What are you doing to stand out from the Facebook crowd? Do you have a Facebook fan page for your business or organization? I wrote an article about it several weeks ago.

If so, you may be eligible to participate in a special offer that I am running. Next month (June), I’m celebrating the  official two-year anniversary of taking my company (Millennium Professional Consulting, Inc) online.

I wanted to do something special for the fans of WebDesignsByMichelle.

To celebrate, next week I am offering a Custom Facebook Landing Page for your business or organization for 60% off of my original price. That’s right, you can tell people what your business or organization is all about and stand out from the FB crowd!!

To get started, see the rules here.  If you meet the rules, this offer is good for the next 3 people that contact me via the Contact Form on this blog.

I’m taking a break for the Memorial Day Weekend. But I will be back on Tuesday…so stay tuned to the wall on my fan page for more and don’t miss out on this great offer.

Thanks, and you should connect with me on Facebook here.

If you are the administrator for your Facebook Fan page, you can choose the username for your page. Just be sure to choose a name that you will be happy with forever because you cannot change the name or transfer it.

What are the requirements to secure a user name for your Fan Page?

If your page has 25 fans or more, you are eligible to claim a username. I reached 25 fans on my new blog, so I was able change my username. There used to be a limit for businesses where you needed 1000 fans in order to change your username. But this is no longer the case, 25 is the number at the date of this posting. Change yours by going to: http://www.facebook.com/username/

Here is what the ugly URL used to be:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/WebDesignsByMichelle/100280366680491?v=app

Now you can find my page with a prettier URL:

www.facebook.com/webdesignsbymichelle

Why would I want to secure a user name for my Fan Page?

A more straight-forward username will make it easier for Facebook visitors to remember your name. This is good for your branding or online marketing strategy.

If you like these tips, be sure to become a fan of my Facebook page where you will get more information like this for free.

Thanks, and you should connect with me on Facebook here.

I read an article today on Yahoo that was published in the June issue of Consumer Reports Magazine. According to Consumer Reports, there are several things that Facebook users need to stop doing immediately.

I thought it was a good article, so check it out here when you get a chance. But to quickly summarize, the mains points are:

1. Do not use a weak password on Facebook

2. Do not leave Your Full Birth Date in Your Profile

3. Do not Overlook Useful Privacy Controls

4. Do not Post Your Child’s Name in a Caption

5. Do not Mention That You’ll Be Away From Home.

6. Do not Let Search Engines Find You – go to the Search section of Facebook’s privacy controls and select Only Friends for Facebook search results. This will help prevent strangers from accessing your page.

7. Do not Permit Youngsters to Use Facebook Unsupervised

Like I mentioned at the beginning, this post is just a high-level summary of the article posted on the Consumers Reports site. You can read the full article here.

So I encourage you to read the article in its entirety and quickly implement some of these social network security measures if you haven’t already. Like my mom always says, “Better safe than sorry”….

Happy Facebooking!

Thanks, and you should connect with me on Facebook here.

I am sure that most of you have noticed that Facebook changed one of their branding strategies recently.

Our Facebook users can no longer “Become a Fan” of our business pages, and they now have to click the “like” button .

When the new strategy was implemented several weeks ago, it impacted many branding strategies of companies.

Many folks complained. But at the end of the day, you pretty much need to accept the change and make the necessary adjustments to your FB branding strategy.

So with that said, I had to change my customized landing page on Facebook.  Prior to Facebook changing their strategy, I had a call to action for people to “Become a Fan” on my WebDesignsByMichelle page. It now says click on the”Like” button to connect with me.

You can take a look at how I implemented it  here and get some ideas on ways you could do the same thing on your page. Well, custom landing pages for your business is a different topic…

Back to the topic on hand. The one thing that I think is pretty neat about having the new “Like” button on your page or blog is that once your visitors “Like” your page, it stays on your page.  As a result, others can see how many people like your page.

In addition, it seems to be much easier for your site visitors to say they “like” something on your site than on the contrary to state they  are a “Fan” of your business.

So to add the “Like” button to your site, you just need a widget that has been created by the FB developers. You can find more info on the plugin  here. You can add a Like button to any page with an iframe tag.  The code looks something like this and you just need to change your website name in the bolded section:

<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/widgets/like.php?href=
http://www.webdesignsbymichelle.com"
        scrolling="no" frameborder="0"
        style="border:none; width:450px; height:80px"></iframe>

If you ever need web design help or would like to chat about building a custom landing page for your business, ministry or organization, just let me know. Also if you need assistance applying the “Like” button on your website, I can help. I am currently offering these social media services and more.

So what do you think about the new “Like” button vs “Become a Fan”. Do you “Like” it?  :-)

Thanks for stopping by and Happy Facebooking!

Thanks, and you should connect with me on Facebook here.

The Most Rewarding Path to Success is to Serve Others

I was a Management Consultant for over a decade and have been an entrepreneur / self-employer for almost three years.  It has been a very rewarding experience for me.

Many people tend to think that being an entrepreneur is the quickest way to success.  I am not sure that I totally subscribe to this theory.

In actuality, entrepreneurship is not for everybody.

But, if you feel that you are being led in this direction, I believe that you have to make it about others in order to succeed at it.

I have found that no matter what your business, job, ministry or occupation is – the more you give, the more you get in return. Basically, you reap what you sow. The most rewarding path to success in entrepreneurship (and really life in general) is to serve others.

Make it your business to serve others.

Most great businesses are rooted in the concept of providing exceptional customer service or serving others.  If you are interested in starting a successful business, I recommend you start by finding a way to serve others.

One of my God-given talents is the gift of creativity.  In my spare time I love to Scrapbook, play the piano and write songs & poetry.  It is something that I enjoy and it comes natural to me.

As a result, when I decided to leave “corporate America” and become an entrepreneur, one of the first areas that I gravitated toward was Web Design and Development. This industry allows me to exercise my creative side and serve others.

So, as you set new goals for your business or if you are in the start-up phase of a new business – seriously think about what you can do to serve others.  Whether it is starting a car wash, a restaurant, or a financial planning agency – put people first and success will follow.

A successful entrepreneur is a Servant Leader.

Every entrepreneur should strive to be a “servant leader” which means that your primary goal is to serve others.  When an entrepreneur puts people first, I guarantee that your business will see a vast improvement in achieving results.

There are 3 characteristics of an entrepreneur who is committed to serving others. They are as follows:

1. Be a good listener
   Do not be too busy that you miss an opportunity to help others.  Take the time to listen to your customers or prospects, not just the words coming out of their mouth, but the emotions that they are conveying.  Sometimes if you listen with a caring heart, you will find an area where your business can be a blessing to others through a service or product that they may need.
2. Have a good heart
   You must have a servant’s heart in order to be an entrepreneur that is committed to serving others.  A person with the heart of a servant will empathize with others. Once you hear the person’s story, you have to be able to put yourself in their place.  After you have listened to their need and made an emotional connection, now all you have to do is find a solution that will help or resolve the problem.
3. Be a good steward
   In a basic sense, a steward is a manager; one who manages time, money or talent.  We should strive to be a good steward over the gifts or skills that we are blessed with.  Some of you may have the “gift” of influence.  This skill is often necessary to be an entrepreneur.  So, use it to do “good”.  Many of our natural skills can be used for the good of others or to the detriment of others if used in a negative way.  Let’s choose to use our gifts to make our business a blessing to others.

Many of us have a desire to be successful.  I stand by what I said at the beginning of this post, the most rewarding path to success is to serve others.

There are other things that you need to do to achieve your goals – like creating an awesome product that people want to buy, hard work and dedication.  But while you are on the journey to success, why not help others along the way.

I know this post is not internet marketing content, but I am hoping it will inspire someone – and for others, be a confirmation for what you are already doing.

How about you – what’s been the most rewarding path to success for you in your business? Let us know in the comments.

P.S. If you enjoyed this post, be sure to subscribe to my blog and sign-up for my monthly e-newsletter. Thanks and have a blessed day!

Thanks, and you should connect with me on Facebook here.