Facebook: Are you part of the networking leader?

Written by: Brandy Semore - Production Director of Ingenux





Facebook is exploding in the business realm and now has a collection of over 200 million users. It has become a great tool to promote your business and market your product. A Facebook Page is a public page created for companies that enable you to share your business and products with Facebook users. The profiles are easy to create with Facebook's simple interface and it's free. Those interested in following your brand can become "fans", and when they do, all their friends will see this.

➢ The number of Facebook users between the ages of 35 and 44 has increased by 51%
➢ Facebook users among the ages 45-54 has grown by 47%
➢ Facebook users ages 26-34 increased by 26%
➢ More than half of the 140 million Facebook users are out of college

Here are some recommendations for promoting your business on Facebook:

· After joining, find all of your friends. With Facebook's "real time" updates friends can get updated information immediately.

· On your web site or blog announce that you are on Facebook and invite people to become your friend.

· Add a RSS feed on your profile for your blog or web site. That will allow your Facebook friends access your site immediately.

· Applications give you full power to say or promote anything you want about your business, and use the social tie-ins provided by Facebook to do this.

· Facebook has a powerful advertising engine that enables businesses to specify a specific demographic target.

· Polls provided by Facebook are great for marketers looking to get a quick answer about a particular feature they'd like to implement, or just to find out information and opinions from a specific demographic.

· Facebook Connect enables your website to easily integrate with Facebook.

· Keep your clientele up to date with your company by joining twitter also and then integrating your twitter account with the facebook account to keep them simultaneously up to date.

Ingenux is now a part of the Facebook movement, we would love to have you as a fan! Check us out!

Taking Your Business to the Web: Top 4 Common Mistakes

In speaking with thousands of business owners over the years, it is amazing how many business owners make the exact same mistakes over and over again. Many business owners don’t plan and assume their same success offline will transfer over to the world wide web. I have accumulated the top 4 re-occurring mistakes by business owners below that I have seen over the years. Making one or all of these mistakes could cost a company thousands of dollars initially, and take away from tens of thousands of potential dollars they should be making monthly from their website.

1. Done too early!
The biggest mistake most small businesses owners make is getting their website done too early. A smart business owner will first research their target audience in their specific Internet market, and only then build their website around their research.

A business owner needs to get training on how to find a target web audience in a specific niche market. They need to determine which keywords their website needs to be designed around, in order to bring in customers from search engines and other sources. A huge mistake made by business owners is they get their website formed around very broad keywords which have too much competition.

2. Pay too much or too little!
Most web development companies quote very high prices on web and graphic design, and most small business owners make the mistake of going with those companies. They charge for flashy features that will never bring in traffic and will never make the website any money.

Here's a simple question. Would you rather hire someone that charges $10 per hour and takes 50 hours to complete an assignment, or someone that charges $50 per hour and takes 10 hours?

Easy answer - you would take the $50 per hour at 10 hours! Why? Because the quality of work, speed, and the final product will be top notch!

You may also get a very low quote from an offshore company, but beware - there are many problems with offshore designers: their English isn’t great, you can’t reach them on the phone, the time-zone difference becomes a huge problem - while you’re awake they are sleeping, payment is a problem because you have to wire them money, trust and legal issues can be a huge mess, their marketing knowledge is very limited to their country because they have no knowledge of the marketing techniques and economics of your country.

We have built such an incredible reputation with our clients that 50% of our work comes from referrals. Because of this, we have no expense on advertising and are able to give you a low price. In most cases, we’ll be able to beat any price quote you get. Also keep in mind, that with Ingenux, you’re not getting just a website, you’re getting consultation, training, and a website that actually sells!

3. Making it too pretty and flashy!
One of the biggest mistakes a small business owner makes is they ask and pay for a website that is all looks and no sales, no marketing. They spend thousands of dollars on a “pretty” website full of flashy effects which brings in $0 in revenue. You have to ask yourself, what good is a flashy website when no one comes to it?

Sure, major companies spend a lot of money on making their website extravagant, flashy, and interactive, but they already have traffic because of their name. The last thing a smart business owner would do is copy the idea of having an expensive flashy website like those of Fortune 500 companies. A smart business owner understands that for a website to sell its main focus needs to be copywriting and marketing, and will put design second. Now why would Ingenux, a design/development company, tell you that design should come second?

Ingenux knows that for a company to be successful on the Internet, that company must direct their focus on marketing their website and worry about how it looks last. When our clients make money using our advice, training, and of course our design services, they are extremely happy and thankful. When our clients are happy, they bring us more business through referrals, and we become even happier. Sure we'd love to take thousands of dollars for a flashy site, but that is not what we're about. We would rather build a professional website that brings your company traffic which turns to revenue. This is what makes our website development company different from any other.

4. No traffic, no money!
Traffic = Revenue, period! Without a single visitor you are not going to make a single buck from your website, sorry, no other way around it. After you go through our free preliminary training and consultation, you will know exactly what you need, to make your business successful online. You will learn which keywords your site needs to focus on, what needs to be done in order to get traffic to your website, and how to turn the visitors into dollar signs!

By now we hope you understand how a company becomes successful on the Internet, and how it fails by making 4 huge mistakes. You are now educated and ready to proceed to the next step.