Expand Your Biz with Facebook--It's Fun!

by Julia D. Stege, MFA

My husband says it's stretching it to call it, "work."

There I am scanning photos from the late 60s saying, "Oh, this one's perfect!" as I upload one to Facebook and tag it with the name of a childhood friend. Or maybe I'm planting a flower on someone's "Little Green Patch," an act that helps save the rainforest. Sometimes I just write a little ditty on what I'm up to and send it out to all 403 (and counting) of my Facebook friends.

Yeah, 403 and more come each day. Sometimes it's a friend from college or high school, or maybe someone from my early childhood, or my current network. A lot of the time they're people I don't know but they find my profile interesting, or they connected with me through one of my websites, or from a Google search. Facebook is one huge community, 150 million and growing by about 10 million per month. I notice my friend requests and suggestions come in by about a dozen per day. This is a great way to let people know what I'm up to, what I care about and to NETWORK!

Facebook is so fun and such a great business tool that I've expanded my upcoming Attracting Perfect Customers Online 10-Week Webinar for Web Challenged Entrepreneurs to include a segment on growing your biz with Facebook. (see my flier for upcoming classes below) You really can do everything on Facebook: create a list, market your offerings, follow up with prospects, post a web page, invite friends to an event, post photos and portfolios, share links. It's quite a robust and amazing social network.

So for those of you who are ready to give it a whirl, here are some Facebook Tips to get you started.

Step One: Get a Facebook account already! Go to http://www.facebook.com and register. Write down your user name and password on a sticky note and post it by your computer so you don't forget it. You can connect with me there if you like!

Step Two: Set up your profile, and upload a photo of you right away. There's nothing as annoying as connecting with someone you haven't seen in a while, and going to their profile only to see that generic blue-boy silhouette. Spend the time to fill out your education and job information. You will be able to find old classmates and colleagues this way. Make sure you post a link to your website too!

Step Three: Have Facebook find your friends. Click on "Friends" and "Find Friends" to have Facebook search through your email account for people you've emailed who are already on Facebook. This is the fastest way to grow your network right off the bat. Once you're connected with friends, check out their friend lists for folks you know and request to be connected. You can also find mentors and people you aspire to be like and connect with them. Facebook makes it easy to create categories so you can sort your contacts.

Step Four: Share yourself authentically. The most compelling thing about you is what is most important to you. Share what inspires you, what you're challenged by, what you've learned. Post your own events and invite people. Create your own page and post notes on your latest discoveries. You never know who's curiosity you'll spark. Maybe your old school chum will show up at your next teleclass! It's happened to me.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Magical Marketer Julia D. Stege, MFA helps people attract their perfect customers with a unique combination of Law of Attraction, wildly attractive logos and websites, and smart Internet marketing techniques. If you're ready to start attracting your perfect customers now, get Julia's free Magical Marketing Toolkit at http://www.magicalmarketingtoolkit.com