When you start talking to a social media guru it’s easy to get lost in the jargon. The epicenter of any social media marketing effort lies with Facebook. It’s proliferation is immense and not up for argument (although some try.) Just posting your facebook page for your restaurant is the right move, but, like anything else, you can always do better and more to interact with your customers. And that’s exactly why you should be using social marketing: to interact with your customers.

Beyond commenting and posting, facebook has other ways to kick up the marketing a notch or two. One of my favorite is based on FBML which stands for FaceBook Markup Language. It allows you to create custom tabs on your facebook page for promoting different items. These tabs can be used as landing pages to do many things. First you have to install it. Here is a great tutorial on installing and using FBML.

Once installed, you need to figure out what to promote. Here are a few suggestions on promoting your restaurant and its features using FBML and other facebook apps.

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So we all agree Facebook is as necessary as a website if you’re going to make any kind of traction with online marketing, right? Good. Now that we have that cleared up, let’s talk about some ways NOT to use Facebook for your business.

Facebook has given businesses a way to connect directly to consumers on the consumers’ terms. It’s the epitome of why online marketing works. Facebook’s tools give businesses a way to engage them, bring them in and let them experience their brands. However, they can be used negatively without the restaurant or brand even knowing. Obviously this is detrimental as abusing a consumer’s acceptance of you will result in ejection and a bad reputation to their friends. Not good. So, let’s stave off some common pratfalls by other brands….

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