At the end of 2013, there are over 1 billion people active per month on facebook. 128 million are active daily in the US alone. You need to have at least a presence there. If you have no online presence at all, facebook is a great place to get started and it’s easy to interact, it has a low ground-floor investment, and simple target marketing.
If you are in business today, you need to consider a facebook business profile. facebook has stumbled onto a great way for small business to create and foster relationships with the people who need their services.
Facebook or my website?
If you already have a website, having a presence on facebook is a fantastic way to interact and engage with your target market and lead them back to your website. However, developing what is essentially a duplicate of your website on Facebook, is a waste of effort. Lack of design control for your page, constantly changing permissions, and indirect SEO are just a few of the disadvantages of a heavy dependence on facebook. It’s an easy entry point for online newcomers and an important marketing tool for others, but not the basket you want to put all your eggs in.
But your website is. Think of your website as your home and you’re just leasing on facebook. The landlord can change the rules anytime he wants (and he frequently does). But facebook is where the people are, so you need to be there to meet them and bring them back to your website (home). You offer a little bit of yourself there, establish the relationship, find common ground, find the need you can meet or pain you can resolve, then bring them back to your site where you really develop that relationship and show the rest of your awesomeness.
How VSP can help
Facebook is about relationships. Let’s face it. Establishing a great facebook presence for your business can be a lot of work, but it can be a great source of connection between you and your clients. Not only do you need to share information and insight, you need to listen to those who are following your page. Relationship happens because you care. The only way to show you care is to listen and respond to the questions and comments you receive. Now more than ever, companies are embracing this medium to share posts, blog articles, pictures and video to further expose who they are and what their expertise is. Larger companies hire a professional agency to manage their social media experience. Most small businesses can’t really do that. Trying to manage it on your own can be daunting, especially if your business requires face time most of the day.
VS Productions can help you set up your business profile to be as engaging as you want it to be. We can also help you master the engagement process with your visitors and fans. We can train you on the tools and techniques that can save you time and help you understand the potential outreach you have through your page and those that follow you. If this still presents too much for you, we can come alongside you and manage your business profile for you, working with you to address issues and keep postings regular.
facebook Marketing Pages
A facebook marketing page or application is an additional page that shares information with your followers. Often they are designed to show partial information, hinting that the user should “Like” the facebook page to get to the hidden, more interesting information. This is known as a reveal. You can run contests from these app pages, you can show videos, pretty much anything you have to share that you want to have some visual control over. VS Productions can design and build these application pages for you. They are not something most companies can do on their own, even though there are 3rd party businesses that “help” you to do just that. Unfortunately those companies often are very patterned and you end up looking like everyone else’s page.
facebook has a great facility for creating events to attract and remind followers to physical events at your store or in the community. Perhaps you have a booth at an upcoming festival, do your followers all know that you will be there? An event is a great way to get the word out and it will let you know how many are committing to attend. It is also a good reminder for the follower, showing up on their home page as an event they are attending.
facebook also has a great targeted ad system, one VS Productions can help you master. You can control the demographic, the geographic and most importantly, your budget.
To get started with your facebook presence give us a call and we will sit down with you to determine how you can use facebook to open up a relationship with existing and future customers! Don’t be the last one on the block!
