A lot of people ask me how Facebook ‘works’, how they get their message out to their fans and followers and the truth is – it can be very confusing, even for professional marketers. Unfortunately, Facebook itself doesn’t make it any easier to understand, and some recent changes make it even more complicated. I thought I’d talk a little bit about those changes today.
With so many options available to you for marketing these days, it can be really easy to over do it and find yourself overwhelmed. Don’t let that happen. Keep it simple and use only the marketing tools that work for you and that you can maintain without drowning.
Marketing is a double edged sword. I bet you thought I’d say it was an art or a science. For most people, it’s a necessary evil. You have to market to get people to buy your stuff or use your services or support your cause. Don’t do it enough and the phones stop ringing. Too much and the exact same thing can happen. I myself can become quite irritated when, outside of my work, I get over-marketed by someone.
Example: when I run into a store, the last thing I want to do is answer a ton of questions upon checkout. “What’s your zipcode? Your phone number? How did you hear about us?” This usually before they have even begun to scan into the register whatever it is I’m trying to buy, and all because someone, somewhere, decided that it was a worthwhile exercise to annoy some people as long as some other people went ahead and gave them the information they were looking for. But is it worth it?
I remember the phone book. (I don’t say this sarcastically) Anytime you needed to find someone, you looked in the phone book. I had a good friend at school but didn’t have his phone number, so I looked it up and found what I thought was his home phone number. I called it up and it turned out to be his father’s office.
Ooops. I was eleven, so I could be forgiven.
Today, I can’t remember the last time I looked inside a phone book, and that’s huge. Even more important, I’m not the only one.
A massive mistake people make, especially sales people trying to navigate their way through the social media and blogging landscape, is to copy/paste whole ‘articles’ onto their own websites. This is a big no-no for several reasons, not the least of which is the impact it can have on your visibility on search engines like Google.
As one of the newest kids on the social media block, Pinterest is growing by leaps and bounds. Once thought to be for women alone, men are jumping on board with the site that lets you ‘pin’ images to virtual cork-boards where friends and followers can find them.
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What is Pinterest? Let’s take a look at the official description:
Pinterest is a virtual pinboard. Pinterest allows you to organize and share all the beautiful things you find on the web. You can browse pinboards created by other people to discover new things and get inspiration from people who share your interests. People use pinboards to plan their weddings, decorate their homes, and share their favorite recipes.