Use Facebook as a powerful business tool

Though I am a very net-savvy person, I’ve been a latecomer on Facebook (FB). I’ve been neck-deep into Blogs, Wikipedia, IMDB, Google Videos, YouTube, G-chat and even into SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) for my clients. But I joined Facebook only four months ago, after my close friend and journalist Noyon Jyoti Parasara coaxed me into it.

After padding my account by inviting hundreds of ‘friends’ to join me, I realised that Facebook could be used as a powerful business tool, simply because almost 25-30 percent of Bollywood is on it… many hooked to it.

And then the magic happened for me. I casually chatted with an actress on the site, exchanged numbers, met her and turned her into a client within four days of the chat.

This meant EXTRA income for me… income which was added purely because of Facebook. From that day, I began taking the site seriously, updating regular posts and links, pics and videos, chatting and adding more and more ‘friends’ to my list.

Meanwhile, another of my closest journalist friends Pavithra Selvam put me on to a guy called Kiran Pillai who also specialised in Social Media. Kiran looked like a shy simpleton when he met me. He took a briefing from me, bounced off a couple of ideas to improve the look of my FB account and met me for a second meeting loaded with more ideas to improve my overall social media standing.

To my surprise, Kiran began discussing what he termed “Brand Dale”. Ah… now now!! I specialise in creating and building brands and influencing media and public opinion. And this guy was talking about building ‘my’ brand. He caught my interest. Since I felt he made a lot of sense, I took him on as my ‘Social Media Publicist’. My friends haven’t stopped pulling my leg since then. “A publicist for a publicist, eh?”, they joke.

Within no time, Kiran completely transformed my FB account into one of the well-packaged ones in media. Today, after just four months of being on Facebook, I have many nice people from Bollywood on my ‘friend list’ and I’m talking serious business with a few (some of them might be reading this too and smiling). My new-found ‘publicist’ (wink) even helped me design a section where he incorporated my entire PR Agency Blog on my Facebook account. So now, every time I update my PR clients’ Press Releases and images on the Blog, the additions automatically get updated on Facebook. Isn’t that cool?

My Facebook account has now turned into a full-fledged business tool for my PR agency Dale Bhagwagar Media Group and on an average, I receive 2-3 extra offers for work every day. Being ‘selective’ has a whole new meaning for me now. And the same could be for you too. Check me out on www.facebook.com/dalebhagwagar and let me know what you think of my account.