A debate is brewing among traditional website firms and social media experts about whether business websites are still necessary in light of the rise of Facebook Company Pages.

At the recent ILM (Interactive Local Media) East conference, keynote speaker Maz Sharafi, Facebook’s Senior Manager of Local Monetization, cut to the chase, asserting that with the advent of Facebook Company Pages small businesses no longer need their own websites. It is an interesting argument given the quick rise in Company Pages and the desire small businesses have to invigorate their outreach to existing and new customers using the social networking site.

Facebook Company Pages certainly have their advantages. They’re low cost and quick to implement. Pages can be easily updated with new product information, specials, and offers. Plus, “fans” of your page have their own network of friends and, when they “like” your Page, it allows your business to reach a considerably larger audience.

While Facebook Company Pages should be a key component to any small business’ online marketing strategy, they will certainly not replace your website. Here are five reasons why you need to maintain your business website along with your Facebook Company Page:

1. Now that you have registered your website domain name, what will you do with it? Your domain name brands your business—it needs to be on your business card and other marketing materials, and it needs to be linked to from your Facebook Company Page.

2. Users still look for business websites on search engines—Google is not going away.

3. If you don’t have a website found in Google’s search results, users will find your competitors’ websites instead.

4. You want to maintain as much “real estate” in the search engine results as possible—let users find your website, the link to your Facebook Company Page, and your search engine map and business listings. The more places you appear, the better the exposure for your business!

5. Search engines frequently change their results algorithms—will both your website and link to your Facebook Company Page be easily found at all times?

Take advantage while you can! Statistics show that anywhere from 20% to 50% of small businesses do not yet have a website . . . and even more are not on Facebook.

Websites are not going away—so be sure to maintain both your website and Facebook Company Page, which can be used interchangeably. For example, on your website, you can direct users to “like” your Company Page so they can stay apprised of your current posts, offers, and so forth. Conversely, you can use your Company Page to direct customers to your website, where they can make a purchase or read more in-depth information about your products or services. If you choose one over the other, you will only serve to limit your exposure—so do both!

Are Facebook Company Pages Replacing Business Websites? is a post from Web.com | Blog

Facebook recently introduced a geolocation application called Facebook Places, which provides a potentially powerful way for mobile and socially centric customers to communicate and gather. Although the implications for the business community are evolving, the marketing potential is strong, given that the number of Facebook users has reached 500 million worldwide, and 150 million of them are currently using mobile devices to access Facebook.* Businesses should consider becoming an early adopter of this new application by claiming their free Place.

In a nutshell, Facebook Places allows users of Web-enabled mobile devices (such as Androids and iPhones) to share their physical location—such as a mall, coffee shop, or sports arena—with their designated network of Facebook friends.

The mobile user simply finds their location on Facebook Places and then “checks in,” after which Facebook alerts the user’s designated friends who have accessed the mobile application. Some people might use Places to organize a meeting, while others may find that their best friend happens to be shopping only one block away, which allows them to connect spontaneously.

Facebook is encouraging businesses to create a listing, or Place, that people can designate on Facebook Places as a meeting location. The listing is free, and business owners can populate it with relevant details about their business, including traditional information—such as hours of operation, photos, and contact information—as well as time-sensitive promotions that only Facebook Places subscribers can access.

The potential is that a business can target customers who want to connect socially and then incent them to patronize their Place by offering special deals, which can help them develop new customers as well as create customer loyalty.

During the initial rollout of Facebook Places, the targeted businesses appear to be retail establishments in metropolitan areas. Given Facebook’s growing subscriber base and its ability to connect people, Places is bound to gain stature among the real-time location applications.

Claiming a business listing on Facebook Places is straightforward. In some cases, Facebook has already created a basic listing for your business, so you simply need to follow the verification process and then add more details. If a listing for your business has not yet been built, you can easily create one from scratch.

For more information about claiming your free business Place, visit Facebook’s Places for Advertisers.

*Source: Facebook.

Facebook Places: Have You Claimed Your Free Business Place? is a post from Web.com | Blog

Great writing is behind some of the world’s most popular blogs and websites, but that writing style isn’t the same as what you’d see in print. In fact, there are a ton of differences between writing for the printed page and writing for a blog post.

If you’ve spent much of your time writing for print, there are some things you need to know before you start writing for the Web. Let’s look at five of them:

1. Paragraph Length
   When you were in school, long paragraphs were cool. Actually, they were beyond cool. They were required. Essays with neatly organized topic sentences and that five-paragraph formula were the only way to get the grade. In Web writing, it’s much different.

   Readers on the Internet tend to skim, so they’re not actually paying much attention to your sentence structure and those five neat and tidy paragraphs. They like to read in short, trim paragraphs with sentences that flow.

   If you’re writing for the Web, keep your paragraphs to a maximum of about three sentences, and don’t be afraid to punctuate important ideas on a line of their own.

2. Structure
   Web writing also has a lot more freedom than print because of structure. Online, you can use lists, bullet points, subheadings, and other devices to break up text, which in turn makes it easier to read. You also have the ability to break up a large topic into smaller posts or multiple articles.

   In print, you have to adhere to the publication’s design, space limits, and style guide, which can limit your ability to use things like lists and bullets. You’re really at the mercy of the space that’s available on the page.

   Plus, breaking up a topic is much harder to do. Print readers look for all of a topic’s information in a given edition or issue. They don’t want to have to buy more editions or read the next issue to get the full story.

3. Citing and Sources
   Back in the days of research papers, or even newspaper articles, sources were cited and given credit in a somewhat lengthy and (sometimes) complicated process. The Internet now gives you a much easier way to cite your sources and give credit where credit is due.

   Instead of generating a long list of footnotes and citations, just link to the source. This way, your reader can dig deeper into what you’re writing if he or she chooses. Plus, it keeps the writing neat and easy to read. No one likes tripping over citations.

4. Language
   Print writing tends to keep a stiffer, much more formal language. On the Web, it’s much more conversational and informal. Which is right? Well, it really depends.

   If you’re a newspaper, news blog, or other “impartial” source of information, it’s important to preserve those reporting ethics and styles. By all means, follow the AP Stylebook! However, if you’re writing on behalf of a company, on a blog, or even for yourself, it can pay to be more friendly and conversational in your choice of words.

   Internet readers tend to respond favorably to writing that has personality. In fact, there are tons of research studies, conferences, and blogs dedicated to teaching Web writers how to infuse personality into their words so that they can appeal to a reader’s thoughts, needs, or opinions.

   Choose words and language that are simple and easy to understand. Be concise when you convey your ideas. Make sure your writing stays organized so that the reader stays with you for the entire ride, from headline to call to action.

5. The Bottom Line
   Keep your writing fun and engaging. Use simple language that everyone can understand. Make your point in trim paragraphs and short but sweet sentences. Play with structure to break up blocks of text so that it’s easy to read. Link to more information. Always infuse personality.

   The key thing to remember in any form of writing: the easier and more fun your text is to read, the more likely someone is to read it.

Do you have any Web writing tips you’d like to share? Please leave me a comment below.

Want to learn more? Follow us on Twitter and join us on Facebook.

Writing for the Web vs. Writing for Print: What You Need to Know is a post from Web.com | Blog

By this point, you should know just how important it is to blog. It’s a great way to get content out there for search engines, and it’s a great way to get people interested in your website. You have a voice that’s worth listening to—especially if you know something about your industry. People love reading new information about the things they’re interested in.

Mandy Boyle’s recent article on 10 Tips for Beginner Bloggers helped to get you started. Now that you know what to do, you can start thinking about the things you should avoid doing. Because, after all, it’s one thing to get people to start reading your blog. It’s a completely different thing to get them to stay. Human beings are fickle (I’m allowed to say that because I’m a fickle human being), and they won’t stick around for something that isn’t interesting.

So . . . let’s take a look at 10 things you should avoid doing:

1. Thou shalt not bash thy competition. That sounds simple enough, right? People aren’t going to your blog to hear you talk about how bad the other guy is. They’re going there for great information about the products or services offered by your business. Your blog gets ugly when you start mudslinging. It reminds me of ads around election time, when we’re inundated with ads that pit one candidate against the other. Nobody comes out looking good. Stay positive and stay informative. Trust that the public is smart enough to decide for themselves.
2. Thou shalt not be full of thyself. People aren’t going to your blog to hear you tell them how awesome you are. One of the cardinal rules of writing (not just blogging) is this: Show me; don’t tell me. Prove your awesomeness through knowledge of your industry. Make yourself a resource of valuable information. Show your readers things they might not have seen otherwise.
3. Thou shalt not be redundant. We’ve all done it. You’re flipping through the channels on TV and you see that your favorite show is on. But it’s a rerun. You say, “Oh, I’ve seen this before,” and you change the channel. Don’t let people do that to your blog. Keep your information fresh. You can write about the same topic again; just find new ways to spin it.
4. Thou shalt not rely on spell check. Nothing turns people off like typos, spelling errors, and bad grammar. It makes your blog difficult to read, and it has a tendency to devalue some of your credible information. If you know that spelling and grammar are weak points for you, have someone proofread your blog posts before you hit that “publish” button. They might catch something you didn’t see.
5. Thou shalt not overuse jargon. It’s important to remember that your customers will come to your blog to learn about your industry. Your readers aren’t necessarily going to be industry professionals. No matter how comfortable you are using the lingo, it’s a good idea to tone it down to make sure your readers are up-to-speed with you. If you’re writing a blog about myocardial infarctions, for example, just say “heart attack.” More people will understand you, and your readership will grow.
6. Thou shalt not blog as an island. The saying goes that no man is an island. Well, no blog is an island either. Don’t discount your readers’ opinions. Get interactive—ask your readers for their opinions. If you get a conversation going, you’ll get more people reading.
7. Thou shalt not forget about thine blog. There’s nothing worse than a blog that might as well have cobwebs on it. You set out to write an informative blog, so write it. And do it regularly.
8. Thou shalt not have other blogs before me. Unless, of course, you feel like you can keep up with it. This is sort of an offshoot of #7. If you don’t have the time to cultivate a readership for one blog, what makes you think you can have two? The best blogs take time, attention, and a little bit of love.
9. Thou shalt not lie. Don’t make promises that you’re not going to keep. If you tell your readers that you’re going to have a post up on Thursday, then put the post up on Thursday. You want your readers to trust you, so you need to stay honest with them. Don’t lie about your business either. Don’t say that you sell a certain product if you don’t. Lying to gain readership is going to backfire on you in the end.
10. Thou shalt not be stale. The best blogs have personality. If I wanted textbook information about your industry, I’d read a textbook. Use images and formatting to change the look of your posts. Be engaging—be yourself!

Once you get out there and start interacting with your readers, you’ll know what they want to hear. Nothing about blogging is etched in stone. Just stay open and honest, and your readers will trust you as a source of valuable industry information.

The Ten Commandments of Blogging is a post from Web.com | Blog

One of the most difficult parts of blogging is actually getting started. You might ask yourself: “What do I have to say?” “Is it really that important?” “Who will actually read what I write?” The answers to these questions will never be revealed . . . if you don’t start blogging.

We’ve all heard about the benefits of generating fresh content that search engines love, link-worthy posts that get shared across the Web, and brand interaction that can only happen in the blogosphere . . . but what about coming up with ideas and writing good posts? Here are 10 tips to help make your first foray into blogging successful:

1. Select appropriate topics. You can take a different perspective or provide better information than other blogs in your industry. Think about what topics a reader would find interesting, useful, or relevant about your industry. Don’t make your blog a sales pitch. Write about topics that can help your readers—such as various ways to use your product—or that can educate them about your industry. Use the opportunity to connect with your readers by showing that you know what you’re talking about when it comes to your industry.

   Don’t risk your reputation by posting controversial, personal, or hostile content—unless that’s part of your brand. The blog may be one of the first interactions a customer has with you. Make the interaction count by establishing trust and credibility through engaging or useful content.

2. Consider length and style. It’s best to limit your entries to 150–250 words, as most Internet readers tend to skim. If your topic requires a more in-depth treatment, you can go beyond 250 words. Keep in mind that you can stretch a complicated topic across several posts, rather than stuffing it all into one entry.

   Most blog posts tend to be conversational and informal in tone, although certain industries may need to be more technical or informational. Just remember to give your posts personality. Think of your blog as a lobby for your brand. It has to feel welcoming and approachable, while still being able to convey all of the useful information visitors need.

3. Format effectively. Because most online readers skim, format your post to make it easier to read. Break up text by using paragraphs, subheadings, quotations, bullet points, lists, images, video, or other elements to organize your information in a way that makes it easy and accessible for your readers. Be creative!

4. Write engaging headlines. The headline is one of the most important pieces of a blog post. Just like your storefront attracts customers into your shop, a good headline will draw your visitors in. When writing headlines, remember not to shout at or market to readers. Instead, give them something short, sweet, and engaging. Entice them. Use active voice.

5. Use links responsibly. Don’t use more than a few links in a blog post; otherwise, your post will appear like spam. Instead, link when necessary, and when it’s relevant to what you’re writing about. Try not to use the phrase “click here” as the anchor text when linking. Instead, use keywords that are relevant to your brand. That makes a link more understandable, and it can also help with search engine rankings.

6. Include images. Images can make your post more attractive and—because they break up the text—easier to read. Include images that complement what you’re talking about in your post. Also, don’t forget to use image alt tags to provide search engines with information about the content of the images.

7. Be consistent. Daily updates are ideal. When you post less than once a week, you risk losing your readers. Establish a posting schedule so that you keep the fresh content coming. The worst thing you could do is start blogging and then go missing. It becomes embarrassing when a reader comes to your blog only to find the last update is months old. If a company doesn’t care enough to update its blog regularly, what does that say about how it values its readers (or customers)?

8. Proofread, edit, proofread again. There’s nothing worse than reading a blog post riddled with grammatical and spelling errors. It’s frustrating for the reader, and it looks unprofessional. Take time to proofread, edit, and proofread again.

9. Respond to feedback. Blogs can be an excellent customer service tool because they create a more informal environment for customers to voice their thoughts or concerns. Be sure to take the time to respond and interact accordingly.

10. Stay committed. Finally, stay committed to your blog. Make the effort to update regularly, develop good content, and be a thought leader in your industry. Practice writing. Read more. Comment and interact on other blogs in your industry. By being committed to making your blog successful, you’re already taking the first step toward having a blog that helps your brand, and ultimately, your business.

This article appeared in the January/February 2010 issue of eBiz Insider, the magazine for eCommerce professionals from Web.com.

10 Tips for Beginner Bloggers is a post from Web.com | Blog

If your business has a presence on Facebook, then you’ve already taken the first step toward connecting with your current and potential customers on one of the most popular social networking sites to date. But to fully benefit from having a fan page on Facebook, you’ll need to actively engage your fans to maintain their interest and keep the momentum going for your business.

So how can you accomplish that? Let’s look at seven ways:

1. Advertise your fan page. To get the most out of your page, you can’t rely on the mantra: “Build it and they will come.” You’ll need to get the message out to your current and potential customers by advertising your new Facebook page. At the very least, you should link to your fan page directly from your website, blog, Twitter page, or other online forum. You’ll want to make sure that the link is at the top of the right or left column on your website, especially in hot spots like the masthead. Including a Facebook icon is the best way to draw attention to your link.

   To boost your advertising even further, try using Facebook ads, blog posts, or other messaging to communicate your page’s existence to future fans.

2. Build your brand. You should mention your Facebook page on all of the elements in your marketing program. One of the quickest ways you can do this is to include a link in your email signature. You can also mention your Facebook page on any fulfillment materials, invoices, packing slips, company brochures, or business cards. To gain popularity, you’ll need to spread the news through every customer contact avenue that’s available to your business.

3. Include your company information. On your Facebook fan page, there’s an Info tab that allows you to include information about your business. At a minimum, you should provide an overview of your company, information about your products or services, and a link to your website. But you don’t have to be constrained by the current categories. With a little creativity, you can expand on this part of your page and use it to drive conversion in other areas. For example, in the Company Overview section, you can place links to specific pages on your website, or you can add a sign-up form that lets people subscribe to your email newsletter. This area is also a great place to put links to your other social networking sites, such as Twitter.

4. Create a landing page. One of the greatest aspects of Facebook’s fan page is the ability to create a landing page that leads into your “actual” page. Facebook provides an application called Static FBML (Facebook Markup Language), which allows you to use basic coding to create a small landing page that becomes the first thing people see when they come to your fan site.

   To install this tool, log in to Facebook and add Static FBML to your page. Once you’ve installed it, you can insert your code and adjust your settings on your wall so that people who aren’t yet your fans will land on this particular page first. To get the most out of this technique, you should provide a short description of your business and request that people become a fan of your page. I’ve known businesses that have used this technique and have been highly effective in converting visitors to fans.

5. Provide engaging content. Having a Facebook fan page provides an ideal opportunity to interact with people. The more information you include on your page, the more inclined your fans will be to stay involved. But remember, interaction requires the efforts of both you and your visitors. And when your fans are more involved, they’re more likely to take advantage of special promotions you might be offering or to suggest your fan page to their friends.

   To encourage interaction, you can adjust your wall settings to allow your fans to post comments, links, or videos on your page, and you can host a miniforum by using the Discussions application. If you have videos on YouTube that are related to your products or services, you can educate your fans about your videos by using the Notes application. You can also import an RSS feed through this application, which is an excellent way to provide relevant content to your readers.

6. Promote with offerings. Besides creating a landing page, you can use Static FBML to create coupons and rewards, promotional announcements, or even a little shopping area. If you can imagine it, you can create it. Start thinking of your Facebook page as an extension of your main website. If you publish an email newsletter, you can use the markup language to create a subscription form for sign-ups. If you use an email marketing program, you’ll need to put the code for your subscription form in FBML to create a tab on your page.

   Above all, make sure that you’re following the Facebook Pages Terms to avoid making mistakes that could inadvertently cause your Facebook fan page to be deactivated.

7. Do your research. Facebook provides the Insights tool that allows you to view certain metrics about your fan base. It’s not extremely robust, but it does provide a snapshot on things such as the number of active fans you have in various age groups, the geographic breakdown of your fans, and the growth of your fan base over time. This is helpful information when you’re deciding which promotions to advertise to your fans or whether you should target your messaging to a specific age group.

   You should also research other businesses on Facebook to see what they’re doing to promote their page or to engage their fans. Pay attention to what features they’re using, what kind of content they frequently post for their fans, and what methods they use to interact with their visitors. There are a lot of successful Facebook fan pages that offer creative and effective ideas you can try on your own page.

7 Ways to Build Your Fan Base on Facebook is a post from Web.com | Blog

No matter what social network you’re using to connect with your community, your customers, or other businesspeople in your industry, the most important thing to remember is that it’s a “social” network. That means there’s no “set it and forget it” approach. Social media is interactive, requiring efficient and effective response. Importantly, it proves more and more each day that personality and pizzazz can get you a lot of attention, perhaps more quickly and easily than any other marketing channel.

Although social media is often touted as “immediate marketing,” it takes a long-term approach to make it valuable, vibrant, and varied. Just like with any other relationship you want to cultivate, the results won’t happen overnight. Others need time to get to know you, and they need to see evidence of your commitment to the community—whether it’s on Facebook, Twitter, your blog, or another venue in the social space—before they will actively keep you on their radar.

While social media can be a bit intimidating for the newcomer, it’s actually one of the few marketing opportunities that let you get your feet wet while you’re trying to figure out the right formula for putting “yourself” into your marketing efforts. That personality part of social media is what causes many business owners to shy away from it, and their apprehension is understandable. For years, business owners have been trained against doing just that. It used to be that a business had a personality all its own. So now, when they’re expected to inject their own personality into the mix, some business owners will crouch in a corner of inactivity or resort to automatic replies.

But social media need not be scary. Why? Because the fusion of personality and business lets you live and breathe and socialize in a “community” that was never possible before. Here are just a few of the new and awesome opportunities it brings:

• Have a supplements shop? You can ask your customers to tweet their vote for the next flavor of your signature energy drink.
• Sell environmentally friendly products or services? You can engage in a conversation on a green industry blog about the proper methods for installing solar panels.
• Is your store known for having the latest and greatest electronics? You can reward your Facebook fans by offering them a special discount on your latest tech gadget.

And along with those new opportunities comes a new set of rules for conduct and etiquette. While you’re busy typing your feedback and sharing “yourself” online, it’s important to remember that you’re still representing your “business.” What you say and how you interact in the social sphere are just as important as what you say and how you interact in your bicycle shop or in your booth at the local farmers market.

Your social presence should be respectful and in line with the character of your business. For example, unless your business takes a public stance on political or religious issues, you’d want to steer clear of such topics and focus on subject matter that’s less controversial. Use logic when deciding what to do and say. Want to share your opinion on an election? “American Idol” will usually work better than something more, shall we say, Presidential?

What are some of the other don’ts for a business engaged in social media? Here’s a sampling:

• Don’t send automated direct messages on Twitter. This impersonal approach prevents you from building relationships with your followers.
• Don’t neglect to add comments on your Facebook wall, or to properly address concerns (or compliments) left there by others. If you’re not actively engaged, your fans will abandon ship . . . and set sail elsewhere!
• Don’t treat every interaction as a sales pitch. People will see through your efforts very quickly.
• Don’t treat your blog as a replica of your website and expect that people want to read endless posts that are nothing more than advertisements.

It’s also important to avoid letting your ego get in the way when you’re responding or sharing. Before you post any content online, it’s always a good policy to take a step back and carefully read what you’ve written to make sure that nothing could be misconstrued or considered “too much.” Don’t think of it as censoring yourself—think of it as being smart. Smart and, well . . . social!

Social Media: The Fusion of Personality and Business is a post from Web.com | Blog

For the business owner who doesn’t have the time to dabble in social media, Facebook has always been a solid set-it-and-forget-it solution. It’s easy to create a Facebook page for a business and then populate it with a few photos, some contact information, and other general info . . . and then leave it. The page is an effective passive strategy—it’s there waiting to be found, and you might even get a few visits to your website from Facebook each month.

But there’s something you should know. Set-it-and-forget-it is not going to make for instant popularity. If you have loftier goals for using social media, that level of performance can be disappointing. Popular Facebook pages—the kind with hundreds of thousands of fans—tend to be built around companies, products, or public figures with a high degree of offline popularity or to experience large, time-sensitive booms in fan population (like the recent spate of “I bet this [random object] can get more fans than [random celebrity]” pages or the “Tautology Club” group based on a joke in the webcomic “xkcd”). For pages that don’t have that level of global popularity to rely on, building a Facebook following that you can activate or convert takes more work and a focus on creating engagement with your fans.

“Engagement” may be the new social media buzzword of 2010—just like “conversation” was last year—but its buzzworthiness is well earned, and its prominence signals a sea of change in the way some people look at how social media can be used to market a business or brand. Instead of a direct marketing channel, social media has become a key tool in customer relations—from answering product questions to providing concierge services. If you have a Facebook page, how are you using it to engage your fans? If you’re not, think about how your business can benefit from a stronger relationship with your most loyal customers.

Luckily, there are some simple things you can do to increase engagement with your customers on Facebook:

• Update regularly. The best way to stay fresh in your fans’ consciousness is to make sure the page gets updated regularly. Link your blog or your Twitter feed to the page if you need to, but set a goal of posting something to your page at least a few times each week. For better results, try to keep track of what time your fans are most active (at least the ones with public timelines) and aim to schedule your own updates for those times. Conventional wisdom is that Facebook has the most activity on weekends. To that end, you can use a social media management app like HootSuite to schedule posts when you’re out of the office.
• Monitor activity. Although Facebook has recently started sending weekly email updates to page admins, tracking activity on a Facebook page is still not as easy as it should be. No notifications get sent when new comments or wall posts appear on the page, so that means tracking them manually. And you do have to track them, because responding to those comments in a timely manner is an important part of keeping fans engaged. The simple act of replying to questions and comments can earn added loyalty and positive word of mouth from a user.
• Promote yourself. Filling your page’s timeline with spam is bad, but it’s okay to encourage fans to visit your website or to read your blog or buy a hot new product. In fact, feel free to do this about 10%–15% of the time, as long as it comes across as organic and authentic. This kind of promotion works both ways—name-drop the Facebook page in your email advertising or place a link to the page on your store’s “thank you” page. In addition to passively linking from your homepage or blog, these links will get served to your audience when they’re already at a point of high engagement.
• Incentivize. People love getting free stuff. To increase engagement, hold a contest among your fans—one that’s easy to participate in. Circulate a Facebook-only coupon to reward that audience (and after the fact, let it slip to the rest of your customers that they missed out by not being a fan).
• Solicit. Sometimes the key to better engagement is asking for it. Let your fans know you’re ready to interact with them. Ask for feedback on specific items.

With 400 million active users and growing, Facebook can be a daunting landscape. Your business is unlikely to have the same fan count as Coca-Cola™ or the Pope, but numbers aren’t what makes a social media effort effective. The real metric you should be monitoring is engagement, however you choose to define it (number of interactions, clickthrough on shared links, conversion rate of links to sales pages, number of mentions, percent of positive sentiment in comments about your brand—any can be a valid measuring stick depending on your goals and strategy). Strive to improve that month over month, and you’ll begin to see the dividends.

This article was published in the March/April 2010 issue of eBiz Insider, the magazine for eCommerce professionals from Web.com.

Facebook: How to Engage Your Fans is a post from Web.com | Blog

Many small businesses are exploring the use of Facebook for their business. If you’re using Facebook, then adding a “Become a Fan” box to your website is one of the best ways to announce to your customers that you’re on Facebook.

With a fan box, people can sign up to receive your Facebook updates right from your home page. This not only gives you the opportunity to generate more fans, but given the popularity of Facebook, it also conveys that your business is up-to-date, or “au courant.” Having a Facebook fan page is definitely a smart move for your brand.

So if you’d like to add a fan box to your website’s home page, just follow these basic steps:

1. Log in to your Facebook fan page. On the left side, near the top, there’s a link that says “Edit Page.” Click on that link.
2. On the edit page, midway down the page on the right-hand side, there’s a heading that says “Promote your page.” Below that heading, there’s a link that says “Promote with a Fan Box.” Click on that link.

3. This takes you to a page called “Fan Box Widget.” The first option is to “Select your Page.” Your fan page should already be selected, unless you have more than one fan page. There are three “include” options that you can choose for your fan box:

• If you select the “stream” option, the box will include the stream of comments on your wall. (Note: This option will make the box bigger.)
• If you choose the “fans” option, your fans will be included in the box. (Note: This option will make the box bigger.)
• The third option will include the “facebook logo,” and I definitely recommend this choice.
4. The second option on the “Fan Box Widget” page is to “Choose where to add the widget.” To add the widget to your website, select “Other.” The code that you need for doing so will be generated, and it will appear in the field below. You’ll also see a preview of your fan box on the right-hand side. If you want to change any of your choices, you can select or deselect them and then re-click the “Other” button. At that point, your code and the preview will refresh.
5. Finally, you need to select the code in the field, copy it (hit Ctrl+C or use the browser copy function), and then paste it (hit Ctrl+V or use the browser paste function) in the HTML code on the home page of your website.

If you’re a Web.com eWorks! XL® customer, you can send this code to our modifications team by completing the Modifications Submission Form, and they’ll be happy to insert it onto your website. If you’re a do-it-yourself website or hosting customer, you can paste this code in the HTML code on your website.

P.S. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Adding Facebook’s “Become a Fan” Box to Your Website is a post from Web.com | Blog

It’s hard to believe, but Facebook started only six years ago (of course, from a dorm room at Harvard). Since then, the website has beat out tough competitors, like MySpace™, and now has more than 400 million users. It’s a case of spot-on timing, good design and listening to the community. Plus, Facebook is downright engaging, allowing status updates, photos, videos, apps and so on.

However, Facebook is much more than a place to have fun. Given its massive footprint, the site is a platform for business. In fact, many top companies have fan pages—and some even show them in national commercials (as seen during the recent Super Bowl).

Consider this: Based on the research from Compete, Facebook has surpassed Google™ as the main source of traffic to portals like Yahoo!® and MSN®. So, could social networking be the next search engine?

It makes a lot of sense. People spend much time on social networks and listen to suggestions from their friends (it’s no surprise that Google is getting much more aggressive with social networking, as seen with its recent launch of Buzz as well as the acquisition of Aardvark).

To capitalize on things, we are seeing the emergence of yet another marketing approach: social media optimization.

One of the early experimenters is Intuit®’s TurboTax®. Actually, roughly half of the users are on Facebook, with an average of 150 friends. So, TurboTax is providing useful ways for users to share reviews and ask tax questions.

In other words, social media will help customers with their problems—and likely lead to improved loyalty and word-of-mouth marketing.

This is not to say that you should avoid search marketing. No doubt, this will remain critical. But it’s probably a good idea to start engaging your customers, especially on Facebook.

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Tom Taulli is an expert on small business and is the author of several books, including The Complete M&A Handbook (Random House, Inc.). In addition to his writing, Taulli has appeared on high-profile television venues such as CNN, CNBC, and Bloomberg TV, and has been quoted in various print media sources such as The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and The LA Times. Visit his blog at www.taulli.com.

Your Business Needs to Be on Facebook—Now is a post from Web.com | Blog