Almost all of our customers have asked us to put a badge to their Facebook page on their website, and almost everyone wants one, but:
What’s the use? How should I use them? Does it really matter?
Social media marketing makes use of pages such as Facebook, twitter, MySpace, Hi5, TripAdvisor, among others in order to promote services or products, but also because they can influence slightly acquiring or maintaining good search engine positions, or even more important, to generate visits to their websites.
If you have already ventured into Web 2.0 (the web where people give their points of view, participate and create content pages, as described above) then here are some suggestions on how to use it properly.
Let’s start by answering the questions above:
What’s the use of social sites like facebook?
Social networks like Facebook, MySpace, Hi5 are websites developed for the sole purpose of connecting people and finding old friends, Facebook has long outdone the rest and began to explore the areas of trade by noting that many people were creating a profile for their business (violating the rules of Facebook that allowed only personal profiles) then opened the option to create pages which ARE for business objectives and provide useful tools for companies which have the profiles. The idea of a page on any social network is to use infrastructure to distribute their product information and thus “getting free advertisement. For example, with Facebook we can send a message to all our fans with a new offer. They can visit our website and view offers or see us online and chat about prices or services, all for free!
Other 2.0 sites like Twitter are called micro blogging and what is intended is simply to provide spaces where I can tell my network of friends what I’m doing in a few characters (as many as a text message from my phone). Why? Initially it may not seem very relevant, but I can say, for example, “Open season for whale watching and dolphin at only $ 50″ and this message is distributed widely among people, again, marketing our product. In the case of twitter, it has been observed that the links we put in these profiles are quite important and enough to help your website.
And in the case of TripAdvisor, a Web site mixing 2.0 and 1.0 where some of the content is set by the person and others by users, the advantage of having a listing there is that it will give broad exposure to our touristic product / service but also, as a double-edged sword, all customers can post positive or negative views of our service. If we offer something of quality, it will certainly help us a lot, and our product will sell well.
How should I use these sites?
In simple words: In any way that serves to “Sell” your product!
Some ideas:
It is important to have an updated page and for this:
1) It is recommended to have an active profile; update the status at least 2-3 times a week. An upgrade is when you as the owner of the page write something new or add something (photo), NOT when your friends write something on your “wall” (wall).
2) Have contact with users; if they comment on you status, answer it whenever possible.
3) The status updates should have priority over user comments. This is because we want to do social media marketing, and “sell” our product or display their virtues. We will not be selling directly, but passively. In social networks, you sell more by exposing than by offering.
Contents:
1) Use keywords for the pages’ information, forums, groups, etc.
2) PICTURES: a picture is worth more than a thousand words, so it is important to constantly be uploading photos to the profile.
3) VIDEOS: Every day, videos get more and more important for search results.
4) Links: Add links to sites related to the subject of the page, sites that are important to the field that is your business. E.g.: If GW had a profile on Facebook it would be valid to put a link in the wall area or links part to http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/
5) Unique Content: What in Facebook is good, perhaps on Twitter and LinkedIn is wrong or is spam, so it is not advisable to write the same thing on Facebook that you write on twitter, etc.
Fans or Followers:
These are the base of the success of your social page. Remember that your “advertising” is coming to your network of friends and fans only, so you want to have a huge network of fans, several million!
Is it really important to have a page on Facebook, twitter, etc?
I can assure one thing: It is fashionable. But like all fashion, it could be that pass on within a while, but it seems that web users are shifting to listen more to people, and therefore it is possible for it to stay quite a while.
It is important to recognize that if you are going to have a Facebook page, MySpace, Twitter, etc, spend time, update frequently and respond to comments, otherwise you better not have anything.
Should I have a link to my social page from my own website?
Yes, it is a good idea, although it is more important for your social page to have several links relevant to your website. Remember: You do not want to drive traffic to (e.g.) Facebook, you’d rather drive traffic from Facebook into your web, and especially to achieve sales, wherever!
For example, it’s great that you write on Twitter: “Whale watching season started at $ 50 per person”
Very nice and informative, but what now? If I want to see whales … What do I do? Where am I?
So it’s better like this: “Whale watching season started at $ 50 per person http://www.mysitio.com/reservacion.html”
Can Gallery Webs help me with my page in social pages?
Yes, of course!
GW can help you create your page (not the profile) in Facebook or any other social network, and then configure it. The content is owned by the customer and must be you who are upgrading as it is important to fill it with photos, content, etc.
In addition, you must create your list of friends by connecting their own emails to the social network which then pulls from the list of potential fans.
When done, we will gladly help you to establish a work plan and define strategies to capture the interest of fans, raising “campaigns and interest” for their products or services.
Tags: facebook, facebook page, MySpace, seo, Twitter, Web Marketing