10 easy ways to grow your Facebook friends:

1. Use the Facebook tools!  When you first log into Facebook scroll down and look for the Get Connected section on the right.  From here you can find your friends using Gmail, Skype, Yahoo, AOL, and more.  This is a fast and easy way to grow your friends on Facebook.
2. Add a Facebook link or button to your email signature
3. Make a habit to send follow up emails asking to connect on Facebook after meeting someone new.
4. Add a Facebook link to your business card
5. Review the friends of your current Facebook friends and see who you know and connect with them.
6. Add your Facebook link to your website, blog, and contact page
7. Do you use Twitter?  Tweet to your followers asking them to connect with you on Facebook.
8. Review the friends your current Facebook friends are suggesting to you.  Many times you will know these people and if not it’s a good opportunity to meet someone new.
9. Look at all those photos!  3 billion photos are uploaded to Facebook every month and many of your current Facebook friends upload photos.   Take a moment to review a few photos from your friends and if they are tagged you can easily send friend requests to those you may know.
10. Check out Xobni - Xobni is add on program for Outlook that gives you great email tools and shows you the social network links for each contact.

Are you using any of these methods now to grow your Facebook friends?  Do you have another suggestion to add to the list?  Don’t keep it a secret!  Make sure to take a moment, leave a comment, and share it with all of us!  Remember to also become a friend of Square Martini Media by liking us on Facebook!

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Businesses are flocking to Facebook these days, and with more than 500 million users, it’s easy to see why. But we must be careful not to let Facebook become the wizard of our Oz.

Nearly everyone wants to direct your attention to Facebook. Small and large businesses are spending lots of money to get us all to their Facebook pages, stay awhile, and engage. Facebook, Facebook, Facebook. It’s where we all want to be, all the time.

Or is it?

Is Facebook so great that we don’t even need our own websites anymore?

That indeed is one approach. However, you must ask yourself one very important question.

Are you in business to make yourself money or are you in business to make Facebook money?

Without question, Facebook is a very powerful and valuable tool. There are many benefits to partnering with Facebook, and once you learn the mechanics, it’s fairly easy to start reaping benefits if you’re willing to time forming relationships. Of course, your prospects must be using Facebook, too.

Built-in analytics, customizable landing pages, and reasonably priced advertising are all great benefits and among the many reasons one should strongly consider using Facebook when designing any social media strategy. However, solely relying on Facebook without maintaining your own website puts too much control in the hands of Facebook.

Is Facebook Your Glenda or the Wicked Witch of the West?

While we wouldn’t quite equate Facebook to Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West, we wouldn’t call it Glenda either. Facebook has much bigger goals than ensuring your bottom line profits continue to rise.

Facebook is racing to dominate location-based services, as evidenced by the launch of Places earlier this month. Additionally, Facebook has demonstrated its big business focus in the past by changing policies such as disallowing custom landing pages for businesses with fewer than 1,000 fans (subsequently reversed). Further, things such as inconsistent policy changes without much or any advance notice make relying on Facebook too risky. Lastly, Facebook retains the right to shut down your profile or your page at anytime.

And we’re back to our question. Are you willing to put the control of your business in someone else’s hands? What would Dorothy and Toto say?

Learn from Dorothy and Toto’s journey through Oz

It really is true…

There’s no place like home.

So, use Facebook to drive traffic back to your blog and website. And remember, once you get people to your site, you must make sure you’ve got the following:

• Great content! You want to offer content that answers questions for your customers, keeps them on your site, and gives them a reason to come back.
• Great sales conversions! An obvious path to your products and then to a sale.
• Great products! A catalogue of products that serves your customers’ needs or solves their problems.
• Great prices! Market-driven prices that make your customers know they are receiving great value from you.

Next time you are spending a few minutes on Facebook, remember why you are there. Consider cutting your time in half and going behind your own curtain, becoming the wizard of your own blog, and creating some terrific content for your prospects.

Photo Credit: Barry Smith

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A person can have only one personal Facebook account but unlimited business pages?

Facebook regulations require that each person have only one account that is listed in a personal name (not in the name of a business).  However, you can add Facebook “pages” for most businesses in addition to your personal page.  A facebook page functions much like your personal page.

Facebook calls this feature “pages”.

This feature is listed under “Advertising” at the bottom of all Facebook pages.

Example:

http://www.facebook.com/squaremartini

http://www.facebook.com/vw

We know you’ve seen lots of Facebook pages and “Like” buttons everywhere.  However, do you continue to see friend requests from businesses?  We do!  Those businesses that choose to use personal profiles versus business “pages” in facebook sacrifice many business benefits which facebook has built for businesses.  One of the biggest benefits is the ability to send an update to all of your fans/likers.

What are some of your favorite Facebook pages?  Have you visited our Square Martini page yet?  Join our conversation today and tell us your feedback!

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1. Log on to facebook
2. Search for “extended info” in the facebook search at the top right of your facebook profile.  Extended info will be the first application listed.  Click on View Application to the right.  You will then land on the Extended Info facebook fan page.  Click on the blue Go to Application box on the top left.
3. You will now need to fill in some information in the Extended Info page.
   • Add the image url, you can create your own follow me on twitter image or you can use this one.  Just open the link in a new tab or window
   • Copy link and past into the Image url
   • Add the link url, my link url is http://www.twitter.com/alanunderkofler
   • You can add a header or caption if you want.  View my facebook profile to see how the header looks.
   • Dimensions:  You can change this if you want buy the default is set to add the follow me on twitter badge to the left sidebar on your facebook profile
4. Save the changes
5. The Extended Info application will then ask if you want to share this with your friends.  If you decide to share the news it will show up on your news feed and you may attract a few new twitter followers.
6. The next step is to add the badge to your profile.  To do this look at the top right corner of the Extended Info Facebook Application for the blue Add to Profile box.  Just click on the box, choose the Wall or Boxes tab, it will then show you where it will be placed on your facebook profile for your approval.
7. The final step is to click on the link and make sure it goes to your twitter account.

If you found these seven steps helpful please help other facebook users my sharing this post on your facebook wall, tweeting this post on twitter, or stumbling it on StumbleUpon.  You can do this with ease by using the share this button below.

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