26 Mar

Follow The Facebook Rules

Posted in News, Promotional Products on 26.03.10 by John Meloche

At the beginning of March, this blog visited the concept of promoting businesses online through a variety of social networking sites including Facebook and Twitter. We also discussed the many advantages of finding your company at the top of the list in Google searches. And while online promotion through these popular sites is virtually free of cost and widespread, it is important to stay clear of trouble.

And by trouble, we mean the breaching of policies posted by these respective social networking sites. Facebook is popular for cancelling accounts of users who violate their policies. As Chris Hopkins on EzineArticles.com reveals, it is important to know Facebook's policies or both your site and hard work to promote your company will disappear.

Hopkins notes that business owners who are Facebook users have made a lot of money promoting their brand to the 350 million active users of the site. However, it is through the utilization of a very effective method of doing so. That is mainly through fan pages, says Hopkins.

By creating a fan page for your business, it helps you to avoid the perception that you are only on Facebook to market and sell. As Hopkins elaborates: ?Remember Facebook is a social hub and both Facebook policy and site users frown upon marketers who invade the site with a sell, sell,sell mentality. Success on the social networks is about playing the game Harass people with product marketing and you will find it difficult to make meaningful relationships of trust with others.?

Hopkins offers up four simple steps for entrepreneurs to follow when they are on Facebook. The first is to join Facebook and invite all of your friends and associates to be your friend on the site. This helps for you to create a network that will be updated with information every time you post photos, videos or any pertinent information you wish to share.

The second step is to develop the aforementioned fan page. As Hopkins advises: ?This is of paramount importance if you wish to promote your business without risking getting shut down. The trick to success with Facebook is to promote your business opportunity through your fan page.? This page allows business owners to also post links to their websites that will help in the direct marketing of their companies, inevitably turning into an increase of sales.

The third step is to join Facebook Groups. When you subscribe to a group, it allows you to post on the group wall. Post your business information on both your fan page and the to your groups' pages with links to your fan page. Be careful not to ?over post? though.

Finally, set up your own group. Hopkins notes that doing so helps you to create a platform to market your brand. It allows for unlimited friends to promote to, in part by sending mass e-mails as often as you wish.

Use Facebook to promote your business. But do so wisely. You wouldn't wanted to get booted off of the site when it works so well in giving your business the widespread attention it needs to succeed.

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