Wednesday, July 29, 2009

How to Create a Facebook Page for Your Business

The business application of Facebook is growing fast and it has become an inevitable part of an online footprint for your business. Called Facebook Pages, this application has made it possible to develop a collection of online pages similar to a web site using the free tools provided by Facebook. At heart it remains a social marketing application like your personal Facebook profile, but it allows for many useful business applications.

You can:
  • Create a page that will be found independently by search engines (as if it were a business web site)
  • Add additional tabs or pages to your Facebook Page (Notes, Events, Reviews, Videos and more)
  • Determine which page will open first. The Wall is by default the home page.
  • Use your Wall page as a place to generate discussions, do market research and showcase news feeds through status updates.
  • Obtain a vanity URL for your business as soon as you have more than 100 fans (such as http://www.facebook/etsy for the online craft e-commerce site etsy.com).
  • Market your unique Facebook URL on promotional material and business cards.
  • Appoint one or more administrator(s) to update the content of your Page
  • Add photos, videos and information on a regular basis.
  • Send an email to all fans at once (but use this feature with discretion).
  • Have your Page go viral. Your Page updates will show in the news feeds of your fans’ profiles where their friends could in turn see it and choose to join or comment – and so the circle widens.
How to Create Your Page
Facebook currently offers three main categories in which to create a presence online: Personal Profiles, Facebook Groups and Facebook Pages. It is this last category we are exploring here.

Personal Profile
To start creating a Facebook Page for your business and have all its options available to you, you need a personal user profile. Do not be concerned: fans of your Page will not have access to your personal information.
You can create your Page first and then link it to your existing personal profile or create a new one if needed. It is possible to create a Business account only but certain limitations will apply.

Signing Up At the bottom of the Facebook Home page is the option to Create a Page for a celebrity, band or business. Select the Create a Page link and follow the steps from there. The options for Pages are "Local", "Band, Product or Organization" or "Artist, Band or Public Figure" Each main category offers a drop-down list in its sub-categories. The option that gets chosen here will determine which fields are available in the Page template that you create, so consider this choice carefully.

Facebook Pages come pre-installed with custom functionality for each Page category. These are the applications and information fields Facebook believes will be most relevant to the category you have selected when creating your Page. For instance, a music Page comes pre-installed with a music player, video player, discography, reviews, tour dates, and a discussion board. The information fields that are available for you to write in are determined by the Page category that you selected when you first set up the Page. You aren't able to change the category of your Page after you've created it, so if you would like different fields, you'll need to delete your Page and create a new one.


Fill Your Page with Interesting Items

Before adding content to your Facebook Page, decide what your main objective with the Page is, who your main audience is and what key messages you would like to convey.

Photo Albums
- Select the Photos tab to create photo albums and post and share photos. These can be product photos, images of your facilities, your team or business activities. A picture is worth a thousand words.

Notes - Think of Facebook Notes as a blog feature on Facebook: you can share your life,
activities, thoughts and more with people on Facebook through written entries. They can
comment on your Notes and you can even import your existing blog from an external site.

Discussion Boards - Discussion Boards can be used by you to spark a conversation among
people you are connected to and get feedback on a particular topic or for users to start
discussions on their own.

Events - Set up an event and invite fans and friends. An open house, a sale, a launch event or a celebration, fundraiser or client appreciation event - these are a few examples. Add photos, videos and relevant information. Post links and start and generate comments.

Additional Tabs - Add additional tabs as needed to your Page. Move and drag them around into a different order. In your settings, choose which tab you'd like as your home page. Search and add applications with additional tabs as appropriate.

Marketing Your Page
Once your site is complete and published, it is time to promote it and invite friends to become fans. Once you hit the 100-fan mark you are eligible for a vanity URL such as facebook.com/etsy.

There are numerous ways to promote a Facebook Page, which will be a topic for next time. Don't be afraid to try and experiment.

Other Resources
Guide to Facebook for Business

Yah-Bing grabs 30% of Online Ad Market

Microsoft and Yahoo announced a deal today that combined will give them a larger, more credible share of the online advertising market - leaving 65% to Google. In this consolidation the online advertising market is now controlled by two rival companies. Combined with the impact Bing has had on the Search market since its recent launch, the online search and advertising markets has seen a significant shift in power this year. Here is more on the Microsoft/Yahoo merger...

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Honestly! What's With Sponsored Ads?

Doing a quick search to find out what search engines are saying about me, brought me to this: the ultimate sponsored advertising insult! Digital slave trading? Well, I thought I'll quickly set the record straight: I am not on the market. And smarter.com does not seem to be quite that smart either.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Blueberry Recipes and E-mail marketing

Yes, if you clicked through from the Digital Daisy e-newsletter you were right of course. This post is about recipes as well as testing the click-through rate on the recipe link. You landed in the right spot.

Tineke's Blueberry and Lemon Pastries

This amazing recipe is a staple at Tineke Gow’s Campbell House and the Artisan Inn in Trinity, Newfoundland. It has topped off many an amazing meal in the Twine Loft.

Crust:

1/2 cup flour
1/4 cup yellow corn meal
6 tbsp. icing sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

Filling:
3 large eggs
1/2 cup of sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. flour
1 tsp. lemon zest
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. milk (Tineke recommends whole milk)

2 cups of wild blueberries (10 oz)
3 tbsp. apricot jam, heatd and strained

To make crust:

  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Line a buttered 8 inch square glass baking dish with 2 sheets of foil, overlapping them in opposite directions so there is overhang on all four sides.
  3. Pulse together flour, cornmeal, salt, icing sugar and butter until mixture resembles course meal.
  4. Press into bottom of baking dish and 1 inch up the sides. Bake in the middle of the oven until golden brown, about 20 min.

Make filling while crust bakes:

  1. Whisk together eggs, sugar, flour and zest.
  2. Whisk in the juices, mlk and a pinch of salt.
  3. Toss blueberries with jam into another bowl.
  4. Whisk egg mixture and immediately pour into crust.
  5. Bake until set, about 17 minutes.
  6. Gently spoon berries evenly over top and bake 2 minutes more.
  7. Transfer baking dish to a rack and cool.
  8. Drizzle with a little Grand Marnier. (Or Vanderhum)
  9. Chill overnight. Use foil to lift out of dish and cut into squares.

Tineke’s team services it on a beautiful glass plate, with a bit of sifted powder sugar and a few miniature pansy flowers from her garden as garnish.

Audrey’s Blueberry Muffins

2 c flour
2/3 c sugar
2/3 c milk
1 c berries
1 t vanila
2 t baking powder
2/3 c margarine or butter
2 eggs

Mix sugar and margarine. Add eggs. Add vanilla. Add flour and milk. Add berries last, stirring gently so that berries remain in tact.

Bake 15 minutes at 400 degrees F.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Social Time Trap

"This is probably just me, but Linkedin reminds me of a garage sale, Facebook of a cocktail party, and Twitter of a flea market. Keep a log of how much time you spend on social platforms. Then ask yourself if you could probably learn to play the oboe in half as much time." - Alan Weiss, Consultant and Author

I think Alan prefers spending time sending e-newsletters. And he has a point.