1) Do SEO – If your organization hasn’t done this yet, it is time to come out of your shell and face the world. It is not just about looking good to the viewer but it should ‘appeal’ to the search engine also. Do On page and Off page SEO or better still get an expert to do it for you. Every single dollar invested in this is bound to pay off.

2) Get the Web 2.0 look – This can’t be overemphasized. There is only one word for the non Web 2.0 websites – ‘archaic’ and the next term would be ‘extinct’. Hire a good web 2.0 designer to help you with this.

3) Have a Contact form – It is not easy to get traffic to your website. And now that you have got people coming, convert them into leads. Give the viewers a platform to contact you directly – these are the leads you have wanted to capture.

4) Start a Blog- Give your viewers a forum to interact. This can have not just the latest happenings about the company but also industry specific topics for viewers to leave their comments on. The idea is to create a community around the website and to get fresh content on it. This is a great SEO opportunity too.

Innovative marketing is an inevitable phenomenon to make your company’s presence felt in the ever-changing marketplace. With increasing number of users going immune to advertisements, the phenomenon of engaging the user to subtly communicate your message -  is here to stay.  Social networking has become one o f the top user engaging activity on the internet. And Facebook leads in the social networking space.

Some facts which might interest you:

·    Facebook hit the 100 mn user mark on 26^th August. Currently it has some 110 mn active users.

·    It is the most-trafficked social media site in the world. (comScore)

·    More than half of Facebook users are out of college. 68% of these are professionals, executives, educators or in technical career.

·    The fastest growing demographic is those 25 years old and older

Here, I will give you a quick overview on how to engage users on Facebook. I will discuss some of these in detail in future posts.

·    Create a Facebook business page

The Facebook Pages act as a Profile for the business. It helps you create an identity for your company or brand on Facebook. This feature was launched by Facebook in November 2007. Users can become ‘fans’, an activity which is seen by their friends and is highly viral. You can upload photos, videos and all information about your business. Facebook users can interact directly with the business through its Facebook Page by adding reviews, writing on that business’ Wall, uploading photos and in any other ways that a business may want to enable. These actions could appear in users’ Mini-Feed and News Feed, Facebook’s popular products that allow users to share information more efficiently with their friends

·    Engage the user in a Facebook application

The main challenge is that currently about 140 new applications are added on Facebook everyday to an already existing application pool of 24,000+ applications.  But this is indeed one of the promising tools on Facebook. The key is to make your app – Viral, Engaging and Unique. You can use apps to promote a brand, create your presence or tactical reference to your website, offers etc or simple to establish a user base and make money from ads. The best thing about the application is that it uses many component of Facebook like : news- feeds and mini-feeds, invitations, profile boxes, notifications,  some of which are highly viral.

·    Create a Facebook group

A Facebook group is one of the simplest ways to create community around your product or brand. Customer and friends can participate in discussions, writes posts, put photos, videos, etc. The group name also generally appears on the member’s profile page thus helping drive more traffic to the group page.

·    Post on the Facebook Marketplace

This is Facebook’s classified listing service. Users can post to-sell or wanted ads here. Although it generally  doesn’t generate a lot of leads, it is worth a try since its free. Unlike Craigslist, which is anonymous, all Marketplace responses are tied to real Facebook accounts. So, you can actually see the respondent’s profile page when someone responds to your listing.

A platform like Facebook provides unprecedented marketing openings. The multiple prospects available to marketers are beyond compare – the challenge is effectively utilizing the viral capabilities of this platform.