The power of a Like is so big that it was replicated in many other sites. It went even beyond social media platforms and now you can see Like buttons in almost every web page (Especially since now, what you “like” appears on your Facebook stream giving brands, stories and people more exposure) Finally, the Like button even contributes now to Google rankings!

But let’s talk about the Like button for business. Beside the obvious move of “liking” stuff because you found something interesting, there are ways in which I use the LIKE button for business networking. The social networks I use to do this are naturally Facebook, also LinkedIn and Twitter (in this case, you won’t find a Like button but a “Favourite” one instead)

How to LIKE for business networking

In the past, we would probably see business people, that we wanted to network with and learn from, every now and then. That could also mean months or even years! The beauty about social networks is that you can constantly know what your business contacts are up to by just watching the desired news streams. However, by just reading your network’s updates, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re networking or that your connections know that you are reading (or there at all).

When you LIKE on any of these platforms, you are:

• Telling your business connection, “I’m here, I support you”. That acknowledgement transmits a very powerful vibe and massively contributes to longs term relationships. For example, there are people I haven’t seen in at least six months or more and the only fact that every now and then they “Like” one of my posts or comments, tells me that they are still part of my network, that they still want to learn from me and they want to stay in touch. On the other hand, it encourages me to stay in touch with that professional and reminds me that I need to maybe read their stuff more often.
• “Liking” on Facebook or LinkedIn is the same visual experience, however, people “Like” a lot less on LinkedIn that Facebook. The advantage that you have there is that when you Like on LinkedIn, it’s easier for people to notice! On Twitter, when you click on “Favourite” on a message, a tweet goes out to your followers saying that “You just favourites X tweet/content”. In this case, you’re giving your business contact the desired acknowledgement but also a nice push to their message
• “Likes” on web pages: Now, every time you click on a Like button outside of Facebook, that piece of news, article, website, etc, will show on your Facebook Wall and Live stream for all your Facebook contacts to potentially see. That’s very powerful. In this case, you’re not just telling your business contact “I’m here” but you’re also helping them spread the word!

“Liking” has become part of our lives. Simply keep in mind that the click of a simple button can also be used to build solid relationships throughout time.

Over to you: How do you use the Like button? Share your story below!

While reviewing last year’s videos, we realised that we needed to challenge the industry assumptions further (your industry and ours). That’s if we want to trigger more radical changes through our video responses (yes, we want to).

You’ll have to wait a little bit to see what plan we come up with for you. Start by leaving a comment below with your company details. In the meantime, we can already tell you that we’ll be challenging the fact that our videos have to be made in an office environment and that the summer “twist” needs to happen in summer.

For that reason, we’re going away to Tenerife in two weeks to shoot these videos and we’ll deliver them in April during spring

Here’s how it works (submissions are now open until Monday, March 14th)

• Step 1: Leave a comment below with your name, company, website and social media presence (if any).
• Step 2: We will select THREE companies
• Step 3: The Channelship team will brainstorm some cool, actionable ideas to make your business different and remarkable online.
• Step 4: We will deliver a specific video-answer for each one of the companies selected.

After the lucky ones get their videos, it would be great to see their companies take action. Fair enough?

Go on, leave your comment below! (Submissions finish at 6PM (GMT) on Monday, March 14th)

Here are the 3 Winners & our specific video answers
(updated after the contest)

1. Social Media Tips for Saas Marketing
2. Social Media tips for the Gift Industry
3. Social Media for Beverage Companies

Enjoy the tips!

Now people are making public (checking in) their location in social networking sites. It means that you, as a manager or business owner have a phenomenal chance to see who are those people that visited your “Place”, keep in touch with them and also, by having your company registed in these sites, more people will naturally find you.

Facebook Places has launched already in the US, UK and other countries. However, we don’t see businesses taking action, so here’s the opportunity:

At the moment, when you check into any “Place” on Facebook (or will check-in when it’s available in your region), here’s how it will look. Simple, not too appealing:

We have registered officially our “Place”: Channelship Web Agency. London and here’s how it looks when anybody checks in

HUGE difference: You get to include a picture, a description and users can also see a link to your company’s website. Also, depending on what type of Facebook page you opened, the link to your “Place” will show on the “Information” tab and on the left sidebar as well. Currently those location links point to Bing Maps but they’ll be connected with Facebook Places very soon.

Another great benefit of Facebook Places, that will help your company get more exposure, is the fact that you can geo-tag other people and vise versa.  Here’s how it looks:

Don’t panic. Those of you that don’t want to get geo-tagged, can do so from your Security Settings.

How do I register my company in Places?

First, you need to check into the place you want. If it doesn’t come up in the list,  click on “Add a Place”. Then you’ll see a link at the bottom of any Place page that says “Is this your business?“.

Simply click there and follow the instructions. Facebook will request that you attach with your application any business document (bill, statement) that verifies the name and address. That’s it!

Your “Place” page will look like this

Finally

By registering your company with Foursquare, people will be able to also find you through Facebook Search! Another way to easily to get found.

Facebook Places hasn’t fully launched yet worldwide. That’s why there are a lot of unanswered questions. For example, Dennis Taylor asked on our Facebook page: “Can you merge your Facebook business Place with your current business Page? It seems creating a new page just for location based users is silly – rather have all my likes in one place“.
For now it would make sense to register your business with Facebook Places (plus other geolocation sites) and what’s most important: use it to check in and analyse the insights to find new people (possible customers) and keep your community growing. Yes, it would take a bit more time based on Dennis’ question but it’s worth it. Hopefully Facebook will come up with a nice “blended” option in the near future.

Will you take action? What do you think?
Best
Fred

In the meantime, while Facebook and its community of application developers continue to evolve, you can enjoy a bit more the job of pimping your business page with Involver applications.

The video below will show you:

• The different applications for pages that Involver offer.
• How easy is to implement one of their apps!

Subscribe to Channelship’s You Tube channel

You can only use up to two applications with the free version. Beyond that, here are the options and pricing structure:

Hope this solution makes your Facebook marketing experience much easier!

What’s your experience with facebook apps for pages? What do you think about Involver?

Best,

Fred

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