I wanted to drop a quick line off before I head to Colorado for the weekend.  We are taking our annual ski trip and it should be a great time.  The forecast is calling for fresh snow the entire time we are there, so I felt like posting something before I left and then won’t feel like a bum

I listened to a webinar led by Ed Dale and Dan Raine, and they were talking about how important Facebook is going to be in the upcoming year.  Facebook has been in the news a little bit lately, given that Mark Zuckerberg was Time’s Man of the year for 2010, Facebook announced it expects to see $2 billion in advertising revenue, and that 81% of Gene Y-ers use Facebook DAILY.

The real reason they are gung ho on Facebook for 2011 is that quite simply, that’s where the people are.  At last count Facebook has 567 million users, and half of them login daily.  The other reason that they are so keen with Facebook is that anyone who uses the site has to accept friends requests or like something before they can interact with it.  Why do people like Facebook?  There’s no spam.

I could go on for quite a while about how Facebook makes business easier for everyone involved, but the real key is what to do to start a Facebook page for your business.  If you are the owner, it helps to have your own personal profile as well to initially send out page recommendations to.  You can include family and employees, but do make a point to say you’d appreciate their helping you out by accepting and passing it along to their friends.

The real key to growing your number is to have some marketing material that you can 1) utilize and pass along on the site and 2) tell your in store traffic that you have a page and that you’d like to see them check it out.  A great way to build likes is to have a small discount or offer that first time visitors who “like” your page can print out for some small extra or goodie.  It’s not much, but it’s definitely something that they will tell other’s about.

Since I run my own marketing business, the upcoming DHC fan page for Lawrence Kansas and Kansas City Web Design will have a special where people who like the page get a free hour’s worth of consulting on their social media.  There are plenty of ways you can differentiate your self from your competition, but time is running out to be the “hip” kid in your field.

And with that, I’m off to hit the slopes!  Happy Holidays!