The following responses might assist you with some of your questions. Feel free to email me if you need more specific help. info@supportawahp.com.
What’s the concept behind Support a WAHP? Support a WAHP offers you a place to promote and gain more recognition for your home based business, connect with other work at home parents/people, and pick up valuable business and social media marketing tips via our blog and WAHP Insider newsletter. You need never feel like you’re going it alone. You can promote your business for free via our Facebook page, Business Directory and Top Listed WAH Businesses List (Topsites). Work at home parents don’t usually have a huge budget to use towards advertising so I offer a number of free and affordable options to help you get the word out about your business. Support a WAHP also has a membership program which gives you access to exclusive content, ebooks, a featured listing on the business directory and access to the Support a WAHP Members Group on Facebook. I also offer consulting services for businesses that are wanting more indepth guidance with social media marketing, business development and branding. Click here for more info.
_______________
How do I get my business name out there? A great place to start is by ‘liking’ our Facebook page. This page now has thousands of fans and the way it works is by you posting your business details on the Wall (including @tagging your Facebook page if you have one) which may then be given a “shoutout” that goes out to all fans. The idea is that our fans then visit your page from our link and become a fan themselves, boosting your fan numbers and hopefully your sales with them! Remember though, if we @tag your business name in a shoutout, it will also appear on your business page. We get hundreds of posts per day so shoutouts are not guaranteed unless you are a sponsor. For information on sponsorship, click here.
_______________
Do I need a Facebook page to participate in Support a WAHP? You don’t need a Facebook page to be a part of Support a WAHP but it does make it easier to spread the word about your business if we can @tag your page directly. I can always just mention your website if you have one. With 96% of the Australian online community using social media, you don’t want to miss out on business. If you need help with a Facebook strategy, please email me for information about my business brainstorming and strategy sessions: advertising@supportawahp.com.
_______________
How do I tag a page, group or person in a status update?
You can link people direct to your Facebook page or group by using the @tag available in Facebook. Simply type the @ symbol followed by the name of the page/person you want to link to (no space after the @). Once you start typing the name, a dropdown list will appear and you can select the name from there. You’ll know if the tag worked because it will appear in blue in your status. This only works in new status updates, new posts on a wall or when posting a link/image. You need to be in conversation with the business or person you are tagging or have liked their page more than 24 hours earlier in order for this to work. Make sure you aren’t tagging people’s pages for the sake of it. This can come across as spammish behaviour. If you need more information on Facebook etiquette, get a copy of my new ebook: Diving In: Practical tips for starting up and growing your home based business here.
_______________
How can I promote my business with Support a WAHP? Apart from our Facebook page, we also have a business directory, an online forum, a top 100 list and several paid advertising options. You can add a free business listing in our Directory in one category. Remember to be as descriptive as you can as people often search the directory for certain words and you want your listing to appear in their search. The Topsites page works on a ranking system. When you register, you receive a code to add to your website which displays a Support a WAHP logo. When people click on this logo from your website, they are essentially ‘voting’ for your site and that adds to your daily hits, bumping you up the list to the top. Obviously the top listed businesses are the ones that are going to be seen first so that’s where you want your business to be! You can read more about our Topsites here.
To receive the full benefits of Support a WAHP, you need to participate regularly by posting details of your business or sales, specials or promotions on our Facebook page Wall but remember to abide by the posting rules that you’ll find in our Posting Guidelines.
_______________
How does the posting process on the Support a WAHP Facebook page work? In an attempt to have some order about the
Support a WAHP Facebook page, we allocate posting days to different types of businesses. You can view our Posting Guidelines here.
_______________
What is a shoutout and how do I get one for my business? Shoutouts are the term given to the mentions that your page receives in a Support a WAHP Facebook page status update. These updates are sent to all fans of the Support a WAHP page via their Newsfeed and also appear on the Wall. We do daily shoutouts for our website sponsors and we try to do a few random shoutouts for businesses that post on our page wall each week. Shoutouts will only be given to the businesses that fall into that days categories and only when the page administrators have the time to do them. Shoutouts are not guaranteed every day.
_______________
How do I create a Facebook Page for my Business?
To create a Facebook Page for your own business, click here and follow the instructions. Be sure to enter the correct page name as you won’t be able to change it once the page it’s published. You must have a Facebook Profile before you can set up a business page.
_______________
How do I make the most of my Facebook Page?
For many businesses, their Facebook page is their sole online presence so you want it to make a good first impression. One way to achieve this is to have a custom “Welcome Page”. A Welcome Page is a landing platform for new, potential fans which gives them an instant feel for your business and a brief overview of what you do and what you offer. It’s the very first impression people will have of your business. You want this page to attract the potential client and draw them in to want to become a fan of your page.
The more people that are fans of your page, the further word will spread about your business. Joining websites that support work at home businesses like yours such as Support a WAHP, mwwah.com.au & WAHM Network Australia for example, will also help to boost your fan base. Ask your friends to suggest your page to their friends by clicking on Suggest to Friends on the upper left side of your page. This sends an invitation out to your friend’s friend’s to join your page. They can in turn suggest to their friends and so on, hopefully sending your fan numbers skyward!
In the text box below your logo, make sure you add a clickable link to your external website if you have one. Even though your website is probably already listed in the Info tab, it’s not visible all the time. You want to give potential clients easy access to your products. By “clickable” I mean make sure it has the http:// at the front of the URL. Without this, it means people will have to copy and paste your link into their browser and some might think that’s just too much work and be turned away from your page! Make it easy for people to click through!
Ensure you make regular status updates letting your fans know about new products, sale items, what you’re working on, anything that can relate to your fan base but remember, don’t go overboard!! I know from experience that people don’t like their live feed clogged up with post after post after POST from the same page. This usually leads to a) them removing themselves from your page or b) them blocking your feed so they can’t see any updates unless they visit your page. Include some useful tips and resources in your posts, ask questions to seek fan feedback and try not to post more than 4 times per day as a general rule.
_______________
How do I set up vanity URL for my Facebook page?
The standard URL given when you create a Facebook Page is lengthy and not user friendly, for example, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Your-Page-Name/276852589493?ref=ts. Instead of having to constantly refer to this URL, you can quickly and easily create a vanity URL for your Facebook Page by going to http://www.facebook.com/username and entering the name you’d like to use. Be sure that your spelling is correct as you’re unable to change it later on, once you’ve reached 100 fans. Now, isn’t it easier only having to remember http://www.facebook.com/YourPageName instead? Make sure your name does not infringe on anyone else’s trademark or intellectual property before you assign a name. You will need a minimum of 25 fans to designate a vanity URL.
_______________
How do I add another page to my page’s favourites?
You can show your support for another page (and have easier access to them) by adding them as a favourite of your own page. To do this, click on ‘Add to my page’s favourites’ underneath the logo on the left of that page.
______________
If you have any further questions, feel free to email me!
