Collective Clicks Internet Marketing Blog

Facebook is a great tool for connecting with customers and building your brand image. Its free and very easy to get started with a Facebook business page. Here are the basic steps to get you going:

1. Go to: http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

2. Decide what the best category is for your business.

3. Enter your business/product/brand name and click “Create Page”.

4. At a minimum, you should enter a short description of your company and your website address. This is in the “Add Information To This Page” area. I’d also suggest uploading your logo as the profile picture.

5. Once you have entered in at least some information and a picture, click on your business name in the top left corner and then click “publish this page” to make it live and visible to others.

6. Then, from your new profile page, click “Add to my products”. This way, you become the first “fan” of your company .

Once you have set all this up, the fun part begins. Since you’ve become a “fan” of your business, your friends on Facebook (some of which are likely customers) will see a message in their home page. Something like “Patrick Bedford is a fan of Collective Clicks” will come up on their news feed. This will probably encourage some of your Facebook friends to befriend your business. Then, their friends will see a message, and so on and so on.

If you want to see a sample Facebook business page, you can check out Collective Clicks.  You can even add Collective Clicks as a friend (once you visit the page, click on the “Add Product” link in the right column) to see what a page looks like from the customers stand point.

Technorati Tags: facebook marketing, increase traffic, search engine optimization, social media marketing, social network marketing

Although Twitter was originally intended created to allow individuals to communicate with each other, many companies have found ways to use it for business purposes. Different companies use Twitter in different ways and for different purposes however they’ve all gone beyond simple tweets that announce what someone is eating for breakfast. Some companies simply read tweets to get some indirect feedback while others actively engage in discussion with current and potential clients. There are a few different ways that you can use Twitter to help grow your business, regardless of size.

You may want to treat twitter just like you would a more traditional blog in which you post information, announce sales/promotions, give product/service details, make corporate announcements, etc. These tweets can also contain links back to your site or blog. Keep in mind that all tweets are indexed by Google so you don’t want to say anything that could negatively impact you or your business.

Using the Twitter search function, you can seek out any Twitter users who have mentioned your company, products, or services and then you can communicate directly with them using an “@ reply”. Make sure that these messages are personalized and helpful so that they are not dismissed as spam.

There are many sites out there that track trends on Twitter and can be used to get an idea of what products of services consumers are interested in. Sites like these can be very valuable for retailers, especially around holiday seasons. If a store can identify a product that appears to be a “must have,” they can stock up on it and target their advertising efforts towards those products (and of course, Tweet about the product).

What other ways has your business been using Twitter?

Technorati Tags: social media marketing, social network marketing, twitter marketing, twitter optimization

Social network marketing is a relatively new field that is becoming more main stream as an increasing number of companies recognize its value. Social media sites allow companies to interact directly with their potential clients and to develop long term relationships. There are many large social networking sites out there and new ones are launched every day. Some of the main social media applications that all companies should consider using are Twitter, Facebook, Digg, YouTube, and some sort of blog.

Twitter allows businesses to directly send and receive short messages between any twitter user in the world. “Tweets” sent out by a company are indexed by search engines and can be seen by anyone searching for a particular item or service. Also, companies can use Twitter to send out real time updates regarding promotions, inventory shipments, new products and much more. There is no cost to use Twitter and the direct feedback that users around the world provide can be priceless to many businesses.

Similarly, Facebook can be used to directly interact with existing and potential customers and could also be used to showcase products, get reviews, and create buzz about a new product launch. Facebook also offers a convenient and effective ad platform that allows for highly targeted delivery.

Digg is a social media site that helps people discover and share content from anywhere on the web, by submitting links/stories, and then voting and commenting on submitted links/stories. It can be a great source of new traffic to your site if your submission is popular among Digg users.

A blog, as well as a YouTube channel, can be very beneficial when trying to create excitement for a new product or service and also to simply bring in more traffic to your site. As long as you create quality content that people want to read or see, they will keep coming back to you page and will surely check out your main site as well (make sure that you post your URL wherever possible).

These are only a few of the many social media avenues out there but represent a massive following. Start with these and then branch out into other, more niche, networks.

Technorati Tags: facebook marketing, myspace marketing, social media marketing, social network marketing, twitter marketing, twitter optimization, youtube marketing, youtube optimization