So you have established Facebook is where your organization needs to be. You did your demographic research, determined how you will engage your fans and allocated the time and resources to truly be interactive. So the logical next step is to create a page. But how do you build a page that will be most appealing to your audience? Start with a few of the basics to get a good foundation, then listen to what your fans are asking for and how they are spending most of their time on your page.

Start with the tabs
The wall – this is your landing page for fans and your life stream. It’s all of the activity and interactions with fans. Devote most of your attention here as your page gets going.

Info – this is all about your organization. Be sure to be descriptive, but concise, punchy and appealing. Don’t forget to post links to any of your Web sites or social networks here too. Use this information and the links in the small box under your icon too.

Photos – consider opening this up to fans, allowing them to post, tag and comment on photos. Photos create another level of interaction and can spark dialogue. Post photos of your customers here too (with their consent of course) and tag them. Again it’s creating more activity on your page.

Boxes – you can add various built in boxes like “links” and “notes,” but they also afford you the ability to customize your page. (More on this in the next blog).

Notes – use this to post articles, press releases, anything…get creative. You may find though that you don’t even need this tab. Most of the other tabs get the job done and are more useful.

Events – use your creativity here too. You don’t have to limit it just to in-person events. Think outside of the box. Maybe host online event or some sort of contest or special promotion on your page that is contained within a set number of days.

Landing page – for fans the default landing page is the wall, but for non fans and non Facebook members you can direct them to a different tab with a call to action. Mashable and Victoria Secret’s Pink do this effectively with their landing pages.

Post no bills
Will you allow fans to post comments, photos and videos? You would be wise to leave it open. You can always moderate any inappropriate postings. Keep in mind the more people post the more it will show up in streams, which means more of their friends see it. Not allowing this level of interaction could potentially have a negative effect.

How will you kick start these conversations and postings? Think like a blogger, unravel stories over time and engage your fans with questions.

One last tip, be sure to grab your vanity URL. Not only does it help you retain your brand identity online, but also there are talks that Facebook may be launching an email platform. The platform would use your vanity URL as your email address. You don’t want to get stuck with one that doesn’t fit your organization.

Couple questions:
If you have a page what is one strategy you’ve used to successfully build your fan base? Could running a promotion to get new fans and not extending that offer to existing fans have a negative impact?

For more tips and tools check out JetPack Radio. Feel free to fan Wired PR too!

Enclosures:

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, M4V

There are countless free online tools out there – everything from white papers to eBooks, to tool kits and guides. While they run the gamut on what they offer, there are a handful of useful tools to help manage, market and maybe even grow your business. Google offers a fare share of resources, as well as Bing, Yahoo and several other sites dedicated to the small business.

These tools will focus on creating awareness and driving people to your brand online:

• Google’s Local Business Center – as local search grows this will become a valuable stream for businesses. It enables you to list information about your business – address, hours of operation, photos, videos, real-time updates and special offers. You can also track views, actions and where the searcher came from. (For more see the below interview with Chuck Reynolds)

• SEOMOZ.org – search tons of free resources and information on search engine optimization.

• Websitegrader – enables you to essentially test the effectiveness of your Web site by giving you an actual grade on the site. It will also tell you where you need to make improvements and offer a few suggestions.

• Google Webmaster Tools – search articles, tips and information on improving your site and where it shows up in search results. It is also a great tracking, management and guideline tool.

• Google Analytics – allows you to track your site’s activity. Find what key terms brought searchers to your site, what part of the world they came from, how they navigated your site, how much time they spent there, and even set up specific tracking events. Extremely thorough and intuitive.

A few others to check out:

• Bing Local Listing Center

• Google Favorite Places

• Yelp

One last note, Google is now doing sentiment analysis, which essentially means it is geo-tagging blog references. Now, when a search is conducted for your business on Google maps it will not only pull up the location of your business, but also any other online references, including blog posts. Yet another reason to get listed on Google Local.

What free tools are you using to help your business get discovered online? Please share.

For more tips and tools check out JetPack Radio.

Enclosures:

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, M4V

It’s no secret that Google is the number one search engine, so it should come as no surprise that it can also make or break the traffic on your site. Google is extremely powerful and when a site is properly optimized traffic can reach new heights, resulting in more potential leads.

This post is part one of four part series on “Googlefying Your Business.” First, a few easy steps to get you started on the right foot.

1.    Websitegrader.com – Measure the marketing effectiveness of your site. This free tool by HubSpot will review your on-page SEO, Google Page Rank, indexed pages, traffic rank, inbound links, and blog grade to name a few. Great place to get started.

Websitegrader.com homepage

2.    Google Webmaster Tools – Create an account and verify your site. The tool will allow you to monitor and test your site’s performance.

• Test crawler access
• Submit your Sitemap
• Research top search queries and keywords, links to your site, RSS subscriber stats, internal links
• Detect crawl errors and malware
• Review HTML suggestions

3.    Add your site’s URL to Google – Help Google index your site. While Google adds new sites to its index every time it crawls the Web, this will help accelerate the process.
4.    Submit your Sitemap – This also helps Google index your site faster and more accurately. According to search engine optimization (SEO) guru Chuck Reynolds of rYnoweb, every site should use one.
5.    Add Google Analytics – Analyze traffic data, test and track campaigns, customize reports and charts, and determine how to best target and reach your audience.

What tools have you used to optimize your Web site and bolster its marketing effectiveness? Leave a comment with any suggestions you might have. Stay tuned for more on this topic.

For the audio interview click the play button below, and for the video podcast visit JetPack Radio.

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What is the driving force behind your business?

Sure market research, smart marketing and operations, a good product, and hard work are all essential components of success, but I’m talking about the one thing that keeps you doing what you do, day in and day out.

Hopefully it’s passion.

Passion is the one common denominator among thriving entrepreneurs, strong businesses and great leaders. Of course successful businesses get by without it, but those with true passion at the core often grow faster and stronger, and outlast their counterparts. More importantly, people want to interact with impassioned businesses and leaders.

At the Blogworld and New Media Expo in October, I spoke with C.C. Chapman, marketer and creator of the Managing the Gray podcast, the Advance Guard (now Campfire) and Digital Dads, to name a few, spoke about leveraging passion.

Everyone has a passion, but why is it so important in business, social media and life in general? How do you learn to leverage it?

“It is really important, if you are creating content, whether it’s blogs, or podcasts or anything, that you are creating content you are passionate about,” Chapman said. “It might be a hobby, it might be your family, it might be a topic, but whatever it is, if you’re not writing about it from a passionate perspective then why would the readers connect with you?”

He said with so much content being produced it’s imperative to have passion behind your delivery. Consumers naturally gravitate towards the people who are creating content they feel passionate about. Once you’ve tapped into your passion, leveraging it to earn a living takes hard work and persistence.

“Just having a passion isn’t enough. You have to work really hard. Keep improving your skills. Do everything you can do to make your passion better. Something small and keep building on it. When you get to the point where you’re earning a paycheck from what you love doing, it’s the best feeling in the world.”

“Everybody is passionate about something.”

Thank you C.C. Chapman for the great interview and thank you for the podcast about passion that gave me the extra nudge I needed to pursue mine.

Was your business sparked by a passion? If so, I want to hear about it. Please leave a comment.

Also here are a few motivating resources I’ve come across:

• Entrepreneur magazine: Finding your passion
• The Huffington Post: How do I find my passion?
• Book: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill
• Book: Think Big and Kick Ass in Business and Life by Donald Trump (Ok, so I haven’t read this one, but the title alone is motivating.)

For the audio interview click the play button below, and for the video podcast visit JetPack Radio.

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As the old saying goes, “teamwork makes the dream work.” But, it seems dream work is what makes the team work. As cliché as both sayings may be, they are proving especially relevant today.

Businesses and nonprofits are struggling to stay afloat, but those embracing collaboration over competition, producing truly remarkable work (dream work), and challenging the status quo, are thriving by engaging and motivating their “tribes”. Those stuck in the old mentality of operating in a silo and taking ownership over ideas are likely to encounter more struggles as they try to find their way to success.

Seth Godin points out in “Tribes,” his most recent book, “Organizations that destroy the status quo win. Individuals who push their organizations, who inspire other individuals to change the rules, thrive. Whatever the status quo is, changing it gives you the opportunity to be remarkable.”

One organization changing the rules is Gangplank, a start-up business incubator in Chandler, Ariz. They thrive on connection and collaboration, and have motivated others to help propel their manifesto: creating an economy of innovation and creativity in Arizona.

“I believe that Gangplank was able to get people to connect and unify for a purpose,” said Derek Neighbors, co-founder of Gangplank. “It quickly formed an ‘unwritten’ membership where by people associated themselves as being part of ‘Gangplank.’ It met many needs that those that identified themselves as members were looking for. I think the combination of these things gave them an emotional connection they were missing elsewhere and let them know that they had value, purpose and influence on the community they were participating in.”

Godin said organizations that abide by the rules of the status quo, stuck in their processes, won’t ever create a motivated following – a key difference between tribes and groups. Creating a tribe, however, requires a certain type of leader – often a heretic.

“Tribes are about faith – about belief in an idea and in a community,” he said. “Groups create vacuums – small pockets where stasis sets in, where nothing is happening. Leaders figure out how to step into those vacuums and create motion.”

Heretics create motion and therefore tribes. They have vision, conviction and belief in their ideas. They challenge the status quo, and most importantly, they have a tribe they support and that supports them – collaboration, or team work that makes the dream work.

“Organizations and individuals that embrace collaboration will be at a distinct advantage over those that choose to not collaborate,” Neighbors said. “However, one can succeed without collaboration – it is just a more difficult road.”

But collaboration, or tribes, won’t form around ideas or organizations that are unremarkable – it will never spread. Dream work needs to be at the heart of the tribe. Godin subscribes to a simple marketing formula: “Ideas that spread, win.”

Neighbors and Jade Meskill hit the mark with Gangplank and seem to embody the qualities of a true leader: Passion. Integrity. Vision. Belief. (Though I’m not sure they would ever call themselves leaders.)