Marketing, whether you are employing wholly online or social marketing or a more traditional offline marketing approach can still be an expensive exercise.

Which is fine as long as you see a return on that investment.

Perhaps the greatest cost to any marketing campaign is the time that it takes for the small or medium sized business to implement it, particularly if that business is a sole trader and having to do it all themselves.

But what your customers? Your pre-qualified fans and brand champions? They are an amazingly valuable resource to you because they already love you! All you have to do is put them to work – get them to do your marketing for you!

And here are 5 easy ways to make that happen.

1. Facebook Profile Images.

There are more than 750 million people using Facebook – that’s a pretty big direct salesforce, just waiting to work for you. What if 100, 1000, even 10,000 of them changed the image on their Facebook Profile from the photo of them holding their own smartphone 2 feet away from themselves for the classic ‘self-portrait’ to an image that you have provided them? That image, of course, is something containing either directly or indirectly, your branding.

Better yet, how about get them to be creative and use your logo or product in an image that they take themselves – the most creative of which wins a prize.

Remember, you don’t need to promise these people a car or anything huge like that. They are already your fans, you just have to provide some recognition and an excuse for them to show something to their own network – most of which may not have been exposed to your brand yet.

2. FourSquare Check-Ins.

If you are a Twitter user, you know the kind of people who check-in to places on FourSquare (or Facebook Places) and tell the whole world about it every single time (OK, I’m sorta one of those people sometimes).

While some people might be annoyed by that – and there is a simple solution if they are – it’s also a fantastic opportunity for the market to do your marketing for you. The great majority of people who use both FourSquare and Twitter use them in conjunction: they check in to a place, and share that check-in with their network on Twitter, with or without some comment about why they are there, who they are there with or whatever.

You need to make the most of that. Imagine this check-in at your cafe, “The Eggs Benedict at this place is SOOO good and only $8! (@ABC Cafe) http://4sq.com/abcdef“. Whether you lead them along and ask them to comment a particular way or on a particular product, or you just leave it up to chance, either way this kind of marketing is invaluable because it’s FREE!

3. Twitter Hashtags

Still on Twitter, one of the simplest ways to harness the power of word of mouth marketing is to get Twitter users to spread around a particular hashtag that promotes a product, service or special offer you have running.

Hashtags are one word tags used in tweets that make it easy for other Twitter users to follow a particular conversation or topic.

So, if you want the world to know that ABC Cafe has the best Eggs Benedict in the world, you could encourage your fans to use the hashtag, #besteggsbenny, when talking about you on Twitter.

Better still, get them to use that hashtag when they check in on FourSquare too: ”The Eggs Benedict at this place is SOOO good and only $8! (@ABC Cafe) http://4sq.com/abcdef #besteggsbenny”.

4. An Engaging Facebook Page.

This one might seem really obvious but so many people are still getting it wrong.

If you make your Facebook Page engaging, attractive and interesting, people are going to want to interact with it. Simple huh? But every time someone interacts with your Facebook Page, they are also potentially telling their hundreds, or in some cases now, thousands of Facebook ‘friends’ about your business.

That’s the true viral potential of a platform like Facebook. Just put something out there – in this case a great Facebook Page – and let your brand fans chat to each other on it, all the while alerting others in their own network about your business or product and how great it is. So simple.

5. Guerilla Marketing.

We have used this technique with varying degrees of success. The potential problem with it is that people are over-exposed to your brand or not exposed to it in the best light or best way.

The premise is that you encourage a select few of your biggest fans to spread your marketing message in the community somehow.

One of our most successful examples of this was when stickers were made up pretty cheaply that included a very succinct marketing message in a sentence and then a QR code that sent people to an introductory video of a local surf and skate business.

These stickers were placed all over the place in the local area (on power poles, park benches and so on) and they lead to quite a good conversion to the video and a definitive increase in foot traffic over the month they were around.

The hardest part was having to go around to everywhere they were placed after the event and removing them again!

Have you had any success with any of the above suggestions? Which easy ways to get your customers to do your marketing for you have I missed?

Please let us know in the comments below. When you leave a comment on this site, it appears straight away – no signing up, no waiting for the comment to be moderated – it will appear below straight after you have posted it.

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I get asked a lot about by my clients and readers on my blogs about the settings behind Facebook Pages and how to have them set so that you are getting the most benefit from the page and not missing out on any of the great new features that Facebook has introduced.   And so, rather than writing a fairly dry blog post about it which wouldn’t really tell the story properly, I decided to do a video to explain it better.   Here is the video:

Was this post helpful? Have I missed any important features of the Facebook Page settings?

Please let us know in the comments below. When you leave a comment on this site, it appears straight away – no signing up, no waiting for the comment to be moderated – it will appear below straight after you have posted it.

I have spoken to a lot of real estate agents lately. The last few times I have spoken at events, real estate agents have come up to me and asked questions about how they can do a better job of marketing their properties – and themselves – using social media and online marketing.

I should tell you that I have never tried to sell my own home before, either online or offline.

However, I have worked with a few real estate agents and brokers now, and the following suggestions have all been successful to varying degrees in their businesses once we implemented them.

So here is what every real estate agent should be doing with social media:

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1. Ride The Facebook Wave.

With around 550 million users in the world – and around 10 million in Australia – to ignore Facebook when designing an online marketing strategy would be pretty silly.

But to engage in Facebook without a plan or to engage in Facebook without any other complimentary ideas would be just as silly.

The Facebook strategy for real estate should comprise of 4 applications: Facebook Pages, Facebook Groups, Facebook Ads and Facebook Places.

Facebook Page

This one is a no-brainer. They are free to set up, have great functionality and usability features, and more than 20 million people connect with one of them every day.

A Facebook Page can be set up for an agency, an agent, or even individual properties that agents are trying to sell.

It’s important that a Facebook Page includes the following features:

* exclusive content for fans and non-fans
* engaging content that encourages comments, likes and interactions
* uniform branding with your other online content and
* lots of great images and videos.

Facebook Groups

By that, I mean the NEW Facebook Groups.

You can now create small, exclusive groups around a real estate business, group of developers or buyers or sellers, even around people who are interested in an individual property.

One of the best features of the new Facebook Groups is the chat facility where you can host an online chat session between yourself and people in your group in real time. The individuals in the chat don’t need to be ‘friends’ on Facebook which means you can use the chat for negotiations, promoting new listings, or promoting events and upcoming open houses and so on.

Facebook Ads

A big part of what we do online is designing, implementing, testing and reporting on Facebook Ad Campaigns. And some of what we do has become promoting property sales (and rentals) for real estate agencies.

If you want to know the REAL secret to designing Facebook Ads that actually make money, you can fill in the form in the right sidebar of this page.

The beauty of this kind of advertising – as opposed to traditionally advertising property sales and rentals in local print or even on radio – is that you can target the ads very specifically to the users you want to reach.

Using Facebook Ads has been the single most positive change to the online marketing efforts or real estate agencies’ we work with that we have made in the last few months.

With research showing that nearly 90% of people move within a 7km radius of where they currently live, this makes geographic targeting pretty easy in most cases. But it doesn’t end there. You can target your ads using demographic filters as well – age, gender, education, likes and interests and so on.

Facebook Places and FourSquare

Both of these applications, one inside the Facebook platform and one outside of it, are based on the geographic location of the users.

For instance, if a user has a smartphone and one of the apps on that phone, they can have local specials, discounts, or – in the case of real estate, open houses or new listings, promoted to them directly on their phones. And it’s not invasive or spammy because the users have already opted in to the service.

2. Back That Up With Twitter.

Some real estate agents we have worked with had little success previously with Twitter, but mostly because they weren’t using it correctly or they didn’t have a strategy around it either.

There are 3 really good ways to use Twitter in real estate: having a corporate account for an agency, having individual (but corporate branded) accounts for individual agents, and having an account exclusively for new listings.

Agency Corporate Account

This is the most obvious use of Twitter and is probably the most dry and boring one as well.

Still important though, particularly from a branding perspective, the corporate account of an agency is a great way to let people know that you are at least engaging in modern and progressive ways to sell homes, and also a good portal to list general information, tips and other information about the agency and its services.

Individual Agents’ Accounts

A lot of agents may already have their own Twitter account, but for an agency, it’s important that the agents retain some of the corporate branding in their Twitter presence as well.

For instance, John Smith from ABC Real Estate might have already been tweeting as @JohnSmith for a couple of years, but he should also have an account that includes the agency, for example, @JohnSmithatABC.

This adds an extra dimension, though, and you should have some monitoring in place to ensure that your branding isn’t being compromised by any of the agents using it to promote themselves exclusively.

New Listings Account

When someone is looking to purchase a house, one problem for them is usually that there are not enough listings or not enough of the right listings around.

They will know about every single property being sold in their target area and price range and will be hungry for news of new listings that perhaps other buyers don’t know about yet.

This is where your ‘New Listings’ Twitter account comes in. They follow the account on Twitter and when a new listing comes up, they can be one of the first to know about it. Actually, they can be the first to know about it, if you promote the fact that listings will appear there for a set time before being publicised elsewhere – a great way to build follower numbers as well.

3. Get Linked In.

A lot of real estate agents will already be a member of Linkedin, but not a lot of them are doing a great job of using the full features of the platform.

Linkedin is a great way to sell properties (indirectly) but more importantly, it’s a great way to promote yourself online.

And on Linkedin, real estate agents should be doing that by using two different approaches: the Linkedin Profile and Linkedin Groups.

Linkedin Profile

This is the ordinary account that every Linkedin user has. But there are ways to really pimp it and make it so much more effective. See my blog post on the 15 things you should be doing with Linkedin but probably aren’t for more information on that.

Linkedin Groups

Similar in some ways to the Facebook Groups, the Linkedin Groups include features like an automatic email distribution of new content and a way for you to promote listings, news and other information about your agency to other members of the group on Linkedin.

You can start your own group about real estate news, upcoming events, or new listings in a particular geographic area. You can also invite some of your VIP clients to be part of a special group where you give exclusive content to them as way of reward for their support of you in the past.

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Did you know… that The Bowditch Group currently works with several real estate agents and brokers to improve their online marketing and social media marketing efforts. If you would like to see how we can help your real estate business, please email us at nick@thebowditchgroup.com for more details or to set up a consultation.

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4. The Most Important – Embrace Video Marketing.

If you are a regular on this blog, you will know that I love YouTube.

The world’s second largest search engine, YouTube is also a darling of Google who own it, which means that any video you upload to this video-sharing juggernaut is treated very favourably by Google when potential buyers sit down to research new properties.

Nothing tells a story like someone telling a story in video.

You can do a walk-through of the property, interview the sellers, interview the neighbours, showcase unique features of the property, even get video testimonials from potential buyers at open houses – the potential of online video is almost limitless.

But you have to do it properly. And by that, I don’t mean get a professional TV-quality film crew to do it, but you don’t want it looking too ‘rustic’ either.

We have a lot of experience making video for clients (as well as thousands of YouTube users tested) in all kinds of industries including real estate and property sales, so if you would like us to take care of your video production, editing, captioning and uploading to YouTube, please let us know.

5. Get Organised.

You should be utilising some sort of cloud application like Tungle.Me or even Google Calendar so that you can easily organise viewings, open houses, client meetings and so on and not have to rely on administration staff to do it for you, as well as avoiding the likelihood of double booking yourself and generally looking unprofessional to potential buyers or sellers.

By syncing your existing calendar with Tungle.Me you can:

* Eliminate double-bookings, time zone mishaps and the back-and-forth of finding a time to meet
* Easily schedule meetings, inside or outside your organisation
* Invite others to schedule with you, without having to sign up

6. Get Famous.

Podcasts and webinars now give you the opportunity to reach a large number of people without those people ever having to leave their desk or home.

Podcasts are audio recordings which can be listened to online or downloaded to listen to later from audio-sharing applications like iTunes.

Webinars are virtual meetings where you can present on a particular topic using a webcam on your own computer and people can watch the webinar in their office or home on their own computers.

A lot of webinar applications don’t even require the participants to sign up or download anything, just click on the link that you provide prior to the webinar.

These can be a great way to establish your credibility as an expert in real estate, while also allowing you to target potential buyers and sellers in any given market.

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What did I miss? Are you an agent who has used other online marketing or social media marketing applications with success?

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Please let us know in the comments below. When you leave a comment on this site, it appears straight away – no signing up, no waiting for the comment to be moderated – it will appear below straight after you have posted it.

As I mentioned before on this blog, Facebook have recently changed the way that Facebook Pages both appear and work. Apart from now being able to get notifications when someone interacts with your page (long overdue) and being able to comment on and interact with other pages as your own page rather than as yourself, Facebook also introduced the use of iFrames on the custom tabs instead of using FBML code which we had been using for some time.

What does it mean?

It basically means that you can now embed iFrames into your tabs which have exactly the same look, feel and functionality of your website, giving you a lot more personalisation and uniformity in your marketing on Facebook.

What’s an iFrame?

“An iFrame, or “inline frame” is basically a floating frame which sits within a web page document (or in this case a Facebook Page Tab). Its actual content is an external web document, and you slot it within the floating frame according to the attributes you set.”  www.designplace.org

Basically anything you can put on your website using HTML code, you can include in an iFrame – imagine the possibilities for your Facebook Page now!

What about my old FBML tab?

Facebook has said that any pages built before March 2011 using FBML code will continue to work for the time being.

Nobody is sure (probably not Facebook either) when the FBML functionality will cease to work on Facebook Pages so it’s a good idea to get familiar with how to create and manage iFrames on your Facebook Page instead – just in case.

The New Tab Layout

So today I am going to show you how to create a fairly simple (yet pretty snazzy) Facebook Tab using an iFrame that will include images, text and video and as a bonus, I will show you how to clean the page up a bit and remove ugly scrollbars and so on.

For the purposes of this example, our new Facebook Tab will contain (in order):

Header Image
Some Text
Embedded YouTube Video
Some More Text
Footer Image

Become a ‘Facebook Developer’

Before we get on to the actual code, first you have to set yourself up as an official Facebook Developer. Sounds pretty flash, but the title is basically open to anyone if they follow these instructions:

1. Make sure you are logged in to Facebook as yourself.

2. Go to http://developers.facebook.com.

3. Click on My Apps.

4. Assuming you haven’t created any apps yet, it will take you to a page where you will have to click on ‘Allow’. If you have created an app on Facebook before, go straight to 6.

5. Go to http://facebook.com/developers.

6. Click on ‘Set Up A New App’.

Configure Your App

1. Name your new app whatever you like. I have called this one newiframe. Click on Agree and then click on ‘Create Application’.

2. After verifying that you are human in the next step, you will be taken to the About page for your brand new app.

3. Give your new app a short description and upload a logo and an icon if you like too. The icon actually appears in the sidebar of your new Facebook Page next to the link to go to the tab so think about what you want there – or you can just leave it blank and end up with the default icon.

Don’t click on Save Changes yet.

4. Under About in the left sidebar click on ‘Web Site’.

In the Site URL, put the link to where you are going to upload your new iFrame. It will be something like http://www.yoursite.com/facebook/ where you change yoursite.com to the name of your actual site.

The /facebook/extension is just the folder you are going to upload your iFrame to on your server. I have just called mine ‘facebook’ but you can call yours whatever you like.

Don’t click on Save Changes yet.

5. Under ‘Web Site’, click on ‘Facebook Integration’.

In the ‘Canvas’ section, put the name of your new app after the supplied link in ‘Canvas Page’.

In ‘Canvas URL’ put the same link as you put in the ‘Site URL’ in the previous step, remembering to put a / on the end of the link.

Select ‘iFrame’ as the ‘Canvas Type’ and then select ‘Auto-resize’ in the ‘iFrame Size’ option.

6. Scroll down to the bottom of that section where it says ‘Page Tabs’.

In the ‘Tab Name’ choose a name for your tab. This is the name that will appear in the sidebar of your Facebook Page, although you can change it later if you want.

Select ‘iFrame’ if it’s not already selected in the Page Tab Type.

Then put the full link of where your iFrame will be uploaded including its name in the ‘Tab URL’ section. For this example, we are going to call the iFrame file ‘index.html’ and because we will upload it into the ‘facebook’ folder on our site, the full link for this section is http://www.yoursite.com/facebook/index.html. Remember, you should use your own site domain instead of putting yoursite.com.

7. Click on Save Changes.

8. You will be taken to the apps’ information page.

Install Your New App

On the right hand side of this page, click on ‘Application Profile Page’.

Click on ‘Add to my Page’ at the bottom of the left sidebar, then choose which of your pages you want the app to appear on and click on ‘Add to Page’.

And that’s it!

Remember, from the ‘Edit Page’ section of your Facebook Page you can either rename the tab or make the tab the default landing position for new visitors to your Facebook Page.

Rename The Tab

To rename the tab, click on ‘Edit Page’ in the top right hand corner of your Facebook Page, and then click on ‘Apps’ in the left sidebar.

Find your new app in the list and click on ‘Edit Settings’. In the pop-up, make sure the ‘Tab’ section says ‘Added’ and in the ‘Custom tab name’ section, put your new name for the tab and then click on ‘OK’.

Make The Tab The Default Landing Position

On the same page, click on ‘Manage Permissions’ in the left sidebar.

Next to ‘Default Landing Tab’ select the name of your tab from the dropdown menu, and then click on ‘Save Changes’.

The Code You Will Need

So now your new app will be working but at this stage, it has nothing to show in your tab.

If you are not used to code, this next bit might seem really overwhelming. But, if you follow my instructions to the letter, you will be fine. I am assuming you host your own blog or website and have access to the File Transfer Protocol (FTP) which basically means you can upload images and other stuff to your website’s server.

I am also assuming that you are hosting your own images and have a YouTube video you can embed. If you don’t though, you can just improvise and at the very least just have a text-only tab (although at least one image makes it a lot more user-friendly).

You will need a text editor for this part. If you don’t have one, TextMate has a 30 day free trial and works really well for this.

So here is the code – please copy it EXACTLY, replacing the app name, image names and text that you want to use instead of where I have put YOUR APP NAME or YOUR IMAGE and so on.

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<html>

<div id=”fb-root”></div><script src=”http://connect.facebook.net/en_US/all.js”>

</script><script>FB.init({appId : ‘YOUR APP NAME’,status : true, // check login statuscookie : true, // enable cookies to allow the server to access the sessionxfbml : true // parse XFBML});</script>

<head>

<script type=”text/javascript”> window.fbAsyncInit = function() { FB.Canvas.setSize(); } // Do things that will sometimes call sizeChangeCallback() function sizeChangeCallback() { FB.Canvas.setSize(); }</script>

</head>

<body>

<body style=”overflow:hidden;”>

<div align=center><img title=”YOUR IMAGE NAME” src=”http://yoursite.com/YOUR IMAGE.jpg” alt=”YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE NAME” width=”500″ height=”140″ />

<div align=”center”><br><font size=”5″><b>Welcome to YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE NAME</font></b>

<br><br>

</div>

<font size=”3″>This is where you would put your own text<br><br>

The br codes make a line break between text.<br><br>

Now we will embed the YouTube video.<br><br>

<object width=”500″ height=”305″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/YOUR LINK?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US”></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/YOUR LINK?fs=1&amp;hl=en_US” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”500″ height=”305″></embed></object><br><br>

Then we will have a bit more text.<br><br>

And then the footer image<br><br>

<div align=center><img title=”YOUR IMAGE NAME” src=”http://yoursite.com/YOUR IMAGE.jpg” alt=”YOUR FACEBOOK PAGE NAME” width=”500″ height=”140″ />

</body>

</html>

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Please note: the embedded YouTube video will use the exact coding that YouTube gives you when you click on ‘Embed’ when your video is playing on YouTube. You will need to change the dimensions of it to 500 width and 305 height as above.

Upload The Code

Once you have put the code that you want into TextMate or whichever text editor you are using, save it as index.html.

Then, using your FTP application, create a new folder in your public_html folder of your server and call it ‘facebook’.

After that, save the new index.html file into the ‘facebook’ folder using your FTP application.

And That’s It!

I know that probably seems really overwhelming but, as I said, if you copy the code exactly and make the necessary changes to reflect your own site, images, text and so on, you should now be looking at your new iFrame Facebook Page tab.

If you’ve got it, flaunt it!

Do you want to show off your handy work? Put the link to your Facebook Page with its new iFrame tab in the comments section below so that we can all gaze in amazement at how clever you are.

Plus, it’s a good way to get traffic (and Likers) to your new Page!

From today, the way that Facebook Pages look will be changing again.

Facebook has made these changes to bring the Pages more in line with how the new Profiles look so as to create a uniform user experience.

But, if you are one of the thousands of small and medium-sized businesses that have just embraced marketing from a Facebook Page in the last year or so, it means you are going to have to tweak how your page is set up so it won’t look all wonky.

Among the changes to the new Facebook Pages are:

Custom Tabs.

Thankfully, Facebook has stayed with the custom tab feature on Facebook Pages meaning you can still have a default landing position for new visitors and you can include your own content – links, copy, photos, video and so on.

However, they have reduced the width of these custom tabs again down from the already-reduced 520 pixels. This means that you will have to fiddle around with your layout – and maybe even have to get some new graphics done – to get it all looking OK again.

Comment And Like Stuff As Your Page.

This is the best change of all as far as I’m concerned. You can now log in as your Page rather than as your self and comment on other Pages and like different things on Facebook on behalf of your Page instead of yourself.

Also, you can comment on your own Page’s content as yourself now, even if you are an administrator of that page.

This is a massive step forward from a marketing point of view and something that I am really excited about.

What do you think of the changes Facebook has made to Facebook Pages? What other changes would YOU have made?

Please let us know in the comments below. When you leave a comment on this site, it appears straight away – no signing up, no waiting for the comment to be moderated – it will appear below straight after you have posted it.

Please note: comments on these blog posts close 10 days after the post is published. If you want to make a comment on any of these posts, don’t delay – you might miss your chance.

Does this sound like you?

You have a Facebook Page for your business. You update it occasionally but there is no real routine to it. You are not sure what tabs you have showing or even what information is really on any of them.

You don’t know how many hits it gets, what people look at while they are on it or what people click on to leave it.

You’ve seen other Facebook Pages, though, and you know that yours could be a lot better.

The other businesses run competitions on them, they have engaging videos and images on them and they have 100′s of fans on them.

You really want to get more out of this social media marketing stuff this year. But you don’t really know where to begin?

Starting on Monday 28th February, I am going to be running our 10 Day Facebook Page Overhaul again for people who already have a Facebook Page for their business, but want to make it slicker, more engaging and make it REALLY work for them.

And I would love YOU to be part of it

The Overhaul.

For those 10 days, I will share with you lots of great – and easy – ways for you to improve your Facebook Page and make it a much better marketing tool than it is right now.

And, since you will be part of a bigger group of people all doing the same thing, there will be lots of opportunities to share your experiences, ask questions of other business people doing the same thing as you with Facebook, and do some informal networking for your business as well.

You will receive a new module every day for the ten days. You will also get access to an exclusive members-only site that only those people enrolled in the course will have access to so that you can ask questions, make comments and suggestions, keep the resources from the 10 days, and chat to other participants about their Page (and/or their businesses).

What’s Included?

You will receive one module each day in your email and also have access to the Overhaul Wiki – the online community for all of the participants to share stories, ask questions and help each other too.

Topics covered will include tidying up the overall look and feel of your page to better represent your branding and your business, creating custom tabs so that you can showcase your own images, video and links to the world, how to create tabs within tabs to increase the depth and content-richness of your Facebook Page, how to make the page more engaging and increase the number of people who click on ‘like’, how to create compelling updates that encourage interaction from your community a lot more, how to read the stats of your page to better analyse its traffic and tell you why you have a Facebook Page for your business in the first place, even a section on how to promote your Page better using Facebook Ads.

Does that sound like it could help your business? Then click on the Buy Now button below to get started.

Money-Back Guarantee:

I am pretty confident that you will see the value in this course straight away. However, if for some reason you don’t, before the third day you can get 100% of your course payment back – no questions asked.

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Please remember:

This is ONLY for people who already have a Facebook Page and want to make it more effective in the marketing of their business. We run different courses for people wanting to create their business’ first Facebook Page. Please email me at nick@thebowditchgroup.com if you would like more information on creating your first Facebook Page.

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Are you going to be joining us for the Overhaul this February? What other topics would you like to see included in the course content?

Please let us know in the comments below. When you leave a comment on this site, it appears straight away – no signing up, no waiting for the comment to be moderated – it will appear below straight after you have posted it.

Please note: comments on these blog posts close 10 days after the post is published. If you want to make a comment on any of these posts, don’t delay – you might miss your chance.

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OK so you’ve set up a Facebook Page for your business and you’re pretty happy with it. You want to tidy it up a little bit and improve the look and feel of it though and you don’t want to have to pay someone (like me) to spruce it up a bit for you.

What are the 3 easiest ways to improve your business’ Facebook Page?

It’s simply a matter of cleaning up unused and empty tabs, changing your profile image for the page and changing the settings so that the page displays all posts on it – not just your own.

The best thing about these 3 changes? They are all free to do

Tidy Up Your Tabs.

When you first set up a Facebook Page, there are a number of tabs on it which Facebook gives you by default. These include Photos, Discussions, Notes and so on.

There is only one thing uglier than a Facebook Page with 8 or 9 tabs being used on it and that’s a Facebook Page with 8 or 9 tabs NOT being used on it, but still taking up viewing space and attention.

If you have tabs which you aren’t using like Discussions, Reviews, Notes and so on, here is how to remove them and give your page a much more streamlined and tidy look:

1. While on your Facebook Page, click on ‘Edit Page’ which is underneath your profile image on the left sidebar.

2. Then click on ‘Apps’ on the new sidebar on the left.

3. For each of the Apps that you no longer want featured on your page (but which can return at a later date), click on ‘Edit Settings’, then make sure the option of ‘Tab’ says ‘add’ and not ‘remove’.

And that’s it. I suggest you keep the ‘Wall’ and ‘Info’ tabs (Facebook won’t let you get rid of them anyway) as well as maybe 1 or 2 others, preferably a custom tab of your own but if not one from the available list on your Page.

Use A Long Image.

This is definitely one of the most under-utilised features of Facebook Pages.

Instead of uploading a postcard size image like everyone else, use a long, tall image that really stands out and, more importantly, reinforces your overall branding as well.

On current Facebook Pages, you can upload an image that is up to 200 pixels wide and 600 pixels long. But it has to be those dimensions EXACTLY. Just 1 pixel out on either side will see your image rejected by Facebook.

Show All Posts On Your Page.

This probably fits into that scary category for a lot of people where they are terrified about what people are going to say on their Facebook Page. However, it’s so much better for traffic and the overall look of the Facebook Page if comments and updates from people other than you are appearing by default in the general feed of the page.

To do this:

1. While on your Facebook Page, click on ’Edit Page‘ which is underneath your profile image on the left sidebar.

2. Then click on ‘Manage Permissions‘ in the left sidebar.

3. Where it says ‘Wall Tab Shows:’ change it from ‘Only Posts By Page‘ to ‘All Posts‘.

And that’s it. This way you can take advantage of people who might be ‘tagging’ you but you will also improve the way your page looks and it will come off as a much more interactive and responsive medium than if it was just your posts and yours alone.

Are you wondering whether Facebook could help your small business?

Or maybe you are convinced you need to be involved but don’t know where to start?

Then you are going to get a lot out of my webinar series [What's a webinar?] in November – three consecutive Wednesdays (10th, 17th, 24th November) where I will show you how to get the most out of Facebook and really start to make some money from the social networking juggernaut.

How NOT to get your business’ Facebook horribly wrong, how to create Facebook Ads that actually MAKE MONEY, and how to make money using the NEW Facebook Groups will all be covered in this 3-part series.

Registering is easy. Just use the form below, give me some of your contact details and then click on Add to Cart after the payment option you want to take advantage of. You will be redirected to the PayPal Shopping Cart where you can pay for the webinars using either PayPal or your credit card.

And all you need to participate in the webinar is a computer with an internet connection. You don’t need a microphone, or webcam or any other hardware. The webinars will go for 45 minutes including question time from the participants (which you can ask in the special chat facility).

Some feedback after the first webinar of the series:

“Excellent webinar … Looking forward to next week’s ” – Lee-Anne Bevan

“Thanks for your presentation.  I am very interested in setting up a page for my business within Facebook. As you suggest, we want to GET IT RIGHT.” – Janine Maund

“Hey Nick, really enjoyed your webinar, thought it had lots of useful info and was really easy to interact with you. Thanks again, will spread the word of what a genius you are on Facebook. Looking forward to next week” – Amanda Falvey

So there are just a few spaces left for the next 2 weeks’ so register here:

I’m looking forward to showing a few more small businesses out there how ‘this Facebook business’ can really help them grow and engage with their target market even better.

Want to earn 50% commission on my webinar series?

It’s easy. Just go to my affiliates page by clicking here for more info.

After many hours of coding, being disappointed, obsessing, swearing and finally rejoicing – our new Facebook App: Easy Page Creator is here.

The application builds you and your small business a FREE Facebook Page – that’s right, 100% free. And you can usually take charge of your new Facebook Page within 24 hours of giving us your details through the application.

Facebook has become the most important Social Networking site in the world very quickly and has topped 500 million users worldwide. It is the most popular Social Networking platform in Australia, with more than nine million users currently registered.

In fact, globally if Facebook were a country, it would be the 3rd most populated in the world, just ahead of the USA.

One of the most important facts, especially for small business in Australia, is that 20 million people connect with Facebook Pages every day!

That’s a huge audience and they are just waiting to hear about you and your small business!

There is no doubt that a compelling and engaging Facebook Page can be an amazing (and free) boost to the online marketing effort for your small business, and there are some great ones out there.

There are also some very ordinary ones which may be doing more harm than good for their owners.

Done the right way, a Facebook Page can be a complimentary web presence for your business and give your ‘fans’ (potential customers and existing ones) a place to interact with you and your business in a way that was not possible in the P.F. (pre-Facebook) days.

Done the wrong way, a Facebook Page can make you and your business look sloppy, unprofessional or just not in touch with the Facebook audience – something that could REALLY hurt your brand and your business overall.

That’s why we’ve set up the Easy Facebook Page Creator.

It’s the easiest and fastest way for your small business to get a presence on Facebook that’s great looking, professional and engaging for your Facebook fans.

And most importantly, it’s free!

What’s included on your new Facebook Page?

Your new Facebook Page has a Welcome tab, the facility to have new users land on the Welcome tab by default and aninteractive testimonial tab where you can ask for feedback, suggestions or testimonials and even make it a driver for a Facebook-only competition amongst your fans.

The Welcome Tab

With the template custom welcome tab you can make that first great impression.

You can include your own text, embed videos and images, links to your other online presences as well as any calls to action that will help you reach a sales conversion – right there on your Facebook Page.

Here are a couple of examples of compelling and engaging welcome tabs:

Default Landing Tab

We will make your Welcome tab the first thing that a new user lands on when they visit your Facebook Page. This is a great way to introduce them to your content, your business and yourself and we find that it results in a much-higher conversion to your new fans clicking on the ‘Like’ button.

Interactive Testimonials Tab

Using the technology and usability already invented by Facebook, we will create a tab that lets people (even if they are not fans of your page) to leave a comment. When they do that, it can also be visible to all of their network as well, thereby creating a potential viral spread for your page and your business.

You can ask for feedback, suggestions, or testimonials – and people will gladly give them. Facebook users love to be engaged and they love to leave their own comments and have their voice heard.

What better way than providing a space for them to do that right on your Facebook Page?

Here is an example of how we have used an Interactive Testimonials Tab:

An Interactive Gallery

Whether it’s your menu items, your product shots, your commercial photographs or logos of the clients you represent, a well-constructed and beautifully presented image gallery is a proven winner on Facebook Pages.

Here are a couple of examples of how we have made this work with clients’ Facebook Pages:

It requires a bit of coding and fiddling around with, but the results can be quite striking – even within the constraints of the Facebook Page width and height.

Exclusive Fan-Only Content

We will also include content that people can only see if they ‘like’ your page – that is, secret fan-only content that is hidden until they click on the ‘like’ button.

This gives the user the feeling that they are being given access to something secret and special, thereby adding to their user experience as well.

This can also be great for when you run competitions on your Facebook Page and the clues are only available to people after they have clicked on the ‘Like’ button.

Tabs within Tabs

We have found this to be really engaging and a great way to include more content without having to add extra tabs thereby potentially making the user experience too clumsy.

We can include content on each tab under sub-categories. The content for each sub-category is only visible when the user clicks on the appropriate link on that tab, like the About Us, Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, YouTube, FourSquare, Blogging, Affiliate Sales, SEO, Google Adwords, Speaking and More Information links on this page:

Extra tabs

We can add extra tabs for things like displaying your YouTube videos, including a custom contact form, your Twitter feed or some other content that you want included on there.

Compare the Packages

Here is a breakdown of the packages and what they include:

Interested?

All you have to do is submit the content you want included on your page to us and we can have you up and running usually within 24 hours!

If you would like your small business to have its own Facebook Page but dont have either the expertise or the time, then let us set it all up for you.

Use our unique Facebook App by clicking here or Contact us TODAY and you can have your own Facebook Page up and running the next day!

Do you need a Facebook Page for your small business? Would you rather have one for FREE?

Please let us know in the comments below. When you leave a comment on this site, it appears straight away – no signing up, no waiting for the comment to be moderated – it will appear below straight after you have posted it.

Often when I speak at seminars and forums, small business owners will ask me how they are supposed to know where their target market are and which social media platforms they are using?

Unfortunately, it’s not always as black and white as being able to say, “Well, if you own a graphic design business, your potential customers are on Twitter” or something similar.

One of the biggest inhibitors to that kind of thinking is that the demographics data changes so rapidly. Remember, just a couple of years ago, MySpace was the be-all-and-end-all of social media and nothing was ever going to de-throne it.

So here is a quick analysis of the latest (September 2010) data on social media demographics according to the Adplanner service from Google.

Facebook

Facebook is a juggernaut. If it were a country, it would be the 3rd most populated on Earth. And it’s showing no signs of going away any time soon.

Currently at 540 million users and with more than 20 million people connecting with Facebook Pages every day, it’s also something that marketers and small business owners can no longer ignore.

The highest age representation on Facebook is still the 25-34 year olds but, interestingly, the fastest growing demographic on Facebook is in the 55-65 year old group.

Twitter

Twitter remains strong with just under 100 million registered users. It’s growth has been reflected in the complimentary growth of it’s third-party clients like Tweetdeck, Seesmic and Hootsuite.

The look and feel of Twitter has also recently undergone a major upgrade so it is yet to be seen what impact that will have on its growth in the next few months.

Again, the 25-34 year old demographic is the one most highly represented on Twitter, with a lot fewer young people than on Facebook.

MySpace

Who? Wasn’t MySpace supposed to be dead and buried by now?

Well, if you listen to supposed experts (like me) it was supposed to be a thing of the past but it has in fact grown in the last three months.

Membership collapsed by around 14 million between January and June of 2010 but from July to September the platform has actually added 1 million users.

By the way ... we are still on the lookout for a MySpace blogger on this site. Are you that person or do you know someone who is? Click here for more details.

Not surprisingly, the key demographic for MySpace users is still the 0-17 year olds which make up 34% of its total users. The platform is still very relevant to the music, entertainment and art community.

Linkedin

Linkedin is steady at 41 million users and continues to find its place in the B2B section of social networking.

80% of companies now report using Linkedin when they recruit and the average user being 41 years old, tertiary educated and with a household income of $110,000 makes them a pretty attractive proposition to most small business owners.

There are more men than women on Linkedin and the greatest representation is in the 45-54 year old demographic.

Did you know … that The Bowditch Group can help you find which social media platform best suits your target market, best suits your business and, most importantly, which social media platform best suits YOU! If you would like to find out how I might be able to help you with making your small business more relevant, and found more by Google, call me TODAY on 02 8006 2498 or email me nick@thebowditchgroup.com.

I hope that these stats might help you understand the nature of who is where and doing what on social media right now.

Do these stats come as a surprise to you? Or do you think they are not really relevant to your small business?

Please let us know in the comments below. When you leave a comment on this site, it appears straight away – no signing up, no waiting for the comment to be moderated – it will appear below straight after you have posted it.