RBS Marketer » web presence

5 New Faces of Facebook – An Effective Branding Opportunity

Esther — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 20:09:31 +0000

Now you have another opportunity to brand your company, offer key messages, and reinforce your expertise in your niche through the 5 pictures displayed on your Facebook wall or on the information page. It’s a place to convey your assets, reinforce the company’s promise, and display 5 key messages at once. It’s a great way to share key selling points with your customers. Whether through pictures or phrases, your target audience who lands on your wall or welcome page, will get a positive first impression of your company if you brand it correctly. In addition, they might be motivated to go to the information page to find out more about your company.

When a picture is clicked, like the one below, you have the opportunity to embed a live link to lead the reader where you want them to go. In this the link www.jwrp.org is leading the reader back to the website to register for the trip they are promoting.

It looks like lots of fun and a trip where good friendships are being formed. Since Facebook is just one of the tools you use for social media, the links mentioned above can be to your website, YouTube channel, blog, Flickr, slideshare account, etc. You can link to your site and other related resources to:

Engage content
Promote and offer updates on company events and seminars
Release announcements in the industry
Offer discount programs
Present contests
Inform your target market about your ‘company in the news’

The only challenge is that the pictures are uploaded in no specific order so it’s hard to create a banner, although, someone will figure out how to overcome that soon enough. The other test is to get the right pictures posted to reflect the brand that your customers have come to rely on. Any new uploaded pictures end up in the top 5 but if you click X it will disappear and the old one will reappear. However that new picture will remain on the Facebook page either in an album or in a post. Photos uploaded by fans or ones where you are tagged will not appear in the 5 above. Putting pictures up on your company Facebook page makes your brand human, relatable and accessible. It shows your consumer the ‘personna’ of your company. It’s the picture of your voice, it’s all about your ability to talk to people in a genuine way and show them that you are part of their community. By all means analyze the stats once the pictures go live. See if your audience is relating to it and be able to pinpoint what attribute moves your target most. In the very name Facebook is the essence of the brand. We now have a ‘face’ behind the ‘name’ and we insist on that as a given. Facebook is changing everyday so stay tuned for more and more sophisticated ways to deliver your message in this popular medium.

Affiliate Marketing Presentation to RBS Women’s Professional Networking Group

Esther — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 19:10:37 +0000

Last month I gave a presentation to the RBS Women’s Professional Networking Group on the ABC’s of Affiliate Marketing. It sparked a lot of questions about how to generate passive income in our businesses. Why should we get into affiliate marketing? What are the advantages? How to get started.

See presentation. RBS Marketer Presentation -Affiliate Marketing

It is always helpful to know how to maximize your traffic and offer your readers variety and lots of information to help meet their goals.

The Secret Success Formula in Social Media

Esther — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 11:35:32 +0000

Key to Success Use Social Media

After viewing this short video, I was struck by how it illustrates all the different positive results Social Media has brought to companies across every product line, service, non-profit, and the education sector.

Social Media has quickly evolved into the tool of choice today to cultivate an audience built on trust between individuals and groups through the continual sharing of everything from personal stories to professional critiques, photographs, and creative works. One the biggest breakthroughs, the use of proprietary software that is now free, is the sharing of software created with open source code.

Customer opinions, instant feedback, and requests are valuable information which companies can now use to create better, more targeted products and services for their customers.

Developing a relationship with your target audience prevents your company or service from becoming a price sensitive, commodity, to be scrutinized or eliminated. As the world becomes a much smaller place through online media and search, relationships become that much more important to each party. One of the ways to create loyalty amongst the sea of “look alike, act alike” products and services is to be unique, approachable, open to collaboration, and be willing to go beyond what is expected.

Social media as a tool for connection has proven itself quite effective. The point of entry is fairly low, everyone is welcome, and the benefits are great, when used effectively.

The formula of success today seems to be in this virtual world of connection; knowledge of the company and its’ offering, plus appreciation and responsiveness of the needs of the target market, all equals continuity and success in business.

Your Dual Personality: Your Website and Your Web Presence

Esther — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:59:53 +0000

Most companies today use their websites as a centralized business card or brochure. Their never-ending task once the site is launched is to try to optimize the site for search engines and use various paid search schemes to drive traffic to the site. Without the sought after traffic, the site would never achieve the goals that any seasoned marketer would set.

Websites range from straightforward and informational to dynamic, interactive, and sticky. Some websites people need to check every day. A website is in one place. It is stationary like a house; a space to return to, where one can find all the necessary elements to function.

But one must leave the house and go out into the world. That’s where you start to develop your presence in the community where you interact, whether it’s physical or virtual. Here you have an opportunity to let the world get to know you on a personal and professional level. Whether you are commenting on a blog post, adding to a discussion in a forum, tweeting, speaking to a group, posting articles on your favorite subject, or helping a non-profit, just to name a few vehicles, you are creating a web presence for yourself and your company, which is separate from, but still referring back to your website.

Your web presence becomes like a soaring bird that can’t be caught. One is never sure where it will land but your audience can’t take their eyes off of it.

You are everywhere and people notice. While you are out there, you are adding value to your marketplace with your special talents, personality, expertise, and hard work, showing the world, “this is who I am and this is the company/entity I represent.” You evolve into an expert, sought after to be quoted. With every new endeavor you partake in, you raise awareness and people are forming an impression about you. All your efforts feed back to your website which continues to build the brand of the company.

Consider the neighborhood plumber, a real bricks-and-mortar business. Even the plumber can take advantage of an online presence which is dynamic. Our “Plumber 2.0″ blogs at night about water saving techniques, thereby establishing himself as an expert in both plumbing and in conserving water and the planet!

Both online and off, it pays to have a dynamic web presence because it is viral, it’s effective, and it builds on itself.

Do you have any great web presence success stories to share with us?