by Sarah Santacroce
If you haven’t been living under a rock, you have probably heard that everybody is talking about Social Media. Especially Facebook. So what is all the buzz about ? And how is it relevant to you, small business owner ?
Being myself the owner of a small business, let me give some insight about these famous Facebook pages and how I think they can benefit your business.
Why a Facebook Business Page ?
A ) It’s free
And not many things are, so why not take advantage of it ?
B) Huge audience
Facebook is expanding day by day. Here are some statistics from their website:
*Due to hit 600 million subscribers end of 2010
*More than 250 million active users, half of them log on at least once each day
*More than two-thirds of Facebook users are outside of university
*The fastest growing demographic are individuals 35 years old and older
*More than 8 million users become fans of pages daily
*70 percent of Facebook users are outside the United States
C) Optimized Search Results
Google and other search engines find and list your page. Even better is when you have more than 25 fans, you are allowed to customize the web address of your page. Instead of Facebook.com/and a long string of numbers and letters you can have www.facebook.com/yourcompanyname
D) Increased traffic to your website
On your Facebook page you will promote your website, post your blog posts and showcase your testimonials. This will automatically increase the traffic to your website and…
E) increase your sales
If you utilize your page the right way, you will increase your sales. This will not happen over night, since you will first have to establish a partnership and gain the trust of your fans. But in the long run, if they happen to need the services/products you offer, they will know you as the expert and come to you in the first place.
How can I measure my return on investment ?
True thing, Facebook does take quite some time to maintain. If you want your fans to interact and socialize on your page, you need to deliver daily updates, quotes, videos, articles, interesting facts etc. But will this time you invest be worth it in the end ? Below are two tools which help you to find answers to that question.
1. Facebook stats
Facebook will send you a weekly update with your Facebook statistics. In it you can see how many active users you have, how many weekly visits and how many additional “likes” you got that week. This basically shows you how popular your page is and let’s you adapt the style of your updates.
2. Google analytics
In your Google Analytics account you will find valid information on how many people come from Facebook to visit your website. In order to measure if they actually buy your product, you will have to set up a goal with your analytics account.
When preparing for this post, I asked the people in my network what they would like to know with regards to this subject. Here are a couple of questions I got:
Questions:
- If I have a Facebook page, do I still need a website ?
- I already have a Facebook personal profile, can I use that for my business ?
- Is there a way that my clients can order directly through the Facebook page ?
- I don’t know what to post on my page, can you give me some ideas ?
Answers:
- In my opinion it’s still better to have a website. The site is where your clients find all the information about your business, your services and products. Facebook is just a door opener for your page, a way to bring clients to your website. However, if you feel confident that your main target public hangs out only on Facebook, you could probably get away with just the Facebook page. See also my response to Question 3 concerning a store front directly on your FB page.
- I advise against using your personal profile for business purposes. The personal profile is to connect with your friends, share photos and experiences. But I would keep that separate from your business page. That doesn’t mean that you cannot share some personal info on the business page, but you will be more selective on what you share.
- Someone asked me if there is a way to have a “store front” directly on your page, where clients can order and pay for your products and services, without ever leaving Facebook. Yes, there is. I have never actually used it myself, but I recommend you check out the Payvment application. Read this review for more information.
- There are many things you can post on your wall. Here are some examples:
- pictures of your products
- pictures of your store front
- quotes
- interesting facts
- links to your blog posts
- polls
- videos that you find interesting and relevant
- questions and answers
- discounts
- etc. etc.
Don’t forget that there are also many applications you can use to enhance the engagement on your page. Read this post on Social @ Blogging Tracker on how to increase engagement through applications.
If you have other questions, please leave me a comment below and I’ll be happy to answer. You can also e-mail me at sarah@simplicityadmins.com
I hope I supplied some valuable info on the benefits of a Facebook page.
I am not saying that every small business has to have a Facebook page. It does help in terms of the Search Engine Optimization, but it all depends on your target clientele. If your target public are other businesses, you might want to invest more time on Linkedin.
I’d be honored if you joined the discussion on my own page at http://www.facebook.com/Simplicityadmins. I’m looking forward to connecting with you !
