Social Media Is About More Than A Facebook Page

Even though Facebook and Twitter have been around for a few to several years it has really been this past year that main street small businesses have really started to take notice. As people realize more and more that their customers are not consuming information in the same way they have in the past it becomes obvious that billboards and newspapers are not the only way they have to market their business these days.

Although some business owners and consumers still look at Facebook and say, what a waste of time, why would I use that? One thing to keep in mind is that we as business owners need to realize it is not about how we used the social media and in particular Facebook, it really has everything to do with our customers. And they ARE using it, more and more everyday. 55 minutes per user average per day.

Let me make one more reference, the other thing people say is a complete waste of time is TV. Most businesses WANT to advertise on TV but cannot afford it, yet social media is a very targeted medium that is a "time waster" yet people resist because they do not understand. Once again, people need to step outside of how they use the internet and think about how their CUSTOMERS use the internet.

Social media is the ultimate "word of mouth" marketing, if you need away to think of Facebook or Twitter, look at it like this, it is a friend telling another friend what they like. Sometimes seemingly meaningless posts about what store someone just bought something in is the ultimate advertising for your business.

All that said, many people, once they understand they have to take the leap and open a free Facebook page for their business, make the mistake of not moving the page forward and thinking about a true plan of how to engage their customers.

Although a Facebook page or Facebook Places page is free, in many cases it is worth it to pay a small fee for a local company to help you get your page setup properly. Although you may not be ready to do everything that is possible on Facebook at this time it may be worth it to take the advice of someone that has taken the time to understand the possibilities of how it can be used to engage customers of your business.

In some businesses, such as a coffee shop, it may be important to send specials, events, or other things out on a daily basis but also you can use it as an educational tool to teach your customers about the various coffees and types of coffee drinks. Your customers will pay attention and spend more time on your page or website if you try to educate them rather than sell to them everyday.

Also, sometimes it takes thinking outside the box, some businesses that seem "legacy" still have a need to get a message out. Large corporations have figured this out but many of the local marketing companies that people work with daily are really just now getting their minds around social media and are having a hard time articulating a plan to their customers about how to use online marketing and social tools as a solid marketing mechanism. Once again, ask for ideas outside of just creating a Facebook page. It takes more than that.

A few examples of what your business should be prepared for is proper pay per click advertising on Facebook, understanding how to use it in a manner that is effective and targets customers in your target demographic and area is very important. Once again it is about more than just buying keywords and paying per click, if it is not targeted and driving people to your Facebook page or website that actually matter to your business the clicks are of little use. As I said before, it is about more than being able to create a Facebook business page.

Another great example of create Facebook use is creating a visually appealing landing page or tab for your Facebook page. A couple examples are:

Coca Cola

Crane Coffee

As you can see it is a page within your Facebook presence that allows for you to give people a way to interact in a way they are used to with common websites.  Although these webpage like interfaces are by no means required it is becoming more important to have a professional appearance for your business when people find you on Facebook. This is a great way to do that. The cost to have a professional create these types of pages is minimal compared to what the cost of creating marketing materials or logos costs in many cases.

Once you have your page setup you need to make sure you keep it active. What does this mean?

It can be as simple as taking 30 seconds to a minute to post a link to a specials page on your website. Or maybe ask your customers a question about what they would like to see added to your store. Little things to connect with people that have shown interest in your business in the past but may of lost top of mind awareness of what you offer.

The key though is working with someone that can see the bigger marketing picture, although you may start with just having a Facebook page, if you are taking advice from someone, make sure they have a history or working online and understand how people are engaging with businesses on the internet. If they cannot help you come up with a real plan that makes sense for how your customers are using social media tools it may be time to switch the marketing company you are working with.

Also, for further reading, here are a few Facebook How-To's and Tips.

Facebook Page URL Instead Of Domains For Honda and Cranium

In a recent post concerning Facebook being used to promote offline businesses I mentioned that this will have some impact on domaining even if it is just small. Meaning, that the more people put their Facebook page URL, or Twitter URL on their business card or billboards the more it will have at least some bit of an impact.

Well, as I am sure all of you have witnessed, more and more we see large companies using their Facebook fan page URL in commercials or other advertisements instead of their website. I understand a bit of what they are trying to accomplish here, I would say we all agree having the direct interaction with customers on social networks is a great thing and a huge benefit to companies but too see it be the only URL used in a commercial is something that I am not sure I would do. I would think the smarter move would be to use your primary web presence to drive traffic to your social media pages and then once the person is a fan or follower use it in the other direction, use it to drive people to promotions, etc that may be on your primary web presence.

Now, all that said, I can see where maybe by using the Facebook page as the primary URL in their ad is being used to get them to be a "fan" so they can get continued traffic to their main site once links are posted, etc but I am still not sold that I would only promote with my Facebook URL. I am a big believer in making sure all the pieces work together and to me that starts at the website.

An example of this happening more and more is what brought this post on, last night while watching some post Trick or Treating Halloween shows I noticed two commercials in a row with Facebook URLs instead of website URLs. The first was for the game Cranium, Facebook.com/cranium and the next commercial was for Honda, and it ended with the URL Facebook.com/honda.

Now, lets be clear, neither one of these is the typical Facebook fan page we see created, these are business pages with much customization and actually pretty neat concepts but all in all it still is not their primary corporate presence. I actually find it very interesting and refreshing to see companies use social media like this but still find it a but interesting they would not direct people there from their main presence.

I think it is more than a little over the top to say that Facebook is creating a new Internet (if you understand the definition of what the Internet is you would know it just does not work that way) but I have read more than one story in the past few months that had stated just that, Facebook is creating its own web. Well, the more companies promote like this the more that maybe I still think it is way over the top but maybe just a little less so.

Setting Your Facebook Username On A Fan Page

Setting your Facebook username for a fan page is just as important as setting it up for your personal account. I have noticed many people have overlooked this step when creating their fan pages so thought I would point out the details here real quick. It is an easy task but has a few caveats around it before you can do it. I did have some of this detail in my post about Creating A Facebook Fan Page but it was deep in the post and I had enough email questions and comments about the username specifically I though it best to do a quick post on it.

To set your Facebook username go to Facebook.com/username

When you get here sometimes it is not obvious immediately that you can set the fan page username, if you look just below the yellow box concerning your personal username you will see a sentence that says Set a username for your pages. If you click that link you will then have the option to set the name. This will allow you to select a keyword or other specific word or phrase that describes your fan page rather than the long URL created when you first build your page.

Keep in mind, this is a one time shot, they make this very clear. Check and double check your selection. After you do make your selection I have noticed that the page access can be unstable for several minutes to a half hour after making the change. Its worth it.

Make sure after you have made the change that you go change the link on any of your fan page links from your site that you are promoting since they old link will no longer work.

On a side note, this pages do very well in SEO, I have noticed that both the ifones.com fan page and Missouri.me fan page both rank well for certain terms. This can be good to gather new fans to promote your site too.