Are you on Facebook? Do you have a Facebook page? If you own a business or professional practice, you probably should.
You may have heard about “The Purple Cow.” I’ve made mention of it in past blogs and articles, but it’s worth repeating the meaning:
If you were driving along the highway in the country through dairy land, you’d likely see one farm after another with brown, black, and spotted cows. What if, however, you came upon a field with a purple cow? Would you not stop the car, turn it around, and go to see this sight? More than that, you’d never forget that violet bovine, would you?
That, my friends, is what we each need today to get noticed, stay remembered, and be profitable. We need to stand out from the crowd… be different.
You may now be asking, “Sure, we know that, Rich. What does that have to do with Facebook?”
Well, friends, how many people are on Facebook today? In July, it has been estimated that over 500 million people use Facebook! WOW! That’s a staggering amount of competition!
Competition?
Yes. If you are looking to use social networking to grow your business, you are on the right track. However, you’ve got be to different than every other Tom, Dick, and Harry out there. As a business, how do you do that?
First, I highly recommend that, like with every other business venture, you separate the business from yourself. Set up a “Page” for your business (rather than a personal profile). A page has “fans” or people who “like” it rather than a profile’s “friends”.
One of the great ways of standing out from the crowd is the use of FBML (Facebook MarkUp Language). FBML allows a Facebook page to look and act like a website, driving traffic to your website or to other internet destinations. More than that, it creates a sophisticated look that brands your business and entices people to come back, “like” your page, and (best of all) share your super-cool FBML page with their friends.