I recently did a presentation on the book and this is the Prezi that I created about the book. Enjoy it!

Facebook is a great media to be used to generate more downlines if you are a serious MLM marketer. There is no way why you should not use Facebook when it is ranked as one of the highly visited sites around the world. It is also free to create an account.

There are a few advantages of using Facebook as a medium to generate traffic:

1. You can add targeted friends or prospects to your friend list. Now, they might approve or reject your add, as Facebook will send notification to everyone you have added as your friends. However, the chances are high that they are going to approve your add so in that way, you can grow your network easily and faster. However, when you want to add a friend, always add the targeted people rather than simply anyone. The target group is the likely people who will become your downlines.

2. There is a function in Facebook known as Facebook Group. You can create a group and invite all your friends to join the group. It is possible to have ‘MLM Group’ or ‘Online MLM’ Group so that everyone who is interested in MLM can join.

3. To make sure that they are constantly checking out for new stuff, you can create articles, blog posts or even your own home made videos to share with your friends or members of the group. This is to ensure that they are going to sign up to your own newsletter.

4. You can also send out the email broadcast to your MLM group members and provide them with good quality information so they will believe in you and trust you. Later, they will look at you as a leader. Soon, you will be able to introduce your MLM products to them as you have managed to establish a good reputation among them. You might realized that they will even ask to sign up without having you to explain more.

5. Funwall is another great tool to broadcast any content you want to share with your friends. It is best to do it every few days or even weekly.

6. When other people are having trouble, help them out. This will add more trust and reliability to you and people might recommend you to other friends. It is good to help others rather than asking for help from others.

To introduce your MLM business using Facebook is definitely a great way to generate more traffic to your site. You can keep in touch with your downlines and prospective downlines. You can also gain traffic from you personal Facebook profile page.

About the Author:

Author: Jaz Lai

Jaz Lai is a network marketing lead generation expert. Download your free video on how to use the internet to Double or Triple your organization within the next 30 days. Available for the next 24 hours only, click below for instant access : http://www.HowToNetworkMarketing.com

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – How to Use Facebook to Generate MLM Traffic

However, two sites in particular will let businesses be businesses and jump on the social media trend: – Facebook
- Twitter

Let me give you a quick overview of how to use both.

Facebook: Facebook doesn’t promote their profiles for business very much, but it’s absolutely available. You’ll find it at http://www.Facebook.com/business:

Facebook lets you create ads that will show up when people are browsing Facebook to connect with their friends. But you’ll have to pay for that, either when people click your ads or when the ads show up, up to the limit of your daily budget. The free option is to create a Facebook page for your business.

This is similar to what an individual does when he creates a Facebook page for himself, except you’re creating a page for your business. Then people can become a “fan” of your page and tell their friends about it. With over 53 million Facebook users out there, this can be some powerful word-of-mouth advertising. It’s easy to create a page for your business, and like I said, it’s free. Click the Create a Facebook Page button and you can walk through the very simple page creation wizard. Here are a couple things to keep in mind:
- You don’t have to cater to people under 25. The fastest growing Facebook demographic are users 25 and over. There are a variety of professionals, both young and not so young. It’s not just about kids discussing teen television dramas.
- The key is getting fans. This isn’t hard to do. Before you set up your business page, you’ll want to get yourself a personal account, if you haven’t already done so. When you set up your page, you’ll become its first fan…and your Facebook friends will see a message on their home page that you just became a fan of your business page. Many times, people will check it out & spread the world, and then you’re traffic will be multiplying! I would show you a video for this but unfortunately you actually have to create a real business page when you walk through the wizard, and I don’t want to create a junk page. Don’t worry though, it’s a very simple process to create a page, and the Facebook help is pretty good.

Twitter: Twitter admittedly sounds like a silly idea…you sign up for a free account, then other people start “following you” on Twitter, meaning they’ll be updated when you make a Twitter post. If you talk about what you’re doing in your business, your followers will get updates about your business! Joining Twitter is simpler than signing up for web based email. It’s simple and free.

Click the “Join” Button! button to sign up. Once you’re signed up, all you have to do is sign in and type short messages (140 characters or less) that you want your followers to see. Really, it’s that simple. So what’s this mean for your business? Simple. What this means is that everyone following up gets updated what you’re doing, whether you updated your blog, you’ve published an article or you’ve taken your business to the next level. You can include links to your site or blog in your Twitter posts, so people can head right there…and give you free traffic.

As with most social media marketing, the key is getting contacts. In the case of Twitter, that means getting people to follow you on Twitter. Here’s a quick way to do it:
- Put an invitation on your blog for people to follow you on Twitter so they can get a quick notification whenever your blog gets updated (that’s convenient for them)
- Make your online presence known in forums, Facebook or any other online outlet
- Offer helpful information on your blog and update your Twitter followers every time you post. That’s all there is to it.

Twitter is really a buzz-building tool. You don’t do much direct marketing there (with only 140 characters per message, it’s tough to say too much), but keeping people informed can keep your traffic flowing.

Visit Rachel’s blog to view more articles & posts on how to promote your current business or finding a home based business.

Article Source: ABC Article Directory | Submit Articles | Article Search Engine | Article Directory

Here’s how you can use Facebook to generate leads online and explode your MLM

1. Join Facebook… If you haven’t already done that.

2. Decide what “Niche” you want to work in.

For my Facebook Group “MLM On A Shoe String Budget – EASILY Get 50 To 100 FREE Leads Every Day”, I’ve obviously chosen the niche of “Online MLM”.

3. Now you need to generate a list of friends.

There are several ways to do this, but asking the Friends of “Online MLM Guru’s” to be your friend is a good way to get started with targeted, qualified prospects who are already working to build thier MLM.

Go to Google and search “MLM Guru” and then search for them on Facebook – you want someone with more than 500 friends.

Go to “Facebook Search” and search for MLM (or your niche, like “weight loss” for example) and find a guru that has a Facebook presence.

OR… Find a group in your niche with more than 200 members.

Invite the members of this group or the friends of the guru to be your friends too.

Just click on “View Friends” and then click “Add as Friend”.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

It’s very important to include a brief – maybe 2 or 3 line invitation message with your friend request and to vary this message every 5 to 10 requests. Otherwise the Facebook crawlers will cite you for inappropriate activity and send you a warning and eventually shut down your membership if you persist.

For the moment they are allowing this level of activity.

Don’t do more than 20 to 25 at a time and you probably shouldn’t do more than 50 a day if you want to be a responsible Facebook member.

If you do 50 a day and 10 become friends then you will get 300 friends a month.

4. Start a GROUP with a title , that contains search keywords like mine does, so other Facebook members can find you.

5. Open your Group and click “Invite People to Join”.

A list of your Friends will appear at the top right hand side – click on your friends and a list will be created. Remember to do no more than 25 at a time here too. Facebook monitors how much time you spend on a repetitive activity.

Create a nice brief little invitation message – remember to include your “Group URL” and send off the mesage to 50 friends a day as we discussed earlier.

Once you have members in your group you can click the link “Message all Members” and send out your sales and educational messages.

6. Post to your “What are you doing now” message at least 3 times a day and comment on others pics and videos.

Duplicate your efforts by turning your group messages into articles and publish them on Ezine Articles – that’s what I just did here.

How do you do that?

Pretty simple. You join Ezine Articles and some of the other article directories like Go Articles as an author, read the submission guidelines, clean your message up a bit and post it for publication.

The first couple take a while as you learn the ropes and after that it’s easy.

About the Author:

Author: Jim Keayes

If you would like to know step-by-step How To Explode Your MLM Business Online then visit: “The Jim Keayes MLM Lead System”

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – How To Use Facebook To Explode Your MLM Business Online!

So be careful when using Facebook and do your online marketing activities under the radar, or you might miss out on a powerful tool to boost your business.

In this article, I’ll give you some vital pointers to maximize the power of Facebook.

1) Just like any other social site, be careful what you put in your profile.

You don’t want to be seen as a link spammer. And you don’t want to give away too much personal information either (unless you don’t care that thousands of people may see your profile).

Just be careful with any personal details you put out there for others to see, such as where you live and pictures of your children. You do not want to pick up a stalker, especially when you are networking with strangers.

2) Don’t make the mistake of using your business name as your profile name, as this is against Facebook’s terms of service.

You are allowed to create other Facebook pages to brand your company, products or websites.

3) Respond to any friend requests and carefully send your own invitations. Make them personal and interesting.

Developing a great network is your long-term goal to generate a slow, but steady traffic stream to your websites. Use this tool to your advantage without being pushy or overbearing. Facebooks members hate spamming (who doesn’t?) and will carefully watch out for anything that violates their Terms of Service (TOS).

If you want to see profiles of those from another network, add them as your friends using the “Add to Friends” button. Follow the steps in the Edit tool to fill out any information you want others in your network, or others you accept as friends, to view.

4) Use various applications of Facebook.

Facebook has many applications which would make your networking experience easier or more enjoyable. Examples are applications for adding footage or photograph albums to your profile for others to see.

I’ll discuss two other powerful Facebook applications in a moment.

5) Use Facebook’s “My Questions” application to find out what people are exactly looking for concerning your niche

This is where posters answer certain questions about themselves and what they are looking for on Facebook. They will also list their interests. Use this in your networking activities.

Unless they have expressed an interest in your field, do not invite them to join your friends list. Of course, you can still ask them if you genuinely want to be their friend.

But if you are there to network for your website business, then choose your friends wisely. This is how you are building your list and getting traffic to your website. So you have to manage your time well and eliminate non-productive activities.

Again, be very careful about Facebook’s TOS. Do not go against it because breaking the rules will get you banned.

6) Use “Facebook Discuss.”

It is Facebook’s answer to instant messaging. Chatting, or IM’ing, on Facebook is truly quite easy when you use Facebook Discuss .

Just go to your Facebook page and you can start using Facebook Discuss immediately. At the base of each Facebook page, you may see your Facebook Discuss tools.

The first of the 3 Facebook Discuss tools is the online friends tool. This simply tells you which of your Facebook buddies is online at this time. The next Facebook Discuss tool is notifications that may let you know if you have any new Facebook notifications right from the tool. The 3rd tool in Facebook Discuss is the real discuss tool.

7) Create and join Facebook groups.

Just as they have subscribed to your blog, they’re going to join your Facebook group. So people looking on Facebook for related groups would feel welcome to join.

Facebook groups are viral selling mechanisms. Search Facebook for groups on your topic and related ones. In each of these groups, you can post a message on the group Wall or debate board, or you may use the Post a Link feature to inform the group’s members of your group and your blog.

By promoting your Facebook group at first, rather than promoting your blog, you decrease the chance the group director will remove your message. Any Facebook member can make a group and invite users on their pals list to join.

A form prompts you to give the group a name, passing outline and class. At the following stage, you can customize your group’s available applications, upload a profile photograph and set privacy levels.

A secret group is fascinating for work-related activity, but it will not show up in search results. Choosing a closed group might be the best idea for you to protect your privacy. You will be inspired to choose members from your friends list to join the group.

When you start a group on Facebook, you can invite members to join the group and share their thoughts, viewpoints and consultations about your product, idea or start-up. Invitations to join a Facebook group can be through your Facebook buddies, your Yahoo contacts, etc.

Integrate your application into specific areas of the Facebook profile

A Facebook application can take on a lot of forms; but in order to entirely implement the selection of integration points and deliver a full user experience, it is advised that you integrate your application into specific areas of the Facebook profile.

This permits millions of viewers to see your business everywhere on Facebook and attract potential patrons, who would naturally visit your start-up Internet site.

Remember to follow all Facebooks rules; otherwise, you’ll risk getting banned and your account deleted. This is not what you are looking for. Instead you want to use the group feature to promote your website within Facebooks rules. Do not overstep by thinking you can get around the rules. Use Facebook features to your advantage and you will see an increase in your website traffic.

About the Author:

Author: Jeremy Gislason

Want to know proven ways to tremendously increase membership sales? Want to take membership marketing to a whole new level of overflowing profits? Build high-earning membership sites like a pro by going to http://www.membershipmillionaire.com

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – How To Use Facebook To Build Up Your Business

Facebook is increasingly being used by companies in many creative ways such as to build their brand image, to drive traffic to their website and blogs, to announce or get feedback on new products, manage their online reputation, attract employees, communicate company information, and as a means to intercept potential prospects. For many companies, this increased company communication is leading to enhanced relationships with current and prospective customers. In this article, I will outline how a planned internet marketing approach can lead to positive results for your business.

I will begin the article by addressing a few common misperceptions about Facebook that I hear most frequently from my clients. Next, I will detail how to use and set up the various sections of a Facebook account.  I will conclude with several recommended applications that will add functionality to your company Facebook page.

Common misperception #1: Facebook is only for personal use  Each time I give presentations on using social networking sites for business there is the perception in the audience that Facebook is only useful for communicating with friends and family. Facebook started as a closed community for college students, and has not been as effective as Linkedin at highlighting the business page and advertising features. However, Facebook continues to grow in use by companies looking to reach the more than 200 million active users, and has very powerful and targeted demographic tools that help companies to hone in on their target market.

Common misperception #2 : Facebook is only for college students  According to the Facebook Press Room page, there are more than 200 million active users on Facebook and a million new members are joining each week in the U.S. alone. Contrary to what many of my audiences believe- more than two-thirds of Facebook users are not in college. According to comscore.com, more than 50% of Facebook’s users in the U.S. are over 35; the single biggest age demographic in the U.S. on Facebook is now between 35 and 44, and Facebook’s fastest growing age group is 55 and older. They also reported that Facebook ranks as the top social networking site in the majority of European countries.

Common misperception #3 : I am too busy for this, and besides-it is not worth my time  Some of the reasons why social networking sites like Facebook are increasingly being used by companies is because they provide businesses the opportunity to easily and efficiently communicate regularly with the people in their network. Networks can include people with whom they are currently doing business, people whom they would like to do business, vendors, and potential business partners.  Social networking sites like Facebook are serving as an adjunct to, and in some cases, replacement for, traditional means of communication such as newsletters and direct mail.

Facebook can be used to regularly announce or get feedback on new products, spotlight new employees or existing employees accomplishments or talents, reward customer loyalty, promote special events and special offers, as well as to create partnerships. According to a Forrester Research interactive marketing online research survey (March 2009): “40% of companies surveyed expect to cut direct mail budgets, while 35% will decrease newspaper spend, and 28% will slash magazine money in order to spend more in interactive media.” Some companies have reported that by using these online means of communication they have reduced their marketing budget while at the same time increasing sales.

Why Social Networking works:

What companies that use social networking sites are finding is that these sites allow them to more regularly communicate with people, vendors, clients, colleagues, and prospects, which, in turn, helps business understand their customers needs better, increase trust, and therefore build better business relationships. Most people know that Facebook has been helpful as a tool for connecting or re-connecting with friends, family and co-workers. And most understand that even the personal connections have the potential to become new business opportunities-so it makes sense that Facebook can be used to communicate with those in the business milieu.

How to Set Up a Facebook Profile:

To make use of Facebook you need to set up an account.  After registering you need to do the following in order of importance:

1. Create a Profile

In order to begin to use Facebook you must create a profile detailing information about yourself. Based on site policies, you can create only 1 profile, and it must be tied to a human name, preferably your real name, not a business name. We will review setting up your business page later in this article, but first you must set up your personal profile. If you are a married female, use your maiden and married names so more people can find you. Facebook has a “Friend Finder” feature that allows users to search for people by school, company, or organization. In order for people to find you –you must so be sure to list all of your previous schools, organizations, employers, in your profile. Thoroughly complete the “About Me” section to describe your business and what services or products you offer. In the “Information” box on your profile page, you need to include links to your website address, newsletter, blog and other business information such as your company contact information, logo and a photo of yourself. Your profile page should be considered your “branding” page or your marketing campaign. If you are working for a company-you don’t have to list all your personal interests-just limit your entry to listing your professional interests. You can syndicate your blog on your profile page. By doing this you are enabling any post that you make to automatically appear on your profile page and all of those people who are connected to you will see it.

2. Build Your Contact List

Facebook was created based on the concept of connecting with friends. You can send and receive “friend requests” and once accepted, your friend can view your profile and you can view theirs. To begin connecting with people that you know, you can either import your address book/ contact database, or you can also search Facebook for individual people.  You can also view the friends list of each person with whom you are connected. If you know any of your new friend’s connections, or you would like to know them-you can send a connection request.  You can grow your friend list by inviting all your clients, business associates, customers, family, friends, co-workers, school alumni, neighbors, and anyone else you think would be interested in connecting. I would suggest also using the search feature on Facebook to look up people with whom you have lost contact. After friending-your profile will show up on all your friends’ pages.  Therefore, the more friends you have- the more pages your profile will appear-leading to more people who will see your page and possibly get in touch with you.

3. Communicate by using Wall Posts

Each Facebook member has a “wall” where friends can post messages. In the business networking world, this is the online equivalent of calling them on the phone. You can send a complement to a colleague on their work by writing this on their wall, comment on their new service or product offering, or communicate an upcoming training or networking opportunity.

4. Update Your Status

At the top of your Facebook page is a status box. When you post a status update, everyone in your friends list can see your update on their home page.  For business owners, this is the place to share tips, promote events, post blog updates, announce new products, links to your affiliate programs, links to interesting video or audio presentations, websites, articles, and newsletters.You can add updates as often as you are able in the ” What’s on you mind?” box. These will appear on all of your friends’ pages so ensure that they are meant for everyone on your friend list, and are professional in nature. Otherwise, you risk people removing you from their list.

5. Participate in Groups

Online groups allow you to network virtually with potential clients and peers.  You can also join Groups on Facebook that are related to your work. There are groups for therapist, teachers, coaches, and every conceivable profession. You can network, and learn from experts in the field.  Another way to maximize the potential and relevance of these groups is to start one of your own. There is no cost to do this and this is a great way to improve your company’s visibility.

For example, I started a group for mental health facility administrators in Boston. This group is now a resource for sharing best practices and may over time lead to mutual referral relationships.  To access groups, start from your Facebook home page, view the list of applications and click on “Groups.” You can browse through thousands of groups by area of interest, by industry and geography. There are an incredibly varied selection of topics and professions all over the map.

6. Build Your Friends List

For business purposes, it makes sense to have as many friends as possible. One way to do this is to join a group and send connection requests to fellow members with a note letting them know of your interest in connecting with them on Facebook. Just as you would with an in-person business introduction, be sure to check out their profile and learn about what they are currently doing.

Networking always works best when there is a two-way exchange. Find ways you can be helpful to them such as introducing them to a colleague or potential business partner and they may likely reciprocate and return the favor. Also, create your own events page, or post on the Facebook “Events page.” You can even see how many RSVP and get feedback from attendees.

7. Create Fan Pages

Because Facebook requires that a profile be designated to a person, not a business, they have instead provided the ability to create fan pages. You can create a fan page for a business, book, product, author, speaker, celebrity or just about anything else you want.  To create a fan page, scroll all the way down to the bottom of Facebook and click on “Advertising” (don’t worry, this is free to set-up).

Next, click on “Pages” at the top of the screen. You will find some helpful explanations about how pages work, along with the link that will allow you to create your own fan page. Once your page is created you can add links, events, discussion boards and other features that make them interactive. Your updates from your fan pages will appear on your profile so your friends will know about them. You can invite people to become a “fan” of your page as an alternative to sending friend requests which will help you to further cultivate an online community

8. Use the Marketplace

Facebook has an online marketplace that allows you to list your services and products at no cost. This is a great way for you or your company to get exposure. You can also use the marketplace to find items or services that you need.

How To Set Up a Business Page on Facebook

Setting up a business page is easy. Just log in to your profile page and scroll down to the bottom of the screen. Then click on “Advertising” or by following this link:  http://www.facebook.com/business/ . That will bring up a page with the blue links one of which is called “Pages.” Click on Pages, and then click on the green “Create a Page” box on the right of the screen.You can now start filling this information in to create and customize your business page.

After you create your business page, Facebook will automatically add an application called the “Page Manager” which should be located on the top and left side of your log. Again choose Facebook Pages, then choose the best category for your business. Click this link to load your business page where you can then edit and add to the existing content.  It is important that you choose the name of your Facebook page carefully because the page name will become your key word search terms, and is the only text that is used in a search on a Facebook page.

Once your page is in place, you can add applications that help to enhance how you represent your company in your own unique way. To find applications for Facebook, click on “Applications” in the upper left corner of your page, or search for them at this link:  http://www.facebook.com/apps/ . Applications are fairly easy to install and to set up. If you have difficulty with any one application-please note that there is often more than one application available to accomplish the same task.

Facebook Applications for Business:

Simply RSS : This allows you to display up to eight RSS feeds on your Facebook page and display the feeds from your business’s main site and newsrooms.

Upcoming: Add all of your events to upcoming.org, and you can easily display them on your Facebook page with Upcoming’s Facebook application.

My Flickr : Display photos from your Flickr account using this application. These photos can include logos, product photos, photos from events, etc.

Posted Items Pro:  Allows you to embed multiple YouTube, Yahoo, and Google Videos, music mp3s, sites, files, and more onto your profile and Facebook pages. You can add any variety of these elements, making it great for a media center or press section.

Twitter APP: If you have a Twitter account this application will automatically pull your tweets into your Facebook status, and it automatically installs a Twitter-themed icon letting all you friends on Facebook know that you are on Twitter. It also saves you time in updating and ensures that you have some profile activity to keep you relevant. If you are not on Twitter yet-you can add this at any time.

By implementing these applications you will be creating an interactive page that gives visitors a more complete understanding of your business.

Make the Time to Stay Relevant

In order to stay relevant on Facebook, you need to continually update your Page and use the site. If you do not have the time needed to do this consistently- then I would suggest you hire a copywriter or social media consultant to help. The more actions you take, the more you appear in a fan’s News Feed. This keeps you in their mind, and in their friend’s feeds when they interact with you. But updating content will do more than keep you on the News Feed; it will also help make your Facebook Page one that people will return to by offering fans an incentive to continue to read your content and return to your page. There are many ways to do this such as providing exclusive content, special promotional pricing, exclusive contests, product previews, or privileged access to company events.

I hope this information has been helpful to you in getting started in using Facebook. Make no mistake about it-social networking is not a passing fad. Facebook, and other social media sites are here to stay. So regardless of whether you make use of all the social networking sites- you cannot discount the recent research indicating that customers are increasingly going online to gather company and product information, compare prices, and place orders. As with any new technology social networking will take time and effort for businesses to fully benefit from it; however, it is my belief that this time and effort, if done consistently and in a planned, thoughtful manner, will be time well spent.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/

About the Author:  The author of this article, Wayne Kessler, is an Internet Marketing Strategist, speaker and behavioral change consultant focused on helping individuals and small businesses to increase online sales, strengthen their brand, and dramatically boost web site traffic through proven online marketing concepts.  Visit him on the web at  www.waynekessler.com

If you will be using Facebook to promote your online business, you need to understand that you absolutely have to have a clearly defined strategy in place.

Using social networking websites to promote your online business puts the reputation of your business on the line. You want other social networking sites to have a good image of your business and the only way to do this is to use these websites in the correct way.

Spamming the websites with your advertisements is definitely  NOT  the right way to go about this. People who are spammers and also come across to users as insincere are quickly exposed on these websites.

Many times people seem to forget that the primary purpose of social networking sites is to be social and not to directly sell!  The members of these social networking communities respect new members that have something worthwhile to say and will add value to the community.

This doesn’t mean that you can not promote your products on these websites. Yes, they can become a good source of sales revenue. However the only way that you will get to this point is to first focus on building relationships.

The   Facebook Strategies Guide   will show you how to apply very specific strategies that will help you to create a winning Facebook Page or Facebook Group that can help you to take advantage of the viral effects of Facebook in order to grow your business.   This guide also explains why different types of businesses need to use somewhat different strategies on Facebook to become successful.

Aside from using Facebook to create new customers, you will also  learn how to use Facebook to develop relationships with the top leaders of your industry . This is probably the most important secret to using Facebook because it is nearly impossible to achieve exponential growth if you do not have the industry leaders as your colleagues.

By following this guide to the unwritten rules of Facebook you will avoid all of the mistakes that Facebook newbies make while trying to become popular on Facebook. Not only can using Facebook the wrong way put your business’s reputation on the line, it can also result in you getting banned from Facebook!

The   Facebook Strategies Guide   is a six book series that was developed by internet marketing experts to guide you through the difficulties of learning to use this site to your advantage. Stop wasting time trying to figure things out on your own by guessing and get ahead of your competition by reading this guide.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/

About the Author:  Aaron Foreman is an experienced internet marketer and recommended the  Facebook Strategies Guide  as the most comprehensive guide to learning to build a successful social networking profile on Facebook.

Facebook exploded onto the scene in 2004 and presently has over 70 million people who actively use it. Of course, the majority will not be targeted buyers, but even a fraction of 70 million is a lot of people you could be advertising your property to.

If you’re a homeowner who wants to sell, Facebook makes things easy for putting a house on your personal profile, with its handy-dandy Advertiser’s link at the bottom of the page. Scroll down past your friends’ complaints of how bored they are at work and your 1543 application posts. It will be at the very bottom. The VERY bottom. Click on “Advertisers” and away you go. It comes at a price, but you can choose the method they charge you by, either by clicks or by impressions. You can target people who visit your page or who are looking specifically for real estate – the ad will appear in the left-hand ad space on their Facebook page.

Some realtors have created separate profiles for their personal and realty presence on the Web. It’s free, after all, and enables one to keep their social networking with friends and family separate from their business contacts.

Another way is to add the Neighborhoods application. This application is appealing to people who are interested in real estate transactions and the ordinary Facebook user, as it allows them to pick neighborhoods in their city, post messages and pictures and meet other people who live in the same area. Currently, only homes listed by Point2 NLS are searchable through this database. This doesn’t mean that it is useless to people who are not affiliated with Point2. Someone or a business representative who adds quality content to a site may be of interest to people looking for real estate using this application.

An application garnering some media attention is Cribfinder. According to the home page on Facebook, your properties will show up on your profile when you add the application. Also, whenever you make any changes, comment on photos, etc. it will show up on your newsfeed, one part of Facebook that most of your contacts check to see what everybody on their friends list is doing. You can keep track of your properties and add as many as you want. Since this application is receiving some interest in the real estate community, it’s worth checking out.

Other ways to subtly promote your property or properties is to join or create a Facebook group for the location you’re selling in or for your target people. Link to it in your email and forum signatures. Post quality information on your chosen group’s wall or Discussion Board. If your group is interesting to people beyond those hunting for real estate, it will grow and so will your contacts.

Events are another method of getting the word out there about the property you’re selling. If you have an open house, create an Event for it. Right now, under “Real Estate”, there are events for every thing from open houses to seminars for realtors. Events get posted on your contacts’ Event page. Consider having an open house or real estate-related event that appeals to those not necessarily home hunting, so you can have an excuse for inviting your entire Facebook contact list.

Facebook is currently the most popular site for uploading and displaying pictures. Make its easy interface work for you by uploading pictures of the homes you’re selling into properly titled and labeled photo albums. When you add pictures, it will appear in your News Feed, along with the title of your album, so make sure that you make the first few words of the title count. Photo albums on Facebook can be linked to outside of the site and accessed by people who do not have an account.

This is just a few of the features of this huge social networking site. From the usage and the comments, using Facebook to buy and sell real estate is just taking off – and you may just want to be on this flight. At the very least, it’s something to do in between attacking your friends with your Zombie application.

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/

About the Author: Visit TedSoldIt.com for   information on local neighborhoods like   Juno Beach real estate , and to see listings   of homes for sale.

Call me officially wrong! About a month ago, I joined the Facebook community (that’s me joining the over 150 million other people worldwide – seriously!) I thought it could serve some good business purposes and that I would “dink around” with it.

Wow, was I surprised. 6 hours later, I had already connected with 48 friends. (I didn’t think that many people liked me!!!) Two days later, a high school friend of mine sent me an email through Facebook asking me about my consulting business. We met a few days later and identified several projects I could do for her. Probably the easiest client I have ever found! (Not to mention I connected – and get to work – with an old friend!)

So should you be on Facebook? If you target people under age 30, I think the answer is easy (its yes!). If you target people 30 – 40, you will start seeing more and more people in this age group on this site, and the 50 year olds are not far behind. (People are talking about Facebook!) If you are a local business, it is a great chance to stand out in the vastness of the web. I think the fit for retail is huge. And if you market to a group where there is a likelihood that they will get together in discussion forums, then you will find a place here.

Sure, there may be a few types of business that don’t fit, but for most, the answer is probably, “yes.” The cost is right (free) – so you will just be investing your time. (Warning, it can be addictive. My 8th grade girlfriend – yes, you really will connect with people you have not seen in 30 years – told me her husband calls it FaceCrack!)

OK, so you are curious. Here are 10 very simple steps to get started:

1. Set up a personal account – just go to www.facebook.com and enter your name and email. It will quiz you about your background data. The more you give, the more it will help you find friends and speed start your networking.

2. Connect with personal friends and family to learn the lay of the land. Get accustomed to sending a “friend request” and replying to friend requests. Write a few “wall” posts, and do a few status updates, and comment on others. Build a group of people you are genuinely interested in connecting with. I would suggest starting with friends, then you can move into business contacts.

3. Get active with it – there is a flow to Facebook. It has its own tone (a little more sarcastic and fun than traditional communications) and lingo. It is not complex to get the hang of it, but it worth giving yourself a little time to explore and understand the overall vibe.

4. Join a few groups – search for groups related to your business and sign up for some. See how groups and related discussion boards work. If your prospective clients will be on a group discussing, then join. Focus first on having real conversations and creating value, not just on selling. (That’s true overall!) Within the first week, I made friend in Singapore (of all places) from a group discussion, which could lead to some interesting things down the road.

5. View some of the business / brand pages. Do you like the rock group Coldplay? Are you a diet coke addict? Do you have a favorite local business who has a business FB page? (Or become a “fan” of The FAMEE Foundation.) Just go to that page and become a fan. It’s fun!

6. Set up a business page for yourself – so once you get comfortable with viewing a few other business pages, set up one for yourself. A note here, I found it VERY weird how to set these up. Go to a business page (like Coke, ColdPlay, of FAMEE), and at the bottom, there is a “set up your own brand” page. It is kind of buried, but set one up. And don’t stress if you don’t have 4,000 fans overnight, let it build.

7. Start a group related to your business – Think this one through and set up a group to discuss things related to your business. Look for ways you can create value.

8. Promote it – start to let your customers know that you have a Facebook page. Put it on your website. Put it on your business card. Weave it into articles and blogs (ie: this article!!!)

9. Seek out people who would make great customers or partners – then send them a friend request.

10. Then work it. Like any marketing tool, it does not grow itself. Put a little energy into this over the course of time. Likely you will find it fun. Log on and spend a few minutes each day.

Social marketing is a key trend. Facebook is one of many tools, but certainly has a lot of momentum right now and represents a significant opportunity for those companies who see a good fit and are willing to put a little energy into the process. Lots of people find it easier and more comfortable to network online than they do in person.

Probably the best advice is have fun. If you can enjoy how you market your business, then you will do it a lot more and you will get a lot better at it. See you online!

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com

About the Author:  Curt Clinkinbeard, is the Executive Director of The FAMEE Foundation, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to helping entrepreneurs.  More information can be found at   http://www.famee.org

Facebook doesn’t have to be a time hog. As a matter of fact, you can actually handle most of your Facebook tasks in as little as 15 minutes per day. Here’s what I do when I log into my account each morning (thanks for wonderful training I’ve received from Facebook guru Mari Smith for these great tips):

1. Update your status. This is the first section that you’ll see on your homepage when you log into Facebook. While you can do this from your Facebook account, I prefer to update my status in Ping.fm, as this service will update my status in all of my social networking sites, including Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and MySpace. However, if you’re using only Facebook for social networking, then go ahead and use the status update there.

2. Review your news feeds. This is the first tab on the right on your home page. In this review, you’re seeking stories on which you can share your expertise and on which you can comment. Some of your comments may be personal in nature, but this is a great opportunity to showcase your experience in your field and industry.

3. Review news feeds of your friends. This feature is available from the home page as the down arrow on the far right of the home page tabs and permits you to view the feeds of your Friends Lists. Friend Lists allow you to create private groupings of friends based on your personal preferences. I’ve got my lists created by industry, i.e. Coaches, Virtual Assistants, Marketing Professionals, People to Watch, etc. Pick one list and comment on those feeds just as you would your own.

If you have no Friends Lists, here’s how to create them: , Click Friends at the top of any Facebook page. From the following page, click “Make a new list” on the left. After typing in the title of your list, you can add friends to your list by typing your friend’s name into the “Add to List” field. You can also click “Select Multiple Friends” to the right of the field, which will allow you to select many friends from your entire list. After making your selections, click “Save List” to store your changes.

4. Review status updates. Take a quick moment to breeze through the status updates of your friends, and click on those on which you feel compelled to comment. Many people feed their blog posts into their status updates, so this is a great way to get out and comment on the blogs of others without having to search out relevant blog posts. In this case, I comment on the blog itself rather than the Facebook status update. I usually only go through one page of these to ensure I remain within my time constraints.

5. Acknowledge birthdays. These are listed under Events and Birthdays on the right side of your homepage. When you click on the birthday person’s name, you’ll be sent to their wall, where you can write your personalized birthday greeting (make more effort that just simply saying “Happy Birthday!”). I also take this opportunity to find out a bit more about the friends on my list by clicking the “Info” tab on their home page and quickly scanning their profile. This helps me start to put names and faces together and get better acquainted with my network of friends, And, I take this opportunity to add people to Friends List as appropriate.

6. Review friend requests. Add friends as you see fit, or according to any guidelines you have set for yourself. Facebook guru Mari Smith suggests setting up a “Friending Request Policy” in which you write down the conditions under which you’ll accept friends (i.e. picture must be on profile, have to have other friends in common, have to have submitted a personal note with the friend request, etc.) and to help you in your decision-making.

7. Respond to event invitations. Your friends will be sending a myriad of invites to various events (most of my invites are to teleclasses), so take a few moments to scroll through those and see if any are of interest to you, or if you have further questions about them.

8. Respond to group invitations. Most of these I ignore, but occasionally I’ll join a private group, usually related to a program in which I’m enrolled. Or, if it’s a group run by someone with whom I want to connect or from whom I want to learn, I’ll accept the invite to the group. If I have time, I’ll also visit one of the groups to see what’s going on and respond to any messages here.

9. Add friends. Facebook does an amazing job of suggesting people I actually know to add to my friends list in their “People You May Know” section on my home page. If I happen to see such a suggestion, I send out a request to add that person as a friend. When requesting to add a friend, I ALWAYS send a personalize request, letting them know how I know about them.

10. Review notifications. The notifications icon is on the lower right side of your home page and lists what’s going on in your account (friend requests accepted, notes on your wall, etc.). This is a good prompt for you to write on someone’s wall when they accept your friend request or to respond to posts on your own wall.

11. Eyeball your own profile. Make sure your profile appears as it should, and take the opportunity to catch up on anything you may have missed with your other steps.

12. Check your inbox. Many of the emails in your inbox are duplications of event and group invites or group emails. When I look at this, I’m seeking out any personal 1:1 emails that I might have received from someone on my list. I’ve discovered that many people I want to contact respond better to their Facebook emails that through emails sent to them (or an assistant) via their website, so I often email them through Facebook, instead.

If you devote 15 minutes per day, or at least 15 minutes 3 times a week, to updating Facebook, you’ll begin to see results from your social networking before you know it!

Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/

About the Author:

Online Business Manager and Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps independent service professionals learn how to automate their businesses, leverage their expertise on the Internet, and get more clients online. Visit her site at  http://www.OnlineBizU.com .