Facebook Fanpages – Why They Matter

February 18, 2011 By Bill Biko

Facebook is a Force

If you haven’t noticed, Facebook has quietly become a dominant force online. In the last year, it’s had some very notable achievements, not the least of which is an entire movie called The Social Network!

Here are some quick facts about Facebook.

Over 500 million users worldwide
50% of users login to Facebook any given day
700 billion minutes are spent on Facebook, each month

The implications of this to a business owner are huge. Over 500 million users all in one place is exciting enough, but knowing how often people log in to the site and how much time they spend online with Facebook just make it that much more enticing.

You Need a FaceBook Fanpage

Now you have to understand that you are not the only person or company that has noticed this. Facebook has become such a huge enterprise that it has led to a multitude of different businesses processes being built to complement it and even to profit from it and there is no reason you cannot be one of them. If you are currently on the outside looking in, one of the most important steps a business can make to start becoming involved, is to claim your own Facebook Fanpage .

Your Facebook Fanpage will allow your business to have that first step into the world of Facebook and Social Media. If you believe that this doesn’t make a difference you might want to be aware that over 80 of the top 100 websites based out of the US have integrated with Facebook and over 2 millions websites worldwide have integrated themselves with Facebook, usually directly via Fanpages.

Of course, there is more to just having a Fanpage, but getting that page started is the crucial step that is needed to move forward and getting their company noticed. Once it is up and running it provides you with the beginning platform to promote your business, to grow a tribe of raving fans and to allow you to become seen by a much broader audience.

Most importantly, this potential audience has an average of 130 friends linked to them in Facebook, many of whom are just like them and are likely to be influenced by their decisions. If you have a product or service that benefits from people talking about you in a positive way can you see where this can lead?

The question at this point isn’t whether you need a Facebook Fanpage, really, it’s how quickly you can get it up and running and start using it as a platform. So what are you waiting for? Shouldn’t you be out there starting your own Fanpage?

Well, this is where the wheels tend to fall off and good intent often gets overwhelmed by sheer confusion. While it’s important to get a Fanpage set up, it can be a rather confusing process. But don’t give up, you still have options! If you absolutely positively have to get something up now, this is just one of the services we can provide, or you can find someone else to hire to get the work completed. However, if you can hang on for a week or two and want to tackle this yourself, I am in the process of putting together a guide that will take you through the process.

Decision Time

So you have some decisions to make, but let me give you your options.

If you have plenty of time and don’t mind leisurely getting around to it, there are plenty of free and paid resources out on the internet as to how to set up a Fanpage. With a little searching around and some time spent with Google, you should be able to find some information on how to get started. Just be careful you have the current information. Facebook has made a couple of huge changes just in the last few months and older guides may be more confusing now than helpful as the process has changed a bit.

If you have some time, understand you need to get on this, but can wait a bit longer, I recommend you scroll up to the top of the page and fill out the form near the top right of the page and grab your Free Social Media Report. By filling out the form, I will provide you with some great additional information about what is happening with Social Media as a marketing tool and how it is affecting business right now. Plus when the guide is available, you will be the first to know as I will update people on that list immediately!

Finally, if this is time sensitive and need a Fanpage ASAP away email me at bill@billbiko.com and we can get started moving forward almost immediately and getting you set up. I’ll need some information from you, a bit of understanding about your business, what your aspirations are and how I can help you get there to start. Once we have that we’ll get you set up quickly and correctly, so you are off to the right start immediately.

Just to conclude this, I would love to know your thoughts about Facebook and Fanpages, so if you have one already please tell us about it. Just leave us a comment below. Or if you have a favourite Fanpage from another business you like, why don’t you tell us about it too!

Have You Claimed Your Google Place?

February 16, 2011 By Bill Biko

Google Places Listings

It’s amazing how many local businesses have no idea about Google Places. Which brings up the question of “What exactly is Google Places?” To answer that I helped a friend of mine Steve Bell of Target Your Site Locally to create a video explaining a bit about Google Places to you.

You can watch the video below to learn a bit more and Steve has also put together a free guide explaining how you can actually set up your own Google Places listing. Just head over to his site at http://www.targetyoursitelocally.com to grab it, after you watch the video of course!

Some of the information that didn’t make the video is that a company doesn’t even need their own website to get some value from a google Places listing, but the two in combination can really help your marketing efforts.

Anyway take a look at the video and if you have any comments or questions I would love to hear them.

Just a quick note for you, if you already have your Google Places listing configured, but it hasn’t really helped your business, it may just require some optimization. Along with helping companies set up their own Google Places listings, we can also come in and optimize the listing for you to ensure you are getting the most bang for your buck.

Enjoy,

Bill

Is The Internet a Fad? Or Will It Take Off?

January 12, 2011 By Bill Biko

Rumour has it the Internet may take off one of these days. They say it could even replace things like Yellow Pages, newspapers and possibly even TV some day!

If you are a small business this might be rather important information for your companies future success. On a little more serious note, the Internet has already had a significant impact on all three of the areas I mentioned in the first paragraph.

Think about the last time you used the Yellow Pages? We actually threw ours into the recycle bin when we received them. (Confession time, I actually retrieved the Yellow Pages from the recycle when I realized everyone advertising in there needed my services!) When I need to look up anything from vehicle repair to carpet cleaning, I just go online like just about everyone else and just like your customers.

This is turning those high priced Yellow Page ads into expensive propositions with steadily diminishing returns.Just when people need to stretch their marketing dollars the most!

As for newspapers, wow. You can get most of the information from the paper in their online versions or sometimes faster via services like Twitter. Remember the crash of the plane into the Hudson River in New York last year? It was on Twitter almost a day before it made it to the newspapers.

I even found out about Michael Jackson’s death on Twitter! It was almost two hours later before I found any info on some of the news sites and again not until the next day until it hit the newspaper. Often times it is old news by then.

No wonder readership of the papers is down, no wonder advertising there is also less effective. Less eyeballs looking at the ads translates into fewer clients, less business and again potentially wasted marketing funds.

Finally TV, between PVR’s streaming online video and boxed DVD sets of TV series arriving in stores in what seems like hours after the season ends, bring sup the question, who is actually watching TV commercials these days?

The Internet is taking off all around us, it’s not the future it’s now. Its on our desktop at work, it’s on our smartphone we carry with us and it’s bringing an entire revolution to how businesses need to market to succeed. Companies today that don’t recognize this will be following the footsteps of the businesses who thought the automobile was a fad.

Do you know which companies those are? Exactly, because they didn’t make the transition and were left behind, so no one is talking about them. Obviously you don’t want this to happen to you, really what business would? So what can you do?

First off, you should probably become more informed of what is currently taking place out there. For this I have created a special report which you can grab over on the sidebar to the right.

Second, you can contact me for a no obligation consultation. I can give you a quick explanation of what we have done to help other businesses, what is currently working in helping these other businesses get more leads, more prospects and ultimately more business and discuss whether it would work for you as well.

Or you can simply sit back and wait to see if the Internet really is the next big fad? The question is, are you willing to risk the future success of your business by sitting on the sideline?