site bytes

With so many great social media options, like Facebook, available to small businesses, why bother with creating or maintaining your own website? A website takes a lot of thought and scarce manpower to maintain. Facebook allows you to say what you want to say, it’s free, and millions of people visit everyday. 

All true. But before you devote all of your resources to Facebook, here are some additional points to consider when creating your online marketing strategy:

Content Control

On your website, you get to say exactly what you want to say, in the way you want to say it. Your content isn’t subject to interpretation by a customer or competitor – whose comments and thoughts then become a part of your home page. You have ultimate control over content and its presentation.

Facebook limits what you can do with your layout. No matter how you add/delete or move those applications, every page looks more or less the same. Facebook does provide you with some content control. For instance, you can limit the ability of fans to post photos or items on your Wall (effectively, the Wall is your home page on FB). However, limiting the reader’s interaction with your company runs counter to what Facebook is all about. It is after all, “social” media, and one of the worst things you can do in that arena is to set up a presence, establish expectations, and then fail to fulfill them by holding back. Limited or one-way communication can make you look conservative, uptight or just a little behind the times.

Old vs. New

A website of your own, crafted with proper attention to search engine optimization and supported with marketing, can be found by new customers looking for an answer to a general question. They don’t have to be looking for General Electric. They can just search for light bulbs. Your company has a chance of showing up as an answer to their problem.

In contrast, people who are your fans on Facebook are often those who already know about you. The value of their becoming a fan of your company is that, when they sign up, all of their friends can see that they’ve done so. It’s an updated version of word of mouth marketing. If my friend becomes a fan of a Pilates instructor, it might inspire me to get healthy and call someone whom my friend respects.

Order, order!

As we all saw with the Obama campaign, Facebook is effective in mobilizing a fan base. But even Obama has a website. There, you can easily find his stand on health care, education, visual representations of his current campaigns, and much more. Have you ever tried to find an old post on Facebook? Facebook is the here and now. It’s a good way to deliver a message and to reach a large number of people. It’s not a good place to store information for easy access or reference.

Conclusion

Well, you already knew what this would be, right?  Neither a website nor Facebook provides a complete answer to your online marketing needs. You have to connect with your customers on multiple levels and through a variety of channels. Social media is about making a connection with people and Facebook can provide you with keen insights if you’re listening. Good reviews are great. Bad reviews offer you the opportunity to find new ways to improve your business. Interaction is good. You want to hear what your customers are saying, but you also want to be able to choose the words that define you.

Facebook is known for being a social network – a place where you can spend hours and hours of precious time that you’ll never get back. If you’re looking for a way to be more productive with that time, how about using Facebook for your business?

advertising

The most obvious approach, of course, is to advertise on its pages. Facebook allows you to target your audience using its demographic and psychographic filters. You pay per click or view and set a daily budget for your advertising expense.  Also, for a fraction of the cost of traditional media, you can launch a new product or drive traffic to your Facebook page, brick and mortar store, or website. Example: Dunkin’ Donuts recently asked its fans to take a picture of themselves drinking a “Coolata” – offering prizes for the winners.  Fans had to post the picture on the Dunkin’ Donuts page and use it as their profile picture – thereby proclaiming their Coolata preference to all of their friends.

create a Facebook page for your business

If you don’t have the dollars to give away fabulous prizes, you can still use Facebook as a way to listen, through comments and discussions, to what your customers are saying. Not to mention the fact that Facebook is handy as a word-of-mouth marketing tool – try creating a page for your business and let your Facebook friends know about it. Any time one of them becomes a fan, it gets posted on their page – letting all of their friends know about you. You can also create events (perhaps a sale at your store or website?) and invite people to them. Again, any time someone accepts or puts it on their calendar, you get the chance to pique their friends’ interest.  Anyone who sells a product or offers a service that benefits from the recommendation of one of their clients can find a use for a Facebook page. Even non-profits can use this to their advantage. Check out this Facebook page done for a local private school (you’ll need to sign up or be an existing Facebook user to see this one).  This page provides basic info about the school, along with pictures and updates to its fans. If a reader is a parent looking for a school for their child, the extra (and up-to-the-minute) information the school provides may help them with their community outreach and give them a leg up in the admissions race.

take the personal approach

You can also take a more personal approach and think of Facebook as a conversation starter. Your profile is always there and people who want to know what you do can find out any time (not all of your friends know what you do, right?).  Also, as Facebook’s audience gets older you may find that you’re reconnecting with more of your college and high school friends, many of whom will be curious to know what you’re up to now. An updated professional profile and links to your company’s website will give them that info without you having to be the annoying salesman who only talks about work in their status updates: “…going to write an insurance policy today…”

At this level, the theory is that people like to do business with their friends and with friends of their friends – it’s like meeting business prospects at a barbecue.  The downside of using the personal approach (as opposed to a separate page for your business) is that these new “friends” have access to your personal life – to the extent that you’re willing to post it on facebook for all the world to see.

When it comes to social media, if you’re starting to say things like: “I just don’t know what these kids are talking about these days,” you probably are not one of the millions of Americans who have a profile on Facebook or LinkedIn. Take heart, you’re still in the majority, but as a marketing professional, you may want to know that the number of adult internet users who do have a profile on an online social network site has quadrupled from 8% in 2005 to 35% in Dec 2008 [Pew Internet].

While the use of these sites is still primarily social rather than professional, Facebook and the like provide opportunities for brand marketers to get feedback from and have direct conversations with their users. Take a look at some of the basics on the most popular sites:

facebook

What it is: social networking site
Features: status updates, photo sharing, Facebook Connect allows users to use their facebook login on sites (e.g. CNET, citysearch.com, Netflix) to create accounts with one click or to post comments or reviews.

What’s it good for? According to Inside Facebook, Facebook has over 200 million users and from January to March 2009, people ages 26 to 44 made up the fastest-growing segment of the US Facebook population. Using Facebook’s fan and group pages can help build brand awareness and loyalty. (Barack Obama’s page has over 6 million fans). It may not be the best way to promote your law practice, but if you’re a personal trainer and one of your clients signs up to be your fan, it will show up on their page and pop up on their friends’ newsfeeds – giving word of mouth marketing a new avenue to explore.

twitter

What it is: social networking and micro-blogging
Features: you blog and people “follow” you; it’s “micro” because blogging updates are limited to 140 characters.

What’s it good for? Currently, Twitter is a favorite of celebrities, big companies and technorati, but if you sell a product, be sure to check into Twitter. At the very least, you can use the search feature to learn what’s being said about your product or service. You can use the information to improve your product, service or image. Example: Comcast used Twitter to battle its negative image (which was painfully chronicled on www.comcastmustdie.com) – see how in this NY Times article.

LinkedIn

What it is: professional networking site
Features: posting an online professional resume; maintaining business “connections” with other individuals.

What’s it good for: LinkedIn dominates the professional networking sphere with over 30 million users. It operates on the theory that you’re more likely to hire (or be hired by) someone you or another colleague knows than a complete stranger. If you’re a service provider, LinkedIn offers ways to demonstrate your expertise by allowing you to post answers to questions other users ask. So, if you’re an IT consultant with the perfect answer to this week’s networking question, you may get some expertise or job inquiries out of your effort!

YouTube

What it is: the leading brand in online video sharing
Features: easy upload of video clips

What’s it good for? Creating brand awareness; connecting with and providing service to your customers. Example: if you’re a product manufacturer, You Tube is a great way to share a how to video on your products. Interesting posts, too, will get you views - check out this one which got nearly 4.5 million views. It’s a video rendition of an a cappella performance of the Star Wars theme, but lots of viewers wanted to buy the tee shirts being worn in the clip!

in sum…

Like anything on the web, these avenues are only as good as your ability to keep them fresh and to keep your customer engaged. People like to buy from people they know and trust. You can look at these sites as another way for your customers to get to know you and your product/brand and, in turn, for you to listen to them and find out what problems they’re looking to solve.