I recently attended the two day event, BizTechDay, which brought together hundreds of entrepreneurs, techies, social media networking gurus and the media. I was looking forward to learning more about how to use social media networking to really connect with other like-minded people and to promote our business. I learned a lot!
Facebook Fan Pages
I got a lot of extremely valuable information about Facebook Fan Pages from Hazel Grace Dircksen of SocialBees. Here are some of the suggestions given:
- Be sure you start your Fan page with the intention to consistently post daily
- To help you remember to post, set it as your home page in your browser
- Post a maximum of three (3) times a day
- Don’t “over-share” — i.e. overly personal comments
- Post about business needs and information
- Make all posts relevant to your brand/purpose/mission
- Make content very exciting – Don’t try to directly sell
- Offer your fans exclusive benefits and perks
- Simple contests are very good for engaging your fans, but avoid video contests — they’re too complicated
- Create custom tabs for ads
- Above all, have fun!
SocialBees services include building Fan pages for clients. They know all the Facebook apps that can be used on a Fan page, and how to make the page both visually attractive and effective. I’m going to have them do this! I have an Alive! Whole Life Fitness Studio Fan page, but it is not nearly as effective as it could be, and I wasn’t ever quite sure how to make it better.
I was very impressed with Hazel; she’s articulate, extremely knowledgeable and gracious; a winning combination.
Brand Building on Google Local Business
Before I attended #BTD, I had forgotten I previously used Google Local Business — now I intend to really use it . It has some great features, namely:
- Your business will get found on Google and Google Maps
- You’re able to control the information on your listing and keep it up to date
- You can add your logo, photos, videos, coupons
- Add a thorough business description; select all appropriate business categories
- Add freeform information like a complete description of your services
- A version of Google Analytics specific to Google Local Business is available from your business’ Dashboard
In subsequent posts, I’ll share what I learned about viral video and virtual work teams. My last post on #BTD will be about Michael Gerber’s presentations. They were the best and contained the most valuable information of the entire event. He got a standing ovation and he deserved it.
I hope you find value in these posts, and I encourage you to post comments and questions. I will answer each and every one.
© 2009, Taru Fisher. All rights reserved.
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi Taru,
Thank you for sharing your info. Keep up with your blogs. I do read them once in a while when I get a chance.
Priya
Priya: I’ll have more interesting information about social media networking, as well as some on NLP, in the future. Keeping up with the blog has been challenging because of lots of health challenges in my family the past two months. Since you obviously read my blog, I will make it a priority to write. Are there any subjects about which you are particularly interested?
Thanks, Taru, for sharing. I didn’t get to go, so it’s great to read about it here. Some good tips even for those who didn’t attend. You’ve inspired me to check out Google Local Business (though it may not be as useful for my business as it is for yours?)
Can’t wait to read your subsequent posts, and will hold my breath for the one on Michael Gerber!
Beth – I really appreciate you commenting on my blog! I realize i have tons of notes from lots of interesting events that I can share with my readers, so expect more content like this. I am so glad it’s useful for you.