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Facebook is not the first social network but it is the most
popular one. There have been many other social networks before
Facebook and while some of them were popular at some point in time,
none could reach the popularity of Facebook. In addition to keeping
in touch with your friends, Facebook can be (and is) used for
business. You can use it to promote your products and services, to
acquire new clients, or to get traffic to your site.
Like Twitter, Facebook is just one of the many ways to get
some traffic to your site. Many
marketers believe that it is just a matter of time for the traffic
from Facebook, Twitter and the other major social networking sites to
surpass the traffic their sites get from Google.
While this time might come, don't take this as a promise that even
if you do everything right, Facebook, Twitter, or any other similar
site will do traffic miracles for you. For some people Facebook works
like a charm, for others it doesn't work at all. The same applies to
Twitter. You can't know in advance if Facebook and/or Twitter will
crash your server with traffic. Just try both and see which one (if
any) works for you.
Unlike Twitter, which is very simplistic, Facebook offers more
possibilities. Yes, you might need more time in order to explore all
the possibilities and take advantage of them but hopefully these
efforts will have a great return in terms of traffic. Here are some
tips that can help you turn Facebook into a traffic monster:
1
Your profile is your major weapon As with Twitter and any
other social network, if you don't make your profile interesting,
you will hardly become popular. Give enough background information
for you and don't forget to make your profile public because this
way even people, who don't know you, when they encounter your
profile, they might become interested in you and become a supporter
of yours.
2Include information about your site on your Wall and in the
photo gallery Facebook gives you the opportunity to write a lot
about you and your endeavors, as well as to include pictures, so use
all these opportunities to build interest in you and your products.
It is even better to post videos and fill in the other tabs, so if
you have something meaningful to put there, just do it.
3Build your network As with other social networking sites,
your network is your major capital. That is why you need to invite
your friends, acquaintances, and partners and ask them to join as
your supporter. You should also search for people with interests
similar to yours. However, don't be pushy and don't spam because
this is not the way to convince people to join your network.
4Post regularly
No matter how interesting the stuff in your
Facebook profile is, if you don't publish new content regularly, the
traffic to your Facebook profile (and respectively the Facebook
traffic to your site) will slow down. If you can post daily, it is
fine but even if you don't post that regularly, try to do it as
frequently as you can. If nothing else, updating your status
regularly is more than nothing, so do it.
5Be active A great profile, an impressive network, and
posting regularly are just a part of the recipe for success on
Facebook. You also need to be active – visit the profiles of
your supporters, take part in their groups and other initiatives,
visit their sites. You are right that all this takes a lot of time
and you might soon discover that Facebooking is a full-time
occupation but if you notice an increase in traffic to your site,
then all this is worth.
6Arrange your page Unlike other social networks, Facebook
gives you more flexibility and you can move around many of the
boxes. If you put the RSS feed with the links to your blog in a
visible space, this alone can generate lots of traffic for you.
7Check what Facebook apps are available Facebook apps are
numerous and new and new ones are released all the time. While many
of these apps are not exactly what you need, there are apps, which
can work for you in a great way. For instance, MarketPlace
widget/plugin or Blog Friends widget are very useful and you should
take advantage of them. You can also use the widgets for
crossposting (i.e. posting directly on Twitter from Facebook)
because this saves you time.
8Use Facebook Social Ads
If you can't get traffic the natural way, you might consider using Facebook Social ads. These are PPC ads
and starting a campaign is similar to an Adwords campaign.
9Start a group There are many groups on Facebook but it is
quite probable that there is a free niche for you. Start a group
about something related to your business and invite people to join
it. The advantage of this approach is that you are getting targeted
users – i.e. people, who are interested in you, your product,
your ideas, etc.
10
Write your own Facebook extensions While this step is
certainly not for everybody, if you can write Facebook extensions,
this is one more way to make your Facebook profile popular and get
some traffic to your site.
11Use separate profiles
Unfortunately, social networks do expose a lot of personal
information and you are not paranoid, if you don't want so much
publicity. Many people are rightfully worried about their privacy on
social network sites and that is why it is not uncommon to have one
personal profile for friends and one business profile to promote
their business. You can have one single profile for both purposes,
but if you have privacy concerns, consider separating this profile
in two – you'd better be safe than sorry.
Facebook is changing all the time and no matter how hard you try
to follow these changes, there will be new and new possibilities for
you to explore. That is why it is not possible to compile a complete
list of all the tactics you can use in order to drive traffic from
Facebook to your site. Anyway, if you try just the basics for
Facebook success we listed here, chances are that you will see a
considerable traffic increase.
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