Are Facebook Pages Good Internet Marketing Tools?
You’ve likely heard a lot about Facebook pages. In fact, if you are a small business owner then you’ve probably heard a lot of good things about them and likely have heard that you just have to have one. Well, it’s not quite that simple.
Yes, Facebook pages are good Internet marketing tools if you implement them effectively, but they are not necessarily good marketing tools for every type of business. Some businesses wouldn’t do well with them at all.
For instance, if you manufacture commercial aircraft engines then a Facebook page probably won’t work for you.
One way to tell whether or not a Facebook page is the Internet marketing tool for you is to evaluate your target market and assess whether or not that market is likely to be found on Facebook. If you don’t see the opportunities for engaging your audience through Facebook then it is highly unlikely that a Facebook page will be a big payoff for you.
On the other hand, if your audience is on Facebook and has a proven history of interacting with brands through Facebook pages then it just might be a useful tool for you. But you still need to evaluate the value of the Facebook page to your unique business environment. Do you have someone on your staff with the skills to build your page? Will they have time to maintain the upkeep of the page? If the answer to both of these questions is no then you might have to hire someone to do these things for you. Can you afford to do that?
While Facebook pages are effective Internet marketing tools, like all tools, you have to know how to use them, have the means and wherewithal to do so and understand where you are going with them. If you’ve done the proper research and have decided that a Facebook page is an Internet marketing strategy you wish to pursue then plan it well and execute it even better.
Don’t Mention Twitter On Facebook
Evidently, if you mention Twitter on Facebook then you’ll be ignored like the plague. That’s what HubSpot said today in a webinar.
By contrast, if you mention Facebook on Twitter then you’ll be retweeted. Mention Twitter on Twitter and you are more likely to be retweeted. Mention Facebook on Facebook and your status updates are likely to live on forever.
So does that mean you should start talking about Facebook more on your Facebook status updates? Not necessarily. If it isn’t relevant to you or your audience then don’t do it just because you think your updates will be shared. Instead, look for other words that your Facebook audience will seize upon and share with their friends.
One hint is the word “video”. If you use the word “video” in your status update on Facebook then your update is more likely to be shared by a huge percentage. On Twitter, less likely.
This just illustrates the differences between the audiences on these two social networks. Facebook has more of a mainstream audience whereas Twitter has more of a tech-oriented audience.
When it comes to social media optimization, the key is to know your audience – and to know the network.
Viral Marketing With Facebook Apps
Facebook has caught a lot of attention in the last year or so. Rivaling Google in terms of traffic, it has become a sort of powerhouse on its own for sending traffic to websites and for online marketing in general. Of course, it can be – and has been – used as its own viral marketing tool. But there is one other aspect to Facebook that has a lot of potential when it comes to viral marketing.
I’m talking about Facebook Apps.
You’ve seen them. Your friends send you the requests for kisses on the cheek, vampire bats and reading naked in the dark. They’re called apps and despite their silliness, they can be used for marketing your small business.
If you develop a really useful Facebook app then it will receive a lot of downloads and get a lot of usage. Every time someone uses your app they’ll be marketing your company.
To develop your own Facebook app you’ll need to get a developer’s API and go to work. Try to create an app that is somehow related to your business or something that is useful to your target audience. If your audience likes your app and finds it useful in some way then they’ll share it with their friends and you’ll get more downloads. As a result, you’ll get more traffic to your Facebook fan page and your web property.
Can all this result in viral activity? Yes, it sure can. And some companies are already doing it. You can too.
Facebook Privacy: A Business App Killer?
Facebook has officially announced that it has changed its privacy protections for users. Specifically, the changes indicated will
- (Source)
- Provide one click blocking of third party sites
- Give users one click blocking options regarding Facebook applications
- Make it simpler to customize your profile’s privacy settings
While the jury is still out on whether or not these changes will be effective in giving users the privacy they want, from the face of it there could be a slight hindrance to marketing through Facebook. The question is, by how much?
And the answer is, no one knows. Not yet.
But if users can block third party sites more easily then your marketing efforts through Facebook could be hampered to a degree. If users can block your applications more easily then that could hamper your marketing to a degree as well. Now it’s up to you to figure out how you will navigate those hurdles.
The only sure way to overcome these types of user-control hurdles is to build trust your brand. If users trust you then they will recommend you to their friends. If they trust their friends then you’re in like Flynn. That’s not really any different than it has been in the past. The only real difference is you’ll have to work harder to build that trust. Are you up to the task?
Facebook Could Have Made A Huge Mistake
When you’re approaching 500 million users is not the time to make a move like this. Of course, because of Facebook’s unprecedented growth, I’m reasonably sure that this would not have followed were it not for nearly 500 million users.
You don’t need 10,000 fans to know that Facebook almost cut out over half of its fan page customers and maybe more. I think they may have realized that themselves after the backlash.
But keep something in mind. When you’re in the growth stage of a business, you can’t afford to step on as many toes as this decision would have done. And certainly not on a segment of the market as vocal as the small business community, a community that tends to vote with its feet.
Did Facebook make a mistake? Yes, in all likelihood it was a big mistake. But it could have been bigger. At least they relented.
A Sly Way To Spy On Your Competition Through Facebook
Facebook has reached the level of ubiquity that the rest of us covet. Because of that, it is likely that you’ll find your competitors hanging out there, lurking and even interacting with your customers. You could be among them, spying on them as they do so. But you have to do it discreetly.
First, Facebook doesn’t allow business accounts so it is likely that your competition isn’t out there promoting themselves by writing on people’s walls. At least, not as a corporation.
They likely have a fan page (as should you). And you can become a fan of the page, but that’s an obvious CI strategy, isn’t it? Let’s do something less obvious.
Try to find out the names of top people in your competition’s companies. They likely have personal Facebook accounts. One way to do that is to look at the list of followers of the company’s fan page. If you can figure out who the first couple of followers were then they are likely employees. Follow them.
But, let’s back up. Your Facebook account should be in your own name. Better yet, find someone in your company who isn’t a high profile employee (in other words, their names don’t appear on press releases and prospectuses). Get them to follow your competitors. They’ll blend in much more easily.
Now isn’t that sly? It’s also good competitive intelligence.
Is Facebook Good For Viral Marketing?
With all the talk about Facebook growing into the biggest website online and developing into a good social media marketing vehicle for businesses (but only if you get a Facebook fan page), you’d think it’s the best thing since green tea. Maybe it is. But will make your marketing campaign go viral?
Let’s just lay one thing out on the table right now. Any social website could make your marketing campaign go viral, but not if you don’t have the right stuff. So what’s the right stuff?
Your content has to have mass appeal. If you serve a very niche market and your content appeals to that niche market well, but not so well to any other market then your content won’t go viral. Even on Facebook. Simply being on the most trafficked website online is not enough to make your content go viral.
Another thing you need is to get your content in front of the right people. Simply sharing your content with ten friends hoping they will push your content to the top of the viral chain isn’t going to cut it. You need to get your content in front of the Facebook movers and shakers. Until you do that, it won’t go viral.
That’s not to say that you should spam the people with the most friends. But you might send them a private message asking if they’ll take a look at your content and share it if they like it.
Viral marketing is about making the right friends in the right places and sharing the right stuff. You can do that on Facebook or anywhere there might be people who will really dig what you have to offer.
Your Two-Pronged Facebook Strategy
As a business, you can’t have a Facebook profile. In fact, many businesses have been banned from Facebook or had their profiles deleted because they tried marketing themselves through Facebook’s profile channels. That’s not good.
What you can do is, and should do, is start a Facebook fan page. But before you do that you should start a Facebook profile.
If that sounds contradictory, forgive me. It’s not intended to. What I mean is you should start a Facebook profile for your personal name. Then you can become a fan of your own Facebook fan page for your business. This is your two-pronged Facebook approach.
Your Facebook fan page for your business can be jazzed up a bit with videos, audio, widgets, photos and other cool features. You can promote it through your personal Facebook profile and through other channels as well – even Twitter and social bookmarking. Instead of risking your profile being deleted as a spam tool, start your own Facebook fan page. It’s the way to go.
Will ‘Likes’ Boost Your Reputation?
A lot has been said recently about Facebook, its privacy policy and its attempt to re-brand the social graph with Like buttons on everyone’s website. It’s an ingenious idea, really. But how can you turn that into a reputation management tool for your brand?
First, realize that nothing works if you don’t use it. Secondly, if you understand that rising in popularity on the social networks is a game of give and take then you’re off on the right foot. It isn’t so much about the marketing as it is about the social and the media. The idea is to build relationships. When you do that with a focus on what is good for others will also be good for you then others will like you – er, I mean, ‘Like’ you.
The Facebook Like button has the potential to be the most popular reputation management tool to date. You simply place it on your website’s pages and let your visitors do the Liking. If they truly like what they see then they’ll help you promote it.
Here’s how that works in your favor (besides the obvious polishing of the ego): Those Likes will appear in each user’s public settings on their Facebook pages. Their visitors will see you and that could translate into more visitors for your website. As you gain more Likes, you’ll gain more prominence within Facebook. That, in turn, will push you up further into the search engine rankings – that is, your profile or fan page will move up in the rankings. That will also lead to more traffic and, potentially, more Likes. The Like button could actually be a viral reputation management tool, the likes of which has never been seen before.
Of course, as I said, if you don’t use it then it won’t work.
Facebook Could Become Your Best Competitive Spy Tool
Spying on the competition in today’s fast-paced Internet business environment is a necessity. If that is something you place high priority on then you might be interested to know that Facebook could very well be your best spy tool.
Competitive intelligence just keeps getting better and better. And Facebook has recently introduced some interesting developer tools and social plug-ins that could make that a lot easier. However, they are quite controversial.
Privacy concerns are what’s on everyone’s lips, but businesses could find one benefit in Facebook’s Like button. The fact that you’ll be able to see users’ likes publicly, including events they plan to attend, may mean that you can spy on your competition and do it right out in the open. How’s that for a benefit?
Of course, privacy advocates are working hard to nip that in the bud and if they succeed then it will be a moot point. However, until they do, follow your competition on Facebook and see what you can learn about them.
Why Facebook Could Become Important For Web Design
The Web is atwitter today with talk of Facebook’s potential network and its Like feature. The focus is on Facebook’s privacy settings. By allowing publishers Web-wide to mine data about Facebook users through a Like button on their site, Facebook could use that information to target advertising on its own website. But that Like button could be more important than anyone realizes. It can be important for web design.
Issues that web designers will have to consider when building their website will include:
- Whether or not Facebook’s Like button is necessary.
- Where on each page of the site the Like button should be displayed.
It’s a no-brainer, of course. If Facebook is the most trafficked website on the Web then most webmasters are going to consider putting the Like button on their site, but is that going to be a good idea? You might find that consumers will not Like your content if they think that it will reveal something about themselves that they don’t want potential employers, college admissions counselors or someone else knowing. That Like button could then be a pariah.
It will be interesting to see how the Facebook privacy controversy plays out. It will be more interesting to see how it affects web design.
Will Facebook Ads Rival Google Ads?
A WebProNews article asks if Google AdSense will be in trouble if Facebook starts offering advertising opportunities. It’s a good question.
Two days ago we asked if Twitter was offering a new SEM model. We might just as well ask the same question of Facebook.
The difference between Facebook and Twitter, of course, is traffic. Facebook is only about 50 times the size of Twitter in terms of traffic. It is now the most trafficked website on the Internet. And it’s gathering information about its members that Google would kill for.
Every time you Like something on Facebook you are indicating your interests. Every time you comment on something or share something on Facebook you are indicating an interest. That’s much more valuable information to advertisers than a string of keywords you entered into a search query. And it’s something that I think Google knows as well.
If Facebook did roll out an ad network based on user interests, would you advertise through it?
Is Facebook Good Search Engine Marketing?
Now that Facebook is the most trafficked website online, is it good search engine marketing?
It depends on what you mean by search engine marketing. If you expect that every message you post on Facebook is going to end up in the search engine results, don’t count on it. But if you mean that some aspects of Facebook have a good chance of ending up in the search results then yes, it is good search engine marketing.
Facebook profiles have been indexed for some time now. If you have a Facebook profile and you are active on Facebook then your profile has a good chance of ranking well for your name. At the very least it makes for good reputation management. But profile pages are not the only pages that have the potential to be indexed in the search engines.
Fan pages, too, can get indexed and rank for key terms. Since businesses can start a fan page without having a Facebook profile, it makes for a great opportunity to target a keyword and get a search engine ranking.
Another way that Facebook could be good search engine marketing is through real-time search. Some of the search engines, like Bing and Google, are beginning to index Twitter, Facebook and other other social networks in their real-time indexing and that could mean great search engine marketing.
So what do you think? Will you be using Facebook more?
Facebook Fan Pages As Search Engine Marketing Tools
A new survey shows that Facebook fan pages are effective marketing. This may come as news to some people, but it’s not surprising. What is really surprising is that there was no mention of Facebook fan pages as search marketing tools.
With Facebook, profiles and fan pages are generally indexed in the search engines, but not much else. If you build a highly optimized Facebook fan page then you could see that fan page rank well in the search engines and that could lead to additional business for you. That’s why so many businesses are flocking to Facebook to build fan pages. They are not only effective but good search marketing vehicles.
Would SMO Be Better If Facebook Offered Blogging?
Chris Crum at WebProNews suggested that Facebook replace it Notes tab with a Blog tab. It’s not a bad idea.
Facebook users would gain an immediate benefit if Facebook offered blogging. No. 1, the built in Facebook user base would be incredible. This is now the second most visited site online, right behind Google. Facebook could compete head on with Google’s Blogger and actually do well.
Not only would users of Facebook benefit with that feature, but Facebook itself would benefit as it would see an immediate increase in user-generated content, improve its search engine friendliness and more people would stay on the website longer. But would a Facebook blog improve social media optimization (SMO)?
I believe it would improve search engine optimization for anyone who had a Facebook blog. I also believe it would improve SMO in a number of ways.
- First and foremost, Facebook users would likely connect more through a blog
- A blog could be brandable just like a Facebook page
- With thousands of Facebook blogs pumping out content on a regular basis, Facebook would likely see more Twitter traffic
- Widgetized blogs would likely lead to more video sharing on Facebook
I don’t really see any negatives in the prospect of adding a Facebook blog. Do you?
Should You Social Media Optimize For Google?
Yesterday we discussed whether you should optimize your website for Facebook in light of the social media leader’s relationship with Bing. Today I’d like to discuss whether you should get ready to optimize your social media campaigns for Google.
Well, I’ve been reading a few places today that Google is launching its own social network through Gmail. So does that mean you should go all out and plan a social media marketing campaign to target Google?
Not so fast. Give them a chance to prove themselves first.
Personally, I think you’d do better to spend your time optimizing web pages for Facebook. Google may have some nice social features, but it’s not a social network. And I think it will be a long time before it will compete with Facebook and Twitter.
Should You SEO Your Site For Facebook?
According to WebProNews, Facebook and Microsoft are extending their relationship, which will be a big boost to Bing’s search share. Or Facebook’s search share. However you want to slice it.
This is obviously good news for Bing since Facebook is one of the Web’s most trafficked websites – more so even than Bing itself. To get the exclusive on the search feature of Facebook should do wonders for the search engine’s search share. But what will it do for website owners?
I think it could mean that search engine optimization for Bing will become even more important. It’s already important though not quite as important as SEO for Google. But I can see that this relationship with Facebook could make it just as important to optimize for Bing as for Google. That is especially true if Facebook manages to overtake Google as the No. 1 most trafficked website online.
But here’s the catch: Optimizing your web pages for Bing won’t be any different than optimizing them for Bing right now. It will just be more important.
Will Social Media Overtake SEO As The Primary Driver Of Web Traffic?
An excellent article on social media by Greg Sterling got me to thinking. In the second paragraph he says:
One day in the very near future Facebook is likely to supplant Yahoo as one of the top two Internet destinations, the other being Google.
At first, I didn’t think anything of it. But then I got to thinking on it. He’s right. Facebook and Twitter continue to grow (though Twitter is a long way off from overtaking Yahoo! in traffic while Facebook is within driving distance). It is quite possible, and maybe even likely, that Facebook will become the second most trafficked site on the Web. And if that happens then it is feasible that it could become the No. 1 site as well.
Spammers continue to bombard the search engines with bad results and the search engines find it more difficult to filter the spam out. Several popular SEOs have pointed this out. Given that, the mood of the public could shift from confidence in search to confidence in social media. But when will that happen? Could that happen? What do you think?
Why Facebook Is Good Reputation Management
Online reputation management is really about one thing. Presenting yourself in the best light possible. Also known as “putting your best foot forward.”
It really doesn’t matter what tools you use. The whole point is to make yourself look good. You are running a business.
Reputation management can best be described as a positive and a negative. The positive is you telling the world who you are and what you do. What you’re good at. The negative is combating negative reviews or comments about you or your business. The reality is, most businesses don’t have to worry about that last part. Still, it’s good to be prepared in case you have to.
The best negative defense, of course, is a positive offense. You want to make yourself available in as many places as you can and in as many high profile places that you can. That means Facebook.
Facebook is a good place to meet people. All you really have to do is make friends and interact with them by writing on their wall and responding to what they write on yours. Post photos and videos and links of your favorite places. By simply doing what you do best and sharing who you are with your friends and contacts you are performing the best reputation management that you can in a natural way. It’s really that simple.
Another Take On Small Business And Social Media
Early last week we reported on how Most Small Business Owners Are Too Busy For Social Media. There are many different ways to view this problem, some of which we discussed in last weeks post. Another view that should be considered is whether or not small businesses were targeting the right social media outlets.
If your a small business person targeting a local or regional audience then you need to consider your options. It may not make sense undertaking a social media marketing campaign on Facebook or any of the other large international social media sites. Your audience is not international so why campaign in an international marketplace?
There are always local or regional social media outlets that could return much greater dividends for the time spent. Sure, they don’t have all the bells and whistles that Facebook or Twitter posses, but they do have one important factor – the users are nearly all potential customers.
As a local trader, would you advertise in the local papers or radio – or would you advertise in a big city daily or on national tv. The commonsense approach, and the cost factor, would make your local media more attractive. The same is true for online social media. Target those sites and then judge whether or not social media marketing was worth the time.