If you’ve ever discussed Facebook with Small Business owners you will know that there is a lot of confusion and frustration as to how to use it effectively. When I push Small Business folks on using Facebook as a tactic (yes, it’s a tactic, not a reason to ditch your Traditional Marketing) I usually get one of the following reactions:
1. Total Roadblock: This is often expressed verbally as “I don’t believe in Facebook; I don’t want my high school friends looking me up and I’m worried about security.”
2. Other No-Facebook Excuses: “My clients aren’t on Facebook.” I always find this one particularly interesting since 65% of all American internet users are.
3. Frustration: “I’ve tried for ages and I only have 75 followers.” My usual question here is “Tried how?”
4. No Time: The business owner doesn’t see the value in committing his or his employees time to Facebook.
Every business is different, so of course Facebook engagement may not be the best use of your employee’s time, but it is my humble opinion that for most Small Businesses it is an irreplaceable piece of your marketing puzzle. Instead of listing all of the reasons I know this to be true, I’ll show you what my pal (and client) Billy Sweeney has done that proves Facebook is a useful and powerful tool.
Billy owns a fast growing business called Bittly Bill’s, and here’s his Facebook Page. His first post was March of 2010, and he now has 2200 fans. (I know “Rock Star” Social Media types who can’t break 1000). His page is always active, engaged, and growing. What’s his secret? Here’s what he does:
1. Posts interesting content. That means he may break the ‘golden rule of Social Media’ and skip days that there’s nothing exciting to write. It also means that his followers pay attention when he does post because they know it’s worth reading.
2. Creates interesting content to post. Billy is always thinking, and he comes up with lots of things to keep his customers engaged in real life. Ice Cream eating contests, horse and buggy rides… there is always something going on at Bitty Bills, which makes it easy to attract fans to his Facebook Page.
3. Gives his fans something. The new Timeline layout has made this more challenging, but Bitty Bill’s has a redeemable coupon for new fans. Once you go, you’ll keep going.
4. Makes his customers the center of attention. Bitty Bill’s constantly posts pictures of customers enjoying themselves at the shop. Fans respond to this because they can relate to the real people really having fun.
5. Engages in Real Time. I am a fan of Hootesuite and other scheduling programs that allow you to pre-schedule posts, but nothing beats real life engagement. Billy often has a back and forth with followers of his page.
6. Makes it FUN. As a natural wise-cracker, Billy has no problem making people smile… which is more important than almost anything because most Facebookers are on there to socialize, not be sold to.
7. Contests Billy’s not afraid to put his money where his mouth is. When he first started the page he created his own custom contest (without the help of any programs) and gave away $100 to the first fan to refer 100 fans to the page. He grew by hundreds in a week. Any small business owner will tell you that’s not easy. He’s always thinking of new Facebook contests to encourage sharing; watch this space because he’s brewing something special up as we speak.
8. The product’s fantastic. Of course this has nothing to do with Facebook and everything to do with how you run your business; Facebook is no substitute for sound business practices. What Facebook does is keep Bitty Bill’s in the top of his customer’s minds so that they don’t cheat on him with some other ice cream shop.
The reality is that smart people always figure out how to do it, even in new frontiers where they’re not quite sure. For every Bitty Bill’s there are thousands of Small Business owners who neglect their Page or have given up completely. Watch his page; I have no doubt that it will continue to grow exponentially because he puts the energy and creativity into it necessary to keep followers on board. Is there anything unique you did to quickly grow your Facebook Fan Base?