PROMOTE YOUR BUSINESS WITH FACEBOOK EVENTS

Planning a special event?  An event is a great way to promote your business and Facebook makes event planning and promoting easy (whether the event is real or virtual).  Facebook Events allows you to organize gatherings, respond to invitations and is a valuable way of keeping up with what your friends are doing.  An Event can be anything from a store’s new location opening, to an Open House, to a charitable fundraiser sponsored by your business.  An Event can be used as a fundamental way to generate business.

A Facebook Event is a useful tool for exposure, for fostering new and existing relationships, for generating sales and for sponsorship opportunities.

Example:  Say you’ve just started up in the real estate industry and you want to generate some buzz with a wine & cheese soirée.  Great start and an effective way to promote your new business! 

To Create Your Event: 

Clicking on the Events link brings you to a page listing upcoming events you`ve been invited to.  Clicking on an event will bring you to the event’s page, and will allow you to RSVP and see details such as the event’s time, location, and a list of invitees.  Clicking on Past Events will display a list of events you’ve previously been invited to.

To create your own event, click on Events at left on your homepage

Then, click on Create Event

It’s simple and fast.   Just fill out all of the relevant info.  Note the Add Event Photo option on the left.  And, you can add videos as well!

Once you have added a time and location, your event is created.

You can invite any of your Facebook friends to your Event, or you can invite people that are not connected on Facebook by simply entering their email addresses in the box on the Guest List tab of the Edit Event page.  You can invite as many people as you would like to an Event, however you can invite only 100 people at a time.  You can also make the event completely public so that anyone on Facebook can see the Event and sign up to attend.  People like to be invited to things – it makes them feel they’re a part of something. 

A good idea is to promote your event via Twitter and your blog as well.  Tell people all about it, especially if it’s open to the public (always a good idea when promoting a business). 

Once you’ve got your party started, it’s up to you!!  Work that room. 

See how easy it is to create an event all of your own on Facebook?  Just remember, you don’t want to overdo – a strategically timed event can be great for business, however, you don’t want to start scheduling them once a week – people will get bored. 

To learn how to effectively create interesting, successful events, why not join one of our Social Networking for Business workshops and we’ll teach you everything you need to know about Facebook Events, Facebook in general and all things Social Media!  Just click on the link below for a schedule of workshops in your area.

http://www.escomputertraining.com/courses/details/industry/2/course/20

MORTGAGE PROS INCREASE BUSINESS USING SOCIAL MEDIA

Some nay-sayers out there are still of the antiquated belief that the mortgage business is not particularly suited to social media – who still maintain that social media is of no benefit to mortgage professionals.  Well, let’s dispel that myth once and for all!!

As the mortgage industry is primarily a locally-driven, customer-facing business, on-line marketing and in particular, social media, are categorically imperative tools for business and brand promotion.  Social media are in fact rapidly becoming an integral part of most areas of operation within the mortgage industry.

Given that the majority of the expansion of social media is motivated by the mass market, social media have become the ideal platform to address the everyday mortgage shopper.  Social networking sites are by their very nature conversational and you, as a mortgage broker, can surely recognize that social networks are first and foremost a new and innovative channel for communication.  Social networking sites allow you to reach out to more prospects than ever before and so much more expediently than ever before.

Social networks are furthermore interactive and what this means for you is that you can now instantaneously receive feedback from those to whom you are pitching.   In fact, these platforms enable you to very easily and effectively track consumer response via looking at numbers of hits, numbers of visits, “likes”, comments, etc.  All of this information can be studied and can in turn be extremely useful for you in terms of productive experimentation.

Social media are a great way to craft your own message with respect to your brand and to promote it – get your message out there to the greatest number of people in the least amount of time.  Social media turn information into a free market and as a result, you are now effortlessly able to connect directly with consumers.  In the days of yore, businesses had to rely on being able to garner traditional media coverage but with the advent of social media, media coverage has become a do-it-yourself task, made easy and accessible!

Each of the social networks has its own unique features and advantages:

·         LinkedIn can be best utilized as a professional networking tool – for prospecting and recruiting

·         A Facebook fan page can be created as a means of keeping your contacts up to speed with respect to educational news – i.e. special offers or homebuyer tax credits

·         Twitter can be used in order to alert followers to news displayed on your Facebook page or in your blogs, as well as to get short bursts of news or motivational quotes out there

·         Blogs are your way of positioning yourself as an industry expert – sharing valuable news and information with your audience and letting them know that you are the guru of all things mortgage

Social media are the way of the future and can help you grow your business and its success.  Let us show you how to make the most of your social networking experience.  Come and join our Social Networking for Business workshop and you’ll never look back!  For a schedule of workshops in your area, please visit:

http://www.escomputertraining.com/courses/details/industry/2/course/20