We had a special edition of the show with Facebook marketing expert Amy Porterfield.

About our guest: Amy Porterfield is a social media strategist and co-author of Facebook Marketing All-In-One for Dummies. She helps entrepreneurs across industries establish strategies to maximize the power of social media and increase the success of their online marketing efforts. She is currently leading a webinar titled the Simple Social Media Formula. Learn more at http://www.amyporterfield.com/.

Amy was not an early fan of Facebook. She used Twitter and liked it a great deal, but when she created a Facebook Page she learned tips and tricks that sold her on the value of Facebook as a marketing tool.

A couple of months ago Facebook made some major changes, mostly to profiles. Amy used to teach users that the profile was for friends and family. However, the changes provided a subscribe button on profiles. Now anyone can subscribe to your profile, not just your Facebook friends. The new timeline looks like a news feed. You can add a logo, brand it, and make it look like a Facebook (business) Page.

You can have thousands of people subscribing to your feed on your profile. 

Profile vs. Page – What’s the Difference?

Image via Wikipedia

Profiles have a subscribe button and you can make it more public. But you can’t run Facebook ads to a profile and you have to still accept friends, they aren’t automatically added.

Meanwhile, on Facebook Pages you can add custom tabs. That’s why pages are still so valuable to brand your business, books, services, etc. You can customize your Page that way.

When it comes to branding yourself, your business, book etc., the subscribe option for your profile allows people to know who you really are. The timeline allows you to show what you are all about and combines work and family. When you can infuse your personal side as much as your business side it helps your marketing. That “living scrapbook” (as Facebook calls the timeline) is really useful.

Build Up Your Fan Page

There are a lot of strategies. But make sure you have a Facebook Page. Amy doesn’t believe that you can get the exposure from a profile that you can get from a Page. Then brand your Page. Use a wall image. Take advantage of that space on the Page – it’s 180x 540 pixels – tell your designer to create a great branded wall image. Create a welcome tab, too.

Spend more time engaging than promoting. Keep the conversations going. That’s how you develop an engaged following.

Facebook Ads

Engagement ads keep people inside of Facebook. The ad allows them to Like your Page without having to click over to your Page. Ninety percent of those who come to your Facebook Page won’t come back… they’ll see you in their newsfeed. So it’s important to get that Like. They don’t need to come to your Page.

If they do click on your ad make sure they click on to your custom Welcome Page and not your Wall.

Facebook is a place to do business, build relationships and promote – if you do it right. Build the trust, then promote; if they’ve become loyal followers they will respond to your promotion.

Secrets to Engagement

Image via Wikipedia

Ask questions to get your fans engaged. Let them talk about themselves. There is an art to asking questions on Facebook. Facebook moves quickly so attention spans are short. When you ask a question, think of a response first because it has to be very short. For example, one of Amy clients posted: “Tell me your favorite story about your mother” (for Mother’s Day). But that kind of post requires too much time for a response. Amy suggested that next time they ask followers to write down one word to describe their mothers. That post is very likely to get responses.

Facebook has an algorithm and it checks how often you post, how recent your posts are, and what kind of response your posts receive. Facebook is looking for engagement. The more engagement you get the more Facebook says you have a great page, and then it will put you in the newsfeeds of your fans.

Posting and ditching… a lot of people put a lot of effort into posting on their page, then they move on. They forget if you don’t stick around you won’t be able to respond and continue the conversation. Expanding conversations is important, even with one person. When posting to Facebook don’t post and ditch, stick around for the conversation.

Facebook Changes

The site constantly changes just as all social media is constantly evolving. Amy recommends keeping updated on the latest news with Socialmediaexaminer.com – it’s the bible for all things social media.

Download the full show at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thepublishinginsiders/2011/12/06/special-guest-amy-porterfield

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Upcoming show:

“Like My Stuff” on Tuesday, Dec. 13 at 4 p.m. Pacific:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/thepublishinginsiders/2011/12/14/like-my-stuff

Learn to boost sales, promote your brand, and increase your online presence with the author of Like My Stuff: How to Get 750 Million Members to Buy Your Products on Facebook.

Dr. Natalie Petouhoff helps companies understand how social media affects the bottom-line and to create strategies that provide real business value.  She does this by benchmarking your “As Is” and compares it to your “Could Be” best practices. With this insight, you can create a world-class social media and digital presence. You’ll be well-armed to devise a social media roadmap, track your progress, gather the right metrics to transform into a social media ROI analysis, articulate the business case, and justify the plan to upper management.

As a USC Adjunct professor, Natalie takes her real-world experiences as a Forrester Social Media Analyst, an Agency executive and a consulting executive and translates it into practical business advice. Dr. Natalie is President of Social Media Club Los Angeles, an accomplished keynote speaker and a quoted expert in NYTimes, FastCompany, USAToday, Bloomberg-BusinessWeek and a featured guest on TV and radio. You can find her on Twitter – @drnatalie and visit her website for some great free reports: http://www.drnatalienews.com.