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The line of distinction between real life and social media is being blurred gradually. People are going social by shedding the guise of shame and coming out of shells. Social media has taken us out of the cocooned existence, put voice to protests, acted as a platform for making business, globalized local events and reduced the diameter of the globe in terms of distance. In brief, social media itself is a revolution.

Nowadays, be an event local, national or global, it is also tagged ‘social’. All events like meetings, conferences and parties go online before being held. Promoting an event on social media sites helps make it large in real life. It is the maximum number of visitors that makes an event a great gala. The more footfalls an event receives, the larger is it. Here is how you can maximize the online exposure of an offline event by means of social media marketing:

It is difficult to get noticed, publicize an event and get recognition for talents even in real life without buzz or hype online. So, put in the best efforts to create a buzz about your upcoming event on social media. It takes nothing but marketing creativity and costs nothing but time.

User Engagement on Facebook Event Page

The very first do to promote an event online is setting up a Facebook event page using your personal or business Facebook profile or Facebook fan page. It offers a great advantage to let your friends and followers and fans to connect with the event before, during and after it is held. Once you are done with setting up the Facebook event page, share it with your Facebook contacts and start inviting them. Make sure including in the info section of the event page the details of the event. Don’t forget to respond to the questions or comments posted as walls on the event page. An increasing number of Facebook users joining or liking the event page is not enough. Without engagement, there is no promotion.

EventBrite for Online Event Promotion

EventBrite is one of the online tools to promote events on social media. Create a registration page for the event on EventBrite. It offers unique features to customize the event page in keeping with the objective of the event and share it across social media sites to create buzz. Interested attendees can email the link to or share it with their friends in online social circles.

LinkedIn to Invite Your Professional Contacts

Don’t leave LinkedIn behind thinking that LinkedIn is only a professional network. It helps a lot to get an event searchable in Google and noticed by LinkedIn users. Create a page for the event on LinkedIn by clicking the ‘More’ tab. It opens a list of applications. Create a new event by using the Event application. Make sure to optimize the Keywords section with keywords related to the event. It helps people find the event online through Google. Once the event has been published, invite your LinkedIn connections to attend the event and share the invitation with their LinkedIn contacts.

Unique Twitter Hashtag for Event Promotion

Create a unique Twitter hashtag for your event. A Twitter hashtag consists of a hash sign ‘#’ and a relevant keyword. Choose a singular keyword that better describes your event in tweets or discussions and that is not being used on Twitter by anyone. It helps your Twitter followers and their followers identify the event. Use search.twitter.com to check the availability of your desired hashtag.

Twitpic & Twitter for Online Response to Event

If the event is a more-than-one-day long affair, promote it on social media when it is in progress. Take snaps of the event on the first day and use Twitpic to share the snaps with those who could not attend it on the first day. It makes them realize what they have missed and drives them to turn up at the event the next day. The similar is the purpose of using Flickr for event promotion. It encourages response from the attendees of the event too.

Now is the time to make a social media event promotion plan based on the above-mentioned tips and let the people go gaga over the event.

Facebook is the numero uno social networking site with multiplying numbers of users crisscrossing the globe. An all-in-all platform for publicity and promotion, brand and business, fun and entertainment as well, Facebook is dominating the social networking bandwagon. Doing a lot of things on Facebook from uploading photos, watching videos, making friends, browsing profiles, sharing links and following updates to playing games is part and parcel of your daily schedule. If the browser you use to do Facebook is Firefox, a number of cool add-ons are there to make it an engaging experience for the likes of you, a round-the-clock Facebook user. Here is a list of the handiest Firefox add-ons that promise to make your Facebook activities easier than before:

Facebook Toolbar

Having this add-on added to your Firefox browser, you can easily access an array of Facebook features. Whenever there is a new update from any of your Facebook friends, the toolbar gives an alert. Among the features of Facebook toolbar, photo uploading and quick link sharing are in the reckoning. With the search function, looking out for friends on Facebook is super-easy.

Like Button

If you are much of a Facebook junkie who keeps hanging on the site most of the times, this add-on to be used with Firefox is just for you. It helps you share webpages easily with your Facebook friends. It also lets you know how many people like the webpage of your choice. It appears on the right side of the status bar.

Ad Block Plus

Pop-up ads are the most unwelcome element on the web. They may be a nuisance for you, when you are busy browsing the webpages. Pop-up ads are common on Facebook too. Block pop-up ads on Facebook, using this simple Firefox add-on and engage with Facebook without any disturbance.

Boost for Firefox

This Firefox add-on is a handy application to customize your Facebook look and feel. Safe and secure to use, Boost for Firefox lets you try new options and features on Facebook. It helps enhance your Facebook activity with more than 300 skins, more than 30 features, selectable options, rollover pics, video downloaders and many more. It works compatibly with Firefox 3.5.

Yoono

Now, with an arrow you can target several birds sitting on a bough. This Firefox add-on is that arrow. Having a single interface, Yoono helps you update your multiple social media profiles from the browser itself in one go. It lets you have absolute control over your Facebook profile. This one application for several instant messengers like MSN, Gtalk, AIM and social networks like Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube is a great use for social media activists.

FacePad

You feel itchy at times to download your friend’s picture albums on Facebook. Downloading pictures from an album one by one is a time-consuming process. FacePad is a solution to this problem. Using this Firefox add-on, you can download an entire album of picture with a click of the right button on the album.

Universal Uploader

As the name suggests, this Firefox add-on lets you upload to other social networks, photo sharing sites and video sharing sites other than Facebook. Using Universalloader, you can upload to Google Docs, Slideshare and Adobe Share as well.

Facebook Dislike

This Firefox add-on for Facebook may be much to your dislike. But it is useful to dislike an insignificant news or an insubstantial feed, when likes are pouring in for the news or feed on Facebook. Visibility of this Facebook button is limited.

The following are the principal objectives of one’s online activity, be it social networking, forum participation or blogging -

• Get noticed
• Build a following
• Generate traffic
• Promote website
• Make profits

Facebook is not only a social networking site to build contacts but also an online business platform to build a business. Facebook itself is a kit of cutting-edged tools using which you can fulfill the above-mentioned objectives of social and business networking. Facebook is a colossal avenue of marketing where to make a go of your venture, you should give priority to building quality relationships that in turn, will help generate traffic and promote your website. Here are the best ways to get a max of Facebook for your benefit:

Use Profile Page for Maximum Exposure

Make use of your Facebook profile page for maximum exposure. The profile page features key places where you can post the link to your website or blog. The space just below your Facebook profile picture is ideal to display a brief bio about you as it draws attention of the visitors at their very first glance on the profile picture. Include the website or blog URL in the bio. An ‘Information’ section is there just above the box ‘Friends’. Make sure adding your website or blog to this section.

Go Slow while Adding Friends

It is nice to build a huge following on Facebook. More friends on Facebook means more traffic and views. It is a policy of many Facebook users. It does not work to benefit you unless you build a quality relationship with your Facebook friends. Adding 5-8 friends a day is better than making friends with 30-50 individuals per day. Find your similarities with new five friends and find your interests in common with theirs to build a bond with them. Interact with them in such a way so as to make them feel connected to you. As a result, they will keep visiting your website or blog and share your posts with their friends.

Share Something of Quality through Wall Posts

Take steps ahead to connect with your Facebook friends through such means of interaction as wall post. A great way to introduce yourself to them or elicit response from them is posting walls on their profiles. The content of wall posts should be sensitive and substantial. It must not be an inane remark or a hollow compliment. Share something of quality with them through wall posts. If your wall post on the profile of any of your Facebook friends fetches the attention of his or her friends, they would like to befriend you.

Make Tricky & Catchy Updates

Updating your profile page is vital to make your Facebook friends feel your presence. Each of your friends can see your updates as walls on their home pages. Ensure making a tricky update to get it noticed by them. Present it as a question on some sensitive or important issue so that it can get comments from the viewers. As a result, it will be viral to their friends’ home pages as well. Put a catchy status update on your profile page to be in the attention of your friends.

Create a Facebook Group for Marketing

Have your own group and use it for Facebook marketing. Many features are available with Facebook groups. Create a group to use those features and invite your friends to join it. It makes an ideal platform to share your ideas, update events and make affiliate commissions. Use it as a marketing ploy to promote your website or blog.

My previous blog was a discussion on what to do to increase and utilize the potential of your Facebook fan page as a Facebook marketing tool. Many of my Facebook friends are itchy to know how to make their fan pages engaging and how to merge the pages with other social networks. Facebook offers legions of free social and business applications to make their pages a hub of activities and keep their fans engaged in a number of ways.

The Applications to Connect Your Fan Page with Other Social Networks -

Twitter for pages – With this free social application, you can blend your Twitter profile with the Facebook fan page. The latest tweets from your Twitter profile will be displayed on the fan page. You can add the application as a tab on the fan page.

YouTube – YouTube has a Facebook application of its own. It is easy to use on the fan page. Once you have landed on the application page, click on ‘Add to my page’. From the tab on your fan page, go to YouTube and keep adding the latest videos to the fan page for the entertainment of your fans.

MyFlickr – It is a little bit fiddly to use MyFlickr application as a tab on Facebook fan page. To do so, you need to have an account with MyFlickr. If you upload photographs to your MyFlickr account, they will be displayed on the fan page.

Notes – Facebok has its own Notes application. Adding the application to your fan page is the easiest method to display your blog posts on the fan page. It will entertain your fans who are fond of reading and seeking information.

The Business Applications to have on Your Facebook Fan Page -

My LinkedIn Profile – If you own a business fan page on Facebook, this application is exclusively made for you. Add it as a tab to your fan page and promote your LinkedIn page on Facebook. It will drive traffic from the LinkedIn profile to the Facebook fan page and vice versa.

Slideshare – It is a great business tool to be used for displaying and sharing Powerpoint presentations on Facebook as well. Adding the application to the fan page, you can upload the PowerPoint presentations on your products and let your customers view them.

Telephone – It is an all-in-one communication application, supported on Facebook. A great tool to exchange voice mails with your Facebook fans and call them, it is a must have on your business fan page. It will let you exchange instant messages with your Yahoo, MSN and Google Talk contacts.

What I Do – It is a marketing and promoting tool. Exclusively built for the use of business fan page owners, it will display your products in the Facebook fan page box. With this application, you can get your business fan page listed in the Facebook directory.

Business Cards – It is another Facebook business application to communicate with your fans in a professional manner. Adding the application to your fan page, you can prepare a virtual business card and personalize it with your name and business details. You can also attach the card to the messages to your Facebook fans.

Once you are done with the process of adding these applications to your fan page, let me know and I will visit the page.

Almost everyone is exploring the bowels of online social media for marketing. Twitter and Facebook run neck and neck, when it comes to providing tools, applications and opportunities for online marketing. With a legion of three million fan pages to date, Facebook seems to outpace Twitter in the growing field of online business. The key reason behind the sky-rocketing popularity of Facebook marketing is Facebook’s comprehensive interface featuring multiple applications to let users schedule updates, locate influential people and monitor traffic.

Facebook fan page is a most innovative and interesting virtual marketing platform for brands and businesses. A whole new ball game, it displays your product, promote your brand, fetch you customers and cultivate your relationship with them. The first and foremost important step is setting up a fan page with the name of your brand or business. Then, follow the tips on how to make the most of your fan page to indulge in Facebook marketing.

First – Once you have created a fan page, invite your friends and relatives to join Facebook and be your fans. May be, the page neither interests them nor serves their needs, but it is necessary to make things happen as people go where there is a crowd.

Second – Promoting the fan page is the next important step to take forward. Link your Facebook profile to your website, blog and other social media profiles in order to promote the fan page. Attach the link to the fan page to emails and newsletters and press releases. You can even let it be displayed in business cards.

Third – Make yourself known to get your fan page noticed by others. Join the groups and fan pages that cater to your interests or relate to your business activity. Enlarge your social media network and interact with the people in the network through walls, comments, likes or chatting.

Fourth – Have a go at every possible measure to keep your Facebook fan page active. Interact with your fans, monitor their activities and respond to their comments on a regular basis. Update the fan page with fresh content and share it with your fans. Comment on their posts and respond to their comments on your updates. Active networking will encourage them to promote your brand or business.

Fifth – Many companies doing social media marketing offer discount on their products or services to Facebook fans and Twitter followers. You can go this way to make your fans stay on the page. Offer something to them for a limited period of time. It will boost your Facebook fan page.

Sixth – Keep your fans engaged in some or other activity on your fan page. Throw some questions that pique their interest. Run a competition to make them participate in it. Make a survey on some interesting topic to draw their attention and opinion.

Seventh – Facebook is one of the most prominent members in the world of search engines. It is in the good books of search engine crawlers. Now, search engine bots craw and index social media profiles. So, to thicken your chances of getting noticed in Google’s social search result pages, make your Facebook profile searchable. Optimize the profile page following some basic SEO measures.

Hurry up to have a fan page on Facebook and do Facebook marketing to the fullest. Keep looking forward to the next blogs on the same topic.

Facebook is always on the front with release of latest applications for the use of its users crosswise the globe. The social networking giant keeps updating its store of applications to provide more and more dollops of fun and entertainment to the users. You can make the most of these applications to keep your followers coming back to your profile over and again. Here is a list of Facebook applications that I have googled this week.

One of the fun applications on Facebook is Friend Block. It helps you make a collage of your friends on your Facebook profile page. Make a compilation of pictures from your Facebook photo albums and make a collage of the pictures, as beautiful as rainbow. The application will let you pull all those pictures together and display them in colors of brilliance.

Looking on to meet new faces that are not among your Facebook friends and followers. Take a turn to the Video Chat application. From the store of vChatter, this application will help you connect with your friends through live chat. Chatting with friends apart, searching out new Facebook users who have their interests in common with you is another use of this application.

Lucky Train is such a Facebook fun application using which you can make your Facebook friends take interest in your profile. The game based application requires you to send trains to your friends in different parts of the world and helps you build your community with them. You can access frequent updates of the game through the application page.

Tetris Battle is an updated classic game application to be used by Facebook users. It is a nice means of involvement with your Facebook friends and followers online. You can play the game with them and compete with them at the same time. Pique your followers’ curiosity to visit your profile on a regular basis.

Photo of the Day is a fun photo application for the fun-loving Facebook users. The application is as simple as its title implies. You can apply it to both random and tagged photos. It provides an excellent means to locate pictures that you may not have come across on Facebook.

Another Facebook application to let you indulge in fun with your friends is Casino City. With this application, you can have your own casino in Las Vegas and transform it into a fun zone for them. Have a go at the application to be the boss of your own casino.

Being an active Facebook user, you keep updating your profile page with latest status statements. Do you know which word you use mostly in your Facebook status updates? My Most Used Words is an application to which word or words you use most of the times.

Spice up the Facebook profile page of yours with some interesting quotes. The Facebook application, All My Quotes, helps you create your own quotes and lets you use the quotes of others. Building a community of followers quoting each other is an advantage of this specific application.

Try these applications to spice up your Facebook profile page, make it visit worthy, get engaged in fun with your friends and boost your Facebook activity. Don’t forget to share your feel with me…

There is no limit to the offerings of Facebook for its users with different purposes and from different walks. Facebook is up with a palette of social plugins to let bloggers and business site owners make the most of its sharing functionality. If your site has its own Facebook profile and Facebook following base, get your content shared among the Facebook users and their followers, get the content voted, liked and commented on by them through the use of these social plugins from the Facebook store. Implementing the plugins is fairly simple though understanding their applications is a little confusing.

Activity Feed

The Activity Feed plugin shows the latest activity centering around your site on Facebook. It also delivers data on the number of times your content hosted by Facebook has been liked and shared by the Facebook users. Displaying a steam of activity from your Facebook contacts and highlighting their content is another application of the Activity Feed plugin. When you are logged out, it will feature recommendations from the site of yours. This powerful tool will let you know how hot your content is and what is hot on Facebook.

Comments

The Comments Box another Facebook social plugin will your friends comment on the link or content that you have posted to your Facebook profile. The plugin appears like a box in which the Facebook users can enter their comments on their followers’ articles, webpages, photos or their Facebook status. The users are allowed to leave their comments with links that get published back on their Facebook profiles and in their friends’ streams. The Comments Box is a high-end comment system with link sharing potentiality.

Login with Faces

The Login with Faces one of the useful Facebook social plugins will display the profile pictures of your friends who have joined or liked your site on Facebook. It lets you specify the number of rows to display the faces in. The plugin customizes the rows according to the number specified by you. If you are on lookout for more users to join your site and share your content, using this particular social plugin is a recommendation.

Like Button

The Like Button is a most simple Facebook social plugin to vote for a product, an article, a webpage, a link or a photo by clicking once on “Like”. Using this one-click icon, your friends express their liking for your content posted on Facebook and share it back to their Facebook followers. If any of your friends is logged in, the button will highlight the users who have already given like for the content. This plugin is useful particularly for media sites, e-commerce sites, software application sites and blogs.

Like Box

Akin to the Fan Box, Like Box is an updated Facebook social plugin. It features the Like button and displays a gallery of the users who have clicked the button to like a particular piece of content. A single click on the Like button will include you among the followers of a Facebook page. Then onwards, you will be receiving updates from the page to your newsfeeds. This plugin acts like a promotion tool using which you can gain likes for your product or site featured on your Facebook page.

Live Stream

The Live Stream is a great Facebook social plugin to let the users stream a live event. A great application for real-time comment and chat on Facebook, it will let your friends visit your site, share your content and comment on your activity in real-time environment. It works best when you run a live streaming video for speeches, concerts or webcasts.

Recommendations

The Recommendations feature a list of the content that has been mostly liked by the Facebook users. It is almost akin to the Activity Feed. However, the latter offers a more dynamic social experience to the users. The plugin generates recommendations for the most liked content from your site. The Recommendations is an alternative, not a complement to the Activity Box.

Social networking platforms are much of business networking podiums. Integrating business networking tools, Facebook and Twitter are abuzz with the internet marketing activities. The second most popular social media site according to Alexa, Facebook has come a long way as a powerhouse platform for businesses marketing products online. Facebook had first launched its Marketplace application in the mid of 2007 to facilitate the posting of classifieds on the site. The updated Marketplace is the latest launch from Facebook. The new version of the Facebook based internet marketing application is powered by Oodle, a leading online classified company. Oodle has developed it with the thought of making it more convenient for people to buy and sell things, in mind.

Fundamental Objectives of Using the Facebook Marketplace

Selling, buying and searching for anything are the purposes that the use of Facebook Marketplace is meant for. Using the Marketplace, the Facebook users can sell unwanted goods to support charities for a good and great cause. Moreover, you can track what the friends and fans in your profile are buying and selling. Millions of the Facebook Marketplace users all over the globe can view your classified listings. There is an option to let you transfer your listings from the old Marketplace to the new one. If you are a first-time user of the Facebook Marketplace application, log on to facebook.com/marketplace.

The Procedure to Create a Classified Ad for the Facebook Marketplace

Take a digital camera and shoot a close-up picture of the thing that you want to market online. Click the picture against a brightly lit background. Transfer the photo in the JPG file format from the camera to your computer screen.

Log on to Facebook.com and log in to your account. Then, click your way to the Marketplace application. Make a click on the Applications menu in the lower corner on the left hand side of the computer screen to choose Marketplace. The Marketplace welcome screen will pop up.

“Sell It”, “Sell for a Cause”, “Give It Away” and “Ask for It” are the main options that you will find at your disposal. Selling things for money is the primary purpose of using this Facebook internet marketing application. Compose a pity and punchy description on an item in the box displaying, “Sell something to make extra cash”. A click on the box will change it into “Yourname” is selling. Give a headline to the listing. After writing the headline and description, click on the blue Post-button.

Write a punch line in the box featuring “Why are you selling it”. You can write that you want to earn money. You had better use the space to write a sub headline for your classified advertisement. Write a brief but power-packed description. Type the figures of your price in the “Price” box and mention your location. Browse the list of categories and choose a particular category to include your item.

In the box next to category, you can provide the details of the item. Focus on the size, color, style, condition and use of the item. You can change the details whenever you wish. Once you are done with the advertising text, click the Browse button to upload the photo of the item from the computer. Putting a tick in the terms box, hit the “Submit” button.

Next a screen asking you to publish the listing in the Facebook profile will pop up. A choice for a short, a full or a one line description is available there. Choosing the short description option is recommended. You can tick the box, “Always do this for Marketplace”, if you want to go with the same option whenever you publish something. Hit the “Publish” button to get the listing published on your Facebook profile. Or get it displayed in the Marketplace by choosing the “No, Tanks” button.

You can ask your Facebook friends and fans to promote the listing in their respective News feeds. You can add maximum five of your friends to your Facebook Marketplace account by clicking on their Facebook profile pictures. Using the “Find Friends” box, you can locate them. Choose the “Skip” button, if you do not want your friends to be bothered about the promotion of your listing.

If you want to customize the post by adding a personal message, click the “Add Personal Message” button on the confirmation screen. If not, simply click the “Send” button. It is easy to edit or update your already published listings. You can perform this task by clicking the Edit Details-hotlink in the Manage My Listing page. You can edit or update each of the details of your items. You can also manage your listings by clicking the My Listings in the Facebook Marketplace menu.