WTF is Facebook (Part 2)

WTF is Facebook (2)?

Facebook is not about friends

It is about advertizing

Smart Targeting

OK, so say you have a marketing plan (see last week's WTF,) and you're going to focus on growing a particular area of your business. You look at your customers and clients over the years and begin to identify some common threads, for example:

• they all live in the same zip code
• they're mostly women
• they're women in their mid thirties
• they have a penchant for DIY
• they just moved to the area

How can you "speak" to these people directly?

Facebook Ads Are Awesome

Where Facebook really wins for businesses is in their ad targeting. Using the above example with a business located in Silver Lake, Los Angeles - how would the market stack?

Of the 151,432,400 possible US targets:

• 2,920 live in the 90026 zip code
• 760 are women
• 740 of them are between 30 and 40 yrs old
• 40 of these mid 30's women enjoy DIY
• 20 of them have just moved to the area

Pretty amazing stuff!

There are a million different ways you can slice the market: relationship status, numbers of children, taste in movies, and so on. The point here is - the better you understand your business and your customer, the more targeted your marketing can be.

But Hold On...

Before you go rushing off to set up your first ad there are a load of questions you need to ask yourself:

• What is my message?
• What do I want viewers of the ad to do?
• Where should I send them?
• What should they do when they get there?
• Now what am I going to do with them?

Brand awareness is one thing but unless you have a strategic approach that incorporates a Facebook campaign as part of a larger marketing plan, you're throwing money away.

Yes, People Can Still Like You

As outlined in WTF is Facebook (1), getting people to "like" you on Facebook enables your message to appear in their newsfeed and potentially in their friend's newsfeeds, and running an Ad is the fastest way to grow this number. However, unless you're actively "working" Facebook, i.e. investing resource in managing your page, interacting with people who "like" you, adding Facebook only content and nurturing the people who have expressed an interest, they'll probably never see you again unless you run another ad.

If you're not going to invest resource in Facebook, the only reason to run an ad is to get people onto your email newsletter. You do have an email newsletter don't you?

If you would like to develop an ad campaign for Facebook, reply to this email and book a session.

WTF Do You Want?

WTF Do You Want?

Forget your website for a moment,

do you have a marketing plan?

You should.

Your Business

• Do you know how much money comes into your business?
• Do you know who gives it to you?
• Do you know why?
• Do you know who these people are?
• Do you know this for each service, product & revenue stream that you have?

This information is the raw data upon which a marketing plan is built.

Your Intent

• Do you have a vision for your business
• Do you know how you are going to grow it?
• Do you know what revenue streams you are going to focus on?
• Do you know how much you want to grow them by?

This information enables you to project into the future and allows you to allocate your resources.

Your Content

A content strategy is a reflection of your plan to grow your business. It takes your ideas and makes them visible to your clients. It uses words and images to show clients how great you are at what you do and gives them a reason to choose you over the competition.

Your Plan

Stop worrying about Twitter, Facebook and how you’re going to add content to your blog; these things are tactics that become clear and apparent once a strategy is in place. Start thinking about your business and what needs to happen to make it grow. If you can write that plan, the content comes easy.

If you would like to develop a marketing plan for your business, reply to this email and book a session.

WTF is Facebook? I

WTF is Facebook? (1)

50% of the US population

610 million global

30 billion interactions a month

If you don’t have a Facebook page, I strongly suggest you create one and spend an hour on the network, at the very least, chat with your family members who are using it. You’ll learn more by doing than from me telling.

How does it work?

Content spreads on social networks because people choose to interact with it. Facebook gives people lots of ways to interact with content; they can like it, share it, tag it, comment on it and every time they do it increases the likelihood that the content will spread.

News feeds & Edge Rank

When you log onto Facebook, the page you arrive at lists the latest interactions from yourself and your friends. This list is called a newsfeed. The default setting is to show your top newsfeed, this is the list of interactions that Facebook thinks is most relevant to you.

The algorithm Facebook uses to filter and curate your feeds is called Edge Rank. Edge Rank is shaped by a number of things but most critically by interaction – the more likes, shares, tags and comments, the higher the edge rank and the more likely it is a piece of content will appear in your news feed.

The Ideal World

You tell everyone you know about your new Facebook business page and ask them to like it. You publish your first piece of content and it appears in their newsfeed. People are interested in the information so they “like” it and “share” it with their friends and in doing so, introduce your content to other people who in turn “like” your Facebook page ensuring that your next piece of content appears in their newsfeeds.

The Reality

The vast majority of commercial content is of little interest to people; your first piece of content may appear in newsfeeds because it is new, but if people don’t interact with it not only will that content get buried, but your next piece of similar content will have a lower weighting.

The Very Minimum

Yes you should have a business Facebook page; it should be clean, professional with your contact details and a link back to your website. You should make it easy for people to connect with you through Facebook by adding appropriate buttons on your site and newsletters, however…

If you would like to discuss a Facebook strategy for your business, raise it with me in your next session or book one now.

WTF is Twitter?

WTF is Twitter?

Twitter users are the gatekeepers

to the rest of the Internet

Out of all the digital tools that have sprung up in the last 15 years, Twitter is perhaps the one that is most hated by business owners. Saddled with a ridiculous name and adored by the hipster technorati, the idea of having to “tweet” fills most busy executives with horror. However…

Twitter users are more likely to impact your brand than any other network.

Twitter users are more likely to impact your brand than any other network.

Twitter is Marketing

Conceptually Twitter is no different than traditional marketing channels; you have a message that you want to put in front of potential clients so that they know you exist, are impressed with your offer and remember you when the time comes to purchase a product or service. The difference is the mechanism in which your message reaches potential clients

Twitter is Word of Mouth Marketing

A billboard on the freeway and a Google ad act in pretty much the same way; a static message is shown to hundreds of thousands of eyeballs. Through Twitter your message can also reach hundreds of thousands of eyeballs but it has to be passed on from one person to another, with each person making a value judgment on the validity of your message.

Why does this work?

The number one thing that makes a Twitter user feel good is to have one of their Tweets “re-Tweeted.” This is where another Twitter user takes the time to read a Tweet and consider it relevant or interesting enough to share with their followers.

If a Twitter user develops a reputation for sharing good information they gain more followers, likewise, if they rehash crap they lose followers

Twitter is your access to the outside world

If you want your message to get out to the internet, Twitter’s 250 million users are the gatekeepers:

• 72% publish blog posts at least once a month
• 70% comment on others’ blog posts
• 61% write at least one product review a month
• 61% comment on news sites
• 56% write articles for third-party sites
• 53% post videos online
• 48% share deals found through coupon forums

You only get what you give

I know – you want a quick solution that you can plug in to your existing operations and forget about – everyone does. The reality is that unless you invest a little time in the network, no matter how compelling the content, chances are it won’t be found and shared.

Twitter isn’t about Twitter – it is about people, it is about getting those people to share your message with potential clients. Treat the relationship as a one way street and people will stop listening to you, invest a little time to build a network and you dramatically enhance the chances of your message being shared.

If you would like to discuss a Twitter strategy for your business raise it with me in your next session or drop me an email to book one

WTF is Twitter?

Twitter users are the gatekeepers

to the rest of the Internet

Out of all the digital tools that have sprung up in the last 15 years, Twitter is perhaps the one that is most hated by business owners. Saddled with a ridiculous name and adored by the hipster technorati, the idea of having to “tweet” fills most busy executives with horror. However…

Twitter users are more likely to impact your brand than any other network.

Twitter users are more likely to impact your brand than any other network.

Twitter is Marketing

Conceptually Twitter is no different than traditional marketing channels; you have a message that you want to put in front of potential clients so that they know you exist, are impressed with your offer and remember you when the time comes to purchase a product or service. The difference is the mechanism in which your message reaches potential clients

Twitter is Word of Mouth Marketing

A billboard on the freeway and a Google ad act in pretty much the same way; a static message is shown to hundreds of thousands of eyeballs. Through Twitter your message can also reach hundreds of thousands of eyeballs but it has to be passed on from one person to another, with each person making a value judgment on the validity of your message.

Why does this work?

The number one thing that makes a Twitter user feel good is to have one of their Tweets “re-Tweeted.” This is where another Twitter user takes the time to read a Tweet and consider it relevant or interesting enough to share with their followers.

If a Twitter user develops a reputation for sharing good information they gain more followers, likewise, if they rehash crap they lose followers

Twitter is your access to the outside world

If you want your message to get out to the internet, Twitter’s 250 million users are the gatekeepers:

• 72% publish blog posts at least once a month
• 70% comment on others’ blog posts
• 61% write at least one product review a month
• 61% comment on news sites
• 56% write articles for third-party sites
• 53% post videos online
• 48% share deals found through coupon forums

You only get what you give

I know – you want a quick solution that you can plug in to your existing operations and forget about – everyone does. The reality is that unless you invest a little time in the network, no matter how compelling the content, chances are it won’t be found and shared.

Twitter isn’t about Twitter – it is about people, it is about getting those people to share your message with potential clients. Treat the relationship as a one way street and people will stop listening to you, invest a little time to build a network and you dramatically enhance the chances of your message being shared.

If you would like to discuss a Twitter strategy for your business raise it with me in your next session or drop me an email to book one

Geolocation - Really?

Take Away:

Get ready for local

It’s about mobile

Smart phone penetration is projected to be 50% of the US market by the end of this year – closer to 80% by the end of 2012. 
 

Smart phone users access the internet through their phone just as much if not more than desktop users.
 

Smart phone users have the internet in their pocket and they are getting more comfortable with using it on the go.
 

It’s about location
 

If you use a smart phone you’re already aware of apps that ask to use your location.  
 

If you search using your smart phone your location is submitted (unless turned off) as part of your search criteria
 

Google and the others have already tweaked their search algorithm to give greater weight to location in search results.
 

It’s not about being the Mayor
 

Location data is relatively new and people are still figuring it out.

Sure it’s nice to be the mayor of your local Starbucks on Foursquare or the Duke of the Townhouse on Yelp but what is the benefit to you, the business owner?
 

The more activity that surrounds your business as a location, i.e. – the more people that interact with it, check in, comment, review on Yelp, Foursquare, Google places etc.,  the better your business will do in search results – particularly for mobile customers.
 

What to do?
 

Make sure your business is registered on the big three:
 

https://google.com/places/
 

https://foursquare.com/business/
 

https://biz.yelp.com/
 

Once you are registered you can incorporate your local profiles into your content strategy as part of your overall marketing effort.  If you don’t know where to start, raise this with me in your next session.