We can create a tighter, more effective Page and make our work easier by completing three simple preparation steps. Over the . . . → Read More: Planning Steps for Your Facebook Page]]> Because social media sites make joining so easy, most want to get started as soon  as possible. This is a mistake.  Be patient.   I want us to do some homework before we create our Facebook Pages.

We can create a tighter, more effective Page and make our work easier by completing three simple preparation steps. Over the next three posts, I will give you three exercises to complete (I will do them myself). Type your answers to the exercises in a word document. We will copy and paste these answers as we create our Facebook Page.

1.  Write down three – four goals or reasons why you want a Facebook Page. Here are a few suggestions. Go beyond these suggestions. Clarity is power. The clearer your goals, the more success you will have.

• Building your business brand awareness
• Driving your sales
• Forming a community of people who share your values
• Listening to feedback about your business and brand

2. Complete a brief one paragraph “resume” of your business. Just as you prepare a resume for a new job, write up why your business should be selected by potential customers. What results do you produced? Why should people believe you? What do you offer that your competitors don’t? Who does the business serve? What parts of your business history will persuade prospects? You get the idea. Write a paragraph resume why your business should be chosen for the job! Toot your horn!

3. Locate a professional photo of yourself or a logo image of your business. We will be uploading these images on your Facebook Page. Make sure it professionally represents you and your business. Bathing suits not allowed!!

I will have second set of planning exercises in the next post in two days. You will have time to complete this exercise. It doesn’t need to be a finished product. As you move forward, you will want to make some changes.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

To be continued, your comments are . . . → Read More: Steps Involved in the Creation of Your Facebook Fan Page]]> Here’s a short video outlining the steps involved in the creation of your Facebook Page.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

First, when someone clicks on the ads, the visitor is acting in a proactive way. They had . . . → Read More: Facebook Ads Will Overtake Google Ads!]]> Google forever changed the world of advertising with Pay for Click Ad words. Pay for Click are the small ads you see on the right side of every Google search page. Pay for Click advertising is successful for three reasons.

First, when someone clicks on the ads, the visitor is acting in a proactive way. They had interest in the product or service and are willing to click on it. Pay for Click visitors are more likely prospects than causal observers.

Second, Google Pay for Click helps your business appear on the top page of the search engine ranking. It is not easy to get on the first page of Google. Using Pay  for Click you can by pass the normal organic ranking system of Google.

Third, with Pay for Click, you only pay when someone clicks on your ad. Google helps you create a budget and monitors the budget based on how many clicks are made on your ad.

Google Pay for Clicks has limitations. You get proactive views on your site but beyond their interest, you know nothing about the visitor to determine if they are a good candidate for your business. In highly competitive areas, Pay for Click is expensive. A Click can cost you 10-12 dollars per click. A $100 budget can go in less than one day!

Facebook Ads

What if you could target these pay for click ads so they only appears before certain types of prospects? Facebook ads allow you to do this. Take the example of the Woodbury Minnesota wedding Photographer. He places a Facebook ad to appear only on those pages of women from the St.Paul/Minneapolis area, ages 22-30, whose status is engaged. Over a two year period he spent $300 to generate $60,000 in business. How does this work?

When people join Facebook they complete a profile about their age, their sex, where they live, their interests, their hobbies, their family status, their political and religious preferences.

Facebook ads use this profile information as a screen. As an advertiser your ad appears only on the profile pages you determined, just as the wedding photographer does. The result is a more targeted ad. Because these ads are new, there is less competition, Facebook ads are cheaper. A $100 budget can last for weeks.

Facebook ads provides all the same features as Google ad words, daily budgets, measured results, pay based on clicks. In addition Facebook also allows consumers to interact with the ads in an entirely new way.

Conclusion

Facebook ads not only target keywords like Google, you can also target these words by age, sex, location and a variety of personal attributes such as hobbies, favorite types of music, sports, food and many other preferences.

Can you begin to see how you may use these Facebook Ads to your business advantage? Not surprising, many predict these targeted Facebook ads will soon overshadow Google ads. It’s another reason why a Facebook Fan page should be in your marketing mix.

We will talk in more details about how to create your Facebook ads in a later post.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal

Internet Travels

When we look at the recent history of the internet, we  see we have traveled a long road . . . → Read More: Facebook Fan Pages–the Perfect Storm!]]> The statistics about Fan pages and its popularity should be enough to convince you about the need for a Fan page for your business. Let me share with you another reason. Facebook Fan pages are the perfect storm.

Internet Travels

When we look at the recent history of the internet, we  see we have traveled a long road in a short time. Less than five years ago it was mandatory for a small business to have a website, if for no other reason than to get credibility with your customers.

Because of the static nature of websites, they did not produce the results they promised. Most business owner never made changes to their sites. These sites were left behind by the search engines because they lacked any fresh information..

Websites gave way to blogs and their ability to constantly add fresh information. Blogs were also interactive and allowed people to participate and comment. The internet became a two-way street.

Blogs have their limitations. Most small business owners don’t like to write. It’s difficult to maintain weekly blog postings.

Blogs were followed quickly by other social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. These sites started as social sites and then became commercialized. Building relationships was easier than writing blog posts.

Twitter is called a micro blog because Tweets can be done in 140 characters or less. And those Tweets don’t have to be heavy duty content.

Facebook Fan Pages

Now we have Facebook Fan pages, the commercial side of Facebook. . It offers the best of the many internet worlds. It can look like a website; it can offer all the tools a website can offers: videos, photos, audio, shopping carts, etc.; it offers fresh materials like blogs and discussion groups with interaction between participants. It can be short and sweet like Twitter. The Status Updates are directly picked up by Google making a Fan page a very power SEO tool for higher rankings on the search pages.

Another unique aspect of a Fan Page is its Newsfeed. Most of the time, we do internet searches to find information. What if, instead of us looking for information, it would come directly to us? What if, we could control what information we want presented to us? Facebook’s Newsfeed does this exact function. Information comes to the participants instead of them chasing after it.

When participants find good information, they share it with their friends through the social networking of Facebook. Now we can tap into the viral nature of the internet to aid our small businesses.

The Perfect Storm

If you already recognize the limitations of a static website but don’t want to throughout everything a website can offer, a Fan page is the answer.

If you recognize the amount of work involved in keep a blog current, but don’t want to throw out the blog value for participation, fresh information and developing a reputation for your expertise, than a Fan page is your answer.

If you want to tap into the social nature of the internet but are tired of the noise you must endure, then a Fan Page is the answer.

Conclusion

At this point in time, Fan pages make the best of the internet developments and leaves behind much of the internet weaknesses. It’s the perfect storm.

In the next post, I will give you another reason why Fan pages will become essential to your marketing in the future.

To be continued, your comments are welcomed…

But now you’re the boss. And the freedom that we all believed a small business of our own creates does not . . . → Read More: What is Business Freedom?]]> I continue with excerpts from Michael Gerber’s The Most Successful Small Business in the World. In principle Seven, Gerber talks about the freedom principle that is so much a part of small business motivation.

But now you’re the boss. And the freedom that we all believed a small business of our own creates does not happen on its own. Like all freedom, it depends on you. It requires you to change your behavior from that of an employee to that of an entrepreneur. The entrepreneur is psychologically far afield from the employee in you. He doesn’t want freedom because he already has it. He doesn’t create a small business to be free; he creates a small business to express the freedom he already posses.

In short, if the higher aim is to be realized at all, it must arise in Joseph. It must drive Joseph. It must become Joseph’s obsession…It must speak from him, and to him, whether he know how to speak so or not, whether or not he knows from where the voice comes.

Do you realize that you, the one reading this sentence right now, have been given a destiny to create a new world? You were given that even before you were born…You are called to grow beyond your comfort zone, to grow beyond your need to make a living. pp. 104-6.

In the next post, I will share how Michael proposed for us to achieve this business friend.

Your comments are welcomed…

Al Hanzal