It’s always nice to be liked, it gives us a feeling of being accepted, or that we’re doing things that keep other people happy; but what does it mean for you if you have a brand that’s ‘liked’ online?

Now, more than ever, companies have a golden opportunity to interact with their customers, to find out what those customers either like, or dislike, and whether this interaction can help to create new customers from the many people that will now see them as a wholly likeable company, on one of the biggest social networking sites around, Facebook.

If you are looking to enhance your friendly persona, and take advantage of the opportunities offered by Facebook promotion, then you’re going to want to take a note of the ten tips below.

1. About Time You Listen  - This is as close to being able to listen into other people’s conversations about you as you’ll be able to get.

Take note of the things that people don’t like about your product, as much as you do about the things they do like, and get involved in these conversations, if possible. If people know that you care enough to get involved, and they see that you’re making changes based on what they’re saying, then you’re going to find yourself creating a better customer feeling about your products.

2. Engage with your Audience – Remember, you’re taking part in a social site, so be sociable. That doesn’t, of course, mean that you have to act in a way that’s going to bring your companies image into disrepute, on the contrary, by talking to, and listening to your customers you’re going to start to build a rapport, and this is going to help you to get genuine feedback about your products.

There are some very large and successful companies that are doing this already, if it works for them, then there’s no reason why it shouldn’t work for you; in fact, if your company gets a reputation as being approachable then it will help with customer loyalty.

3. Being Genuine – Share things with people that will give them more of an insight about you and your company. That doesn’t mean that you should be ‘airing your dirty laundry in public’ but, if you have some interesting story about something that led to a new innovation in your product, then there’s no reason why you shouldn’t share it with people.

4. Must answer negative comments – People have found that the internet is a good place for them to vent their frustrations and, due to the very nature of the internet; this negativity about your company can be made known to other potential customers very quickly.

You now have a fantastic opportunity to address those frustrations. Be quick to get your point across, and don’t be afraid to say if you’ve made a mistake, in fact, showing that your company has a human side, and can apologies, when appropriate, can give a lot of positivity to your Facebook marketing.

5. Positive comments are great publicity, so respond to them, too – Not only is it good to be quick to respond to comments that could damage the reputation of your company, it’s also a great idea to say ‘thank you’ to the people who are prepared to say how good your company is.

These comments will be seen by a lot of people, and if they can see that you’re appreciative of good feedback, then that may encourage them to post their experiences of dealing with you and your company, too.

6. Using the EdgeRank Formula – If you don’t already know, EdgeRank is the way that Facebook determines what’s going to be at the top of the News Feeds. Why is that important? Well, most people are going to notice what’s at the top of the News Feed, and if that’s you and your product, you’re going to be seen by a lot of potential new customers.

This is going to give you a great advantage over any other company online as your Facebook marketing effort will put you ahead of your fan’s friends, so no competing for attention further down the line. Make sure you use this advantage by grabbing their attention further, videos, photos and short text should help to do that. Also, make sure you don’t go in with ‘obvious’ advertising; no one on a social site is looking to be advertised to.

7. Sharing stories – This was touched upon earlier, but is well worth repeating. A lot of people are interested in how people get to where they are in life, and they’re just as interested in how products were arrived at, or improved upon. Many online are looking to start or improve their own businesses, so this can be a great way to inspire people, and if your company is associated with inspiration, that can only be a good thing for you.

8. People Love Surprises! – This should be a surprise in a good way. Are you looking to make a certain number sales of a product, or sign up x number of fans, or maybe have y number of downloads of a report? In that case, why not give people a surprise incentive if you get past that goal?

If you have something that’s of value, but you can give away a certain number of for free, then tell people that you’ll do so once the goal has been reached, but limit the number to add a certain amount of scarcity to the offer.

9. Provide Value for Money – Why not give people something that they can’t get anywhere else, if they become one of your fans on Facebook?

This sort of Facebook promotion can bring you a lot of fans, and having a lot of fans means you have a lot of people that you can let know about new products, and they can spread the word. Because they’re doing so much to help your company, why not give them something really valuable, like 50% off of one of your best selling products?

10. People are here to socialize, NOT to be Sold To – How would you feel if you went out with your friends, and all they did was try to sell things to you; you’d leave, wouldn’t you?

People go online, to social networking sites, to meet up and chat, they’ve had enough of the usual commercialism for the day, so the last thing they want is your company popping up and pushing your product.

While it’s fine to sell, don’t be a sales person, give them a way that they can buy from you, and get involved in conversations in areas that concern your product, but don’t ‘push’ it on anyone – that’s how you make a sale on a site like Facebook.

So, if you want to make the most of your Facebook marketing, then think like a buyer, and decide if you’d ‘like’ your company if you saw them and how they interact with people on Facebook.

Facebook(FB) has probably changed our lives – Who would disagree to this statement? Even the most loner kind of a person finds himself swarmed with hundreds of friends. Conceptually, FB was supposed to be a social networking site, and it still is one but businesses are increasingly looking at FB to provide them with a launch pad for a lot of their products.

Why not – FB allows businesses to promote their products directly to their prospective customers, isn’t it? That said, there is a long way to go before you optimize your business for FB and start using FB constructively for your business.

Here are 7 tips for you to use Facebook for your business

1. Separate your personal account from your business account. Your business account in FB should only have your target customers and no one else.
2. Offer something for free – It could be anything, a newsletter, a whitepaper or something of that sorts. People would read information available for free.
3. Setup a brand identity for your business account. This means you should work on your business description, logo, and all of that. Who said using FB for your business is a child’s play?
4. Now, invite people to join your business group.  A good place to start would be to have couple of your friends who are interested in your products.
5. Enclose your FB profile link in your email signatures. This way your clients would know your business is on FB. And hey – It also helps in Viral marketing, doesn’t it?
6. Did I forget – From time to time, you should keep offering something or the other for free. This allows the interest in your group members to be sustained, when they know that they would get a free offering. Don’t do this too often else you would lose the value of your product.
7. Last but not the least – Keep revisiting your contacts. Keep adding new contacts and delete the ones who you think don’t really participate or the ones who don’t really enquire about your product. Eventually, you would want to make FB a profit making entity for your business and towards that any decision you take, is welcome.

One thing is clear – FB can definitely be used to boost the sales for your business, provided some care and diligence is exercised in building your business on FB. It may sound and look lucrative, but one mistake could also prove costly. It doesn’t take long for your business identity to lose its credibility on the Internet (At least, some businesses have definitely discovered this by now).

But, if you can follow these 7 simple tips, it is my guarantee you would be able to generate more leads for your business. It would only be matter of days that you see the sales of your business increasing.

If this is so lucrative, what’s stopping you from taking on to FB networking? After all, it is not a place where you could only make friends, but also make some moolah too!

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