Entries Tagged 'Facebook For Business' ↓

I have been using Facebook more and more of late as a Rolodex; a way to collect and stay in touch with contacts.

Facebook has provided me such great value, that I recently started to promote connecting with me on my email signature.

As I pointed out in my last post, Facebook is great for contact management and finding important details about said contacts, but could Facebook be the business card of choice for business professionals?

I am not totally sure of the approach in handing some one Facebook as your card. However, seeing as how I am going to be getting new business cards printed in the next few days, I think I will be adding my Facebook profile url to my contact details…oh and I might my LinkedIn profile in their too.

I was at a conference today and found myself using Facebook to look up phone numbers, email addresses and to send messages to other conference members while organizing, confirming and rescheduling meetings.

Facebook is a business tool.

You might not think it is a business tool for you, but just think about the last time you needed to get a hold of a business connection and had forgot (or like me been too lazy) to enter their contact details. If you use Facebook and promote the fact that you use it, you wouldn’t be in that position…and for iPhone users (like me) Facebook gets rid of the nasty lack of seemless contact push between the handset and Outlook/Exchange.

I am an admin. in the Facebook for Business Group - we just passed 9000 members (yay) - and subsequently have become targets for endless spam. I use the delete button like a bad habit, as I like to keep the discussion board spam free and on topic. It is chock full of useful information and debate on all things FB4Biz, check it out - but I digress.

Over the past several months a web marketing company called Yuwie, which disguises itself as a social network has started paying its members a few cents to trick people into signing up to the site by referring them via web boards/email etc. This is despicable internet behavior in my books but apparently just fine to the many advertisers that appear on the Yuwie site. Naturally this spam appears on message boards throughout FB and it causing me much vexing.

The following is the sign up procedure for Yuwie, these are unaltered screen shots - I think you will see that this is nothing more than a harvester of demographic information and not a social network. Hopefully then you will start an anti Yuwie movement, the likes of which the world has never seen.

Step 1 - if you click a link that is posted you don’t see this, naturally I wouldn’t give a bottom feeding spammer a nickel’s worth of recognition so I just signed up because I wanted to join this ‘awesome’ social network.

Step 2 - make sure we have your correct information to spam you or you don’t get your shiny nickel.

Step 3 - before we allow you to access our amazing social network, please send more information to telemarketers and spammers/direct marketers. Lets start with Old Navy.

Step 4 - not done yet, send your info. to these guys too - you might need this product as you are probably having trouble breathing by now. WTF is a Pulmicort Respule?

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Step 5 - wait, send info. again - this time to Overstock, she is actually pretty hot, nice job on talent sourcing Overstock!

Step 6 - your eyes are probably tired from looking at all these ads, so try some new contacts…

Step 7 -In case you want to get more spam and mail - here are the rest of our sponsors, Congrats!! you’re a member, you lucky ignorant S.O.B.

Step 8 - Ok, now please post this on every discussion board and wall on FB and email it to all your friends to get a small jar of shiny nickels. Then slam your head in your desk drawer repeatedly.

So I repeat my plea to Facebook - can you parse the word Yuwie? if so ban it from Facebook. This will no doubt piss off all the people named Yuwie, but as Spock said “the needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few”

Cisco System Is Using Facebook To Let Folks Get to Know Their Top Employees Better

It is not everyday that you see a corporate giant like Cisco Systems embrace the transparency of the social web; but that is exactly what they are doing. While checking out a cool new contest that the company is releasing, I was shocked to find a link on the company’s site that instructed folks to visit Facebook to get to know Cisco Systems Chief Technology Officer for Emerging Technologies, Guido Jouret. Of late Cisco has been progressive in their use of blogs and video to better educate and inform customers, but this latest use of Facebook is something that many Fortune 500’s (and other companies) can learn from. The lesson here is that even though you are a huge company, business is all about people and there is no better way to get to know someone on the internet then through Facebook.

Via smh.com.au - What’s My Stripper Name is a hot Facebook application added by 2.7 million Facebook users to their profiles. It is easily one of the biggest examples of how applications are going viral on Facebook and show how its usage as a terrific marketing platform.

What’s My Stripper Name was launched by Perth collaborative community, TheBroth last year. According to founder of TheBroth, Markus Weichselbaum, Facebook was a platform to show the power of his team to worldwide users.

TheBroth have developed, PuzzleBee, before this which transforms a photo into a puzzle which can be shared. PuzzleBee’s huge success inspired the founder to develop a portfolio of  applications.

All-in-all they have more than 5.7 million users, potentially helped by viral functions which appear attractive to users.

Although, Facebook applications like Stripper Name, are built for fun, Facebook does mean some serious business too. Last month Facebook had announced $10 million of grants for anyone interested in building their business on Facebook’s platform.

Via mediainfo - Popular financial and news service MarketWatch.com has drawn inspiration from Facebook in its latest launch of MarketWatch Community. The community is pretty similar to Facebook and enables registered users to create profiles & friend networks. Users can also share news, commentary and price predictions of stocks.

The service is going to have a widget towards right of every article which would provide latest views of business news, stocks and finance related topics. Jim Bernad, MarketWatch General Manager said that registered users can track and organize their community activity on profile pages, which can be personalized with pictures and other information.

He also mentioned that beta testing results have been positive and shown increase in user loyalty, satisfaction, and length of visitors.

Making Social Networking Work For Sales Professionals

Have you ever met the sales professional that complains that networking events, “just don’t work”? I have. They make me laugh. Networking, whether it be off-line or online, works. You just have to know how to do it the right way. Most sales professionals I know have limited knowledge of how to leverage the Internet, let alone social networks, to develop better relationships with existing customers and prospecting for new ones.

I could write for days about how I have used the Internet and social networks like Facebook to build relationships that have resulted in hundred’s of thousands of dollars in sales, but I won’t bore you with the details; here are 5 instant tips sales professionals can use to increase sales through Facebook:

• Get a Profile - No, I am not kidding. Remember, your computer won’t work if it is not plugged-in. You can’t leverage Facebook if you do not yet have an account, so get one now. It also a good idea to get on LinkedIn…if you are not the yet. Make sure your Facebook profile is professional, but don’t be a square. Let people who you are as a person. People typically like buying from people more than a voice on the end of the phone.
• Add Your Top Customers (and the Others) As Friends -Facebook let’s you easily import your contacts and will automatically find them. Be careful though, if you have a lot of contacts as you could get banned. If you only have a couple hundred, you are safe. If you have over a 1,000, you might want to import them in smaller groups.Now that you have your customer base as friends on Facebook spend a night looking through their profiles - get to know who they are. Before you leave, though, send them a message or post on their wall to let them know you are there. Don’t make it a sales pitch, rather something mature that you might say to a good friend.
• Add Facebook Business Applications - Check out the Top 10 Facebook Applications For Business Professionals. These applications will make you more accessible and allow you to communicate with your customers inside and outside of Facebook with greater ease. The easier it is to find you, the better chance you have of getting that next sale.
• Join Relevant Facebook Groups - There are multiple groups for just about everything on Facebook. If there is not yet one for your particular industry or niche, start one. You will be happy you did. Facebook forums provide an awesome way for sales professionals to A) meet others within their industry (network), B) display/build their expertise through dialogs (brand), and C) find new customers for their products and services (prospect). Don’t even think of selling right away - spend a month or two delivering value through knowledge transfer to the “community” before even getting to the “pitch.”
• Work Your Newsfeed - The Newsfeed is an excellent way to push information to your friends (clients, partners, perspective customers). Have a new product/service? Offering a special price or promotion? Win an award or some other accolade? Don’t be bashful! Post it to your profile and see the information pushed to your “network” instantly. Now you can sit back and wait as the inquiries roll in.

Bonus Tip

Okay, I feel bad. The first tip really was not much of a tip at all - more of a “must do”.

The final tip?

If you really want to get in the good graces of one of your customers, become their evangelist. Who does one do this on Facebook? It is pretty easy actually. Remember the last tip, “Work Your Newsfeed”? Rather than publish stories, news and tidbits about you and your company, start doing it for your customers - they’ll love you for it. It is quick, easy and painless, but the returns are huge.

Have a tip? Leave it in the comments. I would love to hear what other sales professionals have done to leverage Facebook to increase sales.