Archive | Marketing Tips RSS feed for this section

A Networking Twist

25 May

By Cindy Meyer

Original Post at  The Sandbox Blog

Yesterday I heard a great speaker at the Central Exchange on the subject of Networking. I have to admit that I wasn’t looking     forward to another presentation on Networking. It’s about helping others, don’t talk, ask questions, be sincere, don’t sell, plan ahead… all that stuff. I thought I’d heard it all, but really hoped I’d hear something new. To my surprise and delight, Laura Wynn of Black Widow Enterprises, did not disappoint.

Laura has built a successful marketing business with a unique strategy. She plans events that help others network while supporting a common social cause. The events are hosted by local restaurants that then benefit through greater awareness, more traffic, and goodwill.

One of the keys to her success is the loyal following she has created through her social media sites. And how did she do this? Through good basic networking principles. It’s not about you, give first, connect others, attract and be a power connector, don’t sell, be fun, follow-through, etc.

Oh, there’s one more twist to this Networking tale. Later that same day, I was telling my hairstylist, Kalvin, about what I had learned from Laura’s talk and I casually mentioned that she also had great hair. Kalvin paused a moment before smiling to say, “You must be talking about Laura Wynn. She’s one of my clients.”

If you have a good Networking lesson or story to share, I’d love to hear it.

Make it happen!

Cindy Sanders Meyer

9 Ways to Enhance Your Facebook Fan Page

11 May

By Ching Ya via Social Media Examiner

Some great tips for creating a professional Facebook page that will keep your “fans” coming back!

Facebook fan pages number among the few social media channels that allow page customization for users. Instead of a mediocre interface, business owners and professionals can now apply HTML code to enhance their Facebook fan page presence to promote and build business branding.

Rich content creates a memorable interface that gets people talking, lets a special announcement or contest go viral, improves fans’ engagement and so much more.

To create an important hub to reach out to millions of fans, you need to up your game and optimize your fan page to meet its ultimate purpose.

Everything is possible, thanks to the powerful Facebook application known as Static FBML. Many people may be unaware of the advanced functionality FBML gives a fan page, such as creating and naming your tabs or boxes freely. For those who are curious just how powerful Static FBML can get, we’re going to inspect it all here:

#1: Welcome Page

The main purpose of a Welcome tab is to provide an overview of your page—what you can offer to your fans and why it should matter to them. Quit force-feeding new visitors a sales pitch; instead convince them with solid reasons to stay as loyal fans. You have one chance to impress them, so make sure your Welcome tab serves its purpose:  greet with enthusiasm, guide visitors to ‘become a fan’ or have a look at certain tabs.  Mini websites, Flash and webcasts are just some of the advanced methods you can use to create a lively, impactful Welcome page.


Create a strong call to action with eye-catching graphics and clear instructions.

#2: Social Profiles and Contact Information

Have you ever wondered why certain options are not visible in the Info tab? For example, there is no place to include your business hours and location, while other pages have it. You’ve probably selected the wrong type of fan page during the setup process. Because deleting and recreating a fan page with hundreds of existing fans is not really an option, Static FBML provides you a way to include your business contact details as often as you like.


Use extra information and social buttons to enhance visibility of a contact box.

#3: Testimonial Page

When it comes to service providers and professionals, nothing is more convincing than a testimonial page. You can have a static page with testimonials or have a designer create a catchy layout to attract fans’ attention. How you decide to showcase your testimonial page is only limited by its relevancy and your creativity. Static FBML allows you to do so much, even placing video testimonials and arranging client reviews in the order you prefer.


Create an attractive Testimonial tab with FBML that draws attention.

#4: Newsletter and Opt-In Form

An opt-in form can be easily placed on either your Welcome tab or as a box on the sidebar of the fan page wall. Regardless where you put it, make sure it’s visible at all times for your fans to sign up. It’s an added opportunity to build a strong readership and a potential client base with email marketing. Some of the famous services such as Aweber and MailChimp provide HTML code for users to place an opt-in form in any selected tab using static FBML.

To encourage sign-up, place an opt-in form on your Welcome page, as a box on your wall or as a tab.

#5: Secret Membership Area

This is a tricky one to entice visitors to become fans. Prepare several useful resources, backstage passes, anything you can think of that provides value to your fans. It can be a newsletter or any private content with hacks and tips, business guidelines or videos that are available solely to fans.


Convert visitors to fans by providing a secret resource area only accessible to fans.

#6: Contests and Special Events

For fan pages with regular monthly events or contests, a tab can be used as a promotional board for fans to check out the details and deadlines. A sharing button makes it all easy for fans to share the exciting news with their friends. Try it and see how your information can go viral before your eyes.


Build a special tab consisting of contest details and monthly events that can be shared easily.

#7: Article Links

Ever wonder what you can do for those old, yet timeless, posts on your blog?Why not give them some extra visibility by placing an ‘oldies but goodies’ box next to your fan box? Steal some attention with a slight bit of creativity and occasionally mention them in your announcements. You can rotate the frequency of post links or even post categories so fans have a wide range of selections, as shown on Social Media Examiner’s fan page.  Most of all, it’s much better than the usual Social RSS feed that only displays the most recent entries.


Include a category box of articles that allows visitors to navigate effortlessly to the main site.

#8: Job Board

People are turning to social media sites for job opportunities. It’s no surprise thateven Facebook’s own fan page has a We’re Hiring tab to recruit. There are 200 million active users who log on to Facebook daily. If your company has job opportunities, why not insert a job board on your fan page?


You just never know who might drop in one day.

#9: Analytics

Who would forget the popular Google Analytics post about the magic code we place in the FBML tabs to track page visits? Combining this fantastic method with static FBML, we can now decide which FBML tabs are staying which tabs should go.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR, Ching Ya

Ching Ya is the author of Social @ Blogging Tracker. She is a header designer and provides Facebook customization service for small business. Follow her on Twitter @wchingya

SHARE THIS! ~~> Add to DeliciousAdd to DiggAdd to FaceBookAdd to Google BookmarkAdd to MySpaceAdd to NewsvineAdd to RedditAdd to StumbleUponAdd to TechnoratiAdd to Twitter

How to Add Google Analytics to Your Facebook Fan Page

24 Mar

By Mariam John
Originally Published March 24, 2010 at Social Media Examiner
You’ve created a Facebook fan page and people are frequenting your page.  But do you really know how many people visit your page, what areas are popular and what parts of the world your visitors come from? Facebook Insights will show some demographic information on your page, but is limited to information about interactions with your fans.  The free Google Analytics tool offers more sophisticated and comprehensive data.  Adding Google Analytics to your fan page can be done easily but requires some special steps.
One of the limitations of Facebook fan pages is they can only run limited JavaScript. Google Analytics needs JavaScript code included on a page to correctly track visitors in the traditional way.  And running JavaScript won’t work on your fan page…
However, there is a new solution.  Using free and opensource FBGAT (Facebook Google Analytics Tracker), you can get Google Analytics working on your Facebook fan page. Now you can track visitor statistics, traffic sources, visitor countries, and keyword searches with all the other powerful reporting of Google Analytics. What follows are the instructions to set up Google Analytics tracker on your Facebook fan page. (Note: Your fan page must use an HTML application like static FBML for you to use this method.)
#1: Create a Google Analytics account
If you already have a Google Analytics account, create a new website profile to separately track visits to your Facebook fan page.
Where it says “Add a Profile…”, simply paste your fan page URL or use Facebook.com.
After the step above, Google will display your tracking code. The tracking code generally looks like this: UA-3123123-2.  Note: Google will tell you to activate the website.  You do not need to do this.
#2: Get your tracking images
The way to work around the Facebook JavaScript limitation is to generate custom images. FBGAT is a free tool that will generate your custom image code to track visits on each of your Facebook fan pages.
The above screenshot shows what the code generator looks like.
Here’s what to include in the fields shown above:
Analytics Code: This is the tracking code that you got in step #1. (It is very important that you enter this correctly.)
Domain on Analytics: The domain name you created in step #1 (use Facebook.com if you used it in step #1).
Page Link: This is to let you track the page on Google Analytics. What would you like to call your page so that you’ll recognize it in Analytics?
Page Title: This is for your reference.
After clicking the “Generate Code” button, you’ll get a code which you’ll need to copy in full. You’ll have to generate a separate code for each fan page you want to track and place it as shown in step #3 below.  Note: If you have multiple pages powered by FBML, you can do this for each page.
#3: Add the code to Facebook
Place the code generated as shown within your Facebook page using an app like Static FBML.  Programs like Static FBML allow you to add HTML to your pages.  By simplify editing your Static FMBL pages and inserting the code from step 2, Google Analytics will track all visits to those pages.
You can place the code anywhere as long as it does not disrupt functionality of your existing page. I prefer the top or the bottom of the page.
That’s all there is to it. The tracking has begun. Google Analytics will now need about 24 hours to show you a report of your visitors.
Tracking Visits to Your Fan Page Wall
The wall might be your main page. To track this, again you will need to create a page with static FBML. The only difference is that to show this on the wall, you are required to make it a box. Just click on the (add) on the Box, and it will be added to the wall. To change this setting, click on “Application Settings” under the FBML that you would like to create as a box. As with other pages, please note that you have to create a unique tracking code for this page as well.
What do you think? Will you be able to better justify your Facebook marketing with this added insight?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR, Mariam John
Mariam John is a developer at Webdigi, a web development company that specializes in custom web application development and developing Facebook apps.
← Older Entries