As a marketing professional who works for a technology company, I am intrigued by the way technology influences trends in marketing. These days, social networking sites have proven themselves to be stable and effective for reaching users, and small businesses and corporations alike are taking advantage of these tools.

Facebook is one of the largest and most popular social networking sites. It is also a useful and for the most part, a free tool for online marketing efforts. Here are a few things you can do if you are looking to utilize Facebook as part of your marketing campaign:

• Create a profile for yourself and/or your business. Make sure your privacy settings are not set to be too limiting. For marketing purposes, you will probably want Facebook users to be able to view your profile, search for you, and see your activities.
• Develop a friend list. Consider:
  • Customers
  • Employees
  • Your Friends
  • Employees' Friends
  • Your Family
  • Employees' Family
• Create a group for your Facebook friends to join. Groups allow you to invite new members, send messages to all members, and create events related to this group.
• Utilize the News Feed. In my opinion, this is the most useful and powerful tool. Here are a few ways to get your company name and promotions displayed in your Facebook friends' and possibly their Facebook friends' newsfeeds:
  • Updating Your Status
  • Writing Notes
  • Creating Photo Albums
  • Posting Videos
  • Creating Events
  • Tagging Facebook friends in notes, photo albums, videos, etc.
  • Inviting Facebook friends to events
  • Writing on Facebook friends' walls
  • Posting links to Facebook friends' walls
  • Updating the Facebook group page
• Run an advertisement on Facebook. This method does cost money, but you get to decide on your daily budget. Another great thing about Facebook Advertising is that you can target a very specific audience based on the information provided on users' profiles.
• Make sure that any content and changes you use are appropriate and will not tarnish you or your company's reputation.

As is anything with marketing and advertising, consistency is key. Performing the above activities regularly can be time consuming but is also the only way a campaign like this can be effective. Good luck!