10 Proven Ways to Optimize Your Facebook Page

By: Terri Seymour

Social media marketing is absolutely essential in today’s online business world. It has taken the internet by storm both professionally and personally. Social media marketing means to market your business with the use of social networks, blogs, message boards, discussion groups, online communities and other such media. Some of the most popular social network sites are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Social marketing involves a lot more than just signing up and pasting up your page. You need to maximize your page’s effectiveness and keep it fresh, updated and alive. Below are 10 things you can do to optimize your Facebook page to make sure your business is getting the maximum benefits.

1. Create an Effective Profile – Do not use a half-done profile. Fill in your profile completely. This is for your business so be professional yet show people you care about your customers and will be there for them. Make sure your photo (if of yourself) is professional. You could also use your logo. Let people know what your business can do for them. Write an effective mission statement. Let your visitors know why they should do business with you but be careful what you reveal for security reasons.

2. Get Your Visitors Involved in Discussions – This is a great way to get your visitors to “Like” you and to keep coming back. Start helpful and informative discussions about topics related to your products or services. For example: if you sell home décor, start discussions about home decorating ideas, budget decorating, home improvement, etc. Encourage people to join the discussions and leave their business signature for more exposure.

3. Customize Your Page – Don’t let your page be one of the cookie cutter pages like everyone else. Customize it to fit your business needs and the needs of your visitors. Use images that brand you and your business and make it enjoyable and memorable.

4. Events and Contests – Keep your page alive and active with special events and contests. Each time a fan RSVP’s the event, it shows up in his profile. And so on and so on. Thus creating a ripple effect for your business.

5. Special Offers and Sales – People are always looking for good deals and special offers so don’t disappoint. Show your visitors you want to give them the best possible deal on your products/services.

6. Multi-Media Integration – Use audio and video content for your page. Audio and video can be extremely effective in capturing and holding the attention of visitors. According to webnox, video is 58% more effective than just using plain text!

7. Make Your Tabs More Memorable – Facebook does allow you to change the usual boring tabs to more suit your needs. Make them unique to your page and business. You can also change the order in which you present your tabs. You can find easy to follow online tutorials on how to do this.

8. Utilize Your Sidebar – Take advantage of your sidebar space. This is a great place for testimonials or newsletter sign-up forms. You can also use this space for affiliate links, a survey for your visitors to help improve your page/business. Add links to your main website or special offers you may have going.

9. Add a Poll to Your Page – People like knowing their opinion matters so add interest to your page with a poll. You can add them using a free poll creator from Vizu. Polls can attract attention and encourage your visitors to interact with your page.

10. Post Regularly – I cannot stress this enough! Do not start your page and then let it sit for weeks at a time. You have to be there every day updating, adding new content, checking things over, and finding ways to improve your page. I recently started using social marketing and unfortunately need to take my own advice on this one. I have just not been involved enough with my Facebook page but that will soon be changing. The hold that social media has on the internet is astronomical so do not be left out in the cold!

So far I am involved with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn so feel free to come over and see me. I would love to see your page as I am learning more about this phenomenal marketing tool. I hope we all can use these types of sites to help each other improve our business and increase our sales!

Article Source: http://www.wahm-articles.com

Terri Seymour has over twelve years online experience and has helped many people start their own business. Visit her site for resources, $1 and $2 resell ebooks & software, articles, and affiliate programs. Sign up for the RSS Feed for a free business ebook with MRR. www.SeymourProducts.com

This article may be reprinted for free so long as the author’s resource box is kept intact and all links remain live and clickable. The Article Source must also be included. All rights are reserved by the author.

The first thing you should do after setting up your blog is to set up your social media accounts. You might already have some accounts set up; now you need to make sure you are using them the best possible way.

Social media is an amazing tool for anyone online, and especially for moms. One of the top reasons moms spend time online is to be social. They are looking to make friends, find information, share what they know, sympathize with others, and maybe even make some money.

Social media sites are set-up so moms, or anyone, can pop in and out and easily share. They are always busy with a ton of traffic and you need to direct some of that traffic to your blog. However, you need to make them want to come interact with you because your sign is so compelling; not be forced to drive past because someone has a whistle and white gloves.

If you want to make friends on social media sites here are 5 things you should avoid:

1. Boring conversation about the details of your life
2. Links in every update
3. Constant bragging
4. Only retweets
5. Constant quotes

None of those things are terribly wrong. In fact, each of those things will appeal to someone, but not if that’s all that they hear from you. It’s the mixture that’s important.

If you think, “I’m blogging to make money, not friends” you won’t get anywhere online. Readers visit people they like and shoppers buy from people they know. The key to using social media sites the right way is honest interaction. Here are five tips that might help:

1. Be yourself. Don’t set up a persona.
2. Use your best level of conversation. Don’t talk like you are at a sleepover with your friends; talk like you are at a networking conference.
3. Search for a topic that you like and talk to people about that topic.
4. For every tweet you post about yourself reply to someone else.
5. Strive to build people up and never tear people down publicly.

Don’t be intimidated by the unwritten rules of social media. Instead watch, read, and learn how to go about things the best way so that you are accepted easily and hopefully, spread around. You want people to associate good things with your name and brand.

Building relationships, gaining trust, becoming friends, honest interaction – those take time; but remember that anything worth doing is worth doing well.

If you want to learn more about blogging, gaining more exposure in the blogosphere, building great relationships and incorporating new profit points into your content be sure to sign up for the Smart Blogging Skills 10 week course. If you sign up for the next course starting on March 30th you will have group coaching added to the already incredible coaching ecourse.

I have a Wii and my son has the xbox360. If I want to play a game then I’ll shut down my laptop and go to one of my game consoles. It’s better that way. Differentiate work and play. I don’t watch tv or movies from my laptop because I can’t work and watch, so why didn’t I differentiate between the games before now?

I’ve had major motivation. This has been my best month for as long as I can remember. It’s January people, it’s not “supposed” to be a good month. Getting off the games has proven very productive. Was it all because of getting off the games? NO, not even. But getting off the games had a big impact on it. It was the mindset for where I was spending my time.

I’m a procrastinator. I have been for as long as I can remember. I don’t need help being a procrastinator I do it very well on my own. I don’t apologize for it, I’ve done some incredible work under pressure. But I don’t want to be working under that pressure all the time. So I’ll do what I can to keep it at bay.

Do I miss facebook games? Yes, I do. I think a major reason I miss them is because of how high I’d gotten. My name and face was way up there on my friends game walls. Oh well, I let it go and all with a click. Those games are deleted and there is no going back.

Now I’ll build my fanpages up and live through those instead! They are so much more me than those games were

photo © 2010 Channelship Web Agency | more info (via: Wylio)

Four years ago (November 6, 2006), Facebook launched their advertising program. It’s essentially a PPC, Pay Per Click, program. However, it offers a number of features and benefits that other PPC programs don’t. Want some good reasons why Facebook advertisement works?

1. Facebook is in millions of homes around the world. In fact, it has more than 500 million active users. When you create a Facebook ad, you have direct access to those 500 million users.

2. Facebook allows you to narrow your ads to be seen by more specific demographic. For example, you can specify your prospects’ age, sex, location and interest.

3. Facebook ads are delivered directly to your target audience. The advertisements show up on their profile pages. This is a much more focused method of advertising. Other ad programs don’t guarantee this degree of attention from prospects. The more targeted the program, the more likely it is to convert.

4.There’s less competition on Facebook than other PPC services. This means you pay less per click than you might with another program – Google AdSense for example.

5. You can advertise your website, blog or your Facebook fan page with a Facebook ad. More options is nice.

6. People can “Like” your advertisements. This helps you generate attention for your advertisement. The more people who like your ad, the more attention – and clicks – it receives.

7. Facebook provides a wealth of data. Like many other PPC programs, Facebook provides you with the ability to test and track your ad’s success. This gives you the power to get the most return on investment from your advertisements and change things up as needed.

Facebook advertisements offer the most targeted options found anywhere. Business owners can create user-specific campaigns to drive traffic to their landing page, sales page, opt-in form, blog or even their Facebook fan page.

For example, with Facebook you can create one separate ad for single women, married women, and divorced women. You can then further segment them by age. For example, single women aged 30-40. Each advertisement you create can be designed to speak to this person specifically. Your choice of keywords, your headline and your call to action can all be written to target that exact audience.

Facebook advertising offers one of the lowest cost PPC options on the market. Combined with the ability to target a specific demographic, you can really maximize your ad’s effectiveness. If you use PPC in your marketing strategy, consider trying Facebook’s advertising program.

Have you had success with your facebook advertising?

But that aside, it’s always driven me nuts that I don’t know about any local big online events until the weekend of or after. WTF? I am not bragging when I say that I am a social media nut and I also include local media in hopes of finding out about stuff early. Hasn’t happened, so guess what, I’m deleting all of those biggies in my area because in 2 years I haven’t learned jack shit from them that I didn’t already know and I didn’t get early notice of any events. Usefullness? #fail as we like to post in twitter.

However, my being active on my account and posting to smaller local accounts? #twitterawesome I have now gotten an introduction to a social media event next week. I will clear the deck and head downtown Seattle. I’m excited and this stems on my missing a major event I wanted to hit in Portland. It’s the last one I will miss as I’ve made quite a few friends from the Power of MOB and I’d honestly like to put a package together and speak at next years event. Besides the fact I want to just hang and have a real drink instead of a virtual drink with friends.

Then another site has been going out and out and out. It’s a passion of mine. Firefighter Wife is not a money making site of mine. Yes, I do hope to make some here and there, but it’s truly a resource. To be contacted by others with resources I can push and especially resources that are charitable is awesome. Once such site I’ve fallen in love with, Firefighters Wives.net is built around helping those with career ending disease or injury. This is an organization I would love to get involved with and I couldn’t believe they are local. Sure, it’s a 2 hour drive, but hey it’s not every day. lol They have their site launch in 2 weeks and I want to be there to meet the women behind the site. I already have emails to them about some joint work.

Local meetups will increase your passion. Social media has been the answer to my local meetup. I’m making connections and then meeting up. Previously the groups had a link that they met up and not much info. I can’t tell you how excited I am about these local events and how out of character it is that I’ve already told my family I MUST GO!

One thing I’m already on my way to controlling is my social media. I’m hiding out there and not in a productive way. I’m not pushing affiliate links and most of the time this summer I haven’t even been chatting back and forth with business contacts. I’ve been just social and playing games on that darn facebook.

1. I’m using hootesuite to postdate.
2. MANAGE! Am I there for social only…business only…or some of both? Well then make sure it’s a mix of both and not 90% of one or the other.

3. Stop checking games before I answer emails! I know I do it when hiding. I have to go harvest your crops or make sure your dishes aren’t spoiled AS I’m answering emails. Nope, dedicate one or the other and no hiding in the FB games.

4. Use my phone more. I know this one sounds a little odd, but the droid apps I’m using won’t let me play the games on facebook and it’s not as easy to read everything on both medias. So if I use my phone I end up on it much less.

I have to make sure that my social media time is much more productive and these steps will help. I know it’s one of the time-wasters that I’m hiding behind and pretending I’m working. Time to hit the ground running and get everything rolling as school starts next week.

photo credit: Ruhrstadt-AgenturCom4

I searched around to many scheduling programs for twitter and for one I was amazed at how many have a monthly cost. Definitely not what we were looking for. But others were just very cumbersome to use.

Hootsuite was recommended so I created a free account. I use twhirl for my twitter accounts as I like having the little box pop up for quick posting from multiple accounts and not have to open a new browser tab. But scheduling is something not available in twhirl unfortunately. Hootsuite was very easy to set up and I was posting in no time. Setting up my facebook fanpages took a little bit of figuring out, but I had 4 fanpages added within 15-20 minutes and that was mostly because of waiting while everything got permission to connect.

I hit my client up and asked her to check out hootsuite. She liked it too and set up an account. At first I was going through her main account, but now I have been added as a user to her business twitter and fanpage. I LOVE THAT! I log into my hootsuite account now and can update hers then quickly toss some to mine or vice-versa.

I can go in one day a week or a couple of times a month and schedule things for her. This works great and also forces her to work ahead. Great options for both of us. Plus the time saved logging into accounts can be better spent on other projects for her.

I’m giving hootsuite an A+ for usability and for holding options I don’t even know how to use yet. lol

So who is right? Are forums a timewaster or a great place to network?

The answer is yes.

An online forum is what you make of it. If you visit your favorite marketing forum and end up getting drawn into discussion after discussion without having much to show for it – then you’re wasting your valuable time. It’s not that the time isn’t beneficial, but you are taking time away from other aspects of your business if you are on the forum all day.

On the other hand, if you visit a forum for a specific period of time each day and spend that time wisely – sharing tips and discussing interesting topics for example – then it’s safe to say that forum is a great contribution to your business. As I’ve talked about before, building yourself up as an expert really drives up traffic and sales.

Many valuable friendships and joint ventures have been made through online networking forums. I have met many top woman in internet marketing through paid membership and free forums. The key, like with most things, is to use moderation and common sense.

Here are a few of the most common pitfalls of online forums and how to avoid them:

1# – They can be negative places. Sometimes you can visit a forum, get dragged in for two hours and leave feeling uninspired and even depressed. The truth is, when you visit an online forum you don’t always know who you’re dealing with – this is the anonymity our online world offers us. Unfortunately many forum regulars can be quite negative and even downright nasty.

To avoid this trap, visit forums that inspire you and make you feel productive. If you leave the forum feeling you have gained something and feel ready to get back to work on your business, then it’s likely a good place to spend time in each week.

#2 – You can get sucked in to meaningless discussions. While it’s okay to make friendships as well as network, you really don’t want to spend half of your day talking about non-business related topics (not while you’re meant to be working). It may be fine to contribute an answer or two, but keep your end goal in mind at all times – are you there to simply socialize or are you there to network as well?

To avoid this trap, use your time wisely. Be friendly and contribute to the informal chitchat from time to time, but don’t make it the emphasis of your time at the forum. If you apply this rule from the start, it’s easier to avoid this trap. It’s a lot harder to switch back to being more business-like after you’ve been very socially chatty and informal for a while.

#3 – You give more than you get. It’s good to give back; there is no denying that. But, if you spend a lot of time on forums helping others and not achieving much in return yourself, then you may want to ask why you’re doing it in the first place?

There is nothing wrong with helping someone from time to time. But not to the extent that it takes away from your own work or makes you feel used.

To avoid this trap, give out a few helpful nuggets of information here and there and include a link back to your website for further information. For example, if someone is asking a lot of questions about search engine optimization and you’re an expert, give them a few tips then direct them to the search engine optimization section on your website for further help. If you don’t have a post with more information, then create one!

Most forums will allow you to do this as long as you have been helpful and provided information in your original post. At the very least you can include a link back to your website in your signature line.

Forums can be a great addition to your business success or a complete time-wasting exercise. It’s ultimately up to you how you use your time and if in doubt keep the old saying in mind – “time is money.” Are you using yours valuably?

Some good, positive forums I network in:

Mom Masterminds
Mommy’s Helper Community
Work at Home Space
Classy Chic’s
Self Starters Weekly Tips

I stated that the only negative was my own mindset. If I am lowering my fees or charging less than I think my time and/or product is worth, that will be my fault. I find this to be more true this week than when I originally posted.

For some reason I was setting a slight stereotype up in my head. I think the many emails I get every day from different marketers are a part of it. I swear many of them are only lowering prices for their products. Now they may not actually be lowering prices, but if the sales page shows a value of X and you are selling the product for no where near that amount, then you really can be devaluing your products. Now when your next product comes out, buyers have a price in mind of what they will pay for your product, or more likely not pay. This is sales pages in general though and definitely not WAHM only. Some food for thought.

Now a big issue I’ve noticed is discounts hitting me left and right. Why would I pay full price for any of it anymore? I know within a few weeks I will get a coupon for a major discount or it will go on clearance in a few months and I can pick it up for half the price or less. I will admit that there are times I’ve waited to purchase from a few because I know without a doubt a discount will be on it’s way. There has been a pattern that may not have been meant, but has seemed to surface. Now I’m all about a good deal and especially when I honestly would pay more for these products because their value to my biz’s is huge. But they are definitely defeating themselves by offering major discounts for their products all the time.

That may have put something in the back of my mind. It’s something I need to put to use and look at my sales pages, specials and what I’m sending my lists. Try out some different sales pages and see conversion rates. Both of those two ideas are thoughts to ponder and for those that have done many pages, I’d value your opinions.

But I know it was my own doubts in myself that was really pushing a stereotype to the forefront for me. I don’t think I’d even call it doubts. I think it’s kind of that fear of success thing going on.  I have a post coming out about that next week.  See, I’m learning as I blog to you all as well. lol

I unplugged for 4 days and got back to just pen and paper last week. By doing so, I found a renewed passion. I found my focus again and mapped out more resources and finished up some ecourses and reports that were sitting in notebooks begging to get on the internet.

Guess what this focus is all on? Yeah, moms and typically those of you that work from home. Hey, it’s what I am and who I love to talk to and help on a daily basis. It’s the problems that arise daily and I look for a solution in my own life and for others.

But in my renewed focus I also remembered that I have some great stuff coming out and I need to remember to value it appropriately. I’m not going to feed into any possible stereotype I may have set no matter how far back it was in my head. I know I’m not afraid to pay good money for great resources and I know many others feel the same. I’m out to help those that really do want to move forward, not sell to everyone in every market for only a couple of bucks a piece.

Most of my training clients are other Moms. Do I discount my training fees just because I am worried they can’t afford it? Nope, if you see the value, you will pay accordingly. DUH, I was even taught that in school. Sometimes putting the offline classes to my online work is a mindbender. I still haven’t figured out why I can’t connect that quicker.

The more I looked at my sites and blogs the less I felt the need to even branch out from the WAHM niche. I only have one site that is set for all bloggers and three sites that aren’t necessarily WAHM, but are geared to women and moms in general. I guess it’s pretty obvious by looking at my notebooks that I’m not going anywhere else

So there will be more posts on this topic I’m sure as I try new things out. But the biggest thing I can ask you to promote is your value.  I don’t give a damn if you are a WAHM or you work outside of the home.  Your time is of value and you have to sell either an employer or a customer on that fact.  If you don’t believe you have value, neither will anyone else!

**Disclaimer: I am a WAHM, I’m proud to be a WAHM, and I will always be a WAHM. So no getting offended by discussion here and thinking that I’m picking on WAHM’s. We all have our opinion based on our experiences.

I threw out to my twitter wall, “how do you think the ‘wahm’ stigma helps or hinders you?”.

I instantly had replies and as any social media, computer geek will tell you, this gets the blood pumping.

What do I mean by WAHM stigma? As a general rule I’ve notice the trend to lower and lower prices when marketing to WAHM’s. They expect more and more for free as this happens. But, they can only take what we are giving out freely as well. That said, if you are a fellow WAHM and marketing to other WAHM’s you understand that many of us start out very low on funds. Therefor setting pricepoints lower if you are marketing to the moms because you really do want to help. But is it helpful?

In my VA biz I have noticed that the marketers not labeling themselves as part of the WAHM community take purchasing the VA hours much differently than those that are WAHM’s. My hours are very inexpensive and honestly I’m sure they are too low. But like many, I wanted to stay lower to be able to help some other work at home moms get rocking on their projects. But that also is devaluing my service. It’s a catch 22.

So the original question, how has it helped or hindered?

It has helped because I would not be in business online without the WAHM community. It has helped because the WAHM community is quite tight and although I talked about those freebie seekers, there are also so many out there that are willing to pass on freebies to you. Freebies as in a quick blog post about your biz, or a quick tweet/retweet of your latest posting, or passing my info on to a potential client if they are unable to meet their needs.

How has it hindered? It’s all about my mindset. If there is negativity about being a WAHM then it is partially my fault for not helping correct it. The term Mom Blogger crashed and blew up not too long ago and many fled the scene and tried to disassociate themselves with the term. I think WAHM was pulled in a little as well. I know my biz partner Loretta and I have talked about it for the last year as we bought domain names to build the sites with.

Again how does it hinder? It doesn’t. I hinder me. I have the mindset that I need to lower prices for products and/or services. I devalue my services and time by doing so. No one can do that TO me and my business, except me.

I want to thank awesome twitter friends for bringing up great points and making me take a look. These ladies are true must follows: @kellymccausey, @aliceseba, @mvchrissy, @melodythacker, @retta719. Believe me the discussion has led to more post ideas in my notebook. lol