When I first started on Facebook, I didn’t have a business to promote. I was simply on there to make new friends and make new connections. Over the years, many of those friends began to promote businesses and I followed suit. What I found was that the people who just wanted to socialize, play games and so on were no longer communicating with me. I took it personal, of course, stumpbusters until I realized that I had skewed the focus of Facebook and turned it into a channel of non-stop commercials.

Many online marketers will begin with a profile page, either using their already existing personal page to share their business, dismissed or, they may make a second profile for strictly business connections. And, most online marketers have at least an awareness of attraction marketing. They believe that the people they have attracted to them personally will want to hear about their business.

The Problem: Facebook is NOT for promoting business. The purpose for Facebook is to build relationships with like-minded individuals. So, lawyerinauckland where the disconnect is, is that the people you are promoting your product, service or business to are the “warm market” that would not want you to pitch to them at a party or other social function.

If you create a second profile, you still run in to the same problem, because the majority of people are online looking for VALUE, looking for friends, community and socialization…NOT a business opportunity. You may make a few connections and a few sales, marineelectrics but you are less-likely to create an effective lead generation system this way.

The Solution: If you want to generate leads with Facebook, you need to first understand and take hold of what Facebook is all about-BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS. You must have a strong desire to build relationships with other people AND understand that this method of lead generation takes awhile to get rolling, but once it is…it is a HIGHLY effective method.

Here’s where you can makes some changes to start seeing results: buono

Profile: Your profile should be PERSONAL. You want it to be fun and interesting; to share YOU. This includes having a photo of YOU and your name being your real name (not your company’s). Let people know about your interests, hobbies, family and so on. DELETE anything that isn’t PERSONAL.

Note: You don’t want to share your location or anything that may give lead to where you live, work or put yourself or family in harm’s way.

Fan Page: Go and create a fan page, with your name and your photo as the page picture. THIS is one of the two places where your business will be “promoted” and WELCOMED. Make sure your description shares what you really want to accomplish with your page, what you have to offer your fans and how to get what you have to offer them. You can connect your personal profile to your fan page by editing your “work” to link to your fan page.

Group Page: The second page you will want to create is a Group Page, also using your name and photo. On your group page, you still want to maintain a personal touch but in the group, you now want to provide a sense of community; a place where your customers, affiliates and team members can come together to support one another, providing tips and share resources.

Putting it all together and see lead generation on Facebook:
Your Facebook profile is where you are YOU. You should regularly request new friends to your personal profile. Be mindful that your focus should not be of gaining leads, but as gaining new friends; building more relationships and expanding your circle of influence.

Share your fan page on your personal profile (after you’ve set it up properly) and ask them for their “like” on your page. They can click over there to see if they want to be a part of your page. They will see that you have business posts on there and they will also see that you are giving value to your fans there. This will bridge the gap between personal and business.

There is so much more to generating leads on Facebook, but this is where you can get started, today. Please be sure to stop promoting your business on your personal profile. You don’t want to repel people. You want to attract even more people. The more people you attract, the more relationships you can build. When you build relationships, people begin to know, like and trust you. When they do, you start to see the flow of leads come to your business.