facebook - networking and ads

tell me where did i go wrong??

i have googled yes. lots of info. not on facebook in particular tho.

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@brahmin,

Quote:

It sucks that its 2010 and i dont know how to put facebook and other social networking sites to good use - apart from to make "friends".

You're not the only one. I signed up on FB and now hardly ever go there. Okay, I never visit my account. It's a crashing bore and I'm trying to figure out what people do there and why.

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but then 300 million people cant we all fools or all wrong.

maybe there is something we dont know.

also all the people who take out ads and market themselves on FB without even taking ads - cant be all wrong - they obviously know something about how to make FB useful that i dont.

i do like to hang out on FB - but i dont know how to make it useful to direct traffic , nor know how to get maximum bang for my buck, even less know how to get bang without spending bucks taking out FB ad's.

Thats what i want to know and thats why i started this thread.

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@Merry Andrew,

Merry Andrew wrote:

Quote:
It sucks that its 2010 and i dont know how to put facebook and other social networking sites to good use - apart from to make "friends".

You're not the only one. I signed up on FB and now hardly ever go there.
Okay, I never visit my account. It's a crashing bore and I'm trying to figure out
what people do there and why.

I joined it, but I 'm very, very ignorant of how to use it to good advantage.
I m not up with the times, technologically.
I wonder what is a good way to get current
and to stay current ?

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

Eh, I doubt it's going to help you in that sense.

It's handy if you have family or friends scattered all over the country, and you want a way to let them all know....hey, we got the loan, the house is ours....or.....It's a boy/girl....or....Grandpa is on his last leg, you best be callin' him.....without resorting to sending 35 emails, or making phone calls.

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Most people that have a businesses set up fan pages. It's just like a normal page, but you can add all kinds of things to it like calendars, blah blah blah. It's free.
Say you're selling widgets and would like to spread the word...start up a page, invite your friends and family to join and then wait for the word of mouth (for lack of a better word) to go viral. Check out other businesses for ideas. It can't be that hard, lots of people do it.
Why not write and ask them for details.
As for advertising... write and ask other already doing it and see if they are getting a return on the investment,

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@Ceili,

I joined it about six months ago because a good friend from childhood asked me to - but I never did anything on it really, except talk to him and I thought, 'What's the point of this ? We both have each other's e-mails, etc.'

Then this winter, when my father died, my niece (who is very up on technology) collected photos from each family member to make a montage of my dad's life put to music. It was so BEAUTIFUL! And there were photos there that'd I'd never seen before, because at this point, counting spouses and grandchildren and great-grandchildren, there were over thirty people in our family and everyone had photos of him. I coveted some of those pictures so I asked her to make copies for me.
She said, 'They're all on facebook in my family album. Go on my facebook page (she'd asked me to be her friend some time back) and right click on the photo you want and save it to your computer.' So I did - and I thought I had some wonderful photos of my dad, but now I have access to ALL the wonderful photos of my dad that anyone in the family took of him and gave to her to put in that montage.

So then I thought, 'Hey, I wonder if a lot of people put photos on facebook and I started finding old friends, or they started finding me and sure enough a lot of them post photos so if you haven't seen someone since fourth grade - you get to see what they look like now and how that little child they had that you saw when first born looks as an eighteen year old graduating from highschool- or they might have a picture of you and them from fourth grade and you get to see a picture of yourself from back then that you'd never known existed.
My friend from Peach Orchard Drive when I was nine just found me yesterday. I was telling my daughter about her and how she was the toughest tomboy of our little gang of tomboys that used to roam the woods in back of our houses, and she's all dressed up in her profile picture in an evening gown and talking about her manicure....it's been really fun. But yeah - my favorite part is the photos- seeing how people have changed, how they live now as compared to them, etc., etc.
I couldn't spend hours a day on it - but I do enjoy it more now that I know what the potential for connection can be - and I've also found it to be a easy and convenient place to organize my own photos into albums for people who would be interested - my family and friends.

I don't know anything about making ads pay though.

1 Reply

@aidan,

Some years ago, I tried to find a friend from many decades ago
in Arizona, who had what I considered to be a fairly uncommon last name.
I found a lot of citizens of Arizona with identical first n last names,
none of whom proved to be HIM.

How did u rule out imposters ?

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

Honestly David - most of the people have found me as opposed to me finding them. And this girl who found me yesterday sent me this message and it said, 'Are you the Rebecca from Peach Orchard Drive? I KNOW you are....Amazing'.... and that was it. I had thought of her every single time I'd walked by her old house whenever I was visiting my parents for the last thirty years, but I'd never have taken the initiative to look her up - silly isn't it?
But I'm glad she found me.

On facebook - if you find several people with the same name - I guess you just send out a little message like she did with me. And if someone responds, that's your guy- I guess.
Also true on facebook - the pictures are a big clue Laughing

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@aidan,

aidan wrote:

Honestly David - most of the people have found me as opposed to me finding them. And this girl who found me yesterday sent me this message and it said, 'Are you the Rebecca from Peach Orchard Drive? I KNOW you are....Amazing'.... and that was it. I had thought of her every single time I'd walked by her old house whenever I was visiting my parents for the last thirty years, but I'd never have taken the initiative to look her up - silly isn't it?
But I'm glad she found me.

On facebook - if you find several people with the same name -
I guess you just send out a little message like she did with me. And if someone responds, that's your guy- I guess.
Also true on facebook - the pictures are a big clue

Then your married name did not interfere.
We were kids when we parted company; his name also is David.
I have no idea of whether I ' d recognize him if we crossed paths in the street,
nor vice-versa.

The same thing happened when I tried to find my ex-next door neighbor,
who moved out onto Long Island in the 1960s. (I know not whether he remained there.)
His name is Joe Russo: a very common name among Italians.
I called all of them, many, many, on Long Island; none of them were him.
Thay were ALL, simultaneously, not him. (some nerve !)

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

I never changed my name. I've always identified with the name I was given and just couldn't wrap my head around becoming anyone else. I know most women have no problem with it - but I just couldn't see calling myself anything other than what I'd always known myself as.

You know the one thing I did do David, was click on this link that took all my e-mail addresses from my computer and matched them up to peoples' e-mail in facebook - it does this automatically. Then when you're 'friends' with your friends on facebook - you get to look at the list of all the people your 'friends' are friends with. And sometimes your friends have kept in touch with people that you haven't. So you can see those people, and they can see you and you can become friends again.
In other words - do you and this David person have a common friend? You can look up that person and s/he might actually have the other David's contact info.

It is sort of strange. I did that (had facebook search my e-mail contact list) and one of my very BEST friends who I've been in contact with consistently for thirty years came up as being on facebook - well, I never thought to be friends with her there, but I said, 'What the heck and clicked on her name to add her as a 'friend' and I got this message, 'Rebecca and Margaret are now friends' and I just laughed and laughed and thought, 'Yeah, it's official - Rebecca and Margaret are NOW friends' but the good thing is is that I get to see all her pictures of her and her kids now as soon as she puts them up there instead of having to wait to go to the US and go to her house, etc., etc.

Try it that way...look up a friend with a less common name who might still be in touch with your other friend.

1 Reply

@aidan,

aidan wrote:

I never changed my name. I've always identified with the name I was given and just couldn't wrap my head around becoming anyone else. I know most women have no problem with it - but I just couldn't see calling myself anything other than what I'd always known myself as.

You know the one thing I did do David, was click on this link that took all my e-mail addresses from my computer and matched them up to peoples' e-mail in facebook - it does this automatically. Then when you're 'friends' with your friends on facebook - you get to look at the list of all the people your 'friends' are friends with. And sometimes your friends have kept in touch with people that you haven't. So you can see those people, and they can see you and you can become friends again.
In other words - do you and this David person have a common friend? You can look up that person and s/he might actually have the other David's contact info.

It is sort of strange. I did that (had facebook search my e-mail contact list) and one of my very BEST friends who I've been in contact with consistently for thirty years came up as being on facebook - well, I never thought to be friends with her there, but I said, 'What the heck and clicked on her name to add her as a 'friend' and I got this message, 'Rebecca and Margaret are now friends' and I just laughed and laughed and thought, 'Yeah, it's official - Rebecca and Margaret are NOW friends' but the good thing is is that I get to see all her pictures of her and her kids now as soon as she puts them up there instead of having to wait to go to the US and go to her house, etc., etc.

Try it that way...look up a friend with a less common name who might still be in touch with your other friend.

I 'm glad that FB worked out that well for u, Rebecca,
but I 'm not that lucky to have a common friend with either David or Joe.
I wish that I did.
Thanks for the thawt.

David

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@brahmin,

2 things.

1 - Ceili has mentioned this - create a facebook fan page for your business. You join it, see if your friends will join it. This becomes somewhat viral as their friends (unrelated to you) will see the join message. But you'll need to give it some content, e. g. photos, discussions, coupons, links to a blog (yes, you should have a blog) something (I have no idea what business you're in). Keep up with it at least once/week. Blogging should also happen about once/week, even if your posts are short.

2 - twitter. Get on it and use it. Similar kind of thing but you want to be short, sweet and to the point. E. g.

Website redesign today - let me know what you think <link>
40% off today only - here's the coupon code <link>
Interesting article about the business <link>
Looking for a Ruby on Rails Developer. DM me.
Questions about the site? Ask away! <link>
Guest blogger today <link>
Today I met @someothertwitteruser who was very helpful. Thanks!

Etc. etc.

The idea is, these are small nuggets of information, released on a daily basis. Many of them are calls to action to bring people to the site or to your twitter page. And do the same in reverse; make it easy on your site for people to follow you on twitter and facebook.

But you need to give them a reason to follow you.

One company that does this extremely well -- and you wouldn't think they do -- is CVS. Their specials and coupons are on twitter. You just friend them and you get the info on the specials.

In short, a quickie social media strategy:
- create and update a blog 1x/week. It can be about the business and its development, or just a repository for interesting articles.
- create and update a facebook fan page for your business 1x/week. Similar kind of thing. Decent content can be just a link to your blog, BTW.
- create a twitter account and use it. Update it every day. One of those days, the update can just be a link to your latest blog post.

And, yes, I'm trying to do this for a living - these kinds of activities are something I've been observing a lot, and they seem to work. Just as importantly, they're all free.

1 Reply

@jespah,

jespah wrote:

2 things.

1 - Ceili has mentioned this - create a facebook fan page for your business. You join it, see if your friends will join it. This becomes somewhat viral as their friends (unrelated to you) will see the join message. But you'll need to give it some content, e. g. photos, discussions, coupons, links to a blog (yes, you should have a blog) something (I have no idea what business you're in). Keep up with it at least once/week. Blogging should also happen about once/week, even if your posts are short.

2 - twitter. Get on it and use it. Similar kind of thing but you want to be short, sweet and to the point. E. g.

Website redesign today - let me know what you think <link>
40% off today only - here's the coupon code <link>
Interesting article about the business <link>
Looking for a Ruby on Rails Developer. DM me.
Questions about the site? Ask away! <link>
Guest blogger today <link>
Today I met @someothertwitteruser who was very helpful. Thanks!

Etc. etc.

The idea is, these are small nuggets of information, released on a daily basis. Many of them are calls to action to bring people to the site or to your twitter page. And do the same in reverse; make it easy on your site for people to follow you on twitter and facebook.

But you need to give them a reason to follow you.

One company that does this extremely well -- and you wouldn't think they do -- is CVS. Their specials and coupons are on twitter. You just friend them and you get the info on the specials.

In short, a quickie social media strategy:
- create and update a blog 1x/week. It can be about the business and its development, or just a repository for interesting articles.
- create and update a facebook fan page for your business 1x/week. Similar kind of thing. Decent content can be just a link to your blog, BTW.
- create a twitter account and use it. Update it every day. One of those days, the update can just be a link to your latest blog post.

And, yes, I'm trying to do this for a living - these kinds of activities are something I've been observing a lot, and they seem to work.
Just as importantly, they're all free.

If thay r FREE, then how can u do it for a living? Where does the $$ come from?

What does "DM" mean?

David

1 Reply

@OmSigDAVID,

DM = direct message. It's Twitter's equivalent of an A2K private message.

And you can do it for a living by working for a company that advertises this way (and, presumably, other ways).

The "doing it for a living" part is for working for a company that needs a social media strategy, such as Brahmin's company, or A2K or Nestle or Toyota or anywhere else. Facebook and Twitter are just two small ways of putting yourself out there, and they happen to be free.

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@jespah,

I see; thank u.

David

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fantastic inputs. all of them, esp jespah's 'cos i was trying to know that. how to use it for directing traffic to my website, and/or give out the latest info about my biz.

would you also recommend orkut, myspace, stumble and other social networking sites etc? how about craiglist?? do i have to list my services city by city or is there a way to advertise in all us cities ?? any other free internet/viral means people can suggest??

i already have a website enlisting my services - so do i still need a blog?? how about using my facebook page as the blog? i want to use everything thats free and viral - the works - so in my website, there is a feature to email our services to some one you think could use our services. also a way to send info about our website to your facebook, orkut, digg, stumble, twitter etc page. then there is also search engine submission. any other tips?

1 Reply

@brahmin,

Digg, stumbleupon, etc. are good but you should be submitting content that isn't just what belongs to you. Otherwise they'll eventually see you as a spammer. Also, don't submit every single thing to every single one of those sites. But make it possible for your readers to do so (there are widgets you can get which say something like "share this" and have links to redditt, etc. Put one of those up.).

I think blogs are good because you can elaborate, whereas on a Facebook page I'm not so sure how much people will read beyond a paragraph or two. Plus with a blog you can syndicate it. Get subscribers and that'll give you an idea of who might want to convert (e. g. buy from you). I realize it's more work, particularly if you're a one-man shop, but it's another channel, another way for people to find you.

I've just finished reading Web Analytics 2.0 by Avinash Kaushik, and I gotta say I am a total convert to the idea of analyzing your website from the very beginning. http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2009/11/web-analytics-2-0-avinash-kaushik.html Get good data about your site and you won't need to guess about what works.

1 Reply

@jespah,

thanks.

have you or anyone here read "e-myth revisited" and "pyro marketing" ??

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