Presence Media » Small Business

Use Facebook Status Tags As Free Advertising For Your Small Business

Presence Media — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:37:42 +0000

Facebook ads are a great way to promote your Facebook Page to a targeted Orlando social media audience. Trouble is, most small businesses don’t have the budget for ads on a social networking site. Running a promotion to reward fans who tag your Facebook Page in their status updates is a great way to build fans.

People Read Facebook Statuses

Most eyeball traffic on Facebook goes to the news feed. If you’re sending updates (not status updates but actual Fan Page Updates) to fans, those updates don’t show up in the news feed. Running a successful Facebook Page means updating your status frequently solely to show up in your fans’ news feed. So to build a fan base your Facebook Page will need to show up in news feeds of users who aren’t fans.

Your Fans Have Friends

The best way to reach the unreached is to use your current fan base. Each Facebook profile has on average 130 friends. Each fan of your small business Facebook page shows up on 130 news feeds every time they update their status. If you have 20 people tag you in their status you’ve just reached 2600 Facebook profiles.

Fans can also post a link to your page on their profile using the share button at the bottom left of your page. This gets that news feed face time as well, but it isn’t as easy as tagging so fans will be less likely to share your page in this way.

Suggesting a page to Facebook friends doesn’t show up in the news feed. This also helps to build fans, but it’s not as effective as tagging or sharing a page.

How To Tag

Just like in Twitter, when you’re updating your status type “@” to invoke a tag. Then begin typing the name of who you’re tagging and select them from the drop down list.

Your Fans Want To Help

Some fans will help you grow your fans because they love you, but you’ll get the most out of tagging if you use it as part of a promotion. Giveaways that reward status tags can really beef up your results because they have the potential to multiply efforts.

If I see a friend tag a Facebook page and mention that I could win something, I’m going to visit that page. To be able to tag that Facebook Page, I need to become a fan. So I become a fan, tell all my Facebook friends about your business Facebook Page, AND your status updates now show up in my feed. It’s a win-win-win!

Drawbacks

The only problem that I have encountered with tagging is that it’s a new Facebook feature and some fans need to be instructed on how to tag. Once they get it, you can unleash the full potential power of your fan base on those coveted news feeds.

Why Social Media Marketing Works Best For Small Business

Foursquare Helps Customers Validate Their Loyalty To Small Businesses

Presence Media — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:50:50 +0000

Have you ever bragged to your friends about how much you visit your local pizza restaurant, sports bar, or coffee shop? You’re always talking about how the owners of these places should give you a discount because you frequent their business so much, but unless you say Hello to them every time you’re there, they have no way of knowing how many times you’ve been there. Foursquare, a new location-based social networking web application, will help validate your bragging rights to your favorite watering hole or pizza joint. Foursquare is going to change the way we think about social media and how small businesses use it to market their products and services. It’s social networking with a gaming element to it. It allows you to “check-in” to virtually any business around town, and you are awarded arbitrary points for checking in. Once you’re the first person to check-in at a particular place, you become the “mayor” of that establishment. Your mayorship can be dethroned if someone else checks in more than you in the future. There’s also badges that you can unlock for completing certain tasks. I know, it sounds a little weird, but it’s very fun, and it brings out the friendly competitive nature in all of us.

Here’s how it works:

Visit their website and download one of their smart phone apps. They have one for the iPhone, Android phones, and Blackberries.
Sign up for a free account and build your profile.
Choose a hub city. Which ever big city you are closest to, pick that city as your home city.
Next time you are at a restaurant, bar, retail store, or any other small business, pull out your phone, open up the App, and check to see if the place you’re at is already in foursquare’s database. If they are, simply hit the “check-in” button and you’ll notify foursquare friends where you are and foursquare will award you points for checking in. If the place isn’t in their database, then Google Map their address and enter the information into foursquare so others can check in without searching for it in the future. Foursquare awards 5 points for adding new venues.

How Small Businesses Can Use Foursquare

Every small business wants to build a core base of customers that keep coming back to their store or restaurant over and over again. Once you’ve built a loyal customer base, your business will start to grow from word-of-mouth marketing and personal referrals. Like Facebook and Twitter, foursquare uses the power of sharing to connect people and businesses. Businesses can post incentives on their foursquare page such as:

One free beer for the Mayor of John’s Pub
Free side item every time you check-in at Joe’s Pizza
Free shampoo after your 3rd check-in at Mary’s Salon

The possibilities are endless, but the incentive should never be too good so that customers don’t try to abuse the system. I like really like the idea of getting something only when you show someone that works at the venue that you are checking in. Then, there’s no way they could have cheated the system to gain the incentive. We do internet marketing in Orlando, Los Angeles, and West Palm Beach right now, and all of those cities already have great presences on foursquare. I’ve already seen the huge growth of foursquare in Orlando, and it’s pretty fun to see how I stack up against other foursquare users. Foursquare can build brand awareness for your business, make customers more loyal to your business, and give them another reason to give referrals to their friends and family about your business.

Foursquare for Social Media Marketing Professionals

It’s a great concept and a great resource, so as internet marketing professionals, we should be integrating social networking applications like this in our overall strategies for small businesses. Facebook and Twitter promotions work, but they don’t provide an incentive for customers to come back after their first visit. Foursquare does this, and brand loyalty is huge for small business owners.

If you’d like to talk to us about starting a social media marketing campaign for your small business, please contact us or call 352-871-0794.

Why Social Media Marketing Works Best For Small Business

Use Social Networks To Make Customer Service More Efficient

Presence Media — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 05:48:49 +0000

Most small businesses are focused on using social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter to generate a buzz on the web which will result in increased sales at their business. I don’t blame them, because if they don’t make a profit, their family doesn’t eat. However, we often tell our clients that there are many auxiliary benefits to having a strong presence on sites like Facebook and Twitter. Using your social media channels to perform more efficient customer service and receive customer feedback is a great way to interact with your customers, make informed business decisions, and build customer loyalty.

Comcast Is The Poster Child

Twitter Name: @ComcastCares

Comcast uses this Twitter profile to answer general questions from its customers. As you can imagine, cable providers get tons of complaints and questions every day, but not every question requires a full conversation with a customer service rep. And let’s be honest, none of us want to sit on the phone and wait for them to answer our call. Even though there are still tons of Comcast haters, Comcast gets an “A” from us for effectively using Twitter to provide efficient customer service to its cable subscribers.

Here are some real examples of providing good customer service

So a girl goes through the Chick-fil-A La Habra drive-through and orders a 4-count chicken strip entree. She grabs her food and heads over to the movie theater across the street, and when she opens up her bag, she realizes that she got a 3-count chicken strip entree, not the 4-count. So, she lets them know about their screw-up on Twitter. What did we do? We got her address and sent her two coupons for free entrees the next two times she visits Chick-fil-A!

A loyal customer of E-Z Rent-A-Car let us know on the Facebook Page that he has an upcoming reservation at the Denver International Airport. So, he posts his information on the Facebook page and asks for an upgrade. We didn’t have to upgrade him, but we did it, because we knew that other customers would see this and be encouraged by it. It could start a snowball of everyone asking for an upgrade, but that’s a good problem to have!

Customer feedback and positive reviews

Positive reviews and feeback are another great advantage to being on Facebook and Twitter. Everyone sees the comments and it builds trust with your customer. Here’s an example of a great positive comment on the E-Z Facebook page.

Would you like to learn more about Presence Media, then check out our portfolio. If you’d like to talk to us about starting a social media marketing strategy, contact us today.

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Why Social Media Marketing Works Best For Small Business

Presence Media — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 04:57:16 +0000

Social Networking sites are changing the face of the internet. The internet started out as a one-way resource for information where voices were heard through anyone willing to take the time to build a website and post information about a particular niche topic. The internet has now evolved into a conversation. Millions of blog posts are posted daily and billions of comments and ratings are published in reaction the content produced. We are a social society, so it’s only fitting that the internet become a social web of interactions.

Small business is slowly realizing that having a website isn’t enough anymore. Or if they do have a website, it better not function solely as a business card. Web visitors want to interact with brands. They want to build trust with you before they use your products or services. The best way to do this is by implementing a social media marketing strategy. Social media works with small business, because it is designed to help businesses connect with customers on a local level. In downtown Orlando, many night clubs, bars, and restaurants are finding that connecting with people on Facebook and Twitter is a great way to get the word out about their promotions and discounts. This is happening all over the country, and here’s why it works:

Customers take ownership of certain small businesses

Most people can list off the top of their head their favorite bar, favorite breakfast place, favorite boutique, and favorite pizza place. We naturally like to take ownership of local businesses that we enjoy patronizing. Engaging in social media with your customers helps them solidify this ownership mentality. By starting a Facebook page, you can respond to customer requests, update them on new menu items and concert events. If you are a franchise of a larger brand, you can separate yourself from other franchisees by offering incentives on Facebook and Twitter to encourage repeat business by casual customers.

Gain Customer Trust

Creating a presence on social media sites puts businesses at a certain level of vulnerability. They are now opening up the conversation stream for customers to critique them, praise them, and offer suggestions. What many small businesses fail to realize is that customers appreciate when they see small businesses making an attempt to reach out to their customer base. If you are honest on your social media outlets and you respond to customer inquiries, you’ll gain their trust, and they will choose you over your competition.

Establish a New Voice

Do you want to tap into a younger demographic? Do you find that no one young comes into your store? Then, you need to go to where they are. They are never going to find your website no matter how much search engine optimization you do. Building a Facebook page and sharing it with friends and family will start the snow ball effect of viral word-of-mouth advertising. But, having a Facebook page means nothing. You must fill it with fun, relevant content. The content is your voice. Don’t sound like a business owner. Don’t sound like someone’s parent. Sound like their friend, and they will respond favorably

If you’re a small business with questions about marketing your business on social networking sites, please do not hesitate to contact us.

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