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Do you ever ask yourself: why should your business be on Facebook? Here’s one reason. Companies that use the power of Facebook for their business really stand out of the crowd.

Before you jump on top of Facebook, take note of this important rule: “your goal isn’t to be good at Facebook. Your goal is to be good at business because of Facebook”. In other words: if your good at business, Facebook will most certainly boost it even more.

If you’re ready to use Facebook for business, be sure to follow 3 important rules:

#1. Define clear business objectives

Every business needs clear goals to succeed. Facebook can support your business in many ways. To give you an idea, here are 8 clear goals to start using Facebook:

1. build a prospect list
2. send traffic to your blog
3. sell more products and services
4. increase registrations for events
5. increase contacts and media attention
6. get instant access to Joint Venture partners
7. establish yourself as an authority
8. improve your customer service

#2. Design your business strategy

Each strategy comes with its own set of rules. On what terms and conditions are you entering Facebook? Before you start on Facebook, design your business strategy. Facebook pages offer a great opportunity to successfully position your business and engage with your target audience. If you’re thinking about a Facebook page, be sure your plan includes 4 key elements:

1. brand management: decide how to promote the business’s products or services on your Facebook page
2. content strategy: design a plan for content creation and delivery
3. editorial calendar: decide on the frequency of posting on your Facebook wall
4. manage your customer expectations: be clear on what your Facebook fans can expect and avoid misinderstandings

To implement your business strategy on Facebook, you need the right resources. You need to think about 3 Key Roles:

1. Appoint a Social Strategist. Some one who is responsible for the overall definition  and execution of your social strategy.
2. Choose the best Community Manager who takes care of your customer facing interactions, reporting and content updates. It takes the right person with the right attitude to be successful on Facebook. Look for someone who primarily wants to work for empathy.
3. Look for a Professional Facebook designer with industry expertise for the creative execution of your brand page.

#3. Reserve sufficient budget

It takes time to build a successful business with Facebook. If you have no budget or time to create a prominent Facebook presence with a campaign, my advice would be, don’t do it! The size of your campaign budget is determined by 6 things:

1. the size of your target group
2. audience characteristics like age, gender, education, region,
3. the type of engagement
4. the type of advertising
5. the size of your campaign team
6. the time the campaign is running

Facebook is a great platform to engage with your target audience. Listen proactively and you will increase your customer loyalty to make your business stand out. There are a lot of tools to manage your Facebook conversations. You can read more about this in an article I recently wrote “Which Social Media Management Tool is Better for Your Business: Hootsuite or SproutSocial?“.

To conclude, start with clear business goals, define the right strategy and spend enough money on your Facebook campaign to become great at business because of Facebook.

Are you using Facebook for your business? Share your experience or questions in the box below.

Is Product Leadership the best choice for a better world

World leadership is about making the best choices for the world. I just listened to a recorded interview with Donald Trump, who reacted to a statement, made by President Obama. Here is more about that story…

On November 9 2010 President Obama was telling the world “we want China to succeed and prosper…and we are not interested in containing that process” (November 9 2010). Fox News collected Donald Trumps reaction to this statement. Mr. Trump called it “terrible, unbelievable, unthinkable and … an insane statement”. Watch the interview in the video below and make up your own mind about this. Do we create a better world if all our products are manufactured in China? Or, do we need product leadership instead of cost leadership for a sustainable future? The choice is yours. I am happy to hear your comment.

Source

The Power of “What if”

To design a successful business, LEARN to think “what if”. “What if” helps you think in possibilities and guides you with your BLUE ocean strategy. The BLUE ocean is a market place with “no competition”. This is the place where you want to be with your business!!! One example of a successful BLUE ocean strategy is the Wii by Nintendo.

Think as “a designer”

The Business Model Canvas is a great designer tool to create your business model. It is smart, easy to use and FUN to work with. But most of all, it helps you design a “successful” Business. A business model design is a perfect way to share your strategy with others and make changes that lead to success.

Start with “Why”

Why should anyone want to buy something from you / do business with you? Apple is one organization that follows the principle of Why. The Why Apple uses for its customers is: “let’s challenge the Status Quo”. Customers buy apple because it appeals to their why to “challenge the status quo”. Apple is very successful as you may know. To learn more about Why visit Simon Sineks Start with Why.