Facebook has been going through changes since day one, and every time an upgrade is released the walls and news feeds of the most popular social network in the world become saturated with complaints. I am constantly begging people to stop complaining and embrace the changes that Facebook continues to make. I mean, lets be real, if Facebook never made any changes, many of you wouldn’t be allowed to access the site, and it would still look like this:

This is what Facebook looked like in early 2004, when it was an exclusive social network for Harvard students.

Yuck! I have to give props to the Zuckerberg for coming up with the idea (well, implementing it) but the original design and function of the site are far different from what over 750 million users see today. Imagine if Facebook responded every time a user complained about how difficult it is to get used to the new format, or the new news feed. This is what we would be stuck with, and I would have logged out a long time ago.

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If you read this blog regularly, you know that we strive to make your life easier. And none of the tips we have provided in the past could be simpler than those in this blog, which is a list of Facebook Tools that business Page admins (short for ‘administrators’) can use to get more out of their Facebook presence. The list contains some Social Media tools and apps that we feel are not used by most businesses, but should be.

The first is the Facebook Question app on your Wall. This is the quickest and simplest way to (more…)

Facebook contests are all the new fad these days. They can help build your brand and drive a huge amount of traffic to your site. The right contest can raise a ton of revenue and build great PR for your business, and can also be a lot of fun too!

Give consumers some ownership in the experience by creating your own contests with User Generated Content. “UGC” as it is most commonly called, is simply a promotion that allows consumers to upload their own content (images or videos) to the Internet and use the content to enter the contest. Find your ultimate fan, best dancer, best product recipe or whatever you dream up and we guarantee your customers will have a blast coming up with stuff. Voting mechanisms and viral marketing channels allow users to take ownership in the experience to spread the reach of your contest.
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At a recent Mannix Marketing, Inc. Facebook 101 presentation for businesses that have not yet to start a Facebook Page and business who have started, but have done little else. It went exceptionally well, but with so many businesses represented it gets you thinking about how many businesses are not on Facebook yet because of one reason or another. Some of the more popular reasons we heard were:

1. I’m not tech savvy
2. It would take up too much time
3. My target market doesn’t use Facebook
4. I started a Page but didn’t see instant results

We like to help businesses get the most out of their marketing, so (more…)

With the use of new technology and social media tools, businesses are able to understand their customers’ needs and wants in ways never before possible. Fortunately for internet marketers, we have amazing technologies and tools at the tip of our fingers that allow us to listen and respond to customers on a whole new level.  Gone are the days of mass impersonal messaging in advertising and marketing. These days, there are new ways to engage in conversation with your audience and get the feedback you need. With these results, we have the power to give consumers not only exactly what they want, but how and when they want it.

How can you find out what consumers want?

Social Media Sites

Social media is completely revolutionizing the way businesses interact with their customers. Stored information from Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and other networking sites can show us what brands people like. With this data, companies can now listen and respond to what it is people really want.

For example, Carnival Cruise Lines does a great job at listening to what people are saying. Their team monitors Twitter and Facebook for any mentions of their brand using the platform Tweetdeck. Social Media Manager from Carnival Cruise Lines Eric Schechter states, “We not only listen to the good, but also to the bad, correcting any customer service or providing service recovery if possible. We take into consideration what people write on our Facebook page and use these suggestions and comments to improve our cruise ships, guest experiences, etc. Social Media builds trust by being able to directly engage in conversation with the people who build and make our brand what it is.”
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