By Kendra Leah, @Writing2Day
Ask any business owner what is the best form of free advertising they can think of and they will invariably respond with “Word of Mouth”. Known as “Viral Marketing” on the internet, social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter should be used to create a buzz for business services and products.
The first step in creating your business page is to go to www.facebook.com. Towards the bottom right of the page, under the Sign In button, you will see a link to “Create a Page for a celebrity, band, or business. Click this link, choose the type of business from the drop down menu, name your page, and click “Create Official Page”.
I just created a Facebook page for an online grocery store that offers 40-60% savings on name brand groceries named Sensible Savings Online Grocery. Now I will need to put in some basic information about the business, such as: address, phone, hours of operations and website address. Then we will upload a logo to put in the profile picture and fill out some information about the product or service offered.
You are now ready to start posting on your business wall. One of the easiest promos to get started is “Specials for Facebook Fans Only”. Once you come up with your special, you will want to add a “Follow us on Facebook” button to your website and email campaigns. If you have a personal account on Facebook, go ahead and “Like” your business page and “Suggest to Friends”. This will put it out there to all of your contacts on Facebook. Some of them are sure to “Like” your page and you are on your way to creating a viral buzz through contacts that you don’t personally have.
Take it one step further and create a Twitter and blog account that you can link to. Facebook can automatically put a link on Twitter when you post to Facebook and pull in your blog posts. You will be amazed at how quickly you start gathering followers on Twitter and Facebook with some regular posting.
In addition to fan specials, post informative articles of interest to your customers and consider keeping it on a more personable level. One thing missing from the internet is one on one “personal” customer service. If your internet customers feel like they know you and you provide exceptional customer service, you will build their loyalty as a long-term customer and they will help you spread the word.