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How Facebook Threatens Google's Dominance

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NewMediaPlus.Net is the leading blog for social media marketing information, click here to view the website

Written by Katya Small | 06 December 2010

 

It is difficult to believe that only a few years ago Facebook was born in a college student's dorm room as a way to connect students with each other. It is even harder to believe that more recently the networking giant was the province of students sharing their course schedules and posting pictures of themselves at parties. Facebook, in a very short period of time, has gone from that narrow, 18- to 24-year-old audience to a global one and has become a force to be reckoned with.

For businesses, Facebook represents a unique way to communicate with customers and to attract new ones that far outstrips the interaction available from traditional and online advertising channels, such as Google Ads, wherein companies pay for advertisements on the sidebar and top of search results related to their business.

Beyond the ability to interact directly with customers, Facebook offers businesses the ability to create pages that their customers can "like", and therefore, endorse to their friends, family, colleagues and any other acquaintances who happen to see their recommendation on their Facebook news feed. While Google has a Twitter knock-off, Google Buzz, it is dubious whether it has even a fraction of the users or traffic that Facebook generates.

For businesses, the best advertising in the world is free because it is the genuine and enthusiastic recommendation of their products or services from one consumer to his or her friends and family, and Facebook facilitates this marketing technique. Facebook allows businesses to set up their own pages for free, making the only barrier to entry for even the smallest of businesses the time it takes to set up and manage an account.

It is easier than designing a Web page and hoping that search-engine bots will include it in their results. And it  requires far less maintenance than a website whose content, tags and design must be continually evaluated to ensure that they remain current.

As Facebook continues to evolve, so do the business pages that it contains, which means that as Web browser standards change, Facebook's pages automatically do so, as well.

The bottom line for all marketing endeavors undertaken by businesses, especially small- and medium-sized businesses that often operate without room for error in their operating budgets: the advertising that attracts the most people for the smallest cost is best.

Click here to read more about Facebook versus Google.

Click here to read about importing your Gmail contacts into Facebook.

For advice on creating and setting up your business on Facebook or any of the hundreds of other social media platforms available, contact NewMediaPlus by clicking here.

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Google, Facebook Battle It Out Over Contacts

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NewMediaPlus.Net is the leading blog for social media marketing information, click here to view the website

Written by Katya Small | 06 December 2010

The battle continues between Google and Facebook over how to best protect the privacy of their users' publicly available data. While Facebook has allowed the mass import of contacts from various email accounts for years, it did not want contact information provided in its user profiles to be allowed to be exported to Gmail accounts.

In 2004, Google Chrome created an application to do a mass extract of contacts from Facebook profiles. However, Facebook quickly put an end to this application. In retaliation, Gmail began providing a "warning" to its users that Facebook does not allow users to export information back out of the system. 

Recently, a third-party company attempted to break down these barriers by creating a new application that would be able to export contacts from Gmail or Facebook. However, within minutes of this application becoming public, Facebook altered contact information from text to images to stop the application. In response to this incident, Facebook made comments that it is considering allowing or creating such an application, but this was minimized by comments about needing to consider all of the "forces at play."

So what does this mean for Facebook users? The contact information for everyone's Facebook friends is still available to view through profiles and members' accounts. So, primarily, the current system makes it an inconvenience for users who need to create an accumulation of their contacts' data.

The Facebook social networking site currently has over 517,760,460 users. As a small-business owner, this offers a new way of marketing and expanding clientele. If Facebook decides to allow an application like those previously discussed, it could provide a new, unique opportunity for up-and-coming small companies. By allowing members to aggregate contact information of friends and family, it would allow a time-efficient method to increase networking. The information is currently available to be collected. However, the amount of time that would be required to aggregate all that information would be unduly long.

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Facebook Catching Up to Gmail

In the mid 1990s— practically ancient times in terms of the Internet and technology— America Online revolutionized how people communicated with the advent of instant messaging. Suddenly, it was possible to carry on a conversation on a computer without the relative formality of emails. Instant messaging was, and continues to be, ideal for the most casual of interactions, with only die-hard techies using it for transferring files or saving old conversations for future reference.

Only a few years later, while business email users were banging their heads in frustration at finding their inboxes overflowing—or worse, that AOL or another program was automatically deleting old emails—Google introduced Gmail, with the novel innovation of unlimited space so users never have to delete another email. Armed with Google's unique algorithm to search through these ever-expanding troves of past emails to ferret out the exact one you are looking for, it has proven to be an invaluable time-saving tool compared to sifting through folders that Microsoft Outlook continues to employ.

Then, along came Facebook, and with it, the beginning of sending "messages" (really emails) to friends, colleagues, clients and customers, and even conducting complex business transactions. There is even a business school in the United Kingdom that deploys its online lectures via the Facebook platform!

The biggest innovation in Facebook messages? The ability to simply click "return" or "enter" (depending on your keyboard) to reply instead of moving your hand from the keyboard over to the mouse pad and clicking "send." A few seconds? Sure, but they do add up. And, in the fast-paced Internet world, a simple advantage like that is all it can take to be a game-changer.

Now, Facebook has gone not one better, but two better over Gmail by introducing the ability for users to import their CRM, email spreadsheets, or yes, Gmail contacts into their Facebook page (that's your fan or business account, not your personal one).

To learn how to import your contacts, click here.

Of course, Facebook still doesn't have some of the functions of Gmail, most notably the ability to create custom contact information, but give the company time.

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Finally! Import Your Email Addresses into Facebook

Facebook has just given its 500 million members (or at least those with fan or business pages) the ability to import their contacts. If you are a small- or medium-sized business owner, we don't need to tell you how valuable and long-overdue this advancement is.

Here are the steps:

1. Go to your Facebook Page and click Edit Page under your page's photo or company logo

2. Click on the Marketing option on the left (that's the one with the small orange flag or banner)

3. Click on "Tell your Fans"

4. A pop-up window will come up giving you two options: upload your contact file from your desktop or access your Web-based email service (i.e., Gmail, Hotmail, etc.)

5. Preview the invitation you're about to send out to your entire database (or at least 5,000 of them) and click "Invite"

6. Lean back in your chair, smile and go for a latte. You've earned it!

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Another Satisfied NewMediaPlus Customer

Check out this video from one of our satisfied customers!

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Social Media Marketing in 3 minutes

Facebook is a Good Thing for Business

Not all Facebook business pages are great, but having a weak presence is better than not having any presence at all. Each business will have a slightly different goal for its Facebook campaign, but the extent to which you can create a "listening" with your audience is really the most elemental measure of success.

As a business, there are some pitfalls that would be better to avoid.

Don't be a Nit-Twit

Twitter is a different platform than Facebook and has different limitations, most obviously a character limit of 140, including black spaces. Do not simply copy and paste your tweets to your Facebook page, nor should you do the reverse and copy and paste your Facebook updates to Twitter. Have a purpose with each post and use all of the tools and space that Facebook offers.

Share!

Not sharing is for 2-year-olds. Share! Let your fans post to your Facebook wall. Let those who "Like" your page make posts and comment on posts. In fact, let them post photos, videos and links, too. You do not have to be the only creative force on your Facebook page. Share your own posts, photos, videos and links from your friends if the content is relevant to your business.

Only Stupid Answers

There are no stupid questions. Once it rolls out, use the new feature called Facebook Questions to reach outside your community. Until then, join Facebook Groups to find like-minded people, peers and new contacts. Also, asking and answering questions can position you as a source of industry knowledge. You get to be an expert.

Don't be a Shrinking Violet

Stop hiding! Add a Facebook "Like" box to your company website. If you're not sure how, contact us at NewMediaPlus and we'll be happy to help you out. And stop being boring! You might not be the life of the party in the real world, but your online presence can be the person you've always dreamed of being. Make your Facebook page fun and great to visit.

Click here to read full article.

LinkedIn Unveils Share Button

Similar to Facebook, Twitter and other social media networks, LinkedIn users can now share content on the business-oriented network via its new Share button. The code webmasters have to implement on their sites to enable the LinkedIn Sharing button can be obtained here: http://www.linkedin.com/publishers.

Combined with its own short URL service, http://lnkd.in/, and Twitter integration, LinkedIn now offers as many sharing options as Facebook — without losing its professional appeal.

To learn more about LinkedIn's sharing options, visit http://learn.linkedin.com/the-homepage/#sharing or Click here to check out the video.

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Why Social Media Works for Small Businesses

If you have not embraced social media marketing, you have no idea how many potential customers your small business is losing simply by not having a social media presence. Proper marketing sustains a business by bringing in customers who, in turn, make purchases. However, traditional marketing is very expensive and not as effective as social media.

Here are four reasons why you should be using social media marketing:

Cost Implications
Small businesses, unlike big corporations, often do not have large marketing budgets. Thus, marketing via traditional media such as TVs, billboards, newspapers and others can be a non-starter for them. However, thanks to social media sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube, small- and mid-sized businesses can implement cost-effective marketing campaigns. Unlike traditional media, with which you may need to spend thousands of dollars, social media marketing is nearly dramatically cheaper. Often, the only thing you will have to devote is time!

Targeted Marketing Efforts
With social media, small- and mid size businesses can have effective marketing campaigns by delivering their messages to markets differentiated by demographics. You can differentiate your market based on age, sex, geographical location, income, interests and other factors. This means you spend your time dealing with people who are most likely to be interested in your products or services. Unlike traditional media, where your marketing message is sent to a large, non-defined group, social media enables more effective targeted marketing.

Relationship Building
Marketers know that people do not purchase things simply because they have to but because they have a relationship with the brand or company offering the product. Social media is effective in creating relationships with your customers and your brands. You can engage your customers on your social media sites or channels. You can inform them more about your company, answer their queries about your services, offer discounts and provide customer support services. Moreover, you can also get their opinions on your products or services and your company. This will help you serve them better.

Global Market
Internet technologies are constantly changing, and today, social media commands a great following. For instance, Facebook has over 500 million active members. This presents a great potential to small businesses that want to get customers in different geographical regions. You can engage customers in different time zones on your social media channels, present your products, and generate sales thanks to your social media efforts.

Social media is the way to go for small- and mid-size companies that seek to improve their earnings without having to spend thousands of dollars on marketing. Contact NewMediaPlus today with this simple form and find out how we can help your business increase revenue and customer reach!

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9 Ways to Engage Your Facebook Fans

 

The Internet is the most powerful, free tool accessible to small business owners. However, using the Internet effectively poses challenges. The endless advertising options are daunting and Facebook is a brain teaser in and of itself. Taking an insider's look at the massive social network, we have compiled nine ways to successfully engage your company's Facebook fans.

1. First and foremost, the easiest way to stay in contact with fans is updating the status of the fan page daily. Fans want to see activity and know they are valued. Posting daily allows them to check in on the company's happenings.

2. Link your company's website and blog to the fan page in order to give fans quick access to your products at their convenience.

3. Comments are the foundation of Facebook. Therefore, if someone posts a comment or question on the fan page, answer it immediately, giving them as much information as possible. Even if it is just saying thank you, making the fan feel important to the company will keep him or her coming back.

4. On your Facebook wall, Post or link YouTube videos of company events, jobs or anything relating to the company that might interest your customer base. Giving fans a reason to check out your fan page daily will keep your company on their minds all the time.

5. Take photos of the office, projects and your newest products and upload them to the page. Create a personal touch to the fan page. Hiding behind a logo is a great way to be forgotten.

6. Create a Facebook fans-only event and send it out to all your followers. Throw a special deal in the message or an interesting fact about a new product to keep fans intrigued and wanting more.

7. Having a sale or releasing a new product? Tell your Facebook fans first! Offer exclusive deals and insights through status updates to your followers.

8. Find groups that support your company or product and connect your followers.

9. Repost any fan's comments concerning your company.

Employing Facebook takes time and diligence, however, the rewards are immense. Facebook has become a cultural phenomenon and everyone from teenagers to the elderly are checked in. Use the free website to your advantage to expand your customer base, retain satisfied customers and engage the public at large. Expand your small business today using the largest network in the world!

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