What’s one of the biggest mistakes local businesses are making… yet presents such huge opportunity for new business growth?

Recently I was speaking at business networking event and one of the business owners was asking why they were not getting new leads online… after all they were “spending a lot of time” on Facebook and Twitter!   Like so many businesses, they were frustrated because they were not getting results online.

So what is the first thing any local business should do right now to start getting new leads?  List your business in the Google Places directory and GET found.  98% of people never search past page 1 of Google—so it is critical that you do the necessary foundational steps to build your online footprint for your business.

Google Places Basics~Video

Watch this VIDEO and you will know more than your competition (the trick is to know more and DO more than your competitors… and stay on top!)

 A Little History

A few years back Yahoo created and Google refined the places concept.  Today it’s called Google Places, Yahoo Local, and Bing Local. These directories give local businesses a bigger share of voice on the internet– and best of all they are Free, allowing a small business owner to compete with the larger companies with BIG budgets.

Since 97% of consumers search for local businesses online and 84% of this is with buying intent, Local/Places is essential for small and medium sized companies.  You need to be found in the local search directories when your clients are looking for your product or service.

Get New Business

So how do you drive traffic to your local business online?   Get your business listed in the top 3 Places directories ~ Google, Yahoo and Bing.  There are 97 other directories to pursue after you do those.

 7 reasons why you simply can’t miss this opportunity to economically develop your local business footprint right NOW:

1.  You can rank on Page 1 Google without hiring an expensive SEO expert. A Google Places project, depending upon quality runs from $100 to $500 per month vs an SEO who runs from $1000 per month on up… skys the limit on that.

2. You can compete with the “big boys” without a “big boy” budget. The search engines are delivering 3 to 7 Places of organic listings per page, and today that is free!

3. You can get your fair share of traffic because 98% of searches stop on page 1. Places is usually positioned above the 10 organic listings.

4. Since Google (Yahoo and Bing) introduced Places directories, Yellow Page usage is down 73% while Places directory usage is up 67%. That’s a significant amount of traffic!

5. Everybody (so far) gets to test online advertising free... it’s like they give you a $75 get out of jail free card!

6. Unfortunately you do need to “optimize” your listing because the competition is getting more serious. See #1. It’s included in the budget!

7. it’s the easiest way to generate sales with coupons for a small business. Sure beats a Groupon for cost because it’s Free!

 Don’t Fall into this Trap!

Unless you had your Google Places listing done by an optimization expert, it’s probably not optimized for maximum traffic. I see too many local businesses are NOT doing this correctly and consequently, missing a bunch of targeted leads every single day. Usually we find listings to be under-optimized, or not working, and sometimes they need to be deleted and re-filed.

Optimized listing can bring in 100 to 300 visitors per month for most local intent search queries.  An optimized listing will get you found by your prospective customers looking for your services.

Put Your Best Foot Forward

If you’re looking for a straightforward way to get impactful results for minimal cost, get your places directories optimized right away.   If you need help with Google Places, email or give us a call and we’ll be sure to help you get it resolved

If you need me to recommend a Places Directory optimization expert,

TEXT your Name and Email to 732-917-4707

I hope you found this helpful!   Please share on Facebook and Twitter if you think others will benefit—I’d really appreciate it!  For more valuable tips on how to get the most from online marketing, be sure fill in your name and email (over on the right) and I’ll send you the updates directly to your inbox so you don’t miss out.

Speak With You Soon,

Laura DeMeo

You have a Facebook Page.  Now what?  Doesn’t everyone see my posts?  You may think that everyone does but the answer is simply, No!Facebook has its own algorithm, called EdgeRank,that determines whether your posts are “worthy” of being seen in Facebook newsfeeds.  Read on to uncover the formula…

How do I get more Likes i.e. fans?  The answer is:  by working at it and becoming a valuable resource for your fans…  A thriving Facebook page shows social proof and lends more credibility (just like we’d prefer a busy restaurant over one with just a few people—true story, we actually left a restaurant one time because we were the only ones there!!).

Not only does the social proof give a better perception about your business, but also both the Number of Fans DOES Matter and the Amount of Interaction MATTERS in terms of actually getting more traffic and more exposure in the Newsfeeds.

 According to a study by Hubspot, Businesses with 501 to 1,000 Facebook fans had 3.5 times more traffic than those with 1 to 25 fans.  Businesses with over 1,000 Facebook fans had 22 times more traffic.

Additionally, did you know that Facebook has its own set of criteria for determining whether or not your posts actually get seen in the Newsfeeds?  Just because you are posting updates, it does not mean people actually SEE your posts.  In fact, if your page has a low fan count plus there is little to no engagement with your fans, you are virtually non-existent and not showing up in the Newsfeeds!

Facebook actually has their proprietary newsfeed optimization algorithm called EdgeRank.  This formula is made up of 3 components (or edges).  The higher the sum of the edges (higher score), the more likely your content will be pushed out into the newsfeeds– and visible to others

The 3 components that make up your EdgeRank score are:

1)    Affinity- the more interaction you have, the higher your affinity and score

2)    Weight- the type of interaction makes a difference.  For example Comments are given more value than likes. The more comments you have, the higher your score

3)    Decay- Timeliness of posts matters. Recent posts are more important than older posts that “decay with time”.  See illustration below: source: http://techcrunch.com/2010/04/22/facebook-edgerank

How Do I Get More Facebook fans to Engage With Me?

If you are a business owner and marketer, getting your message out in the Newsfeeds and in front of your audience is one of the most important things you can do on Facebook.  That can only happen if you get “Liked” first.

According to Jeff Widman at Brand Glue, 96% of fans never revisit a Facebook page once they have like it.  Instead, they are interacting through updates and comments in the Newsfeeds.

Therefore it is essential to have compelling and engaging content to keep your fans interested and to build a thriving community on your Facebook page.

Now that you know the importance of engagement, I’d like to share 16 proven engagement strategies for you to implement.  You will get more impressions, increased interaction, and loyal fans by following these practices.

16 Essential Engagement Strategies:

1.  Know your audience– This is the most important thing to understand.  You need to first know who you are talking to!  What are their, likes and interests?  My favorite quote is “If you are talking to everyone, you are talking to no one”.  Your messages will fall flat if you are not connecting with your audience and meeting them at their level—no matter how good your content is.   This can be challenging at first, but you need to identify who your market, give them information they want, and take note of your posts that elicit response and engagement.

2.  Identify Purpose –for your Facebook Page—what is your objective? What do you want to be known for?  Before getting started, it’s important that you take the time to think through your goals, strategy, and your message.  This will help you stay focused and give you structure as you plan your content and stay on target.

3.  Custom Landing (“Welcome”) Page— When a visitor comes to your page, your first goal is to get them to LIKE your page; unless they like your page, your status updates will not be seen in their Newsfeeds.   In Fact a Facebook page with a Landing tab has a 47% conversion rate of likes compared to 26% when someone lands directly on your Wall

A.  What is a Landing Tab and How do I Implement One? The purpose of the landing tab is to provide a welcome message (video or written message), an introduction about the business—stating what you do, how you can help, and give a reason why people should like your page.  If you are sent directly to the wall, then it can be confusing for the visitor not really knowing what your page is all about.

 B.  What are the 3 Key Ingredients of an Optimized Landing Tab? A well optimized landing page will also have a call to action “Like my page”, clear  incentive for becoming a fan (“exclusives!”), and an opt-in offer to capture name and email for continued relationship building outside of Facebook.  After all, you don’t own Facebook, but you do own your email list which can be your biggest asset.

Click Here To See A Well-Optimized Welcome Tab: please Like while you’re there

4.  Add Value – Quality Content is essential.  Your posts should be relevant, high quality, and useful for your target market.  A good rule of thumb is to follow the 90/10 rule.  That is 90% of the time you are giving excellent information and 10% of the time you are promoting your business.

5.  No excessive Self –Promotion– One of the biggest mistakes I see (and also a huge turn off) is constant one-way broadcasting.   People are more interested in talking about themselves so make your posts about them.  I see this a lot on Real estate FB pages where all the posts are just broadcasting listings.    A better approach would be to give lots of tips and helpful resources for homeowners buying and selling homes.

Here is an example of blatant self-promotion from someone from to a local Facebook Group.  I considered spam and consequently removed him as a friend

6.  Comment and share-- If you want people to comment on your page then make it a habit to interact, comment, and share other people’s posts.   It’s the law of reciprocity; the more you give, the more you will get in return.  The new share button makes it very easy to share other people’s posts.

7.  Add Photos & Videos– Keep it fun and engaging with photos and videos.   Images get more visibility in the Newsfeeds.  In fact, engagement with posts that contain photos is nearly 300% greater than when we post only text, according to study done by www.thenextweb.com.

8.  Give Human touch– People like to know they are interacting with a real person behind the business.  Be conversational and add some personalization.  In my experience managing a bunch of clients’ Facebook of pages, humanizing your content is sure to elicit more engagement.   It’s also important for a business to develop their own voice in order to help draw in their audience

Be Careful using automation from third party resources—that is anything other than facebook to post updates.  Many businesses use automated tools (like Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, NetworkedBlogs etc.) to post their content.  While they may be time saving tools, the disadvantage is reduced engagement by as much as 70%.

Users of these tools are actually penalized, as Facebook gives it less weight which lowers edgerank resulting in reduced visibility in the Newsfeeds.

9.  Ask Questions– Facilitate interaction by asking quality questions.  The more fun, engaging and insightful the question, the more people will interact and will be more likely to get into the top newsfeeds so more people can see your posts.   For example ask your fans their opinion about a certain topic or don’t be afraid to ask your fans what kind of information they are most interested in getting!   

10.  Mix it up– Diversity of content is important.  Keep posts fun, entertaining, educational, occasional promos, add links to resources, give tips, ask questions, do fill in the blankets (i.e  What was your favorite book you read in the last month_________), run polls, add photos, videos, and share others. 

Before moving on to the remaining engagement strategies, let’s take a break and look at a real live example of What Not To Do! (This person expressed frustration for lack of results on Facebook and dismissed Facebook’s value as an ineffective tool for communicating with his market)

 11.  Contests— Running a Facebook Contest is an excellent way to grow your Facebook page and to foster engagement.  There are many third party companies that offer this “plug and Play” platform to launch a Facebook contest.  But, there is strategy involved and things to know before diving into this.  We will discuss contests in a separate blog post!

12.  Create an experience unique to you page– This creates a sense of community and can really draw people in to your page.  i.e: Fan of Week; Ask the Dr. /Ask the Experts Fridays; Motivation Monday; Brag blog Thursday (all fans get to promote their blogs/sites on Facebook) etc.  *A word of caution here:  once you decide to try this, you must commit at least for given time frame.  It will take time to catch on. Be consistent so your fans come to expect this. You may find it a huge success or other times, you might consider trying a new strategy.

13.  Keep it short– A study by Buddy Media showed that posts with 80 or less characters had higher engagement.  I found this to be true in my experience as well.   Keep the message clear, simple and not complicated

14.  Comment back– If someone takes the time to comment on your post, you should acknowledge and reciprocate with a comment back- even if it’s a simple “thank you”.    A great tip I learned from my mentor, Mari Smith, is to address the person’s first name when responding.  This will really help to strengthen the rapport and incentivize them to continue to come back to your page and engage.

15. Third Party Applications– Using Interactive application is one of the most effective ways to increase engagement.   Examples include: Polls, virtual Gifts & coupons, Contests, videos, Interactive tabs.  Some of my favorite companies are: Involver, Wildfire, Buddy Media, TabPress.

16.  Monitor and Track Social Activity– Be sure to track your results with Facebook Insights and other Analytics and metric tools. There are many resources to measure metrics, but I recommend getting started with these resourceful tools that are free and simple to use:

http://facebook.com/insights.  Use Facebook insights to track Post feedback/ virality, page activity (people talking about this), like sources, Facebook shares, demographics

http://edgerankchecker.com/. Use Edgerank Checker to help monitor and maximize your Facebook Exposure.  Remember EdgeRank is an algorithm that ranks content in the Facebook News Feed. Pages with high EdgeRank Scores will be more likely to show up in the news feed, than Pages with low EdgeRank Scores.

http://crowdbooster.com  Very neat new monitoring tool I recently discovered! It’s easy to use and helps to identify your most effective messages on Facebook and Twitter. It also identifies your influencers, people influenced by you, and your audience’s interests.

There you have it!  These are 16 proven engagement strategies that will help you build and manage a thriving Facebook community!  Remember building an interactive community and being a valuable resource will help increase your visibility (improve EdgeRank) in the newsfeeds and position you as the “go-to-expert” in your industry.

Now it’s your turn.  What are other ideas that are working for you?  If you found this helpful please share this on Facebook!

To Your Success,

Laura DeMeo

I have been asked this question a lot lately from business owners in my local community—“What is the difference between Facebook personal profile, groups, and fan pages?” It’s a great question and very important that you understand the differences because they are not the same thing and therefore should be used for very different purposes.

One of the biggest mistakes that I see people making is that they are using personal account for business purposes.  Not only is it not best practices, but Facebook does not allow business promotions on personal accounts.  Recently, I noticed a friend of mine who manages a local retail store was using his own personal profile account to promote featured items and discounts being offered at his store.  He had all good intentions, but the right approach would have been to set up a business (fan) page for reasons that I will explain later.

I offered to help set up Facebook business page, but he said he had someone in his store taking care of that—and I thought GREAT!!   But, the next day I noticed something else.  Rather than getting an invite to join new fan page (business page) for that store, I got a friend request! Unfortunately, the person who set up the new “profile account” (not a business page)  for the retail store did not understand the key differences and advantages for having a designated business page for that store–  and unless this is done, there will be major missed business opportunities.

In this post, I will outline the key differences between personal profile, groups, and pages and the advantages for each and why it is essential to have a business page to grow your business, brand, or image.

Facebook Personal Profile:

Facebook personal profiles are meant to represent single individuals.  The reason why most people use their personal page is to connect and interact with friends and family.  However,   there are two schools of thought for using your personal account.  Some people use this account only for close circle of friends and family members while others will leverage Facebook to build a larger professional network and to develop new relationships outside of family and close friends.

Personally, I believe it is always better to grow your network so I am of the school of thought to use Facebook for both building personal and professional relationships.  However, personal profiles are not meant to promote your business—that should be reserved for your business page.    For example, my personal account and my updates are mainly about personal interests and hobbies and the content on my business page contains useful information relating to social media.

Differences with Facebook Personal Profile:

• Personalized home page – the redesigned personal profile page creates a more social experience and makes it easier for people to see a snapshot you.   The new features display a summary of personal information, relationship, recently tagged photos,  and top interests showcased as images.
• Closed network made up of reciprocal relationship- must mutually agree to be “friends”
• Tight knit invitational community- personalized friend request or invite to become friends
• More activity from friends News Feed than from Fan Page news feeds- everyone looks at their personal home page/ news feeds
• Limit of 5,000 friends
• Content is not indexed by Google/ search engines
• Cannot be used for business purposes (no selling or promoting product/services)—this is against Facebook’s terms of service
• Only allowed 1 profile page

Facebook Business (Fan) Page

Unlike the personal profile page, Facebook pages are for businesses, organizations, and brands to share information publicly with people who choose to connect with them (“Like” their page).  Similar to profiles, pages can be enhanced with applications that engage with their audiences, and capture new audiences virally through friend recommendations, News Feeds, events, and more.
Over the past several months Facebook rolled out tools and enhanced social features that allowed web users to experience a personalized version of the internet.  Today more than a million websites have now integrated with the Facebook platform and it continues to grow at a rate of more than 10,000 websites per day.

Essentially Facebook has wrapped an entire social layer over the internet–thereby creating unprecedented marketing potential and business opportunities. But, for the purpose of this post, I will stick to outlining the main differences between profile, business page, and groups:

Differences with the Facebook Business Page:

• Open network—anyone can join or “like” your fan page.
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization) — indexed with search engines so can increase rankings
• Unlimited number of people can like your page—(vs. 5,000 friends)
• Ability to run hyper targeted Facebook Ad campaigns
• Create custom Facebook “welcome” Page— make a memorable first impression for your brand/ business which helps to increase your fan base
• Create sophisticated marketing promotions such as running sweepstakes, contests, or offering fans only special discounts, coupons, and other exclusive privileges using third party applications.  Two great fan page examples:  1-800-flowers and Mercedes-Benz
• Can create unlimited number of business pages (to represent multiple industries or niches)
• Can track metrics on fan pages and analyze Facebook Insights/ viewer data
• Ability to do direct e-commerce and build a storefront.  Two Facebook page examples to check out: JCPenny and Threadless (T-shirt Company)

• Build Email Opt-in list directly from page
• Market Research—Consider providing fans with exclusive content only fans can see and ask for their feedback.  Use data to refine your product or service
• Customer service: great example- AT&T

Facebook Groups

With all the recent changes and continuously evolving features, it’s no surprise that Facebook has released a new version of Facebook groups.  In fact, the only main thing in common with the old version is virtually the name itself.

The new Facebook Groups allows members to selectively share information with a smaller subset of people with whom you interact on a more regular basis, such as co-workers, family, friends, or classmates – the new design makes it easier for users to connect with other members.

The main difference between groups and pages is that groups are optimized for small subsets of people while Facebook pages are better suited for larger audiences and public affiliations.  There are three group types:  open, closed or secret.  Groups are closed by default, but can be changed to group preference.  Groups that are designated as secret are not unsearchable in the search feature of Facebook

Differences with Groups (and new features)

• Group Chat:   Allows members to participate in back and forth conversations real-time with the group at the same time
• Docs: this is a shared notepad which allows members to collectively, write and edit notes with the group
• Mailing list-style notifications:   Allows members of groups can keep up to date with email notifications about any posts in the group.   In my opinion, I think this is a great new time saving feature if you just want to send the group a quick update – such as an event invite for example.  I belong to two mastermind groups, one is secret and the other is closed.   So far, I find the new Facebook groups to be very useful and much easier to communicate and share information with other members.
• Group Control: An important new feature is that the group is controlled by the entirety of its members.  However, one feature to be aware of with the new groups is that the creator can appoint people to automatically become members of the group without their prior permission.   I would recommend that you ask people first before assigning them to your group in case they are not interested in joining.

So you can see there are key differences among the Facebook profile, business page, and groups.  Each has its own purpose and benefits.  The way I look at it is this:  Use your personal account to connect with your friends and to build new relationships strategically with people in your niche and who are your target audience.  Discover mutual interests and commonalities to strengthen your connection.

Use your business page to engage with your fans,  share valuable content—offer important information, tips, useful articles, and anything relevant and  newsworthy for your target market.  Take advantage of the numerous tools to market your business and grow your fan base.

Use groups to communicate with a smaller subset of people. The new groups feature makes it much easier to connect and share information with other members.  For example, I’m a member of a social media mastermind group with other social media experts.  We use the groups to mastermind together; ask questions; share tips, ideas & latest news; and to help and support each other.

If you found this useful, please share with others who could also benefit.  If I missed anything or you have things to add, please share your comments below!

To your Success,

Laura DeMeo

I am so excited because there is a celebrity in the making… and he doesn’t even know it yet! This guy is one of the most genuine, passionate, knowledgeable, down to earth… and just a cool person who has so much to offer!   His name is Drew Neiman and he is a wine maker in Napa Valley.  Just like a gifted artist can create masterpieces with nuances of complexity and meaning, so can Drew with his exceptional wines.

I met Drew Neiman recently on our wine trip to Napa Valley.  After tasting his wines, I was surprised that I had never heard of him before.   This is a shame because he makes such darn good wines and the rest of the world should know about it!    Though he has an excellent reputation and is well known in his community (and some of their core networks among wine people), he really has not yet built a big name for himself outside that circle.

The purpose for writing this post is to share 7 ways Drew can go from being largely unknown to becoming a rock star in the food and wine industry  & among the wine enthusiasts in a very short period of time using Facebook! The best thing is so can YOU in your niche market!  By following exactly what I am about to share with you, you too can become an authority, celebrity-like figure in your industry and build a powerful profitable business.

But before I get into the specifics, I want to first provide the context for writing this post and give you a brief background of my recent trip to wine country.  Then we’ll dive into the details.  Sound good? If you want to jump ahead to get the 7 Facebook steps now, scroll down.

Napa Valley

I was inspired to write this article from my recent trip to Napa Valley and Oregon with wine aficionado Jon Brodsky.   It was a fantastic trip that involved visits to wineries in Napa, runs and hikes, and a drive up the coast of Oregon with many cool stops along the way including Sand Dunes, Sea Lion caves, Cannon Beach, and Willamette valley (quest to find great Pinot Noirs), and finally stopping in Portland where we were supposed to run a 50K ultra run.    Jon wrote an excellent blog post describing details of trip and a thorough wine review of each of the tastings in Napa Valley and Willamette valley.   Click here read this very informative wine review— especially if you ever plan on visiting Napa or Willamette.

An Unforgettable Experience

This trip to Napa/ Oregon was  an exceptional experience to say the least—thanks to our friends Norm and Mariam who connected us with friends who were well connected in Napa and had arranged for private tastings and tours with very special people!  This was a very unique experience because we had the opportunity to meet and spend time with the actual wine makers, farmers, and vineyard owners themselves—    as a result I gained new insight and learned so much more about the wine making process – especially during this prime harvest time.

Napa and Social Media

Not only was this a very educational trip about exploring some of the best wines in Napa and pinot’s in Oregon, but as a social media marketing strategist I was also very interested from the marketing perspective.    Having been to Napa at least 7 times over the past several years, I noticed this time around that many of the wineries are now using social media to market their businesses.  Some are successful, most are not– the reality is that many businesses are not using social media…the right way.   The good news is that once you understand core concepts and strategies, then it becomes a powerful game changer for your business

It is a super competitive marketplace today, especially in the wine industry—and businesses must continuously stand out and differentiate themselves from their competitors (in a more beneficial way) in order to sustain long term success.   Just look at Napa Valley and Willamette Valley alone (the two main areas we visited) – there are hundreds of vineyards all within close proximity.

We must have visited 25 vineyards and about 3-5 really stood out (Herb Lamb, Drew Neiman, Kelly Flemming, possibly because they were private tastings and we got to develop relationships with the owners / wine makers themselves or in  the case of Duckhorn and Peju’s  general tastings, we had awesome experiences!)

So how does a vineyard stand out and attract their buyers with so many wines to choose from? Obviously to a wine aficionado, they are already going to have a preference and a loyalty to a certain brand.  But to the average wine drinker, how to you win them over?!

It is all in the marketing — whether it is word of mouth, newsletters, print advertisements, and of course social media marketing.     Obviously the product needs to be good or all the marketing in the world won’t help!

Throughout the trip, I was closely observing every single experience I had with each winery visit (and restaurants/hotels).   From a social media marketing angle, I would play a game and think to myself “If I were a wine maker or estate owner what I would do to build a large following and attract lots of new customers! The possibilities are endless… even if wine production is limited!

Now back to Drew Neiman.    I was particularly excited about the explosive potential with Neiman— here’s why:   Drew was a fairly young guy who was clearly an expert wine maker and he had passion that was contagious!  I don’t care what business you are in—if you are that passionate about what you do, you will attract the masses who share your passion.   Now combine that with the power of social media. Having a strong presence on social networking giants like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn has literally transformed businesses.

The Rising Star…

In Drew’s case, I noticed that he has virtually zero social media presence— already poised for growth!  In the next section, I am going to expose how this rising star can quickly become “famous” in the wine industry by building a powerful brand and huge community using social media.  For purpose of this post, I am going to focus on Facebook strategies and will cover a Twitter and blog approach in second post of this series.

Because of Facebook’s sheer size of 550 million users (and exponentially getting bigger), it’s viral nature, and the ability to attract a massive following of targeted people including friends, influencers, prospects and customers—Facebook is no doubt where Drew needs to be!

I just want to make a quick point; even if you have no product yet or in Drew’s situation where he has limited production of wine to sell, he should absolutely still create a fan page for his business and work towards building his followership and strengthening his brand.

This is very important because once you have built a loyal audience who gets to know you, like you and trust you they will also buy from you.   So for example, if and when Drew runs out of his supply, why not create a website and sell all kinds of wine accessories—he’ll already have a targeted audience that loves him!   Note, the purpose for using Facebook and other social sites is to build community and relationships—there is no direct selling.   You can occasionally send people to your website or some other place where services and products can be purchased.

So without further ado, let’s dive into 7 essential steps on Facebook that if implemented could catapult Drew from small business owner to celebrity-like status and authority within the wine industry—all while building a powerful brand and profitable business!

Facebook:  7 Steps To Success!

1.  Set Up a Facebook Personal Profile

Upload a Picture – Drew has set up an account, but I don’t think there is any activity.  The first thing I recommend is that he uploads a photo of himself.   This will make a good first impression and people would be more like to connect with a real person they can see.

Fill Out Profile Information— Fill out basic information including bio. , “about me” section, work & education, Likes & Interests, and contact information. The reason for doing this is that when you are connecting with friends on Facebook and building a rapport, people want to learn more about who you are and if there are any mutual interests that will help develop the relationship

Add Targeted Friends— Start adding friends in your niche market.  For example, find targeted friends on fan pages and groups that are related to the food and wine industry).   Also find friends of friends who also share common interests.  (See below for detail how to search and add target friends)

2.   Facebook Business Page (Fan Page)

Custom Designed Welcome Page-    Once you set up your basic Facebook page (you can get step by step instructions from my Facebook  training by entering name/ email in on the right side), It is very Important to have a nicely designed welcome page,  also known as landing page.  Set the default settings so that people automatically Land on your welcome page.  Welcome pages are peoples first impressions so do not skimp on it.    The important thing you want your visitors to do is join your fan page so that your content then get’s shown in their newsfeeds which is key for spreading messages through larger networks!

For Best Results, a Welcome Page Should Include These FOUR Elements:

Clear Call to action to “Like” Page—Could say something like: “Click the Like button (with arrow pointing to Like) and connect with Drew Neiman

Video Message-  Create a  90 second video introducing yourself and give a reason why people should join your fan page (for ex. Tips on food pairing, education about wine, etc).   Video will be especially important for Drew because he such a likeable guy and is so incredibly passionate about wine.  By creating a video message, his passion and genuineness will shine through and he will instantly connect with other wine lovers — and build trust and rapport with people in his target market

Written Message— On the welcome page, Drew should also include written message describing who Drew Neiman is, what he does, and the benefit why people would want to join Fan page.

Email Opt-In form- Have a way for people to enter email and subscribe to a monthly newsletter (or blog post).  Every top marketer knows that your email list is your biggest asset.  Drew should have an email contact form so he can start building his list, developing relationships with his subscribers by sharing his latest updates, news & tips about wine etc.

Next once you have a fan page, you will need to build your community.  Here are ways Drew can quickly start building his followership on his Facebook Page:

Add Targeted Friends in niche market—wine lovers, restaurant owners, sommeliers, chefs, etc).

Facebook Search Feature – Use search feature to find fan pages and groups related to wine industry.  Start adding targeted friends in niche market who are members of these groups or fan pages (relating to food & wine).   For faster success, it is key to leverage large fan pages and groups to connect with target market and to widen your audience

Just from a quick search, here are fan pages and groups that I would start with:  (there are tons of other fan pages!)

http://www.facebook.com/winesearcher (over 85,000 fans)

http://www.facebook.com//winelibrarytv (over 35,000 fans)

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Red-Wine/8536905548 (over 161,000)

For faster results, Drew should contact the Admin.  of these fan pages and group and ask them to share a message to their group sending them to his new fan page.   Also be sure to use your status updates to invite friends and inform them of new fan page.

3.   Share Good Content and Be Active— it is not enough to just have a large following.  Businesses are more successful on Facebook when they have very interactive fan page.  The better you post good content on a consistent basis, the more likely you will have a lively community that participates and comments on your status updates and be regularly seen in the newsfeeds.

Anything that is noteworthy will be shared and will spread like wildfire.    If your content is not engaging then you will virtually be invisible in the Newsfeeds. Also be sure to comment of friends updates as well.

4.   Photos and Videos — Tests have been done to determine types of content that is most engaging and are “weighted” more in terms of rising to the top newsfeeds.   Asking questions, sharing photos and Videos are among the top ways to drive those comments and likes on a fan page.

Back to Drew Neiman—Fortunately, his business in the wine industry is perfect for sharing videos and photos!  Who doesn’t want to see pictures of beautiful vineyards, harvested grapes, elegant wine bottles, luscious velvety red wine poured in a Riedel Sommelier bordeaux glass, natural caves, exquisitely prepared entrées, assortments of pairing cheese, etc.     When I was in Napa, I couldn’t take enough pictures!

As for videos, I can think of countless cool videos that Drew could create that in a matter of minutes.  Here are a couple ideas:  Create an informative “How to” videos about:

How to taste wines; How to smell wines and the different factors that influence smell; How to pair food and wine; Video describing various cheeses and how to select the right wine; Video on harvesting grapes,  Video describing the differences in grapes and different process for making wine…  Do you get the idea?

There are endless possibilities.  As I said, Drew is very engaging, extremely passionate about his work and clearly an expert in wines—He should leverage video as much as possible, as I believe he could quickly become a wine celebrity very quickly!

5.   Facebook Ads— the most hyper targeted form of marketing you can get is through Facebook Ads.  It allows you to laser-like pin point your audience by tapping into their large database of demographic and social information of its 550 million active users.

Use Facebook Ads as a strategy for building your community on fan Page.  Run an Ad targeting a wine fan page with thousands of fans.  Have a clear call to action to “like” your page.

The key thing to remember when building your network and fan base is to connect with people who are influencers and have large networks themselves and to build strong relationships with them.  This can exponentially help to grow your own network— the more interaction and comments you get, the more likely it is to show up in Facebook’s newsfeeds which will expose you exponentially to the networks of your friends who have large networks.

6.   Sweepstakes - An excellent way that Neiman could attract large numbers of people to his Facebook page is by running a Sweepstakes for a chance to win a free prize.   There is a really cool application called Wildfire that provides this platform for running Sweepstake.     It works by having visitors enter your sweepstakes and the application will randomly pick the winner.  We see this a lot with cruises… win a free cruise… just fill in entry here.

This can be done within minutes.   This is a very powerful tool and I’ve seen companies add tens of thousands of fans in a very short period of time.    Note there is a difference between sweepstakes and contest—Sweepstakes are awarded by chance (random drawing) and no skill is involved.  A contest is awarded by skill—best video, best essay, best photo—and winner is selected by judge.  For a great example, check out this fan page:

http://www.facebook.com/marmotpro

The prize does not have to be as elaborate as wining an expensive get away.  It could be something simple – in Drew’s case something related to wine.  (I’m not sure it is legal to give away a bottle of wine, but Drew’s $225 bottle of Cabernet would be a phenomenal prize to the lucky winner, as this wine is out of this world!)

There are a number of reasons why I like the Sweepstakes idea:

You can create your own requirements for entry in order to participate.  For example, they must “Like” your page and then drive them to perform some other action such as enter your email, or follow you on Twitter etc.

There are social elements to running a sweepstake. Anytime someone enters your sweepstakes, it shows up in the newsfeeds and exposed to large audiences and could become viral as friends of friends are likely to enter once they see all their friends active on your page.   It is the social proof factor that comes into play here on Facebook especially.  People are influenced by what their friends are doing.

7. Add Facebook “Like” box — This is one of the most powerful things you can do.    Facebook recently released new social elements called social plugins that tie your fan page to your website/blog.    Here’s how it works: If someone goes to your site and that someone is logged onto Facebook, their friends who like your pages show up in the like box.  The cool thing about this is it is a massive social proof feature— People are more influenced to like a page when they see their friends who like that page as well.

You can also add a like button to a blog post.  If you develop really good post that catches on, this is powerful way to attract thousands of fans to your fan page.   In Drew’s case, he has a very basic website, but not a blog.   One of the things I highly recommend that Drew does (in addition to creating  a Facebook page), is to start blog and begin building his brand by writing informative, value-driven blog posts—rich with videos!   (I will cover blogging and Twitter in subsequent posts)

With Drew’s in depth knowledge and years of experience in the wine making business, combined with his PASSION for wine, Drew will very easily and quickly build a massive, loyal following and become a major force and a celebrity figure in the wine industry!

Wow—this was a ton of information I just shared!   Do you now see the potential of Facebook as a powerful engine that drives you business? In fact, if you do not have a Facebook page, you are leaving money on the table.

If you would like more information about setting up a custom fan page and developing a marketing strategy for your business,   please contact me http://www.laurademeo.com/contact-laura/ .    I work with a full service social media marketing firm and would love to discuss how we can help build your social media!

Finally, if you found this post helpful and valuable, please share with your friends who you think would also benefit!   This was a long post but I didn’t cover everything—please comment below what other strategies you have done on Facebook that has been successful for your business!

To your Success,

Laura  DeMeo

Most of us are all ready using online social networking giants like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, & You Tube. We know that using social media for business is essential for building relationships, brand development and ultimately growing your customer base because they’ve gotten to know, like, and trust you!

But, in the midst of all the communications, advertisements, and noise out there in the social media landscape, how can stand apart from the rest in your industry?   I want to share with you a great resource that will you get noticed!

Have you heard of Meetup?  Most likely you have—as they have over 7.2 million members and 250,000 monthly Meetups.    So my next question is:  are you an active member of any Meetup groups—or better yet—an organizer of your own Meetup?  If you said no, then read further—I have good reason why Meetups can add value to you, your business, and those around you!

Let’s start with a quick overview of what exactly is a Meetup.  It is the world’s largest network of local groups.  The groups are made up of people with similar interests, passions, hobbies, or professional skills.  So you could have a group sharing an interest in learning how to knit… or a group meeting for a biking ride… or you might find a group that is all about Social Media– with discussions based on the latest technology, tips, and Trends.

The main point is that Meetups are designed for local “in-person” gatherings.  Though online networking is very important, there is no substitute for interacting with people face to face!   I have rarely regretted going to a local in person networking event even if I did not see benefits immediately.

Why should start your own meet up for business?  Here are 7 powerful reasons:

1. Establish credibility and authority- organizing a Meetup gives you the opportunity to lead and position yourself as an expert in your industry

2. Connect directly with your target market—Getting in front of the right audience is the first step and essential for every business.  When first creating your Meetup online, you are prompted to list related topics that members that would interest potential members of your group

3. In-person connections— more opportunities may develop through face to face meetings.   Here you have the ability to make eye contact and read observe body language which can give you more insight about that person.

4. Word of mouth referrals— people are more inclined to send business your way if they know you, like you, and Trust you.   The element of doing business in person may make a greater impact and lasting impression.

5. Build your email list– every time a new member joins groups, you also get their email address.  Everyone knows that building your list is your greatest asset.  This allows you to further develop relationships and build rapport with your audience… and build trust so they will want to do business with you

6. Grow your network– with over 7 + Million members of Meetup, people are always searching for new groups to join with other like-minded people.  By creating a group (and being active), you will grow your network.   I asked a very successful real estate professional recently what made her so successful and the top producer while so many other realtors are struggling.  She said the reason is she has “built a large network”.  One of my favorite quotes from Robert Kiyosaki (famous author “Rich Dad Poor Dad”) is that the most successful people have the largest networks.

7. Joint ventures and partners— you may meet new people who are also experts in the same niche or market.  Rather than view them as competition, why not form a partnership on a new project?  Two head are better than one. I talk more about the power of masterminds here.

So now that you have 7 solid reasons for why you should create your Meetup go and start one in your area!   Next, you will want to set up your new Meet up group.

10 ways to optimize your Meetup for best results

1.  Write a detailed description of your Meetup.  As you are getting started, you will be guided step by step how to set up your meet up group.  Be sure to complete all the sections with pertinent information about your group.  Fill out the “About” section and describe the purpose of your meet up and why people would want to join.

2. Schedule your Meetup—choose a date and venue and put it on the calendar.   New members will know exactly where and when to find you!

3. Integrate with social networks- Meet up now has a now feature which allow you to integrate messages with Facebook and Twitter.  Integrating social media platforms are a very powerful way to cross promote your group and increase exposure for your business.

4. Share photos and videos- Make your Meetup page as dynamic! Enhance interaction through photos and videos

5. Promote your meet-up—Meetup makes it easy to 1) invite your friends 2) Invite other Meetup members, and my favorite—post your Meetup to Craigslist!

6. Email to you members– Once new members join, stay in touch and send emails to you members with relevant news announcements or important updates.    The organization also does a great job in helping to promote all the groups in the local area—including yours!

For example, I just got an email that says “Your Brielle Meetup Calendar: 132 Meetups this week!”

7. Invite sponsors to support your groups— Meetup will send you an email if a sponsor makes an offer.  For example, a sponsor might provide a place for a Meetup, pay money to support your group, or offer free products, coupons, or discounted services.  I have not done this yet, but it is worth a try!

8. Brand your Meetup page— further develop your brand by customizing your page with a theme, photos, logo, or design with your company colors

9. Post messages on Discussion board– Keep the group alive with by posting relevant topics for discussion!

10. Create a survey—the best way to grow your group is to give what you your target market wants! Ask your members to take a brief survey. Explain why their participation is appreciated and instrumental maximizing their Meetup experience.  There are lots of great free services- the one I use and like is surveymonkey.com

Case Study:  Race Twitch Club

Here is real example of how we are using Meetup to build community and grow Race Twitch!

As a way of bringing the endurance sports community together, creating added value, and developing the Race Twitch Brand www.racetwitch.com, we have created the Race Twitch Club Meetup.  We will be rolling our out first meeting in NYC on October 13^th at Bills Restaurant.

The goal of our group is to provide a content oriented format with new discussions, ideas, training tips, upcoming races, regular guest speakers, and sponsors to support our members.  It is also place for making new connections — locally and nationally as we evolve and roll out Race Twitch Club Meetups throughout the U.S.     In fact, we’ve already captured interest from our audience to open up Race Twitch Club Meetups in 6 other locations (San Diego, San Francisco, Denver, Boston, Houston, and Atlanta!)

As I mentioned, each of our Race Twitch Club Meetup venues will include a prominent featured speaker.

For example, we have been able to promote our first Meetup event and generate lots of interest with our guest speaker, Jennifer Steinman– director and film maker of the 4-desert series, “Racing the Planet”.   She will be sharing the amazing (and tragic) journeys of 10 ultra distance runners as they run 150 miles in 7 days through each of the  four toughest deserts: Gobi, Sahara, Antarctica, Atacoma– inarguably the driest, hottest, windiest, coldest places on EARTH!

This has caught the attention of our audience of endurance athletes!  But, I suspect the momentum of our Meetups will pick up after our first meeting!

As you can see we are leveraging The Meetup platform to help build the Race Twitch community of endurance athletes and to further develop the Race Twitch brand.    Are you starting to now see the potential for using Meetups for your company?

Make sure you check back to this blog for the latest updates as we track the success and growth of our Race Twitch club Meetup!  We are in the initial phases and our goal is provide as much value as possible for our members as we grow and branch out!

If you enjoy running (short or long distances), biking, triathlons (sprint or Ironmans and beyond), hiking, kayaking, cross country skiing—you name it… then go here now join our Race Twitch Club for the latest event and updates… and come join us at our next Meetup!

Now it is your turn to start your own Meetup.  You’ll notice over time that new people with similar interests and passions will continue to join your Meetup.   Watch how your group evolves and your business explodes as a result!

My recommendation is that you stay active, regularly update your Meet up page, and take advantage of all the resources available in the Meetup site!   And remember the key advantage and benefit of creating your Meetup group is that Face- to- Face connection—so makes sure you are meeting with your members in person to get the best results and overall experience!

I’d love to hear about your results!  Please comment below and share your success stories as well as any tips you might have!

To your Success,

Laura DeMeo

Hi! We had a HUGE turnout last night for the FREE 30 Day Social Media Success Program Webinar and even better feedback.  If you missed it, here’s the recorded version for you…(see below)

To sign up for our FREE program simply go to www.SocialMediaSurvey.net and answer the 9 questions.  We’ll be filling up the 10 seats quick so don’t waste a second!

What others are saying…

“I’m excited to take my business to the next level and be a part of it!”

~ Dallas Cyr

“Unsy you maniac! lol  This program looks incredible and I’m in 100%…you better save me one of those 10 seats buddy!”

~Kyle Stevens

“Laura, I thought your webinar was fantastic!!  Even for a guy that has zero knowledge of social media.  Completed your survey as well.  I’m really looking forward to working with you.”

~Michael Sullivan

Video Summary:

Webinar replay:

Social media is literally changing the world we live in right before our eyes.  It’s changing how we communicate, the media, and completely revolutionizing the way that we do business.

Facebook just passed the giant Google for having the largest market share of traffic online and that is just one indicator of how large the social media wave really is.

The bottom line is that our future customers are growing up tweeting, texting, and living & breathing this stuff every day.  If we don’t focus on learning and implementing it now, we’ll not only miss out on a huge revenue opportunity but we’ll be left out in the cold as our competitors pass us by.

Also– our future customers aka “Generation Y” are now a population that is LARGER than the “Baby Boomer” population!  96% of generation Y is already on the social networks.

Tapping into social media isn’t just about making money either.  It’s about building relationships and implementing an efficient strategy to make our lives easier not harder.

For example, the old marketing techniques like cold-calling, knocking on doors, print ads, TV ads, and direct mail are becoming less and less effective and they’re not getting any easier or cheaper.

The new marketing approach with social media can help you grow exposure online so that potential prospects and customers CALL YOU for free.  Wouldn’t that be a nice change!

In a recent a fantastic blog post I just saw from Jay Baer at Convince and convert www.convinceandconvert.com, he brought to my attention a report by Forrester which “points to social media being the fastest growing marketing channel, reaching 3.1 billion by 2014.  The chance to connect with customers is incredibly powerful and presents an amazing opportunity”. The implication is endless.

It’s as clear as day that the timing is perfect, and the potential is unlimited.

How it works…

• Group learning environment on our new social community eTRIBE.net
• Hands on Training
• Weekly conference calls starting Thursday 3/25/10 7:00pm EST
• Week 1:  Building your social media strategy, market research, basics of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN
• Week 2:  Advanced Facebook strategies, building your fan page
• Week 3:  Advanced Twitter strategies & automation
• Week 4:  Streamlined strategy management, intro to blogging course

Our goal is to help you…

• Increase net profits
• Attract more clients & customers for free
• Turn customers into friends and increase your referrals
• Enhance your customer service
• Brand yourself online within your niche
• Build viral exposure all over the internet
• Develop a tribe of raving fans & followers for you and your business
• Stop wasting money on ads and start building your referral base online

What’s the catch?

Our goal is to choose 10 people for this free 30 day program and create 10 success stories.  That great for you and it’s great for us.  Why?  Because at some point, we’re going to launch a paid version of this training on our social community eTRIBE.net and we need to prove that these strategies work.

It’s a win/win situation…we help you get results and you’ll help us build trust, credibility, and momentum for our paid version down the road.  The reality is that even though we’ve learned from some of the best trainers in the world (Katie Freiling and Eben Pagan to name a couple)…we need to prove ourselves!  If you were to get this training from a “Guru” you’d pay thousands of dollars and I can guarantee that they won’t offer this level of support and hand holding.

We’ve got a vested interest in your success and we want to help you take action now and get results!

Come join the FREE program…

In an effort to provide the best results possible, Nick and I feel that starting with 10 people is the right size.  It’s a small group and we’ll be able to offer a high level of service each and every day.

So…all you need to do is to watch the webinar and then apply by filling out this quick survey…

www.SocialMediaSurvey.net

This serves as our application.  It’s a simple 9 questions, with 1 question being your name!  The reason is we want to know exactly how we can provide the best service to you.  For example, we don’t want to teach blogging if you’re looking for advanced Facebook training etc.

The more we know about what you want the more we’ll be able to customize the program for you.  Also, we’re looking for success stories and this is a good way to figure out how coachable and committed you are.  We’re looking for like-minded, committed professionals who are willing to put the time and effort into this and want to see results. So what are your thoughts? Are you ready to jump in?  Share your comments below…

Any questions feel free to call me at 732-859-4118 or email me at laurademeo@yahoo.com

To your success,

Laura

Laura DeMeo