Marketing Your Home Business with Facebook

Next on our social networking radar is Facebook. I haven't been the biggest fan of Facebook lately because it seems as if I've been targeted by old HS classmates for reunions. While that's a good thing to reconnect with people from your past, it's not what I went on Facebook to do.

So, how do you market your home business on Facebook? Well, initially I was going to just type some of my general experience but I recently read an article written by Online Business Coach Donna Gunter that details ten tips to find your target market in Facebook so I thought I'd share it here (I condensed it a bit for the sake of space):

1. Before sending a friend request make sure that your profile is up-to-date with an accurate description of what you do, your interests, and your contact info, including your web site URLs. If you have multiple businesses, invite people in your appropriate target market to become fans of your niche-specific fan page.
   
2. Follow leaders in your field/industry and "friend" them. Include a personal note, as that will improve the likelihood that they will accept your request. Once they have accepted your invitation, make comments about their status updates to help you get on their radar and in front of their networks.
   
3. Take a look at the people in the network of your industry leaders, as they are probably part of your target market as well, and send friend requests to those of interest to you. Send a personal note as well, like "I discovered your profile in 's network and would like to get to know you better by adding you to my network."


4. Look for groups that may contain your target market by searching with keywords that describe your niche, your industry, your geographic area, the interests of your target market, or whatever other terms you might use to find members of your target market. Join and begin to participate in the group so that they get to know you. Look through the member lists for good prospects. Since you won't be able to view the profiles of the group members because they aren't in your network, much of your decision-making about whom to friend may be based upon appearance or how you might be connected to them via other friends in your network.


5. Friend people that you already know from your high school, college, alumni associations, and places of employment IF they fall within your target market definition.


6. Use Facebook's recommended friend list and add them to your network.
   
7. Do a people search by job title, industry, geographic location, or interest. Those people with those terms in their profile will show up in your search, and you can request to add them based on common interests.


8. Once you friend someone, begin building a relationship with them by posting a quick "thank you" note on their wall, as well as a comment about something on their profile that interests you or in which you have in common. Watch for their status updates, as well, and comment on these when appropriate.
   
9. Create a group for your target maret once you've got about 500 followers. Provide the group with useful content and and ask questions to stimulate discussion. You can post articles, links to blog posts, or videos you have created. Invite group members to any free virtual or face-to-face events you're hosting.
   
10. Consistently implement your marketing strategy over time. As a newbie to Facebook, you might want to spend as much as 60 minutes per day researching friends and participating in groups. As your network grows, you many spend only 15 minutes 3 times per week on Facebook. The key to success is to put this strategy on your calendar and make it a routine part of your ongoing Internet marketing tasks.

About Donna Gunter:

Online Business Coach Donna Gunter helps baby boomers create profitable online retirement businesses by demystifying the steps needed to successfully market a baby boomer business online. Would you like to learn the specific Internet marketing strategies that get results? Discover how to improve your visibility and get found online by claiming your FREE gift, TurboCharge Your Online Marketíng Toolkit, at ==> OnlineBizU.com