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How to succeed in business on Facebook

Written by: Donal Hennessy

Article Overview: Facebook is fast growing as a social media site and it is a tremendous platform for conducting business. This article gives an overview of what facebook represents to me as an entrepreneur and how I would advise people to use it for the benefit of their business.

How to succeed in business on Facebook

How to succeed in business on Facebook



The success of Facebook has fast become a global phenomenal social media network in the past two years according to Forbes magazine. It has become an internet playground where people can interact socially but now facebook is also a platform to conduct business on a global scale also So here's the question. How do you succeed in running your business on Facebook? To answer this question consider the following scenario.

It is the middle of summer and you are mingling with thousands of people at a street fair in a large city You are mesmerized by the spectacle of talented acts being exhibited at this fair. You notice a large crowd congregating around one particular act and you are curious why this act captivates a huge audience. He is a clown on a unicycle but he can play a harmonica with his toes. He has an instant fan base and at the end of his performance he is rewarded for his skill by filling his bag with coins and cash and his audience eagerly await his next performance.

This story encapsulates the essence of what conducting business on facebook is all about. You are searching for a fan base who will eventually buy into your business but first you must command their attention by being an expert and leader in your craft, offering advice, information and solutions to their problems. If you adopt the sales pitch approach as soon as you join facebook without having built up any relationship, rapport, or trust with your members any potential prospect will be immediately turned off by you and leave your site.

The old system of using companies and systems to sell is obsolete. The reason social media has conquered the internet so fast is that people are searching to connect with people and this applies to business .In fact in business people are searching for leaders to follow. If you are going to succeed in using Facebook to your advantage in business you must respect its rules; first join the party, make friends, forge relationships, be the leader and win your audience's respect. Once this respect has been earned and your legion of fans marvels at your expertise they will be eager to join your business and this decision will be their making, no personal selling on your part.

From my experience as a network-marketer, I see the evidence daily of how successful facebook can be generating traffic to your lead page or website and this is through consistent social interaction. If you are prepared to play the game by the sites rules you will ultimately win the game. The game today is different than yesterday. The key is build your platform and be patient

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Article Tags: acts, audience, clown, coins, facebook, fan base, forbes magazine, global scale, harmonica, internet playground, large crowd, nbsp, offering advice, sales pitch, span style, spectacle, style text, text decoration, toes, unicycle
Referred by: http://jaykubassek.com



Related Forum Posts
Re: Facebook -- personal vs. business? - Hi Terri, I agree with you about Facebook as I didn't really view it as a business tool when it was in it’s infancy and was invited originally by a friend, then using it I approached a few business contacts and then it became muddled. It is not easy to separate business from social on Facebook and business advertising is paid for so after a while I ditched Facebook completely for business purposes and just use it occasionally for friend’s updates etc. The other thing that I will have to try and sort out is that because of all the cross linking that we all do I will quite often find a post from my business website appearing on Facebook and I have to delete it before it is read by friends who I am sure wouldn't be offended but I don't want that. For that reason I use Twitter and all other social networking sites where you can build relationships as well as business contacts (or just business). If I could go back to Facebook and register separately I would do it but as you say I don't think that is possible. thanks for the post, Mal.
Re: First Facebook Ad - Experiment! - Facebook ads are very easy to set up and manage. One difficulty I found, however, is in the difference between Facebook ads and Google ads. With Google you try and find the best keywords for your product, but with Facebook you try to home in on the demographics of the customer. Trouble with that is that I felt that anybody who has keywords such as "Internet business" on their Facebook profile is likely to **already have** what I am offering! (Of course, they might be looking for a new and better version but...). I have just broadened my ads appeal to "small business" and "independent business owner" to see if that makes a difference. It adds about 20,000 people to my potential market...
Re: Facebook Advertising? - Facebook has more than 700 million active users and half of them log in on a daily basis. Through Facebook advertising, you can be sure to reach any particular segment. Conventional advertising models are expensive and difficult to reach a narrow target. Facebook advertising is one option that can get you results and target specific user groups. You may be the local beauty parlor, restaurant or a Fortune 500 organization, but eBizUniverse will show how to build your brand equity through Facebook advertising. Consider these ideal scenarios: You own a restaurant and wish to target those who are recently engaged to be married for their catering business. All you need to do is to find the women with the relationship status of “engaged” on Facebook and you have your desired segment with Facebook Ads. (See Sample Ads Below) There is a birthday special that your restaurant is offering and the Facebook Ads would be displayed only to those whose birthdays are in the offing. An event is being organized and you wish to target local college graduates, who are single and 25-35 years old. They are on Facebook and you can reach them with Facebook Ads.
Re: Social Media Marketing Ignorance - [quote="vbn411":7qciluxl]Social Media is space that you have to be in to succeed in our current climate. People are going to be discussing your brand / product whether you like it or not, so you might as well join the conversation and add value. [/quote:7qciluxl] I think that's probably one of the most realistic way to think about it. There's no real textbook way of understanding Social Media, it's the networks of people and their interactions that will exist with or without your input. As for Jennifer, You can always have 2 Facebook pages. Many people do. There is also LinkedIn, which is like a professional networking version of Facebook. The only way to know is to try it.
Re: Twitter vs Facebook - Regarding Facebook Ads. I have found them to have a poor click thru rate and a poor conversion rate. When people are on Facebook, they are there for a social element, so it is a soft sell. If you want to advertize your business, then go to Adwords, it is cheaper and a lot more effective. Facebook Ads are still too new in town.


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