Online Marketing - Learning to Leverage the Organic Power of Facebook

I started out on Facebook just as almost everyone else did. I opened an account, started finding other friends on the site and start communicating with them mostly by - I guess you could call it - Blog posting as a lot of what Facebook is really about at its base is a social platform - a blog site.

I was starting an online business and my initial focus when getting going was to write some articles, publish them to get known and then build them into books and market them on Amazon-Kindle. I did not have much more of a strategy than that in the beginning - I had just always wanted to write and publish a book. A bucket list item.

As I began to delve in further into the world of Facebook - and this spans time - over the last couple of years in fact - I became aware of just how powerful this platform really is from a business and product marketing perspective. And I have learned a lot about the platform to date - yet I am constantly learning more things I can do on it to further my brand awareness and even close sales right on the platform itself. With this in mind, I want to share with you some ideas for using Facebook that you may not have thought of. Here is an initial list of ideas to get you started.

First, you must absolutely have a business page if you are trying to market or sell anything on the platform. This is your first step. Facebook frowns on you using your personal consumer site to do any business marketing - so get this done. An additional tip: Don't limit yourself to just one business page - create several if you have different categories of things to sell. I am still working to build this all out myself but I have found the time to create a main business page for my website, an "Author" page for books I write, and a couple of pages for individual "business verticals" within my online business.

Why did I do this? It increases your ability to get found. People look for and follow business verticals through keyword searching. If you type for example "coloring books" into the Facebook search bar, your search will return: Coloring Book titled pages created by people, coloring book groups, people who use this keyword in their name and sub-title "about" lines, top posts and latest posts containing the keyword, videos that people have posted with the phrase in the titles, events relating to this phrase, etc. So creating business page verticals within your Facebook presence can be a very good idea.

Next tip - do a little research - use the Facebook search bar to check out different keyword phrases and when you find good ones that people actively search on - use them with associated hash tags in your business page posts to help people find you. Your "People Reached" numbers will go up.

Do you want to get people to your other online assets such as webpages? Start writing, posting and sharing Facebook "Notes" - basically here you are writing articles and posting them on Facebook. A couple very useful tips in this regard: Write the full "Blog Post" or "Article" on your web or blog site. Then, go to Facebook and in your "Note" write the blog/article summary and not the rest of it. Next, put a line in the Facebook post with a backlink to your web/blogsite complete article under some anchor text that says something like "Click Here to Read the Full Article". You are now driving traffic back to your business site where you can use lead magnets to capture e-mail addresses and you can sell them all your business products and services - as a bonus benefit, this helps to increase your website presence in the eyes of popular search engines like Google.

Find and join niche targeted groups. Then when you post related articles, videos, advertisement blurbs, shareable content, etc. "Share" them to these groups. This extends your brand awareness to potentially tens of thousands of people interested in the same topics that you are marketing to.

Go under the "Manage Tabs" button on your business page and add the "Shop" button to your page. Now, you can setup and highlight some of your best-selling products on your Facebook business page and you can share these products in your online posts. When people click to learn more, you can direct them back to your website and shopping cart to buy them by "tagging" the product image. FYI, a window opens up when tagging so you can enter the URL of the webpage you want to direct them to.

Another tab option I recently discovered and really like is the "Services" tab. Here you can market your time and services offered to others. I have used this feature on my Facebook business pages and I point these pages directly back to my online time-booking system webpage that I have built into my business website - I love this feature. If you are looking to get consulting or "Freelancing" jobs, here is a great way to increase your exposure and have people find you and book your time.

Post videos to Facebook directly. Facebook likes sharing videos. Again, as you publish these to Facebook, be sure to craft your video titles so they contain good useable keyword phrases and don't neglect the use of hash tags in your video description areas.

Take some time to explore the business pages of others in similar niches as yours and when you find popular ones, go under the "More" tab displayed just below or on their business page background image and then select the "Like as Your Page" button to link them back to your business page. Here's what this does for you:

First, you can't comment on another business page as your page unless you like it as your page first. When you do then comment on another page as your page, the post you create builds visibility for your business page so you can get more traffic to your own business. Lastly, you can start to see in your news feeds content published to that other page - helps you keep track of the goings on there and who is posting content to that page - and you never know, some of that content could useful to you.

In summary, keep at it - you can drive a lot of organic Facebook views to your website just by taking the time to explore and work Facebook with your posts, shares, group involvements, the use of hash tags in your posts, liking other business pages, commenting on other pages, opening your Facebook "Shop", etc.

The increased business exposure you receive from this extra effort, will earn you dividends.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9612435

Looking To Start A Home Business

There are two ways to start your online business. The first way is product oriented architecture and the other is service oriented architecture. I will discuss and also provide you to settle your business online with my experience.

Before diving into an online business first thing is to clearly identify what is the nature of your business is it a service oriented architecture, for example, you are selling web development service or your consumer or you will write some content for your client or be promoting it online these are service oriented architecture. The other way is product oriented in which you are going to offer your product to your customers, for example, you are selling some mobile phones or selling some robots for kids.

First, we talk about the service oriented before doing that you need to do some marketing research for example what is the niche of your online business. what services you are selling to your customer who is your competitor and how you are going to sell yourself among that selling yourself means selling your skills, for example who are going to offer web designing service to your client in how much rate you are going to offer your service and how you keep maintaining your relationship with the client after you deliver the service. The most important thing is whether you sell service or a product you are going to compete throughout the world with is working in the same niche as you.

Second, architecture is product oriented. The same thing goes for product oriented architecture that is the niche of the product also what is the nature of your product oriented business, for example, it is business to business, business to consumer or business to the seller.

In both businesses, you have to compete throughout the world. Moreover also how you sell yourself or product. Social media is one of the most vital things for selling your business. Go out and broadcast what you have. Be confident on your self. Make a video of what you are selling post it one YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Generate a lot of traffic to your website and blog. The more you get traffic the more business you will generate. The second most important thing how you the optimization of your website to generate the traffic. To a lot of both on page and off page optimization for your website to generate traffic.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/9743475

Everywhere a Click Click - Can a Home Based Online Business Work For Me?

Personally this was a question I asked myself, day in and day out for over 6 months. At the end of those 6 months, I was none the richer or poorer. One thing was was sure. I had lost 6 months...

Procrastination is the thief of time; What many people do not realise, is that it is also the thief of opportunity. In the world we live in today, that can often define us and separate the success stories from the failures.

There is one thing I would like to say to you as a potential home entrepreneur is this   'Get Started!'

A click of the mouse will not get you rich or make you famous. What it will do for you is get you going. By finding the right opportunity and following it up you have now started in the right direction. You will have to follow this up with a series of clicks and more tapping away at the keyboard and getting your strategy right. You will have to refine your goals, learn new skills and discard old ones. You will have to learn to improvise and innovate. The list goes on.   

Every Entrepreneur goes through a learning curve. One of the most important if not the Most Important thing you will need to learn is Self Discipline. This could make or break your business. Running a business from home does have its pros and cons. You are now your own paymaster and you have to realise that unlike working for somebody else, you now have to answer to yourself. You cannot blame the situation you find yourself in or blame the conditions around you. It definitely won’t put money in your bank account.

You alone can empower yourself to be successful. So get started!

Kristov Xavier is the Founder and Director of the Xavier Life Group. His Internet Marketing Consultancy helps other home business entrepreneurs get started for themselves via his website [http://www.MarketingEntrepreneursWanted.com]. A Top Consultant with a Wealth Creation & Financial Services Company, you can follow him on his blog http://www.kristovrishixavier.wordpress.com.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Kristov_Xavier/601596

First Steps to Online Marketing

The first steps to work yourself through when you have decided to take the step towards online marketing there are a few things you need to think about.

-Why do I want to market online?

-What do I want to market online?

-What do I know about marketing online?

If the answer is "I don't know", today is your lucky day. I will share some of the steps that I have learnt about online marketing through endless testing and tweaking.

YOUR WHY

Why do you want to market online?

Is it to enhance your offline business?

Being able to make money without leaving your home?

or...

Online marketing is easier than marketing offline, because online marketing takes care of itself and makes you money on autopilot?

If it's the last answer you're in for a big surprise. There is no such thing as EASY or AUTOPILOT in online marketing. Well, sure it is but not in the way many think. Online marketing is simple but not easy. Which means, it takes a lot of work to set it up and you need to be constantly tweaking and testing to maximize your efficiency and profits. I hope I didn't scare you off now. Online marketing is lots of fun and you could make friends all over the world.

YOUR MARKET/NICHE

So where do one start when you figured out why?

A specific market. Your Niche. Simple as that.

So, what is a niche and where do I find my market?

Well, there are a lot of places to find that. First of all. You'll want to target a niche that is actually profitable. What you don't want is to market a niche where no one is ever buying anything or a niche that pays very low. You want a niche that is in trend so to speak. It is what everyone is talking about and what people are interested in learning, using and purchasing.

For example.

Learning online marketing is a big niche with loads of people who are looking for information about it everyday. To find a monetizable niche you will need to look at the trends.

Ever seen the basket ball through the water hose?

Anyway, the trends is what people are interested in and what people are buying.

What are people looking for?

What are their main concerns?

When it comes to online marketing these are the most important questions to find an answer to. So you'll need to do some research. Did I say some. I mean a lot. You could basically say that online MARKETing is all about MARKET research. If you know what you're market desires you know what to MARKET to them. If you want to stay ahead in the online marketing game. Keep a journal on your daily activities.

1 year from now, you will have loads and loads of information that you could use. By then your online marketing business will be a lot different and you will have a different view on this. By then you will probably have forgotten what is was like when you wanted to learn online marketing. Why not keep a journal on you questions and utilize it when you decide you need to teach a spouse, friend or a new team member about online marketing.

What was the questions you had back then?

Well, it's easy for you now. They are what you ask today. So keep them written down as research for a later project and take notes on your struggles, issues and short comings when learning online marketing. Now, this is just to get you started so you could use it in the future.

What about now? Now is when you have your problems. How do you solve them and get going with your online marketing business?

Here it is...

YOUR SKILLS

You have a set of certain skills, I'm sure.

Are these skills relevant to marketing and business?

If not, you might want to consider acquiring a set of those skills before throwing yourself into doing business. Whether online or offline. The first thing you should do is to assess your skill tree. A simple mind map could do the trick or just a list with what you know. Rank them on how experienced and good you are at a skill.

Circle the top 3 skills you are most proficient in. Are that very good? Great!

Are they at all profitable or monetizable. Meaning could they make you money (with a little fantasy and imagination) If not, pick the next skill. That's your main focus to begin with. Now, underline the 3 bottom skills that you're not very or, at all proficient in but still is in context with your top skills. Those are the skills that you should focus on learning. 1 should be online marketing.

Apply the same rule as with your top skills but with the little tweak, Are they useful and do they enhance your top 3?

NEXT STEP!

Now, you have some skills that you are good at and some that you are going to focus on learning. With time you will have 6 skills that you are very good at.

Go through this article again and apply the steps.

At this point, we're not sure you have all the information in this topic you need to understand it fully.

Now, we realize that this article can not fit a whole instruction to online marketing so I recorded a video series to get you started.

Click here for the first video

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert/Sven_Wolf/722942

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/7365632