How To Market your Business On Facebook

In my last blog post, I had talked about why you must consider using Facebook for promoting your small business. In this blog I will be discussing about how you can use Facebook to the maximum advantage for your business.

Create a profile and a Fan Page

Facebook is free. You can create your profile and in the 'About Me' section you can mention about what your business is all about. Do include your photo in the profile as it lends credibility and the people looking for you can find you easily.

A profile on Facebook is basically ideal for personal use. However, a regular Facebook profile page would not work for a business. You are allowed to make only one account and use your real name for creating the profile. For business purposes, you must create a Fan page. A Fan Page can be created for a business, celebrity, event, some products, books, movies or anything. You can customize the Fan page by providing details about your business and put the logo of your company or a photo of your brand in the profile picture. When you write about your business, use crispy language to attract people and hold their attention and provide them with all the latest updates about your products, services, special offers, discount schemes and so on. 

Build an online community

Unlike a profile page, you do not send friend requests here. But you can always invite your friends or customers to ‘like’ your page. You can post about the new events related to your business such as launch of a new product or opening of a new branch and share useful tips or relevant news items with your customers.

If you have written a new blog post or have updated your website, you can post the urls on your Fan page with a catchy wall post.

You can also participate in the discussion boards, create questions for making your page more interactive, upload videos and photos and add your company’s YouTube channel. All these interactive features allow you to build a strong online community and stay in touch with your existing and potential customers. 

Be active on different groups

Apart from your own Fan page, you should also search for other groups which are relevant to your business and industry and join them. For instance, if you own an apparel shop, you can join various groups related to the textile industry. Once you join the group, you can take part in the discussion forums and share interesting tips and ideas.

Facebook is just one of the ways for marketing your business. In order to create a strong niche for yourself in market and establish a strong brand, you need to make efforts consistently and have patience. After all, a strong online presence is not built in a day. You have to work towards it. You can also be a part of interactive CEO Club or executive business coaching sessions where CEOs, presidents and senior executive meet once per month for a half day. In CEO Conference you can learn new ways and strategies to take your business to a higher level by discussing new strategies for utilizing social media optimally.

Benefits of a Facebook Business Page For Small Businesses

You must be having your personal profile on Facebook. But if you are looking to promote your small business on the web, the Facebook Business Page can prove to be a very effective platform.

Today, Facebook is the biggest social networking site with billions of users all over the world. Facebook is a sort of a big platform for business owners to advertise about their business. If used properly, Facebook can be a boon for reaching your target audience and boosting visibility for your small business.

Facebook is appealing

Facebook is very user-friendly. It is easy to use and appeals to all age groups of people. It is not complex like other software applications. Instead, Facebook offers quite an informal and casual approach to interact with your friends and customers and attract new potential customers.

Management is in your hands

Facebook gives you the freedom to manage your business page on your own. The entire control over the page, its content, images, and applications rests in your hand. You can control what you post and display or hide comments from customers. Besides you can post photos of the new products you are going to launch.

Instant feedback

The best part of Facebook is the instant feedback you receive from people. If you have launched a new product or a service, you can directly ask your fans on your Facebook Business page about their response or start a discussion or a contest, or announce a free offer.

If your customers are satisfied with your products, they would happily offer positive response and share your posts further with their friends.  The interactive nature of Facebook helps you to get some vital insights into customer behavior, their needs and their response towards your product.

These insights help you to work towards improving the quality of products by using the suggestions or recommendations offered by your customers.  You can also ask members in your  CEO Club or CEO Association for suggestions to improve the quality of your products and market it well on Facebook.

Search Engine Optimization

Facebook is extremely beneficial in terms of search engine marketing and optimization. You can post back links to your website as well as link your Facebook page from your site. If promoted well, your Facebook business page can appear in Google searches for relevant keywords. In short having a business page on Facebook extends your presence on the World Wide Web.

In order to stay ahead in competition these days, you have to stay updated and use Facebook for advertizing your business and your products and services. You can take the help of  CEO peer groups  or   CEO Clubs where members from non-competing industries can give you some good ideas on how they have used Facebook for boosting their sales, enhancing their brand visibility and promoting their business.

Tips To Build Strong Networking For Small Businesses

One of the most important things for small businesses is to develop a good network which will help their business to grow and flourish. Networking with the right people can get you good business whereas with the wrong people it is a complete waste of time. Here are some of the effective ways to build a strong networking with the right kind of people:

Do social networking

Internet is one of the most effective and inexpensive ways to build network. Build a profile on LinkedIn, Facebook and Google Plus to build connections with the right people and groups that are relevant to your business. Participate in the Q&A area or discussion forums, give your suggestions and post your queries. You can also create separate Facebook pages for your company's profile, its products and services. You can also join Twitter for advertising about your products.

Attend conferences

You can attend conferences or seminars which give you opportunities to make valuable business connections. You can also participate in a trade show and exhibit your products.

Be tactful

Steer clear of self promotion in the first meeting. It sends a wrong impression when you start a conversation with a business card. Rather talk about world-affairs or economy in general but do not promote your business. And end your conversation with an open-ended question which will prompt the person to provide you information about their business. And once you hold a healthy conversation, then hand over your business card which will not only give the recipient important contact information about your business but also reinforce your brand in the potential customer's mind.

It is essential to establish network with as many people as you can but it is equally important to build connections with the right people. So figure out who your potential customers are and focus on them. You can also join a or CEO Association in Atlanta

or anywhere else where you get to meet experienced entrepreneurs with whom you can share your concerns without any hesitation and get expert advice.

But keep in mind that a  CEO corporate association is not a place to build network. Rather it provides you a platform to conveniently share your ideas in a secure environment where what you discuss is never leaked out of the room and get practical tips to build a strong network from the experts themselves.

Practical and Proven Tips To Expand Your Business

When you first launch a new business, you have to do a lot of research - reading books on business, seeking advice from counselors, investing a lot of your time and money. And now that your business is well established, you can expand your business further to reap higher profits.

But keep in mind that expanding business requires as much effort and research as starting a new business. So here are a few tips to help you expand a small or medium sized business:

• Expanding business requires more staff. So make it a point to hire the most efficient employees who can take your company to new heights. Besides you can also recruit interns from college and universities who are dedicated and work for free just to gain experience. Hiring such interns will save you money and besides you may also come across really talented people who are willing to learn and can be an asset for your company in future.

• The Internet has made it so much easier for small and medium sized companies to reach wider market. A well-designed website can help you showcase your products and services to your potential customers far and wide. Besides the usage of Internet helps you advertize about your business in a cheaper way. For instance, you can publish your press releases in free press releases distribution sites or start a Business Page in a major social networking site such as Facebook.

• Another way to expand your business is by diversifying your products and services. For instance, if you manufacture hair oil, shampoos and other hair care products, you can start manufacturing other cosmetic products as well such as moisturizers, lotions and creams. The idea is to manufacture or sell complementary products or services that allow you to generate multiple streams of income from different sources and increase your profit margins. 

• Apart from all this, keep one extremely important point in mind. Don't spend all your savings and revenues in expanding the business. You never know how beneficial the expansion of the business would be, and spending all your resources on one thing can be a fatal mistake.  Be cautious not to spread your resources too thin, and save a tidy amount as reserves.

Be wise and expand your business step by step. You can take advice from other CEOs and experts by joining  CEO Clubs or  CEO Associations . At  CEO Clubs in Atlanta  or anywhere else, CEOs and executives from non-competing industries meet and here you can discuss your problems and share your ideas to expand your business without any hesitation.

How To Get The Most Out Of A CEO Club

There was an acquaintance of my friend, Charlie whose business was in doldrums. Creditors were closing in on her and she could not see a way out. She was wondering what could she do that could save her company from bankruptcy. She contemplated selling the business but the price offer she was getting was too low. She was not really able to make up her mind whether she should take on a new partner, carry on with the current business or sell the business. Then she chanced upon a friend who introduced her to a CEO peer group where she was guided to make a thorough exit plan that required her to work on the business, take it up to a position where it can command a good price and then sell the business.

Just like Charlie, a growing number of CEOs and other top level executives turn to CEO peer groups or CEO clubs for proper guidance and insight. However not many are able to take the full advantage of a CEO association. Many CEOs end up joining an unsuitable CEO corporate association which doesn't yield any results. There are some CEO corporate clubs which are so large that certain members hardly get opportunity to share their problems. And then there are certain CEO groups where members pay more attention to daily business activities and don't focus on strategy implementation. Therefore to get the maximum benefit out of a CEO club is to join the right CEO corporate association. And a successful CEO club is the one which contains not more than 10 to 15 members so that each member gets a fair chance to put forward his/her problems and suggestions.

Besides look for a CEO club which comprises CEOs from non-competing industries such as an architect, manufacturer, designer, a marketing person and so on. Such a diverse CEO group will offer you a broad cross section of skills and strengths that would help you have a different perspective on your business situation.

In order to get the most out of a CEO association, you need to be accountable to other members in way that the group members give you suggestions. You must work on it and discuss in the next meeting on how much you have implemented the suggestions.

Besides when you join a CEO association be it a CEO club in Atlanta or anywhere else, keep in mind that the primary motive of joining it is to discuss the problems you are facing in your business openly and not to only network. So instead of trying to solicit business from other members, try to focus on your problems and get their solutions from the experts.

CEO Clubs- A Cut Above The Rest

Are you one of those CEOs, presidents or senior executives who from time to time undergo personality development programs or training sessions and workshops but are yet not satisfied with the results you get? Though some of these programs are really useful, many a time you may also find that you end up with a lot of academic knowledge but gain little in terms of practical solutions for real business problems.

Especially, small and medium sized companies go through problems and challenges that may be peculiar to companies that have smaller sized manpower, resources and reach compared to larger companies. These companies, and especially their business owners and CEOs need practical, hands-on solutions from people who have been there and done that. In other words, people who have faced similar kind of problems are best placed to offer solutions that actually work and not just look smart on the drawing board.

This is why a growing number of CEOs of small and medium sized companies are turning to CEO Clubs  or CEO peer groups. So what make these CEO associations or CEO clubs different from other executive programs?

Firstly, such CEO associations are not academic or theoretical. Here you get practical and realistic solutions from other CEOs who do not have any personal agenda behind advising you or are not depending on academic theories. These are people who will give you honest, no-holds-barred insights and suggestions, at times really blunt, but useful and workable nonetheless.

Besides these CEO corporate associations provide a platform to CEOs to share their frustrations, problems, interests openly with the other CEOs. By being part of a CEO club you don't beat around the bush. Rather you get to share your business problems without any hesitation and the best part is that whatever you discuss with your peers remain confidential and never gets leaked out of the CEO club.

Another good part of a CEO association is that only CEOs from non-competing business are allowed in one group. Direct rivals or competitors are not allowed to be a part of one CEO club. So that makes it easy and convenient for members to share their fears and strategies freely.

So whether you want to sell your business or plan to start a new business or adopt a new strategy to push your sales; a CEO club is one of the best and most affordable executive coaching programs you can attend to gain useful guidance and solutions directly from the experts.

Benefits Of Corporate Executive Coaching For Companies

Corporate executive coaching is the latest buzzword these days. In today's hyper-competitive corporate business world, corporate executive coaching is one of the most effective ways to enhance executive performance as well as improve business efficiency and make the organization more successful.

The major benefit of corporate executive coaching for companies especially is that it focuses on the people of the organization and aims to improve the overall corporate culture. In this blog, we will be discussing about how corporate executive training helps the organizations as a whole.

Reduction in staff turnover: One of the major benefits of CEO clubs or corporate executive coaching is that it enormously helps in reducing the staff turnover. In other words,  the organization succeeds in retaining its top performing executives and thereby enhances the organization's overall performance and success.

Establish loyalty: When a company invests in corporate executive coaching for its employees, it shows how much the management is committed towards its employees, their growth and their productivity. Quite naturally, it helps in strengthening the bond between the organization and its employees and develops greater loyalty among the staff.

Higher morale and increase in productivity: Another advantage of a corporate executive training session is that it gives a boost to the employees' morale. The opportunity for training and skill up gradation which the company provides and the trust it reposes in its employees leads to an improvement in overall employee morale which pushes them to do better. Such corporate executive training sessions typically create greater commitment among employees to work harder and more smartly.

Better client relationships: It also helps in improving client relationships. No matter what type of business you do, client is the boss. And undergoing a corporate executing coaching helps you in establishing a wonderful relationship with clients and retaining them.

Positive work environment: A corporate executive coaching session generates a friendly atmosphere where employees get to share their ideas, discuss their problems and get solutions from experts. Therefore this overall practice creates a very positive work environment where employees love to come and work, thereby resulting in greater productivity.

CEO corporate or corporate executive training also goes a long way in improving organizational strength and performance. Therefore get your employees to join a corporate executive coaching in Atlanta or anywhere else which will ultimately help in improving the culture in the organization and enhance overall success.