Facebook powerful marketing tool

What is it?
Facebook is a social networking website launched on February 4, 2004. The free-access website is privately owned and operated by Facebook, Inc. … en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook

See the latest news from Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/facebook?ref=pf

Why should I have one?
Facebook is a powerful tool for marketing, networking, and meeting people for business.If it wasn’t for FaceBook, I wouldn’t have met nearly half the people I have met to become Joint Ventures with in business. What I liked about Facebook from MySpace was the quality of people. They seem to be a more professional looking network. A ton of realtors who are now tapping into the web2.0 world are on Facebook and my experience working with them, share that Facebook has been instrumental in meeting other realtors, and or possibly selling homes. I like that Facebook doesn’t allow us to “customize” our backgrounds which can sometimes take away from the person, business if it’s too distracting with images, colors, etc… Facebook is simple and user friendly. I have met some of the most amazing people here and continue to do so.

What separates FaceBook from other social media sites?
MySpace was the “hottest” and fastest growing social media site. We could be unique with our profiles through customizing our backgrounds to fit any industry. But did you know, that Facebook started before MySpace? Yes, but MySpace got bought out which led it to explode in terms of advertising.

MySpace is still GREAT! I think it’s even greater if you’re in the music industry. I think what happened was the “spamming” epidemic started happening on MySpace. Network marketers were frowned upon if you had an account on MySpace. And we are always searching for the next biggest thing with an audience. Somewhere along the way, people started migrating over to Facebook and it has taken off from there. However, unlike MySpace which allows you to have unlimited amount of friends, Facebook obviously only allows us 5,000. In my personal opinion I think that is ok. Again, we can always create a “page

I think what marketers are missing… and this could be lucrative for you, is they completely ignore the network and possible leads to still have on MySpace because people assume they have to do all their networking on Facebook now. The problem is, is that EVERYONE, and is at Facebook now. KEEP your MySpace account. Keep building your network on MySpace. And keep active in posting bulletins, blogs, and more on your MySpace. There are still millions to meet, network, and potentially JOIN your team. Think outside the box: where is everyone at? (Facebook), yup competing with each other, no one’s on MySpace, so if you think differently, there are still a TON of fresh new leads for you every day on MySpace!

What are some features people miss on the profiles?
Did you know there are 4 RSS feeds that can be burned from anyone’s profile? Yup! Not too many people know this. You can burn feeds for the Notes, links, posts, status updates. When you burn these feeds, they become live in the search engines and pushed further.

What are the benefits to creating my own “page”?
Again, because Facebook limits us to 5,000 friends, people are now tapping into the trend of starting their own “page”. This was originally for businesses and musicians, since the profile was intended for personal only. So now, to get from the limits of 5,000 start your “page” and start building your network into the thousands.

What are the best applications to have installed on my profile?

There are hundreds of applications to chose from. But when thinking about installing applications on your Facebook, think about the objectives you plan to use them. You also want to think of what the most effective ones to use are, and how to use and set them up accordingly.

In network marketing, I have found these very basic applications are the only ones we need to get the job done. Just keep it simple as possible.

Twitter
Share what’s happening on twitter to your Facebook. NOTE: if you have friendfeed settings set to deliver feeds to Facebook and other networks, DO NOT activate the “allow twitter to update your Facebook status”. You don’t want to have double the posts on your Facebook wall. http://apps.facebook.com/twitter

Friendfeed
When this is activated with Facebook, you are allowing FriendFeed to publish updates from the sites you have added on your FriendFeed account to your Facebook wall. Warning: If you have this activated, do not have your Twitter settings “to allow twitter to publish updates coming from twitter”. Reason is, it will post twice. So what I do is let FriendFeed publish everything. When you make an update on twitter, FriendFeed will post it on your Facebook coming from twitter. When you post a new video on YouTube, FriendFeed will publish it on your Facebook. Etc… http://apps.facebook.com/friendfeed

Ping.fm:
Another “hub network”. Post micro postings to ping.fm and let ping distribute the same micro post out to your other networks. So instead of posting on twitter, then going to Facebook posting the same update status, then going to MySpace posting the update status, just post to ping.fm and it will post everywhere for you. http://apps.facebook.com/pingdotfm

Profile html
Because Facebook doesn’t allow us to “spice” up our page like MySpace, there is an application where you can add “html” for small banners, or what I do is use the html codes for icons showing MySpace, twitter, YouTube, and a blog. http://apps.facebook.com/profile_html

RSS http://apps.facebook.com/blogrssreader
Show your network what is going on other networks through rss feeds. Enter in other network feeds to show on your wall when you update those sites with information. Show feeds from your blog, twitter, FriendFeed, others blogs, YouTube, MySpace and more. Everything you update one of those sites, the rss automatically gets updates as well.

YouTube badge: Share your current videos on your FaceBook profile wall. Show up to 8 videos. Every time you post a new video, it will rotate through this badge. http://apps.facebook.com/youtubebadge

Skype widget
This is a great tool to have if you use Skype like I do to stay connected with people. And it’s a great way to get people to be added to your network. Once in your network and they have Skype too, you can easily add people or call them directly from your facebook. http://apps.facebook.com/skypeapp/?ref=ts

Unique web profile address
Facebook gives an enormous URL link which can be too long. This application allows you to create your own unique short URL for your profile, group, and pages. EX: http://profile.to/imgroupmktg is the URL for my FaceBook profile. Go here http://apps.facebook.com/webaddress to get your unique addresses.

Joining groups

Joining groups is great for many reasons. If you join the right group, you can receive some valuable tips and information to help your business or networking. Most groups I see have a group for the sole purpose of sharing tips and tricks to help people.

It’s also a great way to get people to friend request you. I know allot of people will build their profile network by going to the groups network and friend requesting from there.

If the group allows you to post links, post on their walls, videos then it’s another great way to get your information out to a larger audience that isn’t or wouldn’t be in your profile list of friends. I see many groups that allow their members to post their business links. WARNING: do not post in multiple group walls over and over again. Facebook now has a system within the site that can detect when someone is OVER posting considering it “spam” and will immediately shut your profile down. So be Mindful when doing so.

Go, CREATE YOUR OWN GROUP
Starting your own group is a great way of meeting new people, sharing YOUR own unique experiences, tips, marketing expertise, and more. Not to mention, this is a valuable tool in reaching a larger audience ALL at once by having the admin privileges of being able to send MASS messages all at once to each of your members. For EX: In the diagram… Learn More about Social Networking at Instant Sales System: click on the banner.