If your company has a Facebook page, you may be familiar as to what kind of work it takes to maintain the page on a daily basis. Some tasks include continuous monitoring of comments left by fans, responding accordingly, posting relevant status updates to engage fans, posting photos and videos, linking to blog and/or Twitter, acquiring more fans, holding contests, downloading relevant apps, and I’m sure the list could go on even longer. The point is, having a Facebook page for your small business has become a near necessity for those involved in social media. But what is Facebook doing to help you reach fans?

According to an article on TechCrunch, it appears they’re not helping out too much. The article, titled “EdgeRank: The Secret Sauce That Makes Facebook’s News Feed Tick,” gives an inside look at Facebook’s algorithm, known as EdgeRank. EdgeRank controls which posts users of Facebook see in their News Feeds, as not every post from every friend shows up in your feed, which can be a good thing (hello, information overload!). Depending on various factors, EdgeRank has a secret equation that determines who sees what. Parts of the algorithm are shared in the chart here:

via TechCrunch

As seen in the chart, EdgeRank takes note of interactions between the user and their friend making the post (edge), the level of the post (comment, like, status updates, etc. each have a different rank) and the time factor depending on when the post was created. Basically, if a person is your friend, but you’ve never exchanged an “edge” with them, or clicked through to their profile, it’s likely that you won’t see many, if any, of their status updates, posts, etc.

So, how does this all tie in to Facebook Fan Pages?

TechCrunch says “if you want your posts to show up in News Feed, make sure people will actually want to interact with them.” And just because a person has “liked” your page, that doesn’t mean your update is a shoe-in for their News Feed. Thus, administrators must become even more creative and discover tactics that will land them in front of their fans. (But isn’t that what friending, fanning and liking is for in the first place?!)

To me, it seems as if we’re being fooled by Facebook, but without knowing what our fans see, we’ll never know who passes the EdgeRank test. Take a moment to think about your Facebook account. Is it mainly the same profiles adorning your news feed? Are the same handful of fans consistently commenting on your fan page?

There’s much that could be said about Facebook’s algorithm and the ethics behind it all, but first we’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.  If this is how it truly works, what are some tactics fan page admins can put in to place to enhance interaction?

Just about every company uses traditional communication methods like a telephone to facilitate communication with customers and suppliers, but do you realize that by using the Internet you can enhance your business communication? The Internet allows a company to take their communication to the next level, for a surprisingly affordable price. Saving money while obtaining advanced features is a win-win situation for even the smallest of companies.

There are Internet-based communication technologies that give a modern twist to traditional communication methods, and technologies that allow you to communicate in ways once accessible to only the largest of corporations with huge IT budgets. Fortunately, today the Internet allows any sized business to take advantage of the latest communication technologies without having to spend a bundle. Three such technologies are as follows:

1. Virtual Phone Services – A virtual phone service uses the Internet to facilitate voice communication. Also known as VOIP (voice over Internet protocol), a virtual phone service comes in two flavors – the full small business phone system and the add on service – both using your existing high-speed Internet connection.

A full virtual phone system includes everything you need to have a multi-extension office phone system, without needing to pay for traditional copper wire service. You just plug your Internet enabled phone handsets into your existing office Internet network and you get a fully configurable phone system that uses the service provider’s computer servers, eliminating the need for your company to invest in expensive hardware. You have full control over inbound call routing and other advanced features once available to only Fortune 500 companies.

An add on virtual phone solution uses your existing landlines and cell phones, but adds the same advanced features of a full virtual office phone system. You are assigned a toll-free or local phone number that becomes your main business number and you have a virtual auto attendant that routes calls to the appropriate existing phone line. You also have full control over call routing, and can quickly update how calls are routed. This means that you can have inbound calls routed to your cell phone, your home phone, or any working phone line anywhere in the world, thus allowing you to always be available to take calls, no matter where you happen to be.

Most virtual phone services come with a standard feature set, including complete voice mail service for each extension/phone line, call forwarding capability, call logs, and much more.

2. Online Fax Services – Despite the fact that faxing has been around for a long time, many businesses still rely on it as a primary means of communication. For many reasons, there are industries that are unable, or refuse, to use email to replace faxing, which means that there is still a business need to have faxing capability.

By using an affordable online fax service, you can save a great deal of money versus using a traditional fax machine, while having the features a fax machine is typically unable to provide. An online fax service uses your existing computer and Internet connection to send and receive faxes. You don’t need to pay money every month to the phone company for a dedicated fax line, and you can say goodbye to buying toner cartridges for that ugly fax machine you have stashed in the corner.

Online faxing is easy to use. If you can compose an email, or create a word processing document, you can fax online. With the ability to receive inbound faxes in your email inbox, you can literally receive faxes anywhere in the world. It also allows  secure access to an online fax account that lets you compose, view and manage your faxes with ease, making faxing online a simple process.

3. Web Conferencing – Web conferencing, also known as online meetings, enables you to meet over the Internet with customers and coworkers, reducing the need for business travel. Imagine being able to meet online from the comforts of your desk, without having to spend days traveling across the country, or world.

There are web conferencing solutions that range from just being able to talk over the Internet, to solutions where the meeting organizer shares their computer desktop to give a presentation, to a full video conferencing solution where you not only can hear those you are meeting with, but you can also see them. Depending on your business needs, there is a web conferencing solution to let you take your meetings online and significantly reduce overhead.

The Internet allows you to meet with someone at a remote location without ever needing to leave your office, while giving you the level of personal interaction that you desire. An online meeting may never be able to replace all face-to-face meetings, but for many situations, the ability to meet online can save you a great deal of time and money.

Give Internet-Based Communication a Try

Most leading providers of the three Internet-based communication technologies mentioned above allow you to try their services for free, generally for a 30-day period. This allows you to see for yourself how the Internet can help you take your business communication to the next level, without committing to anything until you are convinced of its usefulness.

These online business services can save your company money while giving you access to technology that not that long ago was out of reach for all but the largest corporations. If your company communicates via the telephone, uses a fax machine, or travels to hold business meetings, then you should harness technology to give your business a competitive advantage.

About the Author:

This guest post was written by Business Service Reviews, which is a website that features product and business service reviews that help business owners make use of technology to start and run an efficient operation.

There are countless numbers of companies that have held giveaways and contests through Twitter. From small businesses tolarge corporations, the ease of the Twitter medium has presented a quick and easy opportunity for contests. Giveaways through Twitter are effective because there’s typically no landing page where the user has to enter their information, with the fear of being stalked and spammed thereafter.

Another reason Twitter contests are beneficial, especially to small businesses, is because there are plenty of ways to go about the contest, depending on your wants and needs. For example, if your goal is to reach X amount of followers by the end of the month, creating buzz around this encourages users to follow you, as long as there’s potentially something for them to get out of it. Domino’s executed this method last year when they offered a chance to win a $100 gift card for those that helped them reach followers by noon on a Friday.

If you aren’t in the market for gaining hundreds of followers, using hashtags are a good way to generate buzz around your business. Hashtags also leave room for creativity, as you can use them in a contest however you please. For example, you can request that entries tweet a specific message containing a hashtag, such as “I love the Supplies Guys! They are the best guys in town #suppliesguys.”

Or, you can ask that tweeters use the hashtag in any way they choose, as long as they use it. Moonfruit, a website development company, used this method in which they gave away a Macbook Pro every day for 7 days. While they did give a pre- tweet to be sent out, they also offered the option of using the #moonfruit hashtag in creative, original tweets. At the end of each day, they selected someone at random that had used the hashtag #moonfruit.

What are some contests you’ve seen on Twitter? Which method would you choose when holding a contest on Twitter?

Anyone who has ever spent time in an airport knows that kiosks are the wave of the future. After all, the kiosk has proven effective in not only saving airlines money but also moving along lines faster than ever before. Taking this into consideration, it becomes more and more apparent that small businesses of just about any kind can make use of kiosks for a multitude of functions. Perhaps the most beneficial types of kiosks are the reception kiosks and marketing survey kiosks. By implementing these wonders of modern technology into your small business, you can ensure that you will not only save money but will also attract positive attention from clients.

Reception kiosks act as a liaison between clients and those within the company, and can be extremely effective for multiple reasons. For one, a reception kiosk will greatly reduce costs, as you will not have to pay salary to a receptionist. Also, these types of kiosks allow you to greatly enhance your brand identity, as software and looks are fully customizable.

“Marketing survey kiosks are put in place in order to gain specific details about clients, and can be used to great effect for improving client experience and satisfaction. Conventional survey methods can be very expensive and are often looked upon as annoying by clients and customers. With kiosks, however, the experience can be enjoyable, easy to perform and fast. Customers who make use of survey kiosks often feel empowered by the fact that the company values their input, which can in turn create a greater sense of trust between business and client. By implementing a marketing survey kiosk, you will be able to improve your marketing efforts by capitalizing on your target market. One of the reasons why I enjoy working for Phoenix Kiosk, is that we get to help small businesses from the ground-floor up. We get to listen to their vision & ideas and put them into a reality for them.  Not only do we help clients maintain customer loyalty with their kiosk solution, but we also help them cut their bottom line.  Take our reception Kiosk for example, we have created a solution that works like a receptionist but without the overhead costs.  This solution would be perfect for a small company looking to cut costs, while still maintaining their identity.” – Rich Bernstein, Marketing Director of Phoenix Kiosk.

Analysts believe kiosks will inevitably be extremely popular, and there has never been a better time than now to incorporate them into your business, which will save you money, time and energy. Kiosks are a crucial step towards improving user experience and can aid in the potential growth of your business.

“There are several areas in which a small biz can utilize a kiosk to save money and improve customer service.  Any low value-add, repetitive task is probably a candidate for kiosk implementation.  Building guest-greeting, check-in, conference room scheduling, HR administration (looking up PTO or 401K balances, job applications) or I/O functions like shop floor management and employee clock in are great money-saving candidates for a kiosk.  Customer-facing functions can also be handled by kiosks.  Where products are complex or have a variety of configuration options, using a kiosk to allow customers to self-educate can frequently lead to them being more accurately informed about the utility of products and reduce the amount of training time required by employees.  Kiosks are also great order takers and places to house virtual inventory, so using a kiosk you can easily increase your product offering without increasing your on-hand inventory.” – Alan Work, Operations Manager of Phoenix Kiosk.

The Phoenix Kiosk writing team has provided top quality articles published online and in print, specializing in technology and kiosk solutions to small businesses worldwide.