With more than 350 million active users, Facebook is almost certainly populated by a good chunk of your customer base. The social networking giant is free to use, and has recently introduced “fan” pages for businesses.

Setting up a Facebook fan page is easy: simply click on this link and follow the instructions. The real question is why should you set one up? Here are five reasons why setting up a Facebook fan page could be a great move for your organisation:

1)    Free of charge. It costs nothing but a few minutes of your time to create a Facebook fan page and to send the link to all your contacts.

2)    Effective list-builder. Everyone who becomes a fan will have your page listed on their profile. Given that the average Facebook user has 130 friends*, you can introduce your business to 13,000 people with just 100 fans.

3)    Shout louder. Won an award? Received some favourable press coverage? Announce it on your Facebook page and have the news picked up by your fans in real-time.

4)    Direct customer feedback. E-commerce retailers in particular can benefit from speedy feedback from customers when they post photos and descriptions of new products.

5)    Blog promotion. If you have a business blog, you can post links to each update from your Facebook fan page and benefit from extra traffic to your website.

To see a Facebook fan page in action, have a look at ours (and become a fan if you like what you see!). We use it primarily to raise the profile of our blog, whereas several of our clients use theirs to research new product and service ideas, or to build up their database of contacts.

Talk to Write My Site about managing a Facebook fan page for your business.

*http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics

There are hundreds of blogs out there, all clamouring for your readers’ attention. So how can you make yours stand out from the crowd? Here’s a quick guide to making maximum impact with minimum fuss.

First of all, be concise. This is not just dictated by your word-limit, but also by the demands of selling. Your readers will all have time demands of their own and will probably be only scanning your article and so you need to get your point across quickly and clearly to make an impression.

There are several ways to achieve this effect. The most obvious is to keep your sentences short.  Brief sentences keep arguments digestible and easy to follow. They also force you to be direct in your writing, cutting out all elements of ‘purple prose’ and unnecessary adjectives. Too many adjectives can cloud an argument, distance a client and blunt your message. Be ruthless. If it has no grammatical purpose and doesn’t add information to your sentence – cut it out.

Blogs are designed to persuade and provoke; therefore if you truly want to engage with your reader then express your point of view. In allowing for all contingencies you create flabby writing which doesn’t put your message across clearly. As a result, your company is projected as weak and indecisive. So pick an angle and make your case. Not only will your writing be much clearer than if you equivocate, you’ll also be more likely to provoke discussion amongst your reader.

Applying simple rules such as these can have a big impact on your blog and the way your message is perceived, memorised and acted upon.

Remember Write My Site offers a full blog management service if your business wants to add blogging into the marketing mix. Tariffs start from just £150 per month.

What do you want your website content to do for your business? You probably want to attract the attention of search engines, to raise your online profile and to gain potential clients’ confidence in your business. One way you can help achieve all of these goals is to include a ‘News’ section on your website.

The most efficient news sections are designed to be quickly updatable and usually keep news items to 250 or so words, an ideal length for attracting Internet readers. This can always link to a longer article on your company blog if you feel there is more to say. However, if you do create longer versions, ensure they have a purpose. As with all web content, news items and associated articles should be kept clear and concise. Use exactly as many words as you need - not a single letter more. A regular schedule of fresh content means your site will be crawled more often by the search engines.

A frequently updated website also sends a strong signal to potential customers that you are an active and dynamic company. It gives them an insight into your aims, achievements and work in the current market that product descriptions and static pages can’t achieve. To this end, consider a variety of news posts on a variety of topics. Types of posts may include articles on product and company news (upgrades, promotions, recent press coverage); as well as wider industry news.

Online news sections can work really well in tandem with business blogs: the former can demonstrate your organisation’s leadership in its industry, whereas the latter offers a more informal platform for potential customers to interact.

Social media success stories wanted!

Not too long ago we wrote an article about guest blogging. We’re now extending a cordial invitation to you, our readers, to be our guests on this blog. If you’d like to contribute an article to the Write My Site blog (with a link back to your website, of course) please drop us a line at info@writemysite.co.uk with the words “Guest Article” as the headline.

We’re looking for contributions from companies who’ve successfully used social media, blogging or article marketing to promote their products and services. If you’ve achieved results using these marketing methods, we’d love to hear from you.

Sending out a regular e-newsletter is a highly effective way of targeting customers to encourage both repeat and new business. Once you’ve had a template designed, you can send out as many branded newsletters as you like to hundreds or even thousands of recipients – at very little cost. Send your e-newsletter to all your customers, everyone you meet at networking/ industry events, and everyone who requests a copy via your website (but make sure you have their permission first!).

As with all digital marketing, content is key and the e-newsletter should be seen as another element of your overall campaign, not an isolated object. It should interact with other e-marketing drives, possibly by featuring highlights from your blog or website. There is a dual benefit in this, as it not only makes your e-newsletter interesting to read, it also drives traffic to your website and reminds your target customer base of who you are and what you do.

That’s not to say the more traditional content of newsletters should be forgotten; an editor’s note, company news and special offer announcements are typical of this form of digital marketing and they all have a role to play. Where possible, they should be backed up by a call to action, whether that’s to visit your website, call you or to reply to the e-mail newsletter.

These are all generic points, which so far could be applied to any aspect of your digital marketing, so what sets an e-newsletter apart? The answer is in its aims. An e-newsletter’s real value is in encouraging repeat and long-term custom by providing a non-intrusive reminder of your brand to those who have previously expressed an interest.

E-newsletters are not quick-fix marketing opportunities (although e-commerce retailers can generate handsome returns by publicising their special offers in their e-newsletters), but are excellent tools in an ongoing digital marketing strategy. Therefore you should view your e-newsletter as a long-term investment, sent out on a regular basis to familiarise your customers and contacts with your brand and its values.

Write My Site offers a full e-newsletter management service, encompassing design, content, distribution and reporting. Tariffs are listed here.