Social Media Marketing

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How to Use YouTube, Email, and Facebook to Make $10,000

Have you ever wanted to see a trumpet thrown off the back of a car going sixty miles an hour?

What about a trumpet holding up an entire car?

Well, you can.

More specifically, you can see just how well Torpedo Bags protect trumpets from this kind of trauma. That’s the whole point of the videos, according to Steve Kriesel.

Since founding the Minneapolis-based company more than 10 years ago, he has worked hard to create a loyal online community for these specialty bags with these quirky, homemade videos.

Still, the company’s Facebook Page proved to be a problem.

“Our Page was just terrible,” Steve says.

But, over the past few months, he changed his approach and gained almost 500 fans in two weeks and made more than $10,000 from marketing on Facebook.

[Read more...]

Facebook Business Timelines: Good News for Small Business

Facebook Timeline exampleAny reputable business will have a website, and over the past 20 years, the design of business websites has evolved.

As consumers, we have learned what pages we can expect to find on a website; home, about us, contact us, news, recommendations – and depending on the industry – events, calendar, members, products and services.

However, driven by the need to make a unique statement, the location of these links can be found virtually anywhere on the website, and we have to look for them.

Good news!

Now there is no longer a need to hunt for the information you want about a business. The Facebook Timeline for Pages has become the “business template for the Internet.” [Read more...]

Facebook Fans: Why Focusing on Quality Leads to Quantity

Group of happy teenagers near high school building.I remember high school well.

It always felt like there was a competition going on to see who could have the most friends … or at least to make it seem like we did.

But I also remember that whenever I needed help or advice, there were those two or three quality friends that without question were by my side. These are the ones that I am still friends with today. And they’re the ones I can always count on for support.

The same kind of thing happens today when it comes to Facebook Pages. It seems like everyone is trying to see who can get the most “Likes.”  But it’s really the smaller subset of quality fans that you can count on for support in your business.

And when you focus on these quality fans they help you attract the higher quantity to your Page over time. [Read more...]

Social Campaigns for Facebook Timeline: Even More Ways to Engage and Grow Your Audience

One of Social Campaigns new Timeline friendly templates

When it comes to our Social Campaigns product, we’re constantly making improvements to help you do even better with your social media marketing.

In the latest release we’ve added a whole bunch! [Read more...]

5 Ways to Market on Facebook That You Haven’t Thought Of

Jason Alvey and the rest of the Four Firkins crew… creatively marketing on Facebook.

Yeah, yeah, you’ve heard it all.

You know you’re supposed to pin your posts on Facebook. You even know all of the ins and outs of Timeline. Heck, you may even know how to run a social campaign to boost sales.

That’s good – as small businesses get familiar with Facebook marketing, the innovation starts kicking in.

Jason Alvey, the founder of The Four Firkins in Minneapolis, has worked hard with the rest of his team to make sure the beer store’s Facebook Page stays on the map. They do all of the traditional Facebook marketing strategies … and then some.

The staff posts photos and videos. They interact with fans on a daily basis and announce new beer shipments – sometimes exclusively through Facebook.

The Four Firkins team also does five things to grow their Facebook Page that are a little less common. Here are five strategies any small business or organization can take away from a glimpse at the Four Firkins Facebook Page:

[Read more...]

Why You Should Let Your Fans Post on Your Facebook Page

Illustrations of  socially connected people with speech bubbles over their headDuring last week’s Supercharging Your Facebook Marketing webinar, I got a great question from an attendee that I thought I’d share:

Q: Our organization does not currently have a social media program, and we a getting ready to kick it off in the next few months. They are very weary of leaving the Page open to comments from all fans. They have requested that I approve or disapprove all comments before they post on our Page. Do you think that us monitoring all fan content could be detrimental to our social media campaign? [Read more...]

A Florida Restaurant Finds a New Kind of Online Deal

This weekend, we’re at the National Restaurant Association Show 2012 in Chicago (if you’re around, come say hi to us at Booth #5927!) and wanted to celebrate by talking about online deals.

We know that most restaurants have thought about using some kind of online deal provider before.

After all, those coupons seem to be everywhere these days: on Facebook, on Twitter, in your inbox.

Then again, maybe you’ve heard the horror stories.

Grant Galuppi, the owner of Galuppi’s, a restaurant in Pompano Beach, Florida, didn’t have a dismal experience when he first tried hosting a deal last year. But, then again, it wasn’t stellar, either.

“We offered a 50% discount, but then had to share half of that with the deal provider,” Grant says. “So we wanted to find something else.”

[Read more...]

How One Author Got 32,529 eBook Downloads in 5 Days

Kevin W. McCarthy, the CEO of On-Purpose Partners, had already published his book The On-Purpose Person.

Since its original publication two decades ago, it has sold over 200,000 copies.

However, it was this past April that he decided he wanted to reach a brand new audience by offering the book as a Kindle eBook.

By leveraging his existing business contacts and launching an online promotional campaign, Kevin managed to boost readership significantly – The On-Purpose Person reached #1 in the non-fiction category.

The secret? Kevin made the Kindle eBook free.

[Read more...]

5 Things I Love About Facebook Timeline

The new Timeline layout for Facebook Pages is now a month old, and Page owners are starting to get used to it.

However, just because people are getting used to it, doesn’t mean they’re making the MOST of it – so I thought I’d give you 5 things that I really love about Facebook Timeline that you can use to promote your business more effectively.

Here goes: [Read more...]

How to Get Started Pinning on Pinterest

Despite Pinterest’s rapid great success over the last few months, there are still many people and businesses that don’t know what it is or what it can do for them.

As the site gains even more momentum, there are a lot of benefits to getting on the bandwagon early.

Here’s a breakdown of Pinterest for business: [Read more...]