Facebook is launching a new service that may become a great new sales channel for the security industry. The new service is called Facebook Questions, and it’s going to change the way businesses and Facebook users interact.

Instead of someone searching Google for the answers to life’s questions, they now can ask the entire Facebook community. For example: If someone had a question on dome vs. box security cameras, he or she could post it on Facebook Questions and get a variety of perspectives on the issue.

With Facebook Questions, marketers in the security industry will have a new direct point of access to Facebook users interested in security systems.

Security marketers will then have the potential to establish a relationship with Facebook users by providing them helpful, insightful tips on their security needs.

Below is a screen shot of how users will post their questions. We should note that Facebook will likely moderate Facebook Questions to ensure there are quality questions and answers.

Facebook will use keyword tags to organize questions into different subject categories to make it easy for security marketers to find the questions they can answer.

The Bottom Line

Unlike some of its competitors — Yahoo! Answers, Quora and LinkedIn Answers – we think Facebook Questions will be an immediate hit because of the 500 million users on Facebook.

Facebook Questions will become a place where you can build relationships with potential sales leads. You’ll be able to share case studies as well as interesting facts and figures to become a thought leader in business and home security.

Interacting directly with Facebook users immediately after the launch of Facebook Questions will allow you to get an edge on the competition by being the first to establish your expertise.

Before joining the Security Selling team, Joe worked in public relations where he secured coverage for clients in national publications such as The New York Times and PC Magazine. Prior to that, Joe worked for Cox Enterprises where his byline appeared in several Ohio newspapers. Joe earned a mater’s degree in communications from Colorado State University.

Security Selling extends our congratulations to Joe. We are looking forward to working with him.

With half of the U.S. population expected to be on Facebook by 2011, there’s no doubt that companies must use the popular social networking site as part of their marketing efforts. But just being on Facebook isn’t enough unless you are actively using it to grow your profits.

To learn how businesses make money on Facebook, we asked some of our clients how their Facebook pages have benefited their company. We then took their answers, and after enjoying their amazing success stories, created this list of the top 6 ways to profit on Facebook.

1. Sell Things – Facebook is the perfect place to promote your special offers, provide Facebook fan only coupons, post links to your website, and even sell things right from the Facebook Marketplace.

1. Cut Service Costs – Cut down on service calls and long email help requests by providing excellent customer service through Facebook. By providing answers to commonly asked questions, offering links to help sections on your website, and allowing your fans to interact with each other, you can significantly reduce your service costs.

1. Advertise Cheaply – Facebook’s highly targeted advertising platform lets you reach your exact audience at a price that’s about 10 times less than other ad networks. This makes Facebook one of the best ways to get more customers at a price any business can afford.

1. Increase Business Development – Reach exactly the people you need to reach to drive your business forward. Using Facebook’s highly specific groups you can interact with hobbyists, major organizations, professional groups, and even specific ages, occupations, locations, and interests that you want to target.

1. Conduct Market Research – Get instant feedback on product ideas, customer needs/wants, and anything else you want to know. Polling your Facebook fans lets you avoid major blunders and focus on what’s important to your business.

1. Improve Networking – Facebook takes your networking opportunities to a whole new level of effectiveness. You can develop strong business relationships with major influencers, authors, and executives from all over the world without ever leaving your office.

There’s plenty more ways to profit on Facebook and new and innovative methods are being thought up each day. If you think you have a great way to profit using Facebook or just want to share your success story, leave a comment below.

If you haven’t already done so, make sure to follow us on Facebook to get exclusive fan only content, special offers, and learn about excellent educational opportunities to help your business succeed before anyone else.

Ever wondered the secret to getting your blog posts shared on Facebook and other social media sites?

You might have heard it’s more of an art then a science to succeed and that’s probably right. However, if blog writing is an art, than simple headlines are like paint brushes.

According to social media scientist, Dan Zarrella, the simpler your article headline is, the more likely people are to share it on Facebook. According to his research, blogs with headlines at the 2^nd grade level are shared on Facebook 49% more often than those written at a 15^th grade level!

Here’s a full breakdown of how headline reading grade level changes the average Facebook share amount:

Check out Dan’s fantastic blog for a nice graph of this effect.

Next time you’re writing a headline, remember how simplicity can effect you’re overall results and take a few extra minutes to create a fantastic title.

We’d like to congratulate the winners of our Facebook Marketing Makeover drawing that was announced at this year’s ISC West conference.

Security Selling founder, Brian Offenberger, held the drawing during his popular presentation “11 Common Marketing Mistakes Made By Electronic Security Companies” on March 24, 2010.

The two winners will receive custom branded Facebook welcome pages similar to the one seen below:

Our two winners are:

• Bruce Reedy, SDG Security

• Kevin Magna, Bay Alarm

Congratulations to both of our winners and thank you to everyone who entered the drawing.

To get a Facebook Marketing Makeover for your company, check out our Facebook Marketing Services today.

Email, like writing a good book, is much harder than it looks.

Here’s the common email messaging mistakes we see made by managers and how to fix them.

Mistake One – Forgetting email lasts forever

History is littered with the carcasses of managers (and celebrities, see Tiger Woods) who forgot what is written is permanent and subject to publishing by others.  Don’t forget, what you say may be used against you.

Mistake Two – Writing a novel

People have short attention spans and are pressed for time.  A mini-novel in their in box is the last thing they want to deal with.  At best, your email will receive a cursory glance.  At worst, it’s trashed or forgotten.  Keep it short and simple, one or two subjects only.

Mistake Three – Including inappropriate threads

Ever get the email where three people before you called you called the boss a jerk?  Always clean up the email thread before adding your comments.  Many will be glad you did.

Mistake Four – Answering emails as they come in

Imagine for a minute snail mail being delivered by the post office as it came in.  Wouldn’t be a very efficient use of time and resources, would it?  Do you open your regular mail throughout the day, or all at one time?  Handle your email at one or two times each day, and only then.  You’ll get more done, trust us.

Mistake Four – Terrible subject lines

Be clear and concise about the subject of your email.  Vague and exceptionally clever subject lines lead to confusion and mis-understandings.

Mistake Five – Failure to update the subject line

OK, so the email started about daily activities for February 22…what does that have to do now on March 7^th?

Mistake Six – Hiding behind the BCC feature

There’s nothing better you can do to teach your people to cover their ass than by you using this email feature.  And don’t forget that one of your BCC line people is BOUND to reply to ALL, bringing your little secret out in the open.

Mistake Seven – Using poor grammar

There is a reason you were taught English while in school.  It’s for situations exactly like these.  Use what you’ve learned as it makes quite a difference as to how you are received.

Mistake Eight – Failure to use lists or bullet points

People hate reading straight text in paragraph form, especially online.  Make your material easier to read by putting it in list (bullet point) formats.

Mistake Nine – Always using email

Email is not the best communication medium in all situations (remember that thing called a face-to-face conversation).  Sometimes it’s wise to “reach out and touch someone,” as the old commercial tag line so aptly stated.

Mistake Ten – Using email to criticize people

Use email to praise, save the criticism for more private forms of communication.

Mistake Eleven – Not being polite

Common courtesies apply to email.  A simple “thank you,” “please,” and “it’s appreciated,” go a long way.

Mistake Twelve – Burying the topic

There’s an old rule in journalism: most important things first.  Yet too many managers try to “frame” there message with elaborate build ups.  Just get to the point instead.  People will appreciate the brevity and your message will come through loud and clear.

Customer Feedback

All companies need testimonials yet few know how to get them. Here are 5 tips to help you get more.

1. Create a testimonial form

Make up a testimonial form that asks customers specific questions about what they liked about doing business with you. Send the form to customers with some incentive offer to return it. Let customers know comments may appear on your website or in your marketing.

2. Survey customers

Use tools like Survey Gizmo or Survey Monkey to find out what customers think about you. Allow room for them to offer narrative answers. Those answers are your testimonials.

3. Use a flip camera

For less than $200, you can shoot HD quality video from a camera that fits inside your shirt pocket. Use the camera to capture customer comments about your products and services. It’s fast, easy and effective. You can shoot the customer comments and have it on YouTube (or your website) in a matter of minutes.

4. Use a record-a-call option

You can use automated or live calling services that will contact customers, interview them and record their comments. These customer comments can then be used in audio testimonial form or transcribed for written use. You can also get a recorded, toll-free line which allows customers to call and leave feedback at their discretion, another great tool for obtaining feedback and testimonials.

5. Offer an incentive

Many companies use giveaways and other incentives to obtain customer testimonials. They offer their customers a “reward” for the testimonial. The reward drives the number of responses, thereby accomplishing the business objective.

The correct use of testimonials in your marketing and selling can drive huge increases in your sales. Make getting testimonials a priority for your business and watch sales soar.

Search funnels will be rolling out over the next few weeks and will be available to you if you are using AdWords Conversion Tracking or importing your Google Analytics goals into AdWords. This great new tool will give you insight into the effectiveness of your AdWords and keywords by tracking the path of users prior to a conversion.

In the past, AdWords only tracked the ad that was clicked prior to a conversion. With Search Funnels, Google will report on search activity for up to 30 days prior to conversion.

How is this useful to you? By showing you whether an ad was clicked prior to conversion, you will be able to visualize assist relationships.

For example, you will be able to see if generic keyword searches contributed to conversion in a branded keyword search.  This new reporting tool will help you build better ads to convert and retain more customers.

The new reports are in beta and will be available in your AdWords account in the coming weeks. There are 7 new report formats, some of which will include:

• Assisted Conversions
• First and Last Click Analysis
• Time Lag
• Path Length

Be sure to check out the Google Help Center for more questions on this new feature and watch for it in your AdWords account.

Facebook has quietly started sending out something new this week: Facebook Insights by email. While no official announcement has been made, Facebook page administrators have been buzzing online about the new emails. Many of them have been pleasantly surprised with this move by the social media giant.
While fairly simple in format, the emails include very useful information for tracking activity on a Facebook page. Page administrators should find the following in their email digests from Facebook:

• The number of new page fans and the total number those pages have
• The number of Comments, Wall Posts, and Likes those pages have received in the last week plus a tally for last week
• The total number of visits the page has receiving both this week and last

These emails are in a simple text format and include links to encourage the less savvy page administrator to grow these numbers.  Facebook is taking suggestions on improving this new feature and you can expect to see more changes to the email digests in the future.

Don’t forget to become a fan of Security Selling on Facebook for important marketing tips and information you can’t get anywhere else.

If you want to track conversations in social media (blogs, videos, audios, news, etc.) about your company, brands, people, competitors, issues and other things you deem relevant, then check out this tool from Social Mention.

They’ll give you free daily alerts via email about these topics and more.  Simply go the website at http://www.socialmention.com and you are ready to get started.