Using Facebook For Marketing

For whatever reason many internet marketers stay away from social networks on the internet. Why is that? Their claim is that the crowd that ‘hangs’ around these social networks are mainly high school and college students discussing boy/girl issues. However when taking a second look at these networks you will find that not only are high school and college students hanging out there – but also adults and professionals from all over the world and this crowd is just growing within these social network sites.

There are many social networks on the web and sometimes choosing the right one can be very confusing and at times frustrating. I have tested many of them and I have found facebook to be the most valuable when it comes to marketing my website.

Why facebook?

1] I have found the facebook crowd to be more professional, intelligent and mature.

2] I am receiving less spam then I was with other networks.

3] The general look of facebook is more mature and appealing to the adult crowd then other networks and this just attracts more and more people everyday. I think that on some levels because of this look - it also has an impact on the way people express themselves or even the things they post on facebook.

4] I found more people that I knew on facebook then on any other network. This gave me a push start in building my profile and network list.

5] I enjoy the many different ways facebook allows you to get the word out about whatever is on your mind and the beauty of this is – that anyone in your network can see your latest updates with the Mini Feed and News Feed the moment they sign in to view their profile. This means that everyone in your network is immediately updated on your latest activities.

6] I can spend weeks and months just building traffic via facebook marketing without spending a dime, just time.

7] The professional look of facebook it makes me feel like a pro as well.

Once I started getting into facebook I was really excited about marketing my website through facebook. I joined just about every group that had thousands of members and I just started bombing them with a link to my website. After facebook threatened to kick me off and close my account….. I took a few steps back to really understand how to make facebook work for me with out getting threatened to be kicked off.

Everyone thinks that “well, if I just post on this group that has 500,000 members I will for sure get at least 100,000 visitors today…” - it doesn’t work like that. Why not? Because I have found that the massive groups on facebook are not groups where people are active. It’s more like a one time shot thing – because everyone else is joining. I have found that the smaller groups are more valuable then the larger ones. When you join a group that is focused on a specific topic and you share your knowledge with that group this will help you build your credibility among the group members and eventually may lead to potential customers.
If your business is related to food – then joining a group related to soccer is just not relevant. When people see that you are constantly joining groups [and posting there as well] that are not related to your business they will stay away from you!

I also think that in your profile page try to share as much information about yourself, information that you feel will help your business. People would like to know a little bit about whom you are and where you are coming from. Try to add some projects in the past that you have worked on. Be open about your professional career.

Facebook gives you all the options of marketing: forum marketing, article marketing, building a mailing list with your network, and more.

Understanding the basics of facebook and how facebook really works can be very valuable to you and your business.