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.

You’ve finally made the decision to get started with your website. Now you just have to come up with what you want to say – which often is not as easy as it sounds. A good place to start is with any existing brochures, postcards, letters or other sales material that youve already developed. If you’re starting at ground zero, here are some things you can do to pull your content together:

First, start with the facts. Who are you, where are you located, how do people contact you and what products or services do you provide? Those are the basics that must get onto your website.

Now stop and think: why you? Not in the dramatic, “woe is me” sense, but why should people want to work with you? Since small businesses usually don’t have the economies of scale to make them the lowest price seller, it’s all about what makes working with you unique. Don’t forget that good products and great customer service aren’t selling points, they’re expectations, so you need to think about what else differentiates you from the rest of the pack. Is it your craftsmanship? Your expertise? What makes you better able than the next guy to deliver a quality product or service? This is the information that should motivate your prospect into making a call or sending an email to you.

Next up: images. Images can have a powerful visual impact, but they also take time to load. Website visitors are impatient, so make sure that the photos you do have on your site are relevant and convey your business image or message. If you’re an artist or if manufacture a product, then people are going to want to see what you can do. If you sell a service, images can help break up the text and make your website more visually appealing. There are lots of places from which you can acquire inexpensive images. Here are just a few: shutterstock.com, istockphoto.com or dreamstime.com.

Still at a loss for words? Don’t try to compose it all at once – start by listing the facts and your differentiators. You can always take advantage of copy writing or editing services to help you bring it all together – and a good writer will take the time to learn a bit about you and your business before attempting to put pen to paper. Those lists will help them get started, too!