This is third in a series on how businesses can utilize facebook for marketing/advertising. We began by looking at facebook pages. Then we moved on to looking at groups. Finally today, we look at a comparision between pages and groups

The Similarities:

Both groups and pages offer the ability to create discussions as well the ability to post photos, videos. Both have walls on which to post. Both allow you to create events. Both require you to manually remove posts as an administrator if something does not meet your standards or purpose for the page. Messaging members is available on both.

The Differences:

Groups :
Can send messages to member’s inbox inviting them to events or alerting them to something of importance

Easier to send mass invitations to join.

Facebook Pages:

Visitor statistics (insights) – free, regular, detailed updates on the growth of the page are provided.

Fan pages are visible to unregistered people and are thus indexed, but to interact with the page, the user must be a Facebook member.

Allows the addition of extra applications – to view available applications, visit http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/apps/directory.php

Actions are documented – If a fan of your page takes action on it, such as writing on your wall or posting a video, their actions will be documented on the news feeds of their personal pages. Their friends will see the news feeds and if curious, check out your page – giving you more exposure

Offer vanity URLs

Facebook Page or Group?

So which is better to promote your business, group or page? Generally speaking, pages are better especially if you want to interact with your fans/customers without having them connected to your personal profile. But the common denominator for both groups and pages, is the need to update regularly, keep your audience engaged and offer something of value.

For more on how to utilize social media, click HERE.

Lately, the most popular question is, “Are you on Facebook?” Mark Zuckerberg, Founder of Facebook, launched his networking site as a means to connect with friends at Harvard. Little did he know the incredibly popular Facebook would reach nearly 200 million users, with a million new members joining each week in the U.S. alone. So it should come as no surprise that the ability to use Facebook as a business tool wouldn’t be far behind its application to stay in touch with friends.

Are you ready to utilize Facebook as a way to establish a presence for your business, product, or brand? Start by establishing a Fan Page or Group . This week, let’s look at fan pages.

Getting Started:

Name your Page – be sure to choose a name your customers will recognize.

Upload photos – A logo or storefront works well. This helps your page to be easily recognizable as the business or product you are featuring. Make sure the image is still clear when reduced to thumbnail size.

Add basic information to the group or fan page such as links to company site, newsletter subscription information and newsletter archives. Then go back and add more detailed information such as brand or product information, photos of your products and helpful links.

Make the content engaging: Post upcoming events including webinars, conferences and other programs where you or someone from your company will be present. Add helpful information and answers to questions on a regular basis.

Once created, use the “suggest to friends” button to begin to build your fan base. More fans increase interactions and more interactions increase News Feed. Facebook will accelerate the rate at which unknown entities become popular, and it will also fortify the position of those who are already recognized highly among users. All businesses and brands have the potential for exponential distribution if they can engage users.

Other helpful tidbits taken from Facebook Help Center for Fan Pages:
“Facebook allows page administrators to build merchandising, ticketing, and download applications, or to use those provided by 3rd party developers. On the canvas pages of these applications, they may choose to run paid 3rd party advertising pursuant to the Platform Terms of Service. The off-network website of any artist, business, or brand may be linked prominently on any Page, so traffic can be directed to an external monetizing site”

“Powerful reporting and insight tools are provided free to Page Administrators. On a cumulative and week-over-week basis, these granular reports will measure reach (e.g., impressions, clicks), viral impact (e.g., fan adds), responder insights (e.g., gender and age), and engagement (e.g., video plays and wall posts) of visitors to the Page. One advantage of using the applications designed by Facebook is the ability to receive these free, regular, detailed updates on the growth of the page.”

“Your Pages will be publicly viewable, so people searching for a particular artist or company on the Internet will find the Page’s Facebook presence and be able to view that Page’s photo and basic information. In order to view a Page in its entirety, become a fan of a Page, and engage with a Page, the individual must join Facebook.”

Fan pages offer you the chance to be creative and show your personality. Best of all, they are an incredibly effective way to do viral marketing.

To create a fan page, go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

For more on how to utilize social media, click HERE.

Next week, we will look at Facebook Groups and how to use them for business purposes.

Chris Brogan, President of New Marketing Labs, says “We really can’t deny the fact that businesses are testing out Twitter as part of their steps into the social media landscape. You can say it’s a stupid application, that no business gets done there, but there are too many of us (including me) that can disagree and point out business value”.

Here is a snippet from his blog post 50 Ideas on Using Twitter for Business

1. Twitter helps one organize great, instant meetups (tweetups).
2. Twitter works swell as an opinion poll.
3. Twitter can help direct people’s attention to good things.
4. Twitter at events helps people build an instant “backchannel.”
5. Twitter breaks news faster than other sources, often (especially if the news impacts online denizens).
6. Twitter gives businesses a glimpse at what status messaging can do for an organization. Remember presence in the 1990s?
7. Twitter brings great minds together, and gives you daily opportunities to learn (if you look for it, and/or if you follow the right folks).
8. Twitter gives your critics a forum, but that means you can study them.
9. Twitter helps with business development, if your prospects are online (mine are).
10. Twitter can augment customer service. (but see above)

We here at Orange County Advertiser want to hear how you are using Twitter for your business, what is working and what isn’t. Chime in!

Advertising companies in Orange County need to pay attention to current trends in mobile marketing in order to stay competitive.

The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) council has produced a list of the top 10 things it believes markets absolutely have to know about mobile advertising at the moment.

It follows research from the IAB and PriceWaterhouseCoopersthat mobile advertising is set to become part of the mainstream marketing mix over the next two years.

1. It’s an always on medium: Consumers love their mobile phones so much that researchers found when they took peoples phones away for a day they claimed to feel a phantom ‘tingle’ in their pocket that normally proceeds the excitement of a text/call. Stephen Upstone, managing director of European business development, AdInfuse.

2. Social media is driving growth: IAB research in 2009 found that updating social network sites via mobile handsets is increasing with 25% of all social networkers logging on to check or update their pages. 16 to 24 year olds are the biggest mobile social network fans with 44% saying they have updated via mobile, compared to 17% of over 55s. Amy Kean, senior PR and marketing manager, IAB.

3. It provides immediate interaction: Mobile phones allow the consumers to interact immediately with advertising. Upon seeing an advert the consumer can text, call or download content instantly. It can help maximise the effectiveness of other media, a short code is a great example of this. Rachel Wright, business development director, Phonevalley.

4. It’s got a lot to offer: Mobile Marketing is much more than banner adverts within internet content; a wide range of formats can be delivered as campaign components from text links in SMS messages through to full screen static or video display adverts within applications or mobile internet sites. Jeremy Copp, CEO, Rapid Mobile Media.

5. Application crazy: iPhone users have downloaded over 1 billion applications worldwide to their handset since launch. Applications are not restricted to iPhone however; advertisers can create useful applications for consumers for the majority of handsets. David Fieldhouse, mobile manager, MediaCom.

6. It’s popular: The number of mobile media users in the UK has reached the tipping point with over 30% of all UK adults accessing mobile media every month and a large proportion of those going online everyday according to ComScore. Stephen Upstone, managing director of European business development. AdInfuse

7. Smartening up: Over the last 18 months the number of UK Smartphone users (iPhone, Nokia N96, T-Mobile G1 etc) has grown from 3.6m subscribers to 6.3m, a 73% increase, and these users are over three times more likely to browse for News and Information on their phones than non Smartphone users (Comscore/MMetrics). Tim Hussain, head of mobile advertising, Sky.

8. It’s out of your hands: If you’re not sure if your brand should be on mobile, consumers have already made the choice for you. 0ver 4 million consumers are already using their mobiles to search for information on products and services and search volumes are growing 4 times faster than online. Jon Mew, head of mobile, IAB.

9. It can reach you: Target through to point of purchase – no other medium allows such precise targeting, from location based services like local search through to in-store Bluetooth marketing you can reach consumers wherever they are and provide relevant and engaging advertising. Paul Lyonette, head of mobile advertising, Microsoft.

10. Consumers like Mobile! The Orange Exposure study shows 70% of mobile media users find innovative ad formats appealing. In an ad funded games trial 89% said they liked or were neutral to advertisements appearing on the Orange World portal and 88% said they were happy to be exposed to advertising in exchange for free or discounted content. Alex Kozloff, media research manager, Orange.

WE (Welcome Express) can help you implement several of the basics of Social Media Business Marketing Packages and take advantage of the mobile marketing trend!

Twitter, just like any other Social Networking site, is largely used by people from across the globe. The more people who follow your tweets, the greater your chances are of reaching potential customers. Your followers, however, are somewhat pre-qualified; if they are not interested in what they see in your tweets, they will quickly un-follow you.

So, the question is, how do you most effectively communicate with your audience? SocialOomph makes it easy by offering tools that automatically respond to your Twitter followers and schedule tweets for future dates or times. Along with those features, SocialOomph also includes;Twitter ~Keyword Tracking
~Set up what’s known as an auto-DM (When you get a new follower, SocialOomph automatically     sends them a DM which you previously wrote)
~Automatically follows those who follow you, and un-follows anyone who un-follows you
~Finds you new followers while eliminating spammers in the results
~Includes an integrated console to manage more than one Twitter account

The Disadvantages of using SocialOomph

Before you type socialoomph into your browser, there are a few things you should know first; for one, you do not get all of the features listed above unless you sign up for a professional account. When you first sign up, they will offer you a week’s free trial, which includes all of the professional features listed above, and then they will ask you for a subscription fee. If you do not pay the subscription fee, you can still use SocialOomph, but on the basic package they offer. The professional package is pretty pricey, but if you use Twitter for Marketing purposes, it could well be a worthwhile investment. You should also be aware that SocialOomph recently changed their policy due to Twitter claiming that repeating tweets are a breach of the site’s Terms of Service. Duplicated content is considered spam, basically. This means that using the same URL in different tweets is considered spam.

All in all, SocialOomph is a very effective way to help save you time and maximise the effectiveness of your Twitter Marketing. It’s up to you to decide; go have a look.

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

To see how Welcome Express can help you in the social media arena, click HERE

It is estimated that there will be 2.9 trillion text messages sent before the end of 2009. Therefore it is no surprise that Text mobile marketing is experiencing the fastest growth of new media!  Check out this youtube video for some fascinating facts about the cell phone! 

Interested in reaping the benefits of new media — without all the effort? Welcome Express can help you implement several of the BASICS and leap into the social media arena!