I’ve listened to Robert Grant of www.crowdconversion.com speak two nights in a row on the incredible power of Facebook’s new social plugins. What are these?

If you’ve been reading Internet marketing news in the last few days, you know that these new features have many people either very excited or very upset.

It seems to me that for marketers and researchers the new features are incredibly powerful; for people worried about privacy issues there are, indeed, new issues over which to worry.

Here are three sites I learned about from Robert Grant — sites that are using a form of the “like” social plugin:

The site http://likebutton.me enables you to see what your Facebook friends “like” by category. In a very easy-to-read format I was able to skim categories:

I spotted one cousin of mine who in the Vimeo category had shared British Pop (do not ask me who this is) and one cousin of mine in the YouTube category who had shared Duran Duran in Studio 2009 (recognized Duran Duran but not Studio 2009).

You have to try this site yourself – remember, it’s your Facebook friends’ likes.

Then I went to http://www.itstrending.com/ to check out this real-time feed of the most shared content on Facebook. This does not appear to be restricted to your Facebook friends’ likes.

And finally I checked out the video about the “like” option on the Levi’s jeans website — http://us.levi.com/home/index.jsp — and it is so obvious the Levi’s people “get” the power of Facebook’s new features.

Check out these three sites yourself. Then in the comments below let me know what you think.

© 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

FYI — And not to overlook Twitter, download a copy of my free report “Twitter, Facebook and Your Website: A Beginning Blueprint for Harnessing the Power of 3” at www.millermosaicpowerof3.com

Unless you choose a different option, when fans visit your Facebook page, it defaults to your Wall with just your posts showing. this option can be changed to default to one of the other tabs as well.  Better yet, you can make it default to a Static FBML-language (think HTML) based landing page of your choosing.

Picture a Promotional Web Page for you or your business ON FACEBOOK and it does whatever you like. It is a tab on the page, but when visitors stop by, it’s the first thing they see.

Here’s how to set up a static landing page for your Facebook Fan Page http://ow.ly/18Vme.

My good friend Lisa Hendrickson (Call That Girl) in Minneapolis has a great newsletter and this is from the most recent send.  I thought itg would be of a lot of interest to our audience. 

The “Koobface” virus (Facebook’s big virus) is at it again and this time, hitting the Twitter folks too.

If you want to get your computer protected before something bad happens to your computer, call Lisa to get some good tools installed. Remember…Norton Symantec, McAfee and most of the big box antivirus software do not catch these viruses!

If you think your computer already has a virus or feel there is something strange going on, Lisa can remove these viruses and give you real time protection before you get infected again. It’s also a good idea to have this protection for just general web surfing anyway. Websites are getting hit too, not just Facebook.

Short list of things to watch out for:

• Links sent to you from friends you don’t communicate often with
• Broken english in the messages
• Exciting messages (Check me out in this video I’m hilarious!)
• Email hackers (Change your facebook password to not be the same as your email password)
• Short website links instead of the full website link
• Wall posts from others that don’t seem normal or appear strange
• New Friends requests from people you don’t know in person

Lisa Hendrickson
Owner/Call That Girl
952-681-7969
info@callthatgirl.biz
http://www.callthatgirl.biz

Like many people, I started out on WordPress.com for my blog, it was sometime in 2008.  Built up a business blog too, also on WordPress.com.

Now, most people in the know think of WordPress.com as the “poor man’s” WordPress. They are not wrong. It is WordPress.org where things get interesting. You have to become a bit of an IT Manager, but it is worth it. Some people hire a vendor – even better idea. WordPress provides a basic migration tool that brings much of what you have created over to the “other side”.

Now for the interesting part…

The OLD blog site is still there and is still being found by search engines, by others.  It makes you look REALLY bad, and amazingly bad if you are in the Social Media business like us here at IA.

I had just such an incident happen yesterday so it hits real close to home. We actually had 4 old WordPress.com blogs out there that were like abandon cars. One very insightful individual did the most logical thing in thinking that it was the live site, even though the concert dates on the calendar were all really old.

There are always issues in shutting anything with a URL down.  We still have some hooks pointed back there so this is what we did to solve the problem:

1. For every Page or Post that you think you need to leave a link in place for, do so by making them Drafts and/or Private. The links still work. This might be a time to change/update the Post/Page a bit.
2. Simply delete out the other pages so long as you think their is no linking to preserve.
3. On the Home Page, have links and text and even a graphic to redirect them to the new site.
4. This is a conservative approach.  You can just shut them down if you like as well.

Here is an example of an old site that redirects to the new site.

So – here’s the hard-earned lesson:

Anything that you create – a profile, a blog, a web site, will be there until you do something to explicitly take it down. Be thinking about what YOU might have hanging around out there…

Facebook fan pages (not the same as your Facebook profile) offer powerful opportunities to promote your brand, book or business – IF you know how to effectively use these opportunities.

And it’s important to understand these opportunities BEFORE you create your Facebook fan page for your business. And here’s one important reason why:

I received an email from a friend asking me to become a fan of her page. I looked at the title of her page and realized that she’s missed out on a major opportunity. She used for her Facebook fan page title the same words as the URL of her business website.

But what she didn’t realize is that the title of her Facebook fan page can be 75 characters long and is searchable both inside and outside Facebook.

What does this mean? You want to utilize those 75 characters for keyword advantages.

The title of the Miller Mosaic fan page is: Internet Marketing Tips: Twitter, Book, Website, Blog, SEO, Video, Email and the customized URL is www.facebook.com/PowerMarketing (Note that the first has the keywords and the second is easy to remember as it is part of our company tagline.)

The title of a fan page can’t be changed (at this writing) so you have to start over again if you haven’t taken advantage of the 75 characters. And this is why it’s so important to learn how to effectively set up your Facebook fan page before you create it. (See our video/workbook package on how to do this.)

Then once you have your Facebook fan page set up effectively, you can begin to use Facebook ads to attract people who are interested in what your page offers.

Again, how to use Facebook advertising effectively is not very intuitive. I paid for a course to learn how to do this, and now I’m utilizing that knowledge as I test out different ads.

Do you have any specific questions on using Facebook fan pages and Facebook advertising to promote your brand, book or business? If so, leave your questions in the comments section below.

© 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is an Internet business consultant. Her new FREE report is “Twitter, Facebook and Your Website: A Beginning Blueprint for Harnessing the Power of 3 for Your Business” – grab your report now from www.millermosaicpowerof3.com

For TiE-Rockies’ Members, this is a FREE event. If you’re not a member, it is just $25 and you can pay at the door.

DATE: Tuesday, April 6, 2010, 2-4 pm.

Become a Rock Star on LinkedIn!
Repeat Event—Back by Popular Demand

Mike O’Neil and Lori Ruff, nationally renowned LinkedIn Rock Stars, will share inside guidance on how to extract the very most out of LinkedIn and avoid making costly mistakes along the way. LinkedIn is increasinging recognized as THE tool for business professionals and this event will help you get a real handle on it. This is a FREE event for TiE-Rockies members. $25 for non-members. Pay at the door. Register early – Space is very limited.

Get ready for an afternoon of high energy that, at times, resembles a classic rock concert.

Location:

Sales Productivity Consultants
2727 Bryant Street, Suite 230*
Denver, CO  80211
Phone 303-568-1500

Just West of I-25 near Speer Boulevard–this new facility for our trainings is larger with a more central location.
Parking is available in the main lot and on the street.

Please RSVP to me at RH@RaymondHutchins.com.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me.
Seating for 25 people.

Best regards,

Raymond Hutchins
Chair, TiE-Rockies Mentoring Committee

Click book image to download free report

Yet I also believe that there are some basic elements that, at this time in the evolution of social media marketing, are the most relevant for promoting your brand, book or business.

An effective marketing-driven website as a home base is needed for all online promotion activities. A website you control helps you integrate your social media activities with your overall message.

Given this, I believe Twitter and Facebook fan pages are the top two elements that should be integrated with your website. These three points of an online marketing strategy work well together to promote a brand, book or business.

And because of this belief I offer the free report “Twitter, Facebook and Your Website: A Beginning Blueprint for Harnessing the Power of 3 for Your Business” at www.millermosaicpowerof3.com

And, yes, I do also participate on LinkedIn, which I believe can have great value. Thus I’d like to share here the following LinkedIn message I received from a headhunter:

“I am curious though, as I was reading through your material and thinking about social networking and its relationship with websites, I was wondering why you didn’t include LinkedIn as one of the “powers.” After all, we are communicating via LinkedIn and came to meet each other via LinkedIn.”

It’s a good question, and here’s the answer I gave:

“Quick answer: LinkedIn can be very good for connecting with people. But in terms of overall power marketing for most people, Twitter, a Facebook fan page and an effective marketing-driven website are the important three elements in promoting their brand, book or business online. For people such as recruiters LinkedIn can be valuable for finding candidates, but that’s a different function than promoting.”

Bottom line? Using social media effectively to promote your brand, book or business requires a strategy. You need to know what target markets you are going after and where you are likely to connect with those markets.

In conclusion, while one size does not fit all, there are some basic elements that form a very good foundation on which most people can build their social media marketing strategy. If you are new to social media marketing, starting with the foundation elements is a good building plan.

© 2010 Miller Mosaic, LLC

Phyllis Zimbler Miller (@ZimblerMiller on Twitter) has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is an Internet business consultant. Her new FREE report is “Twitter, Facebook and Your Website: A Beginning Blueprint for Harnessing the Power of 3 for Your Business” – grab your report now from www.millermosaicpowerof3.com

I have had tremendous success networking at rock concerts recently, especially classic rock concerts – REO Speedwagon, STYX, .38 Special, Poison, Def Leppard, The Dead (Grateful Dead circa 2009), John Mellencamp, Counting Crows, The Police, etc. Best concert ever for networking – Australian Pink Floyd at the Paramount Theater!

Look around the audience and you see “your peers” all around you. They are Tweeting and they are LinkedIn and Facebook users as well.  These folks are having a great time and they love to meet people that share their same interests.  In this case, it is their interest for music and it is EXACTLY the same musical taste as YOU.  How powerful is that?

So, here are some tips for making the most of it:

1. Wear a concert T-Shirt to a concert. I suggest one that is from an artist of the same genre.  I recently wore a Pink Floyd shirt at a Counting Crows concert. A Tie Dye is a must for a Dead show of course.

2. Bring your camera phone and take pictures at the show.  Ask others around you to take pictures with you in them.  Best part – offer to e-mail the pictures to them.  Of course, you will need a business card from them or at least an e-mail address and that is where the networking starts.

3. Get good seats down front. People in decision-making roles do not sit in the back.

I try to talk to people who start a chat with me on Facebook.  I’m an open networker and will typically know most people I friend on Facebook, but some are just connections on LinkedIn. One such person “Bruce Snowdeal” started a chat with me this afternoon. He quickly moved to the scam. Here’s the conversation copy/pasted from the facebook chat:

Bruce

hi

4:12pmLori

hey bruce

4:13pmBruce

how are you doing?

4:16pmBruce

are you there

4:21pmLori

yep

on phone on and off

4:22pmBruce

lori, I’m in some kind of deep shit right now!

4:24pmLori

why?

4:25pmBruce

I’m stranded in london got mugged at gun point last night
all cash,credit card and phone were stolen

4:25pmLori

that’s funny

4:25pmBruce

why did you say that

4:25pmLori

because that’s how all the scam messages start… have you seen the commercials?

When I tried to chat back and ask why he was in London, I got a message “you do not have permission to chat with this user.”  So, I clicked through to his page… the wall was turned off so no one can write on it, but he listed his websites and his LinkedIn profile. There were also pictures and family albums.  I’m not saying he wasn’t in London, but come-on. If he was really in that kind of trouble, would he be chatting with me on Facebook or calling his credit card company for help?

So I did what every good and promiscuous networker would do: I removed him as a friend on facebook and from my connections on LinkedIn (http://www.linkedin.com/in/brucesnowdeal).

Having said all that, my Yahoo account was hacked last week and a link to a Canadian pharmacy was sent to every one of my connections.  It was incredibly easy to go through the process of telling Yahoo that my account had been compromised. The only information I needed to know was information that was publicly available. Scary… on all fronts.

I guess what this post is about then is to be careful. Bruce, if you’re out there and you’re real, I hope you get things straightened out. If you really are a scammer, karma will take care of you. And for the rest of us, don’t be afraid to be online, but use care and common sense just as you would in the real world.