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Great Tips for Using Facebook for Professional Networking

By: Michelle Dale Click author's name for more of his/her articles

Internet marketing has been radically reformed over just a few years by the recent appearance of social networking. In all likelihood, you wouldn't have needed anything like a crystal ball to know that the Internet would continue to develop its social theme as an ever increasing number of individuals realised the incredible reach of the World Wide Web, and became increasingly linked up through smart phones and other new technological toys.

Many people consider MySpace to have initiated this trend, but in recent times the buzz has all been around Facebook, and to many people MySpace has become "very 2005." Facebook is now the number one social media site. Its strength seems to revolve around its platform, and its clean and tidy appearance; many people consider it to be more upscale than MySpace, for example.

Facebook was devised by Mark Zuckerburg, Justin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, who were student roommates at Harvard University. The site was initially intended for use by college students, but it quickly expanded nationwide through the school system, and eventually to everyone else. Zuckerberg's original "Facemash" has now grown to over 200 million users. Some people put its current value at $5 billion.

Facebook is, simply, networking at its finest. Not only can you use the platform to interact with family and friends, but from a commercial point of view, it's great for marketing as well.

One of the first things that you should do as a business marketer is to construct a profile. This needs a great deal of careful consideration, as your profile is a critical factor in your potential success. Incorporate a branding strategy, but make sure that you understand what environment you're working in. Within social networking of any kind, commercial branding and marketing has to maintain a far more subtle approach, and it shouldn't ever be "in your face".

Facebook allows you to expand your network of friends infinitely. Start off by building a network of your actual friends, and then move on to establish contacts with "friends of friends". You will discover that a concentrated effort will enable you to rapidly increase the number of your contacts. Make a point of never spamming anyone, and always keep your enthusiasm under control. Build relationships - not just numbers.

Within Facebook you will find that there are many, many online groups and there will certainly be groups which are associated with what you do. Every type of professional service provider has a group of some kind, and you should belong to all of these in your field. You can make all kinds of contacts in this manner.

If you cannot find a Facebook group that fits your vision, you can always create your own. You will need to be very proactive here to solicit members, and you should publish articles and give a lot of good information away, essentially for free, to create some buzz. You can create a Facebook "fan" page, especially if you find that your original page has reached its limit for membership, which is currently 2000. The fan page creates an additional subtle marketing opportunity, and it's all a part of the process of getting people into your sales funnel and ultimately to your checkout.

If you have a blog and you regularly update this with great information, tips, tricks, solutions, assistance and generally good stuff - then you should syndicate it so that your posts appear on your Facebook profile page. The goal is to get as much exposure as you can, which in turn of course converts to readers, visitors and potential sales.

If you're holding any events or creating a milestone of any kind within your business, you should create an event page within Facebook. By sending an open invitation, you solicit people to go to your events page and find out what's going on, and they can then advise their friends, creating even further exposure.

Facebook should be an integral part of your business strategy, but you must also have your "fun" face on when you're there. Warning - Facebook is addictive (not to me of course - but to many), so don't let it take over your marketing programs altogether!

Article Source: ABC Article Directory

About The Author: Michelle Dale is CEO of Virtual Miss Friday, an adept and highly-proficient Virtual Assistant Service which works closely with enterprising people who really want to succeed in their chosen field. If you'd like to learn more about online business building success strategies that are tailored to your needs, Contact VMF Today at=> www.virtualmissfriday.com