Posted by admin in So you’re now convinced that Facebook is a great place to interact with your friends and family. Once you get the hang of posting, commenting and friending, you’re sure to realize that social networking is great for business. Imagine the impact such an efficient social media management tool can help you make in the marketplace–you can reach people within your target market within seconds. It just keeps getting easier.
The key to marketing yourself online, or on Facebook, is in being in front of the right people. The right people will be different for you than for anyone else, depending upon the niche you serve. Sure, you could go like gang-busters and friend everyone in site–maybe this works (let me know if you’re doing this and it works), but I am talking about hand-picking people that are perfect for your business, product or services.
Finding the individuals that you wish to know is not as easy as it sounds. There is some strategy involved that I’m here to share.
10 Clever Ways to Build Your Network on Facebook
1. Find people who are similar to you.
The first step for building your business network on Facebook–or any other social networking site–is to become friends with those who do the same work as you do. Don’t be afraid to befriend a competitor. This can actually help you in the long run as you exchange ideas and information. Beyond that, you can friend people within your industry, or vendors that serve your industry. People who are alike are more apt to bond because people like those who are like themselves.
2. Connect with Network Hubs.
Well connected people are the conduits from which information flows throughout a given network. In his book, “The Anatomy of Buzz,” Emanuel Rosen, calls these well-connected people, “Network Hubs.” Rosen believes the Network Hub is someone who is very vocal, known by everyone and socially active. These people are the ones to connect with online. They will be connected to everyone else, so they easily pass your information along.
3. Spend Time Responding to and Commenting on the posts of well connected people.
When building your social network for business purposes, it’s important to contribute to the community, rather than just trying to sell your wares. When determining where you’ll spend your time, be selective and choose to focus on those friends that are Network Hubs. If you offer clever comments to Network Hubs, you’ll be seen by more people and eventually garner more friend requests without trying.
4. Create Pages and Groups around specific topics.
Groups are easy to create on Facebook about any topic you can imagine. Such groups create community and help gather like-minded people. When folks do searches in Facebook for a particular subject, the first listings that come up are the Pages and the Groups, so some will join your group just to get connected, without any labor on your part.
5. Host local events and invite your friends.
The internet allows you to invite hundreds of people at a time to the events you offer. Just today I posted a Web Marketing Seminar & Mixer and I am pretty happy with the response so far. People that come to your events are more likely to spread the word about you, and this will cause more people to come your way naturally.
6. Take advantage of all the features.
Facebook offers numerous features besides just wall posts. You can comment on other people’s posts, submit your blog feed, write notes, upload photos, show photo albums from flickr, show your YouTube Favorites through a feed, post your favorite YouTube Videos, post news articles, post events, post funny images, take quizzes and much more. Personally, I do not favor being sent gadgets, but some people may enjoy them. Make use of everything there is to offer on Facebook.
7. Promote your Facebook profile throughout the web and offline.
Promote your Facebook profile by adding a link to it in your email signature, on your business card and on your website. Whenever you are out, invite people to get in touch with you via your profile.
8. Attend Facebook Events.
Don’t just host events, but attend events hosted by others. There is nothing like a real person to back-up the computerized version of you in pictures, posts and videos. Get out in the real world and network alongside what you do online and watch your list of friends and fans grow.
9. Hire a developer to integrate application like “Facebook Connect” to your website.
Facebook Connect is an API that allows users to integrate Facebook seamlessly with their website, allowing website visitors to connect to their Facebook accounts from your site. The program isn’t easy to install yet, but it will be soon. Meanwhile, you can find a web genius to help you.
10. Do a search on Google using keywords within your niche and the term “Facebook.”
This is the long way, but it helps to do a search for keywords in your niche market + Facebook, for example. Entering the terms “Real Estate Facebook” in Google will reveal a number of real estate related Facebook pages since such pages are indexed in Google. You can then go and request friends with those individuals.
Marketing your business on Facebook is a fun, efficient way to reach a broad range of people within your niche market. Finding new people is a never-ending challenge, but one that will provide many rewards in terms of your reputation for years to come.
Please friend me on Facebook here! Jenna Ryan
http://www.facebook.com/people/Jenna-Ryan/1322950660
