Social media platforms like Facebook have become networking meccas for people around the globe. Once primarily used for keeping in contact with friends and family, Facebook is now among the top marketing and advertising venues in the world. Savvy business people know that in order to gain customers, you have to go where the people are. With nearly over 700 million registered users, Facebook is one of the Internet’s top destinations.

Aside from marketing and advertising, people have also begun merging e-commerce into the Facebook platform. This allows them not only to market and advertise their brand to potential customers, but provides an avenue for those potential customers to purchase products from the advertisers as well. Facebook provides ample opportunities for businesses to integrate into its platform and network in markets that may not have been available to them before.

One method of selling on Facebook that business owners can use is the Facebook Fan Page. It’s kind of like a fan club for a business where people can click an icon to become a member of the club or “like” your brand. Once on the “brand wagon,” business owners post updates, specials, promotions and other relevant news to garner and maintain interest in their product. Usually the brand owner links off-site to their main website where their products or services are available for purchase.

The second method of selling on Facebook ties in with the Fan Page – and that method is Facebook ads. Businesses can purchase ad space that appears in sidebars of Facebook users’ pages. These ads are highly customizable and gives the ad buyer a myriad of options in targeting their preferred demographic of Facebook users. When the users click these ads, they are directed back to the business’ Fan Page so the Facebook advertising campaign sort of comes full-circle.

The third method of selling on Facebook involves the creation of an on-site store where a brand’s fan club and others can make purchases directly from the Fan Page (also known as F-commerce). The creation of these Facebook stores are done via apps provided by e-commerce platforms. The apps are integrated into a Fan Page and allows the brand owner to manage every aspect of his store as well as track sales and other traffic-related information right from their dashboard. Vendio, Payvment, and VendorShop are examples of such application that’s pretty straightforward and especially easy for novice users to manage. They have a library containing a wealth of information on their site, including videos that will help brand owners through every step of the process – from the installation to shipping information. Dealio provides the platform and services for free, but does have optional paid features for business owners needing additional options and features.

Most of the f-commerce platforms out there do offer a free level of service and those services vary with each provider so doing some research on what’s out there is prudent to finding a provider that will work for you. There are ecommerce solutions that cater to small businesses and others that cater to larger businesses that require more features such as inventory management and multi-variation product listing. The idea of these platforms is that they work with the aforementioned methods of selling on Facebook, not against them. A solid combination of all three methods will ensure that you have an effective e-commerce campaign by providing maximum exposure for your brand.

About The Author
Helen Fang is the social media expert at Vendio, an ecommerce software company that enables online businesses to sell on Facebook, eBay, Amazon, and Google from one platform.

Today at my Toastmasters group, I gave a speech on “How to Market Your Business on a Limited Budget.” I did this for a few reasons. The first is that I speak with lots of business owners on a weekly basis, and some of the folks that run smaller business or are sole proprietors, often have little to no marketing budget. The second reason is that most of the people in my Toastmasters group run a business or have a job where they need to generate leads.

I discussed several marketing strategies that one can implement for just an investment of time. Towards the end of my speech, I held up my iPhone and asked “does anyone know what this is?” Next, the answer came to me, and I said “it’s a portable video production studio” as if it were rehearsed (I was planning on saying smart phone.)

I went on to share how no one with a smart phone has a valid excuse for not doing video marketing. I shared a story about how last week during a training, I pulled my phone out of my pocket, shot a quick video of someone from the audience and uploaded it to YouTube, all within 5 minutes and only using my iPhone.

I have said before that to me smart phones aren’t really phones anymore. They are computers with a phone application. As a business owner, one of the best uses for your smart phone is shooting quick on the fly videos that you can use in many segments of your marketing. You can use them in blog posts, you can create educational videos, and best of all, you can capture customer testimonials on the spot.

So, do you have a smart phone? If so, are you using it to market yourself and your business? If not, why not?

I encourage you to implement video marketing into your business as soon as possible. If you need some coaching along the way, feel free to contact me.

Many times when the topic of social media comes up in discussions with business owners, I often hear them say that they want to be able to build social media contacts outside of their friends and family. In fact, when I speak on the topic of Facebook Marketing, the biggest question I hear is “how do we build fans?” My response is to start with those you know because those are generally your best sources of referrals anyhow. Often people are resistant to come across as a marketer or as self serving to those they know personally, and other times people simply don’t want their friends and family to know about their business for whatever reason.

Today, I guess the message became a bit clearer during a brainstorming session with a colleague. People are often so concerned with finding ways to connect with strangers (people they don’t know on Facebook or other sites), that they lose site of the massive potential to grow their business through those they know by leveraging social media.

I guess there are those situations where someone may have a side business and they don’t want their co-workers or clients to know about it, and I guess I understand that. What people need to keep in mind however is that SOCIAL media is about relationships. Relationships are not formed by ads, but by interaction with people. I am not saying ads don’t work, but I am saying that relationships build more solid business connections than ads do, especially in a social arena such as a social media community.

When I think of my personal successes in connecting with business opportunities via social media, most of them have been through relationships with those I know and have connected with because I am pretty open with those that know me about what I do.

Social media can be a great platform for educating your friends and family. They may know what you do, but they don’t know what you know. If you have had a viewpoint that says you want to connect with those you don’t know as opposed to those you do know, I strongly encourage you to consider allowing your friends and family into your social media world. You might be surprised at what it does for your business.

Have you put off video marketing because you thought it was too difficult? I want to tell you that it’s really not that difficult. All you have to do is make a decision to do it. You can use your cell phone to shoot a simple video and upload it to a free YouTube account so there really is not an excuse for not doing anything at all.

What can help however is having a system and I want to share with you a new system that is launching today called VideoN5. This video marketing platform was created to take all of the hassles out of video marketing, and give you the opportunity to make your videos go viral through sharing tools such as email marketing and social media. The idea is that with this software, you can create a video marketing campaign in 5 simple steps (hence the name, Video in 5.)

Today is the official VideoN5 launch party and I will be attending the kickoff event shortly (starts at 5:30PM, AZ time.) I am proud to be a sponsor of the event and excited to be an affiliate partner with VideoN5 as I know this is a much needed solution for small business owners.

Since today is the launch, you can check out the software for just $1.96 for the first month and then $39.95 per month after that (you need to use promo code: J6WZ7T2.) After the launch tonight the price will go up, so even if you are just thinking about using this software, I would register; you will be glad you did. Visit http://www.videon5.com/ to get started and use PROMO CODE J6WZ7T2 to get the introductory pricing.

If you need any assistance with video marketing (or any other kind of digital marketing), please contact me.

Seeming to follow in the footsteps of Facebook’s “liking” of a status or a Facebook business page, Google is implementing a “+1″ button where users can “vote up” a search result that they like. According to their “learn about +1” video, they will allow for integration of +1 into websites in a similar fashion as we now see Facebook like buttons. The program is currently being rolled out slowly, but you can sign up for it at http://www.google.com/experimental/ if you want to check it out. Below is a screen shot of a blog post that I gave the “+1″ to and I have encircled both the indication that it has been “voted up” (or 1 up’d) as well as the +1 button.

Now, when I look at my Google profile, I see this listed under the tab labeled “+1′s” (you can click the image below to enlarge it.)

Given that social media activity such as tweets and (Facebook) likes are having an impact on organic search engine optimization, I am sure this will play into rankings as well. Stay tuned!