Facebook is the largest online social network with more than 400 million users. Many of us use Facebook to catch up with old friends, play games or more easily communicate with peer groups. But Facebook also provides us business owners an easy, passive way to gently remind our online network about the business we’re in, and that’s powerful.
One of my most recent client acquisitions came by way of Facebook referral from an old friend I went to High School with and haven’t really seen since! According to Facebook, the average user:
* has 130 friends on the site
* sends 8 friend requests per month
* spends more than 55 minutes per day on Facebook
* clicks the Like button on 9 pieces of content each month
* writes 25 comments on Facebook content each month
* becomes a fan of 4 Pages each month
* is invited to 3 events per month
* is a member of 13 groups
If you have a Facebook profile then you probably know all too well how easy it is to spend more time than you intended surfing the site. There are so many interesting links, groups and widgets to explore! What I’d like to suggest is that each time you log in, do so with the intent of raising your visibility.
You can’t expect folks to remember what you do and why you’re special, you have to remind them every now and again. To jog their memory, sometimes all you need to do is make a small digital deposit in their day… to relate to them in a very human way in this vast digital world. Here are my three favorite ways to keep your profile high:
1. Use the Like button with reckless abandon. Let people you know that you read their status update and you like it. You can go one step further and add a comment but when you’re in a hurry, the Like button is a perfectly good way to acknowledge individuals
2. Celebrate birthdays. Facebook makes this drop-dead simple by aggregating the birthdays of every member of your network under the events tab. Each time you log in, take a minute to wish a belated or early happy birthday to your connections – make them feel special and celebrated
3. Tag friends in your status updates. Tagging allows you to more actively mention your friends and other things you are connected to on Facebook while still keeping the conversation open. By way of example, the other day I tagged my photographer Audia in my status update when I uploaded my new headshot. In addition to boosting my profile to Audia, this particular tag also raised Audia’s profile within my network – a double win!
You can tag friends, Pages, groups, events and applications. Just type the @ symbol and then the first few letters of the name and Facebook will show you all your matching entries. Select one and it will appear as a clickable link in your update. Here’s a YouTube video that walks you through it.
What other creative ways are you using Facebook to keep your profile high and generate referral business? To take the lead early.
In summary: Get There!
