• About 132 million users on Facebook are aged 21 and above. This represents about 66% of all users

• There are more females (55.7%) than males (42.2%) – 2.2% are of unknown gender.

• Largest demographic concentration is the college crowd of 18-24 year olds (40.8%)

• About 70% of Facebook users are outside the United States

• Ads Average CTR is 0.04%

• > 850 million photos uploaded to the site each month

• > 10 million videos uploaded each month

• > 1 billion pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) shared each week

• 1% of apps account for 77% of volume, 2% account for 86% of volume, 10% account for 98% of volume

While organisations take their marketing efforts to social networking phenomena Facebook, here are some practices you can adopt to make your campaign a success.

Marketing to Facebook users requires communicating to them, which works better than simply advertising your messages. In order to communicate with them, you should first understand these users. In the U.S alone, Facebook has 60 million users. ComScore reports that the average number of unique visitors to Facebook in a month circles around 150 million, of which half of these users return to the site daily. Faccebook projects that 75% of worldwide users will be outside of college.

Based on findings from Nielsen and NetRatings, it has been observed from Facebook’s U.S users that just over half are female, almost 60% have some college education, 14% are non-white, 34% are working professionals holding executive, sales, education or technical posts, 12% are full time students and 12% have children under 16. Not surprisingly, Facebook internal data shows that users have aged over the past year, with a high percentage of older users now.

Therefore, in line with these data, adjust your marketing plans and plan for flexibility according to the anticipation that the demographics will change rapidly over the next 12 to 18 months. With fickle college students who might be swept away easily by the next emerging social network hit and the 35+ age group of social network site users who are new to social networking sites , beware of relying on what worked yesterday as it might very well not hold through the year.

With the data portraits that users reveal online, target users beyond their basic demographic details. Instead, look at the psychographics to understand them better. Next, understand what works on Facebook.

The click through rate (CTR) for sponsored News Feed stories is 4 to 26%. Alternatively, Flyers give you a degree of self-service control to decide what you want. For sponsored groups, group pages allows a customized navigation, look and feel and usually includes a significant media buy to drive traffic to the sponsored group page. This cost usually figures around six digits for a three month engagement. However, do note that any company can set up a group for free.

Instead of taking the conventional advertising route, maximise the change to create a unique community around your brand and product. An effective example is the Victoria’s Secret page. Although its page looks like an ad, the community is, in contrast, highly engaged.

In order to maximise the results from a sponsored Group, consider these practices. You should first understand how similar groups are meeting, or fail to meet, the needs of users. From there, create a unique experience for users that will encourage activity on the discussion board, comments on the wall, and photos. Your approach should be transparent about your organisation’s role and purpose.

Another way to market your business on Facebook is through applications. Create useful applications that model what users are already doing – that is, sharing information, experiences and using humour. Plan your application such that it has a viral and rippling effect, and get feedback from users once it has been launched.

All in all, bear in mind that Facebook marketing is about communicating to the users, rather than just exposing them to advertising. Facebook creates the platform for communication, so make full use of it. Focus more on your content over passive advertising and think about why and what do friends share on Facebook to create your content. Lastly, as Facebook is still a relatively new marketing platform, keep your eyes and ears open to the interaction and participation that is going on in that space. Adopt a learning attitude and one that is ready to make, and learn from, your mistakes.

Christina is an online marketing associate at Internet Marketing Agency – Conversion Hub. She also actively contributing to forums on topics related to advertising and website designing. She is also does website design. Christina graduated with a Singapore degree in business management, majoring in marketing.

Today I visited the giveaway page of a group promotion and have a lesson to share about do’s and don’ts in reusing previously created material for purposes such as this. Simply put: Make sure reports and recordings present you in the best possible light to first-time readers or listeners. Don’t go rummaging among the content you have hanging around without first considering whether or not the material makes sense apart from the occasion for which you created it.

The first recording I listened to from this giveaway page was a preview teleseminar for a weekend workshop that took place last February. The recording did have some useful content. However, at least 35% of the audio consisted of promotion for an event that took place last year. This created a poor impression by wasting my time. It made the person who had selected this item to be given away now seem thoughtless and absentminded.

The second recording made an even worse, self-sabotaging mistake. It was a teleseminar interview of an expert in which the interviewer did not introduce himself. He merely introduced the expert. In the original context, this may have made sense, if those who signed up for the call knew who he was. (Note, though, that on professional radio and TV, even the most famous interviewers always introduce themselves or are introduced.) On the giveaway page, the interviewer is named and appears to be the one who contributed the interview. But when listeners hear the interview, they are normally far away from the giveaway page, making this contributed item useless for the interviewer’s self-promotion.

I am pretty sure that both of these giveaway participants did not take the time to listen to what they had decided to give away. The presentations were probably originally well received, so they figured they could reuse them for the current purpose.

Four Repurposing Criteria

Don’t make their asinine assumption! Before reusing something you previously created, take another look or listen with the following questions in mind.

1. Audience. Compare the original audience for your item with the proposed repurposed audience. Did you present your ideas in a way that made sense for the first and will equally make sense for the second? You may think that dentists have the same cash flow problems as acupuncturists, but if the acupuncturists keep hearing or reading “dentist, dentist, dentist,” they might not be receptive. If the new audience won’t know you, are you properly introduced in this piece?

2. Promotional offer. Normally it’s rude to reuse material designed to promote an event that is no longer valid and expect that readers or listeners won’t mind. I always edit promos out of teleseminar recordings before repurposing them, out of consideration for the audience, unless the promotional offer remains in force. You should do so, too.

3. Content. Besides an offer, is there anything else that’s now seriously out of date in your product? To take an extreme case, something discussing online marketing that refers to CompuServe and Prodigy (services that were popular in the early 1990s) would be dismissed as dinosaur food now. Likewise, repurposed material should make little or no reference to current events.

4. Quality. Is the technical level of your product either adequate or excellent? Sometimes things work well for one purpose but backfire in another setting. A video that explains something well within a longer how-to product might not be looked on as kindly out of context, or vice versa. People who already know and trust you may hardly notice sound interference or garish images that distract and turn off strangers.

“Create it once, reuse it a thousand times.” This saying contains important wisdom for information marketers as long as you also stop and think before repurposing!

The author of 11 books and five multimedia home-study courses, Marcia Yudkin has been selling information since 1981. Download a FREE recording of her answers to commonly asked questions about information marketing at http://www.yudkin.com/informationempire.htm .

As the name implies, fortune cookies spread fortune. A great way to promote your business is by using personalized fortune cookies. You can give customized fortune cookies to say all that you want to say, and people will appreciate the surprise fortune that is found inside the cookie. In fact, customized fortune cookies will be loved by nearly anyone, and enjoyed by everyone on your list of customers, as a promotional product.

Today, several business owners make use of personalized fortune cookies to get their business noticed. This promotion can be done at different events such as trade shows or fairs. Usually, people offer pens as an appreciative gesture; today, instead of using promotional pens or key chains, you can give something different – fortune cookies.

If the recipient happens to be your acquaintance, you can easily get some greetings for the family printed and inserted into the cookies. With friends, you can be more creative and innovative. As friends, you know what is happening in their lives, so you could put some personalized messages that will make the recipients happy. It’s great to have personalized fortune cookies as a promotional tool, if you want something effective for your marketing campaign. Many prospects will certainly like this idea, and you will be successful in creating a far-reaching impression of your business by doing so.

You can create elegant messages which would effectively express your marketing goal, presented inside giant fortune cookies. Some of the creative methods of designing the fortune cookies include:

* For the outer part, you can select from the ready-made designs or even go for customized looks to meet your business needs.

* For the cookies themselves, you can get cookies that are dipped in milk chocolate, dark chocolate or even white chocolate. They can be sprinkled with something attractive, which would make them look even more appetizing.

* If you wish to customize even more, you can opt for the colors of your company’s logo to match the decoration colors that will be used for the cookies.

Irrespective of your selection, each giant fortune cookie is wrapped in high-quality cellophane and then tied with a red ribbon. The cookies can be placed in gift boxes, so that they look very beautiful, making sure that the gift will be remembered by the one who receives it, for a long time.

Fortune cookies are indeed a very effective promotional tool, since you are guaranteed that the messages that you put inside the cookies will invariably be read. If you are on the lookout for personalized fortune cookies for a given special occasion, including promoting your business, you can search for them on the Internet. Online, you can find some great customized fortune cookies in various flavors, sizes, and designs.

There are a lot of varieties of chocolates, themed toppings, candy toppings, and so on, from which to choose. Fortune cookies can even be further personalized with special fortunes targeted to interests of the intended recipients. So, go ahead and get your business noticed with the help of yummy fortune cookies! If you are the owner of a business, and are looking for unique promotional methods, there is nothing better than customized fortune cookies.

Erin Jump Fancy Fortune Cookies 6249 Coffman Rd. Indianapolis, IN 46268 (317) 299-8900 x 105 erin@fancyfortunecookies.com http://www.giant-fortune-cookies.com or http://www.fancyfortunecookies.com

From the term ‘diamond paperweight’ one may assume that the function of such an interesting item is somewhat limited. However for those prepared to think a little outside the box, the diamond shape paperweight is not only a paperweight but also a stunning and elegant decorative item that will be treasured forever and enjoyed by all who hold and see it.

The most obvious use of the diamond paperweight is that it is an essential part of any office or home, table or desk. It brings a sense of style that the average paperweight just cannot convey. The crystal diamond shape paperweight is so beautiful that it makes for the perfect gift for men and woman. It can be purchased in a wide variety of colours, sizes and shapes ensuring it is relevant to all genders and ages no matter what the occasion or event

The diamond shape paperweight is the most unique and wonderful gift for someone who has set up a new business, for somebody who has just landed a new job, or for a young lady or gentleman who has been working hard for exams and deserves a reward for all that hard work. To make the gift or presentation even more special, perhaps you should consider having the diamond shape paperweight engraved.

What other functions can a diamond paperweight have? For one, it can be used as a table decoration for hosting anything from dinner parties, birthday parties, weddings or engagement parties.

Just by placing the diamond paperweight onto a table can add sparkle and glamour to any elegant spread. Particularly in the case of engagement parties and wedding parties, the diamond paperweight ties in perfectly with the theme and can be personalised to say the date and names of the happy couple, a perfect gift and souvenir that everyone will treasure and keep forever.

Even more creatively, the diamond paperweight can be used to set the scene for a proposal, although one must beware that the size of the diamond paperweight might cast a rather large shadow over that special engagement ring you have worked to hard to save up for!

More decorative ideas for the diamond paperweight include using this lovely item to give a sense of class and sophistication to a retail display. The diamond paperweight can and will add a sparkle to a shop window or a glimmer to an in store display. I guarantee that you will have customers drawn to the diamond paperweight and begging you to stock them for sale rather than just as a window display.

Clearly, one can never go wrong with the diamond shape paperweight. Its many functions means that you can use this diamond over and over again or have it personalised and kept as a memory of a celebration or even better of someone special.

Finally, and for its most unique quality, unlike most other diamonds, this one won’t break the bank, and you can afford to collect many different colours, perhaps one each year!

Jo Varley is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Ice London, the elegant gift brand that includes luxurious leather, silver plated and Swarovski crystal decorated items, the collection is available through retail stores, corporate gift distributors and online at Ice London, see diamond paperweights that are perfect for engraving here

The business environment of today is multi-channeled. In this setting, there are numerous ways to do marketing but probably, one of the most effective techniques of promoting your product or service while saving up on the cost for advertising is through the use of electronic mail. However, many businesses still find it difficult to utilize email effectively. This is because they do not have the right tools for direct email marketing.

An effective email program must be capable of producing customized email communications and transforming your normal email capabilities into a sales channel with huge yields. This can be achieved with automation.

Because of the fact that email is one of the easiest forms of communication aside from the reality that it is also one of the most popular, the inboxes of individuals are continuously flooded with emails, many of which are junk. This is why it is vital that your emails stand out from the rest. Otherwise, you might find that your customer will not even bother opening your email. An email direct marketing tool will help you in delivering effective and well-targeted messages.

Here are some of the advantages of an email direct marketing tool which makes it an essential part of your overall marketing strategy:

- You will get to create effective and persuasive emails with opt-out systems, well-targeted content, and the functionality of sales lead tracking.

- You will enjoy the on-demand delivery feature which ensures that regardless of the size of your email campaign, your emails would be delivered on a timely basis.

- You can control how your emails will be sent, such as a one-time email to be sent to an entire mailing list or individual messages to be sent to certain subscribers.

- You will enjoy the benefit of performance analytics as this tool is capable of analyzing the effectiveness of a campaign and evaluate its performance. This lets you come across important movements and trends.

- You will be able to set up messages for certain purposes that can be sent automatically with an auto-responder program. For example, you can arrange for your auto-responder that every seven days, it will send to all subscribers the next newsletter issue.

- You can get to request for feedback from your subscribers with a feedback management functionality included in this marketing tool. Thus, you will be able to provide better experience for your subscribers through the informative subscriber response.

Here are the different kinds of tools for direct email marketing and their corresponding features:

1.)Paid recipient programs with the direct email list rental feature

- These are list rental services wherein a small amount is exchanged for the responses of the members of a mailing list.

- These are programs that would award points to list members if they visit the websites of the advertisers. The amount of payment is based on either the cost per acquisition, cost per click, or sharing of revenue.

- These programs pay list members who have consented to receive emails and be directed to the website of the company by clicking on the link included in the email.

2.)Direct email broadcast services

- allow you to rent opt-in electronic mailing lists

- allow you to send one-time messages to specific mailing lists

3.)Direct email list management services

- include banner advertisements

- include search engine management functionality

- provide performance analysis

- allow you to effectively manage replies and target your emails

- assist in user profile building

- allow you to send bulk emails

- allow you to manage your email lists according to certain categories and import/export lists

- provide scheduler and auto-responder features

- allow customization of mailing lists

- allow automatic follow up and removal

- allow you to archive messages

Want to learn the best way to use your autoresponder?

So many entrepreneurs struggle to create a successful home-based business – going through times of plenty, and times of drought. Only about 18% of entrepreneurs are extremely successful. Want to know a small business success secret? Successful entrepreneurs make the best use of resources to accomplish more with less effort – they use the principle of leverage.

Small business resources that entrepreneurs can leverage include knowledge, expertise, time, human resources, systems and technology. The result of leverage is a turn-key business that can “run itself”, generate more profits with less stress, and allow for the freedom to enjoy prosperity.

A great way to leverage technology is to automate and simplify your sales and marketing with an online professional shopping cart. This small business success secret allows you to put your small home-based business on autopilot, exposing hidden profit sources. Using an online shopping cart is the fastest and most flexible way to do business online, without expensive and complicated waffleware.

The shopping cart small business success secret will grow your online business by leaps and bounds when you:

• Use custom forms and opt-in boxes to collect names and email addresses of website visitors

• Keep in touch with your customers 24/7

• Maintain accurate contact information of your clients and prospects

• Automate product sales and purchases

• Send personal automatic email responses (auto responders) to inquiries, registrations, purchases, and to follow up with prospects

• Deliver scheduled, informative emails, newsletters and promotional messages to your mailing list

• Set up multiple affiliate programs for others to market your business

• Track the success of your ads and emails

• Test and track your website links

• Use questionnaires to discover customer needs

Statistics show that you need to contact a prospective customer 7-9 times, before they remember your business. Many entrepreneurs stop at only 2-3 follow-ups and are losing 70-80% of their sales! The online shopping cart will help you follow-up easily and effortlessly with autoresponders.

It is easy to believe that doing already contracted work is more important than marketing, but you must have marketing systems in place to generate sales consistently. You want a successful home-based business, not the feast-or-famine rollercoaster that many home-based business entrepreneurs experience. Even if you are doing well now, keep looking toward the future and how to further take advantage of this small business success secret.

Several online shopping cart companies offer similar services, but at the very minimum, you want to ensure the program you choose:

• Offers support services

• Offers free tools

• Is easy and accessible

• Is simple to setup, even for a novice

• Offers multiple packages

• Offers a NO RISK trial period

Here’s how to get started with an online shopping cart:

1) Identify your marketing and sales goals.

2) Determine what products and services to sell on the internet.

3) Sign up for an online shopping cart and discover how you can easily use its internet marketing tools to achieve your goals.

4) Get the help of an e-Commerce Virtual Assistant or Shopping Cart Strategist who has the technical cart skills and strategic expertise to effectively market your business online

The online shopping cart technology and its small business resources are essential to any successful home-based business. Implement this small business success secret to develop a consistently thriving business that is easy to manage, achieve your marketing goals with ease and skyrocket your sales.

Copyright 2009, Michele Hanson-O’Reggio. All rights reserved.

Outsourcing & Productivity Expert Michele Hanson-O