To be perfectly honest when I first signed up for Facebook I really didn’t think much of it. I thought it was a great social site, with some fun applications (I got hooked on Scrabulous for about 3 months) but just another site I could spend a few hours on the weekend playing with. After all, my 15 year old son had his own Facebook profile so you can kind of see the mindset I was in.
I didn’t quite grasp the concept of using Facebook as a tool for one’s business. I mean, I know there were plenty of people out there “preaching” the power of Facebook, but I guess I just didn’t pay much attention…”me bad”.
It wasn’t until just recently that I really understood how a small business owner such as myself could benefit from the “Facebook Phenomenon”. I was speaking with one of my close friends Tawnya Sutherland, founder of VAnetworking.com. Tawnya is a Certified Internet Marketer and the one thing I’ve come to know is when Tawnya speaks highly of anything related to internet marketing, you “shut up and listen”. So I did just that!
Next thing I knew I was on Facebook creating a group on a topic I’m extremely passionate about the Multi-VA Business. With the support of a few of my friends who announced the new group to their facebook network, I had 30 member in the first 20 minutes. Within an hour I had over 60 members. Today my group has 125 members, with new members joining every day.
Well of course I was shocked (and ecstatic). Here I was with 125 members that I could share my passion with, not to mention my products/services! Woo Hoo! I understand that by Facebook group standards, 125 members isn’t astronomical, but where else could you get 125 people to sign up to hear more about what you have to say in just a few days?
The facebook group has allows me the medium to offer teleclasses, share resources, sell my products and most importantly meet new people. Within a day of setting up my Facebook group I had three people contact me for potential speaking engagements, how’s that for the power of Facebook!
So if you’re like me, let me re-phrase this, if you’re like the way I used to be, and view Facebook as merely a personal tool oppose to business tool. Take another look at it, I think you’ll be surprised!
BTW: Thanks Tawnya, you’re the best!
