Saturday, August 27, 2011

Social Networking: Facebook - Adding Friends

Facebook For Internet Marketing Newbies!

My first tip for you is to use a separate Facebook account for running your business. Whilst it's nice to show everyone you have a human side, like to have fun and indulge in a bit of banter, it's for the best to maintain a professional approach to your marketing. You don't have to be a marketing robot but people who are interested in your business will be more likely to respond to something you've posted relating to internet marketing rather than a post about taking your dog for a walk!

My second tip is to use a good picture for your profile and use your real name. You can go for the standard business attire like a suit or something smart casual. Either way, looking professional is a good idea. There's nothing overly wrong with looking like you're having fun but pulling a stupid face or holding a can of beer could possibly give people a different impression to the one you're trying to make. Also, focus on your face and make sure it's clear to see. People always like to put faces to names and vice versa.

Adding Friends

To build up relationships and help put your name out there look to add around 25 targeted friends per day. 'Targeted' means relevant to you and your business. You're wasting your time if you add somebody who has no interest in what you do. Find people interested in Internet Marketing. Search through group pages on 'Making Money Online' etc because these are the people that have an active interest in what you do and a friendship will be formed easily.

Because you'll start your account with zero friends you need to make sure you don't look like somebody who randomly adds because Facebook frowns upon that and could ban you. To start with add people you already know within the industry (your mentor etc) and then go for the people who they are already friends with. These people will see you know the said person and will almost certainly accept your request.

DO NOT ADD 25 IN A ROW!

Spread out these requests through out the day as Facebook will cotton on to your multiple adds and ask you not to send the request if you don't know the person. You'll end up with warnings and possibly a ban. 25 per day, week in week out is perfectly safe. You'll soon notice that once you've built up a friend list of over 500 people, you'll end up getting more and more requests from like-minded people and your list will explode.

I have over 2,200 friends. When I first started I was adding 25 a day and hitting my targets. Within a couple of months people were adding me. Sometimes I would log in after a couple of days of not checking my adds and have 50 plus requests. One time, after a mini-holiday I came back to 78 requests!

Tip:

To begin with put a nice message in with your request to each person. Something like "Hi, I've seen your profile and think it would be great if you would accept my friend request. I'm looking to meet and network with like-minded people to share values and opinions. Thanks." Anything like this will do, although most people understand that gaining a friend is always worthwhile for many reasons so I've personally found that after you've built up a decent friend list a simple add will do just fine.

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