Facebook IS the hot new market!

I get friend requests from idiots all the time with no connection to me, no connection to any group I'm in, nothing. Not only do I ignore the requests, I block them and their friending bot. It's annoying and pisses me off. The one site that I actively disengage any overt marketing is FB. I think this is getting to be a pretty common theme too. I observe a fairly low tolerance threshold of spamming and overt marketing activity.

Yes, you can very effectively market on FB, but not by jamming a bunch of friend requests and building a bogus network.

Good one. Thanks.

I agree that you have to market carefully on Facebook - but then again, same thing on Twitter. On Twitter, I go in and over valuable information in my areas of expertise - mostly press releases and publicity - and that's all I have to do to get clients.

I don't actually care that I'm getting friend requests from people that I don't know, though. I'm trying to network, so I want as many connections as I can get.

Thank you for this information. I look forward to learning more about marketing on Facebook.

Marcia Mercy

I've just been getting into facebook the last couple months. Haven't used it for marketing and probably never will but I love the site.

By far my favorite Social networking site.

I've got to echo other people on this thread.

I use facebook just to keep in touch with close friends and family. I don't think sales pitches will work very well on there.

Saying that, I think facebook could work really well for networking, if that's what you were thinking of doing there.

lol hope that makes sense, my brain is getting tired .

Clare

p.s. This thread ain't half attracting the one liners already :-s

I've found great success through facebook marketing for my content websites. I've started groups on facebook and post tips related to the content sites daily and that generates tons of traffic (number 2 behind Stumble).

Twitter is also great but I find that you need a TON of followers to really generate large amounts of traffic.

Starting groups and inviting your friends and then having them invite your friends is a great way to continuously generate new traffic because as people browse your friends groups, if your group sticks out, they may just have a look.

Best,

From what I've seen - I don't think traditional marketing works on ANY of the social networking channels. You have to bring value to the conversations, look for ways to connect with people and help them out. Then - if they see that value, they'll click through to your profile to see what else you are up to and onto your website. That's where you can start selling.

If you go in hot 'n' heavy with a sales pitch up front, you'll be unfollowed / blocked / defriended - or whatever the right terminology is for that channel.

Absolutely - I never show up and openly try to start selling. I wouldn't try to sell an affiliate product on Twitter or Facebook - but I would definitely go on there and present myself as the expert in my field, ready to answer questions from people -- and I find that gets me an amazing amount of traffic and sales.

Funny. I just joined Facebook today and tweeted that it felt like Twitter for dinosaurs. ;-)

It'll be interesting to see how marketing on Facebook versus Twitter will compare. To me, Facebook strikes me as not having a very user-friendly design. It's not very intuitive and things aren't where you would think they would be. I don't know how it's become popular. Maybe it's the Microsoft of the social networking world; people use it because "everyone else does"?

I blame you for getting me hooked on Twitter, but henceforth I blame Michelle for getting me on Facebook.

Hi Dana,

This really is just an old hot market finding new places to spend their time

Marketers have had baby boomers in their sites for some time now given their sheer numbers and financial ability to buy product.

You might be interested to check out a number of books on marketing to baby boomers - some of their insights about how to target them might be well worth your time all depending on what you are looking to do.

I created ALL my list using Facebook, a HUGE part of my revenues comes from Facebook. Use Facebook + Twitter together, then put a bit of effort, you cannot not be successful with this.

what's the BEST SOFTWARE to make automatic friends on facebook?

Some great points, I think if you're looking building some great contacts and a profitable business you need to market your business carefully on Facebook as well as Twitter. you always want to identify profitable and possible business contacts, but not sell to them straight away. It all about building a rapport with your contact first, and then identify what their needs and wants are, and offer something that may help them directly.

Facebook is best when you use their ppc advertising. You can laser focus your ads onto any demographic. I know some people making 10k and more per day w/ cpa ads.

Traffic from Twitter - I can drive a few hundred people in a day to my site when I write a useful post and then link to it on Twitter. I know those aren't HUGE numbers but they're very targeted.

Facebook is an AMAZING resource for marketing. I have a video up there titled "Piano Therapy" and it now has over 150 comments on it - all positive. I then add these people to my "friends" list since they've indicated they like the video.

When my new CD comes out, these people will be aching to buy it.

I place the video on groups and fan pages that allow this (and most do!) Some groups have over (get ready for this) 1,000,000 members!

Plus, Facebook is gearing up to be a lot more like Twitter.

FB could be viable business generator depending on the type of product and niche you are marketing. And also the profile of customers you are targeting. It works for some, but not all.

I watched a documentary about FB sometime ago and some interviewed were rather worked up by the fact that FB is getting commercial.. but then again, who would spend so much time and energy to build something like FB and not be commercial about it? There is no free lunch..

I have been using Twitter because of its easy automation. But it is also nice to try facebook, especially if you target social market.

I've been pretty active on Facebook lately. I jump back and forth from Facebook to Twitter. I'm not sure which one is best for marketing yet.

I actually like the format of Facebook better because I can keep up with friends and family across the country and actually see a picture of them, which is more personable.

As for marketing??? I'm still working on that. I'm still working on increasing my friend/ follow count.

can you buy facebook traffic on a CPA?

You can buy low cost PPC on Facebook, and if you target your demographics right you could do quite well advertising for popular niches that are huge like weight loss for example. You can also become an affiliate for college memorabilia and market to that group. Another great source is to advertise to people that want to make money online. People everywhere want to know how to make a few extra hundred dollars per month online.

I think the best idea is to have a separate profile for your personal & business 'faces'. That way you can keep the personal stuff as just that... personal and then have a separate 'group' (rather like a forum) for your business or a more lazer targeted page specific to your product.

Dave B

You can actually link them together. If you do, then evry time you post a new tweet at Twitter it also sends and updates your status on Facebook.

I'm currently experimenting with PPC on Facebook. My Google ads get a CTR of 2-3% while my Facebook ads are about 0.02% ... not kidding. I'm not convinced people click ads on Facebook.

FB can help in marketing if you know how to use and manage it. a lot of marketers are already on FB aside from twitter. So make use of it as your advantage.

Sign up for a program called pixelpipe. When you post to your twitter account it auto updates your face book acct.

Paul

I have never had anyone buy something from me off of FaceBook. I have nearly 700 friends, a handful of people I actually know and most are from various groups and random people who want to meet me. As a selling tool it has been useless for me. I wonder however if buying ads on FB is effective. I was thinking about giving it a try.

More Time Spent Social Networking Than on Email - News and Analysis by PC Magazine - another great article on social networking sites!

Oh and ping.fm and hello.txt also will simultaneously update multiple social networking sites.

OK I've set up a business page within my FB personal account. I now want my Twitter feeds to ONLY update that business page. Any ideas or do I need to set-up a completely separate FB account altogether?

Dave B

Sorry, getting increasingly frustrated!

I opened up a Facebook account just to be able to advertise on it, and now I have all kinds of people "finding" me and wanting to be friends. I'm still getting used to the personal nature of the site, but I could see how it could really work in a niche to keep people informed on what you are up to.

What annoys me on facebook is when you invite people to network with you and assume that they are worthy and then they do a sales pitch on your wall with at least 4 links to their products.

It just bugs me as i wouldnt do it to others.

I use social networking sites to do a lot of my marketing. I don't have a huge list yet but it is really responsive - primarily I guess because I have built the authority and 'relationships' AND the links aren't sent to them via e-mail.... approx 10 % conversion on most promotions so far.

When social marketing i turn everything in to a conversation - ie 'just saw this and thought of you' 'hey I stumbled upon xxx and thought you might like it' seems to work a treat. I am only new at this - but I have a ton of traffic off twitter and have got more opt ins to blog opt in form then landing page....ning commnunities are another great way to approach targeted suspects - I outsource to India - getting someone to sit in my acc and add friends - this way you can send messages to 100 ppl at a time - far less cumbersome than facebook & people feel they know you and are more likely to opt in to your list - simply because you ask them (in my experience anyway).

The trick here - is to spend half an hour when you first join a ning room adding 'value add' tutorials, videos or podcasts - with NO SALE undertone... just pure information.... members will start adding you immediately..... it is time consuming - but just one of the approaches i have taken to social marketing.

Here's a really great article about facebook marketing:

How To Develop A Facebook Page That Attracts Millions of Fans

Thanks a lot about facebook news. I don't have acc at facebook but right now I'm gonna make acc.

Is anyone has an ebook or guide "How to market at Facebook" I mean FREE guide or ebooks ?

I considered doing some marketing on Facebook a while ago, but it has become extremely aggressive. There are a few techniques that work, but you need to have certain resources to be successful.

For example -- look at the applications. When Facebook first started out, there were only a few apps and they literally made money 'overnight'. When other people realized that, thousands of developers jumped in with dreams of million dollar homes. Only a few have been really successful.

So, if you are going to use application development, not only do you need to understand the market, but there is still a little bit of risk that you may not see the return on your investment that you'd expect. If you can afford to spend a bit, then I'd say do it -- but don't expect that you will be make millions of dollars overnight for very little work.

Although tough to get ads approved, facebook ads is a pretty powerful tool what with the best targeting options in online advertising.

I ran a facebook campaign for a client that targeted a specific corporations employees.