Using Radio & TV with Social Networking

I read this blog by Tony Brueski and thought that it was very insightful. I'm actually going to start a radio campaign next month and will most likely try this method to see how it works.... can you guess what "restaurant" he is talking about? I did see the commercials and thought it was genius! :) Let me know your thoughts.....

"Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Linked-In, there are far too many to count… and for that matter, too many to remember. It’s very easy for a business owner to feel overwhelmed when it comes to marketing your products and services. It’s no longer just as simple at putting an ad in the paper, buying a radio commercial, or having a TV commercial created. While your customers still use radio and TV quite heavily you need to be in more than one place to make a true impact on your customers lives, and to make them take action. Bottom line: The consumer needs that little extra reminder that you exist. The good news is… the cost of having a presence on social media outlets is free. It just takes some time and effort for it to pay off big time, if done correctly.

When you use social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter effectively, you can reach thousands of potential clients with a meaningful message on a daily basis. But how do you get these potential clients to become your “Friend” or “Follow you” if you’re starting from scratch? That’s where traditional media comes in. Recently a major restaurant chain wanted to dramatic increase its “followers” or “fans” on Facebook. To do this, they launched a campaign on TV and Radio asking people to sign up and be their “Fan” on facebook, the message clearly stated that if “a set amount of people became a “fan” by a select date, every one of them would get a coupon for a free burger”. The result… thousands of people became a “fan” and many of them told their friends to become “Fans” as well, and so on and so on. In the end, every single one of them were given a free burger.

So now this restaurant chain has loads of “Followers/Fans”… Now what? If the restaurant uses their social networking wisely, they can make meaningful offers, share viral videos, bits of humor, all in an effort to be “top of mind” with their target customer. It’s not just a matter of posting the daily specials, their “posts” than fall onto their fans “feeds” cannot be spamy in any way, shape, or form.

Do they abandon all other forms of media now? Certainly not. This is a mistake many make, simply dismissing radio or TV as “old”. Remember how they got these followers? The “old” media drove them there, obviously they still work, and work quite well. The restaurant simply now have another way of being in front of their target clientele.

What we are witnessing is the evolution of a new venue for marketing. Just as the evolution from billboards lead to print lead to radio led to TV led to internet, and now to social marketing. None of the mediums died, they simply created more places to reach your customers. The businesses that are reaching their target clientele, still use all of these mediums in some way shape or form. All of them are effective at delivering different messages. Some in making direct offers, some in branding top of mind name recognition, some in garnering excitement and evoking emotion and action. They all work hand in hand."

10 Steps to Finding Your Target Market in Facebook

Everyone is talking about social networking, and many claim social networking to be the panacea for all of your marketing ills. Marketing on social networking sites like Facebook, Linkedin, and Twitter can help you boost the size of your email list and help you grow your business. The key to success with this strategy is making sure that members of your target market are in your network.

Facebook is very strict and very particular about how its participants contact each other. Facebook limits the number of new invitations that can be sent in a given day or week. The exact number is a Facebook secret and unknown to the public, but if you exceed this secret amount you can get booted from Facebook. However, I think if you stick with no more than 10 per day, you will probably stay within their limits. Secondly, you are permitted only 5000 friends in Facebook, so if you're successful in this strategy, you may ultimately need to create a waiting list of friends

How do you find your target market in Facebook? Whether you're an experienced social networker or just a newbie, here are 10 secrets to growing your target market network in Facebook:

1. Update-to-date profile and/or Fan page: Before you begin a "friending" (i.e. request to become another's friend), be sure that your profile is up-to-date with an accurate description of what you do, your interests, and your contact info, including your web site URLs. If you have multiple businesses, invite people in your appropriate target market to become fans of your niche-specific fan page.

2. Follow the gurus. Follow leaders in your field/industry and "friend" them. Anytime you make a friend request, include a personal note, as that will improve the likelihood that they will accept your request. Say something like, "I'm a big fan and have been on your ezine/blog list for several years. I'd love to have you in my network in Facebook." Once they have accepted your invitation, make comments about their status updates to help you get on their radar and in front of their networks.

3. Friends of friends. Take a look at the people in the network of your industry leaders, as they are probably part of your target market as well, and send friend requests to those of interest to you. When you friend someone that you only know by association, send a personal note as well, like "I discovered your profile in 's network and would like to get to know you better by adding you to my network."

4. Use groups. Look for groups that may contain your target market. In your search for groups, use keywords that describe your niche, your industry, your geographic area, the interests of your target market, or whatever other terms you might use to find members of your target market. Join and begin to participate in the group so that they begin to get to know you. Then peruse the member lists for good prospects, sic as the members you've connected with or have gotten to know. Since you won't be able to view the profiles of the group members because they aren't in your network, much of your decision-making about whom to friend may be based upon appearance or how you might be connected to them via other friends in your network.

5. Check your lists. Friend people that you already know from your high school, college, alumni associations, and places of employment if they fall within your target market definition.

6. Facebook-recommended friends. Facebook typically recommends friends based on your current friends list when you log into your profile. I've found these recommendations to be pretty solid. Take them up on their recommendation and add those folks to your network.

7. Add by interest or industry. Do a people search by job title, industry, geographic location, or interest. Those people with those terms in their profile will show up in your search, and you can request to add them based on common interests.

8. Build the relationship. Once you friend someone, you need to begin to get to know them and start them on the like, know and trust journey so that you become their top-of-mind expert in a particular area. Begin building the relationship by posting a quick "thank you" note on their wall, as well as a comment about something on their profile that interests you or in which you have in common. Watch for their status updates, as well, and comment on these when appropriate

9. Create a group. Once you've got about 500 followers, create a group for your target market. Provide the group with useful content and and ask questions to stimulate discussion and get the members to return to participate in the group. You can post articles, links to blog posts, or videos you have created. Invite group members to any free virtual or face-to-face events you're hosting.

10. Integrate into your plan. No marketing strategy works unless you consistently implement it over time. As a newbie to Facebook, you might want to spend as much as 60 minutes per day researching friends and participating in groups. As your network grows, you many spend only 15 minutes 3 times per week on Facebook. The key to success is to put this strategy on your calendar and make it a routine part of your ongoing Internet marketing tasks.

While social networking is an inexpensive marketing tool and can be effective in helping you grow your business, maintain your other marketing strategies, as well, and simply add this strategy to your marketing mix. A well-rounded Internet marketing plan that includes social networking and is implemented consistently will mean that your prospect well won't ever run dry.

posted by Donna Gunter from OnlineBizU.com

How to get people to become a fan of your new Facebook Page

Now you have a Facebook Page, you need to get people to become a fan of your page to generate sales. There are several ways you can do this.

1. Invite all your Facebook friends to become a fan.
Login to your Facebook page and click the "Suggest to Friends" link. A list of your friends will pop-up. You can either manually select friends or select all and send the invite.

2. Add your Facebook link to your newsletter
Do you send newsletters to subscribers? Add your Facebook Page link with an incentive to becoming a fan. Maybe promote a 15% discount code to all new Facebook fans.

3. Add your Facebook link to all your outgoing business email
I personally monitor all my customer's tracking information and send a follow up email once it's been delivered - asking if they had any issues with the delivery or quality of the product. At the end of the email, I have a link to my Facebook, Twitter & blog. This way, customer know that I am on Facebook and are inclined to check me out.

Word of advise: The one thing that you cannot do is send spam invites on Facebook. If you start randomly sending invites to people who are not on your friend's list - your account will be canceled.

So be creative and promote your new Facebook page in any way you can think of! You'll be glad you did :)

Pimp My Facebook Page Please

So, you've created your Facebook page but don't know how to make it look even better! There are many different applications you can use. To edit your Facebook Page, follow these steps:

* Log into your page and click the "edit page" link under your profile picture.
* Click the pencil for the application you want to edit
* Select "edit"
* Make any changes you need
* Save your changes

To add new applications like RSS feeds, new boxes, video, etc, click the "edit page" link again and go all the way to the bottom of the page to the section called "More Applications". Click the pencil and then choose "Browse More". You can browse applications by page, category or do a search. Once you find the one you want, click it and then click the "add to my page" link. If it does not have that link (it may just say add to my profile) it means that it is not yet available for Pages.

A great application to use is the FBML (do a search and you will find it) This is what I used to create the MGBI Team box, and all the extra information in my Boxes tab. This application lets you use basic HTML. What's great about it is you can use the same application over and over again. Every time you want to create a new box, follow these steps:

* Go to the edit page
* Click the pencil next to the FBML box and choose "edit"
* At the bottom, click the "Add FBML box" link
* Click "edit" next to the new link

and you have a brand new box to add information. You can do this as many times as you need to.

Every time you add an application, it automatically gets added to your Boxes tab. If you want to move things around, you can drag and drop it from side to side or up and down. If you want to move a box to your wall, click the pencil next to it and select "Move to Wall Tab"

And that's it! Now you are ready to Pimp your Page! :)

Check out mine for an example of what you can do...
MyGiftBasketIdeas.com - Facebook Page

Beware of Fraud!

I just wanted to share (and maybe vent a little) about a growing trend with online stores. I have had three charge backs in the last three weeks. This is when the card holder is saying that they did not make the purchase and filed a claim with their credit card companies. I use PayPal as my merchant service provider and their policy is to hold these funds until the issue has been resolved - which can take 75 days! So, I was out almost $1000 in charges.

PayPal sent me an email each time asking for specific information to help with the dispute - which I sent. Each purchase was different dates, a different credit card, different gifts and shipping addresses. I just received an email that one has cleared (after two weeks), two are still pending.

After reviewing these orders, I found a pattern and wanted to share to try and help others in avoiding these charge backs. This is what I found:

• The phone number provided was a fax number or not valid
  
• The order usually involves more than one gift (one had 5)
• The gifts are always my most expensive ones
• They always use Next Day Air or Saturday Delivery (one had $250 just for shipping)
• The Gift Card message is simple like : Thank You, Happy Easter, etc... no names
• One shipping address was a UPS store, the other two were actual addresses

This is what I do to avoid any more issues....

Security!
I already have this set up on my site and noticed that it has prevented some thieves from using my store:

• The EXACT name of the card (including initials)
• The ENTIRE billing address needs to match
• The CVV security is enabled (this is the 3 digit code in back of Visa, MC, or Discover and the 4 digit code for AMEX)
• Phone Number is required
  
• Email is required
  

Some customers will not like providing phone number or email addresses. I add a little note during checkout to insure that their information will not be shared. I state that the phone number is required by UPS (which is true) and the email is so that we can send their tracking information (which is also true)

Now, for a little extra security - with all this information I have, if the order seems "shady", I can do a little investigating to make sure. I use anywho.com to check the number. If I can't find it, I call the number - if they answer, I make an excuse as to why I called. I also verify that the address is not a UPS store. I also look up the address in google maps and use the satelite view - this helps to see the exact location. If either of these are bad - I email the customer and ask for either a valid phone number, or a new address because we cannot ship to UPS stores. If they are thieves, they will not answer my email and I just cancel the order and credit the card.

I assume that the reason they choose the fastest delivery service is to get it to the destination as soon as possible before the credit card owner sees the transaction on their card. I get the UPS store, but I'm not sure how they are getting away with sending it to valid addresses. I saw a report on dateline once where scammers find unsuspecting people on dating websites and ask if they can have stuff shipped to their home.

In any case, these last few weeks have been an eye opener. The higher my Gift Basket Delivery site is ranked in all search engines (which is great) the more fraudulent purchases I'm going to get (which is bad).

Hopefully this vent-a-blog will help you to avoid having to deal with charge backs :)

Why you should be using Facebook!

Question: Do you want to start networking your business on Facebook but don't know where to start?

The first thing you need to know is you don't have to use your personal Facebook account to do it. I was hesitant to use Facebook as a marketing tool at first because I didn't want my customers to see all my personal information and status updates - I wanted to seem professional. So I did some research and found that I could create a "Page" that is completely separate.

So how do you create a Facebook Page you ask? When you log into your profile, scroll down to the bottom of the left hand column. There should be a link that says "Create a Page for my Business". Click that link and follow the instructions. If you don't see the link on your profile, you can also go here: Facebook Pages

Once you create your business page you can:

* Upload Videos
* Upload Images
* Create events (i.e. 15% off July 4th weekend)
* Create a discussion
* Add links
* And so much more!

Check out My Facebook Page to see what I did with mine. Also, become a fan and get access to great discounts - hint: We give away a free gift basket every month :)

Have More Questions? Just send me a note and I will be happy to help in any way I can :)

Welcome Friends!

Well hello there! :)

First I want to introduce myself. My name is Lisa Bevan and I've been in the gift basket industry for almost 3 years. I know that is not a long time compared to most. But I feel as though I have learned alot in these short years.

I was born in MA but my family moved to Canada when I was 5. I moved around a bit in Canada and after college, decided to move back to the US to start a new life. I ended up in Columbus OH, it's been almost 11 years now. My specialty is IT Consulting. Mostly building online applications and websites. Sound boring doesn't it? Well it IS! That's why I needed to find something new and exciting to do so I started my own online business. My company is called MyGiftBasketIdeas.com

Why gift baskets you ask? It all started Christmas of 2006. I needed to send gifts to my clients but was having a very difficult time finding what I was looking for online. This gave me an idea - if I'm having a hard time, how many other people are having issues finding exactly what they are looking for! So, 2 months later, MyGiftBasketIdeas.com was born! :)

When I was starting out, I was pretty much on my own. I had the knowledge I needed to start an online business (i.e. website design, SEO, adwords, etc) but I was green when it came to gift baskets. I would have loved to have had access to some kind of support system with experts that could answer my questions and help me find suppliers and things that I needed. Instead, I had to learn through trial and error. That's why when I heard about the Gift Basket Association, I was thrilled! I joined the same day and have already met some great people in the industry.

The owner of GBA, Debbie Pietro-Quintana contacted me and asked if I wanted to contribute to the GBA family by sharing my trails and tribulations of social networking. So here I am! :) I know this is a new concept to most of you, but trust me - Social Networking Works!

So that's it! I will be blogging several times a week on social networking and anything else you would like to know about selling Gift Baskets online. I hope you enjoy my rants... and PLEASE - if you have any questions.... big or small.... don't be afraid to ask... that's what I'm here for!