Facebook is just for teens ... NOT!

First they were babbling on cellphones and then they were texting. Then came the phase when they were listening to music on iPods and then iPhones. Even taking photos of their uncool parents. Now your kids spend their every waking hour on Facebook ... sharing pictures, music, making new friends. Not to mention, electronically torturing each other.

That doesn't mean that your kids and their friends are the only ones using Social Media. It only happens appears that way because children are the most receptive to new technologies. Thy are the early adopters. They do kiddie type things with technology.

Look deeper imagine the serious things you can do with Social Media ... as well as the not so serious. Social Media is simply a vehicle. The old round-dial telephone was Social Media, if you think about how it was used, wasn't it? It just so happens that that era of technology doesn't seem as cool now as it probably did then.

The serious applications you can use with Social Media help you to leverage your business if it's done right and a manner consistent with your business strategy. The not-so-serious applications help you to put a human face on the people behind the page. This is a lesson in engagement. Don't build your Facebook page like a child, but use it like one!

And if you were curious about who uses Social Media and for what, check out the graphic by Community 102.

How do you feel about the potential for Social Media in your business? Please leave your thoughts in the comment section below.

Five easy steps to increasing your Facebook fan base

Every business needs customers ... and it takes lots of satisfied ones to successfully grow your business. As a business owner, your number one goal is to grow your business. That's a lot easier said than done.

There are many ways to grow your customer base and they all involve some form of Marketing (reaching the right prospects with your story, building a relationship with them and directing them to do business with you). The cost of each marketing approach varies and may be constrained by your financial resources or ability to invest in marketing.

So the key marketing question for any business, especially small businesses, is which are the approaches that can give you maximum bang for the buck?

One answer is Social Media. In this article, we reveal five easy steps to increase the number of prospects who will listen to your story so that you can find more customers to do business with you.

1. Create a Facebook "Fan Page".
2. Integrate your fan page with other social media channels.
3. Develop your marketing message and Amplify it to bring in fans.
4. Engage your fans so that they bring more fans.
5. Convert fans into paying customers.

The formula is truly that simple.

Fan Page+Integrate+Amplify+Engage+Convert = 100 x Current Customers!

While the formula is simple, executing it is challenging unless you know how to do each part well. So here are a few tips about each component of the formula. If you don't have time to read all the details, just read the highlights in bold and italics below.

You can do Social Magic!

Yes. With Social Media, your business can now do what amounts to magic. It is possible to do today what even tens years ago would have been thought impossible in terms of reaching millions of prospects all over the globe and ultimately doing business with them.

But sadly, millions of businesses are missing the boat. There may be a belief that these media are not for serious business applications.

In reality, Social Media is one of the most cost-effective ways to turbo-charge the returns your business achieves for each dollar spent on marketing resources. How so? Social Media is all about building relationships with customers and prospects. It is the ultimate marketing tool.

In this blog, Amazing Business Promotions will provide you with the following key benefits:

• Show you how to build a powerful Social Media strategy ... without programming!
• Help you avoid the 3 biggest mistakes businesses make when implementing strategy (visit the "How To Do It" tab on our Facebook page to see them right now)
• Tips and tricks on how to get the most out of each of the most popular Social Media tools
• Teach you how to multiply the effect of Social Media on your customers and prospects
• All the resources you need are on our Facebook page
• Educational videos that separate fact from fiction about Social Media
• Links to additional helpful resources from around the web

Amazing Business Promotions is your one-stop source of organized, well-researched content about Social Media and how you can use it to quickly acquire thousands of new customers for your business.

Our goal for each blog post is to provide you with at least one powerful idea you can apply to your business today.

Please SHARE this article with friends in your network who may appreciate the information.