I never had any interest or time for social networking sites until I found out that I can use them to market my small business. A friend set up a Facebook page under my name (not my business name) a couple of years ago, but I never used it. In the last week I set up a Twitter account in my business name (I don’t want to give out my personal or business name here – these are general questions so it’s not necessary to check them out to answer) and started posting classified ads on Oodle which I then published to Facebook and Twitter. I was happy with the results until . . .

I started getting requests from friends and acquaintances to be my "friends on Facebook. I knew that the more "friends" you have, the more the word gets about your business and the more validation and importance you have on Facebook. I accepted most of the friend requests and sent out several of my own to family members and friends.

Unfortunately, I "friended" a long-time friend who is retired, has a large bank account, and has a lot of time to post multiple long entries, photographs and videos on his Facebook page regarding his travels, political interests, and miscellaneous random thoughts. My Facebook page is now overrun with his entries and my ads are getting lost among them. Also, most of the family members I friended are in their 20’s to mid-30’s and are writing cute entries on their pages with the latest slang expressions describing music fests, job searches, wishes and hopes, etc. Needless to say, my page doesn’t look very professional now. I had no idea that entries my "friends" made on their own pages would show up on my page. "Defriending" these people is not an option.

I think I have figured out a fix. I can set up another page under my Facebook account in my business name; I want to do this correctly, so here are my questions:

1. A competitor has a facebook page under his own name and it has just his personal interests, activities, education, etc., — he doesn’t make any entries. He has 13 friends and no posts are showing up from their Facebook pages. I’m thinking the reason for this is that he specified that his Facebook page is a business page. I know a different set of rules applies to business pages. Or maybe other people’s Facebook entries don’t show up until you start making your own entries. What I want is a page that showcases my business and my classified ads and allows me to have "friends," but does not show posts that "friends" write on their Facebook pages. It may not be possible, but I would also like to deactivate the "Comments" feature that is under each ad to prevent my site from being "vandalized" by jerks or unhappy clients (unfortunately, sometimes I do business with someone who has unreasonable expectations — most of my clients are very happy and become repeat customers) posting negative comments about the products I sell. Is it possible to set up a Facebook page like this?

2. Do I need to go through any specific Facebook procedure to make sure that people can find my business Facebook page by typing my business name in their search engine without them having to go through my personal Facebook page? I think I will keep the personal Facebook page and just make a comment here and there every so often to keep in touch with family and friends (I accessed the Facebook page of a relative by marriage and discovered that it was her birthday, so I wished her a happy birthday and realized that this might be a good way to stay in the loop with family members and friends).

3. Do you have any tips or advice about business pages on Facebook? If so, please include them.

Thank in advance. I’m sorry this turned out to be so long.

For small business marketing purposes you need to set up a Facebook Fan Page. That is where you have control over what is posted and who posts. A personal Facebook page is just for social networking with friends, perhaps close clients to create stronger personal as well as business relationships.

If you don’t like the little applications, like the gifts and games, on your personal Facebook page you can always block those application. Just click on the application that’s on your profile and there should be a "block application" tab. you can block what ever applications you don’t want to show up on your profile. When it comes to the news feeds for your Facebook page, well that’s there so you can connect with your friends.

But for marketing and promoting your business you should start a fan page. You can start one by going to the menu on the left hand side on your "Home" page. There should be a tab called "Ads and Pages" click that.

You will be taken to a page where you can create a ppc ad for Facebook. There should be a little icon that looks like an orange flag called "Pages" (on the left hand side menu bar) click that and then choose what type of page you want to create. Small business, consulting, pets or whatever your business may be.

Facebook fan pages are for promoting your business, you can post any articles or blog posts you created, you can let customers leave reviews, link your twitter, YouTube accounts and your business blog to post to your fan pages as well as put out promotions for your product or service.

Be sure to customize your fan page with your business logo and brand it for your business that’s what its for. You can then invite your friends on Facebook to become fans of your business page as well as promote it on your website and through Facebook ppc to further grow your brand and business.

I hope this helps you with marketing your business on Facebook.

http://www.SmallBusinessSearchEngineMarketing.tk/ Small Business search engine marketing is essential for the Growth of Small to Medium Sized Businesses in their very competitive niches Online & Offline. If you have a Local Search Business it is imperative that your a leveraging the power of the Internet to get the most amount of potential customers and leads to you. Whilst leveraging Social Media & Video Marketing you have the ability to position yourself in the Eye of the Storm & on the 1st Page of Google. As your customers are no longer searching through the Yellow Pages, Thomson Local, Metro newspaper or the magazines it is vital that you can be found within the mediums that they are leveraging such as YouTube, Myspace, Facebook & Twitter.

Imagine your a potential customer looking for teeth whitening in their local town lets call it Bury. Even though Bury is in the major city of Manchester your customers will be searching directly like this:

Teeth Whitening Bury

It would make sense for a Dentist to have multiple 1st Page Rankings all talking about his Dental Practice therefore he would become the #1 Dentist in that area. This is the same for Local Search Engine Optimization as your adv cv cbertising needs to be targeted and effective. Remember Marketing is all about Branding, Positioning & Creativity therefore allow Capital-Visions to provide such innovation and brand equity for you.

How to market your Local Search strategies are essential and your skills should constantly be updated because the market is constantly moving and changing and you need to always position yourself in front of the wave. Small Business search engine optimization for Local Business has been around for a number of years but has never been as prolific and filled with opportunity as now. In the past small business search engine marketing SEO companies would brag about putting you on the 1st Page within 30 – 90 days but the game is changing and you MUST be at the forefront to gain mass exposure today.

Small Busines Search Engine Marketing Techniques for a Small Business can be found by working with a Marketing Internet Consultancy such as Capital-Visions as we are in the trenches everyday and have many years of experience to help and assist you.

Twitter Business Marketing has just evolved, did you know that you can actually find your customers with 2 easy searches with this medium and you can also have them following you daily so you become the HUNTED instead of the HUNTER?

Are you tapping into Local Search Engine effectively that is the question you need to ask yourself & if your sick of struggling on How to Market your Local Internet Business Online contact Capital-Visions for help on:

email: support@capital-visions.co.uk

tel:- 07527191665

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I run a small business and am in need of a more fully functioning website. We have a service style business (nothing will be actually sold online) and the website will be used for credibility and lead generation. I have extremely limited knowledge of web design and search engine marketing, but a great deal of work ethic and plenty of time to learn. What would be the best way to learn how to create a website (I have heard dreamweaver and photoshop are essentials… which would mean I need to learn HTML, CSS, and Java?) and learn how to do search engine marketing effectively for my local business? Any free options for learning would be great, but I am also willing to spend money on education and software (of course) if necessary. Thank you!!

This is tricky, and when I have someone saying "I want something professional, current, interesting, and pretty, but I want it to be optimized for search engines from the ground up, and I want it to interact with social media.." I just stop them and say "if you could do 40% of that on your own, you’d have a new day job that pays better."

Really if you "need" all that, get yourself on with an SEO savy web design company (http://www.moonrisedesign.com/ is the best I’ve found) that knows social networking. They will give your page a midas touch, even if you started with straw. I’ve seen people take pretty bad ideas to them and turn a profit with the results. Simply amazing what talent can do.

Given that you’re small and want to do it solo, you’re either going to compromise on your goals or you’re going to have to give in to one of the less professional options, like a blog or a CMS type site where you’ll get a lot of hand-holding but you won’t be able to go play on your own as much and your results won’t be much better than someone else using the same style service.

I had some good results recently with a project over at Joomla Shack (http://www.joomlashack.com/) using some of the Joomla templates they offer. It’s good open source stuff, rather portable, and for the most part you’re really not locked into anything. Great for the person with the time but not the mindset or the money.

Checking here is a great idea because you’ll get a good mix of experience/suggestions!

Good luck!

my friend runs a small taxi business and his adverts sometimes has the term "taxi" but he clearly says he operates on a PCO prebooking basis but all his customers are international and in countries round the globe the term Taxi is the only word they use in their vocablary and they do not know what a minicab is. He is not being akward but his adverts are designed for the international market and he advertises on google and Yahoo search engines which is seen internationally.
The law by PCO states you cannot use the word taxi

According to Private Hire Vehicle Act 1998, you are not allowed to use certain words in advertisement for private hire services.

A PHV operator must not use the words, taxi taxis cab or cabs or any word which is closely similar to these in advertisement in links to internet web addresses.

The fine is £2500.

However, you can use the word minicab or mini-cab.

Unfortunately, the parliament makes these acts, and even though you can challenge it, it is highly unlikely that the laws will be changed in your favour.

Hope it helps x

a new enterprise which offers digital marketing services to small and medium sized businesses in the UK.
This may cover but is not limited to web site design, search engine optimisation, pay per click advertising, social media marketing, online advertising and website analytics

DigiBaba

I’m a college student (graduating with a degree in marketing in a year) that does web design, etc. for fun and would like to do small jobs here and there for some extra money. I have read very different things about how much I should charge, so if anyone has any experience or insight, please help me out!

What should I charge for…
-Website Design (fairly simple ones vs. large complex ones?)
-search engine optimization (other than PPC)
-Hosting / Upkeep
-Logo Design
-Letterhead Design
-Business Card Design
-Marketing Plan

Thanks!!!

This is how much i would charge for my first years into this business as a freelance!
All prices are in CAD $.

-Website Design (fairly simple ones vs. large complex ones?)
simple from 200 to 1500 – large from 1500 to 20 000à

-Search Engine Optimization (other than PPC)
depends on keywords, influence, traffic, results, time, year, etc…
but around 500 to 10 000…good luck with this "in-between"!

-Hosting / Upkeep
9/ a year to 50/a month

-Logo Design
from 100 to 500

-Letterhead Design
this is cheap…i feel bad charging but i guess around 200

-Business Card Design
from 100 to 400

-Marketing Plan
from 500 to 50 000 depending on work/timespend/buyouts

If you want you can go check the price list on our site. It’s more business related but it will give you an idea!

Goodluck Mr. NewFreelancer,

Louis-Philippe Bellier
Consultant www / SEO
Ergonomie, E-Commerce
http://www.InoVision.ca