August 17, 2010 by Mary Killelea

I am sorry it’s been so long since I have made an entry — business has been good and I’ve been busy with client projects!

But when I read about this I had to share it,

As you know Facebook is HUGE and the business pages are growing expontential in means of online marketing for companies. Now Facebook has made it even more valuable… with an effort to make business particpating in Facebook money there is a push for monetizing pages from within Facebook.  By utilizing shopping cart software built exclusively for Facebook, retailers can now sell products right on their Facebook pages - no need for users to ever exit Facebook.com.

These e-commerce platforms are still quite new, and users should be aware of the beta environment and possible bugs  and potential upgrades that they will have to prepare for when implementing. However, for those with large fan presences, these e-commerce platforms can be extremely beneficial. 

Greg Finn from Search land wrote a great article on this topic.  Read the article

April 21, 2o10 by Mary Killelea 

Facebook is near 500 million monthly unique visitors. The social network saw 484 million unique visitors worldwide in March, 2010, according to comScore’s latest estimate. That number is up 64 percent from a year ago, and up 22 million from just February, 2010. So basically it grew by about the size of Twitter’s entire U.S. audience in a single month.  Read more

If your company is not on Facebook you are missing out!!!  

April 20, 2010 by Mary Killelea 

Facebook is making a big change that will impact users once again. If you are a business with a fan page keep reading.

 The biggest change is that users no longer “Become a Fan” of a fan page. Instead they will now “Like” a page and people will no longer be listed as fans, but will be “People who Like This.” Facebook explains the change.

This is what Facebook has posted on fan pages: “Introducing the Like button — Starting today people will be able to connect with your Page by clicking “Like” rather than “Become a Fan.” We hope this action will feel much more lightweight, and that it will increase the number of connections made across the site. Learn more.

Why did “Become a Fan” change to “Like”?

To improve your experience and promote consistency across the site, we’ve changed the language for Pages from “Fan” to “Like.” We believe this change offers you a more light-weight and standard way to connect with people, things and topics in which you are interested.

What does it mean to “Like” a Page?

When you click “Like” on a Page, you are making a connection to that Page. The Page will be displayed in your profile, and in turn, you will be displayed on the Page as a person who likes that Page. The Page will also be able to post content into your News Feed.

Can I still “Like” a News Feed story about my friends Liking Pages?

No. When you see a Feed story about a friend Liking a Page, there will be no feedback links below that story. However, if you hover over the Page name, you will see a small preview of the Page and the number of other people who have also Liked that Page. You can then Like that Page to add it to your profile, or you can click through to the Page itself.

Is there a difference between “Liking” an item a friend posts and “Liking” a Page?

Yes. Liking a Page means you are connecting to that Page. When you connect to a Page, it will appear in your profile and you will appear on the Page as a person who likes that Page. The Page will also be able to post content into your News Feed.

On the other hand, when you click “Like” on a piece of content that a friend posts, you are simply letting your friend know that you like it without leaving a comment.

Read more on

Connecting profile interests to Pages

Profile connections

Community Pages

Privacy for connections

by Mary Killelea Dec 3, 2009  

With the incredible high user base, expect more Facebook changes to come…

Here is a excerpt from a recent letter to facebook users that Mark Zuckerberg the founder of Facebook wrote,

 ”Facebook has grown, some of these regional networks now have millions of members and we’ve concluded that this is no longer the best way for you to control your privacy. Almost 50 percent of all Facebook users are members of regional networks, so this is an important issue for us. If we can build a better system, then more than 100 million people will have even more control of their information.

The plan we’ve come up with is to remove regional networks completely and create a simpler model for privacy control where you can set content to be available to only your friends, friends of your friends, or everyone.

We’re adding something that many of you have asked for — the ability to control who sees each individual piece of content you create or upload. In addition, we’ll also be fulfilling a request made by many of you to make the privacy settings page simpler by combining some settings. If you want to read more about this, we began discussing this plan back in July.

Since this update will remove regional networks and create some new settings, in the next couple of weeks we’ll ask you to review and update your privacy settings. You’ll see a message that will explain the changes and take you to a page where you can update your settings. When you’re finished, we’ll show you a confirmation page so you can make sure you chose the right settings for you. As always, once you’re done you’ll still be able to change your settings whenever you want.”

Read the complete letter here: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=190423927130

by Mary Killelea October 28, 2009

Just like having a website it doesn’t matter if you have the coolest website or fan page you can’t expect people to just find you without putting in some effort .. you have to MARKET your business online. So here are some great tips on how to increase traffic to your fan page.Now this should go without saying but for those just getting into it.. REMEMBER is it very important to communicate regularly with the people who are interested in your company. Engage with them, respond and acknowledge them when they take the time to make a comment or to say hi.   If you are real and show them respect they will be more likely to share your business with their friends.

by Mary Killelea, September 14, 2009

You can now tag friends & Pages in status updates on Facebook Ex: tag your friend in your post. To tag Mary, start the post with @Mary (a drop down menu will appear so you can select which Mary - This is nice because if you use twitter you have to hope you remembered thier name correctly this feature helps you by providing choices.)

 Here’s how it works: when writing a status update in the publisher, users can tag connections by using the “@” symbol, just like on Twitter. Facebook pops up a dropdown menu that allows users to select any friend, Page, group, or event. When a friend, Page, etc, is tagged, that shows up on their wall. When you’re tagged, a notification is sent to you as well, and you can remove tags of yourself in others’ posts.

 What is great is that Facebook is enabling status tagging for all of a user’s Facebook connections – not just friends, but Pages, groups, and events as well. This means Page managers will now have a great new resource for tracking comments and feedback about their brand or business. Up until now, brands have been able to track posts and comments made on their Facebook Page directly by fans, as well as search public comments made by Facebook users through Facebook’s new real time search.

As of today, all @ tags will appear on the wall of the Page as well, even though users never visited the Page. The same applies to event and group administrators as well. That’s a big deal for Page administrators hoping to gain more insight into how they’re being talked about inside Facebook.

Now that I have your attention really the most important rule to remember when participating in facebook, my space, twitter, squidoo, linked in, merchant circle, hub pages and the other thousand of social networks that are taking over the internet is DON’T BE A PITCH PERSON, DON’T FOCUS ON SELLING YOUR PRODUCTS, SERVICES OR SELF. You need to be a real person and actually be a valuable addition to the communities that you join for anyone to notice of you. You need to earn the respect of your peers before any of them will become your customers.

If you are truly knowledgeable in your field, there are a long list of ways to gain followers, referrals and loyal customers. Over time you will have opportunities to introduce your products, services, and sell yourself, just be patient, take your time and know that people are watching your actions and it’s important to really want to enrich the communities you belong to. Contribute often but be selective of your contributions.  Ask yourself is what I’m adding  interesting to others, am I just talking about myself, my products, or services? If so, rethink what you want to add make if of value and interest.

If you want others to follow you, follow others. Join groups that you are interested in, not only professionally, but those that you personally have interest in.  Learn from others, watch those that are successful in your field and sit back and be an observer for awhile, track their actions and see how others respond to them.

Facebook is one of my favorite social networks, it’s powerful and robust! Tons of apps and tools you can use to grow your business. It’s important to set you profile up, contact info, relationships, personal info, education, work info and add a real photo of yourself for your avatar, no-one wants to see a picture of a squirrel they want to see you, a real person, this allows others to make a personal connection with you, which ultimately strengthens your relationship.

Once you have spent time building up your profile, joining groups, participating in groups, setting up your notification and watching and observing others interact, add the business pages app.  THIS is the magical tool to promote your products, services or self. Once you have set up your pages and made them rich with content become a follower of the page and watch others do the same.

If you are active in the Pay per click arena and you haven’t tried facebook ads yet I totally recommend using some of your budget in Facebook. as well.  Facebook allows your pay per click ads to reach an incredibly focused, targeted and active audience. If you try this path let me know what you think.

To sum up Social Networking can be a very powerful tool but if misused it can also be a very powerful tool in a negative way avoid becoming a spammer by following the good practices I have listed above. 

See you online.  Word tracker is calling my name, gotta go run some reports now. If you don’t have a facebook account yet .. go sign up for one now and look me up (Mary Killelea) and send me an invite to become friends and I’ll accept the invitation and learn about you and your interests.