Why Build Your Shop On Facebook?

1. Your Audience Is On Facebook.

Ultimately when users are interested to make a purchase they follow a few steps. They click on something they want to purchase and they have to:

a. Navigate out of the page, open multiple tabs or windows and move out of their comfort zone or
b. Get everything right there, in Facebook. One click to purchase done and back to their walls doing what they like!

A facebook user would certainly prefer the later.

2. Your Audience Loves Facebook

Like one facebook fan said to the other, “Facebook is my world”. Yes. Facebook is growing to become a whole new world and people on it, love it. They make money in the real world, and love to splurge in the virtual world.

Statistics show that facebook store sales are growing exponentially and more than 10% as of today. Many sites report that more than 20% of their sales happen through facebook.

If we look at consumer behavior, then 40% of them prefer use social sites while they want to shop online while almost 70% of them are frequent visitors to facebook pages for information on sales and brands.

3. Your Audience Can Easily Promote Your Products To More Friends

Looking at some more statistics, it has been noted that more than 45% people recommend what they buy – in a very organic manner- to their friends. Now, with an average user having 130 friends, you can imagine the reach that is possible.
.
When things get viral, they have a greater reach than conventional methods of marketing.

How To Build A Shop On Facebook To Sell Your Products – Quick Tips

There are few essentials that you need when you put up shop to sell your products. And along with that, you need to make some smart choices. Here are the tips:

1. Application For Shopping – Pick A Simple One

You first need a shopping app. Make sure you pick a simple to use and simple to set-up app. This way you can get started real soon and avoids complications during purchase.

2. Ensure Security In Process – Stay In The Facebook Ecosystem

The whole idea of a facebook shop is to stay in the facebook zone. Don’t open in to other pages. Simply integrate. At the same time, ensure that people have a safe and secure experience. Have the secure gateways for transaction, follow norms and show your user that you have a verified account.

3. Display All Your Products Strategically – Top Bars

The featured products and all important Content should be right on top like all other online shops. Ensure that your audience doesn’t miss it.

4. Use Attractive Pictures – Promote Images Through Facebook, Twitter, Etc.

Since its social media, pictures are a great way to talk. They have a great sharing value and help promotions greatly. With sites like Pinterest, you can do this more exclusively now!

5. Import E-mails – Use Your Lists To Promote Your Facebook Shop

The e-mail contacts you have built are great and useful. This is a list of real people interested in your business and so, no matter where you “open shop”, it’s important to stay connected and spread the word!

Campaign #1: Bing Decodes Jay-Z

Towards the end of last year the independent marketing network, Drogba 5, was approached by Microsoft’s Bing to help drive traffic and interest from a younger audience. Drogba5 used the book launch of Jay-Z’s autobiography, Decoded to create one of the most innovative online marketing campaigns of the year.

What we can learn:

• Create a connection between content and the real world – Drogba5 did an incredible job in creating a direct connection between the textual content of Jay-Z’s book and the real locations mentioned in his autobiography. By creating a link to a tangible location or object, your audience will have an easier time in relating to the campaign and this in turn will create more buzz.
• Gamification works – People love games and a challenge. By engaging visitors with an online game running the entire period of the campaign, Drogba5 created a powerful mechanism which kept people coming back for more. Try using gamification within your campaign to challenge your audience. It is in our nature to compete and challenge ourselves so use this behavior to create additional buzz around your campaign.

What we can learn:

• Build unity among your participants – Volkswagen’s Twitter zoom game was played by all the participants at the same time to accomplish a unified goal, to zoom into the location of the tickets somewhere in the city. This dynamic brought everyone involved together and created an incentive for each player to bring new players to the game so that everyone would reach the goal. Try incorporating this concept in your next marketing campaign in order to build an every growing community of participants who are striving to reach a single goal.
• Give people what they want – A large part of the success of Volkswagen’s campaign was as a result of offering their audience a very valuable reward for playing their game. Make sure that there is an existing demand for the incentive you are offering to participants of your campaign. People have zero interest in taking part in something which may result in little benefit to them. Make sure the reward is forth competing over.

Conclusion

Even though these campaigns were run by large corporations, the lessons that we can learn are relevant to every marketer and should be considered before launching a million dollar campaign or a hundred dollar campaign. Let fellow readers know which campaigns inspired you and taught you valuable lessons by posting them in a comment section below.

What is Pinterest?

If you don’t know by now, Pinterest is a new social network that acts like a virtual pinboard by allowing users to share content such as photos, videos, and web pages. The process of adding content to a board is known as “pinning”, while the actual boards can be titled and organized in categories relevant to the user’s interests. This platform has been growing fast and picking up a lot of praise along the way. In fact, the site’s traffic increased by an amazing 40-fold over the course of six months, according to Experian Hitwise, while Time Magazine included Pinterest in its list of 50 Best Websites of 2011.

Granted, it has been surrounded by tons of hype over the last couple of months, but Pinterest definitely appears to have some real value. Check out some of the marketing opportunities that have been uncovered thus far:

Boost in Traffic

Whenever content is pinned to a board, Pinterest automatically stores the URL to the related page. This means that if someone posts one of your images or videos, their friends who want to know more about the content can do so by going directly to your site. In addition to the links pinned back to your site providing SEO value, the fact that Pinterest is an increasingly popular site with high ranking authority could also help promote visibility.

Inspiration and Networking

One aspect of marketing that often gets overlooked is the research that goes into developing a great strategy. When times get tough, Pinterest is an ideal place to turn to for inspiration. By using the built-in search engine, you can easily find specific content whether it is a blogger, publication, or trending topic. This site is also good for finding people you want to connect with and add to your network.

User Interaction

From a marketing perspective, perhaps the true beauty of Pinterest lies in the ability it provides for users to get involved and interact with your content. Of course you can pin your own content like many brands are already doing, but users can also share what they feel to be your best images, videos, or blog posts on their own personal board. This factor adds an all new component that gives your content the potential to go viral and really penetrate through the network.

Is Pinterest the next big thing in social networking? That is a tough moniker to live up to, but the site has certainly got off to a great start. It has both the marketing and user community very excited, and that is usually a good thing for everyone.

Clicktale is an Israeli company which specializes in webpage heatmaps and web analytics. After signing up and embedding their tracking code, Clicktale starts to track your visitor sessions and provide you with impressive information about your visitor sessions. The most impressive feature that Clicktale offers is recordings of your visitors sessions. Every action taken by the visitor (every mouse click and scroll is recorded!) on your website is recorded like a screen captor and can be viewed at any time. The major benefit of this to marketers is that these records can help paint a picture on why certain pages are top exit pages, or why conversion rates are below expectation.

Clicktale provides its users with an impressive range of web analytics from real-time monitoring and mouse tracking reports, to conversion funnels and link analytics.

Clicktale provides 3 standard price plans (Bronze, Silver and Gold) starting from $99/month to $990/month. Their free plan allows recordings of 400 page views per month.

Clicktale is a must for every online marketer to better understand visitor behavior and improve conversion rates. For regular updates on Clicktale’s product line and other news check out their blog.

Over the last few years social media has become a corner stone in online marketing. Hootsuite provides its users with an easy to use platform to control and handle their social media accounts. Users of Hootsuite can add their Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and many other social networks to a personalized dashboard to easily manage their social media web presence. Hootsuite’s Pro and Enterprise accounts allow for team collaboration, messaging between colllaborators and even Google Analytics integration. The most impressive aspect I found when using Hootsuite is its design and ease of use. I also liked the notifications built into the different feeds which made it easy to see updates and comments.

Social media will continue to be an integral part of online marketing which makes Hootsuite an online service every marketer should be using.

Twitter has become one of the most important weapons in the online marketing arsenal, but using Twitter effectively can be challenging. A recent study conducted by Kissmetrics.com, showed that tweeting in the afternoon resulted in the highest percentage of retweets compared to any other time of the day. The study also showed that tweeting between 1-4 times within an hour resulted in the highest click-through-rate. Buffer is an easy to use, free tool which allows users to send out tweets at a pre-defined time and frequency. Buffer helps prevent you from spamming your followers and results in your tweets receiving more attention.

Twitter continues to grow in size and importance online and as a result Buffer is a online service every marketer should be using.

Note: I have not received any financial benefits for promoting these companies.

However, have you ever noticed how the most successful companies on Facebook realize it is more than simple dialogue that keeps customers interacting and coming back? Customers want more than company updates; they want interaction, freebies, contests, and games that capture their attention.

Fostering strong connections with customers takes creativity and can be difficult, but has the ability of resulting in a vocal group of brand advocates.

As Facebook continues to grow, so does the ingenuity of branding campaigns that can reach these members.

Some of the most successful campaigns captivate users through:

Being Creative

Since Ford Motor Company’s widely successful use of social media to aid in the release of their 2010 Explorer, social media managers have had to consistently raise the bar to get fans involved.

For instance, take the Hotels.com Trip Your Face campaign, which allowed fans of their page to upload their own picture into one of three destinations and would produce a short video staring the fan.

Hotels.com used their creativity to not only gain fans, but to become viral by automatically posting the video to the customers wall, encouraging friends of that Facebook member to visit the page and produce their own video.

Offering Exclusivity

Would you join a community if they offered exclusive content that interested you? Content can include media, discounts, prizes, in-store coupons, and even sneak peeks at new and upcoming products.

For example, Beats Electronics, maker of Beats by Dre headphones, provides exclusive and inspiring content in the form of YouTube videos that gives the stories of musicians who came from modest beginnings.

Similar in exclusivity, VA Mortgage Center (VAMC) offers the Military Education Program, which is a scholarship exclusively for fans of their page that have some connection to the military community. VAMC developed a tab for users to submit their application through the Facebook page only after they have liked the page.

Building Loyalty

We all know a “like” isn’t enough. Pages such as Nike, McDonalds, or Coca-Cola have millions of “likes”; however, do you think the majority of these customers actively engage with the page? Of course not.

Constantly ask yourself, what keeps your fans coming back? Or how can you maintain constant engagement? When you add value to your page, you give your fans a reason to come back and engagement becomes much simpler.

Domino’s Pizza UK launched a campaign last year to build brand advocates by using their “Superfans” application. The application rewarded Domino’s most engaged customers with special offers, promotional codes, and they even displayed their top fans on the application tab.

Another great campaign that offered value was Kohl’s Cares campaign. In this campaign, Kohl’s Department store gave away $10 million to various schools decided by fans voting on their fan page. The top 20 schools with the most votes were given $500 thousand each. Kohl’s fan base also jumped well over a million due to this campaign.

While forming creative campaigns that add value and offer exclusivity is great, keep it mind it is necessary to be relevant. If your campaign is blatantly off topic or out of your niche and only has the goal of building the most fans, there’s a good chance you’ll have low engagement and low fan value. Simply ask yourself, would I rather have ten thousand fans that are actively engaged in my page or a million fans that lack interaction or a strong connection.

Just pause for a moment to take in these classic headlines.

Man’s head explodes in barber’s chair.
Woman with 4 legs opens dance studio.
Skiing squirrel dies trying to break 196 M.P.H. speed record!
Cow crashes domino game.

Incredible, unbelievable, over-the-top headlines work. The proof is in the fact that you still see them week in and week out at the supermarket and newsstand. They get noticed. They grab the reader. And – although you may not understand why – they result in serious sales.

For a quick and highly unorthodox education in writing headlines that demand attention and get people to read them (which is JOB #1 of every headline), spend some time with these memorable and mesmerizing headlines.

Use them to inspire you to create tweets that refuse to be ignored. Observe how they are concise and specific. Notice how they generate a vivid image in your brain. Admire the deep thought that has gone into the selection of each and every word.

Inspiration comes from unexpected sources. Let these be a source of insight that powers you to a new level of mastery of the headline and the compelling tweet.

Pig-nosed man roasted alive in fire-walk tragedy!
Headless ghost haunts railroad tracks … looking for his booze and smokes!
Ghost airliner brings back dead rock starts
Rub the famous magic fish … and get anything you want!
Half of U.S. hookers are space aliens – and they don’t have sex organs!
Man makes $60,000 a year as human lawn jockey
Secretary lifts car off boss – and he fires her!
Supreme Court judges are naked under robes!
Chain-smoker kicks 30-year habit … then chokes to death on wad of nicotine gum!

So next time you get caught staring at the tabloids, just explain your reasons for doing so with pride and lose that guilty expression on your face.

1. Your Twitter Page Is Boring. You know who doesn’t customize their Twitter’s avatars, backgrounds, and bios? Spambots and grandparents who don’t understand the internet. If you haven’t spent the time adding pictures and links to your Twitter profile, you mine as well forgo tweeting until you do. You wouldn’t go to a business’ webpage and be okay with no logo, information, or links, so don’t neglect any branding opportunities (or in this case, necessities) on your social media pages.
2. Your Twitter Page Is Ridiculous. Did you go and customize your page after reading #1? Good, now check and make sure it isn’t a mess. Neon font, animated backgrounds, or ALL CAPITALS WITH LOTS OF COOL PUNCTUATION!!!1! are just as bad. Unless you are selling totally radical energy drinks on skateboards in space, avoid the dazzle.
3. Your Tweets Are Self-Indulgent. Look, we know you love your business and think it is uber-awesome, but no one wants your ego filling up their Twitter feed. While your Twitter does exist to promote your brand, it also serves as a way of engagement with customers, lead generation, and branding. Take the time to talk about the industry, respond to fan’s tweets, and ask questions rather than talking about your own company all the time.
4. You’re A Spammer. What?! You, a retched spammer?! It’s more likely than you think. Do you message your Twitter followers links and promotions? Do you tweet your website 80 times a day? Do you follow 11 thousand people and send them links? Stop it! No one likes that, and even if your product is awesome, no one appreciates it shoved down their throats.
5. You Don’t Actually Understand Twitter. Yes, Twitter can be confusing when you first begin using it, but if two months down the line you still don’t understand replies, links, and character limits, it’s a bit embarrassing. Moreover, if you can’t respond to questions or tweet correct links, followers are going to quickly become unhappy. Even if it means spending a few hours learning the ins-and-outs of Twitter, it’s worth it to avoid potential PR disasters, annoyed fans, and of course, looking like you don’t know what you’re doing.

You Don’t Understand Your Customer Base

Are you interacting with your customers? When you ask questions, do they respond? If the answer to this is no, then you had better dig deep and find a true understanding of your customer base. Realize that if you are targeting your products to a certain demographic, such as college age users, then you may want to hold off posts until noon and not be afraid to use some slang terms occasionally. Just as on the flip side, if you plan on marketing to a white-collar worker, then you may want to hold off posts till after five and be more professional in your speech.

You Don’t Use Your Imagination

Customers love being able to interact with the businesses they love, use your imagination and give customers a reason to visit your Facebook page. For instance, VA Mortgage Center.com uses Facebook to administer their scholarship program, asking applicants to “like” the page first, then to submit their scholarship form directly on the Facebook page.

You Don’t Include a “Call To Action”

Do you notice that your customer engagement is low? Ask a few relevant questions to spur engagement. Keep in mind that Facebook users comment more on topics that they feel strongly about. Another tactic is to guide customer’s actions through telling them to do something. For instance, you could tell your fans to click “like” if they had a great weekend. Simply saying “click like” is a sufficient call to action; however, using the “click like” tactic more than once a week can lead your customers losing interest.

You Don’t Keep Up With Traditional Marketing Efforts

Facebook ads aren’t the only way to get customers to like your page. Don’t give up on your traditional marketing efforts, whether that is an email campaign telling customers to check out the special on their Facebook page, or simply having a Facebook logo and URL on your business cards.

You Don’t Build Relationships With Your Followers

Get to know who your top fans are, these are the fans who have the most influence on your group. Once you have established this, be sure to provide them with rewards. A simple badge for their blog or giving them the first look at product can be a great PR tool, especially when your top members have blogs of their own.

You Don’t Think Hiring a Social Media Expert is Important

Keeping your visitors engaged is critical in the success of any social media campaign and if you don’t have the time or know-how to accomplish this, then hiring a social media expert is a must. As I’ve said in previous articles, a neglected Facebook page will only lead to negative PR and a hurt image.

Engagement isn’t the only reason to hire a specialist. Facebook’s ad system is great way to target your specific customers and if you plan to use them, a specialist should have the know-how to keep the cost per like to a minimum.

In short, if you take the time to produce a Facebook marketing plan, don’t skimp on the small things. Although it may seem costly at first, spending the appropriate time and money on your Facebook campaign can yield positive results and money well spent.

The best practices of Public Relations remain much the same: it’s all about networking and spreading the word about your products or services. However, there are new tools available that can get you ahead of your competition, provided you know how to use them.

There are three general guidelines to keep in mind, while engaging promotional efforts: all your actions should be consistent; all your tactics should be interconnected; the whole of your focus should be on giving value, rather than leeching away some attention.

You need to establish your authority within your niche, rather than come across as an aspiring brand craving for attention. This can be naturally achieved if you are only concerned with expressing your expertise, rather than claiming it. You need to walk the walk, and avoid talking the talk. Show that you know your industry, without ever pointing it out directly.

Getting Exposure Is All About Networking

There is much you can do to get the message out, without leaving your office. Courtesy of the Internet and the Social Media, you can succeed in having customers come to you without ever having to go out looking for them.

Let’s now outline some basic strategies you should include in your promotional efforts:

Press Releases

This is a classic way of getting press to a business, but it still works brilliantly. Provided, of course, you can write news-worthy content, otherwise you’ll be wasting your time.

Content Marketing

Do not create a website that’s essentially a brochure or advertisement. You need to write – or get written – actual content that your target customers will be looking for. You must be able to give them what they need (information, reliability), so you can sell them what they want (products, services).

Facebook Page

Do not underestimate the power of a Facebook page promoting your business. It’s a great opportunity to grow your network and keep in touch with your audience, and it can be easily integrated with your website.

Twitter Profile

Likewise to a Facebook page, having a presence on Twitter is a great way to raise awareness towards your brand. Look up the market leaders in your industry and interact with them. Show them you mean business and you’ll earn attention and respect, which will pave the way to your prosperity.

Your website should be the main hub connecting all your promotional activities. These days, having a proper website is just as important as having a proper business office… perhaps even more so. As such, you need to make sure your website has a professional look, and you should educate yourself in the processes of search engine optimization, social media promotion, and even on-line advertisement.

Do not assume these new tools are mere gimmicks, because when used right they can be extremely powerful. They can make all the difference between a struggling business and a fledging start-up. Master the tools available in the present and you’ll be well ahead of your old-fashioned competitors, in the foreseeable future.

The main problem small businesses and entrepreneurs encounter is not only knowing where to start when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), but also having a game plan to reach their goals. Following these tips can help boost rankings and establish a stronger online presence:

Set Your Goals

Write down your goals and be sure to ask yourself, why are you doing this? Why do you want people to find your site? Is simply a customer viewing your site enough or does your site need a stronger call to action? A similar goal could be “I want local pet owners to find my website and be persuaded to register themselves and their pet.”

Next, brainstorm and make a list of search queries that customers would most likely use when searching for your company. For instance, with the pet store example, search queries could range from “Pet Suppliers in Colorado” to the brands of pet supplies the store will carry. However, do not rely solely on yourself when establishing search phrases and keywords, use analytics tools like Google Adwords and survey a third party to see what keywords they would use.

Be sure that during the research phase you also create a list of your competition and take note of who they are linking to and who is linking to them. This list will be useful later when you search for links.

Build Links to Your Site

Link building is the process of building links to your site from other reputable sites. This can be difficult, but is also one of the best ways to boost your search rankings. When Google recognizes quality sites linking your site, this can automatically help turn your site into a higher quality site. Legitimate strategies for building links include:

• Simply asking for the link
• Giving away content or tools
• Developing a widget
• Social media campaigns
• Using public relations

Other important strategies to add to your link building would be to submit your site to industry specific directories and take advantage of your list of competitor’s links and go after those sites as well. Keep in mind that buying links is frowned upon by Google and if caught, Google will penalize you in the search rankings.

Content is King

After Google’s Panda update, content has become an important ranking factor; however, not just any content will do, Google expects original, relevant, and fresh high quality content. A company blog is a great way to keep new and fresh content flowing on your site. Remember to make sure the content is relevant, for example, the pet store from above should post pet related topics. A blog also provides the opportunity for you to show off your expertise in an area, which gives other sites more reason to naturally link to you.

If you are not that great of a writer, it is a good idea to hire a freelance writer to produce the articles you request. You can expect freelance writers to charge, on average, anywhere from $10 to $30 per article.

Is Social Media the Future?

Social media has recently become an indexed factor for search engines such as Google with the +1 button and Bing with Facebook likes. As SEO moves forward it is a good idea to establish accounts on the major social networks, such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Google + once business profiles are allowed. Be aware that social media SEO moves from keywords to conversations. The more interactions you have the better.

Social media not only helps your search strategy, but also doubles as a great way to connect with customers and build brand advocates. For social media to succeed, you will need to post frequently and respond to any comments placed on your sites. Customers like to be a integral part of your brand and this is a great way to connect with them.

SEO is constantly changing and can be a difficult task to master, but with patience, the right keywords, and keeping up with the latest trends, your business can land at the top of search results and stay there.

What is the toughest thing about SEO for your business?