Ignite Your Business Visibility with Facebook Connect.

Have you ever wished you lived in a shopping mall? It sounds funny, but it would make life a lot easier, especially if you lived in a huge mall like West Edmonton Mall or the Mall of America.

You could park the car, enter the building, and everything you needed would be laid out in front of you without ever having to leave home. Stores in that mall would probably get a lot more business than stores outside the mall because it would be easier to access them, and residents of the mall would recommend certain shops and services to each other by word of mouth.

Now imagine you had a place to live on the Internet and were able to visit different websites without having to give up the comfort of that home. The Facebook Connect feature was unveiled in 2008 to create easy, one-stop access to websites from your Facebook profile. It’s an API that enables people to use their Facebook identity and connections to authenticate themselves on any third-party site, community or blog. In essence, it makes your Facebook profile the “home base” and eliminates the need for new sign-ups on other websites.

In Powered, Inc.’s e-book “Marketing Predictions for 2010,” Aaron Strout, Chief Marketing Officer, predicts that Facebook Connect will play an increasingly important role in the ways brands connect with their customers and other constituents on Facebook in 2010.

It’s already showing an incredible ability to help businesses draw more Traffic, thereby increasing their Return on Influence and ultimately their Return on Investment.

Here are some examples:

Increased Traffic:

The Official Facebook Connect News Page reports that since implementing Facebook Connect, the CBS Insider has gained a significant increase in traffic on theinsider.com, with over 85% of new registered users using Facebook Connect.

Increased Return on Influence

According to Facebook’s latest statistics from Citysearch,"Since implementing Facebook Connect, daily registrations have tripled, and connected users are twice as engaged as users not using Facebook Connect. 94% of users who write reviews share those reviews back on Facebook, where 70% of their friends who see the review click on it, and travel back to Citysearch.com.”
This points to the viral nature of Facebook Connect, the ability of users to bring content, activity and conversations from third-party sites back into their Facebook newsfeed, thereby creating more social engagement.

Increased Return on Investment

Lauren Miller in her article “5 Services Using Facebook Connect Effectively” reports that although the Tap Tap Revenge 3 App on the iPhone may be one of the simplest implementations of Facebook Connect on the iPhone, it’s become one of the biggest selling apps of all time on the app store.  It works great because it gives you rewards when you tell your friends about the game and posts updates on your friends’ newsfeeds about your activity and scores.

All this being said, Facebook Connect has great potential to open up a very profitable niche for you and your clients’ businesses. This is good news for our VAClassroom graduates who are already providing Facebook services for their clients or are planning to add that service in the near future.

As Ken Burbury says in his article “Five Reasons Companies should be Integrating Social Media with Facebook Connect,” “At the end of the day, companies need to fish where the fish are. And right now the fish are spending their time on Facebook.com.”

What are your thoughts on Facebook Connect? We’d love to hear your comments!

Facebook Fan Pages Go To the Movies!

The lights go down, the curtains part, and now it’s time to see the “Coming Attractions” at your favorite movie theater. Until recently, the best place to find the latest movie trailers was at the theater itself or on TV if you happened to be watching during the right commercial break.

Then along came movie websites. These were great because if you missed seeing the movie trailer elsewhere, you could find it on a dedicated web page and watch it at your leisure. For awhile, these static sites were the most common way to promote films online and were popular because of their cool graphics and Flash effects.

Not anymore! There is a new trend with movie companies using Facebook Fan Pages instead of static websites to promote their new movies. One example is the Facebook Fan Page for the romantic comedy When in Rome just released in January. This is a highly interactive Fan Page where fans can view the movie trailer, participate in a Fan Board and Discussion Board, and respond to Wall Posts offering contests and surveys – a far cry from passively watching the movie previews flash by on the theater screen. The static website for When in Rome even provides links to its Social Media sites, encouraging visitors to join the conversation.

The power of this Social Media Marketing trend is not an illusion. In her blog post “Four Reasons You Should Setup a Facebook Fan Page” , Tomeeka Farrington relates how the small-budget movie Paranormal Activity became highly successful as a result of its Facebook Fan Page, where fans were able to purchase tickets, compare their reactions with each other and recommend the movie to their own social networks. According to Farrington, “following 2-weeks of nationwide midnight only sellouts and fan frenzy over the limited release hit thriller, Paranormal Activity earned Paramount $7.1 million in its opening weekend, showing in just 200 theaters.”

Radio stations are also beginning to recognize the powerful exposure they receive through Social Networking.  The Message, a Sirius XM radio station, has created a Facebook Fan Page (http://www.facebook.com/hearthemessage) where fans can post comments on the Wall, see photos, participate in discussions and be notified of upcoming events hosted by the radio station itself.

This trend towards this type of Social Media promotion has created a fast-growing client base for those with Fan Page skills. In fact, many VAClassroom students who have taken our Facebook Fan Pages Program have seen rapid opportunities open up for their businesses after adding this new service to their businesses. It seems there is no end to the type of clients that will need Facebook Fanpage implementation services in 2010: hotels, local businesses, celebrities, non-profits, big events... the list goes on!

So the next time you want to see the Coming Attractions, you don’t have to leave the comfort of your home. Just log on to Facebook and pull up your desk chair… but you’ll have to make your own popcorn.

Five Reasons I Love Facebook Fan Pages

A quick skill testing question for you....

What do you think are the two hottest pieces of Real Estate in the Social Media Frontier right now?

Any ideas....?

I would have to say that Twitter and Facebook Fan Pages are the "shining stars" among the business community right now!

I have been so amazed at the rapid growth of Facebook Fan Pages since the big changes Facebook made back in February 2009 to make them look like FB Profiles.

Check out this video on "Five Reasons Why I Love the New Facebook Fan Pages."

Also, we have just released a new course that might interest you at VAClassroom called: "Fantastic Facebook Fan Pages" - Check it out!

The Business Building Potential of Facebook Fan Pages

I recently followed a comment in Facebook from another Virtual Assistant that was questioning the value of having a Facebook Fan Page to promote their business. Will it actually lead to new client and income opportunities? Well, my answer and thoughts on this are included in the video below. Take a look and please send your comments on Facebook Fan Pages and the impact (if any) they have had on your Virtual Assistant business.