Social Sharing 101: Forget A Phonebook! It’s Time To Get Your Online Business Listed In Facebook!

What is social sharing?

Before we break down just what is social sharing, I want to go a bit into social media. This post is the first in a series about trust what social sharing is and how it can have a huge impact on the success of your online business.

This series will be coving Facebook (what you’re about to read), Twitter, Google+ & any other method that depends on sharing socially.

In the future, I will be doing a post on the best social sharing plugins for WordPress blogs, so I felt it only right to explain social sharing, how important it is to our online businesses and why you must get involved before you miss out.

Chances are, 110% of the websites you visit these days will have some type of social sharing capabilities.

With search engine results relying on social shares more than ever in their calculations for site authority, you would be walking on dangerous ground to not include some various types of social sharing plugins on your blog.

What Exactly Is Social Media?

According to Wikipedia, Social media includes web-based and mobile technologies used to turn communication into interactive dialogue.

I think good ol’ Wikipedia made it sound a bit harder than it really is. It’s basically saying we communicate with each other on websites using cell phones (iPads) and computers.

Social media is the most powerful tool business owners have available to them; well of course besides great content.

I want to break down every aspect of the social sharing scene for those that may be a little lost because even I, Dennis the Blogging Menace, am playing catch up when it comes to all this social sharing.

Don’t get me wrong; I did it like most online business owners do, but I thought it was one of those things where I do it and I would just see the rewards like a big sign in the sky.

If you’re thinking like that, forget everything you ever knew, grab a pen (or evernote) and get ready to learn just what social sharing is all about.

Sharing on Social Network Sites

Over the last few years, social network sites have grown to new heights. With people deciding to put more of their lives online, it’s been like a day at Disney World for savvy internet marketers.

A short time after deleting my Facebook, I started to wonder “could I be making a mistake?“. With Facebook being the #2 website in the universe and the #1 in the United States, could I really have been making a mistake?

Luckily for me, when you delete your Facebook, it only deactivates for 2 weeks so I still have time to think about it.

Welcome to the first series on social sharing where it’s all about Facebook.

Sharing on Facebook

Sharing on Facebook can be done in many differnet ways.

• the LIKE button – When you Like stuff, a link of the page you liked, will be plastered to your Facebook Wall.This is now on broadcast for everyone to see so be careful what you like because… well I’ll tell you a funny story about Facebook later and
• the SHARE button – Sharing is a way of directly sharing what you like and it allows you to even type what you want to say about your new post. I’ll show you a mistake that many bloggers make that costs them traffic and exposure simply because people don’t know what they do.
• the SEND button – Sending is a feature that allows you to send something you liked to the Facebook inbox of a friend. This is for private stuff that you may not want the world to see.

Are you using Facebook for personal or business?

This is something I just learned and it’s valuable. You have to decided what you want to use your personal Facebook page for.

Do you want to get on the race to max out at 5,000 people you don’t know or keep it personal and only invite real friends and family.

If you’re main purpose is to use Facebook as a business, I don’t suggest posting anything political or religious unless that’s you’re niche. I’m not saying to not voice your opinion; just understand that if you build a following, you’re going to have every walk of life in your circle.

Speaking on touchy subjects like religion and politics may cause you to lose some fans. That’s when you get an email “sir I loved your blog and all your content but when you said this about that, you lost me. No go **********”

Now that didn’t happen to me but it’s happened, I’m sure. If you want to talk on serious subjects, I suggest starting a Facebook Fanpage or a Group.

What are Fanpages and Facebook Groups

Facebook Fanpages and Groups are ways to connect with people interested in what you want to say.

This is part of the reason Facebook is so popular. A nobody can create a Fanpage and if one person likes it, they now have a fan. Turns them into a total rockstar; in their eyes.

I create a fanpage for almost everything. If you want to talk about UFOs, start “Bob’s UFO Page“, setup some advanced Facebook Advertising, and you’ll be getting fans left and right.

Facebook Fanpage

Fanpages run solely on someone liking your page. You can suggest your Fanpage to your friends and there is no security. You can’t block someone from posting on your Fanpage as I figured out recently one of my fanpages.

You should see some of the things “Fans” of Justin Bieber post on his Fanpage wall. Lets just say i didn’t know you could use that word like that.

Facebook has a huge advantage over groups in the customization depart because you can totally trick out your Fanpage like I did with the iBlog4dollars Fanpage.

Facebook Groups

Groups run a bit differnet than Fanpages. You are able to keep them private so only invited users can join. Another great feature is you can physically invite people to be in your group. Just add them and they are ready to recieve your posts.

The great thing about Groups is if you’re able to build a following (shhhhhh), you can use your group like an email list. You can send mass emails to everyone in your group; this can be “check out my site” stuff or even affilate offers. If you don’t have a group, you may be missing out.

What you need to do right now; not later!

If you haven’t already, you need to make yourself a member of Facebook groups in your niche. I only go for groups that are around a thousand members. You’ll see how many members are in them when you use the search bar.

Just posting your content in a few established groups is a great way to get exposure. I do this on a regular basis as I’ve seen it bring me a great deal of traffic.

The Mistake Bloggers Make That May Cost Them Viewers

Most bloggers just create a blog post and share it. The problem with that is you’re allowing technology to decide your copywriting.

On my new list of recommeded plugins, you’ll see WP SEO Yoast which is an absolutely amazing SEO tool for WordPress blogs.

It allows you to see just how your title will be seen in search engines and when you post to Facebook. Along with the title, you can edit the META description which is the black text that appears under the title (gray in Facebook).

It only takes a few minutes of thinking as if you’re the reader, to come up with a nice headline to grab the attention of Facebook users.

Be Careful while posting

This is the funny story I was telling you about earlier. What ever you do, don’t get the Facebook search bar confused with the sharebar. I saw a young lady that posted what she was looking for to get her weekend rolling. Funny to me but not for her.

Summery Of Sharing on Facebook

Facebook is the most popular site in the universe after Google but they are right on Google’s hiney.

Decide what your focus will be while using Facebook. Are you going to use your Facebook for personal or business? Make that decision and stick to it. Business is business and everything else has it’s place.

Get involved in groups and like some relevant fanpages. Share your content with others and build your brand.

Also don’t forget that Facebook has the most advanced advertising system in the world. With that being said, it’s not just point, click and make money.

There is a proven system that works and many that have grown to be outdated. It would be smart to learn how to use Facebook Advertising from an expert before diving in head first. Trial and error is expensive and it will cost you in the end.

In conclusion:
Secret to sharing on social networking sites

The secret to mastering social networking sites is you have to connect; be social. Through my 2 years of internet marketing, I’ve gotten the best return from actually connecting with people.

Social media is here to stay as our society has gotten a bit confortable with giving out information.

Facebook is the big dog of the social network scene and it’s important that you use it efficiantly. Many go about it the wrong way which ends up being a lot of time and sometimes, money wasted.

This is part of the reason why I rarely use my fanpage which has close to 900 fans. None are targeted and they rarely respond to anything I post. I think I paid for most of them.

You don’t pay for fans in any way but by hard work and having a brand. That leaves the question of are they really fans if they recieved an incentive to like my page? No!

I want to naturally build my following so I know that when I share something on Facebook, my followers are going to be onto it like money is coming out of their computer monitor.

Once I successfully build a following naturally, I will be creating a free report detailing how I did it and what tools I used.

It’s important that we know just how powerful Facebook is. It can be the best thing to happen to your online business or it can be a part of the talk in forums on how Facebook is a waste of time.

Only thing that’s dead is internet marketing 1.0. It’s time to grab this bull by the horns and ride it like it’s 1999. Make sure you check out my ebook How and Why Google Panda Kicked Internet Marketing 1.0′s Butt. It’s free for the time being.

I want to thank you for reading this post. This is the first in a ongoing series on how to using social media to build  a natural following for your online business.

My blog is all about being successful through internet marketing running an online business. Social media is the most powerful tool we have availble to us and with Facebook being at the top of the social sharing ladder, it’s now time to use it.

Being that this post is all about social media, I rest assured this post will be shared many times over…. Hint hint.. Thank you in advance..

Thanks again for reading and I wish you much online and offline success

What are your thoughts on Facebook? Have you had success marketing and/or advertising on Facebook?

 

Tagged As: domination, Facebook, social media, social sharing, social sharing plugins, what is social media