If you look back at the Social Networking chapter, you'll notice that we talked about the ethic of social networking. These absolutely apply when using the site to promote your business. You first need to make sure that your actions aren't violating the terms of use. If they are, you need to change your approach.
Also, make sure that no matter what you're trying to accomplish, that you don't use the site to SPAM people. You will not be successful on the site this way. You'll just annoy people.
If you use the site ethically and follow the terms of use, you won't have any problems.
THE BASIC PHILOSOPHY
The basic philosophy behind using the site for business is to do what you can to build a community around your profile, service, and/or product. If you just post a bunch of links and a sales pitch, people won't respond to that. They want to get to know the company or brand and have a good time there.
For example, if you run a fantasy football site, your profile will focus on your love for the game. You may also start a group with fantasy football as the theme. You can post your ad and the link for your fantasy football service in the group and those who are interested will click on it.
So, what kind of tools can you use to do social networking on Facebook? The short answer is, anything goes. Since there are so many things you can do with the site, you'd do best to consider it a blank slate.
Since you define your experience on the site and set your own goals, you basically want to choose the activities, applications, groups, and networks that will help enhance this experience.
Here are some ideas for using the site for social networking:
" Inbox
You can send messages to other users and accept messages from your friends.
" Groups
Joining and participating in groups is a great way to meet people.
" Friends
Once you find someone you have something in common with, you can add them as a friend. Once they accept, you can do things like sharing photos, inviting them to participate in groups, and encouraging them to add certain applications.
" Applications
There are a lot of different applications on the site. Each of them helps the user engage in social networking. You can play games, send the applications to each other, take quizzes, etc.
" Share
The ultimate way to enjoy the site and use it for social networking is to share things with each other. This goes for applications, videos, and photos. You can also invite them to join groups, and use the site to take a look at the groups your friends are interested in.
" News Feeds
This is another important social element of the site. It is through the feeds where you can see what your friends are up to. For example, if a friend added a certain application, you have the ability to check out what they added and decide if adding it is a good thing for you to do.
Those are just a few of the examples. The site has so many resources that it's up to you to figure out how to use them for social networking. Just make sure you abide by the Terms of Use and conduct yourself in an ethical way while using the site.
A lot of people get in trouble for not using Facebook as ethically as they could. In fact, people who are part of social networking sites throughout the world continually abuse the privilege of being part of the site and end up using tactics that are less than ethical.
These are called black hat tactics, and they could result in your profile being banned. For lasting results, don't use black hat techniques or anything related to misdirection.
On the internet, some people will use dubious tactics such as optimizing a site for a keyword that is really popular, but doesn't even relate to the niche. Facebook has its own version of that.
If you want to make money on Facebook, join this team before it's too late.
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