The changes are an expansion, enhancing the current offerings. What you have been doing for your business or your clients, you will still be able to do. The new offerings are designed to boost fan engagement, and so the possibilities are extremely exciting.

Let me walk you through some of the new offerings and changes…

Overall Changes in Ad Platform

The ad process will begin with a page post. So if you are managing ads for yourself or your client, you will post to the page directly first, and then form your ad from the post. Anything that can be a page post can be turned into an ad. There will be more information about the specifics of this next week, but it’s an interesting development and one that gives more choices.

This includes:

• Pictures
• Videos
• Status
• Question
• Link
• Event

There are many features in the platinum ad offerings that will enhance community engagement, like fans being able to comment directly into the ad, which will be seen by their friends who are fans of the site.

It is also being rumored that Facebook will only display the first 90 characters of an ad. So you’ll want to pull out an eraser because you’ll have a bit more than half a Twitter post to craft your copy.

Bottom Line

Facebook has been reaching new record earnings. They don’t want this to go away!!

From everything that is coming across my desk, I see expanded opportunities for both business owners and Facebook advertisers. For 99% of the companies and people I work with, you will still be able to do exactly what you have been doing. I am very excited about the possibilities for our members, coaching students and clients.

Let me know what questions or concerns you have, and I’ll address them via blog post or video following the announcement, next Wednesday.

Fun times ahead, that’s for sure!

Here you have my take on the Facebook ads changes.

If you would like to use this article on your web site, please make sure that you use my resource box as the source.

Jennifer Sheahan is the founder of The Facebook Ads Lab, a full-service ads agency specializing in Facebook PPC ads. The FBAdsLab provides ad campaign management, training, and mentor programs for marketers. The goal of the FBAdsLab is to help business owners learn all they need to know to be successful in advertising on Facebook; to take control of their traffic so they can stay ahead of their competition and be leaders in their field. Helping people understand Facebook marketing and delivering outstanding results are the most crucial aspects of the FBAdsLab mission.

http://www.fbadslab.com/insights

This past August, Facebook rolled out a new targeting option for ads.

We’ve always been able to target by location, but could only get as specific as city. Now we can advertise directly to users in specific neighborhoods using zip code targeting.

So far, this feature appears to only be available to US advertisers, but I can only imagine this will expand to other countries soon.

Who Can Benefit from Zip Code Targeting?

Right off the bat, I can think of a few particular groups that will benefit the most.

• Small Local Businesses Looking for Hyper-Local Traffic
• A cafe looking for lunchtime foot-traffic from neighboring office buildings.
• A corner grocery store wanting to advertise only to those in its neighborhood.
• A taxi company looking to target users in remote areas of the city where public transportation isn’t available.
• Realtors who want to increase business in certain areas

Nationwide or Citywide Chains With Local Branches

Larger chains that may have several branches in one city can advertise directly to those in neighboring areas. This is ideal when certain branches are just opening or are struggling to gain clients, while others are more established and not needing to advertise.

Political Candidates

Zip code targeting allows even more control over who ads are delivered to.
Residents in the eastern part of the city worried about crime control? Deliver a ‘Tough on Crime’ ad.
Residents in the western part concerned about high property taxes? Roll out your ‘Reduce taxes’ ad.

Religious Institutions

Why target the entire city when you know most of your parishioners will want to attend a church nearby?

Schools

Doing some fundraising? Why not reach out to nearby homeowners, and not just the parents of your students?
Looking to increase enrollment, or get the word out about an upcoming registration deadline? Use zip code targeting to replace or supplement email and door-to-door campaigns.

As if Facebook didn’t have enough targeting options already! I’m not complaining, mind you.
Is it possible that eventually we’ll be able to target by street? By what school our children attend? By what places we’ve checked into?
What do you think is next in terms of location-based targeting?

Having a food drive or looking for donations? You’re much more likely to receive a response from those in your own neighborhood with whom you’ve already established credibility.

These are my tips on using zip code targeting for your advertising.

Jennifer Sheahan is the founder of The Facebook Ads Lab, a full-service ads agency specializing in Facebook PPC ads. The FBAdsLab provides ad campaign management, training, and mentor programs for marketers. The goal of the FBAdsLab is to help business owners learn all they need to know to be successful in advertising on Facebook; to take control of their traffic so they can stay ahead of their competition and be leaders in their field. Helping people understand Facebook marketing and delivering outstanding results are the most crucial aspects of the FBAdsLab mission.

http://www.fbadslab.com

Everyone knows that for efficient marketing, you need a great Facebook fan page. But how do you create a custom Facebook fan page, one that separates itself from other fan pages, and one that will bring you the fans that you want and need? Here are a few tips on creating a Facebook fan page, one that is truly awesome.

Set Up The Page Correctly

First, you need to make sure the page is set up correctly. Anyone can get on Facebook and fill out the forms, but you need to think about the visual look of your page. If you are a business, you want to put your logo on the page. But if you are an author or other entertainer, you want to highlight your brand, which is you (or your band). You don’t want to put up a picture of your book, you want a nice picture of you! Within the pages you can highlight your books or music, but on that first page, you want a good impression of who YOU are. You can also set up fan pages for each individual book, or CD, and so on, but first and foremost, you want to highlight yourself. This is the time to brag about you!

Fill Out Your Content Correctly

One of the big mistakes that people make when they set up a Facebook fan page is that they don’t think about what their content tells people. You have to think like a marketer, and think what your fans want to know about you. When you fill out your biography, don’t just put mundane details about yourself. Instead try to make your biography and other details fun. For example, I like to collect autographs, so I don’t just say that, I say that when I’m not chasing players for their signature, I write novels. It’s a little twist, but it’s catchy, and it will stick with your fans.

Know What Applications To Use

This is a lesser known piece, but it is critical for a great Facebook fan page to have the appropriate applications in use. In order to know this, you have to think about the population you are trying to target. If you’re a business, you need to have applications that work what you are selling. For instance, coupons and offers to sell your product.

But if you are an author, band, or other entertainer, you want a fan page that will highlight your books, music, or other things. There are numerous applications that allow your fans to write reviews, which is great for advertizing your works. You can also use events to let users know about your schedule. There are applications that let you load YouTube videos, connect to Twitter, and to blogs. These types of interactions with your fans will help your Facebook fan page to grow.

Final Thoughts

Fan pages succeed when they entertain fans. But you also have to think like a marketer, which can be a difficult process if you have never been trained like a marketer. If you would like more tips on how to create a Facebook fan page, visit here for more tips. Remember, you CAN have a great Facebook fan page!

If you enjoyed this article and would like several more FREE tips, go to fanpagemagic.weebly.com for more valuable information.

Renee Pawlish is an author of Nephilim Genesis of Evil, and The Reed Ferguson mystery series, and other books. She also consults with authors and other entertainers, helping them learn how to effectively market their books or music.

Finding the perfect place for showcasing products, services and websites for free is every business-minded netizen’s dream. Thankfully, Facebook has made this “dream” a reality. With over half a billion users and thousands of fan pages and online communities to check out, the popular social media platform has brought potential clients closer to home.

It’s no longer a secret how Facebook is crucial in online marketing. Nonetheless, many people believe that a single register is enough. For marketers, this is not enough. There is so much more to Facebook marketing than just putting up your profile. Keeping your fans involved is the ultimate key. In this article are six powerful Facebook marketing tips to help you find your way to success!

1. Create your Facebook profile. Start establishing your identity by creating a Facebook profile for yourself and your business. Having a Facebook profile as your way of positioning a business will take you a long way in establishing relationships with users. In creating your profile, don’t forget to put in your profile picture, photo albums and videos, wall and “add friends” button.
2. Create a fan page for your business. Facebook pages, also referred to as “fan pages”, are typically designed for brands, products, services, celebrities, musicians and businesses. The fan page feature enables organizations, public figures and other entities to generate public presence in Facebook. You can encourage potentials to become fans of your business page by sharing any significant information with them via uploading photos and videos worth a million shares, administering discussion posts and displaying status updates or wall posts.
3. Use the Facebook Events feature. The latter helps you connect with your target clients by sending them invites to your events, even if some of them aren’t included in your list of friends or fans. Facebook gives users an opportunity to create their own events that can be either public or private.
4. Participate in other Facebook pages. Take a research on other fan pages related to your business. Use the website’s “search” tool so you can actively start posting comments on their updates. This is also a way for you to build a connection with the industry.
5. Tag your fans via photos. You can tag your fans in photos with your new collections or convince them to tag themselves as a part of your promo. In 2009, Grammy-winning musician Lenny Kravitz uploaded over a hundred photos of his Italian tour and asked his then two million fans to tag themselves. This resulted to good publicity as many of his Kravitz’ updates on being tagged appeared on the fans’ wall.
6. Generate Facebook Plug-ins to your page. The “Like” button enables users to share anything from your page to their profile. The “Recommendation” button meanwhile gives them the option of personalizing suggestions for other fan pages they like. These two are just among the few plug-ins you need to generate. Other buttons that can be essential in Facebook marketing are LiveStream, LikeBox and comments.

About this Author

Are you looking for more information regarding Facebook marketing? Visit http://jackweinzierl.com today!

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Lindsey_Jenkins

Having a custom Facebook fan page is one of the surest ways to earn more likes and drive traffic. In Facebook where appearance is everything, good-looking and well-designed customized pages earn more credibility, interest and yes, likes over a haphazardly put-together page. But where do you start and end in customization?

Images

The visuals of your Facebook fan page should present a clear idea of what your page is about. Customizing the visual elements of your Facebook fan page should start with your profile photo. You can stick to your business or product logo or get more creative by coming up with a Facebook-specific design. If you’re just starting your business, stick to colors that are pleasing to the eyes but are memorable enough to be associated with your brand. Once you have chosen a photo, edit the thumbnail so it would capture the most important details of your image.

You can also customize the photo strip of your page – those series of photos found on top of your page – to expand your visual branding. You can attempt to create an illusion of a continuous image throughout the strip, although the order of the photos may not always work to your favor. Better yet, try a series of related and themed photos that define your page or expand on your messaging without needing to rely on the order in which they appear.

SEO

Yes, Facebook fan pages should be customized and optimized with keywords that would attract the search engines. Facebook uses its own search engine, and often prioritizes Facebook pages on search results. If you’re not sure of your keywords, you can look at similar pages by industry, locality or target market to get an idea of their top words. Apply these keywords strategically throughout your page.

Key SEO areas:

• Page Name
• Page URL
• Info Box
• Regular updates on related topics

Again, one of the best ways to improve your rankings is to have a good number of premium and useful links to and from your Facebook fan page. Growing the number of links should remain organic, but you can take advantage of your non-Facebook online presence to earn instant links. So make sure that you provide back links to your official website, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube channel and other online properties. In the same way, make sure you link back to your Facebook fan page from all of these accounts.

A Fan-Gated Landing Page

One of the most powerful custom Facebook fan page approaches is creating a unique landing page for non-fans. It’s called a lot of names like fan-gated page, a welcome tab, a reveal tab – but whatever else you call it, the goal is the same. With a landing page, you can directly address non-fans with a specific call to action that will encourage them to like your page. Of course, a simple request may not always cut it so make an irresistible offer. By liking your page, make sure that they get something valuable or at least interesting in return. You can give out a free report, a special discount, show an interesting video about their interests, and many other possibilities.

Unfortunately, creating a landing page like this would require quite a bit of programming know-how. It’s great if your organization has an in-house Web team or a third-party developer, but if you’re running a small business, you might have little choice but to do it yourself. The good news is that there are applications and special software that simplifies the process of creating a custom Facebook landing page. Take your pick, implement the new landing page and get handsome returns in no time.

My Little Secret

My little secret for creating a custom Facebook page in seconds and saving a lot of money is Like Page Maker. It’s a very affordable and easy to use piece of software that helps entrepreneurs to create, design and publish customized Facebook pages (including “fan-gated” or “reveal tabs”) in a few clicks.

So a ton of new stuff on the Facebook front, got that. But what’s on the horizon? We definitely haven’t heard the last about these two topics, but the “no-show” items from the F8 Developers Conference Keynote were:

Facebook Credits

Virtual Credits have been touted as one of the biggest opportunities for Facebook in 2010, and with the blossoming of the micro-payment model, it’s surprising that Facebook decided to put it on the back burner. Companies like Playfish and Zynga, maker of the unbelievably popular Farmville game, are reporting huge revenue from getting users to spend small sums of money (as low as one dollar) in exchange for virtual credits or items to be used in games or given to friends.

Additionally, apps like Buxter, created by London-based ClickandBuy, allow friends to exchange small amounts of money (no more than roughly $60) to pay each other back for dinner the night before, or what have you, and, of course, charge a small fee on top of each transaction. It would only make sense (cents?) for Facebook to drive these smaller players out of the space and become the Credit standard for their more than 400 million users. But, alas, there was only brief and vague reference to what Facebook was doing with Credits, plus a small, technical “session breakout.”

Geo-Location

In real estate, location is everything; however, at during the F8 keynote, location was nowhere to be found. Due to all the hype in recent weeks and months about Facebook launching some sort of location-based check-in technology to its platform, we arrive at three possible conclusions. First, that Facebook has abandoned incorporating geo-location: highly unlikely. Second, that Facebook has been so busy building and rolling out its new platform that they haven’t had time to think about geo-location: possible, but unlikely.

More than likely, Facebook is waiting for a deal to be structured between Microsoft and Foursquare, the front-runner in location-based social networking, and is hoping to incorporate the new Open Graph directly into foursquare once it becomes a Microsoft property, much like they’ve done with Docs.com. We haven’t heard the last of geo-location and Facebook, especially if the deal with Microsoft doesn’t happen (which it probably won’t – foursquare co-founder Dennis Crowley still has a bad taste in his mouth from selling his previous startup, Dodgeball, to Google, only to watch them let it wither and die), but it certainly wasn’t discussed at the F8 Conference.

Read more: [http://socialightmedia.com/#ixzz0n9hSMXN8]. Philadelphia social media consultant and search engine optimization analyst Jed Singer works for an interactive marketing agency in King of Prussia, and runs the Socialight Media blog. Contact him via email or Twitter to discuss Social and Search possibilities for your site.

At their recent F8 Conference, Facebook and their CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a lot of announcements regarding changes they’ve made, and I’ve been getting some questions about them.

Truth be told, some of what was announced was a bit complex for the casual, everyday business owner user of Facebook—so you’re not alone if you heard about it and kinda went “huh?”

Rather than write a lengthy analysis of all the ins and outs of what’s been recently changed, I thought I’d give a breakdown of the more important nuggets a small business owner should be aware of.

1. You No Longer “Fan” a Page

What were once known as “Fan Pages” are now referred to as “Official” Pages, to distinguish them from Community Pages–which I’ll address below. It will take a little getting used to, as everyone had come to throw around the “fan” terminology when discussing their business’ presence on Facebook. Now, you “Like” a Page instead.

Not a fan of this new terminology? Many people aren’t. I’ve taken to referring to fans as “supporters” now—which sadly has a little less pizazz in my mind.:) I was one of the people who believed “fan” fit because of the idea that you were building a community or fanbase around your business.

But alas, such is the evolution of social media.

If you were using Facebook’s Fan Box widget on your site, the Fan button automatically changed to Like when they rolled out the change. However, if you are using a custom badge or button you will most likely want to change it or find a new one with the new terminology.

Need some ideas for how to word inviting people to support your Page? If you don’t love saying “Like us on Facebook,” perhaps say “Join us on Facebook,” “Visit us on Facebook” or “Support our Page.”

2. The Facebook “Open Graph” and the “Like” Button

Previously, Facebook Connect was tool that allowed software, websites, mobile devices and more to integrate with Facebook and send information between them. Facebook Connect is now being phased out, because at the recent F8 Conference, Facebook announced the launch of something called “The Open Graph.” In his keynote speech, Mark Zuckerberg said that this would allow people to “have instantly social and personalized experiences everywhere they go.”

This new platform will allow websites to share information with each other easily. For example, if you connect to a site like Yelp via your profile on Facebook, Yelp will then have access to information you’ve made available publicly about your favorite bands or cuisine, and will be able to take that into consideration when giving you information about concert venues or restaurants. This is probably the most controversial (creepy?) aspect of the new changes.

Also announced at the conference was the introduction of the universal “Like” button that can be added to any website. For example, you can like (or “recommend”) a CNN.com article to share it with your friends on Facebook. The Like button will then also show you which of your Facebook friends have also already liked the same article. When you like something, this activity will show up on your Facebook Wall and in the News Feed.

If you are a WordPress user, you can now install a plugin in order to add the Like button to your own blog, and you can get that at the WordPress site.

3. Pages and Profiles More Connected

You may have also noticed that Facebook has now made the link between Pages and your profile more connected. Profile information such as your city, hometown, interests, etc. can now be linked to Pages. You’ll see that your Info tab has changed and that the sections there now link to Pages that reflect your interests.

This is probably my least favorite tweak that Facebook has made (I’m just not loving the way they’ve automatically reorganized all of my interests, education info, etc.), but it’s important to note that users have the ability to control their privacy for these connections. You can edit the information by visiting “Edit my Profile” under your picture and adjust your privacy from the Privacy Settings menu.

4. The Introduction of Community Pages

Facebook also recently introduced the concept of “Community Pages” which you can also create from the same page as Official Pages, except on the right-hand side. Community Pages are for “unofficial” Pages that are created by Facebook users in support of certain causes and topics. Of these Pages, Facebook says “Generate support for your favorite cause or topic by creating a Community Page. If it becomes very popular, it will be adopted and maintained by the Facebook community.”

As with social media in general, it seems the only constant with Facebook is change – whether we like it or not.:)

Christine Gallagher, MLS, MSIS, founder of CommunicateValue.com, teaches small business owners and professionals how to conquer the overwhelming aspects of online and social media marketing to increase business and maximize profits. For FREE tips on how to build profitable relationships, leverage technology and create your own successful online business, visit http://CommunicateValue.com