Monetizing Facebook Through Contests

Nowadays, thousands of online entrepreneurs, small businesses, and large companies are monetizing Facebook through contests. It is not uncommon to see businesses pushing products, services, or causes through contests hosted in the social networking site. If you own digital space of any kind, you should be doing the same. The power of Facebook as a marketing tool is undeniable. Facebook is after all the biggest social media site out there. Its members are close to approaching the one billion mark. If this doesn't make you rush out and use Facebook like crazy, nothing will. The great thing about the social network is that you don't have to be an online entrepreneur to be able to make use of it. Even if your business only operates offline, you can still make a huge online presence for it on Facebook.

Holding a Facebook contest is nothing new. Ever since the site's beginnings, people have been using it to conduct contests. Now that the site has grown into a whole new level, it's not surprising to see hundreds of contests being held on it in a daily basis. Marketers have seen the potential of Facebook contests and they are taking full advantage of it. You should be doing it as well if you want to leverage Facebook's huge traffic and member levels. Of course, the process is not as simple as offering prizes and stuff. You have to plan everything just like any marketing campaign. You can't just go in there without any directions or goals. If you do, you will likely fail.

Everybody knows that besides Facebook's advertising program, everything on the site is free to use. You don't have to pay a cent to make use of the services, resources and tools that it offers. Speaking of tools, there's one tool that is particularly helpful in holding Facebook contests and that would be the Facebook Connect feature. If you want to try monetizing Facebook through contests then Facebook Connect is something you should look into. This is going to make the whole contest process easier to conduct and of course simpler to track and measure. Facebook Connect was specifically made to help outside parties like you to get a better experience on the social network. With regards to contests, Facebook Connect will amplify the results of your contest campaign.

But first of all, what exactly is Facebook Connect and why does it matter in hosting Facebook contests? In the simplest of terms, it is but a feature of Facebook that allows users to share their information and activities with third party websites and applications. You are basically connecting your Facebook account with third party websites. That is of course if you allow them to. Looking at this scenario on a marketing perspective, this is a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs, marketers, and businesses to get connected with customers, readers, clients, fans, etc. It is therefore not surprising to see many websites holding Facebook contests by leveraging the Facebook Connect feature. You will simply double or even triple the number of people you can reach if you use Facebook Connect on a contest.

Here's what happens if you host a contest on Facebook and then make use of Facebook Connect. Let's say you create a web application specifically for the contest you have in mind. In order for people to join in on the contest, they have to have a Facebook profile and they have to connect it to the web application you created via Facebook Connect. To use the web application, they will log in using the Facebook login details because this is the whole point behind Facebook Connect. You simply use your Facebook login details to sign in into third party websites and applications.

Now, whenever these people interact with your application, these interactions will be shown in their Facebook walls. They will show up in the feeds of other users who are friends with the people who joined your contest. In essence, people who join your contests will be promoting your contest for free. More people will be directed to your Facebook contest. There's a snowball effect. This is where the magic happens. If your Facebook contest is interesting enough, it could go viral. If the contest is geared towards promoting a product or service of yours, expect a spike in your sales. That's how powerful Facebook contests can be.

One obvious drawback of using Facebook Connect on a contest is the fact that people nowadays are more aware about security issues. They won't just give up their Facebook login details. Although Facebook Connect is pretty secure, you cannot discount the fact that people sometimes get freaked out when asked to connect their Facebook profiles to websites external of the Facebook banner. However, if the offers or prizes in your contest are hard to refuse, Facebook users have proven time and time again that they take risks when confronted with great free offers. With that said, if you play your cards well, people will be more than willing to connect their Facebook accounts to your website or application.

Now, let's go to the monetization part. The goal is monetizing Facebook through contests right? That basically translates to making money off Facebook. Most businesses use Facebook contests for marketing purposes like branding, introducing a new product or service, etc. You can also use the contests to make money right off the bat. The goal is to drive as many people as possible to your website or web application through the Facebook Connect feature then introduce them to your offers and services. It's as simple as that. In other words, the contest is merely a bait. This may sound a bit unethical but most of the time this is what Facebook contests are all about - just a small part in a huge marketing puzzle. It's a very effective marketing strategy as long as you have high quality products and services that will draw customers towards you.

Here are a few tips on how to effectively conduct a contest using Facebook Connect:


Offer great prizes. Give people reasons why they should connect their Facebook account to your website or application. If you are offering prizes of $5, why would anyone even bother connecting to you? So offer prizes that will blow people away that they will have no choice but to join.

Create a Facebook Page specifically for your contest. Keep in mind that a Facebook Page is different from a Facebook Profile or a Facebook Group Page. A Page differs because it can be viewed by anyone on the web whether he/she is logged into Facebook or not. This makes it a very great tool in promoting your contest.

Encourage those who joined your contest to share the contest with their Facebook friends. This will ensure that your contest is exposed to as many people as possible. Imagine someone sharing your contest to a thousand of his friends then these thousand friends do the same. The numbers can easily grow as people start sharing your contest.

These are everything you need to know about monetizing Facebook through contests. Keep them in mind and most importantly, follow them. A Facebook contest isn't too hard to pull off. If you have great offers, Facebook users will do all the marketing for you. For instance, if you're going to offer a free iPad, thousands of people will likely share your contest right after you announce it.

Kevin Coombe is the Owner of Market Web Group, LLC an online media consultant firm. He founded Market Web Group, LLC in 2009. The mission of Market Web Group is to generate a consistent stream of qualified leads for Businesses.

Market Web Group does Real Time Marketing for Businesses, both Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C). Strategies include: Video Marketing, SEO, SEM, PPC, Local Search (Google Maps), Social Media Marketing, Mobile Marketing, and most importantly (Automated Follow-up).

The Market Web Group puts your business message in front of your ideal customers online, in hundreds of places, so they see it, and your business gets noticed, for the lowest possible fee.

Visit our website at http://www.MarketWebGroup.com for more information.

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Reaching the Market Through the Use Of Social Media

ByMoumita Das

Strides made in successful online business promotion will revolve around the principle of social media marketing. The Internet is a huge mash of social avenues. As such, noted is the growth of online social media companies which is taking place in the online scene at a great speed. Many corporate bodies whether big and successful or small and upcoming will feature in these sites. They are widely conversant with the idea of such services. This drive to do marketing through this platform has them dealing with more than one company.

In using social media marketing, you will be enhancing the prominence of your site thus creating loads of traffic for it. Although it may sound a simple task to do, you need to formulate tactics of going about it in relations to the foreseen goals. With such services, you stand the chance to either make the best of marketing, or taint your company's image. Thus, you should have your head in the game and have proper strategies in place. Top most endeavor is identify with a good company that is admissible to all online visitors.

Once that is in place you then move to the next thing. This is in creation of company image. Via the social media services your will not only be doing marketing. You will give your business are close interactive path between it and its customers. This will improve the communication levels and increase in feedback on product and service information. In establishing the company in more than one social media company, you also increase the awareness of the business enriching its promotional and marking strengths. If your disregard all these then your marketing move, will avail great deal of losses.

Just like any war requires strategic plans but in place the same will apply in doing media marketing. Remember that this is an avenue to display your company to millions of people on daily basis. Social media sites work on the principle of constant communication. A simple catchy word can be enough to case intense ripples throughout the social networks. Thus, you should choose wisely on what you want to put across regardless of the social media company you are suing. There are vast ways of getting to have a place in the social network. You can get the best of services via platforms like broadcasts and printouts but none takes it home better than that of the online option.

Bear in mind that the online scene is place of marketing battles. Therefore, you will be presenting a challenge to any other player offering the same products and services as you are. Effective social media marketing will not just be about coming up with relevant updates. If is about doing your best to ensure that you stay at the lead of the pack. Accordingly, you should ensure that the information you pass is rich in information packages in an alluring way. Sticking to the rules that the company has stated is also vital if you seek to keep your account active. Lastly, if you find it had to create captivating updates then there are several companies online that offer social media service based on marketing tips.

To know in detail about the social media marketing, please visit http://www.instantwebstudio.com/search-engine-marketing/social-media.

Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert

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Monetizing Facebook Through Contests

Nowadays, thousands of online entrepreneurs, small businesses, and large companies are . It is not uncommon to see businesses pushing products, services, or causes through contests hosted in the social networking site. If you own digital space of any kind, you should be doing the same. The power of Facebook as a marketing tool is undeniable. Facebook is after all the biggest social media site out there. Its members are close to approaching the one billion mark. If this doesn't make you rush out and use Facebook like crazy, nothing will. The great thing about the social network is that you don't have to be an online entrepreneur to be able to make use of it. Even if your business only operates offline, you can still make a huge online presence for it on Facebook.

Holding a Facebook contest is nothing new. Ever since the site's beginnings, people have been using it to conduct contests. Now that the site has grown into a whole new level, it's not surprising to see hundreds of contests being held on it in a daily basis. Marketers have seen the potential of Facebook contests and they are taking full advantage of it. You should be doing it as well if you want to leverage Facebook's huge traffic and member levels. Of course, the process is not as simple as offering prizes and stuff. You have to plan everything just like any marketing campaign. You can't just go in there without any directions or goals. If you do, you will likely fail.

Everybody knows that besides Facebook's advertising program, everything on the site is free to use. You don't have to pay a cent to make use of the services, resources and tools that it offers. Speaking of tools, there's one tool that is particularly helpful in holding Facebook contests and that would be the Facebook Connect feature. If you want to try then Facebook Connect is something you should look into. This is going to make the whole contest process easier to conduct and of course simpler to track and measure. Facebook Connect was specifically made to help outside parties like you to get a better experience on the social network. With regards to contests, Facebook Connect will amplify the results of your contest campaign.

But first of all, what exactly is Facebook Connect and why does it matter in hosting Facebook contests? In the simplest of terms, it is but a feature of Facebook that allows users to share their information and activities with third party websites and applications. You are basically connecting your Facebook account with third party websites. That is of course if you allow them to. Looking at this scenario on a marketing perspective, this is a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs, marketers, and businesses to get connected with customers, readers, clients, fans, etc. It is therefore not surprising to see many websites holding Facebook contests by leveraging the Facebook Connect feature. You will simply double or even triple the number of people you can reach if you use Facebook Connect on a contest.

Here's what happens if you host a contest on Facebook and then make use of Facebook Connect. Let's say you create a web application specifically for the contest you have in mind. In order for people to join in on the contest, they have to have a Facebook profile and they have to connect it to the web application you created via Facebook Connect. To use the web application, they will log in using the Facebook login details because this is the whole point behind Facebook Connect. You simply use your Facebook login details to sign in into third party websites and applications.

Now, whenever these people interact with your application, these interactions will be shown in their Facebook walls. They will show up in the feeds of other users who are friends with the people who joined your contest. In essence, people who join your contests will be promoting your contest for free. More people will be directed to your Facebook contest. There's a snowball effect. This is where the magic happens. If your Facebook contest is interesting enough, it could go viral. If the contest is geared towards promoting a product or service of yours, expect a spike in your sales. That's how powerful Facebook contests can be.

One obvious drawback of using Facebook Connect on a contest is the fact that people nowadays are more aware about security issues. They won't just give up their Facebook login details. Although Facebook Connect is pretty secure, you cannot discount the fact that people sometimes get freaked out when asked to connect their Facebook profiles to websites external of the Facebook banner. However, if the offers or prizes in your contest are hard to refuse, Facebook users have proven time and time again that they take risks when confronted with great free offers. With that said, if you play your cards well, people will be more than willing to connect their Facebook accounts to your website or application.

Now, let's go to the monetization part. The goal is right? That basically translates to making money off Facebook. Most businesses use Facebook contests for marketing purposes like branding, introducing a new product or service, etc. You can also use the contests to make money right off the bat. The goal is to drive as many people as possible to your website or web application through the Facebook Connect feature then introduce them to your offers and services. It's as simple as that. In other words, the contest is merely a bait. This may sound a bit unethical but most of the time this is what Facebook contests are all about - just a small part in a huge marketing puzzle. It's a very effective marketing strategy as long as you have high quality products and services that will draw customers towards you.

Here are a few tips on how to effectively conduct a contest using Facebook Connect:
Offer great prizes. Give people reasons why they should connect their Facebook account to your website or application. If you are offering prizes of $5, why would anyone even bother connecting to you? So offer prizes that will blow people away that they will have no choice but to join.
Create a Facebook Page specifically for your contest. Keep in mind that a Facebook Page is different from a Facebook Profile or a Facebook Group Page. A Page differs because it can be viewed by anyone on the web whether he/she is logged into Facebook or not. This makes it a very great tool in promoting your contest.
Encourage those who joined your contest to share the contest with their Facebook friends. This will ensure that your contest is exposed to as many people as possible. Imagine someone sharing your contest to a thousand of his friends then these thousand friends do the same. The numbers can easily grow as people start sharing your contest.

These are everything you need to know about . Keep them in mind and most importantly, follow them. A Facebook contest isn't too hard to pull off. If you have great offers, Facebook users will do all the marketing for you. For instance, if you're going to offer a free iPad, thousands of people will likely share your contest right after you announce it.

Kevin Coombe is the Owner of Market Web Group, LLC an online media consultant firm. He founded Market Web Group, LLC in 2009. The mission of Market Web Group is to generate a consistent stream of qualified leads for Businesses.

Market Web Group does Real Time Marketing for Businesses, both Business to Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C). Strategies include: Video Marketing, SEO, SEM, PPC, Local Search (Google Maps), Social Media Marketing, Mobile Marketing, and most importantly (Automated Follow-up).

The Market Web Group puts your business message in front of your ideal customers online, in hundreds of places, so they see it, and your business gets noticed, for the lowest possible fee.

Visit our website at http://www.MarketWebGroup.com for more information.

Article Source:http://EzineArticles.com/?expert

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Facebook and Twitter Through the TV

Print this articleTwitter and Facebook are unique among the social network websites because of their large user base and constant stream of new content. Since both of these sites are updated frequently, it seems natural that people would want to use them in a similar way to TV viewership. There are various ways people can access Twitter and Facebook content from their TV screens, and ways they can interact on Twitter and Facebook to discuss their favorite TV shows.

Related Searches: Web-Enabled TVs

Many newer TVs feature Web content in addition to the standard network and cable TV channels. This content is mostly video or audio, such as Netflix, YouTube and Pandora radio, but often also includes social media such as Facebook and Twitter. Companies such as Vizio, Sony and Samsung all have TVs with Web content. These TVs generally don't have a browser, like your computer does, but instead have widgets or apps, each of which provides access to a specific Internet service. There is a Twitter app to display just Twitter, and a Facebook app that gives you access to just Facebook.

Set-Top Boxes

Another way Internet content is coming to TV screens is through set-top boxes. Several popular set-top boxes bring this content to the living room TV, but the one most successful at bringing Facebook and Twitter to the TV screen is the Boxee Box. This unusually-shaped box features a remote with a Qwerty keyboard on the back, making it easy to type from the couch. Verizon FIOS provides set-top boxes for its customers that feature Facebook and Twitter widgets.

Viewer Use of Twitter and Facebook

Studies show that TV viewers are watching TV and engaging in Twitter and Facebook activity at the same time, whether these viewers do it on their TV, laptop computer, tablet or smart phone. They are talking about the shows they are watching with their friends online. This provides many opportunities for the TV show producers and their marketing groups, but it also provides a challenge. Viewers on the west coast risk being "spoiled" and reading about the plot of an episode before it airs in their area, and overseas viewers have an even bigger problem since a show might not air in their country until weeks after it airs in the US.

TV Show Promotion Using Twitter and Facebook

Twitter is advising TV producers on how to use their service to market their shows. They encourage the use of hashtags that the producers specify as a way to help users find posts about their favorite TV show. Then suggest producers announce the hashtag with a specific call to action, telling viewers a question to answer or an action to take. On Facebook, since there is more multimedia integration, producers can share sneak peek clips of the show earlier in the day to build interest, and encourage "likes" and comments by asking viewers to speculate on what will happen on the upcoming episode.

ReferencesReadWriteWeb: Verizon Unveils their Vision for the Web-Connected TV. Sarah Perez. March 2009.Boxee: Tibber, a Twiter app for boxee. Avner Ronen. June 2009.Mashable Business: Best of Boxee: 5 Apps for Killer Entertainment. Jennifer Van Grove.The Guardian: Facebook says TV shows should be using Facebook Places check-ins. Stuart Dredge. April 2011.SocialWayne.com: New Twitter youtube video to show TV Shows how to use Twitter. Wayne Sutton. May 2011.Twitter Developers: Twitter on TV: A Producer's Guide.The Wall Street Journal: Tech Journal: TV Shapes Up as Web Battleground. Jessica Hodgson. Sept. 2009.Read Next:

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