Happy Monday! I’ve been searching for a topic of interest all weekend. Writing a blog for your business can be extremely useful for attracting search engines to your website. In a previous post I mentioned that a survey of over 80 search specialists listed blogs as the #2 item in search engine optimization value.

Can companies really “engage” with consumers in a meaningful way?

However, it’s not always easy to find interesting things to say. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking and reading about social media. The buzz word these days is “engagement” but can companies really “engage” with consumers in a meaningful way?

Why do they follow you on social media?

According to Razorfish’s (Razorfish specializes in digital marketing) FEED report,

44% of consumers who follow a brand on Twitter do so for deals and,

37% of consumers who “friended” a brand on Facebook and/or MySpace do it for deals.

So if you thought they did it because they love you, then perhaps you need to recognize the truth. They do it for your deals.

An idea for your business – create your own version of Cyber Monday

Here’s an idea for your business. Is there a day in the week when traffic is slow and sales low? Perhaps you could create your own version of Cyber Monday (or Tuesday, or Wednesday) and let your Twitter and Facebook followers know that on that day there will be a special, perhaps a printable coupon, an extra discount, a two-for-one or something else that is exclusive to your social media followers.

They may not love you but they still want to know that they are special to you.

If you want to see the whole Razorfish presentation, I’ve included it below.

Today I read a great article on PC World by James A. Martin. The article deals with real world applications of social media for small business. Martin talks about Naked Pizza and the success they’ve had with social media.

…Naked Pizza in New Orleans, which serves pizza with 100 percent natural ingredients. As you can tell from the tweets, Naked Pizza uses Twitter to send followers special offers. The company also tweets to converse with customers in a way that mixes humor with social and health consciousness–qualities that reflect Naked Pizza’s brand identity.

So far, Naked Pizza’s social media efforts are paying off, big time. At this moment, just one Naked Pizza exists. By summer 2010, as many as 50 franchises should be open throughout North America, according to cofounder Jeff Leach. He credits Twitter with playing a significant role in the company’s growth.

Martin describes how successful users of social media are benefiting.

• Reduced ad spending
• Enhanced customer service and customer relations
• Valuable market research

I encourage you to read the entire article.

This is the second post in a series on setting up a Facebook page for business. I recommend that you read the previous post first.

After you’ve completed Step 9: Complete the Page setup and press “Create Page“ you will see the following screen.

Get ready to edit your page

The big ? is where you should put your company logo. If your company logo, like mine, is long and narrow, you may want to have your graphic designer create a version that is rectangular, roughly 200px wide by 150px high. This will fit best into the space provided.

To the right of the question mark, the “Test of setting up a new page” is the title of my demo page. You should obviously choose something more creative and representative of your business and what you do.

Mouseover the ? to see the “Change Picture” option and upload your new logo image.

Next, under the logo, click on “Edit Page”. You can work on these sections as you have time. They do not all have to be completed in one sitting. Also, remember to leave the page “unpublished” until you are done and happy with your work.

In my next post, I’ll look at ways you can start to get people to become fans of your page.

Good morning. What do you most want to know about the use of social media for your business? Feel free to go to our discussion section on the Facebook page and post your question there.

I have decided to investigate setting up a business page on Facebook. I wanted to see exactly how the process worked and share it with you. Today I’ll cover some advice on using Facebook for business and the first set of instructions for setting up your Facebook business page.

How do you set up a page on Facebook?

First, some recommendations:

• Set up a new Facebook account for your professional use.
• Link your page to a professional email and content on Facebook
• Don’t assume that separating your accounts will avoid crossover.
• DON’T – yes, that is shouting – don’t put anything on your Facebook account, either professional or personal, that would hurt your personal or professional reputation.
• Don’t post while under the influence.

First steps to seting up that Facebook page.

1. First, select a professional email address to use. If you don’t have one, you might want to get a gmail.com address. You can get this from Google.
2. Go to Facebook and setup your account with that new email address
3. Temporarily skip the steps to adding all your social friends to this account.
4. To get a page, you need to go to the Advertising Section of Facebook. The Advertising link is at the bottom right of the page.
5. At the top of the Advertising Page, you have several choices: Advertising, Pages, Share, etc.
6. Select “Pages“.
7. You can overview the instructions or go directly to the green button that says, “Create a Page“.
8. You’ll see the screen below.


Avoid public visibility until you're done.

9. Complete the Page setup and press “Create Page“

Later today or tomorrow I’ll continue these instructions. For now, I have been delayed at the verification section of the creation page. Thanks for reading and check back soon.