Using Facebook to Improve Your Business

It has now been established that Facebook is new, different and all around cool. But, what is it’s impact in the world of internet business. Can it help you make any money?

Internet Marketers Should Take Notice

Internet marketers are all about people. Social networks, especially popular ones, have lots of people. So, yes, Facebook would be a natural fit for internet marketing. How would a marketer take advantage? Some ways may include:

• Establishing and enhancing your brand image
• Establishing and enhancing your authority in your market, a thought leader
• Using your network for market research (opinions and viewpoints, good for surveys)
• Creating a Facebook group of people of similar interest. Great for networking.
• Targeted Advertising…

Yes, according to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook is working on a system to allow targeted advertising to specific networks of people with similar interest.

Social-networking Web site Facebook Inc. is quietly working on a new advertising system that would let marketers target users with ads based on the massive amounts of information people reveal on the site about themselves.

Eventually, it hopes to refine the system to allow it to predict what products and services users might be interested in even before they have specifically mentioned an area.

Could this be the Adwords of the Facebook world? And we all know how much internet marketers drool over Adwords.

Money in Facebook Applications

This new growth of Facebook does, of course, open up markets for making money. Remember all the websites that popped up offering Myspace profile themes? Well, those things made money by, if nothing else, banner advertising. So, sites offering up Facebook applications are likely to serve the same role.

Also, some applications have become a bit of a commodity. In fact, Inside Facebook reports that TripAdvisor.com has just paid $3 million to the “Where I’ve Been” Facebook application. That is, by far, the largest such acquisition. There have been many smaller ones. I have even seen job postings on sites like Craigslist for Facebook app developers.

The reason is clear. Businesses are catching on to the viability and money potential of this whole social networking phenomenon, thanks to Facebook. Some of them truly get it, others are probably just getting on the buzz bandwagon. Either way, its an interesting mass migration.

Next Steps

So, how should you get started on putting Facebook to use?

1. Get a profile
2. Start adding friends. Think strategically. There is the “more the merrier” approach, and then there is the “those that really matter” approach. Think of both.
3. Search for relevant networks and join in.
4. Explore the Facebook applications that would be applicable to you and set them up.

And with that, happy networking!

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