LUNABEAN MEDIA BLOG

When we discuss Facebook with our clients, the most common question we are asked is, "Should my business be a profile, a fan page, or a group?".  The answer is, "fan page".

Hi Facebook Pages Admin, 

Facebook Ads for your Page will now get you even more Fans. 

You are now able to create ads that will allow users to become a Fan of your Page directly from the ad. Users can also click anywhere on your ad to access your Page, get more information and become further engaged.

Benefits of using Ads for Pages:

1.  Without leaving the page they are viewing, users can become a Fan directly from the ad 
2. When a user becomes a Fan of your Page from the ad, a story is published in the user's Wall.
3.  This story is eligible to show in Highlights- creating free distribution in the social graph 

In addition, users will see friends who have become a Fan of your Page in their version of the ad - increasing the relevancy of your ad.

Even if you don't understand how incredibly awesome these new features are (and they are), you should note that they are only available to those who have created fan pages for their business.  Those with business profiles or groups are left out to dry.   So, do yourself a favor and get your business a Facebook fan page.  All you have to do is go to Facebook.com - Create a Page, and follow the instructions. 

Don't think Facebook is that important?  Tell that to Apple, who is currently offering its "Spring into Summer" iTunes mix to all of its Facebook fans.  That's 10 songs, or $10 of product, free to each person who agrees to be updated by iTunes via their Facebook home page any time iTunes has some new information (exclusive offers, featured downloads, and helpful hints) to share. 

As someone who finds great enjoyment in seeing the power of Facebook in action, this promotion has been a blast for me track.  Here's what I've seen. 

Before crawling up to bed last night, I checked in on my Facebook home page, as I do every night.  Sitting there was a message to me from one of my favorite bands, the Decemberists (yes, the message was also sent to the band's 29,000 other fans, but I prefer to think they're talking directly to me).  The band informed me of this iTunes promotion, as one of their songs (the disturbingly awesome "The Rake's Song") is part of the mix. 

Immediately, I became a "fan" of iTunes, was provided with a coupon code, and downloaded my 10 songs.  Because it was such a great promotion, I updated my status to let my friends know they, too, could take part.  Minutes later, I saw two of my Facebook friends do the same  thing (download the album and update their statuses).  By the time I woke up this morning, a dozen of my friends had informed all of their friends, and the number of iTunes fans had grown from 900,000 to 1 million. 

In a matter of just a few hours, iTunes gained a direct line to over 100,000 people.  They know the importance of Facebook.  They know that millions of people are just like me, and check Facebook a few times a day.  What's more, they understand Facebook marketing is currently the most powerful form of marketing online.    So, yes, they'll give away $1,000,000 of product for 100,000 fans, and they'll do so happily.  After all, they've already earned back my $10...the Elizabeth and the Catapult track on the iTunes mix inspired me to purchase the entire album, and I leave happy. 

While looking for an application and/or video to show clients what their Flash websites look like on the iPhone, I stumbled upon this video, which, instead, reminded me what WordPress (free blogging software) sites can look like on the iPhone.  While Flash is a no, no, WordPress is a yes, yes!



WordPress for iPhone
WordPress - Blog Tool and Publishing Platform

A Facebook fan page, or simply, "Page," is a must if you have a business or website.  Facebook's pages are publicly viewable and therefore searchable, so it's a great way to both get your message out and get search engines to see something other than your own website.

Making a Facebook Page is quite easy.  Just follow these simple steps:

1. Log in to your Facebook account (if you don't have an account, sign up for one).
2. After you are logged in, look to the lower left of your screen and you'll see some icons.  Locate the "Applications" icon and then look to its right.  You'll see an "F" icon.  This is the icon for "Ads and Pages."  Click it.
3. This will launch the Ad Manager, but you needn't worry about that now.  Just look near the top of the page for the "Pages" link (it's next to the "Ad Manager" link).  Click on the "Pages" link.
4. Yay!  You've made it this far.  Look to the upper right of the page and you'll see a "Create Page" button.  You are so close.
5. Click the "Create Page" button and you'll be shown the first page in a sort of wizard to get your page all set up.  Just follow the steps to enter the relevant info about your business and then be sure to "Publish" your page (when you first create a page it is not publicly viewable...you'll see a reminder in the upper right of your page if you have yet to publish).
6. That's it.  You now have a fan page.
   

In case you are still on the fence in regard to using social media, and specifically Facebook, for your business, here is a great article (granted from August of '08) on why you should:

Top 10 Reasons to Use Facebook for Business

Here's a sampling.

1. Meet your peers.

   Facebook is not just for college kids anymore. Members are typically older and more mature than on other sites, and there are more affluent and more educated white collar users.
   

2. Find business contacts.

   With more than 100 million active users, and predicted to be 500 million by 2011, not only are your friends on Facebook, so are your prospects, your customers, your JV partners... and, of course, your competitors. You need to be on too. Related post: What's Your Friending Policy?
   

3. Instant gate opener.

   Facebook members are open to connecting. You can easily begin a dialog with highly successful--even famous--people who were previously otherwise unreachable.

More...

Here's is a live feed (now archived...but it was autoplaying, which was annoying, so it's gone now) from Comcast Cares Day (the one day they care...zinger!), more specifically, the Social Media tent in Seattle.  Here, a group of experts (most notably Chris Pirillo) have volunteered their time to help non-profits with their Social Media questions. 

Caresday.net

Here's a good article about how wine video blogger, Gary Vaynerchuk, built a multi-million dollar business around his video blogging.

There are some great tips here, like blog your passion and don't be afraid to be seen as different (that's kind of the point!).

Hat Tip

Here's an interesting video pointing out a new feature of Google searches, namely that if not signed in to a Google account, Google will look at your IP to shove in some local search results.

This is great for local businesses and points out the importance of making sure your site's code and content has a good number of references to the city that you are in.

Hat Tip