How to Promote a Blog - Blog Promotion For the New Blogger

By Colleen I Slater

One key thing you must learn as a blogger is how to promote your blog. Without proper promotion, you just will not see any traffic. There was a time when you could put up posts and hope people would link to you based on the quality of them. But anymore, people are not finding the quality post unless you put it where they can find it. So here are some tips to get your blog found.

First of all, you still need to write the quality posts. Without these, you have nothing to build your back links on. Sure, you can build them yourself, but why not make something that people were going to link to once they find it. This way, the little back linking you to will tend to go viral.

Next, you need to start building some links. The easiest way is through social bookmarking. However, these tend to get used a lot. So your bookmark could easily get buried. If you have friends who are interested in the same subject, you can ask them to reach your blog and Digg or Stumble it if they like it. This may help get your post in front of more readers.

Another thing you can do is look for similar blogs in your niche. Find ones that are to getting traffic, and leave intelligent comments on their posts. Include a link through your name to your own blog. If you leave good comments, people are likely to follow your link to see what you are writing about. Just don't make the mistake of spamming the blog with something like "Great post!". It just won't get you any traffic, and might even get your site banned.

Once you build some relationships with other bloggers, you can ask to do guest posts. This is a sure way to get extra traffic to your own site. With these four methods, you're sure to increase your traffic and your loyal readers.

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Colleen_I_Slater

How to Promote Your Website on Facebook

By Rebecca Turner

Facebook is an interactive stage with millions of potential customers, targetable by common interests or home country or even date of birth. The average user mentality is receptive to new ideas and online content, and is willing to share a wealth of personal information.

Through the genius of social networking, your website or business can quickly develop a presence on the net without a large advertising budget. Here I've identified five easy ways to take advantage of Facebook's incredible reach and supercharge your online business operations.

1. Create a Facebook Page
2. Claim a Unique Username
3. Add a Widget to Your Website
4. Create a Landing Page

1. Create a Facebook Page

A Facebook Page is a public profile that enables you to share your business and products with thousands of other Facebook users. Anyone can create a page in a few minutes and invite other users to join.

The advantage of having a page to promote your business on Facebook is you can build up a dedicated following. While it depends on your niche (a page for an accountancy firm might be as boring as it gets), giving fans the opportunity to join and share opinions is not to be missed.

What's more, all your Facebook followers will be alerted to your latest stories and comments. This is just as powerful as a mailing list - if not more, because you can stay in daily contact with fans. (I don't know about you but I regard daily emails as intrusive and spammy. Yet I'll willingly listen to daily ramblings of every man and his dog on Facebook.)

With such a powerful communication channel geared to reach thousands of targeted users, I strongly recommend creating a Facebook Page for most types of business, online or offline. It is a fantastic way to create an online community and make your marketing go viral when users amplify your voice to their friends... and their friends of friends... and so on.

How to Create a Facebook Page

Make sure you populate your page with enough information about your business or website, including your name (so friends will always recognize you) and your website address and logo. I also post my Facebook Page link on my personal profile, which encourages my existing friends to join up if they're interested. A lively community will begin to snowball once you have about 500 followers, and the page will maintain itself. All you need do is check up a few times per week and post your latest thoughts and content to encourage repeat traffic.

Facebook Page vs Facebook Group

Facebook Groups are another kind of public profile often confused with Facebook Pages. There are a few key differences:

• Facebook Pages are visible to everyone and indexed by Google. But you can only invite new people to join manually - no bulk invites. You can create a custom URL for your Page, host discussions, add extra applications, message all members via their news feed, gain visitor statistics, share videos and photos, create related events, and promote them with Facebook ads. In short, Pages are generally better for creating long term relationships with your followers.
• Facebook Groups are only visible to fans and not indexed by Google. However you can send out bulk invites to friends, who can also bulk invite their friends. You have to use a long tail URL but can host discussions, message all members via private messages, and share videos and photos. So Groups are better for viral marketing, but not necessarily gaining repeat or long term followers.

Finally, when you promote your business on Facebook, keep a reasonable segregation from your personal Facebook activities. In particular, don't use your personal profile page to create a fan base as this limits you to 5,000 followers - plus you will never be able to draw the line between work and play. All your followers will be able to see your personal photos of family and friends and anyone other photos you are tagged in.

2. Claim a Unique Username

Once you have 25 followers of your Facebook Page, you can claim a Facebook username. This is a custom URL that changes your Facebook Page address from a long tail string to something a bit catchier, such as facebook.com/careerevolution

This is a much easier way for people to look up and remember your Facebook Page. It also creates a personalized home on the web for your business (although I strongly recommend this is not your first port of call - a custom website should come first). You can also refer to this URL anywhere on the internet as a way of directing new fans to your Facebook Page. That includes your own website, in blog comments, on other social network sites, in You Tube videos, and anywhere else you can gain new followers.

3. Add a Widget to Your Website

Aside from Facebook referrals, the next biggest source of new followers will be your website. Facebook offers a number of social widgets to promote your Facebook Page. I recommend creating a Like Box which can include thumbnails of people who already follow you. (As social creatures, we love to conform and seeing that other people already like something reinforces our urge to follow too.) Depending on how much space you have, your widget can also include a news stream.

4. Create a Landing Page

When you send a new follower to your Facebook Page, they will automatically land on your Wall. They will be confronted with the latest user comments or photos, and it may be difficult to understand what your Facebook Page is actually about. You risk losing them altogether.

Instead of dumping them straight on your Wall and hoping that will compel them to "Like" your page, send them to a landing page which gives them some solid reasons to join. It looks much more professional and can dramatically increase your conversion rate.

I suggest you use PhotoShop or another high quality design program to create an image 520 x 500 pixels, featuring your business logo, your tag line, several benefits of joining, and maybe a picture of you to add credibility (if your personality is part of the package).

A good landing page is clean and easy to understand, creates instant brand recognition with our logo and credibility with your photo. It also explains exactly what you offer and conveys your Unique Selling Proposition (a USP is something you offer that no-one else does quite the same way).

There is also a direct instruction explaining what you want the visitor to do. It's like an advert, but you are not actually selling anything. All you want them to do is hit the "Like" button which appears above the image. Using a landing page like this has been proven to increase conversion rates of new visitors to a Facebook Page.

For more ways to increase your website's presence on Facebook and other social media, check out Career Evolution. This savvy career guide for online entrepreneurs has valuable advice on starting your own business, generating passive income streams, and finding genuine satisfaction in your work.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Rebecca_Turner

Internet Marketing - How to Promote Your Website or Business Online

By Joe Koh

The aim of internet marketing is not limited to promoting a website - internet marketing also involves submission, article submission, SMO, PPC and all other instruments that are used to market business over the World Wide Web. Today, internet marketing is considered as the best technique to enhance the success of one's business as well as a means of increasing the website's traffic.

In this age of information, it is advisable for a business to have a website where it showcases its products and services to customers all over the world. If you can bring more people to access your website, you are able to increase the number of potential clients to your site and eventually, enhance your brand. Make sure you have designed your website effectively such that users can find ease in navigating it as well as find relevant information in it. Only then can you shamelessly promote it.

It may also be beneficial if you are familiar with the three basic types of Internet marketing strategies. Here they are:

1. PPC (Pay Per Click) - Deducing from the name itself, it is an Internet advertising model used to direct traffic to websites, where advertisers pay the publisher (typically a website owner) when the ad is clicked.

2. SEO (Search Engine Optimization) - This technique enables customization of website content to make one's site rank higher in search engines, eventually getting more traffic on your website. Make sure to use both on and off page optimization to enhance your chances of ranking higher than your competitors.

3. SMM (Social Media Marketing) is simply using social networking sites such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to promote your website.

To ensure success in your internet marketing strategy, here are some tips you might want to look into:

1. Being in the top ranks of search engines such as Google, Yahoo, Bing and Ask is a good indicator of successful internet marketing. Majority of online clients are able to find websites via search engines. In order to rank better, SEO should be observed in your website.

2. Another good technique to keep people on the loop regarding the products and services your business offers is e-mail marketing. This is especially helpful to offshore software development companies who have to make their presence felt on the web quick. E-mail templates and effective advertisement of product and services is the most important consideration in e-mail marketing.

3. Running a favoured affiliate, reseller and associate program could help you dominate a marketing niche online. These programs are able to appeal to more customers online and they would lure them into joining our service as affiliates. This is a win-win situation for you and your customer.

4. No one is stopping you from hiring an internet marketing consultant who can coach you on the right way to analyze your website and online marketing strategies. They will help you know if the technique you are employing is effective or not. They will also guide you through the necessary enhancements on your strategies. Also consider checking out software development companies who provide SEO services. It is easy to find clients for consulting and professional business services with the help of networking.

5. Find good article directories such as EzineArticles.com where you can submit new articles that are relevant to your business. People who come across this article will also be informed about your services and the backlinks you provided will lead them to your website.

6. Social media marketing is an important technique, given the fact that a lot of people from all the parts of the world are connected in social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and etc. A good amount of traffic can be generated by reaching out to people in these sites.

7. Consider running a blog that is filled with content whose topics are related to your business. Through your blog, you can reach people and inform them of the products and services you are offering.

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Joe_Koh

How to Protect Your Adsense Account?

By C.K. Li

As an Adsense publisher, you must always face the risk of being banned because of invalid clicks and other reaons. What can you do in order to keep your account safe? Apart from using tacker, sitemeters, adloggers and other online trackers, there are something that you can do by yourself. I will list put some rules below to remind all of you how to keep your Adsense account in good condition, and not be flagged by Google. Additionally, following these simple rules will help keep your account in good standing:
- Don't click on your own Google ads
Clicking on Google ads on your own site for any reason is strictly prohibited. If you'd like more information about one of the advertisers appearing on your site, please type the URL of the ad directly into your browser's address bar, or use the - Don't ask others to click on Google ads.
Users should click on Google ads because they're interested in the services being advertised. Encouraging users to click on your Google ads, either directly or indirectly, can lead to inflated advertiser costs and can cause your account to be disabled.
- Don't employ pop-up prompts or automatic software installations.
Google is dedicated to improving the user experience on the Internet, and promoting responsible software principles is part of that effort. Sites showing Google ads may not prompt users to install software on their machines. Publishers must also not attempt to change users' browser home pages automatically or via pop-up prompts.
- Be aware of how your site is promoted.
Pages showing Google ads may never be loaded in an unrequested pop-up. This means publishers need to be very careful when purchasing traffic or setting up ad campaigns with third parties. Before contracting with any ad network, you should ensure that they will never display your site in pop-ups or as a result of the actions of any software application.
- Don't place Google ads on sites that contain prohibited content.
Google ads may not be displayed alongside any type of content prohibited by Google Adsnese's program policies, including adult or mature content, gambling-related content, or drug content. It's your responsibility to ensure that all of your pages adhere to these policies. One of my essay site was banned because my site does not fulfill their requirement of sites.
- Respect Google trademarks.
This is a tricky one. Many publishers do not know too much for this policy, and get banned by this. Framing or mimicking Google pages is strictly prohibited by our Guidelines for Use of Google Brand Features. In addition, publishers may not use any Google Brand Features such as Google trademarks, logos, web pages or screen shots, without prior consent from Google. Apart from that, no publishers can put adsense ads on a site with domain that include the words "google", or "adsense".
- Don't tamper with the AdSense code.
AdSense offers a wide variety of approved formats, colors, and features in your AdSense account. Once you've generated your code, however, we ask that you do not alter any portion of the code or change the layout, behavior, targeting, or delivery of ads for any reason, unless specifically authorized to do so by Google.
- Provide a positive user experience.
Sites that contain excessive pop-ups, use sneaky redirects to obtain traffic, or otherwise attempt to interfere with normal web navigation aren't permitted in the AdSense network. Please make sure your site doesn't deceive your users in any way. Also, every AdSense publisher is required to adhere to the Webmaster Guidelines on quality to ensure that their site provides a positive user experience.
- Provide a good environment for advertisers.
Sites showing Google ads should not present a poor opportunity for advertisers. Sites that use tricks or deceptive practices in order to trigger inadvertent clicks on ads are prohibited.
- Be responsive.
Publishers are asked to be responsive to emails sent by the AdSense team. Be sure to keep your email address up-to-date, in case we ever need to contact you about your account. To update your email address, you may need to contact Google immediately.

C.K. Li is a SEO and Google Adsense expert whose company is based in Hong Kong. He starts to share his expertise in Adsense in his blog Da Gsense Codes, and welcome all the questions in Adsense. [http://www.DaGsenseCodes.com]

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=C.K._Li

How to Promote Your Blog in 5 Easy Steps

By Christy Brady

If you have a blog and are eager for the rest of the world to discover it, then a road map on just how to promote your blog is probably just the thing you are looking for. And not just any road map, a detailed, descriptive road map, so you know exactly what to do, right?! Here is an easy-to-follow plan just for you...
Actually, focusing more on the subject of how to promote your blog effectively is an even better plan. Because effectiveness is key when you are searching for the best ways for promoting your blogging efforts.
You work hard on your blog, so you want to implement promotion strategies that give you the most bang for your buck, right?
But exactly what to do and how to promote your blog can be an overwhelming task. Believe me, I know - I've tried nearly all of them.
I've paid hundreds of dollars on all sorts of bookmarking, directory submissions, not to mention social networking and extensive "Googling."
But what I've discovered is that there are a handful of tried-and-true, tested methods that can bring loads of visitors to your blog. And you don't have to pay money to promote your blog - these are all FREE!
You can learn how to promote your blog very quickly and easily with these 5 simple steps.
Don't worry if they seem long - they are really very easy and will bring you more readers than you ever imagined -
Step 1 - When looking at how to promote your blog, the first step is to pinpoint what your goals are for your promotion efforts.
Picture a business - businesses don't just purchase ad space or hire sales people without a clearly defined plan in place. They have a goal in mind and everything they do relates to that goal.
The same goes for your blog. Jot down a few goals you want to accomplish with your promotion efforts - do you want to hit the 100, 500 or 1,000 visitors/day mark or get 500 new subscribers to your newsletter or sell $x amount of dollars in your amazon store? Why are you promoting your blog? This is a crucial step - one that can't be ignored. Having a goal guides you in deciding where to send all of your blog visitors.
You wouldn't want to send readers to your blog without having it structured to receive those visitors. Imagine getting loads of new readers, new potential customers to your blog, only they are leaving within minutes of arriving (check this percentage on how to use Google Analytics) or they are being sent to a page that is not relevant to what they were expecting. All of your promotion strategies just flew out the window! Setting up goals and clearly defining what the customer should do next is critical in any promotion strategy. Key question here - Why are you promoting your blog?
Step 2 - After you've come up with a concrete goal, then it's time to put the wheels into motion. I will use the well-known example of dog training to help explain this step. Dog training is a very broad niche - imagine your niche is more specialized - dog training a lab.
Your blog, Dog Training a Lab, is all set up and you have been posting quality content for a few weeks. You want to promote your blog with the goal of selling items from your amazon links. That is your ultimate goal - to sell items that you will refer your readers to, through Amazon links from your posts.
Since we've defined a goal, we can move on to putting a plan into action.
And as with any marketing or promotion efforts, the question to ask is how do I get in front of the people interested in what I have to offer? Where are all these people hanging out? Where do people who want to talk about dog training gather...
Well, they gather on Forums -
People who want to know about dog training are on community forums discussing dog training with others.
I Googled dog training forums and several websites came up, then I Googled dog training a lab forums and a few forums came up that are geared just for labs!
Brilliant!
Go where the people are - there are people interested in dog training a lab on community forums. Go there and participate. Contribute and you will get visitors coming to your blog to purchase your latest and greatest dog leash or some other item you are blogging about.
Step 3 - Next it's time to get on Twitter and start tweeting, notice I said start tweeting. Just being on Twitter doesn't do anything for your business, you have to actually say something.
If tweeting is just too far out of your comfort zone, try tweeting someone else's posts or reTweet what someone else has said to start with. You still gain popularity because your name is on the tweet. Keep using it and you will gain followers. Take a big leap of faith and tweet something - spread the word on a new dog training video you just saw. You will start tweeting, which will send people over to your blog, which will make you sales in no time.
Step 4 - Set up Facebook for your business. Tell your friends about a sale on dog toys or mention a new blog post you just posted. The point is to be as exposed as possible so visitors can find you anywhere and everywhere. Generating friends on Facebook will be covered in another post, but for now put a button on your blog to encourage others to find you on Facebook.
At the bottom of your posts in your blog, put a social connect button with a Twitter, Facebook, StumbleUpon, Digg and Google+ button so readers can simple click a button to post to Twitter or any of the others - again, this makes it easy for visitors to share a great post with others and it will generate more traffic to your blog. If you use WordPress, there is a plug-in for this, Blogger will have an option on their set-up as well.
Step 5 - Comments make the world go round. You may have heard this from me before, but comments really are like gold. Find other blogs in your niche or a little outside of it. Let's look at the dog training a lab example. I would hop over to other dog training a lab blogs and read their posts and make an intelligent comment. Then I would scale up and hop over to some general dog training blogs and read their posts and comment there. See where this is heading?
Treat the comments you receive with care - they do so much more than take up space on your post page. Comments show interaction - visitors like to see and read comments. Comments build your rapport with the search engines. They provide links coming in to your website; they build links out of your website. Comments mean you have an interactive, attentive blog and that is what means the difference between a successful blog and an unsuccessful blog.
Five easy steps on how to promote your blog, right?
In fact, these steps are very easy to implement - take one evening and set these accounts up and you will be surprised at what a difference it makes.
Discovering how to promote your blog is made even simpler in my newest book, Profitable Blogging Made Easy. Grab your copy today!

Christy Brady blogs at Insightful Mommy. Grab your copy of my book, Profitable Blogging Made Easy today.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Christy_Brady

How to Promote Your New Blog

By Cory Morris

Promote your blog online. You've gone through the trouble to setting up your blog and loading it up with good content now you need to get people to the site. Getting a blog is simple to do. When you sign up your are joining a lot of other people that have decided to blog also. Blogs are being created all the time. How can you make your blog stand out from the crowd and how can you get people to start coming to your site?
Place your blog links online
The first thing that you can do is publish your blog address in your online profiles. If you are using social networks include your blog address. Twitter, facebook, and linkedin are taking over the online space. Make sure that you include your blog url in your profile.
Use your Writing Skills - Write Blog Posts and Articles
There are a lot of places online that you can post articles. Free directories are a good idea for getting your blog noticed. Article directories get a lot of web traffic and having your blog associated with them is a good idea. Articles in the article directory can receive traffic for years into the future so getting your blog address in your profile and articles is a good idea.
Become a short video director! Make a short video about it
Online video is huge. People are getting use to watching videos online. With the popularity of netflix people are starting to watch more videos online. Why not tap into this market by promoting your blog with a short video on your topic.
It can't hurt to use YouTube
YouTube is the go to place for videos so sign up for an account and create a short video. Include your blog address in your YouTube profile and annotate the video with your blog address too. Checkout vimeo too.You can make a video really quickly with one of those flip video cameras.
They are inexpensive and you can get some high quality hd video that looks great online. What if you don't have a video camera? If you don't personally have one then ask a friend. Somebody has one. These portable video cameras are getting cheaper by the minute. If you still have a hard time trying to find video then think about using a service like animoto or xtranormal to create a short video.
Old School Direct Marketing and Promotion
Even though its an online world now its still a good idea to include your blog address on your printed materials like letters and business cards. Its old school but it might still get you a few web visits.

For more information visit Home Business.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Cory_Morris

How to Promote Your Blog by Using Twitter

By J Tomerson

An effective microblogging platform, Twitter offers excellent opportunities for bloggers to attract traffic to their blogs. How do you promote a blog? Well, you promote it through establishing long-term relationships with your readers. And Twitter is just the perfect platform where you can start building relationships for blog promotion. The best part about it is that Twitter is really a fun way of connecting with people from different corners of the world. If you are looking to drive more and more traffic to your blog, you can make good use of Twitter platform.
Given below are some essential tips on how you can drive more traffic and promote your blog by using Twitter.
Drive Instant Traffic
Twitter features a vast community of users. Bloggers can use this networking tool to do effective viral marketing. Suppose, you want to announce an upcoming content on your blog; you can make it go viral within a matter of minutes by sharing the information on Twitter. As you post an update about the event, your followers get to know it and (if they find it valuable), they spread it among their followers. Sharing of information in real time in this way can really make it go viral, attracting large volumes of traffic to your blog.
Network with People in Your Industry
Twitter presents itself as a social networking tool. If you are looking to connect with professionals and experts in your industry, you can find and connect with them using this tool. Twitter service helps you to connect with like-minded people and build long-term relationship with them. Everyone in the network remains updated by sharing tweets (posts) shared in real time. This is a great way of promoting your blog.
Establish Your Expertise
One of the most effective strategies to build credibility on the internet is by establishing your expertise. Twitter gives bloggers an excellent opportunity to let people know your expertise. If you are successful in establishing yourself as an expert in your niche industry, it can bring recognition to your blog and promote it on a large scale.
Get Your Questions Answered
Similarly as you are trying to establish your expertise, there are other industry experts using Twitter as well. You can connect with other experts in your field and ask them questions. By having your questions answered, you can learn new things and broaden your industry knowledge even more.
Ask for Diggs & Stumbles
Another useful way to promote your blog through Twitter is to ask your Twitter followers for diggs and stumbles for your stories. If you share valuable information with your followers, they can help you spread the information further on platforms like Digg and StumbleUpon. This can bring more traffic to your blog.
There are many more ways in which you can use Twitter for promoting your blog. Promotion through Twitter can instantly bring traffic to your blog. Try to use Twitter for your maximum benefits. You will, however, need to spend some time and effort before your Twitter marketing efforts start to bear fruit.

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Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=J_Tomerson

How to Promote Your Facebook Fan Page

By Anil Garg

So you have finished creating your first Facebook fan page and seeking more help to promote it further. In this post, I'm going to introduce some basic techniques that one can follow to improve their Facebook page, for getting additional fans and for better communication on their page.

Ad all basic details when you are creating your Fan page like profile image, what the page is about, founded date, website URL, company overview, mission and products. Add notes and boxes to your Facebook page for detailed information about a topic or for showing some of your best blog posts with images.

First thing that you have to do is choose the best name for your Facebook page. Don't choose generic or long page name, why not create a page by the name of your business or website. Once you are finalized with the page name, stick to it.

One of the major step that you can take is using the 'Suggest To Friends' feature available on Facebook where you can send invitations to all of your friends list in your email account to Join Facebook. And once some of your friends accept your invitation, you have the option to promote your Facebook page among those friends.

Why not create a Facebook badge for your page and start showing it on your blog. This way, you will be able to get more visitors to your Facebook fan page and thus more fans to your Facebook page.

You may ask some of your friends to become fan of your page if they already are active on Facebook. Apart from this, you may think of using your Facebook fan page in all of your email signatures, discussion forum signatures, in the Author Bio section in your guest posts and on Ezine Publishing websites. And if you are sending newsletters, ask people to become a Fan of your Facebook page. Talk about your Facebook fan page on your blog, on your Twitter account and in the discussions where it looks natural.

Anil Garg writes about ways of making money online, blogging, seo, affiliate marketing and social networking websites on ScopeForMoney website.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Anil_Garg

10 Best Practices for Promoting Your Facebook Fan Page

By Ron Haggerty

Even though Facebook has experienced phenomenal success, there are still many who don't believe it is a good fit for their business because of their industry. However, Facebook provides a huge opportunity for ALL companies to cultivate their community of fans. With that said, it's critical to promote your fan page if you are serious about having success. But, how do you promote your company's Facebook page?

1. Make it easy for audience to like your fan page

About ten years ago companies started promoting their website on various marketing mediums, materials, etc. However, today more and more companies have replaced their URL in these promotions with their Facebook fan page. Look at the upcoming Super Bowl commercials and see how many companies are asking the viewer to like them on Facebook. Why are they doing this? Well, it's simple... internet users spend more time on Facebook than any other online platform.

Promote your Facebook fan page with ads, on your website, your blog, and any other online channel, network, or directory you may own.

2. Create a custom "Like Us" landing page

Several years ago most forms of paid search ads linked visitors to a marketer's website home page. Marketer's soon realized it was a much more effective to drive visitors to a landing page that was more relative to their search. Well, Facebook is no different. Instead of driving traffic to a company's wall on Facebook, it makes more sense to drive them to a custom "like us" page. After all, isn't your goal to get visitors to like your fan page?

3. Build your brand on Facebook

As stated earlier, promote your Facebook fan page everywhere, but make sure to keep your branding consistent. Facebook affords companies various opportunities to build their brand via impressions. So remember, treat it with respect to branding the same as you would your other traditional marketing efforts.

4. Share, Share, Share

One of the primary benefits of Facebook is that it enables companies to not only share information on their products and services, but also it allows them to make announcements about job opportunities, awards received by the company or its employees, or any other press release that has been created. Companies can share their mission statement, corporate initiatives, community involvement, charitable contributions, etc. Be creative and make sure to link the above items back to your website.

5. Create events and/or exclusive offers for your fans

Its one thing to share information about your company, however if you want to increase your audience, you will need to make it worth their while. Creating events, establishing reward programs, and posting any job openings can increase the interest of your fan or visitor. Remember, your Facebook page is an extension of your website.

6. Use your fan page to cross market and promote your company on other online platforms

Adding buttons with links to your other social networking pages or channels such as Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, LinkedIn, etc. is a great way to increase your impressions. Also, you can create links to your blog, articles, banner ads, directories, reviews, etc. Make it easy for your visitors to find you.

7. Maximize the most valuable real-estate of your fan page

Research has proven that the area of your Facebook page that receives the most attention is the logo pane. Most companies automatically insert their logo as instructed by Facebook. However, it makes more sense to not only include your logo, but also add your tagline, URL, or anything else that you want to convey to your audience.

8. Links, Links, and more links!

I've mentioned several times the importance of creating links on Facebook. It can't be overstated that it is critical for your content to include links, buttons, and images that drive your fans where you want to take them. If your fan page doesn't have links, your visitor in all likelihood will get bored and leave your page. Links creates opportunities for your visitors to surf across your internet platforms and learn more about your company.

9. Use Insights to better understand your audience

The analytics that Facebook Insights provide may not be the most comprehensive, however it does a relatively good job of providing you with volume stats as well as illustrating the demographics of your audience. This tool allows you to clearly see your fans age, gender, locale, etc. Use it to measure and track your progression so you can learn what works and what doesn't. A little research can provide the information needed to better promote your fan page, not to mention saving you time and money. BTW, you can also expect Facebook Insights to become much more robust sometime in the very near future.

10. Understand your mission and purpose before you begin

Although it's listed at #10, it should actually be the first thing you do prior to creating and publishing your Facebook fan page. The old saying, "Failing to plan is planning to fail' applies here. Ask yourself a few questions before you get started such as, Is Facebook going to be a marketing tool to help promote our products and/or services? Is our goal to create awareness about the good will, community involvement, charitable initiatives, and outreach programs that are taking place within our company? Do we want to be engaging with our fans thus providing a voice for them in our (and their) community? Is it for informational purposes only (such as a brochure site)? Is it merely a tool to drive traffic to our website? Maybe it's a combination of these things, but whatever it is... it needs to be defined.

Again, Facebook can be an outstanding tool to assist you in your marketing efforts; and if you're able to implement these ten best practices, you should be well on your way to creating a successful Facebook fan page.

Ron Haggerty

http://www.wsib2b.com

Ron has been a certified internet marketing consultant and a managing partner with WSI Internet Marketing since January 2006. During his tenure with WSI, he has worked as a web developer, designer, team leader, project manager, and as a business consultant. His greatest strength is that he understands what it takes for small to medium sized businesses to be successful. Prior to WSI he opened numerous successful small to medium sized businesses and was responsible for every imaginable aspect including concept design, start-up, marketing, day-to-day operations, and P&L oversight.

If you're looking to improve your internet presence please contact Ron. He will evaluate your current online presence and help you establish a strategy suitable for your company's needs.

WSI Internet Marketing has offices in Orlando-Winter Park, FL and New Orleans, LA