With the inception of the new Facebook Timeline, lots of things are changing. But one thing that is not is the ability to comment as your business page rather than your personal profile. Excellent social media business strategy. Is this a new concept for you or have you been doing this all along?
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I love hosting my blogging community every Wednesday morning on Facebook. And I really like giving the bloggers extra mileage and exposure for their blog and vlog posts. One thing I do is post their blog at week’s end (we go Wednesday to Tuesday morning) on the social media platform Biz Sugar. Sign up and join us. Even if you don’t play with us, Biz Sugar is a great way to post your blog so thousands of people can read it!

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Laurie Hurley is the President and Founder of The Social Networking Navigator and is a coach, mentor, consultant and speaker.

Blogging is a wonderful social media strategy. It’s even better and more effective if you allow people to comment freely on your blog posts. Moderation is not recommended! Do you moderate your blog? And if so, why? Please tell!

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As my social media coaching business grows, I hear more and more small business owners complain that their business is not growing fast enough, they are losing customers to their competition, or they are not able to close the sale as easily as they hoped.  I ask them what their game plan is. What is their strategy, because it really is all about business strategy when you think about it.  I ask potential clients to define their Target Market - and there is silence. Or, I ask them to share with me their branding efforts - again a blank stare or a shrug of the shoulders.

Before one wanders into the social media environment, it is very important to define who you want to service (Target Market)  and how will you set yourself apart from all the noise on social media.  You may be the best blogger in the world, or a master at Tweeting but if you are not reaching your audience with consistency and purpose,  your efforts will be for naught.

Here are some simple questions to ask yourself to help you define your niche and how you appear in the social media stream.

•  What gender and age group are trying to attract?
•  What problem do you solve for your clients?
•  Is your product or service more affordable and appealing to a certain income bracket?
•  Who is your ideal client?
•  Does your logo and website reflect you and is it consistent in color scheme?
•  Do you use your logo or your name on your social media channels?
•  What are the top five keywords you use consistently when describing your product or service?
•  Is everything you do online and in print uniform in appearance, to the extent that people will know it is you that wrote or posted?

The most important thing to remember when defining your Target Market is that it is narrow and deep.  Attract a core group of consumers with the same needs and desires and the financial status  and your exposure will grow and trickle out to others via referrals and word of mouth.  Branding yourself with a consistent message in writing, online, on your promotional materials and even your business cards and you will poised to really begin an effective social media strategy.

Take some time to think through how  you want to be identified in the marketplace and what market segment you want to attract. Only after  you do these two important aspects of business planning can you move forward with a social media business strategy that will pay off.

Can you define your Target Market in one sentence? How would you describe your brand energetics, using adjectives only?

Laurie Hurley is the President and Founder of The Social Networking Navigator and works with small businesses and entrepreneurs, helping them to put together their brand identity and clearly define their Target Market before she helps them develop their Social Media approach.

Now that Facebook has turned many people’s world upside down by releasing the new Facebook Timeline for business pages, the traditional landing page and Welcome page are gone. Or are they?  There are still many ways to engage and attract people to your page. Although I am still fooling around with the apps I am going to use, there are a few I really like that I want to share with you here. They are in no particular order of importance.

1) ContactMe – this is an app you can add for free that allows your visitors to fill in their contact information and send you a private email. This app can be customized to suit your needs. The thing I like about it is that if someone does not want to message me privately on Facebook, they can use this application and I see it immediately in my email box.

2) YouTube – let’s face it, anyone who records video usually uses YouTube and why not have all of  your videos accessible on your Facebook business page, right there for your readers to watch. Your latest video will be the largest one displayed and the first one. This app does not automatically post  your video, but check out the app and see that it only takes two steps to set this one up.

3) Status Set Go – This application is ingenious. The cool thing is it brands every Facebook post you write, regardless of whether it is to your page or a group, with a branded footer than links directly to your website.  It also displays a tiny version of your logo in the footer, for more branding juice. It is a monthly subscription that can be stopped at any time. One can also be an affiliate.

4) ClobbyChat – This is another cool app that is free and allows you to invite people to a live chat via Facebook. I’ve used it before and I like that I can invite people to it and the stream moves at a slow enough pace to keep up with everyone. It’s nice for a get together of colleagues or friends. I use it to share information and have an engaging discussion that I can moderate. Easy to install, too.

5) Ecwid – If you sell product, this is a terrific app, although a bit more time-consuming to set up. Ecwid is a shopping cart for your Facebook page. It integrates with PayPal, Authorize.net and other common shopping cart applications. Why send someone to your website, when you can sell and collect your money directly on your page?

These are my top five. I am always trying out others and won’t recommend them until I actually have used them extensively. What Facebook apps do you use that you cannot live without?

Laurie Hurley is the President and Founder of The Social Networking Navigator and helps businesses find success on the social media super-highway.