Do business owners take Facebook seriously?

So Facebook has been established as a beast in the marketing world. Its nearly perfect for a small business to get some real exposure for free other than a little key tapping. But the question is do these people take Facebook seriously as an effective form of advertising. Now I can easily start naming off multiple examples of businesses that have success with Facebook but I don't think thats going to change the non believers minds. I think the main reason that people don't want to get involved with Facebook is because its unfamiliar.
Lets just lay it all out on the table...... I'm young and I have grown up with the dawning of all the new wonderful technology. A lot of small business owners are older and they grew up in a world much different then mine. Now I'm not saying that all oder people are effected by this but a large majority are. So if I was in they're shoes I would also be hesitant to use a unfamiliar form of advertising to represent my business that I have poured my life into. It seems like a recipe for disaster so they stick to the tried and true. Tried and true, Lets think about that..... Just because its tried and true doesn't mean its the most effective way to go about it. Sure its effective to some extent but in order to really get the business where it needs to be they need some cutting edge forms of advertising.
Facebook has proven it self as the king of effective advertising for businesses. Facebook is effective for small business & large business. Facebook is the most effective way to advertise, target consumers, and get your name out there for FREE.

HOW TO: Setup an effective face book page.

Okay okay, I know what your thinking. I keep talking about these social networks but "how do I set my page up?"

Step 1- Log on to http://www.facebook.com/login.php?m2w , this is the login screen. All the way at the bottom of the page it says "advertising" click that link.

Step 2- You should see a page that gives you some idea as to why your creating a page. If you want you can read both the overview tab and the case study tab. After your done reading you can a link in the text of the overview tab that says "facebook page" This is what you going to need to click. Yet again you will come to a page assuring you that making a page is a great idea. At the top right corner you can find a green button that says "create page"....click that. Then you will find your self with a few options, community page or official page. If this is for a business then choose the official page. The choices are self explanatory, but when it comes to the page name I suggest it would be named after your business so that fans and customers can easily find it. Now on to the creating!

Step 3- Now your going to have to get dirty and make the page jive with your business. Make sure that you have plenty of ways for the customer to contact you....e-mail is a must! Also your best bet for your profile picture is a business logo of your own. This assures that you are establishing a professional appearance. Next you will want to add some custom tabs to your page if needed but don't go crazy with the tabs because out will make the page less appealing to the eye. And we want people staying on your page not just clicking through. My suggestion after you have your page setup is to send it out to some close friends and ask what they think about it, If all is well then on to step 4.

Step 4- Add fans! I would start by inviting people who you have friended on you personal profile. If you don't have many friends then what are you waiting for this is a social network. Once you have established a nice fan base them its time to promote.

Step 5- Promote. The best ways to do this is through contest, giveaways,& discounts. An example of a good give away promotion is this- what ever your business offers is what your consumer wants. So find an item that you can afford to giveaway and offer it to the consumer.....but wait! There is a hitch, they must like the post to be entered to win the giveaway. Once they have entetered 3 will picked from the group. Now make a poll on your page with the 3 users and tell them they're friends must come to the page and like it, then vote for their favorite contestant. What rusts going to do is have them sending and posting links like crazy to win the votes. Your best bet would be to choose 3 with the most amount of friends and are the most active.

Tip: Post often and dont repeat things over and over. You will sound like a robot and robots are not social.

Check back soon for tips on managing you page and more, dont forget to follow to get all your updates on cutting edge small business advertising.

Superbowl advertisers jump on the Social media wagon

Millions of dollars are spent every year by companies for 30 second spots during the superbowl. The super bowl could be called the king of all advertising spots easily. This year the advertisers realize that social media is the future and they are not.going to miss out. Kia, Mercedes, Audi, & Volkswagon are all using unique social media campaigns to get a chunk of the social media pie. That's right, the big dogs are using the exact social networks that you an sign up for today for FREE!!!
Advertisers are expected to spend 55% more money in 2011 on social network advertising then they did in 2010. They are doing this for plain and simple reasons......its on its way to the top of effective advertising.

Bottom line is that you can have a bigger price of the pie for free right NOW...what are you waiting for?

Yet another reason why traditional advertising is losing effectiveness

Yahoo released these stats recently


..... what it says is that 86% of people use mobile phones during they're t.v time. What that says to me is that 86% of people are looking at they're phones during commercials! 86% of people would be effected by internet and mobile advertising better then high cost commercials!
What does that mean for businesses, Particularly small businesses? It means that these people need to be utilizing internet marketing,mobile marketing, and social marketing better! Now this one is going to be short because im going to let you cogitate.

Small business advertising with a home based business

Why would my home based business be more effective than these other advertising companies in my area? Well first we need to understand how important advertising for small businesses is. Think about how programmed we are by the major businesses. I think groceries I think walmart, I think tires I think sears, I think a burger I think mcdonalds. So if these small businesses are not using effective advertising then they are not reaching they're potential. So let me ask you how does walmart advertise? Sales ads for the older demographic's, television for the tv watchers, and of you remember black friday......INTERNET! So they have gotten all bases covered. Small business advertising in my area uses the radio, and ads in the paper. Now I want to get one thing straight, I think those are great ways to advertise but who only want a piece of the pie when they could have the whole thing.
This is what im after in small business advertising. Giving the small businesses a bigger piece of pie. There are some businesses using internet marketing but I still believe that's ineffective. Think about your junk mail, there is a cry good chance that it is a product you use and love but when you get advertising e-mails all the time you do the glance-select-delete. That's not a very effective form of small business advertising. I love my cell phone and I work with a small business Verizon premium retailer for all my needs. But I don't buy a cell phone or cell phone accessories every week so I ignore they're e-mails. In my opinion the #1 rule of advertising is that your market shouldn't know they're being advertised to. Im not shoving these ads down they're throat im gently placing them in they're hands. Peoplelike this because it makes them feel warm and fuzzy.
The content of the website and newsletter are going to be the key to tie home based business. I want to provide businesses a chance to talk about they're industry and what's current via video to the customers. So different industries will be able to be specific on why the consumer should be shopping there. I also plan to do some things that will be intresting to people and not focused on advertising. I want to plan out some trips forpeople to give them an idea of things to do locally. These trips will have tips, travel times, and 3 teirs of fuel usage stats. Highlighting local charitable events is another thing that's important to me so of course ill be doing free advertising for those events. I want to have a section that's contains information about your pets. I want a section about fitness. I want lots of good news that is all created locally.

Self-employment & Working at home

So you want to start a business in your home office? Great! That's the first step to owning a small business. Working from home usually means less start up costs and more time with your family. But it can also mean big time success for a small business.
Most small home businesses are typically Internet based whether it be E-commerce drop shipping or running your very own websites and advertising on them. If your running an Internet based business its safe to say your pretty tech savvy and you probably are having great success with Internet marketing.
But most non Internet based small local business establishments are not utilizing these tools and they are going to experience a major loss in prospects for they're products. So why not take these non Internet based companies and take the idea and success of the Internet home businesses and let them unite? Imagine a small home based Internet business that used its power of the Internet and its ability to target specific demographics to assist the non Internet based local guys and help them connect to they're future consumers?
I know I'm kind of repeating my self on this one but I just want to we're some ideas in here for the purpose of recording and sharing them in a bit more detail.
Okay so the base is a home office based business that plans to use forms of advertising such as video sponsers, flash animation and logo placement ads, anchor words can be purchased, the idea of possibly applications for iPhone and android devices, web forum advertising on a forum I plan to launch for locals and local business owners, and lastly the ability to buy the largest form of ads that will place a select few on major things such as a company car, t-shirts, sweat shirts,.caps, stickers etc..... of course all of this is completley useless if I can't get people interested in my idea. So the forms ill be using are similar to the ways I plan to advertise for the businesses bit it will take a bit more marketing finesse to get people interested in something they have never heard. So somethings I plan to do are mostly involved with getting involved with the community with some charities (which I plan to do on a regular basis ) and going out to local events and getting the word out to people the good old fashioned way. I love internet marketing but to much gives a a robotic feel so a little quality face time puts some teddy bear back on the mix.....plus I like people and I like to chat.
So once again the focus of this business is to help locals connect with local small businesses using the most current forms of advertising. All advertising will be done inderectly which means I wont be cramming emails and ads down your throat. I will have QUALITY content that WILL be interesting to the audience that happens to have advertisements for people to view.