Sacrilicious Marketing

To continue yesterday’s top secret tips on optimizing your Facebook Fan Page for Google and other search engines, here is Part II!

6.     Use Static FBML Tabs to Add Content and Call to Action Value

Since adding lengthy static blocks of keyword rich text and links is limited on your wall tab (Facebook’s default tab) you can use FBML application to build custom pages with additional text, links and images that can augment the content value of your page! I personally, advocate adding rich media like images and call to actions to not only interest search engines but get fans and visitors to more readily convert to your website and lead generation pages. Adding content boxes or tabs with FBML to your Page can be a great way to boost the content density score of your Page (note, however, that each tab lives at a separate URL in Google’s eyes).

* Power Tip – remember “alt” and “title” tags for images are great ways to add additional relevant keywords into the code and content in addition to helping your images get indexed! It’s also not a bad idea to use a service like PhotoBucket to host your images and make sure your images are names with keyword rich names since PhotoBucket retains the file name better than Flickr.

Resource: Custom Facebook Fan Pages

In order to add a custom content box or tab to your Page, follow these steps:

• Go to the “Static FBML” application on Facebook.
• Click “Add to my Page” on the top left side, and choose the page you’d like to add a custom content box or tab to.
• Once you’ve chosen one, close the dialog box, go to your Page, and click “Edit page” under your Page’s profile picture.
• In the applications list on the resulting page, you should see an application called “FBML 1″. Click the pencil icon on the right, and choose “Edit.”
• You’ll be taken to a page with 2 fields: “Box Title” and “FBML.” Enter the name you’d like to give the box or tab in the “Box Title” field. Enter the HTML you’d like to use in the “FBML” field (FBML stands for Facebook Markup Language, and is a subset of HTML.), and then click the Save Changes button.
• Once changes are saved, click the “Edit” link at the top of your Page to return to your Page’s application settings page. Click the pencil icon next to the name of the FBML application you just created, and choose “Application Settings.”
• If you want to add the FBML you just entered as a box, choose “Add” next to the Box option. The custom FBML box will by default appear on the Boxes tab, so if you want to move it to the left side of your Wall tab, you’ll need to then go to the Boxes tab, click the pencil icon on your FBML box, and choose “Move to Wall tab.”
• Or, if you want to add the FBML you just entered as a tab, choose “Add” next to the Tab option. The custom content should then automatically appear on its own tab on your Page. Note, however, that Facebook truncates tab titles after 10 characters, so you’ll need to choose a short title.

Need help with this? Hire Sacrilicious to create your customized high impact Facebook Fan Page!

You can set your new FBML page to be the default view for new visitors before they become fans by editing your Fan Page and changing the “Settings” by selecting the name of your new FBML page in the drop down menu.

* Power Tip: ALWAYS name your new FBML page something relevant that will get clicked after an initial visit. So, “Search Homes” or “Special Offers” or “Menu” or “Concert Schedule” or “New Music” would be more valuable in terms of clicks than “Welcome” or “Become a Fan.” You can always change the name of the tab after it is created by editing the Page and then editing the FBML application.

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Most people forget that social media is more than socializing and lead generation – it can be a great source of SEO. Your Facebook Fan Page and Profile can be optimized for search engines so you get the best possible value out of your profile and updates.

1.     Pick a page name with keywords

Select a name for your page that includes keywords people would likely be searching when looking for your service, product or business.

Example:

Colorado Springs Real Estate

Celebration Florida Town Tavern

Capital Grill Boston

*NOTE: once you pick a name for your fan page, you CANNOT change it so select wisely.

Nobody is searching for “you” unless you are a celebrity so don’t create a fan page in your name unless your name has existing brand value. Use keywords that describe your product or service or if you have a physical location like a store-front include your location. For popular bars, restaurants and clubs, you should use your business name and location (town/city). Also, be aware you cannot give your page a generic name like “Boston” or “Real Estate” – Facebook has recently been disabling updates for generically named Pages – effectively neutering their ability to reach their Facebook fans.

2.     Select the proper category for your page

When you create a page, Facebook allows you select a specific category for your page – always select the MOST relevant category to index your page within. READ THROUGH ALL THE SELECTIONS BEFORE MAKING YOUR CHOICE. This is how Facebook will index your company, brand, celebrity personality so be very thoughtful when making your selection.

3.     Use the Vanity URL Feature

Facebook allows you to choose a vanity URL or as Facebook calls it, a “username” for your fan page once you have 100 fans. This is hands down the most valuable SEO tool you within Facebook, so select your vanity URL wisely.

Example:

www.facebook.com/coloradospringsrealestate

www.facebook.com/papajohnspizza

www.facebook.com/capitalgrillboston

This is where you have a better opportunity to include generic keywords than the page name, so be sure to include your most valuable keyword but still be sure to keep the vanity url short. The best solution is to combine your business name with a relevant keyword.

Usernames can be selected at www.facebook.com/username

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Over the past few years, it seems many marketers, especially new media marketers, have gone soft on list building and list marketing. We’ve been so bombarded by permission and inbound marketing dogma that many of us see the idea of targeted non-permission based email marketing as old school and spamming. However, monetizing a list for immediate and long-term income is best accomplished by combining a specific offer with a conversion landing page, marketed through permission and non-permission based targeted bulk emailings.

Example:

Last month I used a combination of inbound, permission and non-permission based marketing with targeted lists, my results were as follows:

4 Steps To Having a Successful Mailing that Nobody Talks About

1. Define your offer on both a landing page and an HTML email

A solid email offer should be concise and specific. This means, forgo long, rambling text for short, call to action copy with vivid graphics. Also, make sure you explicitly explain your offer, give examples of your product or service and provide pricing. The page and email should offer the ability to immediately convert a reader to a lead or customer by directing them to your sales page. But the most important thing you must do is call people to action with either an amazing deal or a time limited offer. Ideally, you want to create the need to buy with an irresistible offer.

Good examples of offer-based conversion emails/pages:

Groupon

Jet Blue Deal of the Day

My Example: Sacrilicious Marketing Facebook Fan Page Offer

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Because nothing says dysfunctional like heart shaped candies that play on your most pathetic self esteem issues!

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Everybody is so caught up in the idea of blog to book deals, but really when you look at the Internet fame deals recently they have more in common than just blogging. They are mostly consumer centric, driven by the micro content phenomenon and appeal to the Gen X/Gen Y demographic. Now, let’s dissect that statement.

Top 10 Best Micro Content to Fame Deals

Recent Micro Content to Book/TV Deals

1.     Shitmydadsays (TV Deal)

2.     Fakeapstylebook (Book Deal)

3.     Fmylife (Book Deal)

4.     Texts From Last Night (TV Deal)

5.     F U Penguin (Book Deal)

6.     This is Why You’re Fat (Book Deal)

7.     Chuck Norris Facts (Book Deal)

8.     I Can Has Cheezburger (Book Deal)

9.     Stuff White People Like (Book Deal)

10.  Fail Blog (Book Deal)

Resource: Exploiting the Blog to Book Deal: A Guide

Resource: From Blog to Book, How 6 Authors Did It

1. Consumer Oriented

When you think of publishing fame do you think Seth Godin or JK Rowling? Seth has penned 12 best sellers but only sold 20 million copies, has an ad network/wiki called Squidoo and a social network called Triiibes. On the other hand, JK Rowling has penned a mere 7 bestsellers, sold over 400 million books and yet her fortune exceeds $798 million, ranking her the 12^th wealthiest woman on earth… The difference? Mr. Godin writes to marketing professionals, businesses and entrepreneurs while Ms. Rowling writes to a family friendly consumer audience of children and adults. What this should tell you unequivocally is that producing something you can market to the mass consumer market is more profitable than producing content you market to the business market.

Resource: Squidoo: Seth Godin’s Purple Albatross?

2. User Generated Content

The user generated model has really taken off within the micro content community with Fmylife and Textsfromlastnight. Each has successfully built a very robust and engaged community of commenter’s, voters and contributors. The product is simple. Hilarious situational humor coupled with a standardized format. The lesson? Find a universal situation or topic that all people can relate to and experience and open a micro forum where they can share their experience and interact with other similar experiences. The Fmyscript script can help you create just such a forum. It’s your responsibility to come up with the situation, the standardized format and populate the first few posts then spread the site among your inner circle. With any luck and good idea, it should go viral quickly.

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I think the music industry owes a big hand to the Lady that brought back superstardom in 2009! Lady Gaga gave one hell of a performance with Elton John at the 2010 Grammy’s. Just a wonderful celebration of music and celebrity.

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Facebook is an essential component of any business. When you consider that Papa John’s Facebook Strategy was directly responsible for improving sales by 28% in 2009, you start to recognize its power. For real estate, a business page is critical, but the fact is, most real estate professionals do not utilize the features and functionality of the page to the best of their ability. So, here is my definitive guide to building a successful real estate business page that does NOT require tons of your time. I like automation and conversion, so that’s what this guide will focus on. Building a page with features and content that are designed to impress visitors, create fans and push them back to your website and lead generators where they can convert to contacts, leads and clients.

About 6 months ago, I noticed that every Realtor on earth started a Facebook fan page and for some ungodly reason, every Realtor on earth with a fan page asked me to fan their page. Needless to say, I didn’t. Why you ask? Because their pages were just lame and irrelevant to me. Then came Kevin Tomlinson… Kevin wanted a fan page that rocked the web. Now, Kevin is no slouch when it comes to content creation or hiring the best people to do the right job so, of course he came to Dakno and Sacrilicous. Together with Kevin’s already rockin’ fan page content Brad and I added listing search and welcome tabs through the FBML application. The secret sauce is creating a call to action welcome page and a Listing Search page then supplementing the functionality with applications like LinkedIn, Realtor.com’s MyListings and Slideshare. Creating a multimedia experience along with the delivery of quality content all within an interactive user experience.is the key to creating the most valuable experience possible for visitors. Here are 5 Tips that will help you build one of your own.

Become a Fan of Real Estate Fan Pages on Facebook and get updated news and tips on how to make your fan page more valuable.

1.    The custom welcome page and/or custom IDX search page

Landing on a Facebook wall is just boring. It is a wall of information that really doesn’t give people the full picture of your real estate business. And let’s face it, most of the real estate content there is somewhat boring, so create a custom Welcome page that uses proven conversion psychology to call visitors to action to fan your page and push over to your website and lead generators. Make sure you include a brief bio, all your contact information and call to actions to your lead generation tools like property search, market reports, contact form and even community profiles. Resources for buyers and sellers would also be helpful.

Examples: Samantha Nichols Thomas Druck Kevin Tomlinson Leigh Brown Sotheby’s Sam Miller Castles Magazine George Tallabas Carl Martens Lee Taylor John MacArthur Missy Caulk Janis Gigliardi Ken Jansen

Bonus Tips: Be sure to use the FBML application to customize your landing page and set the new page as your default landing page for new visitors. Also, remember that calls to action that push visitors back over to your website are the most crucial thing you can include on a custom welcome page!

So far Sacrilicious has been successful at integrating Tiger Lead, Wolfnet, 1parkplace, Z57 and HomeFider IDXs, but challenge us with yours and we will do our best!

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1009 Lessons Learned: How to Attract the Clients You Want & How to Do The Work You Love

I learned a lot in 2009. But my greatest lesson was how to have the business I WANT not the business I NEED. I have a stone on my desk that reads “if you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” It basically sums up my philosophy on business. I’m not big on the law of attraction because I am a cynic at heart, however, I do believe in planning and that good planning attracts you the kind of business you want. Now, while I do have a full time gig in the music industry at a major label, I also have a successful side consulting business I built over the past 2 years. Initially, Sacrilicious was meant as something to provide me with some immediate income at a time when I had lost my position in a company I had founded due to divorce. But, over time, it became something I had never anticipated, an honest to goodness business and more importantly, a business I liked working for! Is my consulting business huge? No. Does it pay my bills and then some so I can put my paychecks from my day job away towards my future, yes. Why am I sharing this? Because there is more than enough consulting business to go around and I’m tired of reading posts from very talented and bright people that are suffering and blaming a bad economy for bad planning on their part.  So, while I cannot not directly help them I can offer some advice and planning that helped me.

I determined 2 years ago that if I was going to have a consulting business, I wanted 2 things:

1. To love my work

2. To love my clients

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About 6 months ago, Seth Semilof, the publisher of Haute Living Magazine contacted me through my good friend and client, Kevin Tomlinson. Seth, who has long had a very successful magazine for the elite, Haute Living, wanted to create a premier luxury living online property. His idea was brilliant, he wanted to call upon his rich and famous friends like fashion designer, Catherine Malandrino and Denise Rich (infamous philanthropist and Grammy nominated songwriter for Celine Dion, Mary J. Blige, Diana Ross and Mandy Moore) to provide personal city guides of Miami, New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles with recommendations of where to eat, drink, get pampered and stay when visiting. The idea was to create a network of luxury information from exclusive bloggers and the printed magazine content and couple it with premium level city guide content to drive the largest luxury living online network. Launched earlier this year, the site www.hauteliving.com has catapulted itself through a strategic SEO campaign and content building program to the top 50K of all US website traffic and built a very involved and loyal readership. The launch of the Haute Secrets, component earlier this month and the collective clout of the rich and famous names associated with it have further built the websites reputation and buzz and has helped to grow the sites traffic by more than 210% in the past 3 months.

Feel free to check out the Haute Secrets Guides in your city here and find out where Sir Richard Branson dines and Katherine Malandrino goes to get pretty…

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EMI, Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and Sony pull YouTube’s Teeth Out by Deindexing Their Video Content and Placing it on Their Own Proprietary Networks, Hulu and Vevo.

As music labels, film studios, newspapers and other traditional publishers struggle to survive in the ever changing landscape of the Internet and it’s “free content” model, 2009 ushered in the world wide war against free content. Most pundits initially looked upon Ruppert Murdoch’s “Crazy Eddie” strategy of de-indexing all News Corporation content, including both the New York Times and The New York Post as a bullying tax collector strategy of old that would not suit the new media model. But, as it turns out, it worked! That content has value. Google and Bing wanted it badly enough to pay for it. And over the past few months, as the model has shown increasing promise, most major publishing houses including those in film, television and music have taken note and found ways to work similar deals. While Sony, Universal and EMI have launched Vevo a video music network with the help of their YouTube/Google partnership, Warner Music Group joined it’s mother company, Warner Bros in the long list of music, film and television companies embarking on deals with Hulu. The end game solution for publishers is to de-index their existing video and textual content from major hubs including search engines like Google, Yahoo, Bing and YouTube, publish it exclusively on their own networks and charge the engines for access to index that content and push traffic back to their own networks. The value for the publishing houses is that now they have a central and controlled domain where they can aggregate all their copyrighted content. This means that publishers are now generating income for the indexation of content and pushing traffic in bulk back to their proprietary sites where they can sell advertising. It allows they greater control over their copyright information and, overtime, will help them to build large scale branded networks to feature their data on. Essentially, these publishers are building their own on demand TV, Radio and News networks where they not only generate revenue from advertising but also from the indexing of their content. This should be both a boon for publishers and content producers.

Resource: Hulu Tops 1 Billion Streams per Month!

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