Ok, you got this far. Stay with us for just a little bit more, o’ fearless marketer, and ye shall be publishing to Facebook in a jiffy.

<you can always pick up the phone, too: 800-335-0520>

Now publish your first coupon or special to Facebook:

1. When logged in to Fanminder, click the “Grow Fanbase” tab and link your Facebook Business Page to Fanminder.
2. Click “My Profile” in the upper right hand corner of the page, then click “edit” Social Branding. Upload your logo, photo and finish this form to dynamically create your Promo Page that fans will visit.
3. On the Overview tab, click “Send an offer or coupon” in the Quick Links panel on the right hand side of the page. Now create your coupon or special and be sure to send it “via Facebook”.

Go check it out on your Facebook Page’s Wall! It should show up at the same time in your fans’ newsfeeds. You can now publish as many specials or coupons as you’d like and track all clicks, grabs, and redeems.

Ok, so you got this far. Stay with us for just a little bit more, o’ fearless marketer, and ye shall be publishing to Facebook in a jiffy.

<you can always pick up the phone, too: 800-335-0520>

First, create your Fanminder Trial Account:

1. Visit www.lovealocalbusiness.intuit.com/playbook
2. If you don’t see your business on the screen, then enter your email address in the “How’s Your Business Doing?” field in the upper right hand corner of the screen.
3. Now click the blue Text2Vote link on the left hand side of the screen.
4. When Fanminder opens, click “Grow more with Fanminder” in the bottom right corner.
5. Finish creating your Fanminder account.

Now publish your first coupon or special to Facebook:

1. When logged in to Fanminder, click the “Grow Fanbase” tab and link your Facebook Business Page to Fanminder.
2. Click “My Profile” in the upper right hand corner of the page, then click “edit” Social Branding. Upload your logo, photo and finish this form to dynamically create your Promo Page that fans will visit.
3. On the Overview tab, click “Send an offer or coupon” in the Quick Links panel on the right hand side of the page. Now create your coupon or special and be sure to send it “via Facebook”.

Go check it out on your Facebook Page’s Wall! It should show up at the same time in your fans’ newsfeeds. You can now publish as many specials or coupons as you’d like and track all clicks, grabs, and redeems.

Unfortunately, the answer is “Both”.

With the Facebook changes baking in, and lots of people weighing in on what it means, I’ll attempt to briefly provide the Pros and Cons. Overall, the changes reflect Facebook’s desire to make Business Pages operate more similarly to Personal Profiles – and that’s a good thing. There’s also more flexibility for app developers and a better way for companies to join conversations across Facebook. On the downside, Facebook just eliminated some tried and true elements of the Business Page, notably the Tabs at the top of the page (moved) and the profile info box (eliminated).

Note: Do not switch over your Facebook Page until the changes are forced into effect on March 10. There are still bugs being worked out by Facebook. You also can’t switch back once you make the switch.

Pros

1. Addition of Photo Strip to top of Page – Photos are now more important for businesses given their increased visibility. This is a big positive as long as you add photos to your Page.
2. Admins of Pages can get notifications by email when people post or comment to your wall. Huge positive.
3. Admins can now surf around Facebook posing as the “Page” or in other words, as the Business. This is a big positive because it means wherever you go on Facebook, you can do all the things that a person can do – like, comment, post, etc on business’ or people’s profiles or Pages as your business.
4. Pages can also feature other Pages now.
5. There is a new Category description placed underneath your company’s name.

Cons

1. Easily the worst aspect of the changes is that your Wall Posts aren’t in chronological order any longer. Facebook uses a secret algorithm to determine which posts show up where. This can cause havoc for you as you search for posts and try to keep track of what people are writing and when, so keep a close eye out for the dates of posts.
2. Tabs are moved from the top of the page to the left side. This will make them much less visible to fans and less clicked on. On the other hand, you can have longer titles.
3. Because of #1, the Profile Pic shouldn’t be too lengthy, vertical-wise, or else your navigation links (formerly: tabs) will get lost below the fold. The profile pic has been reduced from 200 X 600 pixels to 180 X 540 pixels.
4. Company Info box formerly beneath the Profile Pic is now moved to the Info Tab. The info will still be available to the search engines. However, don’t count on any fans seeing this good synopsis of your company any longer.

As you can see, a mixed bag for small businesses.

If you already send specials and deals to your email list, then adding a Grab Coupon button will increase response and walk-in traffic. This is how Giordanos does it below, then follow these simple steps. Call us at 800-335-0520 if you want help.

1. Sign in to Fanminder and click the <Send an offer or coupon> link.

2. Create an Offer for your email campaign. Use an Offer that works well for you, or get ideas here.

3. To create the link you need for your email, you just need to send your Offer now to at least one mobile fan OR publish it to your Facebook wall.

4. After you click Send, a green confirmation box displays your link. Copy this link and paste it into your email template next to the description of your special or coupon. Even better, ask your webmaster to make a big red “Grab Coupon to Phone” to get the most clicks.

5. Send your email to your fans! Fans will receive your email, and click the link or button to send the coupon to their phones via text message. With your coupon on their phones, fans are more likely to come back to your business. Have your staff ask fans to show the coupon. If you’d like to track how many fans redeem these coupons simply ask the fan to reply with the four digit redemption code and Fanminder will track sales for you!

Now do one more thing:

Showcase your brand and get more sales by adding a photo and your logo to your online Social Page. Your fans see this Page with your Offer when they enter their mobile phone number to grab the coupon to their phone. See the Social Page below as a screenshot. Go to My Profile and click “Edit” next to Social Branding to add your photo and logo.

Last year I gave a speech on Fanminder and the opportunity in local mobile. Tracy shared it with me and I found that I was curiously coherent by my own standards

What’s nice about this speech in particular, is the focus on the small business owner using garden variety technologies to make an impact in his business. Earlier that day many others waxed on about the latest smartphone app or other doo-dad to help small businesses so naturally I felt compelled to state the obvious: Small businesses need impact, not cool new stuff.

Go ahead and watch a video of my speech, it’s #6 on this link at the 24:48 mark: Watch a video of my speech.