FaceBook & Your Business

[tim@taskwise]

Not involved in the Facebook frenzy? Why not? Facebook is now 500 million members strong, the second-largest web property in the world, just behind Google. According to founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the company hit this impressive milestone July 21. He is confident they'll eventually hit a billion active users.

If you wonder why you need to have a Facebook page for your company's website, think about what constitutes a savvy marketing plan today. Facebook is a great revenue generator for certain industries and niches.
Like top-earning celebrities, companies need to be ready to do business anytime, anywhere, with any customer.

A Facebook Page thus provides you with powerful ways to generate awareness, connect with your customers, and build relationships with Facebook users. Pop artist Lady Gaga holds the record, having amassed 11.3 million fans on Facebook.

Maybe you're on Facebook and not sure what to do now that you're there. A company Facebook page is the perfect vehicle to send the message that you want to engage. In the best case scenario, both you and your employees are on Facebook, engaging with potential clients.

Facebook success in three steps:
1. Build a presence
2. Engage your audience
3. Spread your message

Knowing that your Facebook strategy isn't about marketing, the first message to potential customers shouldn't be a sales pitch. The quickest way to strike out on Facebook is to hit them with sales pitches and requests. Instead, pre-sell your potential customers by positioning yourself as trusted advisor. Demonstrate your authority and expertise. Engage them with status updates, video and notes. Answer questions.

Make sure they possess the right information to buy your products or services with confidence.

People also love articles and tips from the company CEO, notices about upcoming seminars and insider news.

Involve employees in your Facebook plan. Getting your entire company on Facebook can help create an immediate impact in your social presence online. You need more than one person to create a social brand.

Let each employee have a voice by having them set up personal accounts. Use incentives and bonuses to motivate your employees to share the task of taking care of the company's current and potential clients. Present it as a shift from email whose power social media has reduced.

The first step is to create a meet-the-team page. Provide a bio picture, so people can make a visual connection with each person within your organization. Also have links to the social profiles they maintain and are active in so clients can subscribe to their updates. The more clients that interact with your page, the more opportunities your business has to generate interesting social stories that can spread quickly through Facebook.

Post updates and respond to comments. Maintain a back-and-forth exchange. Have employees respond to each other's company-related updates. This shows that employees are involved and eager to connect.
Savvy clients read industry blogs and follow the people they like. Promote employees who write blogs by linking to their bio page and social media profiles.

Promote your page to Facebook users. On the site, Facebook Ads are effective at driving word-of-mouth marketing for your Facebook Page. Ask them to click "Like" on your page to increase the number of connections across Facebook.

Promote your page outside Facebook. Spread the word by encouraging customers to interact with your company's Facebook page. Download the Facebook Page Badge "Find Us on Facebook" to direct your customers to your presence on Facebook.

A Facebook tip sheet:
1. Update frequently. Keep your 'fans' current about what's going on in your world.
2. Don't push a message, but rather communicate with your market.
3. Have sharing widgets on your site: "Upload to Facebook, Tweet This!"
4. Become keenly aware of what people like to share on the web.
5. Deliver information that your clients want and expect. Don't change your focus.

It's not about the numbers. Building numbers for the sake of being able to say that you have 100,000 followers isn't the goal. It's about the activity. You're on the right track if the numbers grow along with traffic to your website

[Justloadit]

Yes the other downside is that no work gets done in the company because every one is on face book and tweeting, in many cases this is already an issue in many corporates, that staff members spend their time on Facebook and not producing, so much so that a number of corporate firewalls do not allow connections to Facebook.

There is a place for Facebook presence, but for very selective markets. In my market, it is a total waste of time, it is very niche and regional.
Comparing my business to Lady Gag's following, is like comparing chestnuts to gold nuggets, they are so far apart.

[Guillaume]

Very useful information ! Thanks a lot for this post, I'll implement this tip in my company!

[HR Solutions]

In the Recruitment business, our Facebook page does not attract the right candidate. Linked in is far better whereby we find executives etc on it who connect to other executives and would respond if they see the right ad.

[adrianh]

Facebook marketing is like tossing 5 fishing lines into the ocean hoping to catch Nemo!

[Citizen X]

Facebook marketing is like tossing 5 fishing lines into the ocean hoping to catch Nemo!

You may also just catch a shark. One can't blame Facebook for the conduct of their members, but there have been instances of Pedophiles and con artists. They now have more than a billion members

[adrianh]

For sure, the problem with Facebook is that it is extremely easy to set up a serious of false personas. There is simply no way to know whether you are speaking with a real person unless you know the person intimately.

[tommyosmena]

Facebook is really great for online business there's no doubt about it

[Justloadit]

Facebook is really great for online business there's no doubt about it

What kind of online business?

I share Peter Carruther's recent email

I’ve had a whole bunch of people talk to me about marketing on Facebook and “getting our name out there”.

My advice for the past few years has been a little contrarian, because I cannot see how Facebook offers the same value for the same amount of money as, for instance, Google.

And so I started looking for Facebook success stories, genuine stories about small-business owners who prospered through their Facebook efforts. I struggled.

In my mind the point of business is simple: to create clients. A client is somebody who gives you money, in return for a service or product that you provide.

This means that when you measure your success in any marketing effort, as a small-business owner at least, you look at how much money you put in, and you look at how much money you took out, and you should end with some profit - even after paying yourself that monthly pittance.

If you don’t have any profit, either you are doing it wrong, or there’s something wrong with the system. In advertising circles, when there’s something wrong with the system we tell you that at least “you got your name out there”. And, apparently, if you do this often enough, somebody might buy from you.

That’s rubbish. At least, for a small-business owner. It may have worked when you had just one competitor for the village trade, but right now you and I are competing against dozens/hundreds of firms across the globe, all trying to sell to your neighbour.

With Facebook, it’s a little different. Most Facebook agencies that speak to my clients will guarantee that they get a vast improvement in the number of “Likes”. I still haven’t worked out why these are useful. But, I know that you can’t bank them. You can’t use “likes”, for instance, to buy a meal at Nandos, not even a quarter chicken with spicy rice.

A “Like” does not really seem a great deal of use. It strokes your ego, of course, but that’s about it. Even a "Poke" offers more promise.

As I searched for success stories a trend began to emerge. Facebook primarily targets individual consumers. If you are selling to other businesses, you can expect to struggle.

Businesses list themselves on Facebook only to trawl for consumers. People list themselves on Facebook to talk to each other. Then they make a lot of noise doing just that. Billions of them. All this while businesses try to interrrupt those conversations.

And that’s why I expected so many more success stories. With billions gathering in this one chatty place I expected floods of them. No chance. (Or maybe it is a Google conspiracy to kepp us from reading them?)

You can no longer trust what anybody’s telling you online because, apart from them talking about their children and showing you pictures, especially the cute ones where the child has lost three teeth recently, you have no idea whether it is in fact Peter Carruthers talking, or Peter Carruthers’ Filipino ghostwriter just "creating content".

In other words, there is uncertain integrity in the discussion.

A brand cannot speak. So when a brand tells you something, as Kellogg’s All Bran flakes might, it’s not the flakes speaking. It is the marketing fellow du jour. That is why companies get to remake their personalities every few years. New brooms sweep clean.

So, if you have had genuine success (as measured in money) on Facebook, won’t you please share your story with me. I would love to be wrong on this.

Warm regards
Peter Carruthers

[Dave A]

I share Peter Carruther's recent email

And that’s why I expected so many more success stories. With billions gathering in this one chatty place I expected floods of them. No chance. (Or maybe it is a Google conspiracy to kepp us from reading them?)

No Google conspiracy at work here - very little of Facebook is public content and thereby crawlable.

It gets better. In my hunt for a particular Facebook test tool (that I knew was public content), in desperation I decided to look at Facebook's robots.txt file and from there, Facebook's sitemap.

In summary, nobody gets to see anything on Facebook without Facebook's permission, let alone index it. The only mileage you'll get out of Facebook is on Facebook - there is no automatic crossover effect to other major internet traffic streams.

[wynn]

I agree the only thing facebook does is crawl my list of email addresses and tell me to friend them, what a waste of time for my business.

But I must agree that the facebook page for my local CPF is worth the effort because it has a captive audience.

[Blurock]

I have always believed that Facebook is tracking and profiling user's internet activity. Every time you "like" or "register" or post, more data is collected on you.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-22842837

On Thursday, the Washington Post and Guardian said the NSA tapped directly into the servers of nine internet firms including Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to track online communication in a programme known as Prism.

So if you have no concern for your own privacy and security, post a tweet!

[adrianh]

There is a serious downside... if you annoy a customer he gets to tell all your readers by posting nasty comments. This is not particularly useful in the public domain.

[HR Solutions]

There is a serious downside... if you annoy a customer he gets to tell all your readers by posting nasty comments. This is not particularly useful in the public domain.

You are able to block that person or remove his post or hide his post.

[edwards]

i agree with you and facebook is now important and necessary part of internet marketing and promoting website because everyone is busy on facebook and twitter so it looks odd if you don't have facebook page with the name of your website