Bring Your Date Home!
As Facebook expands their reach, launching a geographic platform ( Facebook Places) to compete with foursquare, it raises once again the question – Is Facebook All You Need? With custom fan pages, the simple user interface, the ability to take messages viral, why do you even need your own blog or web site?
The Answer … Control!!
While Facbook is an amazing tool, it is their tool, not yours. It is their game, their rules, and they can change the rules any time. This message was hammered home to me in several different presentations at BlogIndidana last week.
- After building a significant following on Facebook, Scotty’s Brewhouse had reached the maximum number of friends. Giving up most of their traditional marketing, they had come to rely on the platform to stay in touch with customers, promote location based specials and build a following. Yes they have a website, but it is their fan page and twitter stream which really allows them to connect with their clients.
When they reached their maximum Facebook shut them down. Now they were able to rebuild, but they had some significant scrambling to do, and some customer connections were lost forever ( not many, but some)
- FBML!!! – Facebook launched FBML – A quirky tool which allowed developers to create really cool Welcome pages as part of the fan page. I have met several designers recently who argued with FBML, they would never need to build another “real website” . Not convinced it would replace traditional websites, we still took on the challenge of learning the quirks of FBML. The result are some some really cool fan pages:
- roundpeg
- startingpoint
- Lipstick on the Rim ( This is my favorite)
The problem – Facebook is moving away from FBML – The first warning something was in the air, was a notice pages needed to be resized. So all of our designs have been downsized to 530 Px from 730. Not bad, but definitely not something I wanted to do. But the bigger issue? They are abandoning FBML. So now, instead of working on new projects, we need to find another way to add the custom tabs, and rebuild our sites and the ones we have created for our clients. Their game, their rules, their toys.
- As I was researching this topic, I found a blog by Jeff Bullas with one more reason: Facebook is not forever ( Think AOL). Sooner or later something else will come along. Their obsolescence becomes yours. With your site, you control, when, how and why you morph.
Have I given up on Facebook? Absolutely not. It is a powerful tool, which allows us to connect our clients with their constiuacy and DRIVE THEM TO THE CLIENT WEBSITE. That is the bottom line,: Think of Facebook as a giant party, where you can meet lots of people, maybe even the love of your life.. Meet them at Facebook then bring them home to dance!
Is Facebook Showing Your True Face?
The majority of the small business owners we surveyed indicated they had a Facebook profile. In addition to the popularity of this media, research has shown there is a real dollars and cents connection between the number of fans and your bottom line.
Each new fan is equal to $139. While that may not seem like a lot of money, when you start adding hundreds of new fans, the sales start to add up.
New tools allow you to carry your brand image from your website and business cards through to your Facebook Fan Page. Customized landing pages like the one we created for Roundpeg or Hazel Walker’s new venture: Lipstick on the Rim allow us to extend the brand image into a new medium.
In addition to the brand recognition your fan page creates, once you have 25 fans you can claim your “vanity url”. For example, our URL is http://www.facebook.com/roundpegindy, my personal page is http://www.facebook.com/roundpeg, and Hazel’s Lipstick on the Rim is http://www.facebook.com/LipstickontheRim. Why bother with a custom URL? It is easier for clients to find you!
Need help getting started with our Facebook strategy? Give us a call!
Contests Made Simple with Wildfire
Almost any small business can benefit from the buzz a great contest builds. A well executed contest engages clients, prospects and sometimes even the media. Powerful tools to build brand awareness and generate prospect lists, contests can often be tedious, time consuming, and challenging to administer.
In the past, the effort involved often discouraged my small business clients from taking on the challenge of a contest. The we discovered Wildfire. This is a terrific, cost effective online contest application.
What I like About using Wildfire:
- It was relatively easy to build the campaign. (Depending on how much time you want to spend on the graphics you can be up in less than an hour)
- Options: Sweepstakes, coupons, photos and essay contests
- Easy Promotion
- Inserts easily into a Facebook Fan page.
- Facebook is not required -Wildfire also offers simply widget for website and a microsite you can direct contestants to as well.
- It creates a banner which can be a part of your website and drives entrants to microsite or Facebook page.
- The simple user interface makes it easy for people to invite their friends and expand the contest virally.
- Reasonable Price: Depending on the length of the campaign, and the amount of customization you require, your administration budget will be a fraction of what it used to cost to run a program like this. Typically under $200
What I don’t like about Wildfire: ( Lets face it, nothing is perfect)
- You can only share with 6 people a day through Facebook – Maybe this is a Facebook thing. You can send emails, but I really like the viral nature of Facebook, and it is a shame to limit it.
- In some campaigns we can capture emails of everyone who submits, but not everyone who votes. To accomplish this, we created a two part campaign using Formstack for the voting
In general, I am excited about Wildfire, we are testing a number of the variations for clients in the coming months. Including our own : Biz Card Makeover
Have you used Wildfire? What experiences have you had with the product?
Don’t forget to – enter your child or grandchild to win a ride on a helicopter, zamboni machine and more!
I Must Be On the Right Track… I Have Other Trains Behind Me!
It’s been an amazing summer here at Roundpeg. Allison, Taylor, and Jay are all hitting their stride and constantly coming up with ideas to serve our clients in new and exciting ways, and we’re lucky enough to have four fabulous interns to assist us.
Emily came up with the idea of creating a custom landing page for our Facebook Fan Page (Please Like us!) and Dan and Heather did an awesome job implementing it. Thanks to Kelly, our WordPress pages are filled with unique new plug-ins.
Jay’s been taking the lead on increasing our involvement with AddressTwo, while Allison’s been focused on behind-the-scenes logistics. Taylor’s been driving our successful Business Card Makeover contest.
And me? I’ve been working to support my team and make sure they have all the tools they need to keep up the good work. How do I know it’s good work? We’re starting to see imitators pop up with ideas that are remarkably similar to our own.
And we all know that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
The Challenge – Update
A few days ago we set a goal at Roundpeg. We want to attrack 1,000 fans to our Fan page by August 1. To acheive our goal, we are testing a variety of techniques, including creating a custom welcome page, sending invitations to friends and family and posting updates on twitter.
Like any marketing campaign, it would be crazy to wait till it was over to see if it was working, so every day, we check our stats to see if what we are doing is working. Then we can adjust the strategy if we need to.
So how are we doing? See for yourself:
We had a nice spike when we kicked off the contest but our traffic has leveled off since then. Now we need to look at some alternatives but with three weeks to go to the deadline, there is still time to make effective corrective action.
The same approach will work with your marketing campaigns:
- Set a Goal
- Develop a Strategy
- Execute the Strategy
- Measure the Results
- Adjusts and Start Over!
Want to see how this turns out? Be sure to become a fan, and watch our page for updates!
The Challenge is On…
As a business plan consultant, I routinely talk to small business owners about creating actionable goals. To achieve these specific and measurable targets you need to do more than just talk about them. You need to have a plan in place and actually measure your progress as you move toward the goal. It really helps if you share the goal with others.
So, I am following my own advice! At Roundpeg, we have a goal. We want to have 1,000 fans of our Facebook Fan page by Aug 1. I laid out the challenge to my team at our staff meeting on Tuesday. Together we came up with plan, which included inviting friends, developing a custom landing page, and an incentive. If we reach 1,000 fans by Aug 1, we will have a company pool party on Friday, Aug 6.
We are tracking our progress, studying which activities have the greatest impact, and updating our score daily. While it is not the only thing we are working on ( that would be crazy) everyone knows where we are against the goal, and every member of the team is playing a role.
Interns Dan and Heather collaborated on our new Welcome Page. DJ TBreezy ( alias Taylor Brough) has the most Facebook friends, so he is in charge of personal invites. Jay, Allison and Kelly are working on keeping the conversation going on Twitter and Facebook. When Emily returns from vacation, she will be in charge of widening the PR circle.
And the good news… it’s working! On Tuesday morning we had 86 fans. just a few minutes ago I checked and we have 222 fans. We still have a long way to go, but we have a plan, a common direction, and a way of measuring the success of our actions.
While this is a great study in goal setting, you may wonder, does it have a business application. The answer is yes! I have been researching Facebook as a tool for small business and there are some compelling reasons to get serious about Facebook. While I personally prefer Twitter, I am seeing more and more postive information about Facebook, if it is used correctly:
- Studies show the average value of a Facebook fan is $139
- More than 90% of the business owners responding to our survey have a Facebook profile
- About 50% consider it their primary social media tool.
So we will be on Facebook. Look for us there! Become a fan, check out our blog posts, photos and contests. But don’t forget to come back here as well.
Fan Pages and Web Pages
These days, everyone form Nike to Nordstrums has a fan page. As I watch this growing trend I wonder, Why?
The answer will millions of users, a facebook fan page puts your brand where your customers are hanging out. The viarl nature alows you to connect with custopmers and prospects in a more relaxed setting. The technolgy makies it easy for your fasns to introduce your cmpany to others.
And the process works! In a recent study,Syncapse determined the average value of afacebook fan is $139. Fans shop more often, spend more and refer more. So with all the activity on Facebook, do you still need a web page.
The answer is definately YES! While facebook is a great way to interact with clients it is not always the best place to sell. At roundpeg we are working on the balance. While our blog, is a bit more business oriented, with informative posts, and the occasional light hearted feel, our fan page is just for fun. Here you will find photos of our Adventures in Dining lunches, and the staff clowing on Friday’s as we share favorite songs on Roundpeg Radio.
We include a few links to blog posts, but keep that to a minimum. Is it the right strategy? Only time will tell as we add more fans and measure the traffic to our primary site.
Jump Start Your Business: Advertise on Facebook
Imagine being able to target an ad with pinpoint accuracy. Facebook ads are a great way to achieve focused advertising on a tiny budget.
One of the most beautiful things about Facebook ads, according to Inc. Magazine’s article, is just how specifically you can target your desired demographics. Only want to advertise to women in college? No problem. But you can get even deeply, and advertise only to women in college who rock climb and like Lady Gaga. In this way, you don’t waste your marketing dollars on people who are clearly outside your target demographic.
Another great feature is the option to either pay by the impression or by the number of times viewers actually click on the link. You can make very small ad buys–say, $20–to test how well your ad and your demographic targeting are working. You can change ads as frequently as you like–often edgy, hip ads work better on Facebook than stodgy, traditional ad copy.
So get in there, spend a few dollars, and see if Facebook ads are right for your business.
Social Media is Word of Mouth on Steroids
Do you have a word of mouth business? I talk to lots of small business owners who say they get the majority of their business from referrals, that they run a word-of-mouth business.
But word-of-mouth is changing! Conversations which used to occur across a garden fence are now happening across the internet, as word-of-mouth, becomes world-of-mouth.
Just look at some of the statistics
- There are more than 200 million blogs
- 34% of bloggers post opinions about products and services
- 78% of consumers trust peer recommendation.
- 3,000,000 Tweets every day on Twitter.com
You don’t need to be a statistician to realize your customers are going on line to find products, gather information, share information, form opinions and select service providers. If you want them to select you, GET IN THE GAME!
Becoming involved in social media allows you to build strong connections to a base of customers and fans who are passionate about you. In Indianapolis, Scott Wise of Scotty’s and Paul Poteet have done terrific jobs of building their community. Scotty has done it mostly through Twitter, while Paul has maxed out on Facebook.
So the question is … what is your strategy. How do you tie the pieces together?
Now I realize this is probably a silly place to be sharing this post. If you are reading it, you are already one of the folks who gets the importance of social media, but you can help! Share this link via email, to someone who doesn’t yet understand why they need to be a part of the conversation.
Making Facebook Work for Your Small Business
While I don’t think Facebook is the best place to promote my business, I think it makes sense for many of my small business clients, particularly those with consumer products.
Consider these statistics:
- If Facebook were a country, it would be the 4th largest in the world!
- There are 300 million users of Facebook, who spend 2.6 Billion minutes using Facebook every single day.
Can you really afford to ignore this community?
This article from the Web Worker Daily by Meryl Evans has eight simple and practical tips you can apply to make Facebook more productive for your business. Many of her comments apply to other social media outlets as well.
She suggests
- Use your full name
- Fill out your profile as completely as possible.
- Choose the right profile photo
- Link to your blog.
- Think twice about linking to Twitter
- Put your most important business information on your profile home page
- Use appropriate privacy settings for your profile information
- Take advantage of privacy settings to limit access on a per-user basis.
To her list, I would add:
- Create a strategy – If you are using Facebook for business, then approach it like any other marketing communication. While the medium is more informal, you are still creating a business impression, so think about how personal you want to be.
