Posts Tagged Facebook Business Fan Pages

Can A Small Business Blog Increase Website Visits?

computer screen with connection graphics website design with list of blogging basics: • Integrate your blog with your website. • Include tags in your posts. • Include comments on your blog.  • Promote your blog.  • Include share buttons in your blog. Absolutely! A corporate or small business blog is one of the best ways to share information about your products and services, current events and sales promotions or press your organization has received. A happy accident of sharing this information is that your company blog posts add relevant content to your website which offers a better chance of appearing in search engines such as Google and Yahoo. A third benefit is when you add scheduled corporate blog posts your small business website will get higher marks from the search engines because not only is the content relevant, it is current. Relevant plus fresh content equals SEO (search engine optimization) or higher search results.
Not every visitor who comes to your website from a search may result in a phone call or a sale but like all advertising, marketing and sales, it’s a numbers game. The more people who engage with your blog and your corporate website the more likely you will enjoy increased company sales from your blogging. By posting relevant blog content you become the trusted source for your visitors and existing customers for information on your product or industry.

Proactive planning can determine how often you should post a new blog entry

editorial-calendar-graphic-connectiongraphics.comThere really is no on-size-fits-all formula for small business blog posting, anymore than there is a one-size-fits-all marketing plan for small business. It really depends on the goals you have set for your digital marketing. It also depends on how much time you have to feed your blog or the budget to outsource it to an marketing company.
Now, there are success stories about small business blogs that have become income generators in and of themselves.  If your corporate blog attracts 1000’s of daily website visits you may want to plan daily blog posts. However most small business blogs primarily serve as information tools, and as a portal to add relevant website content to increase website visits through SEO. The way Connection Group approaches client blog scheduling is to determine the role of the blog in each small business marketing plan. We recommend creating an editorial calendar for your blog posts. Our e-marketing packages that include blog posting, e-mail newsletters, and social media we develop a monthly plan. For instance if your company hosts an event for small business owners every January all of the content scheduled for the month of January will include information about the event. All of this will be in your editorial calendar. Including your blog updates in a small business editorial calendar helps you know what you will be covering each month and will help keep you on a schedule. Whether you write blog posts daily, weekly, bi-weekly or monthly a plan is a must.

Embrace the power of content on your small business blog

Each blog post should offer insight into your corporate philosophy, industry standards, details on a product or service you offer, or changes that may effect the customer. Seek content that will increase the visitors understanding of the subject. Help your customers make educated choices and purchases. Just as the visitors to your small business blog are researching, be sure to research the content for your corporate blog posts. Research but no stealing! Sharing the most current information available is important just avoid plagiarizing others work.
When you are satisfied with the information you have written for your blog post, add an image. Statistics from 3M corporation and Zabisco state that 90% of information transmitted to the brain is visual, and visuals are transmitted to the brain 60,000 times faster than text! Increase your website visits by using original graphic designs, photos or videos to connect and engage with your audience. Select only images that that are free from copyright. See the article in our e-newsletter about copyright issues and images.

Your blog is posted – Now, how do you increase your website visits?

integrate your blog with your website  blog and navigationIntegrate your blog with your website
The first step is to make sure your small business blog  part of your corporate website, not a separate page. There are many free blogging software options available and it is very easy to tie them into your existing small business website. Contact your web design and development company to create a seamless integration of your blog and corporate site. The biggest benefit is if you have a visitor to your blog, in the eyes of search engine tracking, you have just increased website visits. Other benefits are a custom designed blog will be consistent with your corporate brand and your complete website user interface is built into the blog so the visitor can easily click over to other website pages.
Include tags in your posts. Tags help people find your information more easily when they are searching the web. For instance for this blog entry on our website I would include small business blog, and small business website design and development as tags. Because we offer those services and those services are discussed in this blog adding them as tags show our website and our blog are relevant when people search for small business blog or small business website design and development. When visitors click on a tag in our posts they will see a list of previous posts that relate to those subjects.
Include comments on your blog. Comments show that you are open to feedback, good or bad. Allowing comments on your blog shows your visitors that you want to communicate with your customers. Comments may also help you determine what your visitors are looking for, give you ideas for future articles, and  comments may use keywords that will come up in searches too. Do make sure you moderate your comments though! Even with strong spam filters blogs are petri dishes for spam – check them regularly. We set up our comments to be pre-approved prior to posting just for this reason. As visitors begin to interact with comments you will build a community and advocates for your brand on and offline.
share buttons for blogInclude share buttons in your blog. Make it easy for viewers to share your website content. One share from a high ranking social media influencer can increase website visits astronomically. The ability to share across social media and email is how videos and blog entries go viral – this is an easy way small business blogs can get noticed.
Promote your blog. When you have posted a new blog entry promote your blog in all your marketing outposts. Social media is a great platform to share your blog posts, twitter, Facebook business pages, Linkedin profiles and industry specific groups and social media channels get the information to targeted groups. Include your blog link in your email signature and add a snippet of your current blog posts to your email newsletters.

Are you a small business who doesn’t have time to blog?

Connection Group understands that small businesses are limited with time and resources to implement all the marketing components that will help build their corporate brands and increase website traffic. We have developed a variety of e-marketing packages to suit the variety of requests our customers need. We’re here to help you build connections and reach your target audience – if you just need a monthly blog entry, a combination of e- mail marketing, social media and blog management we have monthly packages that will suit your small businesses goals and budget. We offer a free half hour consultation to discuss what digital marketing elements will fit you best.
Give us a call or shoot us an email today. We appreciate feedback on our blog content and encourage additional insights readers can share to help other visitors learn more. Please add your comments or questions below.
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Facebook – Seeking Groupies or Official Fans??

There is much confusion expressed by clients and friends of Connection Group who are just immersing themselves in social media. Since Facebook Groups and Facebook Pages look so similar, and indeed have many similar features, some companies have created a Facebook Group instead of a Facebook Page which would serve their goals better. The two essentially serve different purposes on Facebook and it is important to know the features of each before jumping in.
The purpose of a Group is to encourage interaction of members.
They are typically built around a particular topic or cause. Members can brainstorm ideas, group chat, post new information, photos, videos and links, etc. Whenever a new entry is made by a member the entire group is notified via email (unless a group member has specified to opt out of emails) and it will be added under the notifications tab. This is one of the best features of the Group option. Another is the ability to restrict access and create an invite only group. This keeps the correspondence in the group directed to group members online – not posted to the public News feed. Keep in mind however messages are restricted once a group reaches 5000 members.
Create a Page when you want to build an official company, public entity or brand page.
The Facebook Pages or company fan pages are tools for companies and public figures to connect with their customers and followers. Customers on Facebook can ‘like’ and then interact with a brand by posting Page updates that are fed to your News feed. By liking the page users will then receive the Facebook company fan page posts directly into their News feed which will also then be viewable by that users friend. Facebook Pages have stronger SEO capabilities and the biggest is their ability to include applications. For instance the static FBMI application that allows people to create graphics, custom tabs and code that essentially simulates a website within their company page. Facebook Pages also provide administrators with post insights which are essentially tracking devices to count hits, etc. Official Pages can not be restricted or hidden like the invite only group mentioned above, there is no option to make them private. The whole idea with the business Pages is to increase publicity and draw interested friends. Page administrators can also access a widget that can be posted on their corporate website to promote their fan pages, this is another feature groups do not have currently.
When creating your Facebook custom business page it is wise to get a vanity URL for the page name. Please see my previous blog entry for details.
I tend to use the features of the Facebook business fan pages and use them even with my non-profit businesses and groups. I don’t implement any member restrictions and I have other tools to mass message and send event notices outside of Facebook. The ability to utilize applications and Page Insights out weight using the Group choice for me.
If you have other questions please let me know, I am happy to help. Facebook covers this information very thoroughly also. Otherwise, if you are ready to create a fan page go to facebook.com/pages/create.php.
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Facebook – All Party in the Front and Business in the Back?

Combining Facebook Fun With Business Building
Facebook Custom Lansing Page Design Connection Group


Since Connection Group has started offering Custom Facebook Landing Tabs and Fan Page Designs we have been receiving a number of questions about creation of Facebook pages. How do you set them up, what are the benefits to having a custom fan page, what types of fan pages are best suited to your clientele, etc. Since there is so much content in Facebook’s help section I will cover a few of the frequently asked questions here. Please feel free to connect for additional questions and visit the help page in Facebook for more in depth instructions.
What is the Difference between Facebook Pages and Facebook Profiles?
Your Facebook profile is a personal account of you as an individual. Facebook Pages are your professional presence as a business, band, organization, etc. Pages can only be set up by the owner or authorized representative of the company. You can not set up a page with the name Motorola Xoom if you are not authorized. You can not set up a group page called Zac Effron if you are not Zac or an authorized representative. I can set up the Facebook.com/connectiongraphics page because I am an owner. My staff can also if they have been given permission.
This is an important decision for a company. If the position responsible for developing these items has a high turn over rate it may be wise to have the page under one of the owners profiles instead of an employee. The updates can always be handled by the employee if desired but the page will always be associated by the company owner or director. In case an employee leaves the company there is no question of control. Keep in mind  you can not create a page without already having a facebook profile.
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