Facebook Messenger is a free tool for all Facebook users, including businesses, that is accessible through both the website interface and a downloadable Messenger app available for all phone operating systems.

Its purpose is simply for communication, which is very important for any business with a profile.

Many users do some searching before committing to making a purchase and an easy way is to check a Facebook page or profile for further insights.

We’ve touched on this in other posts regarding providing great customer service and how users will use social media as their customer service channel but for many small businesses the usual answer is simply: that’s great to hear but we simply don’t have the time or manpower to monitor Facebook Messenger.

This becomes a problem when one of the metrics users can see is your typical response time to messages. In their minds, they are checking to see how responsive customer service is after making a purchase just in case they have any questions or issues, and if they see the average wait time to a response being 3 days, they’re not likely to buy.

This is what has necessitated Facebook Messenger Bots but it has expanded greatly since.

The Bots now are something you can create yourself for your business.

Depending on what you do, this can be as simple as providing support or as complicated as completing a full sales or marketing funnel task your website is typically used for.

Companies who allow online orders through their website can configure a custom bot to handle orders directly through messenger, which saves them from simply pointing the user back towards their website.

If your purpose is to share information through the platform you can create a bot that sends updates on your business to users through Messenger.

Companies like TechCrunch created their own bots users can add and once added, you can ask it questions or simply ask for updates.

It’s designed to act like a tech-savvy friend you can turn to when you have questions, which makes an excellent offering for a business that is known for reporting tech news.

The idea is to take your user’s journey beyond the task of searching and finding.

Bots are not limited to Facebook, but it is the biggest platform for them. Having a Messenger-driven Live Chat option on your website can make a big difference in your conversions and bounce rate.

Your users are more likely to stay when they see some level of interaction and engagement. When it goes well beyond simple canned responses and actually provides a service, you then have something real that can be used to give your business a big boost.

Why direct them back to your website when the purpose of the website can be completed right in the service channel?

To get these Bots set up right you’ll need to do a few things:

1. Understand your customer’s reasons for interacting with your business

2. Map that user’s journeys from interest to completion and then create those steps in the bot

3. Create a voice for each purpose and draft a script that conveys genuinely helpful feedback to the user when prompted.

If they’re looking for support, then make sure your support messages are drafted in a way that isn’t rigid or off putting.

If they’re looking to purchase from you or book something with you then you should have an upbeat tone to the messages generated by the queries that leads the user to completing the transaction right in Messenger.

4. Test them out yourself and rewrite as necessary. You may find you’ve missed something if you take the user’s position and message your own business.

Try to complete a sale or request help in the form of service and see if you feel satisfied by what the Messenger Bot feeds back to you. If not then it’s time to revamp the bot!

It sounds that easy but it’s actually an evolving and strategic process so don’t treat this as a “set it and forget it” initiative. It’s important to monitor the stats and make adjustments to account for any areas that are not creating a perfect user experience.

If you have users following your business on Facebook just so they can get a hold of you (your bot) then you’re doing something right. You may even see website stats decrease but if those users are simply bypassing the step of using the site and you have better conversions through messenger then you’ve got it!

It is strongly advisable to seek professional help when creating these. Even with third party systems taking care of the code-related steps you will waste more time trying to become a Messenger Bot Expert than you think. And because of the time demand, a professional may likely wind up involved anyway.

Going through a breakup can be the most traumatizing thing especially when the person who now is your ex and you were deeply in love with each other. One of the most causes of breakups today is infidelity. However, some other reasons can also lead to people breaking up. Such kind of reasons include violence, a nagging boyfriend/girlfriend, extreme jealousy which makes the other person uncomfortable and so many other negative reasons which may make the significant other unattractive. In this article, I will not go deep into the causes of breakups but I will be giving you tips on how to make your ex miss you on Facebook where most exes spy on each other to see how the other person is doing after the breakup.

1. Avoid Posting Messages That Show You Are Miserable

This is number one mistake most people make after a breakup. It is OK to post what you want because it is your wall but saying something like, “without you I will die or without you I am horrible” clearly tells the other person you have nothing going on in your life without them which is very unattractive. Talk about things that don’t target your ex. Doing so, will at least make your ex wonder if you still think about them anymore. When they start getting worried that you are forgetting about them, they will try to find out for themselves what is going on in your life maybe even making a call to “check on you” which in this case, will be a win for you!

2. Make Them See You Are Having Fun Without Them

The main reason why relationship don’t last long nowadays is that couples stay together and do things together most of the time. This repetition causes boredom to set in. The ‘missing the other person’ part is not there anymore and once that part is not there, you can feel like your boyfriend or girlfriend is boring. Choosing to post a picture of you with tear filled eyes and a depressed face saying something like, “I am so bored, can’t wait for this day to be over” is a clear indication you are miserable without your ex. The idea here is how to make your ex miss you on Facebook and not how to make them feel like they need to rescue you from your boredom. Keep yourself busy with activities you love. Go hiking, shopping or swimming with your friends and have some fun! Post all the photos with a big smile plastered on your face even if deep in your heart you feel like crying and see how your ex will react. You will get him/her jealous of who you are hanging out with and maybe if they still love you, this might prompt them to make a move sooner or later with the fear of losing you to someone else.

3. Look Fabulous

When was the last time you looked your best? Probably the day the two of you met! This is the time to make yourself look beautiful. Shop for new clothes and update your overall look. Look gorgeous so that when you think about posting a picture of yourself on Facebook, your ex will drool over it for hours as he/she sees how people are complementing your beauty reminding him/her what they are missing. Looking sloppy won’t make anyone want you again but getting fit and looking your best is a sure way to go! This is an especially important part of learning how to make your ex miss you on Facebook.

However, not all relationships are meant to be. Don’t beat yourself up when things don’t go the way you wanted. Be positive. Do what you can do to make your ex miss you but if they don’t see or don’t care, maybe it’s time you move on. There are so many good men and women out there who will appreciate who you are and treat you the way you deserve! Keep searching you never know who you will meet tomorrow!

True story –

I had a really rough start in marketing because I listened to all the online hype about Facebook Ads and their magic.

In fact, my first campaign for a paying client was a total disaster because of it.

So here’s what happened –

I was contacted by a local ad agency that did this project for a professional school that was desperately looking to get more applications for the next year.

They wanted me to do the online campaign while they took care of the offline stuff.

I was a totally sticky-wet newbie, and of all the dumb mistakes I did in that campaign, the one that hurts me thinking about (because that’s what down-right created the failure and cost me the most time) was…

I Didn’t Do Enough Market Research

As many newbies think, I thought back then that enough traffic can solve any problem and that everyone’s on Facebook, so you can never go wrong with Facebook ads.

Boy did I get a cold hard slap-in-the-face of reality…

I tested so many thoughts and angles in this campaign (some of ’em really good), only to eventually understand that I’m 1000 miles down the wrong path because…

The Prospects Are Not Even On Facebook!

Can you comprehend how humiliated and stupid I felt for not understanding that sooner?!

That there is a slight possibility that Facebook Ads (or any social media marketing for that matter) doesn’t fit your crowd because they’re not on Facebook – Duh?!

I mean I kept on drinking the Facebook gurus kool-aid without even understanding what’s REALLY going on… goes to show there’s no one-size-fits-all template in marketing – every niche/campaign/product should be scientifically tested on its own, regardless of anyone’s opinion

Had I known what I’ve learned since then, I would have tried other traffic sources, and that’s how this ties in with practically any business –

Facebook Ads Isn’t Some Magical Customer Lot And Traffic Is Rarely The Problem

I mean why even limit yourself to just one traffic medium when there are so many nowadays?

It’s kinda like your stock portfolio – you want to diversify it (at least in the early stages), pick the winners and drop the losers after seeing what works.

And that’s the danger of counting on marketing that depends on only one medium, let alone some dude who calls himself a digital marketer who uses Facebook Ads regardless of your niche and audience.

Understanding that a marketing strategy and fundamentals trumps all tactics

So the first thing your marketing should focus on when looking for what mediums to advertise in is –

Where’s my market at?

Where does my audience congregate?

If your audience is retired senior citizens – it doesn’t make much sense advertising on Facebook is there?

Sounds straight-up simple but you wouldn’t believe how many “online marketing gurus” don’t pay attention to these important things.

Only after considering the relevant possibilities you should check which traffic sources to test.

“Run ads!

“Facebook is the way to go!

“Drive traffic to your offer and you will never have to sell a day in your life!”

Not so fast!

Running Facebook ads isn’t for everyone. Especially if you have no idea what you’re doing. You can lose a small fortune if you don’t understand the strategy behind advertising.

You also have to find someone who clearly understands the analytics of your ad campaigns. It takes more, much more, than putting up an ad with, “Get my thing!” or “Buy my thing!”

Case in point…

Recently, I received a message from an author who spent a small fortune on Facebook advertising. He was extremely disappointed with the results.

“I didn’t sell one single book from the ads,” he complained.

“Did you send people directly to the sales page for your book?” I asked.

“Yes. That should have been enough to get them to buy,” he responded.

Wrong! It’s not. To simply drive complete strangers to buy anything is a waste of money. It’s NOT a good use of your ad spend.

Getting the Most Out of Your ad Spend

To get the most out of your ad dollars, you have to test the waters first. You absolutely need to know your ads are showing up in front of people who are interested in what you have to offer. In addition, you have to build trust.

My experience has cost me dearly

A few years ago, I hired an ad specialist who claimed I would get a great result under her careful guidance. According to her, she got great results for other well-known experts in my industry.

I did my homework and it seemed all she said was true.

With complete confidence, I invested in her substantial fee and a hefty ad spend. I had no reason to believe we wouldn’t get a great result.

And I waited and waited and waited.

After a couple of months of lukewarm results (and thousands of dollars), I realized I was NOT going to get the promised results.

The mistake she made was to over promise.

A different story

“We needed more time,” was what I was told.

“But you told me we would get results from the beginning,” I said.

“Well, it seems this is not a responsive market,” she insisted.

Talk about disappointed. I had been promised one thing and delivered something completely different.

Close Analysis

After the shock of my results wore off, I decided to give it another shot with someone else. Before signing an agreement, we had several conversations in which I expressed my concern based on my previous experience. What I liked about the gentleman I was about ready to contract is his overly cautious approach.

“It will take careful analysis of every dollar invested before we increase our ad budget. We will start with $5 – $10 a day, analyze your results and when we get the type of results we are looking for, we increase our daily budget,” he advised.

This time, my results have been very, very different.

Lesson Well Learned

Before putting any money into a campaign, I wanted to have a very clear understanding of what was to be done, what my investment in the daily ad spend would be and what I could expect for a return on investment.

The process involved more, much more, than simply driving people to an offer. I already knew taking people to a sales page was not going to result in much of anything. What I came to find out is even a free offer straight out the gate won’t result in much of anything.

Rather, to get the best result, there are steps that need to be taken first. One is to clearly determine who the ideal candidate is to see my offers. This allows us to see who is even remotely interested in my information.

Our goal is to build engagement, familiarity and trust before asking for anything, like a name and email address.

Upon determining who is most likely to be interested in my information, we can increase the ad spend.

This allows for a great ROI (return on investment).

Flow

By first driving visitors to my blog, we can re-target the ads on Facebook to a similar demographic.

The conversion will be a heck of a lot higher by doing it this way. This assures a higher conversion rate to my subscriber list.

Once on my list, I can engage subscribers with pre-programmed auto-responder messages. I also continue to create value and build trust.

Is this a longer process than sending directly to my sales page? Yes!

Is it more effective? Absolutely.

If you think FB ads don’t work, it could be it’s not that they don’t work, it could be how you are doing them.

It could also be that running ads is not in your wheelhouse of expertise.

Far too often, authors try to do everything themselves. This can be very, very counterproductive.

You may need to consider hiring an expert. But before taking their word for how great they are, do your homework and check with people they’ve worked with.

And, if they promise you the moon in an unrealistic time frame, rethink your decision. I know I have.

Social media sites are not unfamiliar to the investigative and legal worlds. A lawyer, whether acting as a defense attorney or working for the prosecution, would be remiss without doing some basic searches among social media, and a private investigator might well find the key to the case somewhere on Facebook or Twitter. A little hunting around might reveal that someone on the other side has been #up to no good! #

Yet Facebook use officially authored by the court system is of fairly recent vintage. Australia was the first, back in 2008, to allow a Facebook message as a means of alternative service of court papers, in that case a foreclosure notice. Since then, the practice has become more widespread in Australia and New Zealand, joined by Canada in 2011, England's High Court allowed it in February 2012, and just weeks ago, a state court in New York authorized a father to serve child support papers on his former wife via Facebook message.

It's logical enough – people being served legal papers of any kind typically do not want to be found. Often they've filled known previous addresses and have taken any number of steps to stay off the official radar, probably changing phone numbers and email addresses. This can make all traditional forms of service virtually impossible. In this social media dominated age, Facebook looks like a viable alternative. Everyone knows plenty of people who seemingly can not be reached outside of Facebook, but are easy to find (and find out a lot about!) On Facebook.

However, there are a few things the legal world has to watch out for. The court has to be convinced that traditional service of papers has been tried and failed and that the Facebook account belongs to the right person and is still in regular use. Moreover, all of this has to be determined within the legal code of ethics that would forbid so-called predatory friending. An investigator can not simply send a friend request to the man who defaulted on his mortgage to make sure he's still getting messages that way.

The use of Facebook messaging in such cases has often moved cases along towards a legal resolution – a good outcome, for sure. In a bit of a twist, Facebook is pretty happy about it, too! Where one might expect the company to wish to avoid the negative associations, when company spokespersons have spoken about it, they have expressed pleasure that courts have validated the security of Facebook's internal messaging function.

Who knows, it could lead into a new line of business for the social networking site! There is already a growing link between Facebook use and divorce, and there are plenty of Facebook pages, like this one, offering free access to divorce papers and tools for filing them. From start to finish, then, from cause to resolution, Facebook, like Google before it, can be everywhere. With an estimated 1,317 billion Facebook users, there are plenty of potential players in the Facebook legal drama.

Not understanding Facebook groups and how they can help you build your business can hurt your business. In this article, I am going to talk to you about how Facebook groups can give a boost to your business.

When you ask someone to add them to a Facebook group and they say yes, you know they are at least somewhat interested in what you are doing. Also, when you add them to the group, they are going to get notifications when you post updates. This is going to keep you top of mind and you are more likely to hit them when they are in the purchasing mood.

Besides for helping your prospects stay in touch with you and your products and get more comfortable with the thoughts of buying, you can also use Facebook groups to keep your team together.

Making sure your team is connected and seeing other people have success is highly important. This is one of the most important things you can do when you are working on your team retention. If you’ve already brought people onto your team, why would you want to let them go because you are not able to keep them connected? You’ve already done the work to recruit them and bring them through the process so do the work to keep them.

Facebook groups are not difficult to maintain when you have an active group of people. You can enlist people to help you with the group and make sure everyone is playing by the rules and keep the group for what it is meant for.

Conclusion

When you create your Facebook group, make sure you are clear on what you are creating it for so everyone knows how they are supposed to act in the group. This is going to make things much easier for you to monitor and it will help people as they are working with you in the group.

Facebook Marketplace was launched around a year back, and currently, it is extremely popular amongst habitual car buyers and sellers. The marketplace has become a popular alternative to Craigslist, the classified ad giant. However, it was not always this way.

When Marketplace went live, a lot of car buyers and sellers had complaints regarding the listings. They were limited, and users encountered a lot of chronological issues. With searches available only on location, prices, and keywords, Marketplace was far from the ideal car buying and selling place online.

However, this year, Facebook has made plenty of additions to Marketplace, which has established itself as a popular place for trading in cars. At this point in time, it is very much at par with other car shopping sites, and here are a few reasons why Facebook Marketplace is a great place to buy or sell cars.

Massive Additions to Existing Listings

If options on Facebook Marketplace seemed limited, it truly is a thing of the past now. Partnerships and deals with leading names such as Cars.com, SocialDealer, and Edmunds have resulted in listings that cater to every kind of car buyer. The options now are truly vast, which makes it the perfect place for buyers to look for the cars that they truly want.

Added Search Filters

A huge reason behind the unpopularity of Marketplace previously was the lack of sufficient search filters. Filters were earlier limited to keywords, prices, and locations. However, car buyers can now filter the search results by make, mileage, model, year, and vehicle type as well. Such extensive search options make it one of the most comprehensive online car shopping destinations.

Direct Communication with Dealers

Perhaps the most innovative feature that Facebook Marketplace has to offer is the messaging option, which users can use to contact automobile dealers directly. This is a great way to bridge the gap between sellers and buyers, and it gives users the chance to ask specific questions directly to the people who can answer them best.

The Facebook Advantage

Facebook is not just a social networking site now, it is a global brand that has a following in almost every part of the world. Millions of users log into their Facebook profiles each day, and many of them use Marketplace too. This makes Marketplace a great place for sellers to find buyers and vice versa. In the coming months and years, Marketplace is set to become even more popular, which guarantees more options for buyers, and more buyers for dealers.

Facebook Marketplace is sure to be a delight for car enthusiasts in the future. After its initial disappointments, it has come back with a bang, thanks to the much-needed tweaks incorporated by the developers. With its wide range of options for both buyers and sellers, Marketplace is the place to be if you want the car of your dreams at a great price. The added advantage of direct communication with dealers and sellers gives users a sense of transparency, allowing them to bring home not just the cars they need, but the cars they want too.

Social media is something that has become very popular in the last few years and that's why Facebook marketing is a good marketing platform for marketers. If you have thought about it before, it is time to educate yourself on the topic. Look at this advice to learn more.

Increase customer engagement by commenting on the things they post on your Facebook wall. Keep an eye on all of your followers comments. This is particularly important if the comment that has been left for you is negative. Negative comments may show what you are doing wrong and you can correct the problem.

Your Facebook page needs to be monitored for spam at all times. Sites that are riddled with spam can end up turning potential customers off. You and your page administrator can use it to filter keywords of your choice.

Increase your Facebook marketing interface's efficiency by using customized tabs. These allow for increased organization, making your page very user-friendly. For example, if a contest is going on you can have a tab there to get more information about it.

The key to successful marketing with Facebook is having a strong base of fans. You do not need to spend much money until you've gleaned 5K fans or so. Your conversion rate will climb quickly after you have gained several thousand fans.

It is helpful to be active on other Facebook pages instead of just your own. Posting on other people's pages can attract attention towards your page. It needs to be positive attention. Remember to keep your posting professional and a reflection of your business. Make sure that you avoid spamming other pages.

Companies that only have rare contact with customers may not need Facebook pages. Your customers appear randomly, so there's no reason for them to follow all your daily posts. Instead, put your money into Facebook ads.

Always answer comments and posts that show up on your Wall. If someone takes the time to speak to you on your profile page, then you need to make time to contact them. Think of Facebook posts in the same way that you think of phone calls; you respond to them and answer questions about your business.

The whole point of Facebook marketing is to boost sales. Set yourself a monthly sales goal when you start marketing on Facebook. Getting a lot of likes on your page does not mean much if it does not translate into sales. Try switching your strategy if you're not seeing an uptick in business.

Be sure that you're working to put a personality behind your brand. If you are boring they will think your product is too. Have an engaging personality while remaining as professional as possible.

Your website and your Facebook page should mimic one another. Match things like color palette among the sites. This helps brand your Facebook page with your business. If the color schemes are completely different, people may think it is a different company with the same name.

It's not hard to market through Facebook, obviously. It does not happen overnight and this is important to remember. Use these tips to improve your Facebook marketing and remember to be patient.

One common thing that I hear a lot from musicians is “I used Facebook ads once and it didn’t really work for me.”

And that’s common for a lot businesses not just musicians. But as musicians we’re not selling a solution to a problem like a dentist, or a lawyer. So we have to go about marketing music differently.

What a lot of musicians do is they have an album or a single to promote. They make a post that says something like “Check out my sweet new single!” Then they put a million different links to iTunes, Spotify, Tidal, SoundCloud, YouTube, Bandcamp, and tell people to listen to it for free.

There’s a few problems with this method.

The first problem is when you send someone to a 3rd party platform like Spotify it’s pretty much impossible to keep track of how many people went there from your ad. Also you can’t follow up with these people because you don’t have an email or way to follow up with them again.

But the second problem is more related to human psychology. As humans when we meet someone for the first time we are really unlikely to do anything they ask us to do.

So if a stranger walks up to you and asks you to do something it’s not going to happen. If a friend asks you to do something you are much more likely to do what they want.

This “GO CHECK OUT MY MUSIC” ad is doing the exact same thing.

I like to make an analogy to explain this.

Lets say I want to promote my cool new country music album, so I go down to my local country music bar, walk up to the first person I see and say:

“Hey I got this cool new album I really think you’d like it. You can listen to it for free but we have to listen to it outside in my car because I only have one copy of it. So you want to come check it out?”

The chances of that person doing that are slim to none.

And that’s what a lot of musicians are doing with their ads.

You’re basically asking a complete stranger to stop everything that they’re doing and then leave Facebook to go listen to your music.

And there’s actually a much better way to promote your music with Facebook ads.

Imagine this different scenario…

You go into your local country music bar, but this time you go up to the DJ or bartender and say “Hey if I give you a few bucks would you play my new album for everyone to listen to?” They say yes and put it on.

Now you start looking around the room and you notice some people nodding their head and grooving to your sweet tunes.

You go up to them and start a conversation and tell them about your band, that you moved here from a different city. At the end of this interaction you say “I’d love to give my EP for free can I get your email to send it to you?”

They say yes. And boom. You now have a direct connection to someone who is interested in your music, and could potentially become a fan.

We can do this same thing on Facebook by running a paid video ad. Don’t put any links or anything crazy in the text. Just a simple headline. What this does is it lets people discover your music naturally and if they’re curious they’ll click over to your page and learn more about you.

And if you’ve set up your custom audience lists in Facebook you can run a follow up ad to them later on asking them to give you their email in exchange for your album for free.

This method is a much better way of advertising your music on Facebook because you’re not asking a total stranger to do something. Instead you are sharing your music and they can choose to watch your video or scroll onto the next thing.

Driving traffic to your website is often a big part of posting anywhere on the internet. While online forums and Facebook are both great places to post and attract that needed traffic, there are vast differences in each venue.

While posting in both will benefit your business, knowing the way each works will help you get all the traffic you can handle.

Best Part of Online Forums

The best part of online forums is that there are so many of them catering to any and every topic one can think of. Most forums let you add a signature whenever you post; This puts your website or blog info all over the forum. This is a quick and efficient way to drive traffic to your pages.

Facebook is also a great place to find potential customers. Every day on Facebook feels like a large party, with lots of people discussing a variety of subjects.

Both Beneficial yet Both Different

With over 1.25 billion users around the world, most people understand why posting on Facebook brings traffic to their website or blog. Starting your own Facebook group is easy to do and can be done in less than 5 minutes. Creating a Facebook group page is no different from creating a personal Facebook page.

Running an online forum is different from just posting on one. Although anyone can learn to create a forum, it is best to have someone with experience help you get started. While you will not reach as many people as you would on Facebook, you will reach those people who are most interested in what you have to offer them.

Because forums are "rooms" for discussing specific topics, like-minded people enjoy discussing certain topics, niches or markets within each forum. Your post and replies are always available for others to read.

People on Facebook tend to post a lot more than they do on forums. Even if you ask a specific question, people have a habit of going off track. People will discuss everything and anything on Facebook. As this happens, your well written post falls off the screen and no one is going to scroll to find it.

Facebook Groups Free

Creating a Facebook group will cost you nothing but time. Unless you know how to create your own online forum, hiring someone to help you is going to cost you a bit of money, but will ensure you that the job is done correctly.

Although creating a Facebook page may be easy, you really have no control about the rules and regulations that Facebook can change at any time. If you dislike a change and complain, you might find yourself with a closed Facebook group.

You Are in Control of Your Online Forum

However, once you have your forum set up, you are the boss. You can choose to sell ad space to make money, or leave ads off your site.

All rules are created by you, so you need not fear your forum will be shut down if you do not like the way things are going: you simply change things.

Both Facebook and online virtual forums offer you advantages and disadvantages when you create your own content.

The difference between the two may be as vast as day and night, but both offer your business a simple way to generate traffic to your website or blog.

After all, driving traffic is why you post to begin with. Take advantage of the opportunities each has to offer – you'll be happy you did.