Marketing and Advertising on Facebook

Radius Targeting

2009-03-11T12:32:00.001-07:00

In Advertising, Radius Targeting is basically a sub-set of geo targeting. It allows you to specify area/city and its surrounding hoods. Currently, Fb offers radius targeting for up to 50 miles around a certain geo area. This geographic targeting is useful for local businesses. The next step (if you find 50 miles insufficient distance) is to target by state. The difference wouldn't be that great. There may be only 1% to 5% more potential customers, in which case you better chose to advertise to the entire state/province.

Few words on FBML 'error saving' message and about the adverts besides fan pages

2009-02-25T04:56:00.000-08:00

FBML error message: There was an error saving. try at a later time. ?!
While editing my FBML (to update my external links from the facebook page to my site) this error message occurred. And it has been for two days already. I just wonder if Facebook has decided to 'cut' or disable the ability to post external links to your site.

Also, have you noticed one more weird thing - ads to the right of the fan pages ?! Interestingly enough they appear only when the page admin edits-browse their own pages. Hopefully, a visitor (potential fan/subscriber) will not see those ads. Otherwise, it is not fair. You have spent money to advertise your fan page and to acquire fans and now facebook tries to boost their ad revenues by posting ads on every empty space.

Well, let's not complain. Still, a well made fan page can get you over 200 visits and even more pageviews per day of referred by facebook traffic.

Using Facebook to find a job

2009-02-24T03:47:00.000-08:00

The innovativeness of finding a job by using facebook ads is to target the right people - and those are the people who work in the company of your choice - See how one-day-one job have applied the technique. here >>
[[ Also, check out how to get $100 for free to advertise yourself on facebook]]

How to get the $100 free for advertising on Facebook

2009-02-24T03:28:00.000-08:00

To get $100 free coupon for facebook adverts you have to add the visa business network application on your facebook profile.
1. create a dummy page (why? - for two reason: to experimetn with it like a sandbox and to point it as the place where you want to display the visa business network banner .. in my opinion its too visible to be displayed on a proper page or profile)

[btw, do you know how to create a facebook page - its easy - go to any page scroll down to the bottom and there is a link create page for my business - follow the instructions and will be done in a minute]

2. Go to the visa business netwrok application and click on Add to Page

3. Fill out the visa business profile
4. Receive the coupon code for $100 facebook ad credits in your email associated witht he facebook account.
it is valid for 90 days

Once you go through the create an ad process you will be opted to enter the coupon code at the moment before payment.
Still, you credit card number is required to guarantee that only one coupon per person will be used.

Social ads Guidelines

2008-02-11T12:21:00.000-08:00

Besides the general guidelines on the Do and Don't when it comes to promoting page outside of the on-line world, it was quite interesting to learn that
'Facebook permits advertisers to feature unaltered screenshots of their Facebook Page provided that the screenshot does not reveal any personally identifiable information about our users without their written consent.' and also 'A registered trademark symbol ® must be included in all print / online displays of logo or wordmark that reference the Facebook brand.' ' Where possible, include our legal copy on all print promotional materials: “Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc.”'
Now, this is quite an useful thing to know. I would add the 'R' symbol and acknowledge more thoughtfully that my writings are ABOUT Facebook and not at all endorsed BY them.

Facebook's Marketplace has Search for Items glitch

2008-01-29T05:38:00.000-08:00

Apparently, Marketplace search function is not working quite well (at least not all the time). I was trying to locate my listing and after numerous attempts with all key words and combinations I just couldn’t. Not only this but I test the search function for some other products an again it was not what I expected. The search for $250 Notebook in Chicago, IL ended up with results that are merely said not what I was looking for. It is either that I don’t know the proper manner of searching and navigating through Marketplace or it is some temporary glitch. Hopefully it will be over soon.

Flickr™ Photo Images for Commercial use

2008-01-27T18:34:00.000-08:00

Using images from Flickr™ to illustrate your on-line writings is a great idea. To avoid copyright issues, always use images that are fully available for commercial use. This applies especially in cases when you are not quite sure if your web presence can be considered commercial or not, like for example website with enabled section for Sponsored links.
Compliance with image's copyright can be done through checking the appropriate boxes at advanced search mode. All photos are published under Creative Commons License, and those photos have copyright restrictions in range from complete copyright protection to fully available for modification and use, even selling, by third parties.

The image in this post called
"Copyrighted performance" by wseltzer is an excellent example to illustrate the proper way to use a photo - It has the word copyright in it (exactly what I was looking for to use as illustration for this entry) and it is Ok to Share — to copy, distribute and transmit the work AND to Remix — to adapt the work.
Those images can be used after proper Attribution through the links provided here. "You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author or licensor (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work)."

5 Reasons to Make Facebooking a Habit

2008-01-23T14:33:00.000-08:00

I was inspired by this fine article in Apollo Media's Blog about making blogging a habit and decided to apply similar approach to Facebooking.
Login at least once per day. Check out the news and updates in your Facebook groups. Add few applications per week just to see what are they doing. Apply 'gardening' to your facebook at least once per week. Add images.
The benefits will be in keeping your Face fresh and always at the top of your groups' walls posting. The more you participate the more knowledgable you become. Your writing will get better (this one is an exact quote from Appollo Media's Blog)
At the end, but not last, it keeps the fun!
So, have fun!

Research: Does sex sell? Examples from Facebook.

2008-01-19T13:56:00.000-08:00

The answer is Yes-No-Maybe or it all depends. For some products sex images work for some they just don’t. Beer brands advertising are good examples of how sex sells. On the other hand bikini models in Caribbean travel cruise advertising have negative effect because women who eventually will book the travel feel threatened.
Let’s look now at the ads on Facebook.

This is a free listing at Marketplace and the ad is for home business opportunity – by the way, in 99% of the cases in ads like this you are lured to buy an e-book that teaches you how others have made millions on the internet. The ad is done to attract attention - it has the two topics that capture the imagination of both men and women for all times in the history – sex and money. The way it works is fairly simple. Someone registers 50 profiles, logs into 50 regional networks and floats the marketplace with attention grabber pics and promises for richness. And yes, it sells.

Making Money with www.CafePress.com While Having Fun on Facebook

2008-01-13T12:53:00.001-08:00

Just take a glimpse. This is a smart way to promote your affiliate business on cafepresse.com (an online T-shirt printing web site that offers % to people who lead buyers to them on-line)

It makes total sense to post photos of T-shirts with things written on them related to the thematic of the group. In this particular case the group has funny outlook on drinking as a way to improve foreign language communication. The name of the group is “Alcohol Improves my Foreign Language” and the T-shirts posted in the photo gallery have the similar fun outlook.
The good thing for the person who posted those photos is that she put her affiliate link under the photo. Eventually, few out of the hundred visitors who join this group every week will visit the link and will buy that particular T-shirt.
That’s what I call ‘smart’ way to make money. The quotation marks ‘ ’ are a sign of caution that maybe the moderators of the group or other members will report them as inappropriate. Btw, the smart thing is that she posts a set of 3-4 pictures in a row; just enough to be noticeable, but not too annoying. As they say no risk, no profit.

Viral Marketing on Facebook

2008-01-13T11:48:00.000-08:00

In brief: It is not viral if no one wants to share it. The good thing happens when the right people forward the message to the right people.

Let's imagine that you have started a group dedicated to the art of eating with chopsticks (or the benefits of drinking beer). You invited your hundred friends and twenty joined the group. All you guys started sharing ideas and stories related to eating with chopsticks. Some really useful and entertaining dialogs happen.
Out of the twenty people that you invited ten decided to spread the news and send invitation to their circle of friends. If we assume that everyone has hundred friends, which automatically mean that the news for your newly created group has reached thousand readers.
Although a bit optimistic, this is the way how things can happen. I have noticed that interesting groups that have 1000-2000 members grow with average 10 members per day, while bigger groups grow with hundreds, even thousands members per day.

Advertising Small Business on Facebook: Examples & Effect

2008-01-12T09:26:00.000-08:00

Facebook can become a great vehicle for spreading the message about your business and ultimately getting more customers, if you know how to use right the four spots where you can advertise on Facebook.

1. Marketplace - great for selling your stuff. For example, you buy electronics from eBay and you sell it through Facebook's marketplace - the rationale in doing that is in the fact that most people are still scared to give their credit card number online even when the seller is eBay.

Paying for Sponsored Listings in Marketplace can increase the visibility of your message.

2. Groups - great tool for promoting your competences, videos, website, store, dancing studio, etc… How?! - Simply by posting interesting catchy posts on the topic of interest.

3. Share a link - great option attached to your wall. Can be used for promoting website articles (like this one) that will be interesting to the people in your friends network.

4. Flyers - all of the above are free ways to promote your business - actually it is not free if you count the time and energy to make the writing work - but flyers, that’s the paid form of advertising on Facebook. More on flyers here. Actually, they are now called Social Ads, but the principle is still the same.

Hello World

2007-03-31T05:17:00.000-07:00

Hello World is probably the most common phrase known to any programmer. The first learning accomplishment is to make those two words appear on the computer screen. It is quite easy today to make this sacred thing happen. Iterface is pre-designed and the only thing to do is just type it. Again, as has done it before, I typed it: Hello World