Today’s training is shared from HubSpot and an article posted by Pamela Vaughan. It was just too good not to share. 

The Ultimate Facebook Marketing Cheat Sheet

Facebook’s social network domination may frequently get challenged by emerging social media platforms like Google+, but the facts remain. With more than 845 million members in its user base, it’s still the most popular social network around.

And yes, businesses are beginning to understand its potential to help them achieve their marketing goals. In fact, 41% of B2B companies and 62% of B2C companies using Facebook have acquired a customer from it.

That being said, learning all the nuances of various social networks can be a tricky and time-consuming feat, especially considering how frequently they add, remove, and modify features. To help you stay ahead of the curve, we’ve put together a handy cheat sheet that businesses and marketers can use to make the most of Facebook.

35 Tips and Tricks for Mastering Facebook Marketing

1) Create a Business Page, Not a Profile

First things first. To maximize Facebook’s business potential, you need to create a business page, not a personal profile, to represent your brand. Setting up a page is simple. Just visit https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php, and follow the step-by-step setup instructions. (Already created a profile for your business? No worries — Facebook now allows you to easily convert it into a business page.)

2) Claim Your Page’s Vanity URL

Once you’ve created your business page, make it more shareable and easier to find by creating a recognizable vanity URL (e.g. http://www.facebook.com/hubspot) at http://www.facebook.com/username.

3) Add a Creative Cover Photo

Facebook’s new page design enables you to feature a 851 x 315 pixel ‘cover photo’ at the top of your business page. Get creative with it to capture the attention of new page visitors. Just be sure to follow Facebook’s cover photo policies by excluding price/purchase information (e.g. “40% off” or “Download it at our website”); references to Facebook features/functions (e.g. “Like,” “Share,” etc.); contact information such as website address, email, mailing address, or information that should go in your page’s “About” section; and calls-to-action, such as “Get it now” or “Tell your friends.” Here are some awesome examples of business page cover photos to get your creative juices flowing.

4) Auto-Publish Blog Content

Start populating your page’s timeline with content! If you maintain a business blog, you can connect your blog to auto-post links to new blog content you publish. Many blogging platforms like WordPress and HubSpot automatically offer this feature within its software; you’ll just need to turn it on and sync it with your page. (Warning: Don’t put too much emphasis on automation. It’s okay to auto-publish some content, but make sure a real human is posting and engaging with your fans, too.)

5) Make Sure Meta Descriptions of Blog Posts Are Complete

Have you noticed that when you post a link to Facebook, it pulls in a brief description as well as an image? The description gets pulled from the page’s meta description, so make sure any blog content you publish has a complete and enticing meta description to optimize its presence if it gets shared on Facebook.

6) Pin a Post Every 7 Days

Another feature of Facebook’s new page design allows you to ‘pin’ or anchor one of the posts on your page’s timeline to the top for 7 days at a time. Pinning content to the top of your page will prevent it from getting buried by more recent updates. Use this feature to highlight specific posts about remarkable content, calls-to-action for your best marketing offers, or other events/promotions you want to feature. Update your anchor pin every 7 days once the old one expires. To pin an update, hover over a story, click on the pencil icon in the top right corner, and choose ‘Pin to Top.’

7) Star or Hide Posts

Modify the items in your page’s timeline to highlight certain posts more prominently than others. By hovering over individual stories, you can make them wider and more prominent on your page by clicking the star icon, or hide them from your timeline (or delete them entirely) by clicking on the pencil icon.

Leverage Your Most Visual Content

Facebook’s new timeline page design places more of an emphasis on visual content like images and videos, so use that to your advantage. According to an internal Facebook study, “posts including a photo album or picture can generate 2X more engagement than other post types.” Because these images will now appear larger and more prominently on your page, make it a point of posting your best visual content to your Facebook page, or make more of an effort to make the content you already create more visual. Think photos, charts, infographics, and other content visualizations. And hey — you can always use it on other visual-oriented social networks like Pinterest and Google+, too!

9) Create Custom Page Tabs

While Facebook’s new page design eliminated the ability to create a designated ‘Welcome Landing Page’ for new visitors to your Facebook page, you can still create and leverage custom tabs which are accessible via the ‘Views & Apps’ section of your page (see tip #17). Think of these as landing pages within your Facebook page. Learn how to create custom tabs here, which you can use as calls-to-action to feature anything from case studies to marketing offers to other promotions you’re running. (Note: With HubSpot, you can take this one step further by installing HubSpot’s Facebook App. While it can no longer support ‘welcome’-style landing pages, you can use it to create custom tabs containing lead-gen forms so you can convert page visitors into leads … right within Facebook!)

10) Add Milestones

Another feature the new Facebook page design supports is ‘Milestones,’ which allows you to call attention to significant events in your business’ history. Use the feature to highlight some of your business’ biggest accomplishments, such as fan growth, award wins, product releases, major events, or other accolades. You create a new (or past) milestone via the status update box, which will prompt you to input information about your milestone such as its name, location, date, story description, and an image, which is set at 843 x 403 pixels.

11) Use Facebook Insights

Facebook Insights is Facebook’s internal analytics tool right that helps you measure and analyze your Facebook presence. The tool provides Facebook page administrators with analytics data about page visits and engagement and can help you understand which content is and isn’t engaging to your fans. Access your page’s Insights at http://www.facebook.com/insights or by clicking into the ‘Admin Panel’ on your page. We’ve also published an informative blog post and video that walks you through how to analyze Facebook Insights to improve your content strategy.

12) Tag Other Users and Business Pages

Although you used to only be able to tag other users on Facebook, you can now tag other pages, too. Make your page more engaging and interactive by enabling others to post content on your timeline. Enabling this feature will also automatically publish posts to your page’s timeline that are from other users who have tagged your page in their posts. To enable this, check off “Everyone can post to HubSpot’s timeline” and “Show the box for ‘Recent Posts by Others’ on the top of HubSpot” in ‘Manage Permissions.’

13) Connect Your YouTube Channel

Does your company have its own YouTube channel? Add the YouTube App to your Facebook page so your fans can view your YouTube videos directly within Facebook.

14) Add the SlideShare App

Similar to the YouTube App, you can also add a SlideShare tab to your page that will also pull in your SlideShare presentations.

15) Connect Your Flickr Account

While you’re at it, why not pull in your Flickr photos with the Flickr App, too?

16) Create an Open Graph App

With Facebook’s new Open Graph applications, you’re not just limited to other people’s apps — you can also create your own apps that support your very own marketing initiatives! The new and improved Open Graph allows third-party developers to create ‘frictionless’ apps that, after a user provides permission once, automatically share users’ engagement with the app on Facebook. Furthermore, users’ friends are easily able to join in on this shared activity. Furthermore, the new Open Graph apps support customizable calls-to-action, which you may have already noticed in apps already floating around Facebook like Spotify, Hulu, and the Washington Post, which prompt Facebook users to  “read,” “watch,” and “listen.” Creating an app for your business will obviously involve a developer’s time, but if you’re interested, we have a list of ideas to get you start brainstorming here, and Facebook has published guidelines on how to get your application integrated with Facebook here.

17) Organize Your Views & Apps

After you’ve added new custom tabs and apps to your page, organize them! Facebook’s new page design features photos, likes, and apps at the top of your page below your cover photo. Photos are automatically featured in the first spot, but page admins can rearrange the rest to highlight the most important ones first. Overall, a total of 12 apps can be shown here. Four are visible at the top of the page, and the rest can be viewed when page visitors click the dropdown arrow (highlighted in orange in the image below). Admins can also customize the images that get shown for each app in this toolbar using the ‘Manage’ >> ‘Edit Page’ dropdown via the ‘Admin Panel,’ which is accessible at the top right of their business page.

18) Use Links & Calls-to-Action to Generate Leads

Start generating leads from Facebook! Optimize your page for lead generation by posting links to landing pages for content behind forms, and add calls-to-action (CTAs) to the custom tabs on your page. [Bonus! Research suggests that links shared on Facebook have a high impact on SERP (search engine results page) rankings.]

19) Use Questions/Polls for Fan Feedback

In the status update bar on your page, you have the option of posting a question or a poll (click on ‘Add Poll Options’). Use this to ask your fans for feedback about your products/services or the content you post to your timeline. The possibilities are endless, and it’s a great way to engage your fans and increase participation on your page.

20) Experiment With Interest Lists

‘Interest Lists’ are a feature that allows users to organize updates into separate topics from a collection of fan pages and/or public figures who have the subscribe button enabled on their profile. For example, a user could create a “Recipes” Interest List, adding to it fan pages like Betty Crocker and the Food Network, as well as the profiles of their favorite food bloggers to which they subscribe. Users can also subscribe to Interest Lists created by other people, as Facebook suggests popular lists and make it easy for users to discover lists created by their friends. Consider experimenting with Interest Lists by creating awesome lists in your industry; promoting the ‘Add to Interest Lists’ button on your Facebook page; creating content about industry news so your updates are the first to show up in any lists your business is apart of; and creating a must-subscribe, content-rich Facebook presence.

21) Customize Who Can View Your Posts

Facebook’s response to Google+’s Circles feature was a feature that enables users to customize who can see their Facebook posts. For your Facebook page, this means you can limit posts to only display to fans in a certain location or language.

22) Schedule Posts in Advance

Using a third-party Facebook application like HootSuite or HubSpot’s social media publishing tool, you can schedule Facebook posts in advance. However, just as we advised against too much Facebook automation with blog auto-posting, the same holds true for scheduling. Don’t get caught in the trap of turning your page into a robot, and make sure you’re actively engaging with your fans, too.

23) Understand the Impact of EdgeRank

EdgeRank is Facebook’s algorithm for deciding what gets shown in a user’s news feed. It’s important to understand that not every post published to your page’s timeline will be visible to every one of your fans. A post’s engagement level factors into your content’s ability to spread across Facebook. Interactions with a post such as a Like, share, comment, tag, etc., create what Facebook calls an “edge.” The more edges an object has, the more likely it will be displayed in a user’s News Feed. This means it’s important to post engaging content so your fans are more inclined to interact with it, thus increasing its reach.

24) Add Facebook Social Plugins to Your Blog/Website

Promote your business’ Facebook presence and help your content spread on Facebook by adding Facebook Social Plugins to your website and/or blog. This will encourage visitors to your site to also interact with you and become your fan on Facebook as well as spread your content and expand its reach. Social Plugins include ‘Like’ buttons, ‘Share’ buttons, and more.

25) Encourage Your Business’ Execs to Add the ‘Subscribe’ Button

Encourage the public-facing executives and thought leaders in your business to add the subscribe button to their personal Facebook profiles and share your business’ content. This will help extend the reach of your business content. Furthermore, individual people can only be added to the Interest Lists we mentioned in tip #20 if they’ve implemented the subscribe button, so doing so will enable users who are creating new Interest Lists to add your business’ thought leaders to their list, increasing the chances of exposing your business’ content to people who subscribe to those lists.

26) Subscribe to Facebook’s Official Blog for New Feature Announcements

Give yourself a competitive edge. Stay on top of the latest announcements from Facebook such as new features and tools by subscribing to the official Facebook Blog.

27) Monitor Activity on Your Business Page

Don’t neglect your Facebook presence. Use social media monitoring software like HubSpot or a third-party app like HootSuite to monitor activity and regularly participate in your Facebook page. A page that is engaging and updated regularly will be much more successful than a static one.

28) Switch Your Posting Identity Between a Personal Profile and a Page

As a page administrator, within your page’s settings you can choose to always post to your page with that page’s identity (i.e. If I post to HubSpot’s page when I’m using Facebook as my personal profile, it will show as posted from ‘HubSpot.’). Furthermore, if you want to use your page’s identity in general, you can switch that as well. Doing so will enable you to receive notifications about activity on your page, see stories from the pages you Like in your news feed, and interact with other pages as your page. Just click on ‘Account,’ then choose ‘Use Facebook as Page.’

29) Experiment With Facebook’s Ad Platform

Test the effectiveness of Facebook’s advertising platform for your business. Here’s a complete ebook on the subject to help get you started. Then become well versed in Facebook’s ad metrics so you know how your ads are performing.

30) Use Group Chat for Collaboration

Facebook recently introduced Group Chat into its mix of features. In the Facebook chat pane, click on a user you want to chat with. Then click on the icon between the video icon (oh yeah — you can do a 1 on 1 video chat, too!) and the ‘x’ icon, and choose ‘Add Friends to Chat.’ Think of it as a chat room that can enable you to collaborate with teammates or conduct a small, live focus group with prospects or customers.

31) Enable Messages

With Facebook’s new page design update, page admins can now allow users to send them personal messages. This makes it much easier for admins to engage in private conversations with their fans. Use this feature when you need to discuss a topic or customer service issue in more depth, and when you’d prefer the conversation not be made public for all page visitors to see. We don’t recommend limiting methods of communication available to your fans, but admins can also choose to turn off messaging capability by accessing the Admin Panel, choosing ‘Manage’ >> ‘Edit Page’ >> ‘Manage Permissions,’ and unchecking the ‘Messages’ box.

32) Integrate Facebook With Google+

Download the Google+Facebook extension (currently available for Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Firefox) to add an extra tab to your Google+ account, which accesses your Facebook news feed. The tab also enables you to Like, comment, or post status updates to Facebook from your Google+ account.

33) Take Advantage of Facebook Keyboard Shortcuts

Use Facebook at the speed of light with Facebook keyword shortcuts for Google Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer. Access Facebook’s keyword shortcuts here.

34) Launch Contests

Contests can be a great way to increase engagement and attract new fans for your page. Be aware of Facebook’s contest/promotion guidelines, and consider using an application like Wildfire, which works closely with Facebook to make sure its guidelines are followed appropriately. Here’s a helpful blog post on the subject if you want to learn more.

35) Add More Page Administrators, Engage, and Be Social

As we mentioned before, although there are a lot of tools available to help you maximize the effectiveness of your Facebook presence, remember that social networks are based on the concept of being social. Make sure there is a member of your team devoted to managing your business’ Facebook presence and that they’re committed to participating using a real, live human voice. You can also add more than one administrator for your page when you’re editing your page under ‘Manage Admins’ to help you split the responsibility among team members.

However, your email list is STILL your #1 online asset! You can market to those people again and again, they will stay loyal to you (assuming you have good email practices) and they will buy from you down the road. The key is to offer a free incentive that showcases your expertise and value, that people WANT.

Do NOT make a free report in an hour or two and throw it up there as a Microsoft Word doc that is not formatted, and then expect that to boost your credibility and sales. Yuk! This is a critical part of the public’s first impression of you. You want to spend the time to come up with a great idea, produce it the best you can, get it professionally formatted and designed – in short, spend the time to do it RIGHT.

Below I have a lot of really great keys to a successful free introductory product incentive that you can offer on your website in exchange for people to signup for your mailing list. Note to Self: You may way to print this puppy out. 

Do the brainstorming work:

• What are the top 3 problems your audience faces? (depression, weight gain, bankruptcy, etc.) In a free gift, people want an answer to their biggest problem in a formula or process that they can start today. Examples can be, “3 Steps to Triple Your Energy Levels,” or “5 Ways to Dump Depression and Gain Gusto,” etc.
• People will want to instantly download your free gift (not have it sent to them a week later) so I suggest the format you consider to be video, text (like an eBook) or audio. There are reasons behind which format to choose and why. To give you a taste:
• Video is great for giving off energy that transfers to the listener. It creates a longer lasting impact, can go viral, plus they can watch it again and again. Video is ideal for emotional topics. If you are a personal or life coach for example, this is for sure the format to select.
• Text is great for writing out a technical process so someone can pint out the document, paste on their mirror, or just review easily. It’s probably the easiest format to share. You MUST get your eBook or workbook professionally formatted and designed to make a visual impact which is necessary for getting readers engaged and excited to share with others. (If your topic is not technical or in a process, I do not suggest creating an eBook – I would suggest you to create video, period.) For example, my free product incentive right now is a 23-page eBook titled, “Share My Message! 7 Key Steps to Social Media Integration.” I show lots of examples of how to brand your social networks and I explain how to do it ALL! So I for sure had to choose an eBook format so my readers could print it out, refer back to it again and again, etc.
• Audio is “ok,” but video is for sure a preferred format by the majority. Audio is good for meditations and technical personal development/motivational/how-to content. Audio can be uploaded to an iPod so people can listen in the car, while working out or taking a bath, etc.

More Key Tips:

• By now we’ve identified the top 3 problems our audience face and we’ve selected a format for the product.  Next I would start working on an outline of what you’re going to discuss. Another KEY to this process is that people will want to download something they can start TODAY. No one wants to go to a website in search of a problem they are facing, get all jazzed about a free product, sign-up and realize that the author is telling them how to ‘repair their credit in 6 months.’ That subscriber needs a solution NOW. So let’s give it to them. If it’s a topic that gets them on the road to success TODAY then people will signup for it.
• The higher the monetary value of the bonus, the more people will want it. So if you have an eBook and a video as a package deal, more web visitors will download it. If you give away an event ticket or teleseminar call series – since a higher value – more will download (Note: These two ideas are more if you have an opportunity to give a bonus away during a book launch or product launch).
• As you create your product, always be thinking, “How can I make this so good that it goes viral?” I want people to share my eBook with as many people as possible! I don’t even care if they signup for it! If I produce a high-quality product that is of great value to others, I know they’ll come back to me anyway. They will come and check out my website, signup for my mailing list to get more great training, hire me for website development or social media branding, etc. I’d love nothing more than people to think my product is so good they send an email out to 100 people saying “Here, thought this could be a useful resource for you.” Goosebumps! Since we’re on the topic, a great read is, “6 Ways to Make Your Video Go Viral.”
• Always, always, always, always, always, always(!) end with a “call to action” by suggesting to the reader or viewer what to do next. Offer a discount on becoming a member, invite them to join a free teleseminar call, ask them to follow you on social networks, etc. Tell people what you want them to do with this material or next in general.

So what do you think, some good tips in here? Did it get you to evaluate your online marketing efforts and make a decision to step up your game? I bet it did and that rocks!

If you thought this article was helpful, I would love to hear your feedback and help me share it on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. If you are interested in writing for InsightfulDevelopment.com, click here to learn about out Guest Writing program.

If you do not have a YouTube account, then first, I need to urge you to get on this wagon by setting up an account and taking the video plunge today.

If you do have a YouTube account, you must, must get it branded, otherwise you are literally wasting the opportunity. Every single time someone views your video, they should be staring at your website URL, photo, logo, tagline – or testimonials, a service list – anything that will drive people back to your website to learn more about what your message is.

See below for my YouTube background and examples of a recent YouTube channel backgrounds we designed: (click to zoom)

What does the new Timeline look like?

What is the greatest addition for Facebook pages?
The Facebook Cover is by far the greatest because we now have an 815px X 310px header that sits at the top of our page which we can use to further our brand messaging!

Get Your Facebook Page Timeline Cover Header Designed »

Important! There are some critical points of information to note about the Timeline for Pages. Some include:

• Facebook no longer allows you to set a default landing tab for your business page.
• Your Facebook Cover can not be a space to promote any call to action (including your URL or free product offer – don’t worry, our covers will still promote you and your brand in a very effective way).
• Between milestone images, your apps bar and offer ads, businesses will have much more freedom to effectively promote their products and services (yay!). See the resources links below to read up on these additions.

I encourage you to take a half hour and fully read up on the do’s and dont’s for this exciting new change. If you’d like to get a head start and get my help in setting up your new Facebook Timeline for your company page you can view our social branding packages or contact me for support.

Resources to Read:

• The Complete Guide to Setting Up the New Facebook Page Design
• Interactive Course on Facebook Timleline for Pages
• Facebook Timeline Complete Guide

• Do you feel clueless about social media? Questions come up such as, “What do I say on Facebook?”, “Is this really as important as people say?”, “Which social networks are the best to be on and why?”
• Are you curious how to maximize social media interaction on your website so more web visitors share and like your content?
• Have you considered the powers of branding your social networks to drive all that traffic back to your website?

Don’t worry, most online business owners share this frustration and confusion. Today my goal is to help you build a sturdy bridge so a steady stream of people flows between your website and social media touch-points. The goal is to maximize ease for people to join your social networks from your website AND to find your website while visiting your social networks.

HOT OFF THE PRESS, I’d like to invite you to download my new eBook, “Share My Message! 7 Key Steps to Social Media Integration”
FOR FREE!

This 23-page eBook has two parts. The first talks all about what you need to do on your website to get more likes and shares for your content. Learn the resources and tools I use in my business! Also how to gain a much bigger following on your social networks – all without visitors leaving your website.

The second part of “Share My Message!” is all about social media branding. Learn how to brand your Facebook, Twitter and YouTube accounts so you drive ALL that social networking traffic back to your website (where you can next get them to opt-in to your mailing list and buy products or services from you).

What People Are Saying:

Thank you SO MUCH for all your AMAZING, HELPFUL INFORMATION! I am a new website owner and I am LOST when it comes to the social media angle–even with a personal coach. There is such a MASSIVE amount of information, decisions to make, TIME involved–at least 300 hours so far for me!  I will DEFINITELY be checking with you for more ideas on how you may be able to assist me! Thank you, again, for all the free information you have already provided to me!
Lisa

Amber– I had a chance to read your ebook. It’s fabulous…really. I read it from my perspective which is someone who really wants to learn the best ways to maximize my online presence using my website and other social media tools. This book is chock full of juicy nuggets that are immediately useable for integrating social media, and you explain it so well (a talent for this topic). Really liked the look and feel of the book…worked really well with the subject matter.
Great job for someone who continues to be blazing along and making a difference for people.
Take care,
Terry

Register in the right sidebar!

To download your copy today,please fill out the short form in the right sidebar, blue box. This registration will also allow you to join my emailing list – but don’t worry, you can unsubscribe at any time.

After registering, you will immediately get an email with a link to download “Share My Message!”

You’ll want to take action now so you don’t feel continue to feel behind. It’s time to take action in your business and make success happen.

This isn’t one of those resources that you should read when you get around to it. A lot of very valuable information has been shared and it is truly my pleasure.

I would love to hear your feedback on this eGuide by filling out the Facebook comment box below. Also, please feel open to share this guide with anyone whom you think can benefit.

Thank you for your support and interest!

What is Pinterest?

Pinterest is a social network that allows you to “pin” cool images to a virtual corkboard-type setup on your wall. The home page acts as a giant feed of images that are being posted on Pinterest to show you the latest activity. They have developed a browser add-on button that allows you to be on any website (except Facebook, I’ve discovered so far) and be able to click the “pin it” button to add images to your Pinterest profile page without having to be on that site.

My opinion?

At first I thought, oh man, another social network. But as a focused online business owner, I wanted to give it a chance and dive right in. Hey, if it can help me spread my message to the world faster, why not? So I registered for an account (caution: they’re on a bit of a wait list but get on it anyway). I am only getting started but I *already* see the potential for business owners.

I have created a few “boards” already: Pure Inspiration, Bucket List, How To Help for Online Biz Owners, Books Worth Reading, Products I Love. I only have a few images as you’ll see but I have many more I need to pin up.

I think this social network is going to be addicting, powerful in terms of expanding your reach and influence online, and has the potential to do wonders for online entrepreneurs.

The strategy?

First of all, I can already see the online world turning MUCH more “visual”. All over Facebook I’m seeing graphics with quotes, text, etc. and they are getting the most Likes and Shares. So Pinterest IS a network to get on.

I plan to start designing a series of images and posting them on my site and for blog posts. You want to create images that are cool so people want to pin them to their boards. The more images you create that get pinned, the more exposure you will get and that web traffic will come back to your site. Then it’s up to you to have a great website that will capture leads and make sales.

When you pin your own web pages to your Pinterest account, here’s what I suggest: Add a cool image to the pages you want to expose on your Pinterest account (that is how you pin the page to your account – through the image). It needs to be a cool image to generate interest and get people to then pin it on their account or comment on your image.

As you “pin” the image to your board you are allowed to add a description AND links. Check out this example to see one Facebook Profile Banner Image I added. Check out the description and see how I added a link at the bottom of the post to drive that traffic back to my site on a particular page.

The KEY is to add as many neat and interesting images as you can find. I want someone clicking around on my Pinterest boards as long as possible. I want them to follow me, share my images and come back for more.

So yes, I’m at the beginning stages but this is a great site with loads of potential. It’s time to get busy!

What Cool Images Am I Planning to Add?

Pin It

Pin It

Pin It

Pin It

Pin It

Pin It

Shoot me a comment below and let me know your Pinterest profile URL so we can connect! Also, if you thought this blog post was helpful, please help me share it on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Thank you in advance!

Wanna hear my two cents? Below you’ll find a 20-minute audio where I was interviewed by Pam Zimmer. Feel free to download, SHARE, or listen straight from this post.

What questions did I answer?

• Why would someone want to sign up as an affiliate and what are the benefits?
• What is a “mask URL” and when/why would you want to use one?
• How can you leverage being an affiliate to market and grow your business?
• If someone is new to social media and wanted to create the most opportunity for a book release, what are the top things they should do?
• What other tips can I offer to have more success with affiliate marketing and social media?

Click to Download

I’d love to hear your comments and takeaways. Please ask a question or send a comment through Facebook comments below, and/or share this article with others to spread awareness and help educate.

Thank you!

The best way to reach a large number of people and get your message across on the internet today is through video but not just any video. It must be a video that captures and keeps your audienceʼs attention.

Video is considered by Google as a higher form of engagement than a simple blog or article and ranks higher in the ratings. Therefore you have a better shot at reaching more people if you do a video rather than a simple article. And the more people that watch your video, the higher you will rank on Google and the more likelihood people who are searching in your niche market will see a link to your video and watch it.

'Evolution of Dance' Example Viral Video

6 Key Elements of a Viral Video

So how do you make your video go viral so you rank as high as possible on Google?

1. Keep your video short and to the point.
2. Keep it simple and entertaining.
3. State the problem in your niche market you are going to help them solve right up front in the beginning of the video.
4. Give them useful information so that you move them from a place of no or little knowledge to a place of educated knowledge that puts them ahead in their industry.
5. Choose a title with key words – ones that captures your niche marketʼs attention and offers a solution to their problem.
6. Create a coordinated attack with link bait so that you rank on the first page of Google within 24 hours of posting your video.

Youʼre probably wondering what a coordinated attack is. Itʼs when you post your video on as many social networking sites as possible and get large numbers of people to link back to your video and share it all on the same day. The way to do that is to create link bait, something that causes people to click on your link to watch and share your video.

7 Steps to Create a Coordinated Attack

1. Post your Video on YouTube and other social networking videos sites such as Vimeo.
2. Post it on Blog sites, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networking sites.
3. Put a Call to Action in it asking people if they liked the video or found it useful to please share it with others.
4. Email it to your mailing list and ask them to share it with others.
5. Do online press releases with a link to your video.
6. Contact as many people as possible, especially people who have large email mailing lists and social networking audiences to post, email and blog about your video as well.
7. Offer link bait, such as an ethical bribe offering more knowledge, a free gift, or a chance to win a contest in order to get them to link back to your website and share your video.

When Google sees a large number of people linking to a video within a 24 hour period, it views that as a high form of engagement and moves the video quickly up in rankings.

Did you find this post helpful? Lend us a hand in getting the
word out by sharing this on Facebook, Twitter and Google+.
Let’s show Beth some love.

Beth Rosen is a film producer, #1 best selling author and business entrepreneur who offers various products, services, courses and private coaching designed to accelerate your path to success and happiness. She is currently offering a unique online movie-making course called The Back Door to Hollywood which teaches you how to make a professional movie/video, how to stand out from the crowd and how to create your own lucky break. For more information, please visit www.BethRosen.com.

I have listed 3 ways below to help push you outside of the no-touch zone with your audience:

1. What I do the very most is write in a conversational style. I write how I talk and act. I do not try to sound perfect, or corporate or stuffy. I want my authenticity to shine through and for my reader to feel I’m right there with them – because I am! I get feedback often that website visitors feel comfortable on my site and they get engaged with my writing. I would WAY rather have that feedback than a perfect design or 0.001% better conversion rate. If your visitors can connect with you, the sales will naturally follow. I want to make my writing 100% about YOU. I want it to breathe life into your business and spur your creativity so you go out and produce something new to spread your message. When your are conversational, your message will be remembered.
2. Since I brought it up in the first tip, I make sure that everything I create is about YOU, not me. I have no interest in being one of those service providers that just pushes my agenda or pushes product in your face all the time. If I write blog posts, or send an email to my followers, or create a Facebook post, it truly comes from my heart as something that I think will help you. (Isn’t this the way it SHOULD be??) People can smell a salesman a mile away and that is a huge turnoff to most. One of the biggest trends I’ve noticed that will carry into 2012 is that people crave to work with genuine, real, authentic, trustworthy people. That’s it. We are tired of scams or salespeople saying their product does one thing when it does another. I know I would keep following a leader that genuinely wanted ME to have success in life. If you ever wonder what your audience wants, it’s generally the same qualities you want in a leader or service provider or friend.
3. Another key way to connect with your audience is through the use of video. This is also why so many people are afraid of video – they feel so exposed once the recording starts. But isn’t that the best part of video? We are totally in the spotlight. Learn to love it everyone – get excited to show your true self to others. You are here because deep down in your gut you discovered that you have a message to share with the world. It’s time to get that message out and video is a great way to help accomplish that. Stay tuned for a great post I have scheduled for January by Guest Blogger Beth Rosen, “6 Ways to Make Your Video Go Viral.”

I suggest that before you finalize that eBook, before you push that new product, before you publish that new blog post – you ask yourself, “Did I really show up and try to connect with my audience?” If the answer is no, then go back and rework it. The online world is like a giant library where everything you do gets indexed. Make sure only your best is out there for the world to learn from.

If you felt this post was a good reminder, please help me share it through Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. I would also be curious to hear your comments and see what else YOU do to connect with your audience.

Thank you all – have a safe and Happy New Year!

There is a TON of valuable information in this post. All of the links open in a new window and the content will laser in on that topic. I invite you to spend some time here and really take advantage of this FREE platform I’ve developed just for you.

For those of you who are just getting started online, this post would be excellent for you to print out and keep by your computer as you
build your online platform (your website, social networks, leads – it is all-encompassing of your touch-points online). For those of you who think they are on a great track online, this may be a good post to see what has slipped between the cracks or what area you could build up for better results.

So let’s get started. Consider your online platform and online presence. Really think about the blood, sweat and tears you’ve put into building a website (whether you invested $10,000+ or started a free WordPress site), into starting a social networking account and trying to figure it out, into listening to webinars and teleseminars and reading blog posts on “how” to do it all. Next, I invite you read each question *slowly* and really analyze where you’re at with each of these items:

• Do you have a professionally designed logo that can make for good branding?
• Are you staying ‘up to date’ on what’s happening in your industry so you become the go-to authority for news?
• Do you post to your blog regularly (not once a month, but one a week or more?)
• Is your business brand consistent between all touch points online – from your LinkedIn profile to your Facebook cover to your email newsletter look and feel?
• Have you looked at your content in the past three months to see what, if anything was outdated material?
• Do you do what you say you are going to do online (release new products on time, follow through with your ideas, etc.)?
• When is the last time you did keyword research or competitor research?
• Have you reached out to anyone lately to discuss the concept of collaboration, so you can grow your business more quickly in new markets?
• Do you have a growth plan or goals to help grow your business (such as how many email subscribers you’ll get, how many Facebook friends, how many blog posts, how many emails will you send out to your list each month, etc.)?
• Have you stepped back to evaluate if your web team really IS good, or just the inexpensive solution who isn’t really getting you where you need to be?
• Does your website design help you or hurt you, and when is the last time you’ve evaluated areas for improvement?
• Do you have a solid free introductory product you can give away as incentive for people to sign up to your mailing list?
• And is that free introductory product branded and professionally designed and formatted?
• Do you have obvious social networking icons and feeds on your website so web visitors can connect with you?
• Does your tagline make sense and help you stand out from the noise? Is it easy to remember and does it make an impact?
• Do you have a list of keywords you are targeting with every piece of content you write, so you can start dominating search engines?
• Are you regularly adding products to your website that are for sale so people can get ‘the next best thing’ from you?
• How often are you adding a ‘call to action’ in everything you do (at the end of blog posts, in your email newsletters, in every contact point)?
• Are you organized with your business and do you treat it like a real business with scheduling and planning meetings?
• Do you thank your web visitors, email subscribers, social networking friends and clients for sticking with you?
• How often do you implement new ways to drive traffic to your website and blog?

Your impact on the web IS what you make of it. Those are just a few questions you can ask yourself from time to time to make sure you are BUILDING. Starting an online business is not the easiest task in the world. You are competing with billions of web pages out there. But, there is more than enough room in the sea for us all to profit.

The trick is knowing what to do next to continue building your online platform. Stay focused. Don’t lose the momentum. If you need help with your direction or with implementing tasks, feel free to contact me and let’s have a loose conversation about it. The key is to get help from people who know what they are talking about – and that becomes obvious when someone writes about those topics and gives away the farm just to help others. I’m not tooting my own horn here so much as just teaching how to identify the right kind of person to help you with your business.

If you thought this post was of value, please SHARE this post with others on your social networks. My goal is simple: Helping Others. As many as I can get my hands on.

Thank you for spreading the light!