Let me put it another way. What if I told you that there exists a place where you can present your business, to an ever growing audience, that you can hand pick based on their age, sex, location, or particular predisposition to your brand, service or industry? What if you could have a real time conversation with any, or each one of these people about your offerings?

Yes I am talking about Facebook and with 250 million members (globally), if Facebook was a country, it would be world’s fourth largest. If your business is not represented in such a large population, who in your industry is? With such an active and growing marketplace, according to Facebook by 700,000-750,000 new users per day, you are missing out on one of the most responsive markets that have ever existed.

To put it in perspective, here are some interesting statistics you may want to know about Facebook.

Facebook has approximately 250 million users globally. Facebook’s greatest growth in global audience numbers has come from people aged 35-49, followed by 18-34, which is closely split between male and female.

Source: Nielsen Global Faces and Networked Places – March 2009 http://bit.ly/DyO3a

Australian (USA and NZ) Facebook users (as at 19^th July 2009):

Source: Facebook Advertisement Creator 19^th July 2009 (available from any Facebook Account)

Australian Facebook growth rate.

So what can a business do to market on Facebook?

Facebook allows your business to build highly interactive fan page to be built using their platform as a base with beautiful additional custom pages using applications such as their FBML. As a business on Facebook you can create page which can be used as a hub for your social media strategy. It can facilitate online discussions, announcements, competitions, and links to complimentary websites that will gradually build your fan base. An active fan base is your main goal with Facebook as it provides you a means to communicate news or offerings and the size of your fan base will depend on the available pool in your particular niche.

Facebook’s advertisement creator allows you to target age, location, gender, birthday and key word phrases of your choosing, to focus your attention on the people that matter most to your business. Ads can be used to promote products & services, online or offline promotions and your fan page itself. Facebook has two options for payment, cost per click and cost per impression. There are instances where each of these options has merit and should be chosen over the other.

Once you have established your Facebook community you can use it to listen to, and converse with your clients and prospects, person to person. Regular activity plays a huge part in the success of your fan page. This means that relevant daily and personal status updates are required at the very least. Remember that authenticity is key.

Integration of your Facebook fan page (and all your other social media profiles) into the design of your company website is imperative. Attractive custom badges can be designed to entice your visitors to visit and fan your page. Facebook have added a new feature called “fan box” which allows a business to feed their Facebook wall and fans directly into a company web page, using quick and easily copied Javascript code, automatically generated by Facebook.

There are different types of Facebook users, so naturally there are different levels of involvement in a fan page. This can range from contributions such as photo posts, video posts, long discussions, wall posts, competition entry, or simply observing.

For a great post about Facebook fan page user types, read this: http://bit.ly/10urSH

Before diving in and creating a page it is imperative to have a strategy. An organization must establish a list of objectives to work to, i.e. X amount of meaningful discussions per week, and X new fans per month, etc. There also is a need for a policy to govern the content, i.e. what type of company information can be mentioned, and when does a negative discussion need to be deleted, etc.

Check out Talking Point for an example of a thriving Facebook fan page.

What Facebook pages do you like?

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VERY IMPORTANT: There may be quite a few differences between you and your target market, including the way they use social media. While evaluating this document it is very important to remember that there is a large and growing portion of the population actively involved in the social media shift, even if you may not be. And, with Think Social you don’t have to be.

Less than 8 months ago I would have recommended a company blog and online media release campaign as the only essential business applications of social media. However, now my professional viewpoint has completely changed.

Social media is not hard, but it can be complicated to develop an effective strategy for your business. This is because of the huge assortment of options currently available. It is not just about Twitter, LinkedIn, MySpace or Facebook, YouTube or blogging. It is about having an intelligent and effective strategy to make your organisation more human and less like just another corporate machine.

There are a number of important key benefits, summarised in the post below, to be gained through social media that you need to consider for your organisation right now, whatever your industry. Naturally, some will appear instantly more valuable to you than others. I would love the opportunity to reveal more about these key points, and others, and how your business will benefit from them. Once you are aware of all the benefits, my team and I will create an effective social media strategy, tailored specifically to you and your organisation’s needs.

…continued: The key benefits from social media for your business

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People are (or should be!) talking about your brand online right now, and social media gives you the ability to listen and be involved in the conversation directly.

Generate Business Leads

Create brand advocates & advisors by keeping them active with frequent contact. Be where your audience is and expand your database. Create online brand communities who will continue to market you to the web.

Be a Knowledgeable Leader

Be seen as the leading edge in your industry and share your perspective and expertise. Learn of new developments as and when they happen around the world. Monitor what your market is really thinking and saying about your competitors.

Customer Service

Respond to your client’s and potential client’s queries live and direct, either publically or privately depending on the impression you wish to make.

Client Relationship Management

Open a reliable and approachable channel of communication (daily, hourly, etc.) with your clients and prospects with the view to start conversations about your services or products.

Secure your Social Media Identity

Similar to branding through domain names. Have you secured all your social media profiles?

Display Business Intelligence

Social media trades traditional media spend for labour cost. By activating your social media strategy you will be seen as maximising your existing expenditure (staff) which in this economic climate is critical.

Measure and Report

What marketing methods offer such clear linked metrics? The answer can only be obtained online.

Recruitment

Create an online identity that can attract likeminded people into your organisation.

…continued: How Think Social can help your business

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