Top Book Sales : Book Marketing and Self-Publishing Articles

Facebook has proven to be one of the most important social media tools available to get your message out to your prospects and customers. But there are still many businesses that have either ignored Facebook completely or signed up for a personal account and couldn’t figure out why they would send business communications to their in-laws and cousins.

If you have a business or anything that you’re promoting you should have a Facebook Page. It’s free and secures a spot for you on the busiest social network on the planet. So, if you’re a little lost and still trying to figure how to use Facebook for your business, here’s a quick guide to the basics of your Facebook Page.

What is a Facebook Page?

Initially, Facebook was created to be a place where people could network and communicate with each other on a personal level–chatting with friends and keeping in touch with family. Smart business owners started to use Facebook and other social media sites to communicate additionally with their customers and potential clients. As the business community started to see how successful Facebook had become and how businesses were starting to monetize their efforts, more and more business owners and marketers followed suit.

This lead Facebook to create an additional category of “Pages” specifically so your business create a profile within the community that uses tools and applications to help businesses communicate their products and services better to their “fans.” Your business Facebook Page allows you to have as many followers or “likes” as you want and you can send updates and make your links and posts business related and not about you as an individual.

All Facebook pages require that the owner/administer of the page has a personal Facebook account. So, to get started with your Facebook Page you need to make sure you’ve already setup your personal account. (if you haven’t signed up – visit http://www.facebook.com and sign up for your free account).

Privacy note: If you don’t want to use your Facebook personal profile to connect with family, friends and colleagues – don’t worry. You can always set your privacy settings so that people can’t find you on the site. See Facebook Privacy: 10 Settings Every User Needs to Know for more information)

Once you have your individual profile set up, you can create a Facebook Page for your business. Go here http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php to secure your business page.

Getting Started with Your Facebook Page

Facebook Page Picture
Your first step should be to add a Picture for your business.

Your page is pretty useless without your branding so make sure you take the time and do this first. Here are some examples;

Facebook Page Business Information
Next, you need to adequately fill out the information about your business. The information section allows you to add a wide range of information so your customers and potential customers can find out more about your business

Posting to Your Facebook Page
After you’ve filled out all the important basic information, you will want to immediately starting posting some content. I recommend posting some various links from your website first before you start inviting people so they don’t think they are showing up first to the party.

What do you post?

• Go to your website and post links to these pages

• Homepage
• About page
• Company leadership/staff (post links to each one)
• Services (post links to each one)
• Blog articles (post links to each post – save the latest for last)
• Pictures (something related to your business – staff, building photo, customer events..etc) Facebook will show your most recent photos in the featured photos directly above your content stream. If you don’t want a picture to show up you can simple click the “x” on the top right and remove it from the section.

• Industry/market specific articles (post a couple in between website and blog pages for variety).

Facebook Page Posting Strategy
Some people get the major work done up front to set up the page and get followers, but then ignore the maintenance required to create a successful user experience. Most businesses should try to post at least a couple times a week. Don’t bombard your clients with sales messages, or you will notice that you may lose followers.

Your continued posts should be informative and helpful to your clients. The posts should help your clients understand your business or your field; it can describe your company or be an information link to better understand what you do. If you have a business blog you will want to run your content through here so people can get back to your website. Include messages about things that will help their lives, things that will educate them, and things that will pique their interests, even if it’s not 100% related to your business.

People appreciate companies that have their best interests at heart and are not pushing products constantly. Depending what you offer, you want to understand how your clients use Facebook and target your posts towards that direction. This might include links, photos, or reference material. You want them to consider your page a useful resource that will create repeat visits and referrals to your page.

Getting People to Visit Your New Facebook Page

You’ve got the basics down, now it’s time to get people to show up. To start out, invite your personal network to visit and “Like” your new page. This can be done through your personal profile. Suggest your new business page to everyone you are connected with. It is smart to try to connect with everyone you have an existing relationship with so that you have more personal followers, which will help you to get business page followers. It is helpful to individually email friends and family members and request that they like your new business page, and you can let them know that this is important to you to help you grow your business.

How many followers is enough?

People treat the numbers like a popularity contest. The truth is it doesn’t matter how many people “like” your page. To start out, you want to get at least 25 followers. This will allow you to get a custom url that will point people directly back to your Facebook business profile.

Examples;

• http://www.facebook.com/kriskiler
• http://www.facebooks.com/strategicmarketingsystems

The bottom line for the numbers is that you work to get as many as you can. You should cross-link your Facebook page to every place that you can. On your website, through your blog, through your newsletter, on your other social media accounts, and elsewhere. Let everyone know that you are on Facebook, and your ‘likes’ will go up naturally without a ton of hard work or effort. Focus on the long term prospect of using Facebook as a tool to communicate with your customers.

Advanced Facebook Page Topics

Once you have polished up your Facebook Page there are numerous Facebook Applications you can use to enhance the user experience while browsing your Page.

Custom Pages
You can install an application to create a customized page so that your page looks different than all the others. This will also allow you to direct people to a different page, like a landing or product sales page when they click on it. This tool will be important to integrate your email opt-in (newsletter opt-in) form.

There are Facebook apps for everything;

• Event management
• Showcasing photos and videos
• Auto-posting to your wall directly from your RSS Feed
• Running social promotions (coupons, sweepstakes)
• Showcasing photos
• Integrating your social media (Twitter posts)

Overall, continue to explore how your customers are using Facebook and what they are looking for to make your Facebook page a success. If you are new to social media, use this post and other references online to gain clients and notoriety in your industry while educating and assisting your clients and potential customers.

Cheers to your success!

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There is so much hype around Google+ (Google Plus) right now that many people worry about getting left behind on this new social network. So far, Google+ is still limiting signups to the network and has indicated they will launch a special business-type of page for Google+. For now, here’s some quick information about Google+ to get you started with some possibilities for using your Google+ profile for your business.

Google+ Basics

Google launched their Google+ network to compete with the likes of Facebook. Capitalizing on their dominant search position, Google signed up over ten million (10,000,000) users within its first two weeks. So, if you’re in the business of marketing products, services, and brands on the Internet then you should be paying attention.

Let’s look at the current stats:

• 750 million Facebook users
• 200 million Twitter users
• 100 million LinkedIn users
• 10 million Google+ users

For business owners and marketers there are features on Google+ that may in fact work for business, even though they were designed for personal use. Many are still questioning what benefits Google+ may have over other social media sites. If you are wondering what you need to know to make sure the time investment is worth it to your business, here are some things you should know about the program before signing up.

Here’s what you see when you first login:

Google+ Circles

First, Google+ lets profile users create circles of friends. This is quite different than any other social media site, and is one of the features users seem to like the most. You can set up a circle and then share specific information with only the people in that circle. For now, the benefits of using Circles is to help segment out content on your homepage stream. Your circles are not public so your contacts will not see which group they are in, only that they are part of your network. If you’re looking to use Google+ for prospecting this could help you segment out your list so you can quickly see what your prospects are posting and then comment, share, or contact them about the post.

As your network grows and more users are paying attention to Google+ on a daily basis, you can share specific offers and discounts with select Circles. This type of targeting will have obvious benefits if they are part of the Google+ business page.

Google+ Sparks

The Sparks feature is interesting because it simulates Google Reader in that you can target content streams from the Internet using keywords (I’m loving this feature). Sparks lets you select things you are interested in and then list them in the left column of your profile for easy access. The great thing about this feature is that it gives you the ability to target the type of content you want to see everyday and share with your network. Unlike Facebook, you don’t have to find articles from outside of the Facebook system. Google lets you auto-stream the content right in your Google+ profile for easy access and sharing.

For business owners and marketers, this will allow you to get automatic access to any targeted keyword (see below). If you’re working for Proctor & Gamble, you can add your keyword to your stream and see all of the posts that mention Proctor & Gamble. As noted before, this type feed reader will eventually replace Google Reader if all goes well.

Google+ Hangouts

Hangouts allows you to talk with friends or associates. The feature is like a chat program, that lets up to ten people video chat at the same time (think Group Skype Video Chat). If you have followers that are interested in hearing more about a product or service you offer, this can be a fun way to tell them about it in a group setting, allowing a bunch of people to hear from you at once. I haven’t used this feature yet but the potential for using this as a business presentation system is great.

Google+ Photos

The Photos feature is a more creative way to display and browse through your networks photo updates. Seems a little cluttered with profile pics for now but that will eventually change.

Google+ Profile Page

The Profile page is pretty basic and very similar to a Facebook setup. You can opt to have people contact you via email through a small button under your profile pic. People can also view your +1′s (posts you have indicated are of value to you by clicking the +1 icon next to a post).

Google+ Summary

If you are a business owner or marketer who has experienced the value of using social media in your business then you definitely need to get your Google+ profile and start updating. If you are still reading this trying to figure out what social media is then you might want to read my past post Social Media for the Non-Believer: 5 Tips for Getting Started so you can take some baby steps.

All in all Google+ is fun and exciting now and seems to hold a lot of promise for using the platform to engage your prospect and customer base. It’s important to remember to not try to quantify your ROI to quickly or spend hours a day sitting on your profile page trying to figure out how to make money with your Google+ profile. Social media is a long term investment and one that your customers expect you to make.

For now, Google+ is still limiting signups (at least at the time of this post) so if you haven’t yet signed up you can get on the waiting list now.

https://plus.google.com/

Google+ Bonus!

If you’re using Google+, head over to http://gplus.to to get your custom Google+ profile url.

See how fancy mine looks > http://gplus.to/kriskiler

…

If I missed anything, please comment below. This wasn’t intended to be a complete guide, just a summary of my experience so far.

Cheers!

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Blogging and social media are no longer the preserve of people discussing their personal hobbies. They have surpassed both search engine optimization (SEO) and pay per click advertising (PPC) as lower cost strategies for getting new leads. If you’re looking for marketing strategies that lower your costs for generating leads, you must start integrating these two methods into your marketing toolkit as soon as possible.

Strategy #1: Blogging

If your business doesn’t have a blog yet, you’re missing out on a number of opportunities to support your long term marketing strategies. Not only are you losing out on countless potential leads that could be making you money but your losing an opportunity to help your customer and position your business as the go-to source for information in your industry. Not convinced? This data from a recent HubSpot report* could be the information that finally gets you moving.

The report stated that a huge 55% of companies had reported their blogs were generating leads at a lower cost than other forms of marketing they were using. This put blogging in pole position when it came to using inbound marketing methods to find new prospects and sales.

What does this mean for you?

It means that if you don’t have a business blog, you’re quite simply leaving cash on the table. You find the concept of blogging to cumbersome? Many business owners/marketers make the mistake of assuming they have to blog every single day or they won’t build an audience. This isn’t true. You don’t have to send out long treaties about the state of your industry either.

No, the idea is to connect with your audience without selling or preaching to them. If you can write a couple of blog posts a week (or even in a month) on an ongoing basis that appeal to your target audience, you’ll naturally start to build more interest among your existing customers, giving them a reason to return to your website to read more in the future.

And let’s not forget that having a regularly updated blog as part of your business website is good fodder for search engine optimization. Search engines are looking for sites with content that is updated frequently and reward those sites with a better search position (more traffic).

Strategy #2: Social Media

If you’re still a social media doubter, perhaps the following fact will make you think again. The same report from HubSpot showed that social media came in just behind blogging when it came to the best ways to get low cost leads. An impressive 47% of businesses that took part in the report stated that social media was generating leads at below average cost for them.

Meanwhile search engine optimization came in third with 39% and pay per click efforts managed just 27%. How do those figures correlate with the returns you are getting for your own marketing efforts right now?

In addition to this the report showed that the average company budget for both blogs and social media efforts almost doubled between 2009 and 2011. Budgets for blogging and social media went from just 9% in 2009 to a much larger 17% in 2011.

What does this mean for you?

It means that you need to get started on creating social media accounts to connect with your target audience. It’s easier than ever to join these websites and there are plenty of them to choose from as well. Do your research on a range of social media sites before you join however – Facebook and Twitter may well be the biggest networks around, but do they have a good proportion of your target audience waiting for you to connect with them?

See: Social Media for the Non-Believer: 5 Tips for Getting Started

Some business owners believe they need to join every single social media site in order to see any results. This is a quick assumption that most people make because they don’t want to make the effort at all. It’s easy to start with Facebook (Company Page) and Twitter to get you going. If you try to join all of the social networking sites you’ll get overwhelmed and quit before your ahead.

–

Remember to stay focused. Write down a few goals and imagine the potential that lies within these massive communities. You may find you have generated plenty more leads than you ever thought you would.

*2011: The State of Inbound Marketing, HubSpot

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Email marketing continues to be a sensitive subject for marketers and business owners. I’ve been using mass email as a marketing tool since 1997 and it surprises me how many people are still afraid to send email to their prospects and customers.

I want to share some important research from report published by Aberdeen Group: Email Marketing: Customers Take it Personally (Dec 2010). Here is a quick summary of points that may impact your business. Continue Reading

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The Internet continues to be the ultimate Rubik’s Cube of marketing. Whether you choose to acknowledge it or not, tools such as Google, Facebook, Yelp, Groupon, Foursquare, and Twitter have become giant headaches for marketers. They have all introduced fierce competition for the attention of our customers and prospects in ways we couldn’t imagine.

For example, did you think the wine industry was ready for Gary Vaynerchuk? The answer is a big NO and I bet more than one of his competitors has a picture of him on their dart board. Gary is a great example of someone who has disrupted an entire marketplace by completely embracing the social-Internet with all of his might and is using them to take over his industry.

What’s the key? Continue Reading

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One of the greatest misconceptions harbored by writers is that the job is done when the book manuscript is mailed. While manuscript completion is a time to celebrate, it is also the time to switch hats. The book writer now becomes the book promoter.

A book is like an iceberg. The writing is the easier part; the 20% visible about the waterline. The promoting is the most important part and usually consumes even more time and money. The promoting is also often the part not anticipated by the author. Continue Reading

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“Social media doesn’t work.”

“Social media isn’t for me.”

“Social media takes too much time.”

Have you heard this before? Maybe you’re someone who has the opinion that you don’t need social media. Were you also the person that didn’t have a website for your business until 2001? Of course not, YOU are smarter than that. Continue Reading

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It’s inevitable that at some point in your life you’ve done the Hokey Pokey—most likely when you were a kid. It didn’t matter if you knew how to dance or if you had ever even heard the song before. All you had to do was listen to the very clear instructions and do exactly what you were told to do. No thinking, just fun!

Well, it’s time you started to use the Hokey Pokey principle in your business. Take a lesson from this simple song and you can give your website visitors this same experience and in the process start generating more leads and making more sales.

No, I am not talking about telling them to “shake it all about.” I am talking about making sure your website clearly conveys to visitors the actions they should be taking. You need to be giving them clear instruction on what you want them to do. Continue Reading

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