Facebooks’ CEO announced on Tuesday:

They have 300 Million Users – 70% of whom are outside of the U.S.

The are adding about 800,000 people a day.  Their fastest growing demographic is over the age of 35.

They turned a profit in Q2/2009

They are bringing voice chat to their platform

They aren’t interested in selling out – they would rather go public with an IPO.

Great stuff!  Congrats to Facebook for proving that the new price model is:  FREE!

CNN has all the facts in detail on their website:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/09/16/facebook.profit/index.html

Is your website an electronic billboard or does it tell a story to your visitors, provide information they are looking for and use an archetype designed to attract your specific buying audience?

Too many websites are simply “points of sale”.  Unfortuately, that puts you in a position of requiring a visitor who is ready to buy.  What if they are not at that point in their decision yet?  What if they are simply shopping for goods or services and investigating when they land on your site.  Do you give them information they are looking for in order to get closer to the buying decision – or do you simply send visitors to the “Sales Dept” to let ‘sales’ have a crack at the money in their pockets?

If you are not providing information and telling a story, you are not connecting with your buyers, and you are also not providing information to your visitors to give them the sense that you are a good choice for their purchase.

You need to develop a brand story.  If you are a reseller for someone else, then your brand story should be about YOURSELF, and how YOU are going to personally be of service.

If you sell only one thing, you can give them all the information they need on that one thing and then make it easy – at every point along the way – to let them purchase.

If you sell many things, make sure they have a clear path to the information they seek FIRST.  If you do, they will make a buying decision and you will have them in your lap at that point in the decision process.  You will be a trusted advisor, and they will have confidence to make the purchase.

It takes work, but if you don’t have a brand story, you need to get busy building one!

I got an email today from Sam’s Club and it  is a very cool example of cross-marketing,  using an  INTERACTIVE,  Internet Marketing Campaign.

Take a good look at this ad – it’s colorful and inviting, the food looks great!  Sam’s Club has the shopping list and great prices, and Kraft lets you create your own cookbook.  Plus!  You get the bonus of knowing what’s for dinner for the next two weeks!  We are all busy – they definitely targeted a niche there!

Think of the outcome of this strategic campaign:  First, if you aren’t a Sams Club Member – you just might become one.  If you aren’t focused on “Kraft” products – you are now.  The win-win is when you start interacting with this ad, creating your cookbook, and follow it by going out ot buy those products in Sams Club.  They both win!

In this challenging economy we all should be looking into our networks for opportunities to cross-promote.

Use your imagination!  If you do, you will find unique ways to combine talents with other businesses to win new customers.  The first win will be sharing the costs of a promotion – the second, sharing your customer lists (not physically, of course, but by creating a promotion and then using email to existing opt-in customers, you each send out the same ad to different customer groups).

How to get started?  Look into your network connections and find the obvious and (even better) unique business services and products that might marry well to yours.  Then make the call!  The worst they can say is ‘no thanks’.  Act boldly – Go for it!

If your website isn’t about listening to your customer, then responding to their needs with content, you are in trouble!

Watch this great YouTube Video called  The Break Up, and learn why you may not be converting your visitors to customers!

The Break Up. Are you next?