How to Use Twitter & Facebook to Promote Your Business

Social Media and networking has caused quite a frenzy and changed how we socialize. People are connecting, chatting, and relating to one another. However, if internet marketers look a little closer, they will find a place to expose their business and find free traffic. From social bookmarking to more networking sites like "My Space", you can certainly get traffic from all of them.

But, there are two sites that welcome businesses to market and join the social media frenzy:
- Facebook
- Twitter

Let me give you a quick overview of how to use both.

Facebook:
Facebook doesn't really publicize their business side very much, but it's there. You'll find the link at the bottom of the article, listed under resources.
Facebook lets you create ads that will show up when people are browsing Facebook to connect with their friends. But you'll have to pay for that, either when people click your ads or when the ads show up, up to the limit of your daily budget. The free option is to create a Facebook page for your business.

This is similar to what an individual does when he creates a Facebook page for himself, except you're creating a page for your business. Then people can become a "fan" of your page and tell their friends about it. With over 53 million Facebook users out there, this can be some powerful word-of-mouth advertising. It's easy to create a page for your business, and like I said, it's free. Click the Create a Facebook Page button and you can walk through the very simple page creation wizard. Here are a couple things to keep in mind: - You don't have to cater to people under 25. The fastest growing Facebook demographic are users 25 and over. There are a variety of professionals, both young and not so young. It's not just about kids discussing teen television dramas. - The key is getting fans. This isn't hard to do. You'll need a personal account at Facebook (it's free too) before you set up your business page. When you set up your page, you'll become its first fan...and your Facebook friends will see a message on their home page that you just became a fan of your business page. Many times, people will check it out & spread the world, and then you're traffic will be multiplying! I would show you a video for this but unfortunately you actually have to create a real business page when you walk through the wizard, and I don't want to create a junk page. Don't worry though, it's a very simple process to create a page, and the Facebook help is pretty good.

Twitter:
Twitter admittedly sounds like a silly idea...you sign up for a free account, then other people start "following you" on Twitter, meaning they'll be updated when you make a Twitter post. If you talk about what you're doing in your business, your followers will get updates about your business! Joining Twitter is simpler than signing up for web based email. It's simple and free.
Click the "Join" Button! button to sign up. Once you're signed up, all you have to do is sign in and type short messages (140 characters or less) that you want your followers to see. Really, it's that simple. So what's this mean for your business? Simple. What this means is that everyone following up gets updated what you're doing, whether you updated your blog, you've published an article or you've taken your business to the next level. You can include links to your site or blog in your Twitter posts, so people can head right there...and give you free traffic.
As with most social media marketing, the key is getting contacts. In the case of Twitter, that means getting people to follow you on Twitter.

Here's a quick way to do it:
- Put an invitation on your blog for people to follow you on Twitter so they can get a quick notification whenever your blog gets updated (that's convenient for them)
- Announce your invitation in forums, on Facebook, or wherever else you can
- Offer helpful information on your blog and update your Twitter followers every time you post. That's all there is to it.
Twitter is really a buzz-building tool. You don't do much direct marketing there (with only 140 characters per message, it's tough to say too much), but keeping people informed can keep your traffic flowing.

Facebook's Business Signup: http://www.facebook.com/business
You can follow Rachel on Twitter at http://twitter.com/genesisconsult
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