So why is Facebook so essential to your business prosperity?

There are more than 500 million users on Facebook and a staggering 50% of those users regularly log onto Facebook for at least 55 minutes each and every day! This creates an outstanding opportunity to place your business, product, service and brand right into their laptops. And better still, it’s a free form of marketing.

Gone are the days and the idea that Facebook was merely for pimply faced teenagers and students, the fastest growing demographic are those 35 years and older with money to spend. With Facebook marketing, you can easily create a lot of targeted traffic straight to your business as long as you plan your strategy just like you would any marketing campaign.

There are many different applications and functions available for use within Facebook. The more popular of these are Fan Pages, Groups, Events and Advertising. Whichever way you choose to use Facebook it’s important to remember that it is a social network that relies upon the sharing of content such as videos, links, photos, articles and posts.

Mind Your P’s, Q’s and @’s!!

While content is important to keep your followers engaged and active, it’s extremely important to bear in mind that you are networking for the benefit of your professional business and like in any networking situation, common etiquette is required!

As I so eloquently (tongue in cheek here) put it to Mari last week, getting it wrong can be like turning up to a friend’s barbeque and bringing out your Amway samples! It’s just not the done thing!

So, please don’t post hundreds of personal links back to your own website, especially when you post on other peoples profiles, groups or pages; it won’t go down well!! Take the time to think carefully about how your post shows up on the other person’s wall. If it’s purely self-promoting message and of no benefit to the other person, keep it to your own wall if you must post it. On the other hand, if it’s a genuinely warm mention that you want to share, the nicest and easiest way to go about this is via ‘tagging’. This way, your post will show up not only on your own wall, but also on the wall of the person, or persons you are mentioning. You may tag up to six people, fan pages or groups at once.

Up until a short time ago, the only way to achieve this was to start writing your post and add the ‘@’ sign before the name of the person, page or group you wanted to tag. Recently this has changed and a drop down list will automatically appear as soon as you enter the capital letter of your chosen recipient. Sometimes this drop down list does take a moment or two to appear before making your choice.

So it will be nice this week if I could see you all practicing your ‘tagging etiquette’ and don’t forget to include me in your posts – I’d love to see how you are all enjoying this wonderful feature!

Geez I wish I had done this from the beginning!

I’ve created this short video to show you step by step how to:

• Create a list in Facebook
• Add friends to the new list
• Create a status update and tag someone
• Make a status update visible ONLY to people on the new list you created.

Love to hear your feedback on the video. Do you have any tips to share? Any questions, ideas, tips or messages please leave them below or watch the video on Youtube and leave your comments over there. Either way I will read every comment and reply. And hey…why not add your Facebook profile or fan page link to your comment so you can find new friends here?

Cheers

Janet

6 Steps to Profit From Your Facebook  Page

In these strategies, Mari referred to a Page (formally called fan Page) you can create on Facebook. If you are confused about the difference between a profile and a page on Facebook here’s the difference:

You must have a profile and this is always connected to your name. Don’t be tempted to have a few profiles in different names. It’s against the rules. You can have a profile and no page, but you can’t have a page without a profile.

So…the profile represents you and you can accept and reject friends and who can and cannot see your information.

A page is something you set up once you have joined Facebook and is usually about your business or product. It can be about you if you are your brand. Anyone can choose to “like” your page and there is no limit to how many followers a page has (though you can only have 5000 friends to your private profile).

You have the ability to add some pretty groovy things to a page, such as opt-in boxes, extra pages, discussion areas etc. So some of the things mentioned below refer to this ability to add features to a page you create in Facebook.

OK, now we’ve got that sorted, let’s get onto the strategies:)

Step 1: Design

The design of your Facebook Page should reflect your objectives of using Facebook in the first place.

Here are a few objectives Mari mentioned: build an email list, sell more, establish yourself as an expert in your area, get media attention, find Joint Venture Partners, get visibility.

So for example, if your objective is to build your email list, then make sure the first page they see when they come to your Fan Page (you can set which page is the default) has either an opt-in box added or a link and enticement to get them over to your sign up place on your web site.

Step 2: Content

Content is king (or queen) so make sure you give consistently good value content on your topic. It can be a mixture of your own content and sharing other people’s content. Mari stressed how important it is to share content from other people. This gives value to your followers but also gets the attention of the people who you are linking to. They are then likely to “share the love”.

Step 3: Promotion

Advertise your Facebook Fan Page EVERYWHERE!

Mari has a great article with 21 Creative Ways to Increase Your Facebook Fan Base . Love to know if you use any of these techniques and what has and hasn’t worked for you.

Step 4: Engagement

Decide how you will engage with people on your fan page and be consistent. For example, will you reply to everyone who leaves a comment? Will you use their names? How will you cope with scale?

Make sure you do engage and continue a conversation, otherwise all you are doing is broadcasting.

Step 5: Conversion

This is the area most people don’t do. They simply don’t ask for the sale. If you have been giving great value content and engagement then your followers will accept, and often expect, you to tell them how they can get to learn more from you. Let them know. Mention your sales, products and programs.

Step 6: Scalability

As your following increases so too will the amount of time Facebook can take for you to continue to engage. You have to decide how you will do this. Mari suggests you never outsource your self. This means, don’t get your assistant to write and pretend it is you. It just won’t work.

This link to the fan page for Social Media Examiner is a great place to study how they manage scalability. They have given various team members admin rights to the page. When they post status updates or comments they always write their name after so you know who it was from.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Facebook has over half a BILLION active users (which means people who have logged in during the last 30 days). As Mari said, you fish where the fish are swimming and that is Facebook. This is definitely an area to study and learn best practice. Once of the best places to get access to the best brains on social media is at the Facebook Success Summit. It starts today but that doesn’t matter. You get access to all the recordings when you join so you can work through them at your own pace.

So go on….be social and tell me your ideas

Cheers,

Janet

Slow down and take a little time to research. As well as looking at numbers, such as how many people are searching on your topic in Google, you want to try and get inside your customer’s head. You want to know what they think about and talk about on your topic. What are their biggest frustrations?

Here is a 3 minute video I have made for you to show you a really quick way to find your target market and eaves drop on their conversations.

At first glance, they have changed the way people join Fan Pages. Before, you would click a button that says “become a fan” and now it is changed to “like”. They say it is lighter and consistent with the language they use elsewhere on Facebook. That’s true.

But when you look closer, this is just the beginning of something huge, something that will change the way we use social media….something that moves Facebook one step closer to World Domination (Cue Austin Powers sinister Dr Evil music).

Okay so that may seem pretty dramatic but it is pretty exciting. Let me give you an outline of what they are doing, what I think it means and some useful links for you to learn more.

I’ll also share why some people see this as an evil plot and why (at the moment) I think it is pretty cool.

“Like” connects pages in Facebook and websites OUTSIDE of Facebook to your profile

Your profile is significant on Facebook for 2 reasons. Firstly because this is how people find out more about you but more importantly (from a marketing perspective) if you use Facebook Ads, this is the information that allows you to target your ads to age, sex, geography but also music likes, books, hobbies etc.

As Ed Dale points out in his great article today, most people fill in their preferences on their profile when they first join and hardly ever go back to update it. So It’s not always current (and marketers need current data to make the most of their marketing budget).

Facebook is rolling out relationships with partner sites that allows you to “like” something on those sites (eg movies, music, news stories etc). As soon as you do this, your preference is linked to your profile. This means you can share your favourite things and it will stay there for as long as you like, rather than the short time it will show up in your Facebook Newsfeed. It also means marketers paying for advertising on Facebook will have really current info to target their ads. That’s what excites me. You know when you pay for advertising on Facebook your ad will more than likely only be shown to people who really are interested in your offering.

You can get the info straight from the horses mouth here.

So Why The Dr Evil Fears?

The main concern with social media is privacy. Every time you add more specific information about yourself, you potentially make yourself vulnerable. The trick is to be sensible. Only share things you want other people to know you recommend.

The other concern is Facebook “talking” to other sites. People are concerned their username and password will be compromised but apparently there is no link from your log in details to 3rd party sites. You can also choose which things you want people to see and which ones are private – so nothing has changed there.

How Does This Lead To World Domination?

Facebook has set itself one step closer to overtaking Google. You see, social interactions and popularity are more significant that just keywords. Apart from the power of the profile data for marketers paying for ads on Facebook, there is another thing I think you should know about.

Facebook Introduces Community Pages.

Pages (a.k.a. Fan Pages) are set up and controlled by individuals. For example, I have a Page called Wonderful Web Women (which I really should pay more attention to).

Facebook is now creating Community Pages which seem as if they will be the equivalent of search results for the web and social media. They are linked to Wikipedia and include a news stream gathered from throughout the web. They are not controlled by individuals. They are controlled by Facebook and I’m sure, down the track, SEO experts will hold conferences trying to understand the algorithm they use (just like they do for Google now).

What you need to know is you can “like” these community pages (really just search results pages) and this will link them to your profile. Again, something that will grow to be powerful for marketers.

So What Do You Do Now?

It looks as if they are still rolling things out but there are a few things you can do now.

1. Keep an eye on your profile. Things may disappear and others appear. You want to stay in control of what message you send to the world so you may want to edit things over the next week or so

2. Take a good look at what pages you already link to. Some of these you may have linked to without thinking about it too much. You may want to look more closely at what your choices say about you.

3. Keep an eye open for community page suggestions that Facebook apparently will be giving you. Look at them with a marketer’s eye. Think about how your results could be showing on those pages

4. Get over to Wikipedia and look at it with different eyes. Can you contribute definitions etc on your field of expertise? How can you get your name out there on Wikipedia as I predict it will play an important part in community pages.

5. Start experimenting with Facebook Ads. Start with little things and get a feel for it. I’ve found with the little experimenting I have done, that it is heaps easier to learn than Google Adwords. So don’t be intimidated. If you start experimenting as things are changing you will get a good feel for how to make the most of this strengthening marketing medium.

In short, our web host who we had a wonderful working relationship with for two years, went AWOL. Totally missing from the planet and so are our web sites.

We have numerous niche web sites and 2 HUGE web sites with an amazing amount of content. They were backed up….or so we thought. We learnt the hard way that following the back up instructions that came with our membership software does NOT backup your entire site. All of the images, audio files, videos, etc etc..all gone from the net.

Anyway, I don’t want to talk about the negative lessons I have learned through this. Not today. I’ll do that later.

Today I want to share with you an incredibly positive lesson I have learned from this experience.

I Have Not Lost A Single Customer!

My web sites have been down for more than 2 weeks now. I expected a huge exodus. I fully expected to open my Pay Pal account and see row after row of the word “cancellation”. I expected disappointed customers demanding refunds.

I’m sorry I under-estimated you.

All we had were 2 people at the beginning of the month who cancelled because they spent too much at Christmas. They were sad to leave.

In fact, believe it or not, I have been getting emails from people asking where they can sign up and Wonderful Web Women is not live yet.

Why Are You So Loyal?

This is a question I have asked myself over and over these last 2 weeks. I’ve been shaking my head in wonder and gratitude. I’ve been trying to work out what has made our relationship so special so I can share the secret with you. I want you to experience the same loyalty and friendship from your customers.

I think I’ve worked it out. Well, part of it. I think it comes down to two things.

Wanna know?

Authenticity and Connection.

Authenticity

I don’t know about you but I’m not very good at being other people. I certainly learn and am inspired by other people but I’ve never been good at copying their style or pretending to be someone I’m not. I figure if I’m just myself the people who like my style will hang around and those that don’t like me will go away.

This is risky, because if you are going to be the real you in such a public space, you allow yourself to be a bit vulnerable. But if you take the risk and let people see your strengths and weaknesses, then you can have the second element I have identified.

Connection

One of my friends made a comment when I was first lamenting my predicament (and what I was going to do to turn it into an opportunity). He said “Janet, the strength of your business is in your relationships, not your web sites”.

You know, he’s right. And this is where the strength of your business is too.

So let me give you an exercise.

Grab a pen and paper (or a spreadsheet).

Now I want you to think about the different groups of people (or relationships) that are important in your business.

Here are mine:

1. Leads: (people who I have had a connection with but no money has exchanged)
2. Customers: you know who you are (big hugs and thanks)
3. Clients: I differentiate this from customers as these are people who have purchased multiple products or have worked closely with me as private coaching clients
4. Joint Venture Partners: These may be people I have created products with, they have promoted for me or I have promoted for them in the past.
5. Support Team: In my case this is my team of virtual staff who I totally rely on to keep my business ticking over.

Now I want you to think about the different ways you communicate with them.

Here are mine:

1. My weekly newsletter and special message emails
2. My blog (which has an rss feed you can subscribe to, which also feeds into facebook)
3. Facebook
4. Twitter
5. Emails people send directly to me or my team
6. Telephone
7. YouTube
8. Skype (only ever for JVs and support staff)
9. My Web Sites (big sob here)

Why does this matter?

Different people will connect with you in different ways. There are some people who I have developed a great relationship with via Facebook or Twitter but I know they very rarely open my emails.

Other people will reply personally to my newsletter but won’t leave a public message on my blog.

The important thing is, when it comes to your relationships and how you communicate, you don’t want to put all your eggs in one basket. Spread yourself a bit thinner. That way, if you lose one or more of your channels of communication, you can still connect with your customers and other key groups through the other means.

You will notice that the first thing we did was get my blog back up so I had a way to communicate and for you to comment back. Then I went to Twitter and Facebook (actually I tweeted and wrote on Facebook about getting the blog back up).

I already had wonderful support before I even sent my first email out to my list.

The important thing with all of this communication is to return to the first point. Authenticity. Be honest and real in your communication and you will be rewarded with wonderful loyalty from the people you connect with. Those connections are REAL relationships.

And in business relationships equal cash.

*******************************************************************

Would you like to use this article on your blog or newsletter? You can as long as you include the blurb below in full (feel free to use your Wonderful Web Women affiliate link)

Janet Beckers is the host and founder of Wonderful Web Women.
An award winning on-line community recognised for generous and honest marketing advice for women on the internet. She is also an international best selling author and multiple award winner, including Australian Marketer of The Year 2009.
To learn from the most successful women on the internet through live webinars, masterminds and forums absolutely free, visit http://www.WonderfulWebWomen.com and join today.

If you do, let me know via video, voice recording, photo, facebook, twitter, comment here on the blog or even just drop me an email and i will promote you here on my blog and elsewhere.

Go on, are you going to take the challenge?

Cheers

Janet

What is a hash tag?

If you aren’t a member of www.twitter.com yet then get over there and sign up. It’s free and it is shaping the future of marketing on the Internet. Be warned. It’s addictive.

Basically you share 140 character “tweets” with others on what you are doing, thoughts you have, questions, business tips, links to blog posts etc.

You may notice at the end of some posts people add something like # followed by a word or letters. This is called a hash tag. For example, the new tag we use for Wonderful Web Women is #wwwomen

So why is a hash tag great?

Twitter can get very busy and it is hard to find the actual conversation threads you are looking for. Once you know a hash tag you can search for all tweets that use that hash tag so you can continue a conversation with people with the same interests (or on the same tele-seminar). It’s like tuning into the right radio station when all you heard before was white noise.

Below here, I show you step by step how to sign up for twitter, search on a hash tag and join a conversation. It’s really pretty easy.

How to make the most of it

Every time we have a life tele-seminar with Wonderful Web Women from now on, we will have a parallel conversation happening on twitter. That way I can concentrate on doing a great interview and answering the questions you send you through to me on the web cast page. You can be taking notes but also sharing ideas, asking questions and sharing tips with other people who are on the call listening. How cool is that?

That way you can all help each other make the most of what you are learning. There is also a great chance you will find your next client or joint venture partner on twitter during these conversations.

Convinced? Give it a go and see what you think.

There are 4 web addresses that will help you:

1. www.twitter.com

2. www.tweetchat.com

3. Nancy’s free report:
“Why Social Networking: 4 Remarkable Strategies to Grow Your Business, Expand Your Referral Network, and Increase Your Visibility”

4. Nancy’s excellent product to automate heaps of the stuff you do on twitter and facebook so you look busy when you aren’t

Now, step by step photos on how to do this. It is really very easy.

Step 1: Join Twitter

www.twitter.com

Step 2: Log in and see all the chatter happening

logged into www.twitter.com

Step 3. Click on the search link at the bottom of the twitter page

scroll to the search link at the bottom of the page

Step 4: search on #wwwomen

search for #wwwomen

Step 5: See where all the really cool people from Wonderful Web Women hang out. Remember, make sure you add #wwwomen to any conversations you have about Wonderful Web Women, especially when you are on one of our tele-seminars, so your conversations will show up here too.

What you see after you search on twitter for #wwwomen

Another option:

Instead of Using Search, you can try Tweet chat

Step 1: Log into www.tweetchat.com

www.tweetchat.com

Step 2: search for #wwwomen

Search for #wwwomen

Step 3: Hang out where the really cool people are (make sure you add #wwwomen to your comments so you show up here as well)

Follow and Add to the conversation. make sure you put #wwwomen on your messages

Next week I interview Nancy Marmolejo who is a world recognised expert in using social media  to boost your business. All I can say is….BE THERE

Nancy Marmolejo

Interview Date: Mon, March 2nd 2009 at 3pm Pacific, 6pm Eastern USA & Tues March 3rd at 10am East Coast Australia

“Why Social Networking? 4 Remarkable Strategies to Generate More Leads, Build Your Network, and Boost Your Business”
How to use social networking to generate leads
Traffic building tips so your visitors become your followers
Authentic ways you can add a personal touch… without losing your professional strength
Credibility boosting strategies that will increase your worth and online visibility
How to build a referral network of people who LOVE to promote you and your business
Proven tips to build you “Know-Like-Trust” factor with prospective clients, referral partners, and Joint Venture contacts
And much more!
At a GlanceGuest: Nancy Marmolejo
Topic: “Why Social Networking? 4 Remarkable Strategies to Generate More Leads, Build Your Network, and Boost Your Business”
Date: Mon, March 2nd 2009 at 3pm Pacific, 6pm Eastern USA & Tues March 3rd at 10am East Coast Australia
Phone-Number to Dial: 712-432-3000 (For Australians: 0011-1-712-432-3000 )
Use Conference ID: 180901
Listen to WEBCAST free on-line: http://instantTeleseminar.com/?eventid=5963043
Get answers to your questions: Send in a question now, or even during the interview with our speaker. Simply visit the webcast page link above and type in your question

You can read about being a moderator here. As an extra bonus, we are creating a special mastermind area for our moderators so they can share ideas, communicate and get direct help from our team.  This should all be set up in a few days ready for our moderators to start.

Here are some ideas we came up with to create a buzz on the forum. I’d love to hear your input:

1. Beginning of week, post your goals for the week.
2. At the end of the week, post how you went with your goals
3. Run a poll: example ” which is your favourite auto-responder service: aweber, icontact, 1shoppingcart, other”
4. Share an affirmation of the week and feedback on how it worked for each person
5. Moderator sets a topic. Each person writes an article on that topic on their blog and puts the link to it in the forum. At the end of the time, all the articles are compiled into an ebook which each contributor has the right to give away.
6. Moderator chooses a topic. Contributors blog on the topic and leave the link to their blog on the forum. Other contributors then leave  comment on the other’s blogs . The winner is the person who gets the most comments or even better, the winner is the member who leaves the most comments!
7. Competition for the most creative “mind movie” on a particular theme. Contributors enter in the competition by posting on the blog the link to their movie
8. Share facebook and twitter addresses in the forum
9. Competitions for things such as most number of useful posts in a time
10. wwwomen can think of some prizes but others may contribute good prizes to get exposure
11. moderators can share ideas in the new mastermind group area
12. moderators can combne competitions and promotions to get people looking in forums they may not usually go to
13. A question or topic of discussion based on the latest interview through wwwomen. This could be good to do in the “Wonderful Web Women discussion” forum
14. In the fun section: Weekly question such as “share most embarrassing event”, funniest thing my children have said etc etc.
15. Productivity tips on different topics each week. Eg, productivity tips to automate your social networking on-line

Well that’s just a few ideas. Do you want to throw in some more ideas?

Cheers

Janet

Over the next week I will be sharing with you a few of the concepts Michele introduced. Today I’d like to share with you a concept that is close to my heart – “Leverage”.

Michele’s 7 step recipe for Web 2.0 traffic

Raw Ingredients: 

Prepare beforehand: 1 great quality article, 500 words in length that gives great content on your topic

Step 1: Include your article in your email newsletter / ezine.

• Send your newsletter at least once per month. Michele recommends once per week
• This develops a relationship with people on your list

Step 2: Post the article to your blog

• Your blog is central to your Web 2.0 strategy.
• Blogs are favoured by educated, affluent people (ie, good paying customers)
• Use WordPress software on your own domain (free with Wonderful Web Hosting). Michele also has a hosting and blog facility for $100 / yr. Her contact details are below)

Step 3: Add your blog to your social networking sites

• You can actually  import your blog into Facebook in the notes section of your profile
• Facebook gets more traffic than Google and the average age is 39 (not all teenagers)
• I have just added this to my Facebook account. Be my friend? I’ll show you later this week on this blog how I did this.

Step 4: Cut your article into bite size pieces

• Use these tasty morsels to answer questions in blog posts and forums
• Post these answers on other people’s blogs as comments

Step 5: Record yourself reading your article

• simply record yourself reading your article (use an MP3 recorder or record straight onto your computer)
• Add the audio to your BLOG using a wordpress plug in for podcasts (search Google for wordpress plugins)
• You can then take the podcast “feed” information that is given to you through this podcast plug in, and submit it to podcast directories such as itunes (search Google for podcast directories) 

Step 6: Create a press release

• Use the 500 words you have written and create a press release
• submit this to press release directories on the Internet
• This will get you traffic but importantly will get you noticed in the mainstream media

Step 7: Submit your article to article directories / portals

• Spread the love. Your original 500 word article can now be submitted to websites that let people use your article on their own websites (with links back to your site of course)

As you can see, this is the recipe, but like any good cook there are gourmet techniques you need to master to create a true Web 2.0 degustation (how far can I carry this analogy?). This is where Michele comes in. She has created a comprehensive package that shows you how to do all these steps. It is not just information (though mind you, she has even loaded the recordings directly onto an Mp3 player for you). It includes checklists, excel spreadsheets, links to the directories she uses, how to write the articles, press releases and how to create a podcast and heaps more.

You can grab this here, and she even has a 4 part payment plan. After you purchase, email Michele at michele (at) michelepw.com and tell her you are from Wonderful Web Women. She will send you a $50 refund and also send you her digital book “Why Isn’t My Web Site Making Me Any Money? 10 Easy Steps To Make Your Web Site Go Ka-Ching!”.

You receive the digital version immediately and the physical version within the week.

I’d love to hear of your ideas on this strategy. Watch the blog this week. I’ll be sharing with you screen grabs of how I added this blog to Facebook and also Michele’s 3 reasons why people use the Internet (you must cover at least 2 to succeed).

Cheers

Janet

We covered a lot of great tips, so take the time to listen to the recordings if you can. They’ll be available in the gold members area in a few hours.

A gift for you from Nancy

You can download Nancy’s gift report Learn about 5 Massive, Credibility-Crushing Mistakes Women Entrepreneurs Make with Online Video and How to Completely Avoid Them with this FREE Special Report!

3 Essentials points BEFORE you make your first video

1. Know your ideal client

This is absolutely essential as you must create videos on a topic (and current trends) that your ideal client wants to see. If you are not clear on this your uncertainty and lack of focus will show in your video.

2. Be clear on your expertise

You will be using video to position yourself as an expert. You want to position yourself as the go-to person for commentary on a topic, area of expertise. This is where the opportunities for free publicity come. Be clear in your videos, and with yourself, what is your area of expertise.

3. Present your unique essence and personality

Don’t try and be someone else that you think is the ideal video personality. Find your own voice. Nancy has a lovely way of explaining this. She believes that each of us has a purpose, a message to share. She calls this your “medicine”, a term which originates from her Aztec ancestors. Take time to be clear on what is your unique message. This moves the focus from you to the viewer. This is how you portray your authentic presentation.

What type of videos to make

This is clever. Once you are clear on the points above you need to create a series of short videos Each video should be no longer that 2 minutes and you need to create a series of at least 5. These short videos teach people tips on your area of expertise. If it is topical, that is better.

For example, Nancy first created 5 short videos teaching people how to use Facebook to create business relationships. You can see them here: http://www.youtube.com/user/vivavisibility

You may create them all in one sitting but release them slowly over a few weeks to build anticipation.

How to  make your video

• Nancy stresses “keeping it simple”.
• Don’t use a webcam (see why in the recordings of the call)
• Flip cameras are newly released and create a video ready to upload to the internet
• Edit the video to add text, music etc using free software that comes with your computer like Windows Movie maker
• JUST DO IT!

IMPORTANT: The setting, lighting and what you wear are extremely important. Nancy gives great tips on this in our interview. You can hear the replay in the gold members area of Wonderful Web Women.

Where to submit your videos

There are heaps of places, just Google “online video sharing”

Start with:

• You Tube
• Blip TV
• Veoh

Make sure you grab a copy of Nancy’s free report . It covers the 5 main mistakes women entrepreneurs make with online video and it is excellent.

Wow, there’s a whole new “parallel dimension” out there! I only joined Facebook yesterday in preparation for interviewing Mary Pat and what a revelation that was. At first I felt a bit nervous, a bit like you would if you were going to a party at a place you had never been to before and you didn’t know who else was there. You weren’t sure if you knew anyone but you were sure there were lots of clicks of people who already knew each other and didn’t need you. Do you know the feeling?

I only filled in the basics (I figured MaryPat would let me know what to do), followed the instructions and then found that Facebook actually suggested people I would like to meet and I knew some of them (how did it know?). I then discovered that I could use the technique my mother taught me when I started school – I simply asked someone to be my friend!

Ok. So do you want to be my friend? Just ask me here and you can join my growing network:

http://profile.to/janetbeckers/

How to use Facebook to find and nurture Joint Ventures

First,  let’s define a Joint Venture:

A joint venture is 2 people (or more) getting together to create a new entity, a new venture. It’s a 2 way street in that each person contributes in the form of money, product, knowledge, contacts, hard work etc. Whichever of these they have to contribute.

It is different to an affiliate arrangement which is pretty one sided. You are not really working closely together and contributing to the finished product.

Examples of a Joint Venture

MaryPat and I are JV partners. We both created a product today together, the recording of our interview. We both promoted each other’s businesses and we are helping each other’s customers.

Another example could be where one person has a great idea and industry knowledge, but no time. The other person contributes sweat and hard work and contributes to the creation of the product etc.

How to use Facebook to find and develop JVs

1. First of all, go to http://www.facebook.com and sign up
2. Send me an invite to be my friend http://profile.to/janetbeckers/
3. Gradually fill out information in your profile about yourself (books, music, hobbies etc). The whole idea is that people want to form relationships (JVs) with people they can relate to, so let them know a bit about yourself.
4. Important. In your profile make a space to say “I want to meet people who… and my target customers (or I can help people who)…….. Be clear and specific
5. When you invite someone to be your friend, include a personal note about WHY (eg, I really admire your work)
6. DON”T go straight away and ask for help or say you are looking for a JV
7. DO take the time to write comments to their profile, contribute to any discussion they may start and introduce them to people you think may help them (you can do this automatically through facebook)
8. It’s like any relationship, you say hello and introduce yourself before you ask to go on a date!
9. Do join groups in facebook on your topic. There are thousands of them, you don’t have to be invited to join and it is an excellent way to find contacts in your niche.
10. Join niche groups: As well as a great way to find contacts (i.e. JV partners) it is also a powerful way to do your market research. If people are discussing problems they have, if you can find a solution to that problem, you have a business.

So go on, why not join me on Facebook and we can discover this parallel universe together? We can share our experiences over at the forum at http://www.wonderfulwebforum.com.

How Mary Pat Kavanagh can help you find JV partners

Mary Pat works with entrepreneurs to find them JV partners and coach them through creating these relationships. She has a unique program where she holds your hand, helps you find JV partners, helps you work out your scripts so you can approach them confidently and has an amazing new program which she runs through a private Facebook group. So you get trained on how to use Facebook for JVs, through Facebook. She has given an incredibly generous discount on her 6 month program just for Wonderful Web Women. It will cut your time to success. Here are the details:

http://www.wonderfulwebwomen.com/recommends/marypat1

Cheers

Janet

P.S. Will you be my friend? http://profile.to/janetbeckers/