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.

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.

Are your customers already on Facebook just waiting for an easy way to connect with you?

There’s a fast and easy way to find out. Here’s how:

• After logging in to Facebook, click the Ads and Pages button. It’s the second leftmost button at the bottom of your screen.

• Next click Create an Ad button. It’s the big green one near the top right of the screen.

• On the next screen type in any Destination URL (I use google.com). You will also need to type in a Title and Body Text. It doesn’t matter what you type here as you won’t be using it. Once you’ve typed something, click Continue.

• Now you can enter in the demographics you’re interested in. To narrow by city, click the circle By City next to the Location options and type in your city.  Be sure to select whether you want to include cities within 50 miles of your city as well.

• Check or type in any other characteristics of your market that you want to include in your user demographic estimate.

• Scroll to the bottom of the page and look at the Estimate:. This is the number of active Facebook users that Google estimates fit into your demographic selection. Here’s a sample estimate I got:

That’s it; you can now discover exactly how many people you can reach using Facebook marketing.

Be sure to become our fan on Facebook.

Most people have heard of Facebook as a way of connecting and interacting with friends.

Facebook can also be used to grow your business.  Here’s how:

• Claim your free business site – it’s free, and allows you to interact with the more than 350 million people world-wide on Facebook.

• Post good content – prospects and customers only want to see what is important to them.  Company news is not what readers will look at but coupons and giveaways will attract attention.  Videos, photos and articles are also important things to post.

• Join related groups – join groups that contain prospects for your business and those relevant to your industry and its issues. This will allow you to post relevant information and advice on the group pages.  This will help you reach more targeted prospects, build the group and build your brand.  Fresh content keeps you in front of the group as well as updated group lists.

• Advertise – you can run targeted advertising on Facebook, many times at a fraction of the cost of other ad channels.  It’s highly targeted and effective.

Keep reading as we’ll be writing more in the future about how to grow with Facebook.  The important thing right now is for you to GET STARTED.  Set up your business on Facebook today.

If you need help with Facebook, we have practical and affordable ways to get you started.  Please let us know if we can help you.