Facebook - Fad or Business Tool?
Facebook is the laid back, barrier reducing, fun application but highly addictive. There is a reason that the younger generation like it… it is the cool in thing. My wife and my sisters love it and addicted to it. They love to stay connected to friends. You can find out a lot about people. People love Facebook and are there to socialize.
People do not use Facebook to see your ads. So the same rules apply that we have discussed. Add value to the community and in turn it will increase your value.
It is relational and personal.
If you’re not leveraging that opportunity to cement relationships, differentiate yourself and make friends and connect in the mind of the consumer, you’re opening the door to competitors who are. Get engaged with people, make associations. Facebook is very personal and even though business is relational, it draws a fine line and can push the envelope. So keep it professional.
One of the biggest issues I see for business, is getting it started and forgetting about it. If you are doing it just to check it off your list and it just sits there and collects dust then save yourself the time and effort and potential damage it could do to you.
Here are some things businesses can do to keep it alive.
Create a Group or Join related groups – There are tons of groups on Facebook. Join them and engage people there.
Offer Incentives – Maybe a discount, a sample product or something for visiting.
Create Engagement – Polls, surveys, games, discussions
Support A Cause – Breast Cancer Awareness, Cancer Society, Make a Wish or whichever. Pick one and use your site to help raise awareness and money.
Facebook is still growing. It is evolving. It definitely has uses for business. You just have to get out there in the right mindset and have fun…
You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Hey Chad,
Great presentation last night, good job. Yes, this is a very good blog! Look forward to reading more posts. You are spot on with: “One of the biggest issues I see for business”
And thank you for taking the time last night for a quick brainstorming session!
[...] This post was Twitted by chad_rothschild - Real-url.org [...]
Chad, these all are great points, and I’d add another: know your customers and prospects well enough to know if they would like to engage with you on Facebook (or any SM platform, really).
I’ve had several clients ask me if they should use FB to connect with clients or prospects, and I’m always surprised when I learn that they really have no idea where their clients are online.
A company (or “fan”) page populated with new content at least weekly is a good place to start.
Michelle, fish where the fish are… great thought and point. You got to survey, inquire and ask where they are getting their info online. We know that 80% of people get some type of info online. Research, discovering etc. So then you have to dive down deeper and really understand where they are, online forums, facebook etc.
Thanks for sharing.
Chad
Chad, I have not invested enough time in Facebook to learn it’s potential, but my general impression is that it is better for personal social networks than businesses.
I cannot imagine the VP of Sales for Xerox going on Facebook to find a resource to help build his/her sales organization. Maybe Linkedin.
Any thoughts?
Mark,
So to really answer your question, facebook may be more for engaging & being interactive with customers, prospects and suspects, but don’t rule it out. LinkedIn is another great resource as well and will talk about that extensively in future posts.
I think it is a powerful personal social network and has a definite flair for building business relationships as well. It takes a different plan & strategy. Whether that is in creating fun, engaging & interactive fan pages, groups or just creating conversations with customers/friends. 2 Top Line Thoughts -
It depends a lot on the company obviously. Xerox is a huge company and will have a VP of interactive who would be on there or if they “decide” not to put him directly on there he is going to be heavily involved. I have gotten to know the VP of Interactive at Newell Rubber Maid and he could offer some insight and am trying to set up an interview with him to share his thoughts. THey have done some awesome things in the interactive space.
It also depends where there customers are. If they have customers in that space, they need to be there interacting and engaging them there. I know Coca-Cola & Chick-Fil-A are heavily involved in Facebook, they both believe it or not have fan pages run by FANS. They both have a VP of interactive that oversee’s the general dialogue etc, but both use a hands off approach which is really interesting.
I am actually writing a post for Friday that will share a couple of companies and case studies on who is using Facebook with great success.
Does anyone else have thoughts, comments or perspective?
For many years my work and personal life blurred… I’d work 16 hour days without a bit of guilt for having a leisurely lunch with a friend. But I wouldn’t have my friend come to the office and have lunch with me at my desk. That’s how I see Facebook, vs Twitter and LinkedIn.
FACEBOOK is personal — perhaps just by default and merely by the suggestion that the people you connect with are called “friends.”
LINKED IN, appropriately so is a rolodex come to life with the option of personal data mining, finding people with similar professional experiences or interests and make “connections” (not friends.)
TWITTER is a news feed, an effective egalitarian trend-spotting teletype that you “follow.” I *think* there may be more professional/business potential here, and I’m giving it a go (http://twitter.com/cdivigard) I figure I’ll fumble with it until I can find the secret to success (or follow the Tweeter who finds it first!) (I actually have two twitter accounts for each of my alter egos… a professional PR consultant AND an amateur motorcycle racer.)
All of them can be incredible time wasters, but I also think that there may be some real commercial value in them, too. Without a doubt social media is critical to creating and maintaining relationships. And even though I haven’t found the silver bullet for how social media can help business, I remain patient and watch (and hope) that it will.
Christina,
You are well on your way. I think you have a fantastic view on it. I love the lunch example. I am about to cover some things on LinkedIn & Twitter over the next couple of weeks in my posts and would love to hear your thoughts. Twitter to me is the most mis-understood but possibly the largest potential for business.
You sound very interesting and fascinating and will have to check you out. I am changing my Twitter Handle for marketing purposes to @chadrothschild so hope to connect.
Chad Rothschild