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1. Create a Fan Page:

First things first.  If you don’t have a fan page yet, go and create one now! Fan pages are a great way to promote your creative web biz (make sure to choose the ‘official page’ option, not the ‘community page’)

2. Set Your Username:

Facebook finally implemented urls based on usernames. Most of you will have set the url for their private profiles already, but you might not have done it  for your fan- or business page yet.  Both can be set here. Please note that you need to have 25 fans before you can get your url. If you don’t have that many fans yet, proceed to step three first.

3. Page Badges :

Facebook badges can be found on your page admin screen under ‘Marketing’ in the left sidebar . Click  ‘get a badge’ and then ‘page badges’.  You will then get a snippet of code to copy and paste anywhere you want on your website, in email signatures or anywhere else around the web.

4. Like Box:

A more interactive way to promote your page is the Like Box which can be customized to include your latest updates (pictures, videos and all) and also display your fans. To get one go to your page admin screen, follow the ‘Marketing’ link in the left sidebar and click on ‘add a like box to your website’. Customize as you like, get the code and past it on your site or blog.

5. Facebook Marketing Solutions:

Facebook Marketing Solutions is fan page run by Facebook employees that ‘helps marketers share with users and create movements on Facebook’ .  They provide news and info on how to market your brand on Facebook. Become a fan to get updates!

6. NetworkedBlogs:

NetworkedBlogs is a very useful application on Facebook. It will import your blog feed to your private profile as well as to your fan page  and into the news streams of your friends and fans. In has it’s own tab which shows your latest blog posts and will let people follow your blog right inside Facebook. See it in action on the Creative Web Biz FB  Page.

7. Twitter for Pages:

Another app I use is ‘Twitter for Pages‘ by Involver. It adds a tab to my page which displays my last 20 tweets. However, it does not update your status (unless you pay), so if you want to do that you should also get the official Twitter app which will do just that.

8. Live Stream Box:

During the 2009 US Presidential Inauguration, Facebook tested a new feature that let people share Facebook status updates and comments side by side with real-time streaming video on CNN’s website. Now this feature is made public. The  Facebook Live Stream Box is easy to install and takes just a minute to set up. You can include a Live Stream Box anywhere on the Web, or within your Facebook Page, or a Facebook application.

Both Justin.tv and UStream.tv have developed apps to help you do this. You will have to apply to use the one by UStream but Live (byJustin.tv) is ready and as easy to use as any other Facebook app. Check it out!

9. Find more apps for your page:

To find more apps that work on fan pages (not all do) go to the application directory,  then click on ‘pages’.

10. Facebook Ads:

Promote your page with Facebook ads. To do so you only need to go to your page admin screen, follow the   ‘marketing’ link to your left and then click on  ‘advertise on Facebook’. This will take you to a screen where you can input a title, body text and an optional image (default is your page profile pic).  For more info go to the Facebook Ads Help Ceter.

11. Get a custom tab for your page

Add advanced functionality to your page using the Facebook Static FBML application. This application will add a tab to your page in which you can render HTML or FBML (Facebook Markup Language) for enhanced page customization. This way you can add a newsletter sign up form or any other special info. Just find the ‘add to my page’ link right under the (missing) picture on the application page).

12. Don’t forget to become a fan of Creative Web Biz on Facebook!

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Creative Web Biz - the art of creating an online business

this article was updated on August 12th 2010

Many artists, musicians, designers, crafters, writers and other creative people have  Facebook accounts and can use these to reach more people and grow their creative business. There are many things to be done that can help you promote and market your work and I will name 25 that I think would be useful to implement.

This is not a post about markeing though, it’s more about the little things Facebook offers that you might have overlooked but that can have a big impact on your  creative biz because you streamlined your profile to work for you.  The tips reach from fairly basic  to pretty advanced, so there should be something for everybody.

1  add your website/blog url to the info box under your profile pic:

If you have a website and/or blog, you need to let people know about it and make it as easy as possible for them to get there. Every link that leads back to it will also help with your search engine rankings. To do so you will have to go to your profile then click  “edit profile” right under your avatar picture. Then click “contact information” and fill in your website/blog url. Save your changes.  Now click on the little pencil icon in the right hand corner of your  information box and choose to show your  your website url to all your page visitors.

2 add a Facebook link to your blog  and/or website:

Give people that visit your blog/site the chance to connect to you on Facebook (and other social networks) by adding a link to your FB profile from your blog. This way they become part of your community and will always know about your latest projects and news.

3 let your friends help you:

Every time you update your profile with a link, a photo, a video or anything else , all your friends will see this in their news feeds. Now if they like or comment on your items it will also go out to their friends and can go viral from there. The more friends you have, the more exposure for your art,  your films or recipes you will get. But just adding random people is not gonna do anything. You need to find people that are truly interested in your work. Start with the friends you already have and work from there.  To do so take a look at your home page  sidebar . At it’s lower end you will find the friend finder link. Follow it and you will be able to find your email and IM friends and add them to Facebook.

4 create friend groups/lists:

Let’s say you live in Los Angeles, you have a gig coming up, you created an event (see no 20) and you want to invite people to come. What you should definitely not do is invite all your Facebook friends, because people in Shanghai won’t be able to come anyway and you don’t want to spam them with (for them) useless info. What you do is create friends lists. It’s real easy to do  Go to your “Friends” page and start creating  lists  in the left sidebar. To make it even more easy, facebook will let you add people to lists right when you ask them to be your friend or when they ask you. Use this feature and your Facebook life will be much easier.

5 friend group feeds:

On your  home page you have a  sidebar on the left where you can choose to see  friend group feeds. This simply means that you can choose to only  see what your friends in Paris are up to or maybe you have a customer list and you want to find out what kind of  people like your designs so you can better plan your Facebook ads (see no 24)

6 import updates from your blog  and other social networks:

Right beneath the status baron the right you will find options and if you click on it, you can go to settings. It will show you a number of sites ( Flickr, YouTube, Digg, Last.fm, Delicious and more) which can be set to automatically import updates. You also have the option to import your own blog rss feed. (Alternative: if you have a FriendFeed account, get the Friendfeed application to import even more sites)

7 share with your Facebook community:

If you install the Facebook bookmarklet you will be able to share content from around the web with your community: links, videos, photos. If you share information that inspires others you will always get some love back.  Drag the  Share on Facebook button to your browser’s bookmarks bar (the one below the search box). From now on, you can let everybody profit from the knowledge you find online.

8 use ping.fm for status updates:

Ping.fm will let you update your status from inside  your browser and it will send the same updates to other social networks as well, i.e. MySpace, Tumblr, LinkedIn and many others. After you sign up you can install their Firefox add-on here

9 facebook applications: notes, photo, videos and links:

This might be obvious but I have seen many artist profiles without any photos or  videos or notes (see no.6 to import your blog here).  Use these in-house Facebook applications to show your work and get the word out.

10 Tab management:

You’re talented. Strut your stuff! Move your photos box to your profile and don’t hide it in your boxes tab among butterflies and friend hugs. To manage the wall tabs on your profile page just click on the + sign on their right. select and then drag and drop in the position you want them to be. To delete a tab, click on it and then on the little pencil icon that will appear. There you will find  a delete tab. To move and remove boxes, click on pencil icon in upper right hand corner of the box in question. There you will be able to delete or move it to your wall or to the boxes tab.

11 manage your application settings:

You can make  applications post new content to your wall and therefore also to your friends news feeds every time you upload a photo, a video or write a new note.

go to account, then applications settings in the right upper corner of your screen. Select edit, choose application and change your settings to add a tab, choose who can see the content and handle additional permissions.

12 search apps:

Besides the apps mentioned above, there are many, many more third party apps. This means that they are not made by the Facebook team but rather by other companies and individual developers (you can even learn how to make one your own). So go ahead and explore because some of these will even let you sell your merchandise, handmade crafts, paintings or books right from your Facebook profile or page (zazzle, etsy) while others will help you connect your different communities around the web (youtube, twitter, friendfeed).  To search the database go to  the applications directory and start browsing.

13 add your youtube videos to profile and pages:

Want to show your art or music videos on your profile and pages? Pick one of these apps to do it for you.

14 your own art application:

Upload and share your art work with artshare

15 get more readers for your blog:

If you have a blog you can join over 450.000 other bloggers on NetworkedBlogs. It will let you find new blogs to read and new readers for your own blog. Add a tab or box to display which blogs you like and be sure to find other bloggers to network with and to get inspired. Join the Creative Web Biz page to get started.

16 marketplace:

buy and sell anything you want with the marketplace application.

17 etsy shop for profiles and pages:

If you took the handmade pledge and have an etsy account you can add your etsy shop on your profile or your business/fan page.

18 sell t-shirts, cards, posters and other merchandise  in a merch store:

Zazzle and Threaded both make it possible to add a store to your facebook page. Check it out

19 sell your music:

If you have an account with ReverbNation , let people listen to , download and buy your music with their app

20 create events for your art shows, music gigs and book readings:

With Facebook Events, you can organize gatherings and parties with your friends, as well as let people in your community know about upcoming events. The Events applications page displays your upcoming events, any invitations you have pending, and links to your own events.

21 fan pages:

Fan pages let you do the same stuff your profile does without the limit of 5000 friends. It is also useful if you want to keep private and business seperate. You can read about the benefits of  fan pages here and also check out ‘10 Facebook Fan Page Tips for Creative Entrepreneurs‘ here on Creative Web Biz.

22 join other peoples fan pages and interest groups:

To find other people interested in film, writing or cooking join other peoples fan pages and/or groups. Check if your favorite artist has a fan page and join it. Chances are that his/her fans might like your art as well. Add some of them to your friends. Check out what groups your friends belong to or join these to get you started: Creative Business Owners / Twitter Artists  Artisans and Art Lovers /  Artdictive / 1.000.000 facebook artists / Artists who refuse to starve. Creative people share their business secrets

23 facebook ads:

Ever noticed the ads on your profile page? Well you can advertise your creative business as well. If you create an ad that is entertaining, informative or engaging you might win some new fans. Read this post by Mari Smith to find out more.

24 facebook connect:

facebook connect is an application that will let your blog readers sign in to your blog with their facebook credentials. The comments they leave will be displayed in their facebook profiles and feeds. This means more exposure for you and your work. Here is how to add facebook connect to your blog in 8 minutes

25 even more tips and tutorials:

30+apps to do business on facebook

facebook posts on mashable, the social media site

a whole blog with facebook tips

Facebook tutorials

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That’s it, or at least as far as I’m concerned. But i ‘m sure there are many more tips and tricks for creative entrepreneurs on facebook and I’d be happy to read them in the comments  or on the Creative Web Biz Facebook page.

Creative Web Biz - the art of creating an online business

Some days ago I found a post in my Google Reader by Duct Tape Marketing‘s John Jantsch in which he explains his social media system.The next day he started asking other social media experts to share their routines and although I’m certainly not an internet guru I still wanted to add my two cents.

Most of you do not only have a website or a blog to maintain but are also members of several social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Stumble Upon, Delicious and others. We use these sites either in a personal way or also more and more to promote and market our business. But keeping up with all the adding, following, messaging and posting takes up a lot of time and you can easily get lost and spend days in front of your screen without doing anything else (believe me I ‘ve been there).

So developing a system might be a very good idea and here is mine:

Usally the first thing I do after getting up is sitting down in front of my PC (still saving for a MacBookPro) and check email, rss feeds, blog comments and messages from my social networks. To make this easier I use Digsby which keeps me up to date on IM, email and social networks messages in my browser status bar. Then I write my blog post (which will  happen more frequently in 2009) and when I am done with all of this I open up Tweetdeck. If I did that before doing any of the other stuff  I’d be lost because Twitter is a true time killer. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Twitter and I have learned more from people on Twitter than I have learned during my entire school years (or at least more useful stuff) but following all the links people post can easily take up hours on end and I have always been the kind of person to do chores first and have fun afterwards (I’m not sure my mom would agree with this though).

There is also something else you should consider to help you with getting the word out about your blog, your art, music or whatever it is you want people to see. After posting a blog post, you want it to go out to your social networks, but doing this manually will consume a lot of time. That is where Friendfeed comes in. If you let Friendfeed import your blog, Twitter, Linkedin etc. you can then let it tweet your updates and also bring it into Facebook with the Friendfeed app available there. If you don’t have a Friendfeed account you can also just use the import service Facebook offers for your Youtube, Picasa, Flickr and some other services.  Then you can sign up for Twitterfeed and let them tweet any rss feed you specify, i.e your Delicious links feed, your MySpace blog posts and of course your blog feed.

To finish this up I have one more tip for you. Try Flock. Never heard about it? Well, it’s a browser, based on Mozilla (just like Firefox), but especially built with social networks in mind. It has a people bar in which you can follow your friends from across several networks, you can upload images to Flickr, Facebook and Myspace by drag and drop and it has a built in option to subscribe to people’s media streams from Flickr, Youtube and other sites and view them in a media stream. You can do all of this from inside the browser without having to find and add different add-ons like in Firefox (although most Firefox plugins also work well in Flock). These are just some of the features, so it might be something you want to check out.

If you have any more tips on how to manage your online social life please share with us in the comments.

Creative Web Biz - the art of creating an online business