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FACEBOOK 101: BASIC TIPS TO GET STARTED AND USE THIS POWERFUL MEDIUM EFFECTIVELY | September 28, 2011 (7 comments)
Las Vegas, NV—Facebook has emerged as a major powerhouse in driving search and referral traffic. With more than 750 million active users, 50% of which log on any given day, this is a massive network, great to tap into to help increase your business.
But remember how Facebook started and why people are using it: Facebook originally was designed as a personal interaction service. It was built on person-to-person relationships and was not designed for business purposes. That said, whenever a service has that kind of growth, someone will start to use it for business, so to accommodate demand, Facebook developed “Facebook Pages.” A ‘page’ is a business listing, vs. a personal listing. You operate the page in much the same way you use your personal account, but with a few small differences:
- With a page you cannot ‘friend’ individuals – you can only ‘like’ other businesses.
- This also means that you can’t make comments on the pages of your followers.
- If you use a personal account for business purposes, you are in violation of Facebook’s policies and run the risk of having your account closed. Although the chances are slim that Facebook will find your page and shut it down, it’s not worth taking that chance, as a Facebook presence is important.
The compromise. Set up a personal account in the company owner’s name. Use a professional photo for your profile picture and only put ‘business-oriented’ information on the site. Though it’s a ‘professional profile’ site for the owner, it will permit you to make comments on your followers’ pages—essential for the ‘engagement’ of using Facebook for marketing.
Next, set up a “page” for your store. This is a business page, so it should include everything you can add that relates to your store. Make the profile photo your logo or the front of your store, add photos of merchandise, staff, and anything else that builds or reinforces the brand.
A non-sales posting clipped from Cornell's Jewelers' Facebook page. Everyone loves a nice "feel good" message like the Rochester, NY jeweler offers here.
Next, market your business page to everyone who inquires about Facebook. Use the ‘business profile’ site to engage your current business prospects. If they have already engaged with you via a personal FB page, let them know that you are setting up a business-oriented page and want to connect with them via that page as well. You’re trying to separate business from personal and build your business brand—but if they also feel a personal connection to you, you don’t want to sever that.
You may want to have one of your employees or a third party administer your page. This is fine; however, by providing another party with administrative rights to your Facebook page, you are giving them the ability to lock you out as an administrator, effectively ‘hijacking’ your page. Please read this article for more details: http://mashable.com/2011/09/05/facebook-flaw-hijack-page/.You also want to be sure you’re handing it over to someone qualified to respond in an expert, professional manner. See this report about digital IQin the September 22 edition of The Centurion.
Engage, don't sell! When using social media for engagement, you must be sure you're posting lots of "non-sales" content. If you only post sales-related items to your Facebook page, your followers will start to ignore your posts, as your site starts to feel like a virtual billboard. But if you post interesting items (engaging videos, comments, quotes, stories, jokes, contests, trivia, etc.) they will follow your page to see waht new information has been posted. Then, when you do post an advertisement, they will read it as they are now accustomed to wanting to read your posts.
Approach the conversation on your social media pages the same as you would at a cocktail party. Imagine going up to someone and starting the conversation with, "Hey! I'm Joe. I'm a jewleer. Do you need a new diamond bracelet? How about a necklace? I have this great diamond ring I just got--here, look at it. I go to Antwerp every year to buy diamonds. Do you want to buy some?"
With that kind of approach, people wouldn't want to chat with you, they'd want to run from you. But if you engaged in their conversation, made a few informed comments on their topic, started a new topic about something of interest, particularly a local event, and then eventually dropped the “I’m a jeweler” line, they would be willing to converse with you longer.
Even though this post from Jacksonville, FL-based Underwood's Jewelers is discussing a product, it isn't a direct sales pitch. Instead, it engages users by asking how they like to wear pearls, and as you can see, they've gotten some answers!
Engaging, or stalking? You can’t comment on the personal page of someone who ‘likes’ your business page, but if you are ‘friends’ in the owner’s personal account, you can use that account to engage and periodically comment on their page.
Set up a schedule of your top 100 clients and visit 10 of their sites each morning. The next day, hit the next 10 on the list. Just do a very quick scan of their posts. If there is something of interest, make a short comment. For example, if they post “Little Johnny hit a home run last night,” you can quickly post “Congratulations! That must have been exciting!” Then go to the next page. If the next page doesn’t have anything calling for a comment, move to the next. It won’t take long, and if you cycle through 10 pages per day with 100 customers, you will look at each client once or twice per month (resulting in a comment every 1-2 months). This keeps you engaged, but out of the ‘stalker’ category, and it still keeps you and your company top of mind when they are thinking of buying jewelry.
To build customer engagement, be sure to:
- Post lots of non-business, non-sales related content
- Actively monitor and respond to comments
- Visit pages of friends/followers and make comments where applicable
When engaging via social media, remember that this is an informal media. Keep the conversations light and friendly. Recently I received a call asking me how to reply to some comments on a jeweler’s Facebook page. The jeweler asked, “If you could get a free item of jewelry, what would it be?” Their fans replied with “pearls”, “family ring”, etc. The client wanted to know how to respond without being ‘salesy’. I recommended replying with “Great ideas! Here’s a little help for your significant other if you want to drop some hints [link to inventory page]. 😉”
By taking this tone and using emoticons (the little winking smiley-face above), it sounds like you are trying to help them get what they want, not selling your stock. The emoticon keeps it easy and informal.
Using Facebook for promotions. Many businesses want to use Facebook to run promotions or specials. Contests that state "Like our Facebook page and you will be entered to win a prize" sound like a great way to advertise your page and gain followers--but it's actually against Facebook rules.
In order to legally run a promotion or contest in Facebook, you must do it through Facebook Apps (which means you either need to develop an app yourself or get someone to do it for you)--or develop a way to run a contest without making "like our page" a requirement of entrance. Again, hundreds of thousands of FB users are running promotions the "wrong" way and not getting caught, but is it worth being the one who does and risking getting your Facebook page shut down due to non-compliance?
Click here to read a good article about this issue and click here to read the actual promotion guidelines set forth by Facebook.
Facebook is a personal medium that is just starting to try to monetize itself through business-related applications. Remember that engagement is the key. Tread carefully and you should be able to see success.
Jeffrey W. Arnold is a business consultant for Focus Business Management Institute an industry leader in retail jewelry consulting. Arnold has helped increase the profitability of numerous companies, ranging from start-ups to multi-billion-dollar entities. He now conducts social media and Internet marketing seminars for retail jewelers and leads the marketing initiatives for Focus. For more information on Focus and how they help increase profitability for independent jewelers, visit www.FocusBMI.com