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How To: Effectively Market Your Business on Facebook, pt. 1

Filed under: Social Media

This is part one in a series about how to effectively market your Raleigh business on Facebook. To start, I’ll be addressing what every company wants to know before making the leap: what’s in it for us?

First (and most importantly), it’s where your customers are. With more than 350 million active users, 50% of which log on in any given day, you can bet some (or all) of your clients have profiles. The average user spends more than 55 minutes a day on Facebook – in fact, Facebook use accounts for 5.5% of U.S. internet usage.

If your business doesn’t have a Facebook page, you’re missing out on a huge opportunity to reach those customers. While social media sites are about forging relationships and making connections, studies have shown time after time that these sites also effect consumers’ buying decisions. 40% of Facebook users say that they connect with brands on the site. 28% of U.S. holiday buyers said that social media has influenced what they’ve purchased this holiday season.

Also, with Google and Bing now indexing Facebook posts in their search results, having a social media presence is more important than ever. If nothing else, a Facebook fan page is just another way for your company to get found on the web – and that’s never a bad thing.

While getting found is good, having a Facebook fan page can do a lot more for you. Through interacting with your fans, you can learn about what makes them tick: why they love your product, what made them buy it, what it means to them and what you can do better. If used correctly, Facebook can not only be a tool for growing your business, it can a be a tool for improving it as well.

Does this mean that every company should have a Facebook fan page? No, probably not. Building a community of fans takes commitment. Plenty of people are registered on the site – but you should determine whether enough of your target demographic are Facebook users to make it worth your marketing time and money.

If having a fan page isn’t in the cards, you can still market your business on Facebook! Facebook ads are another option to consider. If you’ve used the site, you’ve noticed the ads running on the right of the page.

If you are ready to set up a fan page, great! What next? Stay tuned as the series continues.

The Almighty Implications of Social Search

Filed under: Social Media

Yesterday, big news dropped about the future intersection of social media and search.

First, news broke that Microsoft’s Bing had inked deals with Facebook and Twitter to include status updates in search results. Big news. Huge, as Mashable put it. Just as that proverbial wave was crashing, however, Google announced a similar deal (but without Facebook).

Both search engines plan to activate social search in the coming weeks. Why is social search such a big deal? On a personal level, it means a couple things:

• Those Twitter and Facebook status updates? Unless you’ve set your accounts on private, your personal musings will be displayed in search results. Next time you tell your tweeps that “My nose is running from eating all those hot wings,” you better believe people around the world will see that statement pop up when searching for “running” or any other word you’ve included.
• Just as strangers will see your status updates, theirs will be turning up in your searches as well. Need to know where the best vegetarian food is in Raleigh? Search Google or Bing. I’ll bet you’ll find more than a few people recommending their favorite spots through Twitter or Facebook status updates. Real-time observations mean that you’ll have recent info by consumers like yourself. Is a restaurant tasty, but crowded right now? Reading a strangers tweet complaining about the line will help you avoid the hassle.