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Facebook for Business – 5 Components of a Great Facebook Page Featuring Sheri McConnell’s Page

I just discovered someone who is doing a great job with her Facebook Page and I wanted to share it with you.  Sheri McConnell is doing a lot of things right.  Here are the top 5 things that make her page a big success.

1.  Descriptive Page Name that includes her business and her personal name.  Smart for search.  This point is very important.

2.  Great Profile Picture that tells a lot about what she does but also includes her personal picture – very important.  Also, she structured it such that her face comes up as the “thumbnail” for her page.

3.  Interesting Content on her wall that tells a lot about what she is doing in her business and her personal life.  It’s a good combination of “Little Bit Country, A Little Bit Rock and Roll” as the song goes.  She has great interaction with her tribe.

4.  Good Landing Page that takes you to her opt-in page and allows you to get here “FREE KIT.”  I like the fact that it takes you to her website versus just doing an optin here.  She has obviously put a lot of work into her website and it shows a lot of credibility.  Overall, I think it is worth the risk of losing them to take them to her website.  Another option – add a quick email optin on the Facebook landing page – the page people who haven’t LIKEd her (become her fans) go first.

5.  Great Video Wall – informative, helpful videos that showcase her knowledge and expertise.  They also showcase how she works with her clients and that is a 24/7 sales tool for her business.

We can learn a lot from a Facebook Page like Sheri’s.  What do you like best about it?  What do you like least?

Helpful links:

Video explanation of same:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePBxezv7OI8    about 5 minutes

To view the main page:  https://www.facebook.com/smartwomeninstitute

Products and Services Album:  https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.281605874462.139779.230896574462&type=1

If you need help making your Facebook page more powerful, give me a call. I work with business owners and thought leaders who want to use social media to magnify their message.

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© Copyright 2011 Gina Carr International.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? To publish this article in your ezine or website, please include the following:

Gina Carr is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Marketing Consultant who works with entrepreneurs and authors to leverage social media marketing for publicity, profits and success. Combining her street-smarts learned as a publisher and small business owner with her book-smarts learned at the Harvard Business School (MBA 1990) and Georgia Tech (BIE 1984), Gina helps business owners turn great ideas into profitable money-making machines. Known around the world as The Tribe Builder, Gina helps passionate people build powerful tribes of raving fans for their business or non-profit organization. Get connected with Gina at www.tribebuildingtips.com and www.ginacarr.com..

Disclaimer: This post may include affiliate links for products and services I endorse and promote. These are always products and services that I have personally used and highly recommend.

Gina Carr is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Marketing Consultant who works with CEOs and Thought Leaders to leverage social media marketing for publicity, profits and success. Combining her street-smarts learned as a publisher and small business owner with her book-smarts learned at the Harvard Business School (MBA 1990) and Georgia Tech (BIE 1984), Gina helps business owners turn great ideas into profitable money-making machines.
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Digital Marketing: Not Blogging Yet? Let’s Get Started!

If you are in business for yourself in a professional field, you simply must have a blog as part of your marketing mix. Why?

1. A blog is the best place to display your “intellectual capital.“

2. A blog lets your tribe know about the way you think about issues and solve problems.

3. A blog is critical for Search Engine rankings.

4. It provides the foundation for all of your social media posts.

5. It is under YOUR control – versus a social media platform.

6. It’s the best place to market your products and services.

7. It’s the best place to “capture” an email address so that you can stay in close touch with your tribe.

What is the easiest, fastest and cheapest way to start blogging?

You can be a blogger in less than five minutes at either one of these sites. You don’t need a domain name. You don’t need a hosting account. All you need is your computer and an internet connection.

Blogger.com – what I currently use. Very easy overall. I found it a little tricky to set up a nice header but I finally figured out a way. See www.ginacarr.blogspot.com

WordPress.com – not as powerful as wordpress.org which has to be hosted on your own server. Still many people love this and you can create great blogs with this.

Your blog can double as your website and many people use it this way. More about this in another article. For now, just get started!

What’s been holding you back? You don’t need a hosting account. You don’t need a domain name (although you can forward one if you already have it). You don’t need any money.

No kidding and NO MORE EXCUSES!

Good luck. Feel free to post your blog below and invite people to come and check out what you are doing.

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© Copyright 2011 Gina Carr International.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? To publish this article in your ezine or website, please include the following:

Gina Carr is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Marketing Consultant who works with entrepreneurs and authors to leverage social media marketing for publicity, profits and success. Combining her street-smarts learned as a publisher and small business owner with her book-smarts learned at the Harvard Business School (MBA 1990) and Georgia Tech (BIE 1984), Gina helps business owners turn great ideas into profitable money-making machines. Known around the world as The Tribe Builder, Gina helps passionate people build powerful tribes of raving fans for their business or non-profit organization. Get connected with Gina at www.tribebuildingtips.com and www.ginacarr.com..

Disclaimer: This post may include affiliate links for products and services I endorse and promote. These are always products and services that I have personally used and highly recommend.

Gina Carr is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Marketing Consultant who works with CEOs and Thought Leaders to leverage social media marketing for publicity, profits and success. Combining her street-smarts learned as a publisher and small business owner with her book-smarts learned at the Harvard Business School (MBA 1990) and Georgia Tech (BIE 1984), Gina helps business owners turn great ideas into profitable money-making machines.
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Book Marketing: Twitter Helps Unfinished Book Hit No. 1

The title caught my eye:  “Twitter Helps Unfinished Book Hit No. 1.”   I just HAD to dig into this one.

This is a great example of how social media can be used to get an incredible amount of attention for a book .  In this case, the author, John Green, did a minimal amount of chatter about his new book and his tribe went wild.

His book hit #1 on Amazon and BarnesandNoble.com.  It isn’t even due out until next Spring.

“In only a few short years, the ability to use social networking as a literary megaphone has gone from an afterthought to the focus of most marketing and image shaping by publishers,” says 

JEFFREY A. TRACHTENBERG of the Wall Street Journal.

There were several keys to his success with this effort:

1.  He had a solid base of loyal fans in place already – a strong tribe.
2.  He used video – 900 or so – to really let his audience get to know him.
3.  He used “zany postings” to really let his personality shine through – nothing stuffy.

Here is the link to the full article about this amazing story.

Twitter Helps Unfinished Book Hit No. 1

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© Copyright 2011 Gina Carr International.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? To publish this article in your ezine or website, please include the following:

Gina Carr is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Marketing Consultant who works with entrepreneurs and authors to leverage social media marketing for publicity, profits and success. Combining her street-smarts learned as a publisher and small business owner with her book-smarts learned at the Harvard Business School (MBA 1990) and Georgia Tech (BIE 1984), Gina helps business owners turn great ideas into profitable money-making machines. Known around the world as The Tribe Builder, Gina helps passionate people build powerful tribes of raving fans for their business or non-profit organization. Get connected with Gina at www.tribebuildingtips.com and www.ginacarr.com..

Disclaimer: This post may include affiliate links for products and services I endorse and promote. These are always products and services that I have personally used and highly recommend.

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Gina Carr is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Marketing Consultant who works with CEOs and Thought Leaders to leverage social media marketing for publicity, profits and success. Combining her street-smarts learned as a publisher and small business owner with her book-smarts learned at the Harvard Business School (MBA 1990) and Georgia Tech (BIE 1984), Gina helps business owners turn great ideas into profitable money-making machines.
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Facebook for Business – What to do with a Group you don’t Use any Longer

What do you do if you have a FACEBOOK GROUP but you’ve decided that you don’t want to use it any longer?

There are a couple of options. You might choose to delete the group. However, I think it is better to keep the group but to make some changes so that it does not remain “active” – at least officially.

The primary reason that you should keep it active is that you might want to contact the people who are in the group and you can do that easily with an email post that goes out to all the members. This is a pretty powerful tool.

In the past, people used GROUPS to market their business. Now that Facebook PAGES have evolved, a PAGE is generally a much better place to promote a business for a variety of reasons that are beyond the scope of this article. (For more information, see Facebook for Business: The Top 10 Reasons You Need a Facebook Page for Your Business)

If you decide to keep the group, I suggest you do the following:

1. Do a post that says: “Thanks for stopping by! We don’t really use this GROUP right now. Please join us on our Facebook Page www.fb.com/yourpage.”
2. Go back to the group often to put a comment under that post so that it will stay at the top of the page.
3. Edit the Group so that you can change the Group Information and the Privacy Settings.
In “Edit Group,” do the following:

  • Change the privacy settings so that it becomes a SECRET group. That way, it won’t show up when someone is searching for your company.
  • Make sure that only ADMINs can approve new members.
  • Set up the Group EMAIL so that you can use it later if you wish.
  • Add the same description as above about “Thanks for stopping by….”

© Copyright 2011 Gina Carr International.


WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? To publish this article in your ezine or website, please include the following:

Gina Carr is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Marketing Consultant who works with entrepreneurs and authors to leverage social media marketing for publicity, profits and success. Combining her street-smarts learned as a publisher and small business owner with her book-smarts learned at the Harvard Business School (MBA 1990) and Georgia Tech (BIE 1984), Gina helps business owners turn great ideas into profitable money-making machines. Known around the world as The Tribe Builder, Gina helps passionate people build powerful tribes of raving fans for their business or non-profit organization. Get connected with Gina at www.tribebuildingtips.com and www.ginacarr.com..
Disclaimer: This post may include affiliate links for products and services I endorse and promote. These are always products and services that I have personally used and highly recommend.  

Gina Carr is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Marketing Consultant who works with CEOs and Thought Leaders to leverage social media marketing for publicity, profits and success. Combining her street-smarts learned as a publisher and small business owner with her book-smarts learned at the Harvard Business School (MBA 1990) and Georgia Tech (BIE 1984), Gina helps business owners turn great ideas into profitable money-making machines.
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Facebook for Business: Top 10 Reasons You Need a Facebook Page for Your Business

A lot of people use their Personal Profile for their business instead of a Facebook Page.  Although there appear to be some advantages to this, it is actually not a good thing to do for a variety of reasons.

First of all, let’s clarify what is meant by each of these terms:

Most B2C businesses need a Facebook Page.

Personal Profile – Profiles represent individuals and must be held under an individual name.  This is your “home base” for Facebook – the entity that has Friends, LIKEs things, etc.


Facebook Page – allow an organization, business, celebrity, or band to maintain a professional presence on Facebook. 

1.  Facebook clearly says you should NOT ask a person to be a FRIEND if you don’t know him/her.  Let’s say you like the business but you don’t know the owner.  Therefore, you would be very unlikely to “support” this business.  While you might not be comfortable sending a FRIEND request, you might be very comfortable LIKE-ing the Page.

2.  Facebook frequently makes it difficult to even send a FRIEND request.  They block such requests for a variety of reasons.

3.  You can easily send an UPDATE to all fans (LIKEers) with just a couple of buttons.  You can not do anything like this with a Personal Profile.  (Note:  As of fall 2011, Facebook has removed this feature in an effort to encourage Pages to advertise more.)

4.  You can run an AD which drives people to your Facebook PAGE – not so for a Personal Profile.

5.  You have an INSIGHTS function that allows tracking of page visitors and other helpful statistics.

6.  You can assign an ADMINISTRATOR to help you manage your page without giving access to your personal inbox, photos, data, etc.

7.  Your Personal Profile is limited to 5000 friends.  There is no limit to a PAGE LIKEs (fans).

8.  You have SEO (Search Engine Optimization) benefits that aren’t available on your Personal Profile.

9.  Privacy Settings – unless the owner of the page turns off the privacy settings, a viewer can’t even see what the business is about.

10.  Facebook Pages are ACCESSIBLE by all.  Your page can be viewed by someone who is not even on Facebook.  This is a big PLUS.  This allows you to use Facebook as your primary web page if you don’t want to maintain a separate blog or web site.

It is really best to keep personal and business separate for the same reasons that most people have a store, office or another place that they meet clients.  Even most home-based businesses that have client visitors have a separate area for such meetings.  Home is home.  Business is business.

I’d like to give my Geeky Gal Pals Donna Gilliland, Dawn Gartin, and Charlyn Shelton much of the credit here for helping me think through these issues more clearly.
While I might be interested in this business, I am not going to Add them as a Friend if  I don’t personally know the owner.
© Copyright 2011 Gina Carr International.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? To publish this article in your ezine or website, please include the following:

Gina Carr is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Marketing Consultant who works with entrepreneurs and authors to leverage social media marketing for publicity, profits and success. Combining her street-smarts learned as a publisher and small business owner with her book-smarts learned at the Harvard Business School (MBA 1990) and Georgia Tech (BIE 1984), Gina helps business owners turn great ideas into profitable money-making machines. Known around the world as The Tribe Builder, Gina helps passionate people build powerful tribes of raving fans for their business or non-profit organization. Get connected with Gina at www.tribebuildingtips.com and www.ginacarr.com..

Disclaimer: This post may include affiliate links for products and services I endorse and promote. These are always products and services that I have personally used and highly recommend.

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Gina Carr is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Marketing Consultant who works with CEOs and Thought Leaders to leverage social media marketing for publicity, profits and success. Combining her street-smarts learned as a publisher and small business owner with her book-smarts learned at the Harvard Business School (MBA 1990) and Georgia Tech (BIE 1984), Gina helps business owners turn great ideas into profitable money-making machines.
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Remember When…

Remember when…

FRIENDS were people that you actually knew?

CONNECTING meant something a lot more fun than clicking a mouse?

FOLLOWING someone usually got you reported to the police?

WATCHING was something done by perverts?

 Thanks Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter and Youtube for redefining the English language!

Gina Carr is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Marketing Consultant who works with CEOs and Thought Leaders to leverage social media marketing for publicity, profits and success. Combining her street-smarts learned as a publisher and small business owner with her book-smarts learned at the Harvard Business School (MBA 1990) and Georgia Tech (BIE 1984), Gina helps business owners turn great ideas into profitable money-making machines.
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Mobile Marketing Monday – What do YOU Need to Know About Mobile Marketing?

It’s MOBILE MARKETING MONDAY here on my blog.

Did you know…

  • There are 75 countries where the number of cell phones exceeds the population of the country.
  • There are more Cell Phones than TVs and Computers combined? 5 billion (Cell Phones) versus 2 billion (TVs) and 1 billion (Computers).
  • The US market is at 94% penetration – almost 300 million.
  • 36% of US phones are smart phones.  Will be 50% by the end of 2011.
  • In 2011, 7 TRILLION text messages will be sent.
  • 200,000 text messages are sent every second.

Enjoy this great podcast about mobile by John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing. In this interview, John interviews Chuck Martin, author of The Third Screen: Marketing to Your Customers in a World Gone Mobile.

Podcast Interview: Shifting to the Third Screen

You need to be where the eyeballs are – cell phones! If you need help crafting a mobile strategy, call me. I can help.

Work With Gina – learn more here.

How are you using Mobile Marketing to bring new customers into your business?

Gina Carr is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Marketing Consultant who works with CEOs and Thought Leaders to leverage social media marketing for publicity, profits and success. Combining her street-smarts learned as a publisher and small business owner with her book-smarts learned at the Harvard Business School (MBA 1990) and Georgia Tech (BIE 1984), Gina helps business owners turn great ideas into profitable money-making machines.
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Facebook for Business – Use Profile Photos to Build Your Credibility and Showcase Your Expertise

Whenever I see someone doing a great job of marketing with Facebook, I like to share it with you. I just saw Dawn Bjork Buzbee’s personal profile and noticed that she had done an outstanding job with her profile pictures. Take a look at how she uses Facebook for business.

Dawn did several things that work to build her credibility as a professional speaker, trainer and expert by strategically placing pictures* on her profile that show her viewers the following:

1.  Credentials – she very smartly displays her NSA MEMBER deca) – NSA is the National Speakers Association and her Microsoft Certified Trainer decal.   Similar to walking into a store and seeing a “Better Business Bureau” on the door or a diploma hanging on an office wall, this shows the world that she is a serious player in her field of expertise.
2.  Intellectual Property – Dawn showcases her books which clearly establish her as an expert as the Software Pro®.  

If you actually click one her photos, you will see that Dawn has done very helpful captions including  links to the product pages which makes it easy for a viewer to learn more and to purchase the products.  
Kudos Dawn on a job well done!
*How do you strategically select the pictures you want on your profile?  Follow these steps:
  
The five photos at the top of your new profile are the last five you were tagged in – whether you tagged yourself or a friend tagged you. Note: anyone viewing your profile sees these five photos.
You can also tag your Facebook PAGES in photos now which lets you control the pictures at the top of you business pages as well. 
  • To change the photos, mouseover each one and click the “X.” Another will automatically appear in its place.
  • To control the exact five photos you want, untag and then retag.  Tag from right to left (left is the most recent photo). 
How are you using profile pictures to enhance your credibility and build your business?  Feel free to list your facebook pages or profiles below.
Gina Carr is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Marketing Consultant who works with CEOs and Thought Leaders to leverage social media marketing for publicity, profits and success. Combining her street-smarts learned as a publisher and small business owner with her book-smarts learned at the Harvard Business School (MBA 1990) and Georgia Tech (BIE 1984), Gina helps business owners turn great ideas into profitable money-making machines.
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Facebook for Business – Why the Skype-Facebook Video Chat Feature is a Powerful Tool for Business


Skype and Facebook have just rolled out a new “Video Chat” feature that enables people to see and interact with their friends in real-time while they are in Facebook. This feature is great for business because it enables buyers to get to know, like and trust sellers much faster and easier than ever before. I can think of several instances where my business and my client’s business could have been greatly enhanced with this ability to quickly and easily connect “eyeball to eyeball.”

Relationship Building – By using Facebook’s video chat to interact easily and seamlessly with prospective clients “eyeball to eyeball,” a business person can dramatically increase the speed with which a potential client can cross the ever present, completely invisible “KLT (Know-Like-Trust) Bridge.”

When people can “look you in the eye” – even over a computer screen, they are more likely to develop a relationship with you that is stronger than a phone call, email, or Facebook post. This is true whether the initial relationship was developed IRL – In Real Life – or virtually. It is especially true for the millions of people who are doing the majority of their business over the internet.

Simplicity – Until now, it has been a bit cumbersome – some would say difficult – to schedule a video chat with other people. The way that Facebook has integrated this feature into the regular Online Chat and Messaging features that people are already comfortable using, makes this incredibly simple.

For example, I work with people all over the world. Most of these people I’ve never “seen” face to face. Although I’ve used Skype video for many years, I am usually met with resistance when I suggest someone install it on their computer so that we can “meet face-to-face.”  After trying to walk a few people through it, I realized it was just easier to connect over the phone.

That obstacle – downloading an application that seems scary, intimidating and difficult – just disappeared today thanks to this new venture between Skype and Facebook. Although the Facebook application does require the downloading of software, it seems less intimidating and more user friendly than other alternatives. Plus, because so many people will be using it, it will be almost impossible to ignore.

Accessibility – With Facebook’s 750+ million users, Skype’s video chat feature will now be easily accessible by everyone – young and old. Just think about how much easier it will be for a merchant in Kansas City to talk to a factory owner in Hong Kong about a product he wants built.

I can see many brick and mortar businesses benefiting from this as well. Let’s consider a little shop that sells a special handbag. A potential customer from thousands of miles away might be more likely to initiate a chat to discuss price, styles, and shipping versus getting on a website and trying to figure it all out. For some strange reason, people like to do business with people. Imagine that!

Let’s take this a step further. What if an up and coming designer could have an easy video chat with a potential customer? How cool would it be for someone to be able to say – “Yes, it’s a great bag. I got to meet the designer on Facebook. She showed lots of different styles. It was awesome. I gave her my credit card right over Facebook and I had it the next day!” If a customer talks directly to a buyer like that, price no longer matters.

The ability for people who already do most of their sales online will dramatically benefit from this as well. By taking a couple of moments to directly connect with potential customers via Facebook video chat powered by Skype, consultants, trainers, and sales people all over the globe should be able to “seal the deal” faster and easier than ever.

The only downside I see is that I am going to have to start wearing make-up on a regular basis again. And fixing my hair. Argh. Working from home just lost a couple of it’s many benefits. However, I think that the ability to connect directly with people will pay enormous benefits – personally and professionally.

The world just got smaller. And friendlier. And a lot more connected. Thanks Skype. Thanks Facebook.

Gotta run and put on some makeup. It’s time to “meet” some of my “old” friends – people I’ve been communicating regularly with for years. I can’t wait!

How To Use It: Of course, both parties must have a webcam. (If you don’t have one, you can get a great one for less than $50 at Amazon. The one I recommend is this HD model from Logitec http://ow.ly/5y1vy – affiliate link).

There are two ways to use access this feature – via Online Chat and directly via a Personal Profile. With Online Chat, set your Facebook Chat status to “online”. Then initiate a Facebook video chat right from the Chat box. Or, go to your friend’s Personal Profile. If they are online, a “call” button will appear at the top right of their Profile Page. If your friend does not answer, you can leave a video message. Your recorded video message will be waiting in your friend’s Inbox the next time they check their messages. This article from Mashable explains more: http://mashable.com/2011/07/06/facebook-skype-video-chat-pics/

Go directly to Facebook’s page to get started: www.fb.com/videocalling

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Gina Carr is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Marketing Consultant who works with CEOs and Thought Leaders to leverage social media marketing for publicity, profits and success. Combining her street-smarts learned as a publisher and small business owner with her book-smarts learned at the Harvard Business School (MBA 1990) and Georgia Tech (BIE 1984), Gina helps business owners turn great ideas into profitable money-making machines.
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Facebook for Business – Geo-targeting Facebook Ads for Specific Geographic Areas

Facebook ads can be very challenging for most small businesses that are trying to target a small geographical area – 5-10 mil radius. You can’t target specific zip codes or “town” names if the area is unicorporated (not a city). And, you can only target other Pages that have more than 1000 fans – not typical for most small businesses.

Option 1: Try using the local high school facebook Page as your target. These usually have over 1000 fans that are in your local area. Of course, this will be mostly students but many parents will be part of this as well.

Option 2: Try targeting a local publication that serves the same area. Publications – magazines, newspapers – frequently have a lot of fans.

Option 3: Target a business that attracts a lot of young people – say a local fitness facility or popular restaurant.

Option 4: Target an incorporated area (city) that is close by.

Closely monitor your results and your budget as your campaign progresses. Tweak as necessary.

I’d love to hear your ideas on this matter. Please share your tips below.

Gina Carr is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Marketing Consultant who works with CEOs and Thought Leaders to leverage social media marketing for publicity, profits and success. Combining her street-smarts learned as a publisher and small business owner with her book-smarts learned at the Harvard Business School (MBA 1990) and Georgia Tech (BIE 1984), Gina helps business owners turn great ideas into profitable money-making machines.
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Facebook for Business – Party on the Page!

If you have a Facebook page, you know it can be tough getting participation on the page.  So, here’s an idea that you can use:  collaborate with some friends to throw a “Party on the Page!”

Here is how it could work. Recruit some friends to join you in a Closed (or even Secret) Facebook Group.  Doing so will allow you to collaborate privately – out of public view.  Then use the following guidelines that I just shared with members of one of my groups.

***************  Party on the Page – Roadmap to more Fans & More Profits ****************

1.  Each day, ONE page is designated as the – “party place” for the day.

2. The way this can be determined is that on a first come, first served basis, each
member can “submit” a page as the Party on the Page place for the day by entering the
following “reserving comment”* below the post on the page entitled:  “Party on the Page Reservations – reserve your party date below.”

“POTP Tuesday, June 14: www.fb.com/ginacarrfanpage – my own business page (or a
page that I manage, or a friend’s, etc.). Preferred posts: questions about social media –
tools, strategies, how to’s, best practices, etc.”

Facebook “mindset” is similar to throwing candy at a parade.

3. Each member will then go to the page, LIKE it and “throw candy” – post, comment,
thank, etc. Think of throwing candy at a parade – have fun, share the love, say good things,
etc.

4. To get the most “mileage” out of this for both parties, do some of your posting as one of
your pages (Post as Page). Also, do some posting as yourself personally (to draw the
bees to the honey).

5. Ideally, you will go to the page a few times during the day to “like” something and to post
a quick comment, e.g. Cool!, Absolutely!, Well said! – something short and sweet. If you
can’t go a few times, at least try to go once during that day.

6. When it is YOUR day for the POTP, repeat your reserving comment* as a POST – try to
do this before 8 am. Then, be sure to spend a lot of time on your page that day so that you
can respond to the comments.

7. When people have “participated in the party,” they should enter a comment below the
POST. If you decide that you want a different page as the POTP, you are welcome to post
something different.

8.  At this time, only post ONE page per person. When everyone who wants a turn has cycled
through, we will start over.

9.  Obviously, the more that you participate in this process, the more participation you will have
when it is your turn.

As with most of my new ideas, this is an experiment. What do you think?  Please list your POTP below and let us know how it works for you.

Gina Carr is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Marketing Consultant who works with CEOs and Thought Leaders to leverage social media marketing for publicity, profits and success. Combining her street-smarts learned as a publisher and small business owner with her book-smarts learned at the Harvard Business School (MBA 1990) and Georgia Tech (BIE 1984), Gina helps business owners turn great ideas into profitable money-making machines.
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Facebook for Business – How to "Schedule" Posts in Facebook Notes

Just Ask Gina: One of my “tribe members” recently asked:
Is there a way to write notes in advance and post them to your fan page?

The simple answer is no, there is no function for this in the Facebook Notes application.

However, here are a couple of work-arounds that will allow you to accomplish the same results.

1. You can write them in advance and SAVE them as drafts. Then, go back to Drafts and Publish when you want.

2. You can schedule the posting on your blog and have the blog feed into an application on your facebook page (like Networked blogs)

To see my post about the “Five Reasons You Should Use Facebook Notes for Posts,” click here.

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=204629422908763

Gina Carr is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Marketing Consultant who works with CEOs and Thought Leaders to leverage social media marketing for publicity, profits and success. Combining her street-smarts learned as a publisher and small business owner with her book-smarts learned at the Harvard Business School (MBA 1990) and Georgia Tech (BIE 1984), Gina helps business owners turn great ideas into profitable money-making machines.
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Facebook for Business: The Biggest Mistake People Make with Facebook Marketing

The biggest mistake I see people making on Facebook today is that they don’t make it easy for people to find them. There are new features in Facebook that make this easy to do.

The easiest way to fix this “biggest mistake” is to “link up” your Facebook Page to your Personal Profile and vice versa. Here is an example and links to “how to’s.”

This video shows how to link your Personal Profile to your Facebook Page.

This link explains the why and how to link your Facebook Page to your Personal Profile.
https://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=199063043465401

If you need help with any aspect of Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin, feel free to post on my Facebook wall at www.facebook.com/ginacarrfanpage.

Or, contact me directly at 678-653-0115 or gina at ginacarr.com. I work with businesses and individuals who want to increase their business using the latest in social media marketing.

Gina Carr is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Marketing Consultant who works with CEOs and Thought Leaders to leverage social media marketing for publicity, profits and success. Combining her street-smarts learned as a publisher and small business owner with her book-smarts learned at the Harvard Business School (MBA 1990) and Georgia Tech (BIE 1984), Gina helps business owners turn great ideas into profitable money-making machines.
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Facebook for Business – Magazine Marketing Done Right

Some people think that print magazines are a thing of the past. I don’t. I really enjoy print magazines and still prefer a print publication about subjects that interest me like marketing, speaking, success, etc.

Many magazines are struggling today because of a variety of reasons. Primarily, they don’t seem to have a real focus. They try to be all things to all people and that formula doesn’t work. Secondly, they don’t market themselves well.

Such is not the case with TownHall Magazine. Politics aside, this magazine impresses me with it’s laser focus and it’s marketing.

First of all, it caught my attention with a targeted Facebook ad asking me to vote in a straw poll for president. I clicked on the straw poll. I wouldn’t have clicked on “come look at our magazine” ad.

In order to vote, I had to submit my email and zip code – both valuable pieces of information for them in their continuing marketing efforts.

After I voted, it took me directly to a page where I had the option of going to their Facebook page or going to their actual website about the magazine.

Choosing to go to the actual website, I was presented with the option to subscribe and to watch a video.

The video was a terrific SHORT video with two people talking and a flip of their actual magazine. I’m not sure what technology was used but it was good and kept my interest going for the full 1:48 – not an easy thing to do.

The free gift with subscription was excellent because they were giving away nice hardbacks ($14-25 pricetag) with a $34.95 per year subscription offer. And, these books were totally perfect for this target audience. As we used to say in business school, they were giving away the razors to sell the razor blades (continuous consumption).

The corresponding Facebook Page is brilliant as well: dedicated to this specific focus – the straw poll, they preserved previous results by month, and the page does a great job of promoting the magazine.

So, what can your magazine – website, business, etc. – do that is directly related to your business that can generate additional traffic? What kind of “side promotion” – voting, promotion, etc. – can you do to get people to learn more about you without saying “Hey, come over here and learn more about me?”

I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Related Links:

Voting Page:

http://page.townhall.com/PresidentialStrawPoll/?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=cpa&utm_campaign=facebook

Facebook Page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Townhallcom-Presidential-Straw-Poll/114013445328868

Youtube video – intro to June 2011 issue:
http://youtu.be/o7C2_u-LtmU

Page that appears after voting: http://magazine.townhall.com/featured

Gina Carr is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Marketing Consultant who works with CEOs and Thought Leaders to leverage social media marketing for publicity, profits and success. Combining her street-smarts learned as a publisher and small business owner with her book-smarts learned at the Harvard Business School (MBA 1990) and Georgia Tech (BIE 1984), Gina helps business owners turn great ideas into profitable money-making machines.
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5 Reasons You Should Use Facebook Notes

Facebook Notes are great alternative to a simple “wall post” for many reasons. I’ll list a few of my reasons here.

1. Shelf Life – NOTES has a longer “shelf life” than a post. That is to say that it goes on your NOTES instead of being lost on your wall in “older posts” that most people never see because they just won’t keep scrolling down your wall. The NOTES section is much less cluttered.

2. Sharability – it is grab the URL of your post and share these posts over and over again. Just by going to the post and clipping the associated URL, you can re-post the NOTE on your wall or on another wall. You can also send it as private message. Obviously, you can not do that with a Wall Post.

3. Display – I frequently grab evergreen or pertinent posts and put them on my wall. I call it “putting it out on the sidewalk” – as if I had a store in a shopping center. As an “intellectual capitalist” – someone who essentially “sells” my knowledge, I need to “display” that knowledge in public often. I’ve found the Facebook Notes application works very well for that purpose.

4. Blog Replacement – Facebook Notes can become your primary “blog” if you don’t have another. If you do have another, just cut and paste your post into the Notes section. You CAN use HTML inside a post. For me, I just prepare the post in my blog and copy it into NOTES.

5. Visibility – A big reason to use Facebook Notes is that Facebook is that Facebook is currently NOT posting third-party blog apps into the News Feed. It will post them on your wall but not in your friends (or fans) News Feed. That is a big negative for third party apps.

How are you using NOTES? What are some tips you can share?

If you want to use the NOTES application, you can access it by typing Notes into your Facebook search bar. You can try this link: https://www.facebook.com/notes.php?ref=ts

Gina Carr is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Marketing Consultant who works with CEOs and Thought Leaders to leverage social media marketing for publicity, profits and success. Combining her street-smarts learned as a publisher and small business owner with her book-smarts learned at the Harvard Business School (MBA 1990) and Georgia Tech (BIE 1984), Gina helps business owners turn great ideas into profitable money-making machines.
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Facebook Groups – Old Groups are Going to LOSE all Members with Facebook Archive

I just received a notice that some of my groups with the old format will be archived soon – converted to the new groups format. This would be okay except that they say that all current group members will NOT BE carried over.

From https://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=20336

Things that will NOT be available in the archived version include:
Recent news
Group officer titles
The info box under the old group picture
The group network
The members of your old group. You can still add new members by clicking “Add Friends to Group.”
I’m very concerned about this. Facebook help says that if you convert the group on your own, you can keep your members. However, it seems impossible to convert the group.

Any ideas on this?

Example of New Group:

Example of Old Group – will be Archived, members will be lost.  As you can see, the primary distinctions of an old group are the old-style tabs, the facebook ads and the notification that the group is going to be archived – this can only be seen by the owner and administrators of the group.

Gina Carr is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Marketing Consultant who works with CEOs and Thought Leaders to leverage social media marketing for publicity, profits and success. Combining her street-smarts learned as a publisher and small business owner with her book-smarts learned at the Harvard Business School (MBA 1990) and Georgia Tech (BIE 1984), Gina helps business owners turn great ideas into profitable money-making machines.
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Facebook for Business – Get More LIKES with Magic Dust

Do you want want to get a bunch of LIKEs on Your Facebook Page?
Have you tried hard to get new “fans” but they just won’t come?
This Magic Dust is guaranteed to get you the NEW LIKES promised in the TIME FRAME Promised
or your money will be refunded to you – no questions asked!

Note – These are NOT targeted Fans/Likes. These are random and can be from anywhere in the world.
These supporters help build your credibility and your platform numbers.
Call Gina directly to get a quote on TARGETED Fans. They can be developed but will take a bit longer and cost a bit more. Each situation will have to be evaluated. In general, estimate that it will cost twice as much and take 3-4 times longer for targeted Fans.
Gina – 678-653-0115

Gina Carr is an Entrepreneur, Speaker and Marketing Consultant who works with CEOs and Thought Leaders to leverage social media marketing for publicity, profits and success. Combining her street-smarts learned as a publisher and small business owner with her book-smarts learned at the Harvard Business School (MBA 1990) and Georgia Tech (BIE 1984), Gina helps business owners turn great ideas into profitable money-making machines.