This is Guest Post by Sam Bakker

There has been much online debate concerning the true effectiveness of Facebook groups for businesses in comparison to fan pages. There are two main differences that distinguish one from the other. Facebook groups are typically business based and rely on engaging Facebook users through conversation about itself. This contrasts Facebook fan pages, whose main purpose for the majority is to see humorous or opinionated ideas. They have a laugh, click the “Like” button and share it with their friends by being associated with it.

I recall the first time I created a group page on Facebook for a local business. Much of my attention was spent making it look nice and clean. Expecting Facebook users to love my new page and support me for making it, I sent out requests to my 500 friends. Two days passed by with only 8 Facebook users signing up to my group… and half of them were related to me. In contrast to this, I witnessed a Facebook fan page go from no members to 80,000 within days. It got me thinking as to whether I had made the right decision by creating a group for my client’s business.

That incident got me thinking about the possibility of generating viral traffic with simple one-liners whether being funny or controversial. I had seen on many occasions these simple statements gather massive momentum. Just last week, I witnessed a fan page called “There’s always one friend who eats everyone’s gherkins in McDonalds” go from single figures to now 44,000 fans. And the title isn’t even funny!

Fan pages don’t have to be perfect; in most cases, it’s just a topic you know others are interested in. In my experience, group pages tend not to go viral unless it is a compelling page that offers value to the user. Fan pages on the other hand go viral on a regular basis, making them the perfect marketing tool for internet marketers like us.

The key is to figure out a legitimate system that works a fan page ‘til it’s on the verge of going viral. What I’ve found on Facebook is that it takes around 20,000 fans for a page to go viral, growing on an almost exponential level. With that in mind, 20,000 fans becomes our aim.

When I first started my Facebook group page I was unsure whether it was the right move to make. It was…however I learnt later is that a group on Facebook needs fans from various sources to succeed; the main one being “Facebook Fan Pages.” Once a fan page goes viral, your business can tap into an ever increasing number of users. This boosts performance and profitability. For this reason, Facebook fan pages should be the main strategy for directing fans to your business page, Fan pages are the most viral marketing tool available online. Your challenge is now: how do I build up 20,000 fans and put marketing on autopilot?

Sam Bakker has been making money online for the past 7 years. He owns a number of businesses including his new internet marketing website which he has just released. If you would like to find out more about Sam or making money online you can visit Sam’s internet marketing website.

If you want to solve most buzzing word “Social Media Optimization” here I am with you. I had make one presentation about “Social Media Optimization”

In this presentation you will find

• What is Social Media Optimization?
• Why Social Media Optimization is required?
• What are the possible media to promote it?
• How we can use this media / platform to promote our Blog / Website / Services? And this all in very simple language.

What is SMO?

Social media optimization (SMO) is a set of methods for generating publicity through social media, online communities and community websites. Methods of SMO include adding RSS feeds, social news buttons, blogging, and incorporating third-party community functionalities like images and videos. Social media optimization is related to search engine marketing, but differs in several ways, primarily the focus on driving traffic from sources other than search engines, though improved search ranking is also a benefit of successful SMO.

Why SMO ?

• Increase Internet Authority
• Branding & Brand recall
• Increase brand visibility
• Direct communication with prospect user / buyer / seller
• Reach to niche audience
• Latest way of marketing and promotions
• Stand out of the crowd
• Drive more traffic
• Back links

Election fever had started now in India and many people who are using internet regularly can see internet advertisement of L K Advani, Jaagore and some other leading politician of India. Now the question is that will this active campaign can change voters mind or can this provide more information about candidate / party or this will really turning point to get more influence?

As many people know news which is released before few days back that “Narendra Modi beats all in web popularity” . I feel this is just due to Modiji is spreading his brand vertically not horizontally. I mean to say that he was using all media including internet since long. Now this election gives idea to start their own site / blog as they had seen example of Barak Obama at USA and Narendra Modi at Gujarat.

If anyone wants to influence people for getting good votes then they must use this procedure:
(this all things done by political party’s / individuals IT team so don’t thing that any politician is going to do this)

• Promote your work / achievement and present the same in statistical manner or visual manner (I must say here : if any)
• Use social media like Facebook, Twitter up to the mark. If required make micro-blogging atomized.
• Join discussion forum and share your achievements
• Rather spending much on PPC spend it on Banners on specific sites like news site / leading portals / Social Network
• Spend on specific keyword for PPC. You also can make customized ads for different keywords.
• Use all media like News, Photos, Video, Podcast, RSS, Social Networking, micro blogging etc
• Make your site interactive, anyone can ask you question or anyone can post comments. This will give user personal touch.

Any political party or individual can influence voter if they can able to reach to voter and convey about their achievement and manifesto as they are going to target educated and young crowd.

Just check list of active websites which design by / for / about Election 2009 or Political personality (Sorted Alphabetically – suggest me if I am missing anyone)

• http://www.bjp.org
• http://www.congress.org.in
• http://www.jaagore.com
• http://www.lkadvani.in
• http://www.narendramodi.in
• http://www.soniagandhi.org
• http://www.thenarendramodi.info
• http://www.vkmalhotra.in

I think Internet Marketing, Social Media Optimization is necessary for all who want to get more audience if they are politicians or if they are business person.

What do you think? Share your view regarding this via comments.

Note: You can follow @Narendra_Modi , @vkmalhotra on Twitter

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