your business. And let Google reward your activity with a twirling spin to the top of the page.

What Goes Round on Social Media Comes Round — To You On The Search Engines

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Using Facebook pages and Twitter to reach out raises your decorative concrete business standing with the search engines. That may sound like a ‘re-retweet’ from me, but recently Google reported using these social media giants to gather information for the index.

This article explains the process: How Twitter and Facebook Can Help Your Search Rankings by Linda Bustos.

A few things you can do to make this merry-go-round gather momentum include:

  • Connect with influencers on both Facebook and Twitter.
    • Follow them,
    • Add them to a list,
    • Retweet their posts.
    • Reply when they ask a question or make a pertinent tweet and
    • Respond politely when they mention you.

“Thank you for the mention.” or “Thank you for the retweet.” will work.

These connection activities will lead to you becoming an influencer as well. Bing and Google tend to give influencer’s social media activity more credit and authority and will pass that authority and credit as page rank to the page that they link to.
How much of an influencer are you? Twitter has a measuring device called KLOUT.com that tracks influence. The optimum score is 100. Another fun resource is TwitterGrader.com. Again, the desired score is 100.

Dress-up your blog and website with the buttons and applications that will make it easy for readers to share your post.

Put your Facebook business page and Twitter link in your email signature

    Be consistent, be lively, be informative, be a giver! Of course dress all of that in keywords about your business. And let Google reward your activity with a big spin to the top of the page.