Month: December 2011

Sell more books

Post author By social media
Post date December 30, 2011

Are you an Author? Would you like to sell more books?

Facebook can help. On your Facebook Business page create a landing page where you offer the first 3 or 4 chapters of your book in exchange for the person LIKEing your Business page.

After they click LIKE, get their email address. You will email them the book snippet, so you can follow up with other events and offers. And offer them your next book too.

The purpose is to grow your LIKEs, grow your email address list, and get your book into more people’s hands to start reading. I’m sure your book is great and people will be hooked once they read the beginning of your book. They will crave the rest of it, and will have no choice but to purchase it.

Followup a few days later with info and links where they can immediately go purchase it.

Facebook Tips

What is Facebook Timeline?

Post author By social media
Post date December 23, 2011

It’s the new look for your Facebook Profile. It tells the story of YOU, with your pictures, videos, and posts that you have in Facebook.

Watch this short video on Timeline.

Currently, we can control WHEN we want our profile to use this new Timeline layout. Just click GET TIMELINE on the video above, to do it now.

Eventually, Facebook may force everyone to use this new layout. But for now, do it when you are ready.

Once you click GET TIMELINE, Timeline will organize your pictures, videos, and posts. You can choose to edit or remove items. Then when you are ready, click PUBLISH. You have 7 days to complete your editing and tweeking. After 7 days Facebook will automatically publish what you have.

Want to know more about Timeline? Check out this complete guide on Mashable.

General Tips

Are you ready to take credit cards?

Post author By social media
Post date December 17, 2011

You have many options today, for taking credit cards. And you’ll see special advertised deals with rates as low as 1.59%.

But don’t be fooled by these low advertised rates. You need to look at the whole picture. And in the Merchant Agreement, they list all the other fees. Sometimes these fees are spread out in the agreement, so you need to read it thoroughly or you may miss some of the hidden fees.

Along with that 1.59% transaction fee, watch out for:

A Setup fee
Monthly Statement fees
PCI Compliance fee
Currency conversion fee
Monthly minimum charge when you don’t have the minimum number of charges that month
Interchange fees that are charged on rewards cards
Extra fees for taking American Express
Early termination fee since you need to sign an annual contract

When you account for ALL these fees, and do the math to figure out your REAL credit card processing cost per transaction, you may be surprised to see it’s 5% or more. Of course that depends on the number of credit card transactions you have.

Here are 2 other low cost options: Paypal and Square

Both are great for small businesses because there are ….

No setup fees
No statement fees
No PCI fee
No monthly minimum charges. They cost nothing if you have no charges that month.
No interchange fees.
No American Express fees
No early termination fees because there is no long term contract to hold you hostage. You can cancel at anytime.

Paypal charges 2.9% per transaction, plus 30 cents. Paypal is great for taking credit cards online. It’s a bit pricey if you want to swipe cards in person. You can see Paypal’s fee structure.

Square charges 2.75% per transaction. This is perfect for swiping cards on the spot. Square gives you a free card swipe, that you plug into your Android phone or iPhone. Anywhere you have a cell signal, you can take a credit card.

Depending on where you take credit cards, either of these solutions will be great for you. And you can have both, since there is no cost at all, until you make a sale.

While I really like Square, there is a couple other competitors. See a comparison.

Remember, look at ALL the fees involved in the processing of your credit cards to determine your true cost.

Facebook Tips

New Facebook reporting

Post author By social media
Post date December 10, 2011

Facebook made more changes. This time Facebook changed how it reports all the great data it is collecting.

The new reporting should make it easier to see what is working and what is not, on Facebook.

You can see some of the details here on ALL FACEBOOK.

Keep in mind you don’t get to see your “Insights” data until you have 30+ LIKEs on your business page. So keep growing your LIKEs.

General Tips

Do you know the ABCs of Social Media?

Post author By social media
Post date December 2, 2011

Here is my ABCs of Social Media…

AUDIENCE – Where do your customers hangout online? Google +? Facebook? LinkedIn? Start simple. Start with one Social Media site and work on making connections daily.

BUZZ – Engage your audience. Get them talking about YOU and your services. Don’t forget to respond. This is best when it’s a 2 way conversation.

CONTENT – Create fresh and unique content to share with your audience. Have you heard…. “Sharing is caring”? Remember, your content is for your audience. So be sure you know what your audience wants and needs. It’s not about you.

DATA – Where are your leads are coming from. More importantly, where did your most recent Customers come from. You need to measure and track your audience’s activity so you focus on the best places that bring you the best customers.

ENDORSEMENT – As we research and shop online, we always look at other people’s reviews of a product or service. Always ask for a testimonial/review to help attract new buyers for your product or service.

FOLLOWUP – Building trust and credibility happens when you follow up. Its not something that happens on day 1 when you first meet someone. As you make connections, friends, follows, and get LIKEs, it important to stay in contact with those people. Don’t waste them. Get these people on a mailing list to continue contacting them. This is a vital step to turn leads into buying customers.

Together, all 6 of these will help you be successful with Social Media.