Today's win-win: Free website giveaway!

Do you need a website? 

I need fresh new websites for my portfolio!

Let's help each other out - it's a win-win.

Whoohoo!

I will build a basic 3-page website for free*, in exchange for allowing me to use it as an example of my work when advertising my marketing business.

You provide the content (text) and pictures, and we'll work together on what design you have in mind.

What do you you get in this free website dealio? 

• You get a basic three page website designed and built. While I recommend one page should be your homepage, the other two can be anything you like. It's your site. Tell me what you want.
• All of your social networking sites will be integrated into your website - Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, blog, photo sharing, event calendar, etc. 
• Unlimited emails with your domain name, such as you@whoohoo.com 
• Your site will be listed in all of the major search engines. 
• As an added bonus, you get a QR code that can be used to promote your website in print and online 

How do I get this free website?
Just "Like" my Pam Hawk Marketing Facebook page and leave a comment telling me what kind of business you want the website for. Hurry! The first three comments get a free website. Super simple.

So what are you waiting for? Get over there and tell me about your business! Go on; I'll wait right here.

*Gosh, you say it's free, Pam. So what's this asterisk for? Is there a catch?
Yes, actually I'm glad you mentioned that. I wouldn't say it's a catch, just the cost of having a website.
While I am providing my website building services for free, there is still the cost of publishing a website live on the internet. This is the one cost you'll be responsible for. The cost will vary a bit, depending on what kind of website you're interested in, but I'm all about getting the most bang for a buck, so we'll keep it as budget friendly as possible.


Well can you at least give me a ballpark price? 
Accounting for a little variation, we're looking at your annual cost to be under $120. That averages out to about $10/month. This price includes both your hosting fee and annual domain renewal.


Can you say that in English?
Think of having a website like having a phone.

• The domain is your very own version of www.whoohoo.com and like a phone number, and you have to pay an annual fee to keep your domain. Usually it's about $10/year. 
• Web hosting is like having a calling plan, and you can pay monthly or annually. It costs less overall if you pay annually, of course. This price can vary, but the company I prefer using is less than $120/year. Plus this company uses only wind power for their offices and equipment, and appeals to this Oregon girl. (That would be me. I live in Oregon and am proud to be a dog-loving, recycling, rained-upon treehugger.)

What the heck is a QR code?
This funky little square barcode is cellphone readable and can store any alphanumeric data you can think of, such as website addresses, phone numbers, special messages, coupon codes, email addresses, etc. Here is an example of a QR code:

PamHawk.com is now on Facebook

At long last, I have set up a Facebook page for PamHawk.com!

Please click the link above and Like the page. Thanks!

I have been using Facebook for a while, with just a personal profile, but now that I'm seeing more friends and associates on Facebook, it became apparent that my marketing tips and suggestions would be more accessible if they were published via Facebook. Like the old adage suggests,

"Don't try to redirect traffic to you;
find where the traffic is and get in front of it."

This blog will still be here - I'm just importing all of these posts to Facebook and using Facebook applications to interact more with my fans.

To all my friends and associates who have small businesses: This venture is dedicated to your success. 

Cheers!
Pam


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Facebook "Like" marketing experiment - update

Last month I posted about marketing on Facebook using their Like button. I was using it for my own marketing project, learning as I did it, and posting about what I did and how it worked.

In my project, I posted 15 flower pictures that I had taken last summer, and asked people to vote for their favorites with the Like button so I could narrow down the top 12 to make calendars. When the voting ended, I wanted to choose one person who voted to get a calendar.

Here are the earlier posts:
Marketing via Facebook "Like"
Facebook "Like" Marketing Experiment - Part II

Here are the pros and cons of what I did:
Pros -

• While I didn't get a lot of people involved, the few who did were very active and not only voted, but added comments to most pictures.
• I learned the difference between Facebook Groups and Facebook Pages and learned how to build a Page. (Here is an explanation about the difference between the two.) 
• I discovered a bunch of useful Facebook applications that help me do what I wanted to do within the Facebook guidelines. The list of links is below.

Cons -

• I learned that while asking people to vote is allowed, doing a giveaway on my own Facebook page is against Facebook rules. Facebook can only be used to lead people to a non-Facebook website where the contest/giveaway can be conducted.
• Giving away one free calendar with flower pictures did not create a lot of buzz. No surprise there. Giving away something free to everyone who participated would have created more buzz. More on that in an upcoming post when I tell you about Stacy's Pita Chips. Huge buzz.
• In order to comply with Facebook rules, I created Help Pick the Top 12, which is a separate website with voting buttons under each picture (actually it was a blog) and the challenge was encouraging people to click over from Facebook to vote. I did get some votes, but not a huge amount.
• While I did find sites and applications to help me market with Facebook "Like," I personally didn't have the time to work on this more and develop it into a bigger project with bigger results. I don't know if it would have mattered with flower pictures, anyway. 

While I didn't have any big Wow moments, I learned a lot about using Facebook as a marketing tool. I hope when you are planning to market your product or service via Facebook and want to take advantage of the Like button, my experience helps you to pick up where I left off. I'd hate for you to waste valuable time learning about this from the beginning like I have.

Meanwhile, here are links to sites that I have used or would use with my next Facebook marketing campaign:

Crowd Conversion - If you can look past the the hype, you'll find an interesting webinar, videos, and links.

Like Button - Yes, it seems strange that I have included the Like Button page, but this shows you how to add a Like button to your blog or website. When visitors to your website click your embedded Like button, it shows up on their personal Facebook page and your website/blog is broadcasted to all their friends. It's Like Button marketing in its most basic form. Here is what it looks like when added to your site. Click it and see how it appears on your Facebook profile. You can click Unlike to remove it from your profile if you want. (My feelings won't be hurt.)





Facebook for Websites - If you're a geek or have a geek working on your business website, this offers code and tutorials to integrate your site with Facebook. There are even options for Facebook users to opt-in to receive messages from you (your business.) One caveat is unless you're technically minded, this page might make your head spin. I consider myself a geek and still had a hard time with some of the info here.

Facebook Promotions - This is the one I should have used from the beginning. The description on the page says it best: "Promotions for Fan Pages is a Facebook verified application for companies & agencies to run branded interactive promotions on Facebook Fan Pages. Promotion formats include: sweepstakes, contests, coupon giveaways, special deals and more..."

My Merch Store - Not so much a page that helps you market your business through Facebook, but more a way to create and sell merchandise that markets your business. Merchandise that you can create and sell via Facebook includes t-shirts, cards, key chains, mugs, etc.

Do you have any other links or tips to share?


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Facebook "Like" marketing experiment - Part II

Here is the text that I used to get things rolling. I edited and edited and edited until there were no extra words and the message was clear:

This year for Christmas gifts, I'm making calendars from these photos I shot this summer at Swan Island Dahlias - but I have too many pictures.

Will you help? Just "Like" your favorites and I'll use the top 12.

The 12 pictures with the most "Likes" will be featured in the calendar. I'll count up the most popular ones on the weekend before Thanksgiving. (Saturday 11/20/10)

When the calendars are printed, I'll randomly pick someone who liked at least one picture and send them a calendar as well. (Sure, your friends can "Like" their favorites, too.)

Thanks for the help!
-Pam

Update:
Apparently, if your friends "Like" a photo in your album, it doesn't show up in their profile. Any comments they make simply say, "Mary commented on your photo."

That's definitely not going to create a buzz. I'll post a solution here after figuring out the best way to fix this.

In addition to that, Jennifer pointed out some rules regarding promotions on FB (in a comment on the last post here.) I'm working on modifying the thing to make it FB friendly and will let you know what I come up with. Like stated at the beginning, this is an experiment. I'm learning as I go and bringing you along so you can learn more, too.







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Marketing via Facebook "Like"

This fall I am conducting a little experiment on Facebook to see firsthand how the "Like" feature can create a viral effect. Like many people, I casually dabble in Facebook but haven't taken any Facebook classes or spent a lot of time studying how to make my concept go from 0 to 1,000,000 in two days.

Many of the businesses that I "Like" are locally owned venues with fans numbering between a handful to maybe a couple hundred at most. These pages use Facebook more as a cocktail hour extension, keeping their fans in the loop with upcoming local events and special deals.

In order to learn more about how I could use the "Like" feature in big ways, I'm going to pose a small contest, of sorts.

It all started when I came up with this year's Christmas gift to the grown-ups in my family. Each household gets the same thing - a handmade or home cooked something or other. Last year it was hand-sewn grocery bags, fresh bread, and homemade jam. The previous year it was homemade BBQ sauce with corn bread mix, and a few BBQ cooking and eating accessories. This year I'm making calendars from photos I shot this summer at Swan Island Dahlias.

My problem: I can't whittle down my favorites from 17 to just 12 pictures.

The solution: Post them on Facebook and ask my friends and family to vote for their favorites by "Liking" them.

Simple enough.

The whole experiment thing didn't occur to me until I was uploading the pictures into an album on Facebook. The ideas flew around in my head -
Why limit it to just my friends? Why not open it up to everyone? (I don't sell photos or calendars, but I suppose I could if I really wanted to.)
Why not take the names of everyone who "Liked" the photos and pick one to win a calendar?
...Why not take some notes for when I want to promote a business in this manner?

And so here is where the project is for today. I'll run the experiment, take some notes, report back here with an update midway through, and share my final result.

If you want to take a look at the rest of the photos - and "Like" your favorites, or not - simply visit my Dahlias Album.

Update : Still learning about Facebook, there have been some changes. The link to the Dahlias Album now points to a different location. Read more about my learning process and reason for the changes in Facebook "Like" Marketing Experiment Part II



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