Small Businesses Need Facebook

Posted by Analisa, Thursday, November 12th, 2009 at 6:22 pm, under Facebook, Social Marketing.

A New York Times article (published today, Nov 11, 2009) begins:

“Business owner, you might want to friend Facebook.”

Good advice, since I have been telling friends, clients and colleagues this for months now. Everyone’s heard about Business Pages and what a big audience there is on Facebook and how important it is to be present and engaged…But many people still don’t think it’s worth their time. Does the New York Times have to come out and say it? I guess so.

The article touches on these key points:

• People are on Facebook in HUGE numbers (300 million users) – it’s a big resource;
• A Page can be as functional as a website, sometimes even a substitute. Custom usernames and lots of options to customize make it feel just like a personal site;
• Facebook can be dangerous if you don’t focus and have a plan (no wonder college students spend hours on there; it’s easy to get distracted by photos, videos, status updates, relationships, applications………….);
• There are LOTS of tools, apps and ways to customize your page (like FBML);
• Interactions that happen on Facebook Pages are a new way to TALK TO your customers, rather than SELL AT them;
• There are advertising opportunities within Facebook (similar to Google AdWords) that can be very specifically targeted to certain user groups and demographics;
• Social interaction can replace traditional marketing for small businesses (like Sprinkles cupcake company);
• Facebook is a perfect way to give stuff away for free (see cupcake example) and see instant results, like more fans;
• Warning: you have to be patient when building a social community from scratch; it takes time.

Here is the “Quick Tips” summary from the article:

• Identify a short list of goals before you begin.
• Show some personality in your page.
• Don’t shill. Use your page to engage-and trust that sales will follow.
• Use Facebook data to analyze your customer demographics.

We have talked about many of these points before, on this blog and elsewhere. It’s nice to see them increasingly being accepted, especially by mainstream media like newspapers.

The latest Facebook trend I have seen are uber-customized landing pages using static FBML. Tim has blogged extensively about this over at hyperarts.com/blog (our more Web-development-oriented blog) and is busy juggling the steady stream of comments and inquiries asking for HELP! with FBML. We have a cool little mini-site set up over on our Page…someone actually just called the office asking how we made it!

Here are a variety of examples I have found, some really nice and some very targeted landing pages (you’ll see what I mean):

All Facebook

Room 214

Piedmont Real Estate

The Social Media Guide

Like the New York Times article suggests, it is possible to create an actual website within Facebook, with calls to action and targets at your various user personas. I think it’s funny when the pages actually SHOW you how to click on the “Become a Fan” button using aggressive arrows and graphics (are we that stupid?).

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