Facebook Advertising

Facebook Marketing: As a Marketing Tool

2011-04-15T07:46:00.000-07:00

Today, Facebook is one of the hottest social networking websites available in the internet. Here, you will be able to keep in touch with your friends as well as your relatives and even meet new friends and build new relationships. With all the tools and applications that Facebook has to offer, you will see that it is a lot of fun and it will definitely provide a great way for you to interact with other people with accounts on Facebook.

However, you have to consider the fact that Facebook is not only a website that you can use to connect with your friends. It is also a tool that you can use to market the products and services you offer. If you have an online business or you are an internet marketer, you will see that Facebook is the perfect place to market in the internet.

With over 62 million subscribers from all over the world, you will see that this website is truly the internet marketer's dream. So, here are some tips that you can use in order to use Facebook at its full potential and let it help you make a lot of money.

The first thing that you need to remember is that once you have a Facebook account, you might want to fill out your profile. Don’t just include your name, age and other basic things, but you need to really fill your profile page. You need to remember that the best profile is often a profile that is fully completed.

Once you establish your network, just don’t stay in that circle. Try to interact with other people within your industry. This is a great way to build new relationships and is also a great way to market your products or services as well as your business website. To do this, you might want to join groups related to your profession. This way, you will be able to meet people that are also interested in what you have to offer.

You have to remember that Facebook is all about connecting and interacting with other members. So, you shouldn’t be shy. Try interacting with other members. Once you establish a relationship, then you will be able to expand your network and improve your marketing strategy.

In internet marketing, getting targeted traffic is the key to success. If you have a Facebook profile page, you might want to make a unique profile page in order to catch other people's attention. Try adding some applications, such as games and add some videos as well as syndicate your blog website using RSS. By doing these things, you will be able to provide people with lots of fun things to do in your profile page.

These are some of the things that you need to do in order to successfully market in Facebook. Always remember that getting people to view your profile page is the key to success in Facebook marketing. Through these tips, you can be sure that you will get a lot of viewers in your profile page and increase the chances of getting them in your business website or get them to buy your products or services.

Remember these tips, and you will see that you will be able to become successful in marketing in Facebook. Always remember that you need to work hard in order for you to become successful in Facebook.

How You Can Advertise In Facebook

2011-04-15T07:45:00.000-07:00

As an owner of an online business, you know that you need to market your website in the internet in order for you to generate targeted traffic. You have to remember that in order for an online business to become a success, targeted traffic is the key. With targeted traffic, you will be able to increase sales and also continue to increase the amount of people entering your website.

Internet marketing is a hard thing to do. You will need to work hard in order for you to effectively attract targeted traffic in your website. However, if you want an easier way to market your business website in the internet, you might want to consider marketing on Facebook.

First of all, Facebook is a social networking website that now has over 62 million active subscribers from all over the world. Most subscribers in Facebook are in the 18-25 demographics. So, if your business is targeting people between the ages of 18-25, Facebook is the perfect place to market your website.

So, how will you be able to market your website in Facebook?

Unlike other social networking websites, Facebook will be able to offer you a lot of tools that you can use in order to market your products or services as well as your business website more effectively and efficiently. With the number of people subscribing to Facebook each day, you will definitely generate a lot of targeted traffic to your website.

In Facebook, there are quite a lot of ways to market your products or services. In Facebook marketing, advertising is by far the most common way to market in Facebook.

Here, you will be able to purchase mass banner ads. You can also use flyers targeted to specific people. These flyer advertising can be purchased for as little as 5 dollars and it is already featured in the website.

If you are interested in advertising to featured groups or promotions, then you can take advantage of what is called Next Steps. This tool can be inserted in your homepage with links to a corresponding sponsored group.

You can also embed ads within your homepage's news feeds.

Another way to advertise in Facebook is through word of mouth. Try asking your network of friends in Facebook if they are willing to advertise for you in their own network of friends in Facebook. Here, they will be the ones doing the advertising for you by recommending your products or services as well as your Facebook profile page and business website to their Facebook network.

You have to remember that word of mouth marketing is one of the best marketing strategies available. Try to remember that people are three to four times likely to buy a particular product or service if it is recommended by someone they know.

You can also market your products, services and business website on the notes section in Facebook. This particular tool acts almost like a blog. When you write or post something on the notes section, it will be sent out to all of your friend's news feeds, which can be read by other people. This is a great way to get messages across.

These are some of the great ways to market on Facebook. By using some of these tools, you can be sure that you will be able to attract more people to visit your Facebook profile page and let them know what you have to offer.

Using Facebook as an Online Marketing Tool

2011-04-15T07:44:00.001-07:00

Social networking websites are becoming more and more popular each day. Websites like these are primarily used as a social utility that will enable people to connect with other people. With Facebook, you will be able to connect with friends, acquaintances, and with other people who you study and live with.

One social networking website that is very popular among many people today is Facebook. With Facebook, you will be able to get your very own profile page where you can upload an unlimited amount of photos, share videos, and also a place where you will let people viewing a little about you.

Although this is a great social networking site that will enable you to keep in touch with your friends and acquaintances as well as meet new people and make new friends, it is also a website that made a lot of internet marketers drool.

With over 62 million active subscribers and still continuing to grow, you know that this place is the place to market.

If you own a business and you are reaching for an 18 to 25 demographic to sell your products, you will see that Facebook will be able to provide you with your target customers. Most subscribers here are aged between 18 and 25, which is called the "tech-savvy youth audiences".

With Facebook, you will not only target your ads on specific regions and universities, but you will also be able to get your fair share of audience. Here, you will see that when you join, you will be able to readily use tools that can really help you advertise your products and services.

You can customize your profile in order to make it unique and attract your target audience and you can also post blogs and even syndicate your blog page using RSS. If you have video ads about your products or services, you can post it here on Facebook as well.

When you register with Facebook, you can also add friends. Try adding as much as you can and establish some relationship. If you already know someone who uses Facebook, add them and try to get them to promote the products or services you offer.

This is one great feature of Facebook. With it, you will be able to get people who are connected to your network to advertise for you. This way, you will see that you will be able to market your product more effectively by getting people in other network know about your products or services.

Another great tool that you can use in Facebook is the ability to let you add applications in your profile page. Here, you will be able to add games and other applications in your profile page, which can be great in attracting other people to visit your profile page.

As you can see, Facebook will be able to create a great potential in internet marketing. The website already has the numbers in terms of traffic, and it also has the tools necessary for you to market your products or services effectively.

It is just a matter of knowing how to use these tools and also know how to effectively market your products or services. By creating a great profile page in Facebook, you can be sure that you will be able to attract a lot of targeted traffic.

Facebook Marketing: The Perfect Place for Your Online Advertising

2011-04-15T07:43:00.001-07:00

Facebook is a word that has become a part of today's vocabulary. So, just what is it and what can it do for you?

Basically, Facebook is a social networking website where you will be able to interact with other people online. Facebook is some sort of small online community where you will be able to make new friends as well as keep in touch with your old friends and your relatives.

Facebook today has over 62 million active subscribers and is continuing to grow. For advertisers or internet marketers, this kind of numbers is hard to pass up. With so many people in one place at one time, you will see that this website will definitely be a dream-come-true for internet marketers.

If you own a business and you want to expand the amount of customers you get, you have to consider that the internet is the place where you will be able to find more people to buy your products or services.

If you are ever planning to market your business on the internet, you might want to try out Facebook. This website will be able to give you a huge potential in expanding your business. It already has everything and all you need to do is know how to effectively use its tools in order to market your products and services effectively.

First, it already has the traffic you need. Facebook has over 62 million active subscribers. With the amount of people logging in and out on a daily basis, you know that this particular website will be able to generate traffic for you. You don’t need to work hard in order to let people know about your website as the traffic is already here at Facebook. With all kinds of people from different backgrounds and lifestyle, you will be able to find your target niche here at Facebook.

Another thing that Facebook can give you is the tools. Here, you will be able to upload your videos as well as photos. It will enable you to personalize your Facebook page in order to make it unique and stand out from the rest of the different Facebook pages. It will also let you syndicate your blogs and website through RSS and will let you post on bulletins to announce or advertise your products, services and new events.

Facebook has it all. All you need to do is create a profile that will appeal to your target niche and start adding friends and fans. Also, you will be able to join groups in Facebook. It can be groups containing members of your target niche and it can also be groups of internet marketers where you will be able to help each other out advertise your business or your products and services.

These are the things that Facebook can provide. As you can see, it will be able to give you a great way to market your products or services. With Facebook, you can be sure that it will be able to provide you with more targeted traffic to your official business website and it will also help you advertise. In fact, the members themselves can advertise your Facebook page for free.

So, the next time you want to market your business or your products or services, you might want to try visiting Facebook. Here, marketing is easy, free, and lots of fun.

Facebook Marketing: A Unique Marketing Opportunity

2011-04-15T07:42:00.001-07:00

In November 2006, Facebook Pages were released as an advertising platform. Before its launch, internet marketers simply purchased ads to promote their products and services. However, thanks to Facebook, internet marketers now have a way to have an entirely unique opportunity to market products or services.

The great thing about Facebook Pages is that it is designed to encourage brand loyalty. Once you have a satisfied customer, they will be able to visit repeatedly and become fans of your business. In fact, people visiting can even write what they think of your products or services on your page's "wall".

You will now be able to build a presence on Facebook for your business rather than just merely creating or posting a short advertisement. Facebook Pages encourages people to visit and spread the word to encourage other people to do the same.

The person who owns the business will also be able to encourage interaction to other members by posting photos, videos and even participating in group discussions. You can also send updates to your "fans" about the new things that you are offering. You can also add different kinds of applications, which will further encourage repeated visits and encourage more people to join your group or become a fan of your page.

Basically, Facebook encourages word of mouth advertising.

The great thing about Facebook is that you can do all these things for free. From adding applications to syndicating blogs through RSS, you will see that you will be able to advertise for free.

So, aside from being free, what's so great about Facebook?

With over 62 million active subscribers in Facebook and continuing to grow, you will see that it will definitely be worth your time to advertise in Facebook. With figures like this, every internet marketer knows that this will provide a great marketing opportunity.

Also, Facebook will let you interact with other people. You can make new friends as well as encourage them to advertise for you. With its highly interactive features, you will see that advertising will be a lot easier in Facebook.

These are the things that you should remember about Facebook. Because it also lets you interact with other people rather than just let you advertise you can be sure that you will be able to get more targeted traffic in to your website. And with more targeted traffic, the more potential your business will have in making more money.

These are the things that you need to remember about Facebook marketing. As you can see, it presents a new and unique way of marketing online. Through Facebook, you will be able to get more people to buy from you.

Always remember that you have to create a great profile page in Facebook in order for you to attract a lot of viewers. Also, you need to add people as your friends in order to extend your network and get more people to visit your Facebook page.

Remember these tips and you can be sure that you will be able to get your business to grow. With Facebook marketing, advertising will be a lot easier, and more fun to do as well as more effective. So, the next time you want to advertise the products or services you offer in the internet, you might want to join Facebook. Here, advertising is effective and free.

Facebook Marketing: Tips for Success

2011-04-15T07:41:00.001-07:00

Nowadays, there are tons of social networking websites available in the internet. Here, you will be able to keep in touch with your friends, find long lost relatives, and even make new friends. However, social networking isn't just what you can get from Facebook.

Because of its popularity, a lot of people are now taking advantage of Facebook as a website that they can use to market their business or their products and services.

There are quite a lot of social networking websites that you can join today. However, if you really want to join one of the best sites for marketing your products or services or really generate targeted traffic for your website, then Facebook is your best possible choice.

Facebook is considered by a lot of people as the best place to go to when it comes to marketing and networking. With over 62 million active subscribers, you will see that it will definitely have the potential in increasing your sales.

The great thing about Facebook is that it will be able to provide you with tools that can be used to effectively market your products and services. However, you need to know how to effectively use the tools in order for you to really fully take advantage of the website.

So, here are some tips that can help you use Facebook to market your products and services for free.

The first tip is that you need to make a great profile. With a great profile, you will be able to attract more people to view it. More viewers will mean more people will be able to know about the products or service you are offering. Try to use Facebook as part of your branding and try to include a photo of you. Also, include your contact information, your website address, work experience, personal interest and your education. Always remember that a complete profile is the best way to go in Facebook.

When you are already a member of Facebook, try adding friends. You have to remember that Facebook is a social networking website where you will need to make friends and build relationships. The more relationships you build in Facebook, the more effective your marketing efforts will be. The great thing about Facebook is that you will be able to see friends of your friends. By building an extensive network of friends, you will be able to boost your marketing efforts in no time at all.

You can also join groups or create your own group. In Facebook, there are different kinds of groups that you can join. You can try joining groups that have the similar interest such as yours. Or, you can try joining groups for coaches, wealth building and marketing experts. By joining or creating your own group in Facebook, you will be able to make hundreds of contacts that can help you in letting your business grow.

You may also want to syndicate your blog using RSS. In Facebook, it is possible for you to place your blog in your profile through RSS. With this feature, you will be able to let people read your blogs and boost your marketing efforts. With increased number of readers, you will get more leads which also mean more business.

These are just some of the things that you can do in Facebook to effectively market your website or your business. Through these tips, you will see that you will be able to increase traffic and get more businesses.

Facebook Marketing: The Tools To Reach Out To More Clients

2011-04-15T07:40:00.003-07:00

First of all, Facebook is a social networking website that was primarily designed for use for Ivy League college students. However, because of the interactive tools that it can offer, it is now widely available for many people from different parts of the world. Whichever college or school you go to and wherever you are, you will now be able to join Facebook.

With Facebook, you will now be able to keep in touch with your friends as well as make new friends. However, the best thing about Facebook is probably its tools that you can use to market your business. Facebook is now one of the most popular websites today. With over 62 million active members from all over the world and still growing, you will see that this website is now somewhat of a large community.

You will see different people here from all walks of life.

With this figures, you will see that it will have the potential in providing you a way to market your products or services. It has tons of traffic and a lot of potential in providing your website with more targeted traffic.

You may ask why Facebook became one of the best places to market on the internet. Basically, Facebook is different from other social networking websites. Unlike other social networking websites, you will see that Facebook will be able to offer you different kinds of useful applications or tools that you can use to market your products or services. The applications on Facebook will let you market your products or services far more effectively than the available tools in most social networking websites.

By adding applications in your Facebook page, such as games, groups, and quizzes, you will be able to get people to view your Facebook page and help you market your products or services. The best thing about the application is that it is free.

Facebook is definitely a great place in the internet to market in. With the ability to drive targeted traffic to your website, you can be sure that you will be able to have lots of fun marketing your products. You have to consider the fact that Facebook is about networking. If a particular person in your friends list loved your products, they will most likely tell their friends in their Facebook friends list about the product and encourage them to purchase from you.

This is how Facebook marketing basically works. You'll be surprised as to how many people will be quite interested in what you have to offer. You have to remember that targeted traffic is the key to internet marketing. If you are marketing your products or services in Facebook, you can be sure that you will be able to get a lot of targeted traffic in your business website.

So, the next time you plan on marketing on the internet, you might want to join Facebook. It's free, it's easy, and it's a lot of fun. With Facebook, you will really have great time marketing and also profit from it at the same time.

With Facebook, internet marketing is easier and a lot cheaper than ever before. Remember these things and you will be able to see how much potential Facebook will be able to provide your business with.

Facebook: An Effective Tool to Increase Your Sales

2011-04-15T07:40:00.001-07:00

Today, the internet is one of the most popular places for businesses to advertise in. Every website you visit, you will see that there will be advertising everywhere. This is called internet marketing.

If you have a business of your own and you want to effectively market your products or services, you will see that the internet will be one huge bulletin board that you can advertise in. Here, you will be able to virtually advertise anything and it is open for 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

With hundreds of millions of people visiting the internet on a daily basis from all over the world, you can be sure that advertising here will definitely increase your sales.

One great website that you may want to concentrate your online advertising campaign on is Facebook. Today, this social networking website is now considered to be one of the largest social networking websites existing. Here, you will see that over 62 million people are now active members and are still continually increasing.

With figures like this, you know that it will provide you with a very big opportunity to increase your sales and your profit. In fact, it is so huge that large companies or corporations are now marketing on Facebook.

Basically, Facebook is a social networking website. Once you join, you will be able to find your friends who are also a member and add them to your list. This will create a small group of your friends and it will enable you to view their profiles and know more about them and vice versa. You can even send and receive messages as well as comments.

Also, you will be able to post on bulletins that your friends will be able read.

These are the things that you can do with Facebook. It is basically the fastest growing social networking websites today. Because of this, a lot of people have started marketing on Facebook. The great thing about Facebook marketing is that it provides a free and easy way to promote products and services. With the included tools in Facebook, you will be able to take advantage of it, such as the Stumble Upon and Digg buttons to promote your website or your products and services.

This is a great way to generate targeted traffic to your website and it will enable you to increase the potential in selling your products and services as well as increase the volume of sales.

Because Facebook is available for people from all over the world, your business will be able to reach out to more people if you advertise on Facebook.

In today's ever competitive business world, you know that you need to use every tool available in order to get ahead of your competitors. So, the next time you are thinking about marketing your business online, you might want to try marketing in Facebook. Here, you will be able to reach out to more people and it is also easy to do so and the best thing about it is that it's free.

With Facebook, you will definitely be able to efficiently market your business. Marketing in Facebook is free, easy, and fun.

These are the things that you need to remember whenever you want to try marketing online. Try joining Facebook and you will see the potential on letting it help your business grow.

Facebook Marketing: Starting an Online Business

2011-04-15T07:39:00.001-07:00

The newest trend in the internet today is joining one of the many social networking websites. Here, you will be able to keep in touch with your old friends as well as your relatives and you will also be able to make new friends as well as meet new people. With social networking websites, you will see that it will make the world a smaller place.

One social networking website that is so popular among many people from all over the world is Facebook. In this website, you will be able to post your pictures, discuss your interests and hobbies as well as do other great things.

In the past, Facebook was restricted to Harvard College students. In time, it expanded to other schools and universities until it became available for everyone above the age of 13 from different parts of the world.

Presently, the Facebook website now has more than 62 million active users worldwide.

Now, if you have an online business, you will see that Facebook can significantly help you promote your website and your business. Facebook marketing is now one of the hottest trends among online entrepreneurs today. Just think about it, with over 62 million active users worldwide, you will definitely have a lot of potential clients to do business with.

Because of the amount of people joining Facebook, a lot of online business owners are now joining this social networking website in order to market their products or services. With Facebook, you will definitely be able to effectively market your website.

The great thing about Facebook today is that anyone will now be able to join it. Whether you are a college student or you are an entrepreneur looking for a niche market, Facebook is the place that you should go to.

In fact, Facebook is now very popular that it is now investing a lot of money for advertising in order to attract more people to join. With this kind of benefit, you will see the potential on what your business can have.

Facebook as well as other social networking websites are now just beginning to see its full potential.

Today, you will see that Facebook has now launched its Facebook Ads system that will allow you and other fellow business owners to formally advertise your products and services. You have to consider the fact that people are three to five times more likely buy a particular product if their friends recommend it. If you advertise in Facebook, you will be able to increase your sales.

Facebook is now very popular that it now contains ads for big corporations, such as Microsoft, Coca-Cola and other companies.

So, if you are thinking about marketing online for your business and you want to increase your company's sales, then you may want to try out Facebook. Here, you will be able to increase the advertising potential for your company. Also, you will be able to reach out to more people as well as get a niche market for your products and services.

So, if you think that online advertising or marketing is not working for you, you might want to try out marketing on Facebook. Here, you will be able to see how effective marketing is by using this one of a kind social networking website and you will be able to increase your sales.

Eight Billion Reasons Yahoo Didn't Buy Facebook

2011-04-15T07:12:00.003-07:00

For much of the year, Facebook had been in negotiation to sell itself to Yahoo. The market value of the "instant behemoth" social service sites has fluctuated, as services both large and small have changed hands this year. The first big acquisition was Newscorp's purchase of MySpace for $580 million in 2005. That set a benchmark, which was driven upward somewhat by the NBC Universal purchase of women's online network iVillage for $600 million earlier this year.

Social networking sites typically allow users to create and share blogs, pictures and videos with friends and the wider public. What makes Facebook different from MySpace? Its founder(s) set out to create a social networking site that is designed for post-high school users. It connects people by region, college, company and high school.

Build a personal profile and connect with others that are sharing your life experience as opposed to your social, entertainment and artistic interests, which are the focal points in MySpace. Facebook attempted to blend a little maturity into the energized chaos found on MySpace, and they have been successful. Their current membership is somewhere north of ten million - compared to the 145 million that MySpace claims.

The MySpace inclusion of 'artist pages' allows artists working in audio and video mediums to freely distribute media from within a social network. It has become a central feature of the network. Artist pages exist alongside individual profiles, and in addition to the regular profile features they allow the artists to upload media and distribute it in the network. Individuals can link to artist pages, endorse media, and participate as fans. This feature resulted in bands using the site to promote their music, one of the dynamics of the site that has made it so successful.

Facebook's orientation around actual communities makes it much more efficient as a connectivity tool. You can connect to anyone within your group and you can search for people across the entire Facebook spectrum. Specific interest areas are much more easily brought into focus and it is easier to build a group around them. The big question for Facebook is its relevance past the college years. The question for MySpace will be its ability to undergo a little maturation in the form of advertising and control of commercial video and music posting.

In the marketplace Facebook has had several suitors on its dance card, having held negotiations with both Microsoft and Viacom over the past year. Microsoft has in fact signed a deal with Facebook whereby Microsoft will sell and provide banner ads and sponsored links for Facebook using its adCenter online advertising software. Some medial analysts dismiss this deal as minor, citing banner adds as passé and sponsored posts as an advertising method that is showing some age as well.

In the Google corner, the company has announced a deal with MySpace to pay at least $900 million in shared advertising revenue and become the site's sole search provider. As part of the deal, Fox Interactive Media will add Google search boxes to MySpace and its other web sites. Google has first crack at selling any display ads Fox doesn't sell directly. Google has shown an ability to work partnership agreements and a willingness to settle for a piece of the action that has served them well in the feinting and blocking that occurs in the Internet consolidation ring.

Google's purchase of YouTube ratcheted up the pressure on Yahoo to close the deal. It's worth noting that Google bought YouTube with Google stock - a choice that was not open to Yahoo in their Facebook negotiations. Earlier this summer Yahoo decided that Facebook was too expensive at $1 billion and in July, came close to closing an agreement at the $800 million figure. The reported high offer of just over 1.6 billion was rejected, and now Facebook claims it isn't for sale, but if it was, it's worth at least 8 billion.

From a financial/cultural perspective, Yahoo had a lot on the line with this acquisition because it would have significantly reshaped the portal's efforts to establish and hold a Yahoo "community." In one Yahoo corner or another, many of the features contained in both MySpace and FaceBook can be found already as Yahoo proprietary components. What is missing is the packaging and the social cachet that both social networking services hold for young people.

Yahoo has built a strategy of drawing Internet users and advertising through building community-based services on the Web, but acquisitions so far have been on a small scale. Recently Yahoo has acquired Bix, MyBlogLog and Kenet Works. Bix and MyBlogLog are built along social networking lines, and will work (hopefully) as a complement to Yahoo's current properties: Flickr, Delicious, Upcoming and WebJay. All of these have slightly different orientations: FLickr is photo-centric, Delicious is a blog tagging and sharing service and Bix is a digital karaoke and entertainment site that takes amateur uploads.

While the Yahoo / Facebook deal appears to be dead, the evolution of social networking sites is bringing several characteristics to light. There is some indication that user loyalty is a slippery issue. MySpace users are migrating to Facebook, YouTube and other sites as their primary "hookup." Average visitation time on the site has dropped by over half.

On the other hand, Media metrics firm Hitwise has released its Media Report which found that MySpace is still atop the social networking mountain, with 82 percent of visits to the top 20 social networking sites landing on their site. Whatever the figure, Yahoo's attempted purchase of Facebook would have been an expensive bet on a hot product that could cool as quickly as Friendster and others that have preceded it. Finding an advertising model that works for the Facebook is also going to be a challenge, particularly given the existing Microsoft deal to handle some ad placement for the service. Given the turbulence in the social network marketplace, the inability to close the deal may end up being a positive for Yahoo.

Avatarbook - Facebook Meets Online Gaming.

2011-04-15T07:12:00.001-07:00

For those of you who don’t know, the Sims Online is undergoing a revolution. Having been left standing for the last few years with little to no input, EA are at last re-shaping the game, and the world of multiplayer gaming as we know it. Sound like hyperbole? Perhaps, perhaps not; check out their latest addition to the online gaming experience: AvatarBook.

Facebook made flesh

So what is Avatarbook? Well, the clue is in the name. What is one of the largest social networking websites on the planet at the moment? That’s right -– Facebook. With over 58 million users, Facebook is the primary reason that many of us log on in the morning. But, as we all know, it has its limitations. As do online games.

One problem with online games is that they can be too divorced from reality -– you have your online friends, and your real-world friends, and the two remain firmly divided. Ditto Facebook -– your user-circle is limited by who you already know, and it’s hard to get to know people outside of that circle on a one-to-one basis without sharing all your private data or being introduced by a friend of a friend.

All that is set to change, with a new application that could change our networking community forever. When Linden Labs made Linden Dollars (the currency of the hugely popular game Second Life) exchangeable for real-world currency, they opened up the world of online gaming by bringing it into the real world. Now EA want to do the same thing, by allowing users of the Sims Online to link their Avatars' accounts to their Facebook profiles.

Sharing Information

Avatarbook has two faces -- the in-game version and the Facebook version. In-game you can use it much like Facebook, in that you can find other Avatars and view their limited profiles. For friends the full profiles are visible, with walls for people to write on and updatable status. Your profile will also show if your lot is open or not, and the application an be used to quickly make your way around EA Land as you jump from friend to friend.

In Facebook, the application shows your Avatar's details (unless you have chosen a private setting) and picture, and whether or not you are logged on to the game. This is a useful way for players to find out who is online without having to log in themselves. You can also invite other users of Facebook who are not already Sims Online players to download the application and see your Avatar profile -- a move that EA hopes will attract more people to the game.

For the time being, then, the bulk of information that can be shared is Avatar-related. Their skills, properties and friends can all be viewed, and their Wall. The identity of the real-life person behind the Avatar is kept private, at least for now.

Privacy

Privacy is a major issue as far as EA are concerned, so at the moment Avatarbook is fairly limited in how much information can be shared. In the Sims game you can add people to your friends list, which will provide them with a link to your Facebook profile rather than making a direct link, though that is set to change as the application grows. Also, nobody in EA Land (the Sims Online world where the application will be available) will have access to your real name - you will be searchable only by your Avatar's name. EA have stated that they intend to allow players to lower their privacy settings so that more information can be shared, but at the moment they're playing it safe.

The Future

This application obviously shows great potential, and it is something that EA are going to continue to develop as they gain feedback from users. The Sims Online game is going through a revolution at the moment, with their free trial set to become permanent free play in the very near future (with limited gameplay for non-payers, much like in Second Life). For years now Second Life has been leading the pack in terms of innovation and social interactivity, but if EA keeps this up then we could be looking at a new contender for the crown. After all, they did come up with the two most popular games of all time (Sims and Sims 2), so some would say that this is less of a surprise than a belated homecoming. Certainly one to watch, at any rate.

8 Steps To Facebook Adventure

2011-04-15T07:11:00.001-07:00

Once a social platform for college students, the 40 million active membership site facebook is the latest buzzword in social media marketing. However, most members are extremely online savvy and they smell blatant advertisements from miles away. It is important to know some basics and gain experiences in utilizing the site and interacting with its members before you start planning your facebook marketing adventure.

1. Create a profile. The first step is to create a profile. Sign up using your real name and upload some pictures. If you do not have an email with a top-level edu domain, by default you join a regional network based on your zip code or international address. Later, you have the option to join your company's network and change your regional networks. You can change your networks twice in a 60-day period.

Always upload a profile picture. If you don't upload a picture, facebook places a default question mark icon. It is a good strategy to show your face in facebook. Don't use group pictures for your profile because others may have difficulty identifying you in the group pictures. Don't use logos, your cute cat or dogs’ pictures, or a picture of your expensive car and boat.

You don't have to fill all the profile information. Fill only the information you are comfortable sharing with others. If you want to find dates using facebook, fill up the relationship status feature of your profile accordingly. Don't change the status often because others will notice it and doubt your trustworthiness.

2. Make friends. The site can find active facebook friends for you using emails in your address books of a few free web email providers like yahoo, hotmail, gmail, etc. Once you get a few friends, new friend requests will pour in from your friends of friends. You can also search for friends and send requests. Work on creating a network of 100 to 200 friends. Don't make friends with celebrities because in most cases these are fake profiles setup for marketing purposes.

3. Upload pictures and videos. Start uploading some interesting pictures and group them in albums of travel pictures, baby shower photos, bachelor party scenes, etc. Pictures help people connect with your life without meeting you face to face. Always upload a number of related pictures or themes.

Create a random albums and put all your random pictures in the random album. Tag your pictures to identify people on the pictures. When you tag your friends in your pictures, they show up in their wall. You can also share your albums with others outside facebook. You can upload personal videos using your browser or mobile phone and directly record videos to facebook.

4. Use friends' walls and never post on your own wall. You have a wall in facebook for others to write notes. Don't write in your own wall. Write in your friends' walls. Your friends will write notes, share videos or links in your wall. You do the same in your friends' walls. When a friend posts something on your wall, reply to the post. If you find the posting annoying, politely ask them to back off and clean up your wall.

5. Join a few groups. There are all sorts of organic groups in facebook. These are groups of people with similar interests. Find a few that interest you and join them. You can create your own group but first find out if one exists on the same topic. This is an excellent place to be creative and get support from a bunch of people for your cause.

6. Create events and invite people. If you want to host a party, this is the feature you will use. Create your events and invite others to join. You can make an event public for your friends to see or private for the invitees to browse. Under my event, you can browse your friends' public events. You will immediately know who are your fake friends because they did not invite you to their gala dinner they are hosting.

7. Send notes and share links. You send notes to your friends. Depending on the topic, you can send a note to a few friends or to all friends in your network. Don't send chain letter notes because people find these repulsive. Your notes show up in your friends' news feeds or on their walls. A tagged note shows up on the wall, otherwise, it is found in the homepage news feed. Use share for sharing links, even though you can use this feature for sharing notes. Share that link of a cheap travel-booking site you have found while surfing the net with friends planning their upcoming vacations.

8. Visit your homepage everyday. Besides your profile page in facebook, you also have a homepage. You homepage displays collaborative news feeds of all your friends, event and group invitations, friendship requests, friends' birthdays, etc. If you want to know what is going on in your facebook friend circle, visit your homepage everyday.

The other features of facebook are poke, marketplace, facebook mobile, and hundreds of applications that enhance the facebook experience. As the facebook awareness grows, online marketers have started pounding the facebook door to gain a foothold. Future articles will discuss different ways to market your products and services to facebook members without insulting their intelligence.

Facebook: $750 Mil in Hand Worth More than $2Bil in Sky

2011-04-15T07:10:00.000-07:00

Facebook.com is essentially an online medium of communication for college students and high schoolers. For its valued reach Zuckerberg and his crew of Harvard dropouts (taking their cue from Bill Gates, no doubt) must be looking for Google-sized compensation, but the two billion dollar figure is arbitrary and difficult to justify.

It came up conversationally, but I believe I’m the only person at my company to have firsthand experience as a user of Facebook.com. It was kind of funny to have all these online advertising professionals asking me all about the website everybody used in college. Didn’t they get the memo? I’m new. I should be asking the questions around here. The subject of Facebook.com is an interesting one that’s worth a closer look.

Without question 2005 was the year of MySpace. Before Rupert Murdoch’s $580 million social networking venture took the interactive world by storm, it’s difficult to believe that even the most optimistic of the billionaire’s lackeys would have predicted that new acquisition would more than quadruple its reach within a matter of months. With 23.5 billion page views by February, MySpace became the second most trafficked site on the Internet.

Murdoch’s success naturally generated buying interest in anything deemed online social networking. One proposed deal in March 2006, was Viacom’s unsuccessful $750 million bid for Facebook.com, the phenomenon started by wunderkind Mark Zuckerberg. After Facebook.com declined the offer, its founders pegged Facebook.com’s worth at two billion dollars. Perhaps the brilliant sparks from MySpace’s success has blinded Facebook.com to the flipside reality of Friendster’s paradise lost. There’s a real chance Facebook won’t see an offer this generous again.

Zuckerberg was likely trying to establish a market value for his creation, not an unwise move on the face of things. However, Viacom’s offer was not by any stretch of the imagination pocket change and the number of entities that can and will double the bid Facebook already got is finite.

Facebook’s traffic numbers, as referenced on Alexa.com, during the last three months are not encouraging; that is, if the goal is to fish for more and greater buyout bids. The numbers actually have trended downward since March, anathema for enticing hyper bidding growth. These diminishing statistics can be at least partially attributed to the cyclical nature of the school year since Facebook, after all, is geared towards the college student. It doesn’t matter how great the product is, it won’t keep students from doing their own thing during summer vacation and this yearly dip is potentially damaging.

Seeing as how fast online fads can expand and contract in social networking as we’ve seen in its short time span, what if the numbers don’t come back? What if something new pops up in two months that steals Facebook’s thunder? (And, again, MySpace’s success serves as good reason why this thunder is worth stealing.)

Facebook.com’s success has also been marred with some controversy that could taint its popularity with students. At Syracuse University a flap over freedom of expression ensued when a Facebook.com group went overboard in critiquing a student teacher and ended up with expulsions from the class and social suspension before three students transferred. After Penn State’s football team beat Ohio State this year students rushed the field and made a ruckus. Overwhelmed police made only two arrests that day, but later in the week they logged onto Facebook.com and, like Canadian Mounties who always get their man, got plenty of names and faces and photos from the info posted by students about their on-field shenanigans. Kids talk and these stories spread like wildfire, which may affect Facebook.com negatively – they can’t control misuse of their product and the negative repercussions that come from it.

The future is promising for the social networking business space and I don’t believe Facebook.com is doomed. Still, given the nature of short-lived and over-hyped dotcoms, Facebook may have reached their growth climax this school year, with possibility for expansion and success only contingent on acquisition. Time may not be on their side because as the pages of the calendar turn there will doubtlessly be new fads and trends that will threaten to make something else the “Next Big Thing” at Facebook.com’s expense. The clock is ticking.

Social Advertising Through Facebook

2009-04-19T10:37:00.000-07:00

Introduction

Is Facebook going to be a good source of traffic for you, or is it still just full of a bunch of young kids… Last month, Microsoft announced that it had purchased a $240 million stake in Facebook, valuing the young company at $15 billion, with the intention of expanding its existing advertising partnership.

(http://news.cnet.com/8301-13577_3-9811932-36.html)

Facebook Ads is an ad system for businesses to connect with users and target advertising to the exact audiences they want. Through Facebook Ads, the users can now learn about new businesses, brands and products through the trusted referrals of their friends.

Advertising on Facebook

It’s a way for businesses to build pages on Facebook to connect with their audiences
An ad system that facilitates the spread of brand messages virally through Facebook Social Ads™;

· Facebook offers Social Ads targeted by age, sex, location, keywords, education level, workplaces, political views, and relationship status. Pay by CPM or CPC.

· You will be able to change your Daily Budget after your ads are running. The Daily Budget represents the maximum that you wish to spend each day. The minimum Daily Budget is $5. You will never be charged more than the total of the Daily Budgets that you have set for your active campaigns. These campaigns are similar to Google Adwords.

And an interface to gather insights into people’s activity on Facebook that marketers care about.

· Beacon allows partners to send Facebook information about what users do on their websites, in order to publish the info inside Facebook via the Mini Feed and News Feed.

· You can pay to poll Facebook users, too.

The various options available in Facebook advertising

Facebook Platform
Facebook Pages
Facebook Beacon
Facebook Insight
Facebook Polls

A comparison of Facebook with Google Adwords

Facebook is very simple
Facebook allows a picture with no extra cost.
Your ad is the ONLY shown on the side. Not competing with 10 other ads.
135 characters is the advertisement body, unlike 35 of Adwords.
With Facebook you can either target the general public of an entire country. Or laser target down to how old they are, where they live, where they work, and their interest/hobbies. It could be argued that with Facebook you can get even more laser traffic than Adwords.

Facebook Pages

2009-04-19T10:24:00.000-07:00

Page is a unique experience where users can become more deeply connected with your business. . Users can express their support by adding themselves as a fan, writing on your Wall, uploading photos, and joining other fans in discussion groups. You can send updates to your fans regularly or just with special news or offers.

You can increase the viral distribution of your Facebook Page with Facebook Social Ads.

Social Ads increase the number of friends who will see the story when they visit Facebook, and you can also target the ads to specific demographics

Facebook Beacon

Beacon is a part of Facebook's advertisement system that sends data from external websites to Facebook, ostensibly for the purpose of allowing targeted advertisements and allowing users to share their activities with their friends.

Facebook Beacon actions include purchasing a product, signing up for a service, adding an item to a wish list, and more.

Beacon enables your brand or business to gain access to viral distribution within Facebook.

Facebook Polls

Get answers from only the people you want to reach.

You can accurately target your Polls by gender, age, location, interests, and other demographic data. Your poll will only be shown to the people who meet your criteria.

With the easy-to-use creation interface, you can create and deploy a single-question poll within minutes. The polls will immediately start showing up in your target audience's News Feeds where they can respond as soon as they log in to Facebook. Based on the level of activity at that time, your question could be answered by hundreds of people in as little as 30 minutes.

Facebook Platform

You can create applications that integrate deeply into Facebook, harness the power of the social graph, and create new opportunities for your business. Facebook Platform provides you with the tools to quickly create custom experiences for users to interact with your business and their friends while maintaining the look and feel of the Facebook interface.

You can create an authentic social experience for your users by integrating your current web site or web application directly with the Facebook

Facebook Insight

This is similar to Google Analytic. It gathers insights on who's engaging with your presence on Facebook and help get valuable metrics about your presence and promotion on Facebook. With Facebook Insights, you have access to data on activity, fan demographics, ad performance, and trends.

You can refine your Social Ad target demographics, budgets and creatives based on Insights data to increase traffic to your Facebook Page or website and use the data to adjust the content of your Page and optimize for increased engagement with your customers and fans.

Recommendations

Begin with creating a facebook page. Create a beacon so our users and clients can be a part of your bussiness page. Depending on the response we could create polls to get feed back from the users. Facebook insight will give you a regular update of the campaign and help you improve on your facebook ad.

How Facebook.com advertising work

2009-04-19T10:14:00.000-07:00

First you need to have a Facebook account

Then go to the bottom of the screen of the page and click “Advertisers”

Then you should come to this page

Click ‘get started’

Now you will enter into Facebooks 4 steps in setting up an ad

Please read guidelines before setting an ad

www.facebook.com/ad_guidelines.php

This step will be selecting where you want your visitors to go when they click the ad. You have two options:

1. Your website- just like Adwords or any advertisement.

2. A Facebook page – Facebook allows you to create a Page about your business. The idea is for people to become fans of your business and hence will increase the people who know about you.

Here you can save a lot of money by targeting people only interested in niche. This will lead to higher targeted traffic which however will lead to higher conversion of your products.

Facebook has a feature to show you approximately how many people you are targeting whenever you make a change in your target audience.

Designing the actual ad.

2009-04-19T06:22:00.001-07:00

As you create your ad, it will preview to the right.

Title : max 25 chars

Body: max 135 chars

Photo: It wont cost extra

Next is the final step and that is setting your budget. You can either create a campaign or add to the existing campaign.

Then review your ad to check your ads for spelling, links and payment details.

Introduction to Facebook Advertising

2009-04-19T02:29:00.001-07:00

Social Advertising Through Facebook