Why Facebook for Business?

With over 750 million active users on Facebook, it’s a bit of a hard medium to pass up when trying to reach an audience. Granted, these people are quite diversely spread around the world which may not be of much use if you’re focused on selling curtain rods in Wandsworth.

Facebook however does have the added benefit of being able to drill down into very specific sections of the community for highly targeted advertising. But if annoying people with sidebar ads isn’t your thing, a cheap (read: free) alternative is to create a Facebook Page for your business. Why do this? Let’s find out.

Facebook Pages Vs. Facebook Groups

According to Facebook’s own statistics, the average user has 130 friends and is connected to 80 community pages, groups and events. It doesn’t take much extrapolating to realise that if you want a low-cost way to reach out to an audience, a Facebook page for your business may not be a bad idea.

Both Facebook Pages and Facebook Groups are free to create, so already you don’t have much to lose other than the lunch hour it will take you to create your new online presence. The main difference between the two is that Facebook Pages can be viewed by Facebook’s entire network, Facebook Groups however can only be seen by registered users of that particular group.

In a bit of a nutshell, Groups comprise of “members” while Pages comprise of “fans”, and really, who wouldn’t like a few more fans telling them how awesome they are? Facebook Groups can work better for organisations trying to raise awareness of a specific cause, as it collates like-minded people together.

Facebook Pages will maximise your reach by not excluding any users from seeing all activity on that page, and once someone becomes a fan all of their friends are notified about this on their News Feed.

Benefits of Your Business on Facebook

Facebook’s reach allows you to potentially reach out to new clients while maintaining relationships with existing customers.

You can instantly update everyone with any new products, services or competitions without having to liaise with a third party agency to get your message out there.

A Facebook Page works brilliantly as well for any promotions or competitions you want to run. People are more likely to Like your Page and spread the word if there’s something in it for them. By running a competition for the person who provides you with the most Likes, you can easily tap into those myriads of users Facebook is known for.

The more you engage with your Fans, the more your Page will be active and “Liked”. On your Wall settings you can allow Fans access to post on your front page which is great for interaction- just make sure you continually moderate the site to avoid any offensive comments being posted. By publicising the good and the bad of what people communicate with you, you start a dialogue and as close to a meaningful relationship to your clientele as you can get. Especially if you address the negative comments in a way to show that you’re taking on board constructive criticism.

Also by having a Facebook presence, you are showing yourself to be up to date with technology and can create a voice for yourself as a leading authority within your industry. If you want to take your Page further, you can use it as part of a wider PR campaign for your business.

Downsides to a Business Facebook Page

Your Facebook Page needs to be an active part of your marketing campaign. If you don’t update your Facebook Page at least once a week (once a day is even better) you’re not going to get much market traction because people won’t get involved with something that is static. A Facebook Page with a last update a year ago is worse than having no Facebook Page at all.

You will also need to monitor the Page to ensure any offensive comments by your fans are moderated. Again, a Page that is full of insults to your business or is offensive to your Fans obviously will do more harm than good.

Why a Business Page is Better than Straight Advertising

Apart from the obvious monetary benefits of not having to shell out any cash upfront to set-up a Facebook Page there are a few other Page plusses over traditional advertising streams.

You can personalise your page to your business by uploading photos, videos, applications and shout out messages to all of your fans.

The Page also provides a means of communication with your customers, if you respond to people who write on your Page’s wall, you can actually create something close to meaningful dialogue which will showcase your customer service skills.

How to Create Your Business Page

Finding the link to create a Facebook Page can be a bit tricky, as Facebook has done a great job at not placing it anywhere prominent on its site. To create a page, wander over to:
https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

The first thing you’ll have to do when you venture over to Facebook to actually create your page is to decide what you are. Facebook offers pages for:

• Local businesses or places
• Company, Organisation or Institution
• Brand or Product
• Artist, Band or Public Figure
• Entertainment
• Cause of Comminute

Simply click on your category, fill in your details and you’ll then be asked to log into an existing Facebook Account or click “I do not have a Facebook Account”, and voila, you will find yourself with one Business Page! Keep in mind though that once you’ve created your Page you won’t be able to change your business name or category so make sure you’re typo-free before submitting your details.

Facebook now helpfully uses popup screens to help you navigate your way around your new Page, and to let you know what details and updates you can post to the world. Kick this off by clicking on the “Get Started” button under your image.

You can upload a main image which could be a logo or a picture representing what it is your business does. You can also include some info on why you’re awesome in the “About” section. Make sure you also include your website URL as well in case any visitors are so taken with your Page they want more information.

Once you have a few things happening on your Page, you’re going to want some people to get involved with it. An obvious way to kick off your fan base is to share your Page with as many people as you already know, asking them to Like your Page.

If you have a storefront, create a sign so that your customers know that they can Like you on Facebook for special deals. If you have a website, add a Facebook badge to your site so that people can instantly click through to your Page. If you have a Twitter or MySpace Account as well, network with these platforms to consolidate your presence online. There are a number of ways to get your new page out there, do as many as you can for maximum impact!

To keep tabs on how well your Page is going, you can click on the “View Insights” tab on the right side of your Page. This provides you with info such as how many “Likes” you’ve amassed, and can change the timeframe you’re interested in to compare this on a day-to-day basis. It’s not quite as thorough as Google Analytics but it’s not bad.

Your Facebook Page

The more you engage your Fans, the more your Page will work for you. Facebook has given you a two-way street to speak to and listen to your customers. Remember all of those old-school “We Welcome Your Comments” forms that never got returned without an obscure drawing scribbled on it? No more do you have to decipher hieroglyphic-esque handwriting to give your customers a chance to air their opinion! Used correctly, Facebook Pages can be an extremely effective tool in your Marketing arsenal and best of all (don’t tell the agencies this), it’s free.

Why And How To Create A Facebook Page For Business is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Extension are like add-ons; little pieces of software to help you organise, share and in general make your surfing time more fun and quite often more productive.

Well, we’ve trawled the Chrome store to fine the best of the best. If you have any suggestions please do add them to the comments section.

Tweetmeme’s re-tweet buttons can found on over 175,000 websites and are seen by an estimated half a billion people every day. But it’s annoying when a cool site doesn’t have that lovely green button.

Well, if you download the Tweetmeme Chrome extension you can take a mini tweetmeme re-tweet button with you wherever you travel around the big World Wide Web.

The button provides live tweet counts for millions of URLs across the web, right in your Chrome toolbar. You can easily tweet any page in just a few clicks, with the capability of editing the tweet before it’s sent.

Panic Button

Have you ever been looking at a website you weren’t meant to at home or at work? Of course you have. Some of us just can’t help checking Twitter, Facebook or Youtube for bit a rest-bite from the daily grind of work.

Well, let us introduce you to Panic Button. With a click of the button you can hide all of those naughty tabs meaning you won’t get caught out by the boss, or worse, mum and dad when they are spying over your shoulder.

Another click on the PanicButton restores all of the tabs you have hidden earlier. You can also make use the handy PanicButton’s keyboard shortcut. Just press F4 to hide and restore all your tabs.

RSS Subscription Extension

One feature lacking in Google Chrome is a built-in feed reader, RSS Subscription Extension looks to rectify this glaring omission. Whenever you land on a page that contains a RSS or Atom feed you will be greated with a orange RSS icon appears in the address bar. This will then add it to your Google Reader.

Official Facebook Extention

The official Facebook Chrome Extension is the perfect way to keep up to date with your Facebook. It shows you your alerts and notifications in a snazzy drop down box.

So, instead of leaving a browser window logged into the site all the time, Facebook users can now rely on this Extension to alert them when anything is happening.

This Chrome Extension alerts users when someone comments on their wall or posts, invites them to local events, posts to group pages, sends a friend request and sends a new personal message.

Shareaholic

Shareaholic is the perfect tool for anyone who loves to share.  You’ll find every bookmarking/blogging/note taking extension integrated into this one sleek and fast mega extension. You can share stuff to Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Evernote, Delicious, Instapaper, Digg and even blog it, all from one simple all-in-one browser extension and it won’t slow down your browser either. What else? It will automatically short the URLs for you using your very own bit.ly account and you can also use the keybaord shortcuts with it too.

Awesome screenshot

For most people who want to take a screen shot and do some quick annotation they have to press the screen shot button, open paint and annotate the picture.

Or even more annoying CMD + Shift + 3  for apple users, and then use a photoshop app to make some notes. It’s all rather clunky and annoying.

Awesome Screenshot is an extension that does what it says.  You can capture the whole page or any portion, annotate it with rectangles, circles, arrows, lines and text, even blur the sensitive info (which you should be doing), and then last but not least the very awesome feature of one-click upload to share.

AdBlock Plus

Do you get annoyed with pesky ads? You know the ones that just pop out of nowhere and annoy you. Well, fear not as you can now get the AdBlock Plus. It’s seen as the devil dressed in software by advertisers, but the software which has made the jump from Firefox will block banners, popups and layer advertisements as well as disable ads on Youtube.  With over 100 million downloads to boast about it is the go-to extension for all your advertising woes.

StayFocused

Stayfocused pretty much does what it says. Makes you focus. If you’re easily distracted by the fruits of the internet – you might want to try your hand at Stayfocues as it comes to the rescue with a nagging ‘Shouldn’t you be working? prod.  It does this by  timing you out of sites you get to block yourself.

Were you determined to stay on Facebook for 10 minutes only? The add-on will force you to do this and websites cannot be unblocked until the Daily Reset Time has passed.

Gaj-it’s Top 8 Google Chrome Extensions is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

The world’s most popular Mp3 aggregator is The Hype Machine and they have finally launched the long awaited iPhone app.

If your not familiar with Hype Machine, here’s a little catch up, set up by Anthony Volodkin in 2005 – he’s done what Google did for searches, for Mp3 blogs. He was even awarded 30 internet visionaries under 30 to watch out for by Time Magazine.

Blogs are chosen to be listed on the website by their team of astute music editors , and then when a music blogger posts a track it ends up on the Hype Machine.

Here’s when it gets interesting, when you listen to a track you can click the heart button, this will then post the track to your twitter account, over the week the hearts are added together and this is how the site generates it ever-popular taste making charts.

Nowadays if an artist gets a number 1 on the Hype Machine this is like getting a number 1 in the real charts, sure they don’t get any money from the listing, but it does mean the world and the blogosphere is listening to that track more than any other in the world.

And therefore bookings and records deals are surely only a matter of time, it’s essentially listing future artists and tracks that will becoming house-hold names over the next 6-12 months. Hence the name the Hype Machine.

The new app promises to take your favourite music blogs and turns them into radio stations that you can listen to over 3g and Wi-Fi. And better still the site made the leap to HTML 5 – which means you can use the site on tablets and phones. And as a sleek app from today.

If you like the track your listening to, you might want read the accompanying blog post to find out more about the artists and other artists that have been featured by that music blog –  if the track is available on iTunes you can buy the track at the click of  a button.

The music is grouped into stations, including Latest, Popular and genre-based stations. Blogs can also be browsed by genre or alphabetically, and there are personalised stations including My Mix – which serves up recommendations based on favourite blogs and Hype Machine usage – and My Friends, which is the music liked by a user’s friends.

“This is The Hype Machine evolved into a lean back, non-stop rich radio experience. There is no artist or song search or on-demand playback, but you won’t miss a thing,” promises the App Store listing.

The Hype Machine has revolutionise the way people discover new music and if you haven’t tried it you are missing out on one of the best website around. We recommend that you check it and start using the app – as there’s a wealth of amazing music, great writers and it’s free once you bought the app for a very reasonable $2.99 or £1.79.

http://hypem.com

Available on iTunes now.

The Hype Machine Finally Launches iPhone App is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

The new online fashion shopping site aims to bring something new to the market, with presentation being an important factor for the site. Much of the site can be navigated through categorised styles. The styles are split up between Celebrity, Designer, Blogger, Retailer, Trend, and Style Genre categories which can be ‘followed’ to track any changes or new products in in the categories.

One notable features of the site is the “shop in the style of…” option which can allow you to dress just like your favourite celebrities, where you can focus on styles and designers favoured by those celebrities. Notable celebrities to appear in the launch include the Olsen Twins and Ashlee Simpson.

If you want to avoid being categorised, you can use the sites search feature which will help you find specific items if you wish. Most of the site’s products hyperlink to other websites which sell the piece of clothing you may want to buy.

There is also a “Your Boutique” feature which allows users to build up their own style which can be commented and viewed by other members of the site if you’re feeling brave and open to both praise and criticism for your fashion sense.

The launch of this site also means that doing searches over Google will turn out much more precise, as opposed to the risk of being bombarded with fodder or potential unreliable sites from the search engine. Also, if the third party site linked to the piece of clothing you want is looking a little pricey using Google to specifically search for the item you want will help you find the best deal possible.

Notably, the site runs pretty smoothly despite the content already being quite high, and gives you that little bit more patience with shopping for clothes online. Although fashion isn’t necessarily a one-gender focused thing, the site is undoubtedly aimed for women and men looking to shop for clothes would be best off elsewhere. If you’re a frequent online fashion shopper, Boutiques will definitely be one site to consider in the future.

Via: Style Clone

Google Launch Boutiques: A New Fashion Shopping Site is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Here is the good news for the gamers. OnLive has just announced scrapping its monthly fees. The cloud gaming service has introduced new system where you are only required to pay for PlayPasses to gain access to a game for three days, five days or for full access. Alternatively, you can choose to buy a full game, which will also offer support for minimum 3-years after its release on OnLive. Apart, from this, now the service has free instant-play demos, free Brag Clip™, messaging and friending.

On its blog, the company has disclosed that they hoped to use this model all along, however, they were reluctant to make any announcement before ascertaining its feasibility. The new model will help users in choosing the way they want to use this service, whether they want to have full access or merely want to friend other gamers or want to spectate games in the Arena. Now, this is a model which needs to be replicated by other service providers as well. Happy Gaming.

Source: Engadget

No Monthly Fee for OnLive Gaming is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

If your an avid gamer on your PC you’ll have more than likely come across Valve’s Steam online gaming platform.  Steam is a digital games store that allows you to download and play the latest games for you PC, but now you can do all this on your Mac.

With more than 1,000 games and 25 million user accounts, Bringing the service to Mac’s means a wider selection, quicker updates and more episodic content for Apple’s traditionally game-deprived computers.

If you sign up to the new gaming platform before the 28th May you will be rewarded with a free game.  The game in question is Portal, a puzzle-based first person shooter, which has won many awards for its unique gameplay.

Other titles that you should expect to see include; Team Fortress 2, Counter Strike, Left 4 Dead 2 and Portal 2 which will see a simultaneous release on Windows and Mac this Christmas.

Valve isn’t the only PC developer with a strong, engaged fan base looking to Mac. Telltale Games, creator of the episodic Sam & Max games, announced last month that it would be moving to Mac, even inviting fans to vote on which of its games should be ported over first.

If you are already a member of steam on the PC you can start playing your games on both platforms, which is a great feature for those of you have already bought some games on your PC.

New games will follow every Wednesday from now on – “each designed to highlight specific functionalities of Steam on the Mac”.

Valve also announced that native OS/X support for the Source engine is available now, as is the Steamworks suite of tools – so bedroom game designers can start making games straight away. And you never know you may get the game published something which also happened to the makers of Portal.

Steam is no longer a big deal to PC gamers who are accustomed to it, but it certainly is to Mac gamers who’ve never enjoyed Mac gaming digital distribution done well. Besides, it’s fun being able to download Call of Duty from the couch as opposed to going off to the shops to grab it.

Via Steam and Zath

Steam Now Available on Mac: Sign Up Before May 28th and Get Portal for Free is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Ever thought that Princess Leia just isn’t pretty enough? Or that Harrison Ford’s moody good looks don’t make for a good Hans Solo?

Well now you can put your own face in the frame and step into the stormtrooper fighting boots of Luke Skywalker and pals with JibJab’s special celebration of the 30th anniversary of the third (sixth…) Star Wars film. Using a similar technique to when South Park features real people you can upload a photo of yourself and your friends, hinge your jaws, and star in a (very truncated, slightly comedic) version of ‘The Empire Strikes Back’.

It’s pretty fun actually, selecting the exact right photo (a tip I’d give is to not zoom in too much on your face – include your ears! And try to get a photo where you’re looking straight at the camera. I always turn slightly away when someone photographs me, and it just looks a bit odd as you can see from the screenshots below). You can even sync it straight to Facebook and share your creation for everyone to comment on.

Unfortunately, if you want to do any of the other Star Wars films, you do have to subscribe which means paying. Same if you want to download your end result (otherwise I would be YouTube linking to the version I made staring myself, my boyfriend and my brother). But if you just want a way to kill 10 minutes at the office and make your boss into backstabbing Lando Calrissian (I don’t care if he comes good the traitor) then head on over to JibJab and have a play.

Use the Force and Star in Star Wars : The Empire Strikes Back is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

According to the latest traffic statistics from Hitwise, the social networking site accounted for 7.07 per cent of all web visits against 7.03 percent for Google, for the week ending March 13, 2010.

There seems to be no stopping Facebook, which has seen its market share increase by 185 per cent since this time last year.

The popular social networking site further reached the 300 million user mark last year, and can thank annoying games including Farmville for its recent surge in traffic.

Hitwise analyst Heather Dougherty said in a blog post that this feat wasn’t a first, with Facebook previously topping Google last Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day.

“The market share of visits to Facebook.com increased 185 per cent last week as compared to the same week in 2009, while visits to Google.com increased nine per cent during the same time frame,” she said.

But do these statistics, as impressive as they are, mean that Google is on the wane?

Not quite when you look at how each site is monetising their enormous share of web traffic.

While Google runs a profitable business model that reports $23 billion in sales annually, Facebook is still testing out means of advertising and is considered a start-up company with Forbes.com valuing it around the $11 billion mark.

The last time Google fell to the number two spot for a full week was in September 2007, when it fell behind MySpace, which has since declined in popularity after Zuckerberg came on the scene.

Do you Facebook more than you Google? Leave us a comment and let us know.

Facebook Overtakes Google As Number One Site is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Please Rob Me works by searching for updates from the online game Foursquare, which allows users to “check in” to different locations through GPS on their smartphones.

These locations can then be automatically updated to Twitter, which is where PleaseRobMe steps in.

The site then lists robber opportunities when it appears someone is not home- with avatar and all so you can even identify the person you’re robbing.

The website’s Dutch developers said that they designed Please Rob Me to prove a point about the dangers of sharing personal location information on the inter-web.

“It started with me and a friend looking at our Twitter feeds and seeing more and more Foursquare posts,” said Boy Van Amstel, one of PleaseRobMe’s developers.

“People were checking in at their house, or their girlfriend’s or friend’s house, and sharing the address – I don’t think they were aware of how much they were sharing,” he said.

The developers said that Please Rob Me only took a few hours to create.

“It’s basically a Twitter search – nothing new,” Mr Van Amstel said.

“Anyone who can do HTML and javascript can do this. You could almost laugh at how easy it is.”

Despite the site’s domain name, Mr Van Amstel said that the site should not be used for illegal purposes, which is kind of like Mc Donalds telling you to go for a run after you get through a large Big Mac meal.

“The website is not a tool for burglary; the point we’re getting at is that not long ago it was questionable to share your full name on the internet. We’ve gone past that point by 1000 miles,” he said.

While there may not be such a thing as safe location-sharing at the moment, Please Rob Me at least makes us aware of the security risks involved the next time you Tweet from Amsterdam.

Do you often share your whereabouts online? Leave us a comment and let us know.

Please Rob Me Site Reveals Foursquare Twits is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com

Now before you start thinking this is going to cost you an arm and a leg or you will have to sell you soul to the film renting devil then think again, as online movie rental company, LoveFiLM is offering you a chance to try out this service absolutely FREE for 14 days!

So what’s the catch? Well, there isn’t one? All you need to do is register and make use of this great offer for all you movie watching fans out there! Click on the link here to register for your 14 Day Free LoveFilm subscription and start testing out the service.

After the 14 days free trial you are able to either cancel your subscription (subject to terms and conditions) or you can carry on with your subscription for £3.99 per month. Also, if you’re looking for less commitment with LoveFilm then they do also offer a pay as you go plan for auto and manual top ups.

Lovefilm 14 Day FREE DVD Trial – Rent or Download Movies Free for 14 Days is a post from: UK Gadget and Tech News, Reviews and Shopping Site - Gaj-It.com