This week's guest on Inbound Now is none other than
John Haydon
.
John runs Inbound Zombie , a social media strategy firm, where he helps small businesses and nonprofits develop their social media strategy, specifically focusing on Facebook.
In the interview we discuss:
- How he built his business from the ground up through blogging and inbound marketing
- Facebook Fan Page Strategy - the dos and don’ts, how to grow your Facebook Fan Page and most importantly why you should!
- How to streamline your Facebook activities
- Additional Facebook resources
- A look into the future in 2011
Enter to win a custom Facebook Landing page tab
John is kind enough to give away a custom Facebook FBML landing page to one lucky winner! We will be picking the winner with a random number generator next Wednesday and there is no limit to the number of entries ( i.e. the more you tweet the better chance you have to win )!
To Win the Custom FMBL Tab Simply:
- You must ReTweet this article AND like the Inbound Now Fan page
- "RT to Enter to win a custom Facebook Fan page tab from @johnhaydon & @Hubspot's new show @InboundNow http://bit.ly/eWDcdV"

If you just want the audio click here.
Building a Business Through Blogging and Inbound Marketing

He researched the niche he was going for and aligned it with his passion for helping nonprofits and small businesses succeed with internet marketing.
His isn't a story of overnight success, he hammered away for three years! By consistently doing three blog posts a week, he is now reaping the SEO benefits, both by the number of inbound links he is generating and by dominating the top listings for keywords specific to his business.
The key for him was building content that is catered to specific needs of his target market (nonprofits and small businesses) and to address their pain points.
Now, he is generating half of his new business and leads via search and the other half through social media channels.
Jumping in Head First... Be Careful
Facebook is not a big huge email list for you to spam. Facebook is a platform to engage your fans.
Its about human to human connections and facilitating conversations that help the people who follow you.
50% of users on Facebook are daily active users. What are they doing while on Facebook? Sharing photos, web pages, and remarkable content.
Creating remarkable content for Facebook is very important, people don’t want to see just an RSS feed of your blog, they want something that they can share with their friends.
How to Organically Grow Your Facebook Reach
- Provide behind the scenes content.
- Give people a reason to like your page. What are they going to get here that they aren’t getting from you on Twitter, or your email newsletter.
- Use your current assets. Have an email list? Send them a message asking them to like your page, explain to people what they will get in doing so.
- Using your fan page wall for live chats.
John runs a series of webinars with CharityHowTo, the typical webinar consisted of the content and then a Q & A session at the end usually through the chat box.
They decided to take this discussion and point people to leave follow up questions on their Facebook Fan Page where John can follow up with them there. By making this simple change they have seen exponential growth in the page. Smart move!
How Can You Rock Out Your Facebook Page?
Optimizing your Facebook Fan Page-
- Page Name - Try and leverage the title of the page to let people know the business that is represented.
-
Create a custom welcome tab with FBML
- Setting as default landing page
- Make it pretty, add a video, let them know why they are liking the page
- Have call-to-action for them to like the page
- Adding in a newsletter signup form can be a good idea
What Facebook Apps Do You Recommend?
- FMBL - Create Custom HTML Tabs
- Facebook Events
- The Wall- use the @ symbol to tag others in updates , this will show up on the walls of the people you are mentioning and is a great way to expand the reach of the update.
- Facebook's video app - enables liking within the video frame.
- Audioboo.fm - enables you to record and post audio directly to your Facebook Fan Page that users can listen to directly on the wall.
- Using your custom email address of your fan page to send updates, pictures, or videos to your fan page can be super useful. (To find this go into your fan pages settings and click on mobile.)
Streamlining Your Facebook Activities
Use browser tools like Hootsuite, Sendible, Sharaholic to streamline social sharing.
Using scheduling tools can be a great way to space out content but be careful to not over use them. You need to be present when people respond to you.
You can never automate true engagement! Sorry to burst your bubble .
Additional Facebook Marketing Resources
- Dan Zarella has a new book out " The Facebook Marketing Book "
- Inside Facebook is a great blog that has a ton of updates on current Facebook trends
- Social media Examiner
- Hyperarts - they have a repository of FBML code samples.
- Facebook Showcase - Get some inspiration for your new custom landing page tab
What is Going Down in 2011?
- 2011 will be the year of businesses reexamining their “Facebook strategies”.
- Facebook places will be doing some cool stuff.
One of the main goals of a Facebook Fan Page is getting those people back into your site! Weave this into your Facebook strategy.
Give teasers and entice people back into your site where you can then convert them into a lead.
You can find John on twitter @JohnHaydon and also on Inbound Zombies Facebook page .

Past Episodes:
- Gauging Online Influence with Jason Keath of Social Fresh
- How to Market Smarter, Faster, and Cheaper with David Siteman Garland
