How you ask a question is very important in establishing the basis for an effective interview; they open the door to knowledge and understanding of the facts as they relate to the matter with which we are asked to investigate.  The subtle art of productive questioning lies in knowing which questions to ask and when.  Asking effective interview questions also requires the interviewer to be cognizant of his/her verbal and nonverbal behavior as well.

There are two basic types of questions, open-ended questions and closed-ended questions; here are the differences:

• Open questions.  Open-ended questions require more than a simple “yes” or “no” answer.  They elicit the interviewee to describe, explain, or come to some conclusion based on their own understanding of the facts.  Asking open-ended questions increase the chances of getting additional details and ensure a greater accuracy of the facts from the interviewee’s perspective.

Examples of good open questions include, “How would you describe this accident?”  How did the accident happen?” or “Why did Joe fall off of the scaffolding?”

• Closed questions.  Closed questions implicate a very short or specific factual answer and can be helpful in directing the interviewee’s attention toward relevant information and establishing facts.  Closed questions can be used to pinpoint critical information.  You should only ask specific questions when you are looking for a specific answer.

Examples of good closed-ended questions include, “What time did the fire start?”  “Who was in the car with you when the accident occurred?” or “Did you see the stop sign?”

The correct investigative approach to interviewing anyone is with the time honored “Who, What, When, Where and Why” process.

Knowing who contributed or were associated with an event creates more opportunity to gather information but should not be used to assign blame to any one of them.  That is a job best left for legal counsel and a judge or jury.

Understanding what happened is the core of any insurance investigation.  All details that are relevant must be gathered and cataloged in the investigative report.

The time when something happened can reveal important elements in the evolution of the event being investigated.  For example, did you know that most fraudulent workers’ compensation claim accidents occur on Mondays or after vacations and major holidays, and then, most often early in the morning?

The place where an event occurred reveals important facts such as a physical layout of an accident scene or working conditions.

Asking a witness or claimant why something happened most often reveals the most useful information regarding any insurance claim.  “How” questions are often used interchangeably with “why” questions as they both require the respondent to describe the “mechanics” of an event.   These often get closest to the root cause of the event.  Asking “why questions” repeatedly often reveals more information than would normally be uncovered.  On the other hand, if asking why an accident happened causes a defensive reaction in the person being interviewed, you should consider it a red flag and make an effort to probe further when permitted.  I have found that when I ask a claimant, who is subsequently found to be faking or inflating their claim, why a specific loss occurred, they have a tough time “creating” enough facts to support their statement and eventually begin to feel the pressure that I may soon detect their deception.  This burden increases the nonverbal indicators of their deceit, prompting me to continue to ask questions so that these “facts” will be recorded and debunked later in the claims process.  As a private investigator I am only concerned with the collection of statements of fact, I’ll let someone else decide which statements are true.

You can liken the process of investigative interviewing to that of putting material into a funnel; at the top of the funnel goes the most information, elicited with open-ended questions asked early in the interview.  At the bottom of the funnel come the most pointed, closed ended questions meant to pinpoint and clearly define the facts of the investigation.  The process of developing these facts synthesizes somewhere in the middle of the funnel.  The subject’s broad based recollections and feelings about an event are eventually distilled into the cause-and-origin of the event.  If the investigation is based on a complicated situation, simplify the approach by organizing your “funneling technique” so that each aspect of the event is examined one at a time in its own funnel.

Here are 10 tips for creating and asking questions:

• Ask open-ended question to elicit the most information;
• Ask closed-ended questions to establish fact or to influence the direction and nature of an interview;
• Avoid asking leading questions, such as “Were you at the top of the ladder when you fell?”  Leading questions inject “facts,” which may or may not be true, directly into the question and must be avoided.  Instead ask, “How did you injure yourself?” Response: “I fell from a ladder.”  Follow up:  “Where were you on the ladder when you fell?”  Response:  “I was about two thirds the way up ladder.”  Follow up:  “Why did you fall?”
• Avoid using negative wording.  Ask, “Do you remember seeing the other car?” rather than, “You don’t remember seeing the other car do you?”
• Organize your questions into groups regarding related concepts (i.e. ask all of your questions pertaining the identity and description of a vehicle that was involved in an accident, then ask about the numbers and identities of witnesses, then ask for a description of the accident scene, then ask all of your questions regarding how it happened, etc. rather than asking questions without a logical order);
• Ask important questions several times in a variety of different ways;
• Do not use technical terms or investigative jargon with an interviewee unless you are sure that he/she understands specifically to what you are referring;
• Ask several simple questions rather than one complex question;
• If the answer seems overly complex, ask MANY more simple questions to clarify the answer;
• Ask questions for information rather than for confirmation.

Asking questions is obviously an important aspect of the interviewing process but it is only a part of the process.  An interview is a “guided conversation” requiring the private investigator to be both a sender of information (asking the questions) as well as a receiver of information (listening to the answer, understanding what new facts were gained and formulating another question).  Communication is a two-way street.  It is as important, if not more important, to be an effective listener as it is to be competent at asking questions.

This article is a small excerpt from Statements, Lies and videotape: A Private Investigator’s Guide to Conducting Insurance Claim Investigations, an online continuing education course for private investigators

Before you conduct physical or electronic surveillance you should be competent and well trained in the technical and legal aspects of surveillance.  If for any reason you have violated a subject’s rights and are indeed found negligent in a court of law, not only can you or your agency be held liable, but the client hiring you or your agency can also be held liable for damages.

Conducting surveillance illegally is just not worth the consequences (i.e. losing your business, your license, your reputation).  If for some reason you are placed in a situation that may involve trespassing, entrapment or some other violation, think before you commit.

Some of the possible risks that may arise from physical surveillance are traffic violations, trespassing, roping and entrapment, invasion of privacy, and stalking.

Traffic Violations

In all instances, you should obey the law to the best of your capacity and traffic violations are no different.  Seldom are we ever working a case that is so important as to jeopardize the general public due to careless or reckless driving and the flagrant disregard for traffic laws.  If you have an accident because of negligent acts committed during an investigation your client will be held liable as well; this is not good for positive word of mouth advertising.

Trespassing

Trespassing is simply the act of entering private property without the consent of the land owner.  Trespassing can be a very complicated subject, mostly because state laws vary so extensively.  As an investigator, the key thing to remember in gathering your evidence, whether photographically or otherwise, is that if you violate trespassing laws while gathering your evidence then all that evidence is going to be inadmissible in a court of law.   Yes, there are states that still allow an investigator to go on a third party’s property with consent, such as a neighbor.  Again you should thoroughly research your state’s laws on trespassing prior to setting up in the neighbor’s yard.

A stationary technical surveillance platform should never be placed on the subject’s private property. Nor should an investigator enter posted private property or attempt to utilize a right of way to access a better vantage point of the subject’s property. Right of ways are legal property agreements between two parties and the fact that a right of way exists on the subject’s property does not make it a public thoroughfare.

Roping and Entrapment

Roping is the obtaining of information from another person by means of legal deception.  For instance, a private investigator acting drunk in a lounge in order to gain the confidence of a drinking buddy is “roping that person.”

Roping, however, can also lead into nefarious acts such as dropping a bunch of loose change on a subject’s porch in order to videotape him bending over to pick the coins up during a disability assignment.

Roping is, in many instances, very obvious to a judge and jury and should never be attempted as it could cause your client exorbitant amounts of money in civil suit damages.  Roping is synonymous with pretexting and the investigator should be mindful that the things he does or says may very well come out in a courtroom.

Entrapment is creating a condition in which the target of an investigation is required to perform a certain action.  Letting the air out of a target’s tires in order to obtain photographs of his ability to change a tire is entrapment because the subject is required to change the tire in order to use his vehicle.

In the instance of an undercover agent investigating employee theft, the investigator must be careful not to do or say anything that entices or encourages the subject(s) to do anything illegal.  His job is to detect theft not to cause it; he may assist but never insist.

In order to obtain evidence by means of pretending to be an accomplice in this situation you must be absolutely sure of the following precepts:

1. The plan and criminal intent must originate in the suspect’s own mind;
2. The target must commit all of the essential elements of the crime.

Invasion of Privacy

“Invasion of Privacy” deals with the area of expected privacy by an individual.  Any evidence obtained in violation of an individual’s privacy will not be admissible in a court of law.  Privacy is “the condition or state of being free from public attention to intrusion into or interference with one’s acts or decisions.” (Black’s Law Dictionary.) Therefore, surveillance in a public place is not private and there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in a public place.  Determining whether the law protects your privacy requires knowledge of the law and it is often a question of what society deems is reasonable.

Surveillance in areas such as bathrooms, locker rooms, changing/dressing rooms, bedrooms and other areas where a person should expect a high level of personal privacy is off limits.

Stalking

Stalking is defined as “a term used to describe unwanted attention by individuals (and sometimes groups of people) to others. Stalking behaviors are related to harassment and intimidation. It may also be used to refer to criminal offenses or civil wrongs that include conduct which some people consider to be stalking, such as those described in law as “harassment” or similar terms.

Over the past decade, most states have passed legislation prohibiting stalking. Investigators conducting surveillance must be aware of their own state’s stalking statutes and take the necessary steps in their surveillance activities to prevent themselves from being on the wrong side of a lawsuit.

One example that comes to my mind where surveillance may be alleged as stalking is the surveillance tactic of “rough shadowing.” Rough shadowing is a tactic used by investigators who are “public,” overzealous, or outright blatant in their surveillance activities such as parking outside the subject’s home in full view of neighbors, following subjects into places of business, or publicly videotaping subjects with no effort to conceal their motives or actions. This method of surveillance exposes the subject to public disgrace, ridicule, contempt or public embarrassment and may potentially result in a lawsuit. Remember Schultz v. Frankfort M. Accident & P.G. Insurance Company, 139 N.W. 386 (1913)? The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiff where the plaintiff had filed suit that he was being investigated through the use of rough shadowing. The plaintiff’s primary complaint was he could not perform his daily duties in a natural manner.

Bottom line, surveillance is to be covert and should never be openly and blatantly performed and never cause the subject to suffer any type of substantial emotional distress.

When you have a moment check out your state’s statues regarding stalking: http://www.esia.net/State_Stalking_Laws.htm

This article is a small excerpt from Serious Surveillance: Obtaining Evidence that Stands up in Courts, an online continuing education course for private investigators.

The course is completely online and is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The format makes training both affordable and practical; anyone can complete the entire course from wherever and whenever he or she wants! Students, and their employers, no longer need to bear the inconvenience or burdensome expense of travel and time away from work. There is no time limit in which a student must complete a course; they may take as much time as needed and work at their own pace. Our courses are competitively priced and group discounts are available upon request.

Our primary goal when creating the 70-hour Georgia private detective pre-licensing course was to provide a superior training experience over and above anything else available on the market and, through regular updates, to keep it that way. Upon completion of this course, the student will not only have obtained the fundamental skills and tools necessary to considerably shorten the “learning curve” required to be a working private investigator in Georgia, but they will also have been exposed to the inner-workings of a number of different investigative specialties as well.

Going way “beyond the basics” means that our graduates are ready for success!

The course outline can be found here: http://pieducation.com/georgia

P.S. Did you know that you can make a generous additional income simply by referring training clients to this course (and others)? Click here to learn more about our affiliate marketing program: http://compasspointpi.com/affiliates

Please feel free to me, should you have any questions or if we may be of further assistance.

Warmest Regards,

Stephanie Mitchell
Manager, Continuing Education
http://www.PIeducation.com

Ofc: (877) 363-4887
Fax: (877) 761-8264
stephanie@compasspointpi.com

L. Scott Harrell
Course Director, PIeducation.com
Georgia Private Detective Classroom Training Instructor #CLTR000950

The ability to conduct surveillance/stake outs is by far one of the most important and lucrative skills a private investigator and process server can possess. Surveillance/Stake outs can also be one of the most difficult, tedious, challenging, yet rewarding tasks performed. It is a skill-set that requires concentrated practice built upon a solid foundation of time-tested fundamentals. This course is written to give you the information needed to successfully obtain and report video-based evidence that can withstand the scrutiny of litigation and give your clients the edge they need.

This course, written by L. Scott Harrell, teaches course participants the most important aspects of surveillance: how to prepare for a surveillance assignment before leaving the office, detailed diagrams describing the surveillance set-ups and investigator positioning used by veteran investigators, using today’s technology in throughout every aspect of surveillance operations, preparing professional surveillance reports and understanding the many legal aspects affecting video evidence obtained through covert surveillance.

This course is approved for 10 hours of continuing education for process servers in Arizona. An exam will be administered upon the conclusion of the program. If the candidate passes with a score of 75% or better, a certificate of completion will be issued in accordance with state licensing authority standards.

Arizona Private Process Server Continuing Education Policies

Pursuant to the Arizona Code of Judicial Administration §7-204: Private Process Server,(hereafter referred to as “Code Section”) all certified private process servers must complete continuing education every twelve months.

For more info see: http://azcourts.gov/cld/PrivateProcessServer.aspx

About PIeducation.com

PIeducation.com has provided continuing education to private investigators, process servers and bail enforcement agents via the Internet and distance learning opportunities since July 1, 2002 and is the undisputed market leader in this industry segment. As of January 2012, the company has conferred over 61,000 CE hours to over 5,800 licensees in among the following states Arizona (CE for Private Process Servers), Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Oregon, North Carolina,  South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas.

The on-line format makes continuing education (CE) affordable, flexible and practical. Students no longer need to bear the high expense of travel and time away from work. Completing courses is easy and done at the student’s own pace. All courses can be downloaded for off-line reading rather than staying connected to the Internet the entire time. Students can log out and back into their courses whenever they want and pick up where they last left off at any time. If students choose to download the course material then they can finish studying at their leisure before logging back in to take an online, open book, final exam that is submitted via a simple browser-based form.

PIeducation.com is a division of CompassPoint Investigations, private investigators in Pensacola, FL.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Contact: Scott Harrell, CompassPoint Investigations
ScottH @ compasspointpi (dot) com
www.CompassPointPI.com

Pursuit Magazine Overhauls Information Network With Launch of PursuitWire.com.

January 5, 2012, Pensacola, FL  -   Pursuit Magazine launched the innovative newswire site, http://pursuitwire.com, on January 1, 2012 in an effort to educate and improve the success rates of members of the private investigation, security and bail enforcement industries.  PursuitWire delivers important and breaking new stories that are directly related to private investigators, security, fraud, technology, forensics, hacking, crime, fugitives, bail, repossession and pertinent industry-related business issues.   PursuitWire disseminates timely news articles that have been collected from newswires and international media outlets via its website http://pursuitwire.com and through the associated Twitter account located at https://twitter.com/pursuitmag.  There are also several different RSS feeds available for PursuitWire, enabling subscribers to specifically tailor the type of information they wish to receive.  Additionally, subscribers can monitor the PursuitWire feed through a self-updating ticker on the Pursuit Magazine homepage at http://pursuitmag.com.

L. Scott Harrell, the owner of CompassPoint Investigations, Pursuit Magazine’s parent company, said, “Although Pursuit Magazine and PursuitWire are affiliated, they are very different products.  Pursuit Magazine contains original, timeless articles that are written by bona fide industry leaders with the primary purpose of sharing specific information.  Pursuitewire.com was created to fulfill the demand for up-to-date industry-specific news, and current affairs.  Timely news stories are quite compelling and often very educational at the same time.  It is a combination of the kind of information available through Pursuit Magazine and PursuitWire that helps our readers become more effective and successful professionals; Pursuitwire.com embodies the forward-thinking vision and the commitment that Pursuit Magazine has to the growing needs of its subscribers. While I am aware that several other very capable newswires already exist, we hope to differentiate PursuitWire from them by featuring content that is consistently more relevant to our established base of Pursuit Magazine subscribers. Lastly, we intend to bring innovation to the PursuitWire website through the varied use of emerging forms of media for a richer overall user experience.”

CompassPoint Investigations is a private investigation agency primarily providing insurance fraud investigation and service of process services, headquartered in Pensacola, Florida and serving the Gulf South area between Mobile, AL and Destin, FL.   In addition to the Pursuit Magazine network of websites, other subsidiaries of CompassPoint Investigations include PIeducation.com, the market leader in state-required continuing education for private investigators, as well as several other highly regarded online training websites.

# # #

TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS

Thank you for being a part of Pursuit Magazine and for helping us to make 2011 the BEST year yet for our online publication; we sincerely hope that you not only enjoy reading our articles but that they have helped you personally or professionally in some way, too.

As we look forward to 2012, we have some really interesting plans that are coming together nicely as part of our efforts to not only to keep you informed, but to keep you engaged and networked into the professional investigations community as much, or as little, as you might want. We are developing new partnerships with other investigators and content providers who are producing informative and interesting sources of information! Look for a more diverse mix of media, especially video, from us in our posts in the coming year!

Please support our advertising partners, without them we could not continue to provide quality regular content to our readers for FREE!

Our top advertisers of 2011:

IRBsearch, LLC

“IRBsearch provides access to only the highest quality data and the most current information available – that’s why investigators have come to rely on us for fast and accurate information.  We know you have choices when it comes to selecting a data provider – and that’s why IRBsearch is not here just to meet your expectations, but to exceed them. Our leadership team has a combined 40 plus years of investigative experience in data acquisition and pairing advanced technologies with the best possible data sources.”

TracersInfo.com

“Tracers is one of the nation’s leading providers of identification and credential verification data. Tracers collects and maintains databases of public and non-public background information for law enforcement, government agencies, law firms, private investigators, insurance companies and other qualified businesses. Our products are designed to assist customers in managing risk through fraud detection and prevention, risk evaluation, identity verification, pre-screening and due diligence.”

IRBstore.com

“Our high-quality merchandise is carefully selected by private investigators and security professionals to bring you the best products. Whether you work in investigations, process service or bail and/or recovery operations, IRBstore.com is your one stop for affordable equipment, expert advice and superior customer service. IRBstore.com also provides security equipment for business owners, home owners, and personal safety use.”

Champlain College

“Champlain College’s digital forensic master’s programs meet a need for specialized education that builds your leadership skills, expands your networking base and accelerates your career. In a field with few graduate-level opportunities, our students are guided by well-connected faculty practitioners who work closely with the public and private sectors to ensure that Champlain’s programs meet the industry’s needs.”

Case Point, Inc

“Case Point Inc. is the best investigative Case Management Software for Private Detectives and Process Servers.  Our investigator business tools can manage and track cases, create invoices, organize media content; such as video surveillance, photos, and much more.”

Risk Management Research & Investments, Inc (RMRI, Inc)

“RMRI, Inc. is a full service Private Investigation Agency located in Columbia, MO. RMRI, Inc. is owned and operated by Ricky B. Gurley, who has been in the business of investigations and recovery operations for over eighteen (18) years.”

Thomson Reuters’ Clear

“CLEAR is an investigative platform designed for professionals who need information about individuals and companies. With fast access to a vast collection of public and proprietary records, CLEAR helps you find out about people and their connections.”

PI Agent

TO OUR ADVERTISERS:

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! Your support means everything to us and the profession! In return we will continue our commitment to you, to keep our current readers happy and bring in many new subscribers in 2012 by proving that we are the very best resource for information, industry news and offering the types of services they want!

From everyone here at CompassPoint Investigations to wish you and yours a very Happy and Prosperous New Year!

Whether you were naughty or nice this year, we hope that you get everything you want.

Thank you for allowing us into your lives… now THAT is a very special gift!

For those of you who have never heard of Maltego before, let me give you an idea what this tool can do. From the publisher’s website at http://Paterva.com:

“The unique perspective that Maltego offers to both network and resource based entities is the aggregation of information posted all over the internet – whether it’s the current configuration of a router poised on the edge of your network or the current whereabouts of your Vice President on his international visits, Maltego can locate, aggregate and visualize this information.

What does Maltego do?

Maltego is a program that can be used to determine the relationships and real world links between:

• People
• Groups of people (social networks)
• Companies
• Organizations
• Web sites
• Internet infrastructure such as: Domains, DNS Names, Netblocks, IP Addresses, etc.
• Phrases
• Affiliations
• Documents and files

These entities are all linked using open source intelligence and provides you with a graphical interface that makes seeing these relationships instant and accurate – making it possible to see hidden connections, even if they are three or four degrees of separation away.

What can Maltego do for me?

Maltego can be used for the information gathering phase of all security related work. It will save you time and will allow you to work more accurately and smarter.

Maltego aids you in your thinking process by visually demonstrating interconnected links between searched items.

Maltego provide you with a much more powerful search, giving you smarter results.

If access to “hidden” information determines your success, Maltego can help you discover it.“

For me, the beauty is in being able to run large lists of people, websites and companies through the visualizer and find hidden connections between them all! The real power is that I can input all kids of data into it: People, Email Addresses, Websites, Company Names, Dates and Times of Events, Addresses, Telephone Numbers, Business Networks, etc. etc. and it magically finds ways to correlate all of this disparate data in VERY interesting and eye-opening ways.

I’m seriously not kidding! I would go as far to say that Maltego is changing the way I conduct Corporate and Economic Intelligence assignments altogether.

“Maltego lets just about anybody do the kind of data mining that in the past only fraud investors, government specialists and hackers typically could do.”

Perhaps The Ethical Hacker Network said it best “”Maltego, is an open source intelligence and forensics application. It allows for the mining and gathering of information as well as the representation of this information in a meaningful way. Coupled with its graphing libraries, Maltego, allows you to identify key relationships between information and identify previously unknown relationships between them. It is a must-have tool in the forensics, security and intelligence fields!“

TEHN also has a great set of instructions (though a bit dated now that v.3 was released) and actual case studies on Maltego’s practical applications at http://www.ethicalhacker.net/content/view/202/24/

Essentially, this is data-mining and data-correlation (finding the connection) which is the basis for the Intelligence Development Cycle!

Rick Gurley of Risk Management Research & Investments, Inc., a private investigation agency in Columbia, MO, has always been the guy I call when I not only want to add a new technology or forensics tool to my repertoire, but to understand its application as well. Adopting Maltego has been no different and he was kind enough to create this extremely useful video for me and then allow me to pass it along to all of you. It covers all of the basics of setting up and understanding the Maltego interface and how to work with some hidden features. This 15 minute video will save you weeks of banging your head against the wall trying to get the software working and moving in the right direction, should you decide to start using this powerful intelligence and networking analysis tool, too.

The video is actually best viewed in high definition on YouTube and at a larger screen size than I can include on this page, so click on the video and you will be taken to YouTube.

Thanks for the tutorial, Rick!

Here is some video of a fugitive recovery team from Detroit in a “Day in the life of…” news format. In spite of Duane “Dog” Chapman, how do you feel this particular news story portrays the current state of the bail enforcement profession?

I personally liked the fact that one investigator stressed safety and respect for those that they encounter but we found comments criticizing the report, too. Many professionals rail against the term “Bounty Hunter” these days and I can see that the agents’ use of the term “Search Warrant” when announcing their presence is a “no-no” because they might be giving the occupants inside the building the impression that they are law enforcement officers.

Good press or bad press? Watch the video and weigh in on this in the comments section below!

You do have an agency Facebook fan page don’t you?

Why exactly should you have one?

The reasons are many why you should have an agency Facebook page working for you even if you do not have a Facebook account, so many in fact that the question probably deserves its very own article. Briefly, however, I’ll give you 750 million reasons plus 5 more just to start this conversation off:

#1 through #750,000,000 – Facebook topped 750 million users last month; if Facebook was a country it would be the third most populous, below China and India and above the United States.

#750,000,001 – A visitor does not have to have a Facebook account to visit and view your company page.

#750,000,002 – A Facebook page has GREAT search engine optimization benefits and rank highly if handled correctly.

#750,000,003 – Consumer interaction. Engage potential customers in 2-way communication without the psychological sales barriers people put up when shopping for a service provider.

#750,000,004 – Brand identity and name recognition. iModerate Research Technologies’ research indicates that 60% of Facebook Page fans “are more likely to recommend those brands since becoming a member. And an impressive 51% of Facebook members are more likely to buy the brands who’s Facebook Page they are a member of.”

#750,000,005 – It’s completely FREE to host a Facebook page. Many companies are actually foregoing a company website in favor of a very well constructed Facebook. You are getting all of the above named benefits for free if you build and manage the page on your own.

And there’s the rub… doing it yourself takes time and expertise to develop that page into an effective marketing tool and online presence, but as I said before, there are many other obvious, and not so obvious, reasons to set up a Facebook page for your private investigation agency!

Let’s say you’re ready to make a go if it though and you get the page looking great and it clearly conveys the message that will convert fans into evangelists and prospects into clients. The first question is “How do I get people to ‘like’ my Facebook page now?”

First, watch this video (hopefully you learn something), then we’ll get into the REAL methods used to attract and engage your page visitors in a way almost guaranteeing that they will “like” your page and come back time and again.

Here are 15 ways you can begin to add “likes” (and visitors, i.e. prospective customers) to your page right now:

1. If you have a Facebook account, start with inviting your friends and family members to like the page.
2. Post status updates, links to interesting articles, photos, videos and poll questions two (2) times daily. Ask your fans to share your posts with their networks of friends and family.
3. When you get 25 “likes” you will have the opportunity to get a shortened URL for your page. Choose this URL wisely! Once it is set, you cannot change it and the difference between a good choice and a bad choice can hurt your search engine ranking, which is one way of attracting more visitors to your site.
4. Include your new custom URL in your email signature and on your business cards.
5. Include a Facebook icon, hyper-linked to your Facebook page, on your website (if you have a website).
6. Include a “Facebook Like Box” on your website (if you have one).
7. Try Facebook advertising. It can be ridiculously inexpensive and have laser-like targeting capabilities ensuring that you are paying for ads that are meant for your ideal client. Target by location, interests, groups, company, employer, occupation, age, gender, etc., or any combination thereof!
8. “Use Facebook as your page” to visit, like and comment on other, appropriate, Facebook pages. DO NOT SPAM PAGES or risk being banned by the page’s administrator and eventually by Facebook.
9. Link your Facebook page to a Twitter account. Facebook pages can upload posts automatically to Twitter, which is great for viral traffic.
10. Use the “Featured Pages” display on your page to gain mutual partnerships with other page owners that target your same ideal customer demographics.
11. Use “Facebook Events” to host virtual gatherings, meet-ups, product and service launches, or as a viral press release.
12. Upload and post agency commercials… use video to engage your fans!
13. Give genuine and meaningful discounts on your services or product offerings. Take a cue from Groupon: 10% is not a discount… 50% is a discount worth getting excited over.
14. Use the “Insights” feature, an easy to understand analytics function, of your investigation agency’s page to see what’s working and what’s not. “Learn from history or be doomed to repeat it!”
15. MOST IMPORTANTLY- Post original KILLER content that you have either developed or have found from the Internet on your own. If a fan is also a member of several other pages where you are finding content, why does that fan have to “like” your page when they are just going to see the same stories and information from someone else?

BONUS TIP: If your content is more about you than your fans, they will FLEE your page because no one wants to be blasted by sales messages. Think 90% fan interest content and 10% well-crafted marketing message and you should be safe.

There is a really great new agency page for a Private Investigator in Costa Rica who I think is doing about 95% of all the right things and his number of likes is rising steadily as a result. The only thing I might suggest right now is to add a “Welcome” tab (a “Fan Gate”) with the promise of a free giveaway in return for the visitor to “like” his page. It’s a great looking site, well optimized and filled out completely. Check it out at http://www.facebook.com/PrivateInvestigatorInCostaRica

There really is so much more to discuss if you want to turn your Facebook page into the marketing weapon it has the potential to become… “don’t worry about the number of fans but the quality,” gamification, EdgeRank and newsfeed optimization, Fan-gating and reveal tabs, add-on apps, etc.

Suffice it to say, if you simply follow the rule of building a good looking, functional basic page, keep the content fresh and original and you will definitely see the major benefits behind a solid social media marketing campaign. Social Media, Facebook in particular, is really pulling well for my own agency as well as the others I am currently mentoring.

Want to learn A LOT MORE about Marketing your agency on the web and via social media? Check out http://www.facebook.com/PIMarketing